Drawing on results from informal reading inventories and studies of oral reading behavior, a theory is presented to describe the process of learning to read. Reading is seen to be broader than a skill and more like a repertoire with many abilities, aptitudes, and special accomplishments performing in concert. This repertoire is acquired in four…

A lowered heart rate is associated with involvement in reading.

Barthes'"S/Z: An Essay" offers ways of approaching critical problems not well dealt with in Anglo-American criticism.

Provides teaching strategies that not only give students extrinsic feedback, but also help students to develop a functional intrinsic feedback system, so that they can "self-monitor" their reading performance. (RL)

Four experiments investigated memory scanning rates of skilled and less skilled readers. In three experiments, reaction times of skilled readers were faster than those of less skilled readers with reading time partialled out (aloud and silent reading). Differences were not significant when the scan component in answering was minimized. (Author/RD)

Fourth-grade good and poor readers were given six different digit span tasks in which task structure (simultaneous vs sequential presentation of digits) and modality of presentation (visual vs auditory) were varied. Task structure was more powerful in predicting test performance than was modality of presentation. (Author/BH)

Integrates research findings on modal preferences to attempt to arrive at some reasonably sound principles through a systematic synthesis of the literature and to suggest some areas in need of further research. (HOD)

Reviews and criticizes literature on the deficiencies of poor readers. (HOD)

Describes research on decoding and reading strategies involving three six-year-old migrant children learning to read in French. (AM)

The Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Auditory Impulsivity Task were administered to 81 fourth-grade students. Fifty-five percent of the students maintained classifications as reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate, or slow-inaccurate across the two modalities, indicating that the two tasks measured different abilities. The authors suggest that…

Discusses how language cues are used in the reading process, describes a means of evaluating a learner's effectiveness in processing these cues, and suggests ways to help foster more effective reading strategies. (Author/RK)

A thorough knowledge of the relationship of language and reading will lead to more effective teaching than following a list of basic skills. (MKM)

Discusses the steps involved in and the preparation necessary for learning to read (decode) and to comprehend what is read. (JM)

Available from: University of Chicago Library Society Bulletin, c/o Harriet Clouse, Library Development Office, Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; $7.50 per year; issued irregularly 2-3/year. Discusses late-medieval primary education, especially learning to read; indicates how such education affected the way adults used…