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…

Argues that reading teachers at the secondary level must become more active in reading research. (RB)

Explores how asking students to abstract a theme statement from a literary text as a main reading objective can actually disempower students' reading experience. Bases the claims on original research on how 288 readers read a short story. Considers how teachers might more profitably talk about theme. (HB)

This brief annotated bibliography is a revision of an earlier bibliography which concentrated on specific secondary reading programs. The present bibliography is more concerned with the underlying philosophy, evaluation and status, and administration and organization of secondary reading programs. The emphasis is on documents identifying trends…

Tax instructions suffer from vocabulary and concept loads, but make a useful teaching tool. (Author)

Suggests that educators must move beyond debates about the meaning of reading to more specific discussions of word recognition, sentence processing, text comprehension, critical evaluation, and communication functions. (FL)

Describes a study that examined whether high school special education students' scores on a phonics test could be perceptively increased through the use of a selected course in phonics and phonetics. (FL)

Contains a list of 53 selected references on research in secondary reading instruction, followed by a further categorization of the contents under fifteen subdivisions. (RB)

The purpose of this study was to survey the present status of reading in Alabama secondary schools. A survey of reading in secondary schools was designed to answer the following questions: What achievement or reading tests are presently administered in Alabama secondary schools? What is the purpose of such testing? What format is presently used in…

Surveys materials, available through the ERIC system, concerning peer tutoring programs. (JM)

Finds that giving students background knowledge of a subject improved their performances on a test of reading comprehension. (AEA)

Reviews the distinction between phonic generalizations and letter-sound correspondences and the research examining their usefulness. Discusses implications from that research regarding the teaching of letter-to-sound relationships to secondary school students. (FL)

Reports on a study that investigated secondary school teachers' knowledge of reading and examined six factors that may have contributed to that knowledge: (1) inservice, (2) experience, (3) teaching level, (4) college coursework in reading, (5) field of specialization, and (6) sex. (FL)

Concludes that there are significant differences in the attitudes of secondary teachers toward teaching reading in content classrooms, with English teachers scoring "positive" on the instrument used, and mathematics, science, and social studies teachers scoring "average." (DD)

Describes two French teenagers with developmental reading and writing impairments whose performance was compared to that of chronological age and reading age matched non-dyslexic participants. Suggests that a visual attention disorder might be found to be associated with the patterns of developmental surface dyslexia. Shows that phonological and…