Describes an exercise that familiarizes students with the language of German weather reports, so that they will know what kinds of information to listen for. The exercise also helps students expand their vocabulary. The article includes transcriptions of actual German weather reports. (SED)

Reports a study which investigated the use of rational cloze procedure in conjunction with retrospection or introspection assessment techniques to examine how individuals understand text in both first and second languages, especially the use of contextual constraints. (MSE)

Investigated whether structuring textbook reading passages in accordance with a deductive concept presentation strategy affects students' concept attainment. Results showed that good and average readers scored significantly higher in concept attainment with structuring, but that poor readers failed to show improvement. (TRS)

Concludes that vocabulary knowledge can produce effects on reading comprehension, but that the nature of the effects depends on the method used to present the knowledge and the manner used to measure reading comprehension. (FL)

The Corrective Reading Program, a direct instruction approach, resulted in significantly greater improvements than prior years for 78 learning disabled and 41 educable mentally retarded students (grades 6-12). Learning disability subjects demonstrated greater achievement gains in both recognition and comprehension. (CL)

The study examined the effects of training in question generation on comprehension question performance, on quality and form of generated questions, and on accuracy of predicted comprehension. Sixth-grade students trained in question generation outperformed four comparison groups on several comprehension and metacomprehension measures. (Author/LMO)

Reports on a study using teaching strategies for content reading material that focus on the difference between literal and inferential questions. Results indicated that the strategy helped to improve students' responses to questions. (SRT)

Outlines the steps a college composition instructor can take to help students connect the idea relationships in a reading selection or in a writing assignment. The steps are based on a conceptual strategy known as semantic mapping or semantic networking. (SRT)

To evaluate the effects of conversational noise on the comprehension/retention of 2000-word text excerpts, two groups were randomly formed. Group I (n=20) studied under noise conditions and Group 2 (n=24) studied under nonnoise conditions. Overall ANCOVAs indicated no significant differences between groups but identifiable subgroups showed…

Presents the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' provisional generic descriptions for nine levels (novice-low, novice-mid, novice-high, advanced, advanced plus, and superior) in the following areas: (1) speaking, (2) listening, (3) reading, (4) writing, and for six levels in culture. (SED)

Secondary students who regularly discussed controversial issues using a value analysis approach showed gains on the measures of political confidence, political interest, and social integration, but not on political trust. The value analysis discussions did not affect students' reading comprehension. (Author/RM)

Presents three ideas for teaching content area writing, noting that such writing is most productive when assignments are based on real subject area topics and authentic styles. (HOD)

A study investigated the singular and combined effectiveness of phrasing and repeated readings (practice) on the recall of idea units and narrative categories of fifth grade good and poor readers, concluding that practice rather than phrasing proved to have the most facilitating effect on poor readers' recall of idea units but not narrative…

Examines why analytical thinking should be a major focus of teaching in the reading and writing classroom. (HOD)

Using a framework to review the research, this article evaluates the effectiveness of adjunct questions and objectives in a prose learning setting. The framework proved useful in identifying processes responsible for the effects of the two adjunct aids, in explaining unusual and/or discrepant results, and generating recommendations for future…