<p>Two methods of teaching reading, global and phonetic, are compared from the transfer perspective. The sample includes 16 children of the lower socioeco­nomic class from an experimental school in a working class neighborhood in Mexico City. It is concluded that neither of the two methods, in the form and condition em­ployed, teach reading, although the phonetic method (spelling) teaches the sounding of letters and guarantees transfer to a certain extent, while the global method only per­mits the child to guess words. The percentage of word guessing was 72%. The possi­bility of definition of two levels of reading behavior is also discussed.</p>