Investigated the effects of written input enhancement and text length on college students' second-language comprehension and intake. First-year Spanish students were exposed to one of four conditions with enhanced and non-enhanced short and long text. Exposing students to short authentic reading materials facilitated reading comprehension but not…

Argues that problems with teaching the Talmud are methodological not didactic. Talmudic methodology is reviewed and summarized. Suggests a new curriculum based on four curricular stations from study of Mishnah to study of the Talmudic superstructure. Argues that the new method allows students to be active participants in the learning process. (DSK)

Proposes an instructional approach for teaching compare-contrast composition within a social studies context. Notes dimensions of this approach (based on research involving students with and without learning difficulties) concern text structure, writing process, and integrated reading and writing. Presents examples of lesson plans and…

Current electronic text formats can hinder the acquisition of main ideas or the central representation of a text unless some structural cues are embedded in the reading environment. This principle is based on the premise of cognitive psychology that learning is a reorganization of cognitive structure and that readers are most likely incapable of…

This article discusses methods for evaluating students' content-area literacy skills. Four specific factors that affect content-area literacy are described: vocabulary knowledge, topic knowledge, text structure knowledge, and textbook readability, along with methods of evaluating each of the factors. Most of these methods have not yet been…

This study investigated the effects of linguistic simplification and content schemata on reading comprehension and recall. The participants, 240 Iranian male students of English as a foreign language (EFL), were divided into 4 homogeneous groups, each consisting of 60 participants (30 with high proficiency and 30 with low proficiency). To elicit…

This article summarizes the findings of research studies designed to improve the comprehension of expository text for students with learning disabilities. Twenty-nine studies were located that met the inclusion criteria. Interventions gleaned from the review were categorized as content enhancement (i.e., advance and graphic organizers, visual…

Research-based instructional priorities for text organization and curriculum design are reviewed, with special attention to the needs of diverse learners. Research indicates that the physical presentation of text and text structure help students learn information in textbooks and reading materials. Students can apply their awareness of…

A study investigated the effects of inserting questions in a computer-mediated text that required readers to review relevant portions of the text when a question was answered incorrectly. Undergraduate students (n=36) served as their own controls while reading a scientific text under 3 treatment conditions that varied as to the consequences of an…

This study explored 330 third- and fifth-grade Maryland students' motivation to read using the Motivation to Read Profile (MRP). The first part of the MRP, a Likert-type, self-report, group-administered questionnaire, was completed by all students. The second part of the MRP, the Conversational Interview, was individually administered to a random…

This article analyzes the function of deixis in the poetry of the 20th century Italian, Eugenio Montale, in particular, his "In limine." The main objective is to show how deixis is involved in the dynamic relationship between text and reader. A constant problem in Montale's texts is that of a disharmony felt by the poetic voice with the…

This study extends earlier research on headings use in undergraduate testing, and examined whether headings within multiple-choice tests positively impact test performance. Participants were employees (n=143) of a large manufacturing plant in the western United States. The experimental group received a multiple-choice recertification test with…

For much of this century, text linguists have recognized that various tokens called "metadiscourse" may help explain how texts function. In linguistics, metadiscourse has a more concrete meaning than it typically does in composition: it refers to specific words, phrases, and clauses which are primarily intended to help the reader…

The goal of genre theory is to construct useful similarities between different texts. It is the meaning-making practices of a community, and particularly its system of intertextuality that determine which possible similarities will count as significant. Whether educators approach genre as a rule or a resource is a moral choice. Rules restrict,…

A study examined a set of 78 journal articles identified as influential in technical communication (published between 1988 and 1992) and a preliminary list of 63 articles frequently cited between 1993 and 1997. The texts were organized into six topical groups: profession, rhetoric and composition, document design, social construction and…