Poor readers often know only the most common meanings or nuances of multimeaning (polysemic) words frequently encountered in reading materials. Teacher-directed, systematic vocabulary instruction must focus on specific problem areas. A three-step plan for teaching multimeaning words is proposed, emphasizing recognition and classification of word…

Four activities for language learning are presented, including: an exercise in compound word formation; television program production; a puzzle made of text fragments; and organizing a trip to France. (MSE)

Explores how well measures of verbal short-term memory and naming speed tasks predict children's reading achievement under various IQ control conditions. Both were effective, but when controlling for verbal IQ, memory measures are less reliable, whereas digit-naming speed remains a significant predictor of reading achievement. (MM)

Indicates a reasonable range of individual differences in the dark interval threshold (DIT). Reveals a significant interaction between DIT and illumination level in their effect on reading accuracy. Finds that children with a short DIT read more accurately in high rather than low illumination and that this performance was reversed for long DIT…

Describes pilot study in a high school which assessed the qualitative and quantitative changes which occurred in two severely disabled readers' cognitive processes during strategy training. Results suggested that a qualitative shift in verbal strategy reports occurred during prose recall. Introduction of cognitive training increased recall of…

Examined whether altering the sequence of the traditional basal reading lesson by placing enrichment activities first increased comprehension of text. Found altered format subjects (of 45 subjects in total) correctly answered 71% of comprehension questions, whereas traditional format subjects correctly answered only 58%. Suggests these significant…

Presents results of a study indicating that what young readers say when they first read is influenced by their previous experiences with books, the structure of the text, and also the accompanying illustrations. Points out implications for reading to young children, and for choosing early texts. (SKC)

Classroom use of roadside signs and billboards is recommended both for understanding cultural and geographic context and for learning French. Exercises for decoding and comprehension are suggested. (MSE)

Three 11-year-olds with difficulties in reading comprehension received self-instructional training along with task worksheets and stories. Compared to control children, the experimental students achieved increased accuracy on classroom comprehension questions, and the increase was maintained during a subsequent self-management phase. (Author/JDD)

Principles that should guide reading comprehension assessment include acknowledging the complexity of reading, focusing on orchestrating rather than isolating skills, regarding reading as a dynamic process, developing techniques that encourage student-teacher interactions, and using a variety of reading comprehension measures. The principles are…

Various authors provide a wide range of instructional suggestions, including hints for parents on how to read aloud to older children, a story web prewriting technique, a lesson on similes, a description of a series of books designed to develop literacy in natural ways, and advice on using the question-answer relationship procedure and basal…

Studies the effect of intellectual development, degree of field independence, mental capacity, amount of prior genetics knowledge and amount of fluid intelligence on reading comprehension and/or genetics achievement of students enrolled in a nonmajor biology course. Concludes that developmental level was the most consistent predictor of…

Describes the use of close-captioned television to motivate high school remedial readers, who must read the captions in order to understand the story. (ARH)

The relationship between reading comprehension and the number and complexity of idea units in a text was examined. The results showed that readers using text-entailed recall strategies gained the most insight into the meaning of text and that recall ability is an important encoding strategy for gaining meaning. (JAZ)

Indicates that adding large amounts of supportive information to basal reader stories increased children's story understanding and enhanced their interest in the stories, but had no effect on reading rate or the amount of important information included in story retellings. (FL)