A study of students' self-expressed test-taking strategies for reading comprehension tests in English as a second language (ESL) had as subjects 86 Hebrew-speaking university students in Israel. The students were given a reading comprehension test, half with open-ended questions and half with multiple choice. Half the responses were anonymous and…

Intended for students taking the English 30 Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in Alberta, Canada, this test (to be administered along with a questions booklet) contains the reading selections portion of Part B, the reading component of the June 1988 tests. Representing the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, the 10 selections consist of:…

Intended for students taking the English 30 Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in Alberta, Canada, this booklet contains 80 multiple choice test items related to the 10 selections in the reading booklet of Part B, the reading component of the June 1988 tests. The questions examine students' skills in: (1) understanding meanings; (2) recalling materials…

Intended for students taking the English 33 Grade 12 Diploma Examinations in Alberta, Canada, this test (to be administered along with a questions booklet) contains the reading selections portion of Part B, the reading component of the June 1988 tests. The following short selections taken from fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and day-to-day…

Summaries of several papers are presented to develop a working theoretical analysis of reading comprehension and an understanding of development in language comprehension based upon empirical studies. Contributions from the areas of assessment, artificial intelligence, cognition (including schema theory), instruction, linguistics, learning…

The present study, using a sample of 1,491 grade 10 students from a mid-western province in Canada, examined the validity evidence on the Canadian Tests of Basic Skills. Factor analysis of the 34 micro-skills (content by skill/process classification of items) of the four tests indicated that the Reading Comprehension, Written Expression, and Using…

Parallel studies at universities in Israel, Finland, Canada, and the United States used a "selected deletion gap-filling test," a variation on the cloze procedure designed to measure reading comprehension by testing the reader's familiarity with cohesive links and grasp of text coherence. The test design responded to the growing demand for a more…

A study examined the difficulties that 400 male Arab students, attending five universities in the District of Columbia, experienced with academic English while seeking college degrees. A survey investigated problems with nine aspects of English language proficiency: (1) expressing ideas correctly, (2) understanding lectures, (3) taking class…

A study measured the background knowledge of American culture of international students relative to American college students and the extent to which variations in context facilitate their ability to access or supplement this background knowledge. Subjects, three groups of students at Indiana University (27 international students, 28 American…

The purpose of this book on reading instruction in the elementary school is twofold: firstly, to share with colleagues some of the significant works of research and theory that suggest answers to important questions about reading instruction, and secondly, to describe specific teaching strategies implied by these answers. The book assumes that…

The results of the May 1984 British Columbia Reading Assessment were presented in this summary report. Highlights of the survey, summary tables of important results, and conclusions and recommendations made by the Contract Team were outlined. The students in grades four, seven, and ten completed achievement surveys and attitude scales. Five…

This comparison of students' learning from reading books and from watching television uses Gavriel Salomon's model of learning effects, which is based on the amount of mental effort invested (AIME) in a medium as determining how deeply the information from that medium is processed. Mental effort, in turn, is predicted to depend on two perceptions…

A whole language approach is emphasized in the reading clinic at the University of Missouri (St. Louis) because disabled readers need to practice their skills simultaneously in speaking, listening, and reading. At the clinic, teachers are encouraged to learn and use several approaches to teaching reading. However, the language experience approach…

In the spring of 1985, the Oregon Department of Education conducted an assessment of eighth graders' skills in writing, reading, and mathematics. The state reading test consisted of two parts: the first designed to measure students' inferential and evaluative reading comprehension and selected study skills, the second designed to measure students'…

An exploratory study was carried out in four Los Angeles Title I elementary schools to determine what accounted for the comparatively high reading scores made by these schools' students on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills; determine whether the schools were engaged in demonstrably effective educational practices that other Title I and…