Think cards, consisting of students' written verbalizations of reading comprehension strategies presented by the teacher, make students aware of the need for using strategies during the reading process and aid them in keeping track of alternative strategies. The paper illustrates incorporation of think cards into a reading lesson involving the…

Investigates readers' response patterns to informative documents. Finds that readers make direct confirmations and positive comprehension evaluations when information is conveyed clearly; when understanding is impaired, readers seek more clearly established relationships in the text. Concludes that readers make evaluative suggestions that…

Investigates the role of signaling (structural cues that announce or emphasize content or reveal content relationships) in helping good readers comprehend expository text. Finds that signals do improve a reader's comprehension, particularly comprehension two weeks after the reading of a passage and comprehension of superordinate and superordinate…

Evaluates six major Spanish basal reading programs published since 1980 for Hispanic-American students. Concludes that these translated materials reflect a mechanistic part-to-whole view of reading and ignore current theories of reading as a meaning-seeking process. Contains 39 references and 23 sources of Spanish language materials. (SV)

Describes a research project to evaluate the progress of adult beginning readers. States that the project gave the authors insight into designing and carrying out research; broadened their understanding of how students learn about the learning process; enriched their teaching; and helped them view others' research in a new light. (RS)

Explores the thinking strategies or "inner languages" children employ when they read and write. Finds merging of different patterns of thought in most children, which varied with the task at hand. Proposes that teachers structure time and space according to children's varied needs. (MS)

Reports a study, using sixth graders' introspective self-reports, to determine the context in which students use knowledge about narrative text structure, how they use this knowledge, and why they do not always employ this knowledge. (RAE)

Examines the differences between oral and written languages, including differences in register, style, and syntax. Asserts that reading aloud and giving instructions are two ways to focus on the connection between oral and written language and the processes of reading and writing. (MM)

Investigates the nature of teacher questioning and its relationship to what learners consider important to remember when processing exposition. Focuses on questions that have been determined to be of high, medium, or low structural importance. Finds that students are relatively aware of the information that their teachers will test and that this…

Discusses research on children's speed in identifying digits and letters in continuous lists and discrete trials. Latency for word identification and digit naming varied considerably. Naming speed contributed variance in reading skill independently of measures of phonological awareness. (Author/GH)

The paper outlines the development of a scale describing the progression of literacy skills, based on similar scales used in second-language acquisition. The scale is shown to have high reliability and appropriate criterion validity. Use of the scale to analyze student reading development is illustrated. Appended are descriptions of the scale's…

Explores the effects of the use of aesthetic and efferent stances in response to literature with 43 fourth graders, 47 sixth graders, and 40 eighth graders. Finds use of an aesthetic stance is associated with higher levels of personal understanding and the level of understanding increases with grade level. (MG)

Examines the instructional beliefs and practices in reading of second and third grade teachers in selected schools in the United States and Australia. Compares the results to those of an earlier study. Finds that changes have occurred in both countries regarding the types of questions posed during reading instruction and the amount of praise used.…

Used computers to observe when foreign language (FL) readers look up meaning of unfamiliar words when reading FL text. Experiments with 82 English-speaking Dutch students from grades 10 and 11 show look-up behavior was clearly influenced by perceived word relevance, modestly influenced by reader's vocabulary knowledge, and not influenced by…

This 2-year study focused on preservice teachers' theoretical orientations to the reading process and examined the relationship of undergraduate coursework and the student teaching experiences to these orientations. Findings showed that half the students experienced no changes in theoretical orientation; for those who changed, coursework had…