Describes a study of the effect of incongruent prior knowledge on fifth- and sixth-graders' text comprehension, indicating that text structures that explicitly contrasted the reader's misconception with the correct information were more effective than those that simply gave correct information. (HTH)

A study of 45 hearing-impaired students (ages 10 to 19) investigated their understanding of English verb-particle combinations of varying syntactic and semantic difficulty. Results suggest an order of difficulty in learning. Idioms were found to be more difficult than literal meanings with little improvement over the age range of the subjects.…

A study of 72 adult beginning readers and 96 children with reading ages between seven years and seven years, 11 months compared the reading strategies used by each group. Results indicate general strategies used by adult beginning readers were similar to those used by children. (Author/CH)

The article contains a review of reading comprehension research since 1980, based on an interactive model of reading, with a focus on reading disabilities/learning disabilities. Included are studies which have investigated the influence of readers' prior knowledge of a topic, the influences of text structure and task demands, and metacognitive…

Describes three instructional guides designed to raise students' thinking about short stories beyond factual recall to interpretation, application, synthesis, and evaluation of material, and to foster positive affective responses as concomitant reading behaviors. (RS)

Examines differences in eighth graders' vocabulary learning from two history text passages with two versions of contextual information. Finds that the "considerate" text characteristics of proximity, connectivity, explicitness, and completeness were important in increasing comprehension. (MM)

Chinese engineering students (n=29) scored significantly higher than Chinese English-as-a-second-language students (n=29) on an engineering-English reading test, although 62 percent of the variation in scores was accounted for by general English language proficiency rather than by components specific to engineering English. (Author/CB)

Describes the Group Comprehension Matrix and the Individual Comprehension Matrix, assessment instruments that teachers can use to help them make student placement decisions. (FL)

Identifying the main points of a communication is fundamental to successful reading comprehension. Discussed are difficulties in defining main idea, text structure variables in determining important information, textual hierarchy and the theory of macrostructure, text features signalling important information, summary writing, learning-disabled…

This article reviews 34 studies in reading research. It identifies trends related to ambiguous findings about the effect of sentence-combining training on measures of reading comprehension. The effects of grade level and four other variables are described. The use of cloze procedures and standardized tests as measures is discussed. (Author/JL)

Identifies the miscues adult Chinese learners of English typically make in their reading, the positive and negative impact of first language influence on their foreign language reading, and the role language development plays in reading comprehension. (RS)

Discusses why listening is important in school communication. Provides an overview of common barriers to effective listening and a synthesis of what can be done to improve listening skills. (SRT)

Recommends teaching both mental imagery (an unobtrusive, natural text processing strategy) and summarizing (an efficient text reorganization strategy) to students who do not spontaneously use them. (NKA)

A cognitive-developmental view of reading was tested with 100 four-year-olds by examining the relationship between conceptual reading (multiple seriation and perceptual regulations), oral language (vocabulary and grammatic production), and reading (word recognition and comprehension). Findings suggest that language-learning explanations of reading…

The article discusses three features of content area textbooks that make them relatively easy to read, understand, and learn from--structure, coherence, and audience appropriateness. For each feature, the article describes the research basis for the feature, outlines problems with existing textbooks, and presents suggestions for evaluating…