Two hypotheses proposed to explain the variance in second language tests are investigated. Hypothesis 1 (H1) claims that language skill is separable into components either related to linguistically defined categories (e.g., listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Another possibility (H2) is that second language ability may be a more unitary…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles include studies of an informal reading inventory; an item-type to test phonic and context skills; reliability of residual gain scores based on means for a standardized reading achievement measure; alternatives to…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 26 titles are concerned with a variety of topics related to reading skills and reading achievement in content-area courses or life situations, including the language of commonly used forms; the readability of a state driver's…

Pedagogical grammar is the presentation of grammatical information for teaching purposes. Two important distinctions are relevant here: reference books versus teaching grammars programmed into a course, and generalized versus specialized grammars, (depending on the extent to which they have been designed to meet specific teaching/learning…

This book organizes the subject of reading disability under the following headings: basic considerations, diagnosis, and treatment. Chapters under the basic-considerations heading explore the causes and neurological and psychological bases of reading disability and psychotherapeutic principles in remedial reading instruction. Two chapters…

An experiment was conducted with twenty native French speakers using a set of four reading passages, each followed by five multiple choice comprehension questions. Each subject was tested twice when reading aloud and twice when reading silently. Other test materials included a pre-test designed to check whether certain lexical items from the…

Intended for use by college and university educators, this book contains theoretical ideas and practical activities designed to enhance and promote writing across the curriculum programs. Topics discussed in the 12 major chapters are (1) conceptual frameworks of the cross writing program; (2) journal writing across the curriculum; (3) writing and…

The effect of cultural background knowledge on comprehension and on the language of recall was investigated using an oral presentation. Fifteen Aboriginal women in northern Australia and 15 American women in an adult education class in Illinois were matched in age and educational level. Two stories were read aloud to the subjects, each based on…

The reading improvement activities in this handbook are intended for use by middle school social studies teachers. Focusing on study skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension development, the activities include (1) surveying social studies texts and content area reading materials, (2) outlining, (3) spelling, (4) syllabication, (5) word…

The reading improvement activities in this handbook are intended for use by middle school language arts teachers. Focusing on study skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension development, the activities include (1) surveying literary materials, (2) outlining, (3) spelling, (4) syllabication, (5) word recognition, (6) using synonyms, (7)…

Arguing that educational testing has not grown with the theory and knowledge base of the reading field, this paper cites the current configuration of testing as a major contributor to the instructional stagnation, methodological back-to-basics movement, and general lack of excitement and true innovation found in classrooms and schools today. The…

This book is intended to help instructors construct reading tests. All the chapters are concerned with viewing two complementary aspects of the written text materials that is used as the base for testing: (1) the relations that hold among the parts of a written text that occur together; and (2) the fact that each word in a text plays certain roles…

The problem of a perceived decline in secondary school students' reading comprehension and the efforts of one high school English department head to address that problem are described in this paper. The first section of the paper presents an extensive documentation of the decline in reading comprehension and of reactions by state and local…

The testing of non-English dominant children cannot be achieved through written examinations that demand reading proficiency and that fail to ascertain the strengths or weaknesses of individual performance. Nor can an oral proficiency test, involving a lengthy tension-inducing interview and relatively inconclusive scoring, provide the information…

Produced in response to a school board's directive to develop a plan for implementing a standardized curriculum in the basic subjects on a district-wide basis, this guide contains instructional objectives for the area of seventh grade language arts. Included in the guide are (1) an instructional objectives checklist providing all objectives and…