Explores alternative conceptions of literacy that emphasize economic, historical, transnational, technological, and other expanded notions of literacy that the author believes hold much more potential for improving access to literacy in a multilingual world. Suggests that educators should consider all of the possibilities that dual-language…

Presents reports from Africa, Australia, and Malaysia that reflect this journal's interest in informing its readers of current international literacy research that does not otherwise appear in featured articles. Hopes that these and subsequent reports will lead to broader understandings of global literacy issues and to future international…

Presents a work-in-progress paper that describes an early but crucial stage in the development of a project about effective literacy teaching. Notes that the project is about reviewing the evidence on effective literacy teachers and their teaching, taking 1990 as a starting point. Notes the purpose is to share preliminary thoughts with interested…

Investigates the effects of a classroom reading program in which students who passed pretests on basal skills were excused from subsequent instruction and practice on those skills. Finds that most students were able to pass pretests on reading skills before the skills were covered in the basal reading program. (RS)

Investigates the spontaneous use of imagery and its relationship to free verbal recall. Finds that separate categories of imagery and verbal recall reports are not highly correlated. Finds that imagery did not decline after 48 hours, but that verbal recall declined. Suggests that a strict levels-of-processing view may be untenable for ecologically…

Identifies critical variables that underlie young adults' performance on document literacy tasks from the National Assessment of Educational Progress's Young Adult Literacy study. Argues that the variables identified and document grammar developed could help improve the usability of documents, assist readers in understanding documents, and develop…

Maintains that progress in understanding reading is impeded when researchers working from different perspectives adopt the assumption of paradigm incompatibility. Argues that this assumption is false, and that progress toward a comprehensive understanding of the reading process would be hastened if investigators from all perspectives agreed to a…

Reviews the traditional concept of critical reading, and then reexamines critical reading by reviewing recent theory and research from three areas: schema theory, metacognition, and direct instruction. (MG)

Uses the structural-affect theory of stories to predict that primary school children prefer narratives that involve suspense to those that fail to stimulate a pleasant affective response. Finds that suspense stories are liked better than mundane scripts or scripts with nonintegrated exciting events. (RS)

Surveys children's information books. Finds that the language of the books is very diverse. Suggests that readers experience diversity of language from a very early age and that such books fall well short of any standard that is desirable of informative texts. (RS)

Examines three teachers' interpretations and implementations of literature-based reading. Identifies common elements of successful literature-based reading programs, including individualized time, teacher-directed lessons, and group projects. (MM)

Updates earlier reviews of the research investigating how television viewing and reading might be related. Points out new directions in the research, focusing on research after 1980. Discusses implications for professionals in the field of reading. (SR)

Examines the relationship of readability to usage of main idea clues in introductory texts in sociology and in English composition texts. Concludes that use of main idea clues provides a useful supplement to readability formulas in evaluating college textbooks. (SR)

Examines whether the speed with which a word is recognized depends upon the frequency of related words, and which types of related words have such an influence. Finds support for the hypothesis that morphological relations between words, derivational as well as inflectional, are represented in the lexicon. (RS)

Attempts to unify two major approaches to the study of text comprehension into a process model of causal reasoning which explains how readers discover the causal structure of a complicated text. Presents empirical evidence to support the model. (RS)