Abstract
There can be little doubt many children have trouble learning to read because they do not receive adequate nourishment and because they are deprived of the educational advantages of middle class values and perceptions. While applications of linguistics can not make up for all of these inequities, such factors should be considered when examining various approaches to reading instruction. There is some evidence, for example, indicating that the reading “mistakes” of black children are often dialectal features misunderstood by white teachers. The role of syntax in the reading process has yet to be fully explored. Little is understood about how children perceive clusters of sounds. In short, it is too soon to advocate specific applications of linguistics to the teaching of reading.