ABSTRACT
Speaking and understanding speech stand out as natural linguistic activities, whereas reading qualifies commonly as a highly artificial skill. The most obvious implication of this perspective is that the study of spoken language processing might contribute to our understanding of the process of reading acquisition. The organisation of the sections respects a so far accepted division of labour as well as a logical order of topics, starting with studies of speech representation and continuing with reading acquisition. Phonological processes in short-term memory are the second area where concerns of the students of speech processing overlap with those of the student of reading and reading acquisition. The study of speech processing in input modalities other than audition presents opportunities for addressing in a novel way some of the issues so far mentioned. A phrase which has been repeatedly called into service to characterise the job of the apprentice reader is that of the critical moment of "discovering the alphabetic principle".
