Seikatsu tsuzurikata is a grassroots movement in Japan that has many parallels to the whole language movement, but it developed completely independently, beginning in the late 1920s. Our research into this movement was conducted in 1984 and described in Kitagawa and Kitagawa (1987). We are now updating our earlier research. Seikatsu tsuzurikata is…

A study investigated whether students in whole language based and basal reader approaches would have different concepts of reading when asked to define reading. Subjects, 69 suburban New Jersey first and third graders and 16 New Zealand first graders, were asked 3 questions: "What is reading?"; "What do you do when you read?";…

This study investigates the effect of phonological awareness instruction on the development of word-reading ability for EFL first-graders in a Jordanian state school. Based on Chard and Dickson's (1999) phonological awareness hierarchy, a phonological awareness training program was developed by the researchers, and used in training the…

This study examined, through classroom observations and teacher surveys, the instructional beliefs and practices in reading of second- and third-grade teachers in selected schools in the United States and Australia. Australian participants consisted of 16 second-grade and 11 third-grade teachers in New South Wales; American participants were 17…

Various word-recognition tasks were completed by 54 second-grade students from classrooms where reading instruction followed the whole-language approach or the phonics/skill-based approach. A task involving a cloze procedure favored the whole-language approach, but there were no other significant differences between groups. Contains 30 references.…

Examines the instructional beliefs and practices in reading of second and third grade teachers in selected schools in the United States and Australia. Compares the results to those of an earlier study. Finds that changes have occurred in both countries regarding the types of questions posed during reading instruction and the amount of praise used.…

A recent study proposed a rational for investigating the effects of mediating tasks upon a summary writing activity for tertiary-level students using English as an educational medium. The tasks in this study involved a group discussion or a reading comprehension exercise, with a third condition providing for immediate access to the text and…