This study examined silent reading rates (SRRs) in relation to students' estimated academic vocabulary grade levels (EVGLs) and comprehension accuracy (Comprehension Items Correct; compIC). Analyses were based on data from 288,934 students in grades 2-12 who completed an adaptive silent reading assessment that yielded measures of the three…

The authors examined the influence of context meaning consistency on incidental vocabulary acquisition during reading. "Context meaning consistency" refers to informational context that reflected the same meaning (i.e., consistent) or different meanings (i.e., inconsistent) across two self-paced reading sessions for a given item (both…

We investigated the word-reading development of adult second-language learners of English. A sample of 70 (Mandarin or Cantonese) Chinese-speaking students enrolled in a university-level English bridging program at a Canadian university silently read passages of text at the beginning and end of the program while their eye movements were recorded.…

The present study measured the comprehension-based silent reading efficiency of U.S. students in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. Students read standardized grade-level passages while an eye movement recording system was used to measure reading rate, fixations (eye stops) per word, fixation durations, and regressions (right-to-left eye movements)…

Despite a long-standing awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic-language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic-language…

Results of a study of the reading rate of 435 students varying from grade four through college support the theory that individuals typically read at a constant rate rather than adjusting their rate to the difficulty level of the material. (AEA)

Examines the tongue-twister effect to help determine the role of phonological information during silent reading. Concludes that the tongue-twister effect results from phonetic rather than visual confusion, and that the locus of the effect is within working memory. (MG)

Reading rates and comprehension measures that probed recognition of various levels of text structure were collected for passages read orally and silently by 16 college students. Results showed that memory traces of text microstructure created in oral reading were accessed faster during memory-based comprehension tasks than traces established by…

Forty-six fourth-grade boys were tested to determine to what extent their substitution miscues affected their silent reading comprehension ability and their retelling ability following oral reading. It was found that, while substitution miscues generally detracted from comprehension and retelling, not all substitutions detracted equally. (MKM)

Investigates effects of silent reading embedded in small-group lessons typical of much classroom reading instruction. Finds both positive and negative effects--students were more attentive during silent reading and were more responsive to story content than during oral reading, but the slower pace of silent reading offset these benefits. (RS)

Reprints Thorndike's classic article which appeared in The Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. VIII, No. 6, June 1917, pp. 323-32. (VJ)

Examines the contribution of orthographic processing skills to individual differences on five types of reading measures for third grade children. Finds that orthographic skills contributed significantly to each type of reading. Finds that significant variation still remains after print exposure is partialed out of the regression. (RS)

Discusses the methodology and the conclusions of Thorndike's 1917 study. (VJ)

Suggests that oral and silent sentence reading represent a similar cognitive process. Reports that poor readers, in particular, decrease processing time on difficult words in silent as compared to oral reading. (AEA)

Two groups of children (ages 10 and 14) were compared on silent reading and listening comprehension of nouns, verbs, and concepts within and across sentences under conditions of suppressed and nonsuppressed phonological recoding to investigate the role of phonological recoding for the students' comprehension of the passage. (HOD)