This collection provides a number of perspectives on the central role that language plays in reading comprehension. Following an introduction by the editor, entitled "Attention and Individual Differences in Comprehension," the following papers are presented: (1) "The Line of Sight Approach," by Norman H. Mackworth; (2)…

This paper attempts to enact Rivers' (1971 and 1972) urgings to base ESL listening instruction on both psychological and linguistic findings and contends that advanced ESL students' listening needs call for improvement in processing spoken English discourse. Psychological data on memory span is cited to demonstrate that advanced ESL students…

The problem of the panel on semantics, concepts, and culture, sponsored by the National Institute of Education Conference on Studies in Reading, was to determine how lexical, semantic, conceptual, and cultural factors contribute to reading comprehension. The contents of the document include the following: "Word Recognition Skills," which…

The aim of the panel on reading comprehension, sponsored by the National Institute of Education Conference on Studies in Reading, was to determine the influence of intellectual factors, general experiences with the world, knowledge specific to the particular reading task, and general decoding skills to successful reading performance. In addition,…

The paper endeavors to delineate more clearly the special reading comprehension problem of the Alaskan Eskimo and Indian. Reading comprehension is essentially a cognitive process -- the ability to engage in rigorous abstract thinking. A number of formal anthropological reports indicate that Alaskan natives, especially the Eskimo, are deficient in…

This study determined which intellectual abilities account for IQ changes over the school year. All the Head Start subjects involved in the study (35 boys and 33 girls, mean age 44.1 months) lived in poverty under conditions of urban deterioration. The subjects were initially given the Standord-Binet Intelligence Scale in the fall and were tested…

In this paper early and later development of knowledge of syntactic structures and this development in language-disordered children are reviewed. Theories that have been presented to account for syntactic development (cognitive, cognitive-semantic and social-environmental) are discussed. Early developmental data indicate that there is not a…

Studies the development of word-retrieval speed and its relationship to reading in 72 average and 11 severely impaired readers in kindergarten through the second grade. (HOD)

Investigates second grade children's ability to understand the use of deictic terms (devices in language that convey information about the communicative situation) in three types of tasks: oral language, written language, and picture selection, and concludes that the difficulty of a word with deictic content depends largely upon the discourse…

This volume is the flagship volume in a series on cognitive strategy instruction. While strategies instruction is particularly appropriate for the learning disabled, it is also very useful for normal learners, especially inner city and minority children. The series focuses on conveying strategies instruction methods for use with these children.…

Different aspects of text comprehension and different evaluation procedures were studied for elementary school students. Indicators sensitive to the different levels of comprehension involved were used, and recall was divided into recall macro, micro, and total. The sample consisted of 90 sixth graders in the national capital region of Canada.…

Reports on a study that investigated what constitutes metaphor and simile for sixth- and eighth-grade children. Discusses the implications of the findings for reading and language arts curriculum development and instruction. (FL)

Describes a summer program for prefreshman science students entering Xavier University, designed to develop their problem-solving and academic abilities by emphasizing the connection between reading comprehension and analytical skills. (MKM)

Explores conceptual syntheses advancing second language (L2) word recognition research and uncovers agendas relating to cross-linguistic examinations of L2 processing in a cohort of undergraduate students in France. Describes connections between word recognition and reading, overviews the connectionist construct, and illustrates cross-linguistic…

A study of 26 college seniors used introspective and retrospective interviewing to assess cognitive processes used during multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. Categories of processing identified included an overall approach to the test task, reading strategies, and test-taking strategies. (TJH)