A case study addressed (1) the relationship between language ability and the use of top-level organizational strategies that focus on the macrostructure of written text, and (2) the comparative use of these strategies when reading expository texts in native language (L1) and second language (L2). Subjects were five Hispanic English as a second…

A study investigated the effect of properties of words and texts on the incidental learning of word meanings during normal reading. Subjects--352 students in third, fifth, and seventh grades--read either expository or narrative passages selected from grade-level textbooks, and after six days were tested on their knowledge of difficult words from…

Cognitive research of the 1970s has shown that both content factors (topical world knowledge and knowledge about textual organization) and process factors (attention, encoding, inference, retrieval, and executive monitoring) influence comprehension. Classroom research during the same decade has shown that the greater the proportion of time…

A study was conducted to assess the French language proficiency of grade 10 and grade 11 students from three different French immersion programs: early, grade 7, and grade 7/8 immersion. English and French control groups were included in the study. The results indicate that: (1) the three immersion groups scored significantly higher than the…

Four studies used the theoretically based understanding of comprehension developed by W. Kintsch and T. A. van Dijk to look for processes that might undergo development as a child becomes more practiced and skilled in reading so that an understanding of these processes might become the basis for reading remediation programs. The first three…

A reading instruction model that has proved to be successful with mildly handicapped students, regardless of their categorical label, is based upon three elements: curricular assessment, placement in an appropriate curriculum level, and data based instruction. For the curricular assessment, a sample passage (100 words) from each level (book) in a…

Presented in this document are essays related to a research project focusing on conceptual obstacles which confine and inhibit scientific understanding (conceptual barriers). These include a short summary of research activities; research methodology; outline of a theory and summary of supporting evidence related to conceptual barriers encountered…

A study was conducted to determine if interest in a basal reader story could be heightened and reading comprehension improved by (1) having the children predict the story content from the title prior to reading the story and (2) having them predict the outcome of the story at a salient midpoint. Subjects, 45 children in 2 fifth grade classes, were…

For the purpose of investigating instructional techniques that facilitate children's acquisition of reading comprehension skills in the middle and upper elementary grades, a 2-year inquiry into classroom instruction in reading comprehension was begun at the beginning of 1980. The initial focus of the study was on methods of assessment. Analytic…

Reading guides designed to take a reader through three levels of comprehension--literal, interpretive, applied--can be useful to the shop teacher. The actual teacher-led, hands-on activity at the third level helps students develop a sense of independence in the comprehension process. Organizational pattern guides also help students comprehend…

A three-part experiment was designed to determine the differential effects of using audio, print, or a combined form, together with an inserted organizational and attentional aid (mathemagenic device), or lack thereof, in a syllable lesson on the test scores of six types of community college students: those who were internally or externally…

A study was conducted to determine whether word length and sentence position influence the likelihood that a child will acknowledge that a word has disrupted comprehension of a reading passage. In the first task, third and fifth grade skilled and less-skilled readers read 16 short paragraphs containing nonsense words and reported whether the…

With some imagination, songs can be used to teach all aspects of foreign language. The language teacher can take advantage of the cultural content of songs by playing holiday music during the appropriate season; explaining the traditions and history of songs; discussing songs with cultural flavor; presenting a variety of music types; and…

Students (N=49) enrolled in a physics course for elementary teachers were evaluated for their abilities to use: (1) combinatorial logic; (2) separation and control of variables; (3) proportional reasoning; and (4) reciprocal implications. Performance of four Piagetian tasks during interviews was treated as a measure of the degree to which students…

Since the time of E. B. Huey (1908), there have been clear indicators that oral language as a reflection of a child's linguistic ability has been clearly related to his or her reading achievement or comprehension. P. McKee (1937) and W. S. Gray (1937) both speculated that reading difficulties might parallel language deficiencies. G. Hildreth…