This paper is a commentary on three other papers presented at the 1983 American Educational Research Association Symposium on "The Trainability of Information Processing and Problem Solving Skills." The papers focus on certain aspects of the training of complex skills, such as reading, that can presumably be broken down into a variety of skills.…

Based on the notion that a "play-way" approach to vocabulary development is superior to rigid, formal lessons, this article presents a vocabulary extension exercise that takes the form of a word game with an element of competition. The method, procedure, and content are clearly outlined, followed by an example of a completed game on the…

Noting the positive relationships between reading skills and academic performance, a study investigated the relationship between the reading skills of 172 freshmen in developmental reading courses and the number of college preparatory courses completed in high school. It was hypothesized that there would be a significantly positive relationship…

Designed to help children with auditory perceptual problems from preschool through grade 4, the manual contains stories and exercises to develop listening skills, auditory memory, vocabulary, and imagination. The first section contains instructions to the teacher as well as stories which are at three levels of difficulty and intended to be read to…

Intended for elementary school teachers, researchers, and materials developers, this book presents a cluster approach to vocabulary instruction, in which words are taught in semantically related groups. Over 7,000 words from elementary school textbooks have been organized into 61 instructional clusters, each containing two levels of subclusters…

Based on the best available research, this publication describes the most effective methods of vocabulary instruction for the improvement of reading comprehension. Examples of useful approaches to vocabulary instruction aimed at students past the initial stages of reading are presented for use or adaptation by classroom teachers. The publication's…

Intended to increase reading motivation in students, this book features tales of ghosts and poltergeists. The tales range from the legendary to the contemporary. These accounts of ghost stories in the book provide subject matter for thoughtful interpretation and discussion, while challenging students in four critical reading categories: main idea,…

A study examined how preschool children use information about linguistic contrast in learning new words. The 72 subjects were assigned to four groups to play a game. They were asked to get an unfamiliar item, one of nine swatches of different colors, shapes, and materials. In the first group, the children were told only one label (color, shape, or…

Reading research can answer the question of how to teach vocabulary to increase reading comprehension. Literature reviews show that almost any type of vocabulary instruction can produce significant gains in word knowledge, but that since more than this superficial knowledge is necessary to make a difference in reading comprehension, much…

A study compared the instructional strategies of semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis with a traditional contextual approach for vocabulary acquisition. Subjects, 36 fourth, fifth, and six grade classes, were taught a set of 15 target words in each of the three instructional conditions for each of 3 weeks. Classes were assessed at the…

Instructional materials from the Milwaukee Public School System's elementary school French immersion program are presented. The materials for the Multi-Language School-German/French, are as follows: (1) Summer Reading Booklet, First Grade French Immersion; (2) L'automne: Livret de la premiere annee; (3) L'Halloween: Livret de la premiere annee;…

A study of children's recognitory comprehension, the rudimentary ability to begin decoding the content of language, at the end of the first year had as subjects 36 infants aged 10.5, 11.5, and 12.5 months. In an examination of monthly developmental change in their ability to comprehend newly introduced referential terms, the children were exposed…

The field manual for a series of coordinated studies of the spontaneous acquisition of a second language by adult immigrant workers provides a theoretical and practical framework for the entire project and a source of information about it for other researchers. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the project's objectives and organization. Chapter 3 reviews…

Designed for use in helping parents to become familiar with their children's microcomputer needs, this guide addresses two important questions: whether parents should provide a computer in the home to assist children in their reading development, and which computer they should purchase. The answer to the first question is a simple yes, but the…