Ninety-six children were administered an orthographic test as preschoolers and two measures of non-phonemic phonological awareness in mid-kindergarten. Both phonological measures and the orthographic measure added significant variance to grade 1 word reading. The orthographic measure contributed to variance in reading vocabulary and reading…

This column provides background related to several "hot" reading topics currently taking place in schools across America as educators strive to produce lifelong readers who enjoy reading, read for a variety of purposes, and make meaning from the texts they read. Information for further reading on the topics explored also are shared. Such topics…

This exploratory study analyzed longitudinal data from 18 institutions to track the literacy development of 1,054 students during the first three years of college. Reading comprehension and attitude toward literacy activities were assessed at the beginning and end of the study. Students responded annually to questionnaires about college…

This study investigated the relationship between foreign language (FL) anxiety and achievement in that language. The role of the FL teacher as perceived by the learners was also tested. Participants were 67 seventh-grade students. They were administered an anxiety questionnaire, a Hebrew reading comprehension test, an English reading comprehension…

Many children read mathematics word problems and directly translate them to arithmetic operations. More sophisticated problem solvers transform word problems into object-based or mental models. Subsequent solutions are often qualitatively different because these models differentially support cognitive processing. Based on a conception of problem…

In most disciplines, professors ask students to "read" without specifying what this operation means for their particular field. This chapter traces the path laid out in a cultural history class, where reading entails identifying the essential elements of a text. (Contains 1 figure.)

Although approximately half of the six million students receiving specialized services for an identified disability are learning disabled, research shows that assistive technologies are far more commonly used with students who manifest physical or sensory disabilities than they are with those with learning disabilities. Assistive technology can…

This article provides case studies of three middle school students--two female and one male--who participated in an individual summer tutoring program designed to improve students' reading comprehension and to encourage students to think critically about texts. With the researcher, students read and discussed Internet texts and wrote responses. An…

This study examined a reading tutoring program for struggling adolescent readers. The major objectives of the tutoring program were to help struggling adolescent readers develop an understanding of the strategic nature of reading and to encourage these reluctant readers to take control of their reading. The results of the study hold implications…

The ability to read and write for a variety of purposes is essential to success in school and in contemporary society. The purpose of this investigation was to conduct an exhaustive review of the literature and a meta-analysis of literacy research in the field of deaf education. Computer and manual searches of 40 years of peer-reviewed journal…

The present study on second language (L2) reading and individual difference variables (IDVs) examines learners' self-assessed ability level and enjoyment and the effects of these factors on two different measures of comprehension. The investigation controls for topic familiarity differences by gender and the study utilizes the authentic short…

The processes of change in children's reading motivation have not been widely studied. We investigated whether situated interest for a specific book may lead to longer-term intrinsic motivation for general reading. Two schools with 120 grade 3 students filled out reading logs identifying their reasons for reading their favorite books twice. In…

During the school years, psychological test norms may be indexed by age or by grade. A number of studies have shown that using age-based norms appears to produce biases associated with grade assignment. Cahan and Cohen [Child Dev. 60 (1989) 1239-1249] showed that the effect of one grade was over twice the effect of 1 year of age for most verbal…

This article examines two kinds of problems associated with the English Language Arts test at the fourth-grade level in New York State: (1) problems that inhere in the test itself and (2) problems associated with its use. As for the test itself, three kinds of problems are analyzed: (1) the use of multiple-choice tasks to assess reading…

A structural equation model of second language (L2; English) reading comprehension was tested on a sample of 135 Spanish-speaking 4th-grade English-language learners (ELLs). The model included 2 levels: decoding and oral language. English decoding measures included alphabetic knowledge and fluency. English oral language measures included…