Discusses two recent stories in the newspaper "Education Week" and the need for educators to be aware of recent research to make informed decisions about teaching methods. (PRA)

Examines first-year college developmental reading students' aliterate behaviors as revealed in self-reported reading histories. Finds that most subjects had early enabling literacy experiences, but even those experiences did not provide a hedge against later aliteracy. (RS)

Illustrates how using repeated readings with pretend readings can provide a framework for language growth for kindergarten emergent second-language learners. Reports on a pilot study of the effectiveness of such instruction. Finds that children grew in their ability to convey meaning with more emotional expression and self-confidence. (RS)

Evaluates 98 secondary reading strategy studies for internal and external validity. Addresses experimental design, data collection, and statistical analysis. Discuses specific strengths and weaknesses of the research. Offers suggestions for improvement of intervention research in the areas of design, data collection, and statistical analysis. (RS)

Assesses whether preschool children learn new vocabulary from a single reading of a storybook and whether certain conversational devices used by parents during joint book reading facilitate vocabulary growth. Finds that, although receptive vocabulary learning was robust, there was no evidence of differential learning of vocabulary under different…

Discusses insights highlighted by a reading strategy training study conducted in a second-language setting. The study cautions against uncritical adoption of strategy training as a panacea for learning difficulties and stresses the importance of recognizing factors in the second-language learning context that suggest modification to procedures…

Finds an overall drop in reading attitudes across the upper elementary school years in three of the four schools examined. Reveals few significant relationships between reading attitudes and teacher-reported enrichment activities. Notes that activities that fit with a traditional, direct instruction approach to teaching reading correlated…

Finds no foundation for the fear teachers and parents have that "light reading" (comic books, magazines, and novels) will limit higher-level reading. Notes that the vast majority of doctoral students at a major southern California university responded affirmatively to light reading as youths. (RS)

Compares Possible Sentences with traditional vocabulary instruction to examine the effect on student ability to pronounce and define targeted basal words. Finds that subjects were able to correctly pronounce many terms when they were presented in story context prior to actual instruction, but they could not define them. Encourages supplementing…

Assesses text comprehension of secondary Turkish and Dutch pupils in relation to vocabulary, grammar, nonverbal IQ, and background knowledge. Finds that the L2-readers tended toward a top-down approach to reading. Finds a significant increase in scores for word knowledge and nonverbal IQ but no progress in the scores for text comprehension. (SR)

Shows an association between rhythmic ability and reading in seven- and eight-year-old students. Finds that training in music is an effective additional strategy for assisting children with reading difficulties. (SR)

Discusses the way children negotiated partner reading and the roles they assumed that determined who was in charge and how the reading would be carried out. Finds four types of role sets: coworkers, fellow artists, teacher-student, and boss-employee. (SR)

Investigates the influence of word meaning on lexical processing in children and adults. Examines developmental trends in lexical decisions for abstract and concrete words. Concludes that word meaning influences lexical processing in children but that there is a developmental shift in the kinds of semantic characteristics that are available for…

Critiques an article by Richard F. West, Keith E. Stanovich, and H. R. Mitchell entitled "Reading in the Real World and Its Correlates," published in an earlier issue of this journal. Questions that article's outdated concepts of mind and mental processes and its inappropriate use of statistics. (HB)

Responds to Denny Taylor's critique in the same issue of an article by Richard F. West, Keith E. Stanovich, and H. R. Mitchell entitled "Reading in the Real World and Its Correlates," published in an earlier issue of "Reading Research Quarterly." (HB)