This study investigated the relationship between grammatical errors and communication breakdown by examining native speakers' ability to correct grammatical errors. The assumption was that communication breakdown exists to a certain degree if a native speaker cannot correct the error or if the correction distorts the information intended to be…

The "primacy of reading" hypothesis as the explanation for the high correlation between children's competencies in literacy and numeracy is rejected in this paper. Instead, a "primacy of speech perception" hypothesis is examined. It is suggested that analysis-by-synthesis speech recognition procedures are acquired in early childhood and that the…

This instructor's handbook of ten listening comprehension exercises, each consisting of 30 unrelated paragraphs, is part of the basic course in Indonesian. Beginning with the 36th week of instruction, the exercises are introduced at the rate of one per week. After hearing each paragraph, listeners have 10 seconds to indicate which of four English…

Five essays for reading instructors at two-year colleges are provided in this issue of "Forum for Reading." First, Kent Smith notes the increased recruitment of underprepared students and argues that colleges are responsible for assuring that admissions personnel, administrators, and faculty know the types of students they can and cannot…

The lessons in this teacher's guide are intended to supplement existing taped materials in the French Basic Course. Emphasis is placed on creative activities, realistic situations, and authentic speech variations. The materials can be used for self-study purposes as well as in a language lab under the guidance of an instructor. The seven units in…

A study was undertaken to document, through data gathered from surveys, interviews, and observations, the approaches fourth grade elementary school teachers were using to teach reading comprehension. The study focused on the actual teacher behaviors, methods, and materials rather than on what reading methods, texts or basal series' manuals said…

A REVIEW OF 124 ARTICLES PERTAINING TO COLLEGE AND ADULT READING WHICH APPEARED IN THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE IS PRESENTED. THE ARTICLES ARE TREATED WITHIN THE FOLLOWING AREAS--(1) PROGRAMS, INCLUDING READING AND STUDY HABITS, TRAITS, AND SKILLS, (2) THE INFLUENCE OF READING, STUDY HABITS, AND SKILLS, (3) THE FACTORS INFLUENCING READING AND OTHER…

A CONTINUATION OF A FIRST-GRADE STUDY OF THREE APPROACHES TO BEGINNING READING AND OF THEIR EFFECT ON GROWTH IN COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION SKILL IS REPORTED. THE BASAL, THE MODIFIED LINGUISTIC, AND THE LINGUISTIC APPROACHES WERE STUDIED. TWENTY-ONE SECOND-GRADE CLASSROOMS IN THREE CENTRAL NEW YORK SCHOOL DISTRICTS PARTICIPATED IN THE…

A study investigated one aspect of the speech/reading comprehension relationship--that between the ability to select the correct standard English verbal endings (-s and -ed) and the ability to recognize the tense of a passage when time information was encoded primarily in the verbs and adverbs. Subjects were 135 third, sixth, and ninth grade…

This study attempted to determine whether systematic inclusion of cloze exercises in a sixth grade social studies unit would influence students' reading growth, long term recall, and interest in the material. During the nine-week study, 21 students in the experimental group and 21 students in the control group read the same materials; after each…

Commonality analysis was used to look for school effects in gains in reading test scores for 877 fourth to sixth grade children in Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I remedial reading programs. The four groups of predictor variables that were investigated were background, mental ability, parental involvement, and school program. Commonality…

Representative research studies of the interference of Vernacular Black English (VBE) on beginning reading of VBE speakers at the phonological, grammatical, and lexical and content levels are examined. The following conclusions emerge: (1) phonological interference in learning to read has not been established; (2) VBE does not clearly interfere…

Noting that sensory impaired children often have poorly developed or ungeneralized concept development that impedes their ability to comprehend stories or content texts, this paper presents a brief description of the learning problems of these children as they relate to the reading process. It then presents implications for teaching reading and a…

This text for students of English as a second language is designed to develop reading skills and to expand general vocabulary as a preparatory step toward reading and understanding college texts. Particular attention is given to reading technique and to the development of reading speed. The articles, representative of current newspaper and…

Test questions were phrased according to different sentence structures in a study of the complexity level of items for 220 third-grade children. Both the sensitivity of wh-questions (who, what, where, etc.) as a dependent variable and differences between wh-questions eliciting subject and predicate nouns were investigated. Effects of paraphrase…