Reviewing the literature is an important part of academic work, as it helps readers see what has come before, what has and has not worked, and situates the author's place in the ongoing discussion. Accepting this view, extensive reading literature often points to Day and Bamford (1988) as identifying Kelly (1969) as crediting Palmer (1921) as the…

Foreign language learners experience a unique type of anxiety during the language learning process: Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA). This situation-specific anxiety is frequently examined alongside academic achievement in foreign language courses. The present meta-analysis examined the relationship between FLCA measured through the…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the overall effectiveness of extensive reading, whether learners' age impacts learning, and whether the length of time second language learners engage in extensive reading influences test scores. The author conducted a meta-analysis to answer research questions and to identify future research…

Sixteen meta-analyses were conducted to examine relations of typically developing bilingual immigrant-background children's oral language proficiency in their first and second language with the school outcomes of early literacy (k = 41), reading (k = 61), spelling (k = 9), mathematics (k = 9), and academic achievement (k = 9). Moderate to strong…

The school-aged population in the United States is becoming more culturally and linguistically diverse, while achievement gaps across content areas persist. At the same time, more rigorous academic demands are being placed on all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Teachers of ELLs face the double challenge of promoting English…

This article highlights significant research about what below grade-level reading means in middle school classrooms and suggests a tested approach to improve reading comprehension levels significantly by using audio books. The use of these audio books can improve reading and academic performance for both English language learners (ELLs) and for…

Examines the theoretical underpinnings of the 1986 American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines for reading, covering an historical perspective, the role of background knowledge, the process/product distinction, text types, and hierarchical and interactive reading models. (CB)

This paper reviews the current crisis in reading ability decline in British primary schools and how modern language teaching methods are remedying this crisis, specifically the problems in exam and syllabus design. It is suggested that the juxtaposition of phonic and psycholinguistic methods in teaching reading are the root of the continuing…

English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities struggle with reading and the reasons for their struggles are not well understood owing to little knowledge about the impact of disability on language development in either the first or second language (Klingner et al., 2006). Nevertheless, this difficulty in reading achievement historically has…

Nassaji and Geva (1999) concluded that lower level processes, particularly efficiency in phonological and orthographic processing contributed significantly to individual differences in adult ESL reading. Moreover, they reported that speed of letter naming, while not directly associated with reading comprehension, was related to linguistic…

Research studies on how adults learn and develop second-language reading competence were considered in the context of a componential theory of reading. In particular, C. A. Perfetti's Verbal Efficiency Theory (VET) was used as a framework in which to organize and evaluate the studies' contribution to the field of second-language reading. The…

A review of the literature investigated how computers have been used in relation to the teaching of reading over the last 20 years, how effective those endeavors and research studies (mainly conducted at the college level) have been, and what computer instructional programs in the area of reading need to address. Various efforts have been made to…

Rauding theory states that two factors, accuracy and rate, explain nearly all the variance in the general reading ability of American schoolchildren (Carver, 1999). Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and regression, this dissertation investigated to what extent the Rauding model could be applied to 92 Japanese university aged young adults…

A review of literature relating to the use of Hawaiian pidgin and standard English and their relationship to school achievement was undertaken in response to concerns regarding state educational policy for language use and proficiency. The research reviewed includes pidgin and creole studies, second language acquisition research, and studies of…