A counterbalanced, within-subjects design was carried out to study the efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's emergent story understanding. The study compared effects of children's independent reading of stories electronically with effects of printed books read aloud by adults. Participants were 18 four- to five-year-old…

Fifteen regular grade 2 teachers used a set of 150 written lessons that were designed to develop, over the course of a school year, low and normally achieving students' ability to decode by analogy (i.e., to read unknown words using known words). The lessons provided (1) a planned sequence for teaching phonic elements including common spelling…

The purpose of this article is to provide teachers with examples of how to perform effective think-alouds. Twelve think-alouds are described. A rationale for their use in kindergarten through grade 5 is also included. In addition, this article was designed to provide teachers with lessons and activities to assist students in developing the ability…

This study examines how measures of articulation rate, verbal short-term memory (STM), naming speed, and phonological awareness tasks administered in kindergarten and again in Grade 1 jointly and uniquely predict word reading and passage comprehension variance in Grades 1, 2, and 3. Results from regression and commonality analyses indicated that…

This paper reports a study that followed the development of reading skills in 72 children from the age of 8.5 to 13 years. Each child was administered tests of reading, oral language, phonological skills and nonverbal ability at time 1 and their performance on tests of reading comprehension, word recognition, nonword decoding and exception word…

We were asked by Merit Software to conduct a quasi-experimental research study to evaluate the effects of its reading software on middle school students. Because the No Child Left Behind Act emphasizes the importance of evidence-based interventions and has set improving students reading comprehension as a goal, we agreed to take on this project.…

This paper describes characteristics of 10-year-old children (n=422) with normal reading ability, but with some signs of dyslexia. Findings indicated these children obtained different results on five measures associated with dyslexia than did other normal achievers without such signs. Measures were underachievement at word recognition, spelling,…

Research exploring language use has identified several language features that differentiate men and women. Research also concludes that men's and women's writing are rated differently as well, with women's writing rated higher on socio-emotional and aesthetic quality and men's writing rated higher on dynamism. Despite these differences, casual…

This paper describes the assessment and instructional strategies used in a migrant education programme that had positive academic outcomes for a group of 11 eight-to-12-year-old Spanish/English-speaking students of Mexican descent. Students attended this four-week summer programme, jointly sponsored by the University of Illinois and the local…

We report on the development and validation of the TEX-IN3, a research tool and protocol designed to assess the quality of the classroom literacy environment. The TEX-IN3 is described in terms of its theoretical base as well as its practical applications. The TEX-IN3 includes three basic components: a text inventory, a text "in-use" observation,…

Background: This was a small-scale study conducted in Hong Kong Chinese language classes, based on the research in cognitive strategy instruction. Purpose: This study aimed to explore whether Chinese language teachers were able to develop their own school-based strategy instruction programme through collaborating with the researcher. Programme…

While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of…

The primary aim of the current study was to identify the strongest independent predictors of reading comprehension using word reading, language and memory variables in a normal sample of 180 children in grades 3-5, with a range of word reading skills. It was hypothesized that orthographic processing, receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the reading competence of teachers who are enrolled in a distance education programme in a South African university. Many South African teachers upgrade their teaching diplomas by enrolling for a part-time, distance degree at a university. However, many are not prepared for academic study and its focus…

The purpose of this study was to determine how storytelling and story reading influence the language development and story comprehension of young children from 3 to 5 years of age. During the study, two groups of children heard the same 24 stories. Group A heard the stories told and Group B heard the stories read from a book. The language pre- and…