Discusses research concerning the four reciprocal teaching (RT) strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing as they relate to fifth-grade teachers who had exposure to constructivist thinking conducted as part of the normal school day. Finds that when teachers consistently and clearly modeled all four RT strategies, students…

A study examined whether text structures were included in the "oral" videotaped retellings of a second grader with deafness across 28 texts. Improvements in the child's ability to include specific elements of text structures were documented over nine months. A 12-month increase in reading ability and narrative ability was also documented.…

Describes a year-long teacher action-research study involving fifth graders that used trade books to teach students various reading-comprehension strategies. Finds that students retained and transferred strategy learning to other texts and contexts; valued reading more and reported reading more; and demonstrated enhanced appreciation for books and…

Examines unknown word inference strategies in Japanese high school students' English-as-a-Foreign-Language reading.(Author/VWL)

Examines Israeli Arab students' attitudes and cultural backgrounds in relation to their reading comprehension of Jewish and Arab stories. States Arab students' motivation toward learning Hebrew as a second language is instrumental. Finds students comprehend texts from their own culture (Arab) better than those from the unfamiliar culture…

Studies effects of an instructional program for deriving word meanings from context and through morphological analysis for primary school students with poor-to-average reading comprehension. Shows that it has a significant effect on the ability of students to derive word meanings, but found little evidence of transfer to general reading…

Investigated effects of multimedia reading software on reading comprehension. Twelve college students enrolled in a second semester French course were instructed to think aloud during reading of text on the computer screen. They read text under one of three conditions: full glossing, limited glossing, no glossing. Suggests computerized reading…

Describes what constituted literary understanding for one classroom interpretive community of first and second graders by analyzing their oral responses as picture storybooks were read aloud to them. Suggests that the impressive literary critical abilities of children as young as first and second grade are appropriately understood through a wide…

Presents a longitudinal study that examines the relationship between morphological analysis, phonological analysis, and learning to read French. Finds very strong links between morphological and phonological analyses and between morphological analysis and reading. Contributes to the evidence of a link between both phonological and morphological…

Examined whether readers in a third-semester Spanish course--reading the second language on a computer screen--accessed glossed vocabulary more frequently when the glosses were written in their first language or their second language. (Author/VWL)

Explores the nature of reading for meaning as it affects the reading abilities of secondary-age bilingual pupils. Discusses cultural schemata theories which seek to account for the influence of culture on the reading process; links these to a school-based study. Illustrates the importance of cultural determinants on the understanding of text and…

Describes how a reading specialist used metacognition as the basis of her teaching of middle school remedial readers. Describes various ways she worked with embedded questions to get students thinking while they were reading. Describes final student projects on short stories that demonstrate that embedded questions combined with lots of classroom…

A first-grade teacher explains how she uses the whole-part-whole reading model with 15 youngsters. Rereading allows students to practice recently learned skills and strategies, while developing fluency and comprehension. Other exercises include reading aloud in pairs, deciphering the daily schedule, discussions of syllable and sound similarities,…

This study investigated the attitudes of 11 advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) university students to an innovative course on grammar based on theories of consciousness-raising and a comprehension approach to grammar teaching. Results indicate students are willing to accept innovations if they perceive the changes as valuable and…

Presents phonic activities based on brand names for teaching primary students basic reading. The first uses familiar brand-name products with rhyming elements in their names. The second has teachers write longer words that rhyme with and have similar spelling patterns to product names. Both activities help students use patterns in familiar words…