| In 1948, Edward William Dolch, phD, prepared a list of | | | | Second Language) classes it is common to see many |
| 220 common English "service" words, and a further 95 | | | | activities based around sight word lists (these lists |
| common English nouns, for his book "Problems in | | | | often being, at least in part, inspired by the lists |
| Reading". Edward Dolch's list was based upon the | | | | prepared by Edward Dolch). |
| frequency with which these words appeared in | | | | Apart from general reading practice, which will of |
| children's reading material of the time, and the fact that | | | | course help improve students' ability to recognize sight |
| very few of these particular words could be sounded | | | | words, many teachers introduce specific activities such |
| out phonetically. Dolch's conclusion was that for a | | | | as sight word flash cards or sight word bingo into their |
| person (whether that be a child or an adult learning | | | | classes. The latter is basically the same standard |
| English as a foreign or second language) to achieve | | | | game of bingo (with the teacher acting as bingo caller), |
| reading fluency in English, they would need to be able | | | | but played using bingo cards printed with sight words |
| to recognize all of these words. | | | | rather than numbers. Sight word bingo cards can be |
| Nearly 60 years of educational experience has borne | | | | purchased preprinted (although this can be expensive), |
| out this finding. Today's educators have understood | | | | or they can be easily printed before class with the help |
| that students need to be able to recognize many sight | | | | of a computer and some bingo card maker software. |
| words, and thus both in K-12 and in ESL (English as | | | | |