The South Pacific Commission's English reading curriculum, designed to accompany and reinforce the Tate English oral skills series, is critiqued in terms of curriculum design and implementation in schools in the Micronesian region. The construction and emphases of the classroom and teacher materials are described, and an analysis is given of the…

In order to substantiate the need for college level developmental reading programs, this paper reviews research conducted in the area from 1971 to 1981. The paper provides bibliographic information for 96 entries drawn from a search of ERIC, Dissertation Abstracts International, the William S. Gray Research Collection in Reading, and journals in…

Constituting an updated treatment of the use of computers for reading instruction, this book focuses on recent developments in computer assisted instruction and its classroom implications. The ten chapters cover the following topics: (1) the development of digital computers and their programs, (2) college and university centers in computer based…

Students from 16 different vocational/technical areas of study in seven postsecondary complexes in Mississippi (representing a cross-section of all junior colleges in the State) were administered the Nelson-Denny Reading Test to identify reading levels. The FORCAST readability formula (Klare, 1974) was used to determine the readability level of…

Poor lighting conditions in classrooms result not only from low intensity light but also from too high intensity light, an uneven distribution of light, and glare. Since visual tasks in a classroom constitute 62 percent of a student's time in school, suggestions are made of ways lighting conditions can be improved. The principles and…

Techniques are provided for distinguishing explanative information from other types of information in science prose, including the structural method, the logical method, and the empirical method. Research is then provided concerning techniques which increase the subjects' recall of explanative information, and thus the subject's problem solving…

The five articles contained in this journal issue deal with basic/survival reading skills. Specific topics covered in the articles are an overview of survival reading, the reading habits of college students, a principal's view of reading instruction, a healthy self-concept as a basic survival skill, and a readability rating list for teacher-made…

Reading instruction is being incorporated as a natural part of the social studies curriculum because of the emphasis which is being placed on basic skills and teacher accountability. In order for long term improvement of reading/social studies skills to occur social studies teachers must develop a systematic and deliberate approach to reading…

Based on the view that text-specific concept and vocabulary knowledge affect the processing and recall of text and that a measure of this knowledge might assist teachers in determining whether a reader possesses adequate background to successfully comprehend and recall a particular text, a study was conducted. Its purpose was to develop a measure…

Structural reading difficulty of argumentative prose (text with an underlying message or superordinate principle), is related to the reader's approach to reading and learning. Ninety Swedish teenagers and adults with varying levels of formal education, were divided into three groups, based on their own descriptions of reading and learning: deep…

The materials in this teaching guide represent the second quarter of a community college program designed to teach paraprofessionals how to tutor in an adult literacy program. Techniques for teaching reading and English as a second language are included. The first section of this workshop includes information for tutors on the principles of…

Reported is a study designed to determine whether reading grade level (RGL) assessment techniques used for elementary and secondary education textbooks would discriminate among plant and soil science textbooks. The study was to select the RGL indices suited to quantify the readability of these sources, and to identify the factors affecting…

Offers an approach to text analysis that discusses what makes good writing good. Argues that good writing involves the presentation of propositions that are not too dense, in a schema that is familiar or explained carefully, requiring not much inference on the part of the reader, and in a pattern that is coherent from beginning to end. (MS)

A study examined how two international studies--the 1991 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Reading Literacy Study and the 2001 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS, also conducted by IEA)--compared to each other in the aspects of reading literacy each assessed, the types of texts they…

This report presents results from a computer-assisted search of the medical and public health literature published between 1990-99 that addressed literacy issues in health care and in health promotion education. Following a brief introduction on the subject of health and literacy, the literature search methods are described and the choice of…