Providing a comprehensive survey of cutting-edge work on second language learning, this "Handbook," written by a team of leading experts, surveys the nature of second language learning and its implications for teaching. Prominent theories and methods from linguistics, psycholinguistics, processing-based, and cognitive approaches are…

Reading-related skills were tested in adults with and without reading disabilities (RD) or with profound hearing impairment (PHI). Both RD and PHI groups demonstrated low levels of phonological awareness but the RD group also exhibited deficits in verbal short-term memory, morphological awareness, speeded written naming, reading comprehension, and…

Current research on information processing suggests that short term memory plays a central role in the sorting and manipulation of text information during reading. Because an entire text cannot be processed simultaneously, successive "chunks" or units of information enter the short term memory where they are compared to the reader's previous…

This study examined the short term recall of serially presented verbal information by 49 prelingually deafened and 39 hearing students (mean grade level 6). Findings suggest that neither discrepancy in the ordered short-term recall of verbal materials nor discrepancies in reading comprehension are directly assignable to differences in memory…

Third and sixth graders read an illustrated story and were presented with either a television or radio version of another story. Across a range of comprehension and memory measures, performance in the radio condition and reading were related, while performance in the television condition and reading were not. (Author/CB)

This article presents theoretical reflections and empirical data on metacognitive aspects of memory and reading problems in children with reading comprehension disabilities. A distinction is made between metacognitive awareness and metacognitive control processes. Experimental results suggest that poor comprehenders present less adequate…

Because current research offers little conclusive evidence that explicit metacognitive knowledge is necessary for effective reading, a study was designed to determine (1) if comprehension could be enhanced by activating subjects' awareness of appropriate strategies, and (2) which strategies, based on subjects' spontaneous reports, were most…

Learning-disabled and average readers (n=120) from grades four through six completed comprehension questions under one of four treatment conditions. Results indicated that computer-mediated text was no better than off-line conditions in improving learning-disabled readers' comprehension. Attribution and metacognitive sophistication were…

Investigation of the relationship between short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) with 75 children and adults with learning disabilities and 86 children without learning disabilities concluded that STM and WM reflect different processes, both of which seem to separate the 2 ability groups. Both STM and WM were related to reading…

Investigated the relationship between developmental shifts in the organization of materials and developmental changes in deliberate strategy use. Subjects were second and fourth graders. (HOD)

More than 100 college students enrolled in a reading and study skills course participated in a study designed to show the effects of retrieval speed on adult reading comprehension. A microcomputer version of the Posner task was used to measure memory retrieval speed, and reading and listening comprehension were measured from McCall-Crabbs…

The effect of graphic organizers on 14 learning-disabled students' (grades 5 and 6) recall of science content was compared with that of students taught identical content without the graphic organizer condition. Evaluation two weeks later found no statistically significant differences between the groups on production or choice response tasks. (DB)

A study investigated reconstructive recall for linguistic style. It was hypothesized that (1) features of linguistic style would be more difficult to recall than underlying content, (2) reconstructive errors would include stylistic forms recalled as standard forms when subjects lacked productive control of a particular feature of a style, and (3)…

This study investigated the validity of 3 curriculum-based measures for predicting the performance of 184 secondary students (including 13 with mild disabilities) on content-area tasks. Reliable correlations were found between oral reading, maze, and vocabulary measures; and students' performance on comprehension, acquisition, and retention of…

The expert-novice paradigm, which demonstrates the outstanding role of domain-specific knowledge in explaining differences in memory behavior and performance, was examined. Two studies are described which compared memory performance of groups equivalent with regard to domain-specific knowledge but differing in intellectual ability. The hypothesis…