Psychology 338K
Spring, 2000
Exam 3
1.
A debate about reading instruction has raged for centuries. The current form of the debate
began in _____ with the publication of __________________.
a. 1954, Rudolf Flesch's Why Johhny Can't Read
b. 1954, Jeanne Chall's Learning to Read: The Great Debate
c. 1967, Rudolf Flesch's Why Johhny Can't Read
d. 1967, Jeanne Chall's Learning to Read: The Great Debate
2. Today the Great Debate pits ___________ against ___________.
a. language experience against phonics
b. phonics against Whole Language
c. Whole Language against Goodmania.
d. Goodmania against language experience.
3. A prominent advocate of Whole Language is
a. Marilyn Adams.
b. Jeanne Chall.
c. Kenneth Goodman.
4. Today most educators pledge allegiance to
a. code instruction.
b. Whole Language.
5. The research evidence seems to support
a. code instruction.
b. Whole Language.
6. The current Great Debate has a political dimension. Whole Language's advocates tend to be
on the _____.
a. left.
b. right.
7. The method of reading instruction used in ancient Greece resembled
a. phonics.
b. Whole Language.
8. Whole Language de-emphasizes
a. The code.
b. Meaning.
9. The evidence suggests that we are teaching reading
a. about as well as we ever did and better than most other countries
b. about as well as we ever did but worse than other other countries.
c. worse than we used to but better than most other countries.
d. worse than we used to and worse than most other countries .
10. The NAEP Oral Reading Study showed that, on a scale of 1 (fluent) to 4 (dysfluent), ___
percent of American fourth graders ranked 3 or 4.
a. 13
b. 23
c. 33
d. 43
11. Who is to blame? Gough thinks
a. the children.
b. their parents.
c. their teachers.
d. their professors.
12. There is less interest in reading acquisition than in language acquisition. This is probably
because too many people think that reading acquisition equals
a. the ABCs.
b. language acquisition.
c. reading instruction.
d. Whole Language.
13. Many five-year-olds can read many logos (e.g., MacDonald’s). Two separate studies have
shown that when you type the word on a card, ____ of them can read it.
a. none
b. half
c. the majority
d. all
14. When asked to sort visual stimuli into two categories, writing and not writing, the youngest
children throw into the writing pile those things which are
a. nonangular.
b. nonlinear.
c. nonpictorial
d. nonuniform
15. In the IEA study comparing reading achievement in 32 countries, the U.S. ranked
a. 2nd.
b. 5th.
c. 12th.
d. 69th.
16. Which country finished first?
a. Finland.
b. Korea.
c. Spain.
d. Tanzania.
17. A child learns her first (printed) words by means of
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a.
b.
c.
d.
the cipher.
phonemic awareness.
phonics.
selective association.
18. Evidence for this comes from the fact that when asked to learn a list of words from flashcards,
one of which bears a thumbprint, the majority of children learn
a. the word and the thumbprint.
b. the word but not the thumbprint.
c. the thumbprint but not the word.
d. neither the word nor the thumbprint.
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19. Another piece of evidence supporting this hypothesis is that when asked to learn either four four-letter
words, three four- and one six-letter words, four six-letter words, or three six- and one four-letter words, the
children learn fastest
a. 4444 and 4446.
b. 4444 and 6664.
c. 4446 and 6666.
d. 4446 and 6664.
20. When children are taught four four-letter words and then asked if they can recognize the first half and the
last half of each word, most children recognize
a. both halves.
b. neither half.
c. one half but not the other.
21. One problem with learning in this way is that it give the child do way to deal with _______ words.
a. familiar
b. irregular
c. long
d. novel
22. To move beyond this, the child must master the cipher. The defining characteristic of the child who has
mastered the cipher is that she can read aloud
a. regular words.
b. irregular words.
c. pseudowords.
d. sentences.
23. Who shows the larger frequency effect?
a. Cipher readers.
b. Cipherless readers.
24. Who shows the regularity effect?
a. Cipher readers.
b. Cipherless readers.
25. The key to mastery of the cipher is
a. intelligence.
b. knowledge of the alphabet.
c. phonemic awareness.
d. phonics instruction.
26. Phonemic awareness is _____________________ for mastery of the cipher.
a. necessary and sufficient
b. necessary but not sufficient
c. sufficient but not necessary
d. neither necessary nor sufficient
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27. In addition to the cipher, the skilled reader needs a great deal of
a. knowledge of the alphabet.
b. lexical knowledge.
c. logical knowledge.
d. phonological knowledge.
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28. Can this be acquired in the absence of the cipher? The evidence suggests
a. yes.
b. no.
c. nothing.
29. According to lecture, both things (i.e., the cipher and X) are mainly acquired through
a. phonics instruction.
b. reading.
30. Returning to the Great Debate, Gough’s position on it might best be described as
a. pro-phonics.
b. pro-Whole Language.
c. pro-neither.
31. Adams’ position on it might best be described as
a. pro-phonics.
b. pro-Whole Language.
c. pro-neither.
32.
According to Marilyn Adams, the research evidence __________ systematic, explicit phonics
instruction.
a. supports
b. does not support
33.
According to Adams, the research evidence __________ the claim that the kind of reading
instruction which works best depends on the child's learning modality (e.g., global vs.
analytic, visual vs. auditory)
a. supports
b. does not support
34.
According to Adams, the development of phonemic awareness is often
a. rapid and easy.
b. rapid and difficult.
c. slow and easy.
d. slow and difficult.
35.
Comparing the literacy experiences of her son John and children in the low- income homes
studied by Teale, Adams concludes that John had thousands of hours of literacy experience
while the latter had perhaps _____ hours.
a. 250.
b. 2500.
c. 25000.
d. 250000.
36.
Adams suggests that Big Books are the classroom version of
a. cartoons.
b. the alphabet.
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c. bedtime stories.
d. phonemic awareness.
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37.
Adams distinction between abstract and abstracted knowledge is like Gough's distinction
between
a. bottom-up and top-down views of reading.
b. linguistic and metalinguistic knowledge.
c. the cipher and lexical knowledge.
d. the rules of phonics and the rules of the cipher.
38.
Children become aware of the units of spoken language in which order?
a. onset and rime, word, syllable, phoneme
b. word, onset and rime, syllable, phoneme
c. word, syllable, onset and rime, phoneme
d. word, syllable, phoneme, onset and rime
39.
The instructional importance of onsets and rimes lies in the fact that vowels are more
________ in rimes.
a. frequent
b. infrequent
c. stable
d. unstable
40.
According to Adams, letter reversals (e.g., confusing b and d, or p and q) are a symptom of
a. immaturity
b. low print knowledge
c. neurological dysfunction
41.
Research indicates that the language experience approach produces achievement
___________ traditional programs and __________ in developing comprehension.
a. better than, less effective
b. better than, more effective
c. no better than, less effective
d. no better than, more effective
42.
To represent the spelling-sound correspondences of a good majority (80-90%) of English
words, how many correspondences are involved?
a. dozens
b. hundreds
c. thousands
d. tens of thousands
43.
The trouble with phonic generalizations is that they are
a. complex, numerous, and unreliable
b. numerous, unreliable, and static
c. unreliable, static, and complex
d. static, complex, and numerous
44.
Adams holds that the ability to sound out words has two functions. One is
to identify words that are unfamiliar. The other is to force the child to attend to
a. the order and identity of the letters
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b. the way a word sounds
c. the way the child sounds
d. the child who reads next
45.
According to Adams, who relies on context more?
a. good readers
b. poor readers
46.
Maria Montessori promoted the idea of
a. “write first, read later”.
b. “rhyme first, read later”.
c. “write first, rhyme later”.
d. “rhyme first, write later”.
47.
Good spellers use their knowledge of spelling patterns in their spelling of pseudowords, as in
a. jation
b. jashun
48.
Adams points out that poor readers get
a. less reading instruction than good readers
b. more reading instruction than good readers
c. the same amount of reading instruction as good readers
49.
50.
“Low achievers are generally given more classroom time to read text than their higher
achieving peers.”
a. True.
b. False.
Adams’ final conclusion (the last sentence of the summary!) is that encouraging children to
spell words correctly is important because spelling knowledge directly affects their
a. academic future
b. linguistic competence
c. reading ability
d. self esteem
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