Describes some reading comprehension exercises developed for university-level students whose native language is not English. By keeping the ultimate focus on meaning, rather than on strict grammatical correctness or "dictionary meaning," it is hoped that students will become better able to develop awareness of how meaning is conveyed, not only in…

Discusses the hypothesis that pupils who read and understand a first language text (in this case, Romanian) fairly well, will be able to improve their reading and understanding of a second language (German) text after having learned and exercised certain reading strategies in both languages. (SED)

An experiment was designed to compare the speed with which normal and disabled readers in two age groups retrieved semantic information from memory. Results indicate that disabled readers need more time to retrieve categorical information from memory than normal readers. (Author/LMO)

Concludes that in virtually all tests involving phonemic processing, poor readers performed significantly worse than did chronological age controls. (FL)

This study examined the validity of using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Thought Problem sub-scale with urban low-income children (N=46) referred to a hospital-based mental health clinic. It was hypothesized that cultural, linguistic, or socio-economic status (SES) factors may influence the manner in which parents understand and respond to…

Describes a language program for first-grade students incorporating the following strands: writing, poetry, reading, group cloze activities, the Scott Foresman Reading Scheme, recreational reading, handwriting, phonics, and language games. (MM)

The ability of two groups of different language proficiency to make appropriate grammatical judgments and correct sentences was analyzed. With increased proficiency, students moved from a general grammatical ability to an ability to identify and correct details. Results are discussed in terms of concepts of implicit/explicit knowledge and…

Evaluates the intelligibility of computer speech (Supertalker, Codec) by having 47 Australian children, ages six-seven, identify speech sounds in isolation, as initial sound in words, and as final sounds in words. Since Codec more closely approximates normal speech, it is recommended for computer-assisted instruction with beginning readers.…

Individual differences in context effects both in a word-level task and in a sentence-level task were found to be related to individual differences in reading continuous text. These results are presented within the framework of a verification model, and the implications for two-process theory are discussed. (Author/PN)

Concludes that children could attend to texts selectively when reading or listening to expository prose, and when reading, but not in listening to narrative prose. (FL)

In a series of four experiments, subjects used scales of loudness, pitch, and brightness to evaluate the meanings of a variety of synesthetic metaphors--expressions in which words or phrases describing experiences proper to one sense modality transfer their meaning to another modality. (Author/PN)

The effects of orthographic regularity and visual familiarity on internal coding and processing of visual stimuli were investigated in four experiments using college student subjects. Consistent effects of orthography on the activation of all codes were found. Familiarity influenced semantic more than phonetic codes. Implications for reading…

The relationship between writing and reading linking prescriptive and contrastive rhetoric, textual discourse analysis, ESP text research, and psycholinguistics and reading is examined. The chief axioms stressed for writers are planning and using discourse devices. How these can be translated into reading strategies is demonstrated. (PMJ)

Reports a study showing that subjects can make discriminative judgments about a speaker's sex and race from his tape-recorded speech. Filtering the speech signal adversely affects race but not sex identification. Listener accuracy and confidence for sex judgments are greater than for race judgments. (PMJ)

Examines the innate faculties that underlie linguistic competence, especially syntactic competence, and proposes a theory of these faculties which accounts for the complexities of language and the evolution of human language. (AM)