A study evaluated the overall evaluative validity of the Four Skills Exam, a Spanish language proficiency test designed to ensure that bilingual education teachers in New Mexico can meet Spanish language demands in the bilingual education classroom. The test's construct validity was limited for several reasons. In designing a test capturing…

A study tested the English vocabulary and reading comprehension of about 1,500 Japanese college and university students and compared three different media formats for teaching vocabulary in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) in a number of Japanese college classes: commercially available and teacher-adapted computer software; traditional…

Suggesting that the goal of having every child read by the end of third grade can be realized only if tutors are trained properly, this book describes best practices based on years of tutoring experience. Calling for tutor training programs to "do it right," the book outlines research in reading and writing development as a basis for the…

The "Read, Imagine, Decide, and Do" (RIDD) reading strategy was developed based on observations of student behaviors and reading problems while completing academic tasks. The four steps of the RIDD strategy are described. To determine its effectiveness, four elementary teachers in a rural northeastern Nebraska school taught the RIDD strategy. Each…

This document presents eight lesson plans designed to teach self-determination and Arizona academic standards to students with disabilities in grades K-12. The lesson plans include: (1) an oral language lesson plan for students with learning disabilities in grades 1-2; (2) a reading acquisition lesson that teaches color words to students with…

This paper examines the results of a questionnaire on reading ability in English by Japanese college students, which was formerly analyzed using raw scores, from the viewpoint of Rasch measured scores. In the Rasch analysis, the basic requirements for measuring are the following: (1) reduction of experience to one dimensional abstraction; (2)…

The report, entirely in French, describes Alberta's curriculum for second-year French immersion, as revised in 1994. An introductory section offers background information on the curriculum revision, links between the core curriculum and French immersion, underlying principles of second language instruction, the revised curriculum's objectives and…

The report, entirely in French, describes Alberta's curriculum for third-year French immersion, as revised in 1994. An introductory section offers background information on the curriculum revision, links between the core curriculum and French immersion, underlying principles of second language instruction, the revised curriculum's objectives and…

Based on the 1998 Arkansas State Language Arts Framework, this sample curriculum model for grade three language arts is divided into sections focusing on writing; listening, speaking, and viewing; and reading. Each section lists standards; benchmarks; assessments; and strategies/activities. The reading section itself is divided into print…

Based on the 1998 Arkansas State Language Arts Framework, this sample curriculum model for grade four language arts is divided into sections focusing on writing; listening, speaking, and viewing; and reading. Each section lists standards; benchmarks; assessments; and strategies/activities. The reading section itself is divided into print…

Presents four reading activities, including "The Winter Tradition Project" (B. E. Sargent); "Using Children's Choice Books to Enhance Math and Health Instruction" (E. C. Webre); "Science Learning Centers: Seatwork Alternatives" (P. Piech); and "Checkered Word Fun" (L. R. Gauthier). (MG)

Examines the usefulness of the interdisciplinary research approach in the study of Arabic linguistics, using native Arabic speakers' written translations of English text into Arabic. The analysis method adapted models of discourse analysis to reflect micro-level and macro-level mistranslations in students' papers. (25 references) (Author/OD)

The importance of cognitive internal state words in skilled reading comprehension was studied with 31 5th graders, 32 7th graders, and 10th graders. Positive correlations with cognitive word knowledge were significantly higher for verbal than quantitative achievement percentiles. The order of cognitive word acquisition depends on complex factors.…

An age-dependent answer-selection sequence of answers on multiple-choice tests suggested by previous studies was supported using statistical rather than clinical means. Results with 2,810 students aged 88 months through 241 months given a reading comprehension test twice during a 5-month interval support the systematically connected age-dependent…

Classroom activities and materials for developing Spanish language skills are described. The exercises focus on listening comprehension, speaking, word recognition, vocabulary learning through reading, and grammar skills that prepare students for the National Spanish Examination and other language experiences. (Author/MSE)