The current research compared two accounts of the relation between language and false belief in children, namely that (a) language is generally related to false belief because both require secondary representation in a social-interactional context and that (b) specific language structures that explicitly code meta representation contribute…

In this article, the authors discuss the plight of three very bright students, who have poor or limited English. The authors discuss how promising practices used to develop content-area reading, writing, and thinking can go a long way toward helping English language learners (ELLs) improve their literacy and learning. They discuss five sets of…

In this study, the author adapted reciprocal teaching strategies for use with her kindergarten students. Using puppets to help model strategies, she implemented a series of lessons that showed students how to retell, ask questions, and predict what would happen in a story that was read aloud. The purpose was to provide students with comprehension…

East Asian students, the largest international student group in US higher education, are as a group typically known to be silent or reticent in class. This survey examined views of East Asian international graduate students concerning required academic listening and speaking skill levels in their university courses, their own difficulties in…

In this paper, different means of assessing cognitive development in children with severe impairments in "both" their expressive language and their motor skills are reviewed. A range of techniques are considered, including traditional cognitive tests and behavioral and physiological measures, but these techniques are generally impractical and…

This study examined students' alternative conceptions of reptiles and amphibians and the extent to which these conceptions remain intact through the elementary (grades 4 and 6), junior, and senior high school years. We administered multiple-choice and free-response instruments to a total of 513 students and interviewed at least 20 students at each…

This study explored the impact of learning a new instructional practice in a US school district that places great value in a statewide student assessment. Grounded Theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, 2nd Edition, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA)…

Problems in comprehending the language of instruction may contribute to language minority children's difficulties with different educational tasks. In this project the relationship between difficulties in language comprehension and task solutions was explored by studying in depth the concrete interactions and communications in mathematical lessons…

The effects of computer-presented automatization exercises in a group of 14 poor readers were assessed in comparison to a matched control group of 14 poor readers that received computer-presented exercises aimed at the use of context for word identification and comprehension. Training took place three sessions a week for 15 minutes per session and…

The purpose of this experiment, conducted with second-grade children (mean age: 7;8), was to examine the hypothesis that less skilled comprehenders in a reading situation suffer an impairment in spoken language comprehension and, more specifically, in the on-line processing of anaphoric pronouns. Skilled and less skilled comprehenders performed a…

This study examines the role of curriculum as a vocabulary learning environment by comparing teacher's Large Group Time instruction in two curricula--Creative Curriculum (Dodge, Colker, & Heroman, 2000) and the Doors to Discovery program (2002). Discourse samples were retrieved from the video data of the Large Group Time activity in five Head…

The purpose of this study was to systematically reflect upon my teaching practices, and to investigate the benefits of differentiated instruction using action research methods. This paper outlines the action research process, and is a case study examining the academic, social, and emotional progress of an advanced grade three learner involved in…

Reading comprehension is a very complex task that requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span. There are fewer studies of reading comprehension relative to investigations of word reading abilities. Reading comprehension difficulties, however, have been identified in two common and frequently overlapping…

Four groups of second language (L2) learners of English from different language backgrounds (Chinese, Japanese, German, and Greek) and a group of native speaker controls participated in an online reading time experiment with sentences involving long-distance "wh"-dependencies. Although the native speakers showed evidence of making use of…

This study outlines a formative assessment system using a consistent set of cut scores on Curriculum-Based Measurement-Reading (CBM-R) probes and investigates four statistical methods for establishing cut scores. Cut scores were established using the Minnesota statewide achievement test in reading at grade 3 as the criterion for a successful…