A study was conducted to determine whether using the schema method for vocabulary instruction would be significantly greater than using the dictionary method for vocabulary instruction. Subjects were 12 sixth grade students who were divided into two sample groups and received different forms of vocabulary instruction for 10 weeks. Each sample was…

This paper reviews recent research concerning the relationship between teachers' theoretical orientation about reading and their reading instructional practices. The paper first describes three major clusters of theoretical reading instructional approaches: phonics orientation, skills orientation, and whole language orientation. It then reviews…

Twenty first graders and 20 second graders in Houston, Texas, were examined on skills in segmenting, reading, and spelling 50 words with regular and exceptional spelling patterns. By using the same words for each task, it was possible to assess the interrelationships among these skills on a word by word, child by child basis. A multivariate…

A study examined the possibility of using kindergarten screening scores to predict whether a student would qualify for the reading intervention program in first grade. A total of 243 students were selected from the 7 Ashland, Ohio, elementary schools. The scores for 121 students were subjected to logit regression analysis. The remaining 122…

A study was conducted to determine ways in which student learning styles could be accommodated in a whole language classroom. The Reading Style Inventory (RSI) developed by Marie Carbo which follows the Dunn model of learning styles was chosen for the study. The RSI was administered to 10 students in 2 second/third combination grade whole language…

A study determined the relationship between basal illustrations and contextual meaning. Five basals were analyzed to determine the percentage of illustration miscues appearing in each story. The basals chosen were from Silver Burdett and Ginn, Houghton Mifflin, Scott Foresman, Holt Rinehart and Winston, and D.C. Heath and Company. Results…

A study examined whether parents begin to diminish the amount of time spent reading aloud to their children once the children begin to learn how to read. Subjects, 395 parents with children in first through fourth grades, responded to a survey about their read aloud sessions with their children. Results indicated that as children began to learn…

Fifty-nine fifth-grade students were asked to use an unfamiliar textbook on a familiar topic to locate the answers to three questions, all of which contained terms that could be found in the book's index. As an analysis of covariance indicated, those who were asked guiding questions before and during their search were more successful in locating…

To validate a group phonics test designed to measure students' phonics knowledge, a study examined possible causal relationships of phonics knowledge and sight word recognition, sight word fluency, general reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Subjects, 95 first graders, 95 second graders, and 95 third graders chosen at random from 3 schools…

A study analyzed the readability of seven central Florida newspapers (one of which is a college newspaper) and "USA Today.""Rightwriter," a grammar checker and readability computer program, was used to evaluate front page articles for each of the eight newspapers. The readability formulas invoked in the readability program…

Learning outcomes and reading behaviors of 171 sixth-graders were investigated while they read expository text and answered adjunct questions. The 2,400-word text was divided into four lessons, and students answered text explicit-, text implicit-, or no questions (a control group) as they read silently and were videotaped. In addition, the…

A study tested the effects of timed versus untimed practice using text passages containing inserted adjunct questions. These effects were measured in terms of performance on repeated, related, and unrelated test questions. Subjects were 47 college students in Florida randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was allowed a fixed amount of…

A study investigated the question of whether normal and poor readers differ in the way they process sublexical structures in printed words. In a reading level design experiment, two matched groups of normal and poor readers (11 subjects of mean age 9.4 years and 11 subjects of mean age 12.6 years) were compared with regard to their use of…

To study the effect of nursery school attendance on reading readiness at the kindergarten level, a questionnaire was sent to the parents of 40 kindergarten students in order to determine which children had attended a nursery school program, when, and for how long. Scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were then recorded for all respondents. The…

The reading habits of 49 elderly adults were surveyed, using the SERA inventory, to examine two hypotheses: there is no difference among elderly adults' perceptions of their reading habits as related to factors of reading skill, preference, physical functioning, attention span/concentration, and emotional well-being, and there are no significant…