Abstract
To investigate the theory that readers might mediate the identification of an unfamiliar-in-print word by comparing and contrasting that word to known words, a population of readers was identified who were able to correctly pronounce common one- and two-syllable words but unable to pronounce common polysyllabic words. From 117 fourth and fifth graders screened, forty subjects met the established criteria. Once randomly assigned, the 20 experimental subjects participated in 7 1/2 hours of instruction designed to (1) teach them a cognitive word store of polysyllabic words and (2) develop a mind set towards identifying an unfamiliar word by comparing and contrasting an unknown word to known words. Post-test measures administered to both experimental and control subjects indicated that experimental subjects correctly identified more untaught polysyllabic words in isolation (p < .05) and in context (p < .01) than did control subjects. It was concluded that, within stated limitations, the results supported the hypothesis that readers might identify an unfamiliar word by using an analogue or compare/contrast strategy.