The relation of reading comprehension and information retention is discussed with emphasis on teaching methods and learning activities. (DS)

Provides a checklist that considers "learnability" factors as well as "understandability" factors to use as an alternative to readability formulas. (MKM)

Reviews monitoring theory and presents specific strategies for teaching comprehension monitoring. (AEA)

Provides nine methods students can use to file information efficiently while reading: (1) time-space arrangements, (2) absurd pictures, (3) narratives, (4) rhymes, (5) acronyms, (6) acrostics, (7) numerical acrostics, (8) graphic illustrations, and (9) spontaneous associations. (FL)

Suggested teaching techniques for secondary reading include clarifying the learning task, avoiding information overload, encouraging risk taking, and understanding the nature of feedback. (MKM)

According to recent neurolinguistic theories and research, language and other analytic functions are located on the left side of the brain, while spatial and configurational abilities are located on the right side. However, there is some evidence that while learning a language requires the use of both hemispheres of the brain, the right hemisphere…

The relationship between course work and general learning at Stanford University (California), Mills College (California), and Ithaca College (New York) was studied. The study used the Differential Course Work Patterns (DCP) Project faculty survey and Cluster Analytic Model (CAM) to link course work to student assessment. The study examined what…

It appears that the value of providing students with strategies to activate their prior knowledge base or to build a base if one does not exist is supported by current research. Creating an opportunity to challenge students to call on their collective experiences (prior knowledge) is essential. Through this process, teachers move students from…

A study was conducted to determine (1) the nature and range of self-testing procedures that college students use to monitor their reading comprehension; (2) whether their epistomological beliefs influence the nature of their comprehension monitoring procedures; and (3) whether the level of processing dictated by the test component of their reading…

Intended for administrators and policymakers as well as teachers, this digest explores the nature of students' metacomprehension, or their awareness of their own understanding, and the implications of this awareness for reading instruction. After defining metacomprehension, the digest discusses why this awareness is important to the learning…

This article addresses the planning of metacognitive instruction in reading, including such elements of metacognitive theory as metacognitive knowledge, self-regulation, comprehension monitoring, and regulation. Metacognitive goals for instruction, selected research in improving reading comprehension, and specific instructional implications for…

Learning strategies can be defined as behaviors and thoughts in which a learner engages and which are intended to influence the learner's encoding process. Thus, the goal of any particular learning strategy may be to affect the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge. Good teaching includes teaching…

Based on the idea that inference abilities are essential to comprehension, this essay discusses systematic oral questioning strategies designed to help both junior and senior high school teachers develop students' reading comprehension abilities. Questioning strategies are examined in terms of their purpose, efficiency, motivation, and required…

Discusses the "less-able" student via a description of the strategies used by the good language learner. Such strategies include a positive, active, and tolerant approach to learning the language, with a willingness to practice the language. The less-able needs a constant sense of achievement to continue. (PJM)

A study of the information gained by students in the process of taking a cloze test in English as a second language was conducted with 34 full-time undergraduate foreign students at a state university. The subjects came from a variety of native language backgrounds. A 35-item cloze test was developed in which every eighth word was deleted,…