Recent research indicates the centrality of "attending" as a variable in reading acquisition. Attending is, in fact, more important than such traditionally accepted influences as intelligence, cognitive style, attitudes, and language background. Differences in attending behavior, which are molded through match and mismatch of expectations with…

An informal reading inventory (IRI), a nonstandardized individual test often constructed by the classroom teacher, can help teachers and clinicians in giving students appropriate reading materials and in diagnosing the strategies students use in reading. This annotated bibliography was designed to aid beginning teachers, as well as more…

A sample of 132 college students was randomly assigned to lecture, lecture-discussion, independent-study, or control conditions in an investigation of the relationship of reading efficiency, personality factors, and study habits to instructional conditions. Analysis of results revealed that there were no significant differences in success rates of…

Good and poor student readers and adults read texts in normal format and with 13 spaces between words. Wide spacing improved comprehension for poor readers but did not affect their reading efficiency, while it substantially impaired the efficiency of the other groups. Text difficulty did not interact significantly with spacing. (SJL)

Raises questions about the readability criteria used by publishers and editors of reading textbooks in selecting and assembling materials for middle grade reading texts. (RL)

Finds significantly more errors and a higher percentage of detrimental errors on passages composed of later appearing structures. Supports Goodman's view of the reading process (that reading is a "psycholinguistic guessing game"), and indicates a need for more sophisticated readability formulas. (RL)

Sees a strong relationship between the quality of a child's self-concept and reading achievement. Suggests ways in which parents and teachers can enhance children's self-images, thus facilitating reading improvement. (RL)

Children's metacognitive awareness of variables (such as person, task, goals, and strategy) that influence reading was assessed with an interview. Second graders were aware of some reading dimensions but were less sensitive to semantic structure than sixth graders. Relations among instruction, metacognitive development, and reading proficiency are…

Three experiments examined the relationship between reading skill and decoding. Children decoded and matched words and pseudowords of different syllable lengths presented in both aural and printed form. Prior verbal experience was manipulated. Decoding differences were not wholly attributable to prior experience with word units, as processes…

Vocalization latencies of young readers were a function of set size, number of syllables, and stimulus material. Differences between skilled and less skilled readers were absent for naming colors, digits, and pictures, but present for words; differences increased with number of syllables (and letters). Reading skill and decoding are discussed.…

Good, normal, and poor third grade readers were required to read easy, moderate, and difficult one-syllable nouns under three conditions: control condition with no pictures, identifying-picture condition, and unrelated-picture condition. Reading performance of poor readers was influenced by pictures under all conditions. Individual differences…

Describes a study designed to find out if there is a correlation between a student's CLOZE score and performance in a biology course. (GA)

Because teachers are vital to successful reading instruction and are caught between the public's demand for higher reading scores and student apathy, it is important to learn what problems teachers view as major impediments to their success. Reports on a series of informal surveys of classroom teachers' attitudes on reading problems encountered in…

It is suggested that questions which have been asked in research addressed to efforts to improve black children's reading have been unsatisfactory. The literature on reading problems in black children is examined for theoretical and ethnic relevance. (Author/GC)