Examines the reading activities of students who have made a commitment to be elementary school teachers. Investigates whether future teachers consider themselves to be active readers, and to what degree they articulate a defined commitment to the development of their personal literacy. Finds profound differences in the literary engagement of…

Discusses a longitudinal study of children's evolving concept of "word." Concludes that tacit awareness of word in spoken and written language precedes explicit awareness. Finds that children in different developmental stages perform differently on reading tasks. Suggests that development of the concept of word relates to experience with writing…

Examines the effect of teaching at-risk first graders paraphrasing and self-verbalization techniques to enhance metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Finds that treatment groups performed at statistically higher levels than the control group. (RS)

Explores the recorded remarks of one infant female child related to children's books. Contrasts the "fantastic" statements spontaneously generated by the child with the ways in which she responded to animism and other "fantastic" conventions in picture books heard by her at the same ages. (HB)

Examines differences in reading habits of developmental college students with varying levels of reading proficiency. Finds that subjects spent an unusually low amount of time on academic reading and even less time on nonacademic reading. Finds no significant differences between high- and low-proficient readers with regard to amount of time spent…

Finds that differences in parent and teacher ratings of low ability readers were more pronounced than the differences for high ability readers. Shows that parents of low readers viewed their children as more adaptable, approachable, and persistent than their teachers, whereas both parents and teachers viewed low readers as distractible. (SR)

Reviews research from 1981 to 1992 on oral reading instruction. Concludes that oral reading instruction is a legitimate part of a developmental reading program. Suggests that oral reading can offer benefits of increased fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary if instruction is purposeful, based on making meaning out of print, and engages all…

Discusses theoretical constructs defining intertextuality as a social construction. Presents a microanalysis of a first-grade reading lesson based on recent work applying interactional sociolinguistics to classrooms. Shows how teachers and students may use intertextuality to (1) define themselves and others; (2) form social groups; and (3)…

Investigates how Hispanic bilingual students' knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and ability to identify Spanish-English cognates relate to their comprehension of English expository text. Finds that performance on a multiple-choice test was related to students' ability to recognize cognate relationships, as was the relationship between Spanish…

Presents findings of a collaborative study that examined a teacher's implementation of portfolio instruction and assessment in a high school French class. Gives perspectives of the teacher and students involved, and discusses implications of these perspectives. (HB)

Investigated relationships among complex memory span, simple memory span, and phonological awareness tasks and their predictive importance for reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and arithmetic ability. Eleven tests were administered in three sessions to seven-year olds. Results suggested that phonological awareness and complex span tasks…

Examined the phonological analysis and verbal working memory components of the sound categorization task and their relationships to reading skill differences. Children were tested on sound categorization by having them identify odd words in sequences. Sound categorization performance was sensitive to individual differences in speech perception…

Examines consequences of using alternative definitions for prevalence, sex ratio and heritability. Demonstrates that the characteristics of reading-disabled children vary with the way disability is defined. Concludes that the use of regression-based procedures for identifying reading disability is desirable. Suggests insufficient evidence exists…

Reviews several lines of convergent research to discuss the relationship between developmental dyslexia and slow symbol naming speed. Describes the interactive development of orthographic and phonological codes, and methodological problems leading to underestimation of the importance of individual differences. Argues that an understanding of…

Examines differences between adequate and poor readers in phonemic awareness, rapid continuous and confrontation naming, and visual symbol processing. Investigates which of these skills make independent contributions to word recognition, pseudoword reading, and reading comprehension. Concludes that tasks of naming speed, phonemic awareness, and…