This investigation examined developmental aspects of 155 second-graders' intrinsic reading motivation and reading achievement at the beginning and end of a school year. Reading motivation remained at the same level through the school year, while reading achievement was significantly higher at the end of it than at the beginning. According to word…

In this study, EFL learners who listened to four short context-rich audio files each delivered in an unfamiliar English accent were required to produce best-attempt transcriptions and accent imitation recordings. Results indicate that exposure alone does not suffice to eliminate accent impact on EFL listeners. Importantly, results from one-way…

Although misunderstandings as such have been extensively studied, the ways in which problems of understanding are avoided--especially in cross-cultural communication--have so far received limited attention. This article examines over 24 h of private conversation data from seven established, intercultural couples who use lingua franca English as…

This study examines associations between reading comprehension and perspective taking for children who read 2 fictional stories. One story is rich in social and emotional content, describing a girl making new friends and experiencing an intergroup conflict. The other story contains less social content. The study uses hierarchical linear modeling…

Not understanding is central to scientific work: what scientists do is learn about the natural world, which involves seeking out what they do not know. In classrooms, however, the position of not-understanding is generally a liability; confusion is an unfortunate condition to resolve as quickly as possible, or to conceal. In this article, we argue…

The purpose of this study was to propose a mixed-methods approach to analyzing shared epistemic agency in jigsaw instruction from multiple temporal perspectives, and to evaluate its effectiveness by examining actual datasets. We employed a combination of socio-semantic network analysis (SSNA) and in-depth dialogical discourse analysis as a…

The main purpose of vocabulary instruction is to enhance and support reading comprehension. This goal spans across the grade levels and different disciplines and is supported by a plethora of research. In recent years, a great deal of needed attention has been finally given to academic vocabulary and disciplinary literacy. To contribute to this…

In tactile illustrated books, the reader has to explore the tactile picture in order to interpret its meaning and to associate it with the text content. As is the case with sighted children, tactile illustrations could be beneficial for language and literacy development of visually impaired children (that is, those with blindness or low vision),…

The recent passing of legislation decriminalizing medically assisted suicide was a landmark in Canadian history. Since the law's passage, an average of four Canadians per day have chosen to die using medical assistance. With Canadians embracing this option of death, we argue that there will be moments in Canadian schools when this topic will be…

Background: A critical issue in International English Language Testing System (IELTS) lies in the significance of the validity of IELTS listening comprehension test (hereafter IELTS LCM). However IELTS listening validity has been investigated, it has not been investigated with reference to multiple sources of evidence regarding item internal…

This study examined associations between classroom-level reading fluency, comprehension, interest in reading, and teaching practices. Participants were 466 children from 21 classrooms. Reading fluency and interest were assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1, reading comprehension at the end of Grade 1. Teaching practices were observed with…

In this article, we provide some comments on the simple view of reading (SVR), now some 30 years after its initial proposal and empirical work (Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). We begin with an overview of what the SVR is as a conceptual model, as well as what it is not. We follow this with comments, in turn, on three papers…

In this research, reading texts in science textbooks of 3-8th grades were analyzed in terms of some variables. As these texts were analyzed, the units where these texts took place in the textbooks, contents of the texts, supporting the texts by some visual materials, specifying sources and naming the texts were taken into consideration. Moreover,…

One of the strongest instructional interventions documented in educational literature is the use of feedback to influence learning outcomes. However, there is lack of empirical research specifically pertaining to the use of multimedia in the feedback message. The purpose of this research was to test whether organizational pictures and modality as…

In some narratives one world is embedded within the main world of the story, which we refer to as the base world, and elements from one world can cross over into the other. This study explored the conditions in which readers perceive character crossover as being likely to occur. Participants read stories that set up the potential for a character…