In an example of the redundancy effect, learning is inhibited when written and spoken text containing the same information is presented simultaneously rather than in written or spoken form alone. The current research was designed to investigate whether the redundancy effect applied to reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) by…

A notable feature of current approaches to reading (in first or second language) is a preoccupation with the internal "causes" of comprehension, regarded as a terminal state of the cognitive system. Yet by allowing only for a private encounter between reader and text, the cognitive approach lacks terms to give more than a contingent…

This paper explores the problem of reconciling general psychological processing constraints with linguistic constraints on discourse structure. Two types of psychological constraints, the 'immediacy constraint' and the 'limited focusing constraint' are shown to combine with linguistic constraints to determine the pattern of eye movements during…

Understanding about how students make sense of foreign language texts, based on relevant research and theory, can contribute to effective foreign language reading instruction. Both linguistic factors in the target language and native language reading skill development are critical to success in foreign language reading. Linguistic factors…

An extensive literature review led to the formation of a framework for vocabulary instruction that can be used to analyze the relationship between knowledge of word meanings and comprehension and to suggest more effective means of vocabulary instruction. The framework posits two types of information students hold about words--definitional and…

Designed to measure children's abilities to synthesize concepts from several sources, this measure is based on the assumptions that children move from the concrete to the abstract, from specific to generic, and that the ability to synthesize and form new concepts is an important prerequisite to reading comprehension. Each form of the test is…

A study investigated how comprehension, as measured by the accuracy and speed of performance, is affected by the information contained in a set of procedural instructions. Using instructions that were varied with respect to the mode of presentation (pictures, text, or pictures and text) and the degree of explicitness of operational information, 68…

Concludes that further research into the imagery-comprehension relationship in reading is necessary. (RB)

A study was made to assess the effect of comprehension on the recognition of meaning and wording changes with concrete and abstract sentences. The results of the experiment were discussed in light of recent models which propose different storage mechanisms for concrete and abstract sentences. (Author/RM)

Based on the idea that reading instruction in science means teaching simultaneously the science content and the reading and reasoning processes by which that content is learned, this booklet offers practical and theoretical suggestions for science teachers to help students improve their content area comprehension. Chapters discuss the following…

This document reviews studies that investigated certain inadequacies of English as a Second Language (ESL) reading comprehension tests. The first study examined whether three ESL reading comprehension tests required information principally from the text or from background knowledge. Results indicated that background knowledge differentially…

A study was conducted to determine how a reader identifies and represents the major topics in a text and their interrelationships. Subjects, 56 college students, read two texts one sentence at a time. Each text contained 12 paragraphs that discussed six attributes of two major topics. The paragraphs on one text were organized by attribute, while…

Working on the assumption that when reading comprehension is viewed from a constructivist framework, where meaning grows and changes as the text progresses, categorization into comprehension levels such as literal and inferential will be misleading, two third grade standardized multiple choice test items were selected from a larger body of test…

A study investigated at what point during eye fixations visual information is used in furthering the reading process. The study identified two aspects of information processing: registration, in which a light pattern on the retina triggers a pattern of neural activity in the visula cortex; and utilization, in which the registered pattern has an…

A study investigated whether metaphors help or hinder prose comprehension. The subjects, 71 college students, read eight short stories and rated their quality and the effectiveness of the writing. Approximately half of the subjects received stories that contained metaphors, while half received the same stories in which the metaphors had been…