ABSTRACT
One day a good fortune befell hirn, for he hit upon Lane' s translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night. He was captured first by the illustrations, and then he began to read, to start with, the stories that dealt with magie, and then the others; and those he liked he read again and again. He could think of nothing else. He forgot the life about hirn. He had to be called two or three tirnes before he would corne to his dinner. Insensibly he forrned the most delightful habit in the world, the habit of reading .... (Maugharn, 1915/1963, p. 37)
This is not to say we know nothing about reading acquisition; although we know much, our knowledge is selective. We clearly lack a comprehensive model of reading acquisition, one that would incorporate the various psychologieal, social, and instructional components that contribute to the process of learning to read.
