According to the Universal Writing System Constraint, all writing systems encode language, and thus reflect basic properties of the linguistic system they encode. According to a second universal, the Universal Phonological Principle, the activation of word pronunciations occurs for skilled readers across all writing systems. We review recent…

Eye fixations were assessed during the reading of continuation sentences confirming inferences suggested by a preceding context sentence. In multiple regression analysis, individual differences in available prior vocabulary knowledge, working memory span, and speed of access to prior word knowledge served as predictors of eye fixations.…

Two reading experiments investigated the extent to which the presence of phonemic repetition in sentences influenced processing difficulty during syntactic ambiguity resolution. In both experiments, participants read sentences silently as reading time was measured. Reading time on sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity was compared…

Moral text processing was used as an ecologically valid method for assessing implicit and explicit moral understanding and development. The authors tested undergraduates, seminarians, and graduate students in political science and philosophy for recall of moral narratives and moral expository texts. Multivariate analyses of covariance using…

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) on Chinese reading comprehension of Hong Kong low achieving students. A total of 88 Grade 7 students from four intact Chinese language remedial groups were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Students in the treatment group received a…

French and Dutch differ regarding the manifestations and lexical functions of the stress pattern of words. The present study examined group differences in stress processing abilities between French-native and Dutch-native listeners, thus extending previous cross-linguistic comparisons involving Spanish-native and French-native adults. The results…

This article compares the development of print and braille reading in children who are blind and sighted in relation to Chall's stage model of reading development. Chall's model includes a prereading period, in which concepts are developed; middle stages, in which skills that are necessary for decoding text are developed; and later stages, which…

This study explored third-graders' oral reading fluency (ORF) in easy text in relation to their third- and fourth-grade reading comprehension. It also examined the children's performance on two different measures of text exposure, a self-report questionnaire and a title-recognition test. Although third-graders' ORF related significantly to their…

One of the characteristics of the well-documented bifurcation in collegiate foreign language (FL) instruction is the difficult transition from lower- to upper-level instruction. Particularly pronounced are the expectations placed on readers at the upper level. No longer engaged in surface readings and sentence-level exercises that stay focused on…

In this article, the authors examined readers' sensitivity to the match between characters' goals and characters' actions. In Experiment 1, readers integrated actions consistent with characters' goals more easily when there was a match between the extremeness of the actions and the urgency of the goals. In Experiments 2 and 3, characters'…

This text offers teacher accounts of teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) in grades K-8 worldwide. Articles included are: (1) "Common Threads, Common Bonds" (Denise McKeon and Katharine Davies Samway); (2) "For a Brighter Future: SPEAK Project in Soweto" (Pippa Stein); (3) "The 'Essence of Sliding':…

This study investigated how 9 readers, aged 13-14 years, made sense of prose fiction, specifically short stories in the British school system. Subjects wrote down their impressions of selected texts in the text margins, followed by student-led individual or group discussions that were audio-recorded. Findings revealed Past-Oriented Predictions…

This essay explores the concept of reader stance as defined by L. Rosenblatt (1978, 1994) as a useful framework from which to view the relative imbalance between the efferent and aesthetic reading of literature, particularly among schoolage adolescents. It then examines how 4 theoretical models and perspectives offer considerable explanatory…

A survey of the training literature on phoneme awareness suggests that help for slower readers comes in the form of a focus on phonemes through stretched sounding and phoneme isolation in a careful progression that considers the number and choice of phonemes and position in syllables. Stretching and isolating phonemes allows beginners to explore…

Designed to include a broad base of information about how children acquire and develop literacy, this book discusses the knowledge that is necessary to be an influential teacher of reading and writing. Each chapter in the book begins and ends with a "Double Entry Journal" (DEJ)--an interactive strategy designed to stimulate thinking and…