This article offers an update on key developments in research related visual literacy, children's reading and children's literature. Beginning with an overview of the field, we chart several distinctive 'turns' or research trajectories: the aesthetic, the intercultural or empathic, and the ethical. We then consider how questions of power,…

Across a carefully detailed argument, the shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of the government's recent "Reading Framework" are made clear in the light of a substantial body of academic research on the nature of reading and the development of literacy. The dogmatic approach taken towards these issues by government and by…

Motivation and engagement play a crucial role in literacy development and achievement. However, the construct of reading engagement has become blurred and ambiguous, both in research and in discussions of practice. In order to guide future research and to extend our existing understanding of reading engagement into classroom practice, this study…

Recent initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom have added greatly to the amount and quality of research on the effectiveness of secondary reading programs, especially programs for struggling readers. In this review of the experimental research on secondary reading programs, the authors focused on 69 studies that used random assignment…

The concept of readability has had a variable history, moving from a position where it was considered as a very important topic for those responsible for producing texts and matching those texts to the abilities and needs of learners, to its current declining visibility in the education literature. Some important work has been coming from the USA…

Parents can play an important role in assisting their children to learn to read, and can act as good role models in promoting reading behaviour. While there has been a raft of research on the impact of parents as teachers, there has been little empirical analysis on the impact of parents in modelling reading. Addressing this gap in the literature…

Research on incidental second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition through reading has claimed that repeated encounters with unfamiliar words and the relative elaboration of processing these words facilitate word learning. However, so far both variables have been investigated in isolation. To help close this research gap, the current study…

In this paper I deploy a synthesis of methods I term virtual literacy ethnography to investigate the diverse literacy practices of the project Schome Park. Participants have been engaging over a 15-month period in an innovative out-of-school project centred on use of the "(Teen) Second Life" three-dimensional virtual world. Some ethical…

While much has been written about the implications for "literacy" of practices surrounding digital technologies, there has been surprisingly little research investigating new literacies in primary classrooms. This review examines the kinds of understandings that have been generated through studies of primary literacy and technology…

Introducing new digital literacies into classroom settings is an important and challenging task, and one that is encouraged by both policy-makers and educators. This paper draws on a case study of a 3D virtual world which aimed to engage and motivate primary school children in an immersive and literacy-rich on-line experience. Planning decisions,…

Little research was done until recently on the role of books and reading in society because reading was considered as a good thing in itself which did not require sociological justification, and lending libraries enable readers to select required material themselves, so individual reader guidance has not been a priority. (Author/SJ)

One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found…

Background: There is limited research on the FL/SL reading comprehension of Non-native speakers of English at the post-graduate level at university. Purpose: This study investigated the knowledge of and the attitude towards FL/SL reading comprehension through (1) the effect of (a) post-graduate specialization, and (b) nationality, (2) the…

Considers Goswami's (1999) review of available evidence for and against the role of phonological rime awareness and analogy theory, concluding much of the evidence fits an alternative (non-rime) interpretation. Explores implications from this evidence for teaching and the role of rime analogy should play in the British National Curriculum. (SG)

Outlines a project designed to develop and extend the writing of 10- and 11-year-old students that utilized an interdisciplinary thematic approach and emphasized writing within meaningful contexts. The unit, which linked the study of color with Bible study, incorporated the strategies of conferencing and drafting. (SKC)