Previous studies have presented discrepant findings of e-stories' contribution to children's narrative comprehension, which can be attributed to not only the variation of multimedia features among studies but also to learner and text features. The main goal of the present study was to expand understanding of the effect of e-stories on children's…

Background: In South African primary schools, reading is central to curriculum delivery, with a structured three-step process: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading. Many learners struggle with reading comprehension, which affects their academic performance. Research emphasises the importance of pre-reading for activating prior knowledge,…

This research study sought to determine whether pre-reading assignments have an impact on a student's academic performance. Learning a new topic which oftentimes seems foreign is never easy. However, reading a short article or reviewing a slide-show presentation on the lecture topic before the lecture happens (otherwise known as a pre-reading…

This study examines how pre-readers' comprehension of story read-alouds is affected when story goal structure deviates from the canonical event. Forty children (30-59 months) were read stories in which there was either a match or mismatch between story and event goal structure. Children's content comprehension scores for the matched story (M =…

Diversity of vocabulary knowledge and quantity of language exposure prior to literacy are key predictors of reading development. However, diversity and quantity of exposure are difficult to distinguish in behavioural studies, and so the causal relations with literacy are not well known. We tested these relations by training a connectionist…

Reading is an essential strategic and a life-long skill required for success in learning. The current study explores the knowledge and beliefs of Saudi students of English as a foreign language (EFL) about English reading comprehension strategies. It also intends to determine if there is a significant correlation between the students' foundational…

The purpose of this study was to explore pre-readers' comprehension of a story with competing character goals. Fifty-eight children in three age groups (2½-3 years; 3-4 years; and 4-5 years) were read a story in which the protagonist's goal was unstated and conflicted with the goal of the secondary character. Understanding of explicit story…

This study explores the effect of categorically different pre-reading activities in learners' L1 on reading comprehension and learning of focus-on-vocabulary. The participants were sixty Turkish EFL learners attending a state high school, and the data was gathered from their achievement test scores. We analyzed the data through one-way…

One of the aims for compulsory education is to diminish or alleviate differences in children's skills existing prior to school entry. However, a growing gender gap in reading development has increasingly been documented. Regrettably, there is scant evidence on whether differences between genders (favouring girls) have their roots in pre-reading…

As an alternative solution to solve different reading comprehension problems in learning English as a foreign language (EFL), it is necessary to implement a blended learning model that combines both online and face-to-face (f2f) teaching modes. This study aimed at investigating the impact of blended learning on Iranian intermediate EFL learners'…

This study contrasted the early literacy outcomes of children who are hard of hearing (CHH) with children with normal hearing (CNH). At age 5, prereading skills of oral language, phonological processing, and print knowledge were examined in CHH (N = 180) and CNH (N = 80). The CHH had poorer oral language and phonological processing abilities than…

Ethan Lynn, the author of the article, describes three sets of oral reading activities he developed for his English as a Second Language students. Each set focuses on one of the three types of fluency: word-, sentence-, and passage-level. The word-level fluency activities are best employed as part of the pre-reading phase of a reading activity.…

Academic reading at college and university poses a real challenge for international students with English as a second language. Often the main hurdles are a lack of language proficiency, critical-reading skills, or background knowledge. Also, unfamiliarity with cultural and academic conventions plays a role. Even with intensive English-language…

This theoretical review is an overview of three important theories: schema theory, information-processing theory, and sociocultural theory. Second/foreign language teachers need to familiarize themselves with these theories if they want to teach culturally unfamiliar texts more successfully in their language classrooms. Although each of these…

Previous research suggests that activating background knowledge immediately prior to read-alouds in Kindergarten is an important strategy for improving children's learning (e.g. Cervetti & Hiebert, 2015). But, because children's background knowledge varies considerably at the individual level, teachers are also often providing relevant…