This narrative review discusses quantitative indices measuring differences between alphabetic languages that are related to the process of word recognition. The specific orthography that a child is acquiring has been identified as a central element influencing reading acquisition and dyslexia. However, the development of reliable metrics to…

The authors examine the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; 2008) report from two complementary vantage points: (a) the historical tradition of research syntheses in reading research, beginning with Chall and extending through the NELP report, and (b) other recent attempts to examine or synthesize early reading development. While acknowledging…

Two word-by-word, self-paced reading experiments investigated the speed with which readers were sensitive to discourse-level anomalies. An account arguing for delayed sensitivity (Guzman & Klin, 2000) was contrasted with one allowing for rapid sensitivity (Myers & O'Brien, 1998). Anomalies related to spatial information (Experiment 1) and…

Orthographic and phonological processing skills have been shown to vary as a function of reader skill (Stanovich & West, "Reading Research Quarterly, 24", 402-433, 1989; Unsworth & Pexman, "Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A", 63-81, 2003). One variable known to contribute to differences between readers of higher and lower skill is…

Notes the limitations of the traditional conceptualization of reading in terms of a conduit metaphor, consisting of three parts: (l) an input, (2) an output, and (3) a model that describes the relationship. Argues the merits of looking at reading in light of the tool metaphor, viewing readers and writers as users of information. (NH)

Reading comprehension must involve an interaction between the reader's world knowledge and the incoming linguistic message. After examining the measurement of reading comprehension from this perspective, we conclude that existing tests are likely to be unsatisfactory for the purposes of assessing educational gain and diagnosing reading difficulty.…

Five methods for studying the process of reading a text are presented, and a model for discourse processing is outlined. Discourse processing refers to comprehension of the meaning underlying the verbal message. The methods discussed here investigate the reading process as it occurs, and focus on the amount of time taken to complete a task or…

This review of the literature on reading theories is built around three components: an explication of each theory, an evaluation of the theory based on an examination of its internal and external coherence and correspondence, and an application of the theory to a child's reading. The literature is organized around discussions of 12 benchmarks…

The assumption that phonological processes support comprehension guided two experiments in manipulating the similarity of the consonant code both within silently read sentences and between these sentences and concurrently vocalized phrases. The first experiment examined whether tongue-twisters would take longer to read than phonetically…

Although successful reading comprehension is described as the interaction of text-based processes and processes related to the reader's existing background knowledge or schemata, under different conditions readers show different patterns of text-based versus knowledge-based processing. Recent research suggests that students of English as a second…

An organizational framework consisting of the following four components is useful in exploring questions about improving textbooks: learner characteristics, learning activities, the critical task (for measuring student performance), and the nature of the materials. In considering learning characteristics and the materials, it is important to…