Provides a dialog about the evolution of qualitative research methodology and examines where it is headed in light of where it has been. Describes different phases in the development of qualitative research and briefly considers how qualitative research contributes to an understanding of educational phenomena and process. Suggests why such…

Introduces the articles in this special issue. Reviews research on linguistic processes in reading across orthographies. Concludes that these articles contribute to the understanding of factors affecting development of efficient reading in first and second languages; they also help to ameliorate the relative silence in the reading literature about…

Examines how type of referent (name versus pronoun) influences comprehension of short passages. Provides strong support for central predictions of centering theory: (1) using a repeated name to refer to the central entity of a discourse disrupts comprehension; and (2) this disruption interacts with whether there is a continuing or shifting…

Replies to an article in this issue that responded to an earlier article ("On Balanced Reading") by this author. Argues that Welna's unbalanced coverage of research and critique is the very fuel that continues the Reading Wars. Argues that a study of past and present research can lead the profession to common ground. (SR)

Presents an informal survey of 100 picture books, revealing the lack of complexity in the representation of grandparents in children's literature. Discusses how grandparents are often stereotyped in children's literature and argues for more realistic portrayals. (SR)

Offers a numerical, descriptive picture of Mexican American children's books published from 1995 to 1998. Provides an interpretive, evaluative view of selected books, critically addressing both content and form of the literature. Notes that more Mexican American-themed books are published every year, but these books are a small part of the larger…

Offers some new evidence about sensitivity to morphemes and the decoding skills of American children in grades three through six. Focuses on knowledge of derivational suffixes, which is examined with sentence completion and sentence acceptability tasks that manipulate the suffixes in real words and nonsense derived forms. Indicates that knowledge…

Describes a study in which 100 university students completed tests of spelling production, vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading experience, and reading accuracy. Finds that reading experience, as measured by an adaptation of the Author Recognition Test, and reading accuracy contributed to the prediction of spelling beyond the joint…

Presents six experiments that investigate the hypothesis that text comprehension problems in young children arise from phonological processing difficulties for children in the presence of age-appropriate word reading skills. Supports previous work which indicates that poor comprehenders' problems arise from higher-level processing difficulties.…

Finds that the variation in literacy activity found among undergraduate college students is associated with the ability to interpret texts by enhancing the ability to deal with subtle distinctions among mental-state verbs; however, the view that print exposure fosters decontextualized reasoning, as typified in syllogistic reasoning, received only…

Investigates the role of background color on phonological decoding in children with reading difficulties--10 elementary students with reading difficulties and 10 controls read pseudowords presented on white or colored backgrounds. Finds students with a history of reading difficulties pronounced fewer pseudowords than controls for either…

Tests the assumption that technical writers and editors assume readers are generally helped when nominalizations and the weak verbs that accompany them are replaced with the verb form of the nominalization. Indicates that denominalized text is most effective in helping native speakers focus on more important information, but for nonnative…

Describes two experiments that explore the effect of line length and paging versus scrolling on reading from screen. Finds that long lines were read faster than short lines with no change in comprehension and that subject's judgment of reading ease did not correlate with performance. Concludes that further study is needed. (PA)

Reports on searching the data files of the "Memory of Reading" project. Presents images that evoke social memory from reading practices in Brazil. (PA)

Presents the 1998 list of 27 topics that are currently "hot" and "not hot" in the field of reading instruction. Describes the rationale for and nature of the choices, and discusses the nature and significance of the ratings given by "literacy leaders" to these 27 issues. Offers references from both the professional literature and the popular…