In contrast to the large body of research investigating intervention for poor decoding skills, far fewer studies have evaluated interventions for reading comprehension. There is even less research on children with more specific difficulties with reading comprehension, often referred to as "poor comprehenders". Levels of effectiveness…

This study examined how L2 listeners' proficiency levels interacted with the two major process-based listening instruction methods of (1) strategy training and (2) interactive training (which involved training in strategies and bottom-up skills), to influence the listeners' development. In a mixed-methods design, the quantitative component of the…

This study evaluated the effect of peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS) intervention on the language and story comprehension skills of two kindergartners with developmental delays from a special education class while reading a digital storybook. The study was conducted in Taiwan with participants who spoke Mandarin Chinese. This study was a…

Listening is often perceived to be the most challenging skill by second/foreign language (L2) learners. Due to its real-time nature, L2 listeners experience several comprehension problems related to the processing of aural input. To scaffold L2 listening, captioning is commonly used since the dual coding of aural and written stimuli is expected to…

To date, the vast majority of research in second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition has looked at reading, but relatively few studies have explored the potential for vocabulary acquisition through listening. As for participants involved, studies concerning first language (L1) acquisition have mainly focused on pre- and emergent-reading children,…

This study examines the cognitive processes underlying the comprehension of L2 idiomatic expressions by using two different visual instructional techniques -- pictorial representation of literal meanings versus pictorial representation of figurative meanings of each idiomatic expression -- considering two settings (EFL vs. ESL), two different…

Literacy is a critically important and contemporary issue for educators, scientists, and politicians. Efforts to overcome the challenges associated with illiteracy, and the subsequent development of literate societies, are closely related to those of poverty reduction and sustainable human development. In this paper, the authors examine literacy…

Purpose: This article includes results from a multistate randomized controlled trial designed to investigate the impacts of a language-focused classroom intervention on primary grade students' proximal language skills and distal reading comprehension skills. Method: The sample included 938 children from 160 classrooms in 4 geographic regions in…

Reading comprehension is an essential academic skill (Nash & Snowling, 2006;National Reading Panel, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).Yet, among students in the eighth grade, approximately 64% of all students and 91% of students with disabilities do not read at proficient levels (National Center for Education…

Although metaphors are essential tools in everyday communication and educational settings, the literature lacks evidence of effective training tools to promote metaphor comprehension in typical development. Grounding in theoretical pragmatics, we developed a novel metaphor comprehension training (MetaCom) for school-age children that focuses on…

Purpose: This clinical focus article will highlight the importance and role of morphological awareness (MA) across orthographies, in particular, the role it plays in reading development, specifically with bilingual populations. MA supports reading acquisition and development beyond other predictors of reading, such as phonological awareness,…

Captions provide a useful aid to language learners for comprehending videos and learning new vocabulary, aligning with theories of multimedia learning. Multimedia learning predicts that a learner's working memory (WM) influences the usefulness of captions. In this study, we present two eye-tracking experiments investigating the role of WM in…

This study investigated the effectiveness of providing L1 explicit information (EI) with practice for making more accurate and faster interpretations of L2 French "Imparfait" (IMP). Two treatments were investigated: (a) "L2-only," providing EI about the L2 with L2 interpretation practice, and (b) "L2+L1," providing…

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…

Policy mandates to increase the time dedicated to the teaching of reading and mathematics has left little time for arts instruction. Recent research has indicated a positive relationship between improvement in reading comprehension and the integration of arts into instruction. Teaching students to use mental imagery as a reading strategy is one…