Examines the performance of Moroccan children on a series of common household literacy tasks, and whether their performance on these tasks was related to school literacy skills, school experience, and other factors. Finds that although the children had learned many skills relevant to household literacy tasks, they demonstrated only partial…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal. Explains the apparent "conflicts" between findings of two research studies (with different purposes and methods) of the same classroom. Emphasizes the different natures of qualitative and quantitative research. (SR)

Explores the nature of point-driven and purpose-driven understanding in undergraduate and graduate students. Finds that readers following a point-driven reading strategy tend to get locked into a particular level of interpretation. Discovers an asymmetric relation between readers' main-point identification and their interpretation of the author's…

Introduces this special issue. Discusses the analysis-by-synthesis principle of text-to-speech conversion; some classroom and research issues in designing "usable" computer texts; and the criteria of hypertext. Emphasizes the importance of the contextual aspects of text and hypertext and situated learning. (RS)

Examines research on the impact of sub-word levels in the computation of word phonology for alphabetic English and logographic Japanese kanji. Suggests some involvement of sub-word level processing in the computation of word phonology in kanji. Suggests structural differences between On-reading words (of Chinese origin) and Kun-reading word (of…

Discusses how students become automatic at reading sub-skills, the indicators that can be used to determine whether a student is automatic, and the psychological mechanisms that allow students to perform complex skills automatically. Discusses implications of automaticity research for teaching reading. (RS)

Reviews recent literature on automaticity, defining the criteria that distinguish automatic processing from non-automatic processing, and describing modern theories of the underlying mechanisms. Focuses on evidence from studies of reading and draws implications from theory and data for practical issues in teaching reading. Suggests that…

Reviews recent studies with respect to two causal relationships between reading disabilities and behavior problems: behavior problems lead to reading difficulties, and reading difficulties cause behavior problems. Suggests an underlying factor of early language difficulties for both reading disabilities and behavior patterns. (SLD)

Hypothesizes a resonance process in which concepts and propositions in the discourse resonate in response to related elements in the current sentence, initiating a process that makes available a subset of the information in the representation. Reviews research; presents explicit assumptions about the discourse representation; and describes results…

Examines the phonological deficit hypothesis in developmental dyslexia with readers in Chinese. Compares 56 Chinese dyslexic children with average readers of the same age in phonological awareness and phonological memory skills. Suggests that Chinese children with dyslexia have deficits in processing phonological information like their alphabetic…

Presents the personal history of Donald D. Durrell, whose research and teaching marked several generations of reading education research and practice, focusing on: early family history; the William B. Durrell family; high school education and early teaching; university education; career; related activities; marriage and family; and the…

Examines the reading standards of eight cohorts (years 1989 to 1996) of Year 6 children from five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority in England. Finds little movement in the mean scores of the eight cohorts over time and, in fact, there has been a slight but significant decline in mean scores. (RS)

Presents several tributes to Jeanne Chall, long-time educator and director of the Reading Laboratory at Harvard University. The tributes focus on Chall's historic contribution to the field of reading research; her beliefs about the ability of all children to read; her written works; her abilities as a teacher and as a mentor; and her ability to…

States that previous research shows that readers who are given multiple perspectives on a domain excel in solving problems using material from that domain. Reports on three experiments that provide online evidence for a reinstatement-and-integration theory hypothesized previously as a possible processing account for problem solving with domain…

Describes two experiments where participants read passages describing a character as consistent, inconsistent, or neutral with respect to the character's actions in the text. Finds that in experiment one, reading times for critical sentences were longer when description and action were inconsistent; in experiment two, resolution of global…