This study investigates the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach 2nd graders how to comprehend compare-contrast expository text. Along with introducing new content (animal classification), the program emphasizes text structure via clue words, a sequence of questions, and a graphic organizer, and via the close analysis of…

Efforts to improve civic education face a conundrum. On the one hand, students report that they are more likely to learn about democracy and citizenship through reading textbooks than through any other activity and according to the National Education Association, reading is the gateway to learning in all content areas. However, reviews of textbook…

Many components are necessary in order to successfully compile a NASPE/NCATE beginning teacher standards report, including a tremendous amount of hard work, time, and patience. It is also imperative that report compilers have sufficient institutional resources and a well-planned strategy for report-writing success. Typically, the faculty member…

The paper examines co-occurrences of the major theme types with the various lateral verbs, as outlined in G. Kress and R. Hodge (1979), primarily unmarked/participant themes, other (non-participant) noun group themes, and marked themes. The data consist of 60 editorials from 2 major British newspapers, "The Times" and "The…

This study measured the analysis of verbal flows by means of volume-elasticity measures and the analysis of information flow structures and their representations in the form of a metaphysical cube. A special purpose system of computer programs (PERTEX) was used to establish the language space in which the textual flow patterns occurred containing…

Anticipating a possible future method of multimedia newspaper design and delivery, a study examined the interface among people, modality (paper, computer, multimedia), and three types of news story (news, sports, entertainment). Subjects, 55 undergraduate students enrolled in journalism classes and 20 university library employees considered as…

This paper proposes a systematic method of measuring subjects' free recall from printed hard news stories, based on schema theories of cognition. Citing literature that demonstrates the role of text structures and text schemas in the recall of written text, the paper suggests incorporating these processes into the assessment of recall of news. In…

A study explored the effects of bimodal (concurrent auditory and visual stimulus modes) versus unimodal reading on 8 poor readers between the ages of 9 and 12 years. An alternating treatments design was used to compare student performance on 12 passages, 45 in each of 3 presentations modes: bimodal, visual, and auditory. Session measures included…

One way of helping learners to develop knowledge, skills, and predispositions essential for independent learning is by teaching reading in content areas to help learners acquire the necessary strategies to use reading and writing to gain new knowledge. Conent area texts pose differing demands because each body of knowledge has its own framework…

Two experiments investigated the role of capacity in children's comprehension of relative clause sentences. Sentences varied in number of participant roles, focus (object, subject), and embeddedness (center-embedded, right-branching). Center-embeddedness and object-focus were expected to constrain individuals toward assigning more nouns to their…

A study determined the effect of three types of text structures (attribution, comparison, and collection) on fifth graders' reading comprehension. Subjects, 71 students from 3 classrooms in 1 public elementary school in southern California, were randomly assigned to 1 of those 3 conditions. There was no instruction given. Students read…

The fundamental differences between traditional print and hypertext are likely to cause a shift in pedagogy. Hypertext radically alters traditional hierarchical structures both within writing systems and between author and reader. Hypertext engages users in qualitatively different activities than traditional print. Also, hypertext has been called…

One of the analyses carried out within the University of Uppsala (Sweden) study, "LSP Texts in the 20th Century," classified the cognitive text content into five different cognitive worlds: the scientific, the practical, the object, the private, and the external. This paper investigated patterns of distribution in the texts of these…

A study tested the effectiveness of three instructional strategies in three expository text structures on students' reading comprehension and writing performance. Subjects, 173 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: mental modeling, graphic organizer, or a control read/answer group. They received…

A study examined the effect of amount of intervening text on the detection of semantic inconsistencies and use of strategic backtracking, by competent and less competent college readers. Data were elicited from 40 undergraduate students (selected on the basis of their high or low scores on a variety of instruments) enrolled in an introductory…