While it is widely recognized that comprehension monitoring is an important reading comprehension ability, effective methods for teaching readers to recognize and overcome various comprehension obstacles have not yet been conclusively identified. To determine if microcomputers could be used to teach students to overcome such obstacles, 41 fourth…

A study investigated the ability of fifth grade above and below average readers to use mental imagery in reading familiar and unfamiliar text. The subjects, 80 fifth grade students reading either above or below grade level, were placed into either an experimental or a control group. All subjects individually read one familiar and one unfamiliar…

A study examined the effects of a year-long inservice program to help experienced teachers in one elementary school appreciate and use recent research in reading comprehension. All teachers at an urban K-6 elementary school in a midwestern city attended the weekly inservice sessions which focused on the importance and role of background knowledge…

Instructional models for foreign language reading and listening comprehension are outlined and synthesized, and an instructional procedure based on immediate recall, a standardized method for assessing first-language comprehension, is proposed. First, the interrelated processes of reading and listening comprehension, as currently defined in the…

This study was performed to assess the effect of field independence/dependence on the successful use of mapping or outlining to take notes from textbooks. Success was measured in terms of student performance on a comprehension test and thoroughness of notetaking. The study sample of 38 students enrolled in reading and study skills courses at a…

Research suggests that preservice teachers who have organized knowledge structures are able to respond to instructional situations more effectively than those who do not. It appears that the way a teacher organizes knowledge influences how easily the information is accessed and applied in instructional situations. This study investigated the…

A study was undertaken to identify the prerequisite relations (or hierarchies among the items) existing in the item responses of a sample of 86 foreign students who took the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) vocabulary and reading comprehension test, Form 3JTF1. The form contains 30 vocabulary items and 30 reading comprehension items.…

A study examined the effect of using mapping as a mediating strategy to produce written summaries and improve comprehension of poor readers in the fifth grade. Twenty-three students from two Chapter 1 classrooms in northern Illinois, all classified as poor readers, were divided into experimental (13 children) and control (10 children) groups. The…

A study investigated the effect of a prereading strategy on the reading comprehension of foreign language students. Subjects were 62 French students in 5 classes at 3 suburban high schools. A rotation design was used within each class. A reading in the target language was assigned twice a week for two weeks. The treatment sample went through a…

This report discusses how reading instruction should be modified to facilitate the development of comprehension strategies in all children (including those labeled as "at-risk" or "disadvantaged"). Current theoretical views of reading comprehension do not support a discrete skills perspective, but classroom research has…

Because analogical reasoning plays a major role in content area reading comprehension, teachers should learn to teach analogy-solving skills and to identify the kinds of difficulties some elementary students will have in solving them. Analogies are statements of relationships wherein one term is similar to another term. Relationships in analogy…

In the interest of applying reader response theory to journalism this paper posits that readers of newspapers, like readers of literature, take an active role in making meaning from the articles they read, rather than passively accepting news as a finished, static product. Additionally, it proposes that journalism textbooks pay little attention to…

Intended for literature instructors, this digest explains the relationship of transactional theory (a reciprocal, mutually defining relationship between the reader and the literary text) to the teaching of literature. The importance of the reader's part in literature is first demonstrated, noting that attention must be paid to who the readers are,…

A study investigated whether or not a discrete-item test of English affixes could be used to measure second language reading comprehension. Subjects were 1,254 mostly first-year university students in four academic departments studying to pass the first half of a foreign language requirement, an English reading comprehension test. Results from two…

A study sought to replicate and extend previous research which found that an emphasis on meaning in reading leads to better recall of lesson material than does an emphasis on accurate oral reading, and that the child who is taking an active turn recalls more of the lesson material than do the children who are following along. Six third-grade…