Background: A significant portion of adults struggle to read at a basic level. Word reading (defined here as decoding and word recognition) appears to play a pivotal role for this population of readers; however, less is known about how word reading relates to other important semantic processes (e.g., vocabulary, sentence processing) known to…

This study is an extension of Nahatame's (2018) research that demonstrated the effects of causal and semantic relations between sentences on second language (L2) text processing. Employing eye tracking, this study aimed to examine whether these effects appear during more natural, uninterrupted reading processes and to identify the time course of…

Background: Connectives, such as "because" or "although," explicitly indicate how to semantically link individual segments of a text. Knowledge of connectives has been shown to significantly contribute to variance explanation in comprehension of English and Dutch texts, particularly amongst monolingual students and students…

In an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), it can be useful to know when a student has disengaged from a task and might benefit from a particular intervention. However, predicting disengagement on a trial-by-trial basis is a challenging problem, particularly in complex cognitive domains. In the present work, data-driven methods were used to address…

This study aimed at investigating the effect of two strategies of teaching reading: 'semantic mapping' and 'question generation' on the reading achievement of a sample of 40 female students enrolling in two classes in Level 2 English as a Second Language Foundation Program at the Community College of Qatar. The researcher of the current study…

The study examines performance on an evaluation instrument for classroom use for the purpose of improving instruction that focuses on awareness of language in reading and writing. Findings are reported on the piloting of the first in a series of literacy assessments with students from a rural elementary school in Ecuador. All students who…

Testing a component model of reading comprehension in a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the efficacy of 4 interventions that were designed to target components of language and metacognition that predict children's reading comprehension: vocabulary, listening comprehension, comprehension of literate language, academic knowledge, and…

Testing a component model of reading comprehension in a randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the efficacy of 4 interventions that were designed to target components of language and metacognition that predict children's reading comprehension: vocabulary, listening comprehension, comprehension of literate language, academic knowledge, and…

This column explains three ways that teachers can improve reading test performance. Basically, the idea is that instead of teaching students to respond to particular question types as is typical of test preparation despite the ineffectiveness of this practice, it is better to teach students to read the test passages more effectively. Three…

Word learning can build the high-quality word representations that support skilled reading and language comprehension. According to the partial knowledge hypothesis, words that are partially known, a.k.a. "frontier words" (Durso & Shore, 1991), may be good targets for instruction precisely because they are already familiar. However,…

Research on textual enhancement (TE) has given rise to several factors that may play a role in generating learners' noticing of target forms, one of which pertains to the nature of the target form(s). In particular, results have suggested that learners are more likely to notice more meaning-bearing forms than less meaning-bearing forms.…

This study explored effects of Spanish oral language skills (vocabulary and syntax) on the development of English oral language skills (vocabulary, morphology, semantics, syntax) and reading comprehension among 156 bilingual Latino children in second through fifth grade whose first language was Spanish and whose second language was English. Using…

Vocabulary knowledge is an important predictor of literacy and broader academic outcomes, and children's literature is a rich source of sophisticated vocabulary. This study investigated the effect of providing instruction in word meanings as an adjunct to story-book read-aloud sessions in Grade One classrooms. The main intervention programme ran…

The Diagnostic Assessments of Reading with Trial Teaching Strategies (DARTTS) is a program of diagnostic tests with sample lessons in aspects of literacy. Developed by Florence G. Roswell and Jeanne S. Chall, the DARTTS program is published in a multilevel format for beginning through advanced (high school) readers. Teachers administer and score…