The purpose of this research was to explore the level of perceptual processing being used by normal and educable mentally retarded beginning readers. The investigation tested the hypothesis that beginning readers show a positive relationship between word length and word recognition latency, implying serial processing. Data on accuracy and latency…

While semantic development has been alleged to proceed slowly, reading instruction begins early in the child's school career. Yet, little research has been addressed toward understanding how beginning readers extract meaning from the printed word. This paper reports two experiments that measured latencies in a picture-word interference task to…

Existing mathematical models of word recognition are reviewed and a new theory is proposed in this research. The new theory integrates earlier proposals within a single framework, sacrificing none of the predictive power of the earlier proposals, but offering a gain in theoretical economy. The theory holds that word recognition is accomplished by…

Training tasks that comprise the word attack component of phonics reading programs are discussed. Tasks that reflect phonics subskills are drawn from the literature, and variables that appear crucial in distinguishing these tasks are discussed. The analysis is viewed as necessary to generating research questions in a program attempting to assess…

Working from theories of text grammar and logic, the authors suggest and tentatively confirm several hypotheses concerning the role of micro- and macro-structures in comprehension and recall of texts. (Text is in French.) (DB)

Research has shown that students can be taught to comprehend the material better while they are reading. Successful instruction of this type has usually focused on the teaching of comprehension strategies--that is, intentional actions students can use during reading to guide their thinking. Such strategies improve both understanding and memory.…

Discusses several factors of reading ability and their interrelationships at elementary, secondary, and college levels. (TO)

Predicting and questioning are two of the most important skills that children can use to achieve reading proficiency. Strategies are suggested that teachers can use to help children develop these skills. Appropriate reading materials and questioning techniques are discussed. (PP)

A review of research in reading comprehension is presented. The role of language in comprehension is analyzed and implications are drawn for actual practice by primary teachers in the reading curriculum. (Author/SK)

Good and poor comprehenders in seventh grade were interviewed about their approach to reading comprehension and asked to read two narrative passages. Results are discussed in terms of group differences. (Author/GK)

Tests the hypothesis that readers who differ in comprehension ability and are similar in their ability to decode single words differ in their ability to read words in sentence context. (FL)

A teaching strategy that taps students' comprehension strengths and reduces the anxieties that often result from reading disability is explained. The strategy provides students with extensive story understanding before independent reading and uses story understanding to help students identify unknown words. (Author/DB)

Studies of impaired reading processes in children with slow digit naming speeds found that, for first- through third-graders, character-identification automaticity was equally important to the direct-access and speech-recoding routes of word recognition. For 4th- through 10th-graders, the correlation of digit naming speed with reading…

It is suggested that a title provides the key component in a reader's ability to interpret a text. Experiments conducted with short news texts demonstrate that a title that is too vague, general, or inadequate to the main idea of the text entails a longer reading time or deficiencies in comprehension. (eight references) (LB)

Suggests that a new perspective is needed on the "great debate" in literacy instruction between whole language and phonics. Proposes an approach that integrates comprehension and decoding into a system designed around the principles of student-centered, authentic instruction in a socially engaging context. Considers the advantages of…