This is an on-going, annual study chronicling which topics in literacy education are "hot" (receiving current and positive attention) and which are "not hot" (receiving less or negative attention), according to a survey of literacy leaders. Details about how the survey was constructed and administered are included, as well as some information…

Although much has been published in the literature concerning literacy in children with language impairments, little is known concerning the process that the individual language-impaired child must go through to become a proficient reader. One reason for this may lie within the focus and rigor dictated by the methodologies typically used in…

This article explores definitions of reading comprehension, research on how reading comprehension is assessed, and issues in assessing the reading comprehension of English language learners (ELLs). By way of illustration, I present aspects of the literacy practices of an intermediate-grade ELL in a suburban school of the Lower Mainland of British…

Self-report is a time- and cost-efficient screening measure that has the potential to be useful as a stand-alone means of recruiting adults for participation in reading research. We report on a sample of university students (N=46) recruited using the Adult Reading History Questionnaire-Revised, half of whom reported early difficulty with reading…

This current study introduced a new method to investigate the prevalence and correlates of significant imbalances in the relative accuracy with which eighth-graders read nonwords (e.g., "prauma") and exception words (e.g., "vaccine"). Substantial proportions of students showed imbalanced word-reading profiles, but these were…

Young children who enjoy reading do it more often and they tend to become skilled at it. Poor readers, by contrast, often display low motivation to read. One possible explanation of this is that reading skill and reading motivation influence each other. 15 studies were reviewed addressing the relationship between young children's reading and…

The purpose of this study was to explore vocabulary acquisition of primary grade children. Specifically, the study used a unique teaching strategy that added physical movement to typical read-aloud sessions with kindergarten and first grade children. Although a review of reading research revealed a plethora of studies, very few studies…

A study investigated whether whole language principles had "seeped" into secondary language arts teaching in Cass County, Michigan by surveying teachers' attitudes. A total of 14 of the 15 language arts teachers in the four secondary schools in the county returned completed surveys. Results indicated that the language arts teachers (1)…

This article explores research evidence on the teaching of reading from eight specific points: (1) readers engage in a complex, multi-level process that involves knowledge of sound-symbol relations, spelling patterns, vocabulary, sentence structures, propositional meanings, and realms of meaning beyond individual propositions; (2) literacy…

Students in grades 1-6 who were part of the norming sample for the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement took both a word identification task, Reading and Decoding, and a spelling test. Each word in both tests was coded for linguistic components: number of phonemes, consonant blends, vowel digraphs, consonant digraphs, r-controlled vowels,…

A study examined three variables derived from earlier research on comprehension and recall of narrative text: time in short-term memory; causal connections allowed; and referential connections allowed. Subjects, 84 randomly selected fourth graders in three suburban public elementary schools, read 8 short texts that each contained 4 embedded goals,…

Research often underestimates the vocabulary resources of the English language and, hence, the size of students' vocabularies and the rate of their vocabulary growth, by failing to take into account words that are not thought of as "general vocabulary," but that are essential to comprehension. These words include proper names, words with…

A study investigated the relationship between the amount students read and reading achievement. Subjects, 2,185 first- through eighth-grade students enrolled in a Chapter 1 program during the 1990-91 school year in a large southeastern school district, kept reading logs. Teachers informally assessed comprehension of each text read, and they…

This paper analyzes the relative contributions of general reading comprehension and domain knowledge to subject matter text learning. The paper points out the limits of each factor in explaining text learning and summarizes some recent studies that support the complementary role played by each factor. A two-factor account of text learning (general…

Two studies examined children's misunderstandings in using dictionary definitions to comprehend the meaning of a new word. Subjects in the first study, 38 male and 22 female fourth-grade students from four classes in a medium-sized midwestern town, were given two similar judgment tasks: (1) students were given a definition for a new word and asked…