Successful comprehension is only possible when children draw inferences about ideas implicit or missing in discourse. Supporting inference-making with explicit instruction must start early given its importance in comprehension and knowledge development. However, students who experience difficulties with early reading skills often do not receive…

Successful comprehension is only possible when children draw inferences about ideas implicit or missing in discourse. Supporting inference-making with explicit instruction must start early given its importance in comprehension and knowledge development. However, students who experience difficulties with early reading skills often do not receive…

Reading comprehension is a widely adopted method for learning English, involving reading articles and answering related questions. However, the reading comprehension training typically focuses on the skill level required for a standardized learning stage, without considering the impact of individual differences in linguistic competence. This…

Learning from text is a "constructive" activity in which sentence-level information is combined by the reader to build coherent mental models. With increasingly complex texts, forming a mental model becomes challenging due to a lack of background knowledge, and limits in working memory and attention. To address this, we are taught…

One out of six adults in the United States possesses low literacy skills. Many advocates believe that technology can pave the way for these adults to gain the skills that they desire. This article describes an adaptive intelligent tutoring system called AutoTutor that is designed to teach adults comprehension strategies across different levels of…

This study investigated whether or not the use of the computer-based software program iStation would increase the reading achievement level of third grade students with learning disabilities. It served to add to the body of knowledge about the use of technology with students who have disabilities; previous studies primarily focused on the use of…

Access to quality literacy instruction is access to acceptance into the literate community in which students with severe disabilities live and work. Providing that instruction to students with severe disabilities who are not traditional readers and writers can be challenging. Luckily, there are many easy and interactive tools available for…

This study aims to investigate the influence of story creation on young EFL learners' reading performance. Action research was adopted to examine the effects of two different story reading projects in a library setting in Taiwan. Each project comprised a group of 19 young EFL learner from Grades 4 to 6 (aged 10-12). The first group's activities…

While research shows that learners differ in many ways, this work must be translated into actionable strategies to benefit students. We describe the results of our partnership with ReadWorks, a widely-used literacy edtech platform, to help them implement research-based pedagogical features that support learners with diverse needs. In a national…

The study investigates how learner experience with applications (apps) and how app types (native vs. non-native) influence performance in reading comprehension. Twenty-five high school students used different apps to read four texts. The students were asked to use the annotation feature of the apps to facilitate their reading. Ease of use,…

This article details a study that was designed to explore the differences and similarities with deaf and hard of hearing students regarding learning new vocabulary knowledge through the sign language. The purpose of this study was to know whether or not students who are deaf and hard of hearing are similar to their hearing peers when learning new…

Close Reading utilizes several strategies to help readers think more critically about a text. Close reading can be performed within the context of shared readings, read-alouds by the teacher, literature discussion groups, and guided reading groups. Students attempting to more closely read difficult texts may benefit from technologies and platforms…

A 2014 study found that more than half of all Americans aged 16-74 do not possess the literacy skills needed to adequately cope with the demands of day-to-day life, with over 13 million people in the United States alone considered to be functionally illiterate. There have been numerous efforts to address these high illiteracy rates by way of Adult…

We present an integrated theoretical framework guiding the use of visual narratives in educational settings. We focus specifically on the use of static and dynamic visual narratives to teach and assess inference skills in young children and discuss evidence to support the efficacy of this approach. In doing so, first we review the basis of the…

The online student response system (SRS) is a technological tool that can be effectively implemented in English language classroom contexts and be used to promote students' active learning. In this qualitative study, "Socrative", a Web 2.0 software, was integrated with active learning activities and used as an SRS to explore English…