The core of schema theory is the concept that text is understood according to the reader's world knowledge and that this knowledge is altered whenever the reader encounters new information in print. Inferencing, that is the hypothesizing or predicting that the activation of schema sets in motion, is critical in this process. Recall is important…

The background, challenge, opportunity, and excitement of hermeneutics can be explored in three signposts of a hermeneutic turn in a doctoral research proposal: from being gifted to gifted reading, from method to interpretation, and from metacognition to the hermeneutic circle. A change in the research site of a study of the metacognitive…

Two Schools of thought prominent in reading instruction are: (1) that reading is a language-based skill which requires the reader to have a sound knowledge of phonology and that this knowledge must be at an automatic level of information processing; and (2) that reading problems are the result of being overly attentive to phonetic and orthographic…

A notable feature of current approaches to reading (in first or second language) is a preoccupation with the internal "causes" of comprehension, regarded as a terminal state of the cognitive system. Yet by allowing only for a private encounter between reader and text, the cognitive approach lacks terms to give more than a contingent…

One reason that university students fail to achieve optimally in course work is their lack of reading skills. The higher education student needs to achieve skills appropriate to the involved task in reading. Through diagnosis, it is possible to ascertain weak links in the reading achievement of students. For students to achieve optimally from…

The impulse toward comedy in the poetry of Canadian author Margaret Atwood occurs as a by-product of an interaction between scripted text and performing reader. Reading, then, may be profitably viewed as a rehearsal for both. In the classroom, this stylistic approach to Atwood's poetry can be emphasized over thematic analysis. In her poetry,…

A current trend in composition consider writing a social act where texts are produced because of and in response to social contexts. Classroom practices are just beginning to change and acknowledge the power that discourse communities assert on writers. Composition teachers must also acknowledge the importance of community-governed reading…

To examine the comprehension process employed by gifted readers and to identify the various metacognitive strategies they employ, 100 gifted student volunteers in grades 4 through 7 were administered the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS), Reading Subtests 11 and 13. The students also completed a questionnaire to determine metacognitive awareness…

Concludes that college professors who teach preservice reading courses do not agree on what reading terms should be taught, their definitions, or the generalizations to be used in phonic analysis. (RB)

Indicates that both good and poor readers who utilized material organized according to the guidelines established by the Frayer Model of Concept Attainment received significantly higher comprehension scores than did good and poor readers who employed material organized according to the textbook approach. (RB)

Concludes that further research into the imagery-comprehension relationship in reading is necessary. (RB)

The general aim of the study was to gain insights into the thought processes and learning strategies of the beginning reader. It is based on the premise that since reading is a language task, the process of learning to read may show parallels to the process of learning to speak. (Editor)

Concludes that the ability to detect small differences in pairs of pictures, letters, or words does not change beyond grade 3, but the ability to recognize sound-alike words improves through the grades. (RB)

Focusing on the process of reading comprehension, this book contains chapters on some central topics relevant to understanding the processes associated with comprehending text. The articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Comprehension Processes: Introduction" (K. Rayner); (2) "The Role of Meaning in Word Recognition"…

This study hypothesized that altering a news story to conform to a more familiar structure might increase comprehension and recall. Subjects, 104 undergraduate students, completed a Media Use Survey, a questionnaire for collecting demographic information, the WIRE test, a strength of text schema measure, and a comprehension questionnaire. Students…