Reading comprehension is multidimensional and complex. The persistent challenges children, adolescents, and even adults face with reading comprehension call for concerted efforts to develop assessments that help identify sources of difficulties and to design instructional approaches to prevent or ameliorate these difficulties. Doing so requires…

The paper presents discussion of the results of extensive empirical research into efficient methods of educating and training translators of LSP (language for special purposes) texts. The methodology is based on using popular LSP texts in the respective fields as one of the main media for translator training. The aim of the paper is to investigate…

This study aims to understand how EFL learners in different reading proficiency levels comprehend L2 texts, using five-component skills involving measures of (1) vocabulary knowledge, (2) drawing inferences and predictions, (3) knowledge of text structure and discourse organization, (4) identifying the main idea and summarizing skills, and (5)…

As the world told becomes the world shown, the texts of the 21st century will require teachers to adopt new skills, strategies, and pedagogical frameworks to support students' transactions with multimodal texts. This shift from a focus on monomodal, print-based texts to a focus on the skills necessary for producing and consuming multimodal texts…

This study examined how text features (i.e., cohesion) and individual differences (i.e., reading skill and prior knowledge) contribute to biology text comprehension. College students with low and high levels of biology knowledge read two biology texts, one of which was high in cohesion and the other low in cohesion. The two groups were similar in…

Explores the ways in which 11- and 12-year-old students used intertextuality within diverse literacy events in a classroom context. Reveals different patterns of intertextual connections depending on discourse mode (oral or written) and the functional context of discourse (literary or informational) in terms of the types of sources to which…

Examines the effects of coherence and relevance on shallow and deeper text processing, testing the hypothesis that enhancing the relevance of text segments compensates for breaks in local and global coherence. Results reveal that breaks in local coherence had no effect on any outcome measures, whereas relevance enhanced deeper processing.…

Considering the difficulties in understanding the global meaning of texts, this paper intends to give some suggestions on how to help students reach a deeper understanding of texts in intensive reading classroom within the framework of schema theory. The purpose of this paper is expressed in three ways. The first is to give a brief overview of…

Expands on how a strategic reader uses text structure knowledge as an overarching strategy, a framework within which to incorporate other strategies to gain ideas from text. (MG)

Focuses on a general document navigation strategy called the known/need-to-know strategy. Illustrates the strategy using a variant of this strategy called "locate." (SR)

Assesses the effects of headings on text processing behaviors during immediate and delayed testing of 65 undergraduate students. Finds that headings did not appear to affect overall comprehension or overall answer location accuracy. (MG)

Argues that the accidents of reading a hypertext (changing your destination, forgetting your point of departure, or getting lost along the way) are not the effects of inappropriate cues, misinterpreted reference or poor design, but the general condition of the hypertext as text, amplified by the narrative turns of the link. (SR)

Studied text interpretation in four experiments with second and fourth graders, manipulating several story variables. Found that both groups were skilled at providing two text interpretations, although second graders were more likely than fourth graders to use extra-story information in their second interpretations. Subjects' first interpretations…

Finds that the reader's purpose for reading (read-to-do or read-to-recall) partially determines what type of mental representation is stressed during comprehension. Finds that the processing of procedural text is codetermined by the participants' purpose for reading and type of text (narrative versus list-like) as well as the text structure (as…

Examines the effects of two types of comparison-contrast discourse structures on the initial learning and retention of unfamiliar scientific information by mature readers. Finds a demonstration of the mature reader's versatility in accommodating unfamiliar information, especially when it is presented in well-structured patterned texts. (MS)