Two experiments were conducted to test competing explanations of the levels effect in memory for text. In both experiments subjects (college students) read paragraphs in which the height of target propositions was held constant while the amount of target elaboration differed across versions of the paragraphs. (Author/LMO)

Describes observations of mother-child dyads during reading aloud events. Traces the changes in the mothers' interactional strategies as the children grew over the six-month period, and the mothers adapted to the experiential, linguistic, and literacy background of the children to construct meaning from the text. (HTH)

A study investigated the singular and combined effectiveness of phrasing and repeated readings (practice) on the recall of idea units and narrative categories of fifth grade good and poor readers, concluding that practice rather than phrasing proved to have the most facilitating effect on poor readers' recall of idea units but not narrative…

Latent class modeling procedures were used in exploratory and confirmatory analyses of the prerequisite relations among five types of text-based inference question tasks for good and poor sixth-grade readers. All tasks types provided separate manifestations of the same underlying attribute for both good and poor readers. (Author/BS)

Examines some recent ERIC materials on comprehension processes and on how teachers can improve students' awareness of comprehension or metacomprehension. (HOD)

Suggests the growing use of computers to process information in today's world increases the human need for an interactive competency in writing and reading. The integration of instruction in reading and writing, particularly through use of word processors, is discussed as a way to strengthen this interaction. (MBR)

Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that first-grade beginning readers could evaluate the referential-communicative adequacy of simple, two-word messages better if they received oral-plus-written messages rather than oral-only messages. Results indicated that oral-plus-written messages were significantly easier for children to…

Uses a proofreading task to investigate whether function and content words are processed differently in a text. Concludes that misprints are hard to detect in words that retain the original shape, short words prevent detection of misprints more than long words, and that there is an interaction between word type and length. (HOD)

Explores several concepts relevant to instructional materials that emerged from seminars sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. Describes how basal readers--so prevalent in instruction--fall short of these concepts, and what can be done to improve instruction. (HTH)

The Boder Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns acknowledges the complexity and importance of the reading process, and speaks of the vigorous research activity in reading; but it examines the reading process in a limited and unnatural fashion, and ignores some of the most potent research findings. (BW)

Four theoretical models (Substitution, Suppression, Normal, and Remind) of the effects of lexical knowledge on reading comprehension were evaluated using results of a previous study. Fourth graders recalled texts containing words that were either unfamiliar or recently taught through an intensive vocabulary instruction program. (Author/BS)

Describes how a teacher can model the inference process to help students learn to make inferences. (HOD)

Reveals correspondences between the reading deficits of adult patients with neurological damage and normal children with reading disorders. (FL)

Presents six diagrams that describe what happens when a text is read. (HOD)

Concludes that there are numerous problems with the test studied. Argues that the abilities it assesses and their relationship to reading and reading instruction are not sufficiently understood to warrant the test's use. (FL)