This article briefly reviews the research on word learning and vocabulary teaching, provides a rationale for building a rich vocabulary and identifies nine guidelines for sound vocabulary instruction. Problematic classroom practices are highlighted and a "best-practice" vocabulary teacher is described. The article also includes a…

Success in the study of literature depends on the student's ability to establish connections between word and object, between words and phrases, and between memorable experiences in all fields of learning and the reading of literature, which is interdisciplinary by nature. In understanding a literary work, a reader must make affective memory…

Many effective classroom teachers profess reluctance to use miscue analysis, either because they experience interference by their previous use of informal reading inventory procedures or because they find the procedures for miscue analysis too involved for use in the classroom. Such teachers need a brief explanation of the psycholinguistic…

In teaching the moderately retarded student to read, it is essential to develop a basic survival reading vocabulary consisting of words necessary to remain alive, as well as to retain one's personal dignity. The individual must be able to recognize and respond appropriately to common signs of instruction and direction within the community. From a…

This report, the summary of a series of conferences on reading research, identifies two main theories about the nature of reading: (1) reading as translation, wherein printed symbols are translated into an approximation of oral language, so that the capabilities for understanding speech can be applied to written language, and (2) reading as an…

This study compared the effectiveness of intensive versus extensive courses to improve reading rate and comprehension. Subjects were 46 government employees who voluntarily enrolled in either a five-and-one-half-week course or in one of two eleven-week courses. The three courses were alike in hours of instruction, instructor, content, tests, and…

This study compares the validity of three cloze procedures (traditional, limited, and least-major-constituent limited) when reading comprehension is defined as cognitive change. Over 400 seventh and eighth graders from public schools in North Carolina and Arizona were randomly assigned to one of the three cloze formats for either fiction or…

Two conflicting hypotheses exist regarding how oral reading behavior patterns follow from encounter with the text. One hypothesis views them as following decoding (decoding hypothesis), and the other sees them as occurring after comprehension processes have constructed a semantic representation of the message. These hypotheses are further…

This paper reports the interim results of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the Chicago Mastery Learning Reading Program, an application of Bloom's mastery-learning instructional model to the elementary reading curriculum. Two approximately equivalent classrooms were selected from each of 10 inner-city schools with minority pupils who were below…

In a study that investigated differences in the processing styles of beginning readers, a Pictograph Sentence Memory Test (PSMT) was administered to first and second grade students to determine their processing style as well as to assess instructional effects. Based on their responses to the PSMT, the children were classified as either visual or…

The "yes/no" method of vocabulary assessment requires students to indicate words they know from among a list of words and nonwords. Preliminary evidence gained from a study involving fifth grade students indicates that the method is superior in many ways to the multiple choice method of assessment. Analysis of "false alarms," cases in which…

A study was conducted to construct a cloze screening instrument to gain information about the reading capabilities of college students enrolled in specific courses and to find out what support services these students needed. Subjects included 464 college students ranging from entering freshmen to graduate students. Cloze passages were constructed…

Three studies were performed to investigate the effects of training versus instructions in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use one or more strategies. The amount and type of training differed for each of the experimental groups. Strategies taught included the method of loci,…

A study was conducted to replicate earlier findings regarding the relationships between letter, word, and text reading times and measures of reading achievement and to establish the stability of reading times measures and their relationships over a one-year period. Subjects included 150 children in eight age cohorts between grades one and six. The…

Information and accompanying exercises in this learning module are provided to reinforce basic reading, spelling, writing, and math skills while at the same time introducing the fundamentals of personal money management. Written at an elementary level, the module covers five areas of personal finance: (1) planning a household budget on the basis…