By analyzing the prior knowledge of African American students, this study explored the relationship between cultural orientation of literature and reading comprehension to determine its effect on low, mid, and high level readers. Over one hundred 8th grade students from four different public schools read short stories from three different cultural…

Oral language is the foundation on which literacy initially builds. Between early developing oral language skills and fluent reading comprehension emerge several types of metalinguistic ability, including phonological and morphological awareness. In this study, a developmental sequence is proposed, beginning with receptive language followed by…

There is a cause-and-effect relationship between teaching practices and learners' success. A key challenge faced by elementary schools is finding effective ways to help all students develop the skills to be successful students. The use of tutorial instruction is often required for students to experience success in the classroom. The efforts…

The present study investigated the efficacy of early English immersion in the Shi Da Fu Elementary School in Xi'an, China. Three hundred and fifty one students were tested in Grades 1-6. There were two main purposes that motivated this longitudinal and cross-sectional study. The first goal was to compare the L1 and L2 language and literacy…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using flashcards to develop automaticity (rapid word recognition) with key vocabulary words and phrases in order to improve fluency and reading comprehension skills for participants with and without diagnosed learning disabilities enrolled in a high school Spanish course. Eighty-seven…

Rhetorical structure refers to a complex network of relationships and the way the underlying ideas are organized within a text. This study was conducted to see whether explicit instruction of descriptive and causative text organization positively affected L3 reading recall. 240 Turkish students of EFL who had Persian as their second language were…

In this technical report, we provide the results of a series of studies on the technical adequacy of the early reading measures available on the easyCBM[R] assessment system. The results from the two-level hierarchical linear growth model analyses suggest that the reliability of the slope estimates for the easyCBM[R] reading measures are strong,…

This article reports on a study that examined the choice and use of academic reading strategies of adult learners who were identified as proficient and less proficient readers. The major objective was to explore the potential influence of their adult characteristics on their use of their academic reading strategies. Data were gathered using…

Cognitive load theory has been utilized by second language acquisition (SLA) researchers to account for differences in learner performance with regards to different learning tasks. Certain instructional designs were shown to have an impact on cognitive load and working memory, and this impact was found to be accentuated in a multimedia environment…

Little research has been done to investigate the influence of cultural differences on students' second/foreign language learning styles, with a focus on comparing between East and West classroom cultures. This study investigates the differences that East Asian students may encounter when studying in the English-medium academic environment. By…

This report presents results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading at grades 4 and 8. Nationally representative samples of 213,100 fourth-graders and 168,200 eighth-graders participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading. At each grade, students responded to questions…

As new research shows how effective systematic and explicit teaching of language-based skills is for students with learning disabilities--along with the added benefits of multisensory techniques--discover the latest on this popular teaching approach with the third edition of this bestselling textbook. Adopted by colleges and universities across…

The poor performance of middle school students in reading was addressed by examining the effects of an 8-week reading intervention program for middle school students in one school district in the southeastern United States. Two research questions were developed: (a) Is there a significant difference in the level of the students' reading skills,…

Problem: Some students are failing to develop acceptable reading skills; however, instructional time allocated to reading fluency can increase reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to compare students who received repeated reading with pairs of students in a large-group setting with those who did not in terms of reading fluency,…

Researchers, policymakers, and educators face a daunting task these days concerning literacy education for the here and now and literacy for the future. Even though one clings to the romantic notion that education provides the building blocks in a straight line to a meaningful future, the reality is that mixed goals and instructional messages…