Items in the verbal (Hebrew and English) sections of the Psychometric Entrance Test (PET) administered for university admission in Israel were studied for differential item functioning (DIF) between the sexes. Analyses were conducted for 4,354 males and 4,901 females taking Form 3 of the PET in April 1984, and 3,786 males and 3,815 females taking…

The annotated bibliography, developed as a part of a course in methodology for teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), focuses on classroom techniques for developing reading comprehension. References appear under the following five headings: (1) background information on theory; (2) interaction; (3) current research findings; (4) vocabulary…

Originally developed for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on reading in the content areas is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture giving an overview on the topic; the full text of…

Thirty grade 4 subjects were individually tested on a digit span test of working memory capacity (Case and Kurland) and the Reading Span Test (Daneman and Carpenter). The Reading Span Test was administered using sentences at a grade 2, grade 4, and grade 6 reading level. It was predicted that, as the decoding demands of the stimulus sentences in…

The passage comprehensibility of three diagnostic reading tests--the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, the Spache Diagnostic Reading Scales, and the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty--was evaluated using the following text variables: content familiarity, vocabulary, the number of idea units in the text, the number of text-based inferences…

Two studies examined the relationship between word knowledge and reading comprehension. Subjects were college undergraduates with high and low verbal abilities as indicated by a standardized verbal aptitude test. The first study involved a multiple choice vocabulary test from which words that both groups defined correctly were selected. The…

Two studies compared strategies used to improve listening skills in business communication settings. The first study analyzed the effect of discussion length and incentive level on the ability of 347 business communication students placed in differing discussion and incentive groups to identify main points in 22 short, recorded dialogs. Results…

Native speakers, when listening to lectures, sift through the information to choose what to listen to, make hypotheses about future discourse, synthesize preceding discourse, and add their own background knowledge. Nonnative speakers, in their native languages, follow the same procedures. When dealing with a foreign language, however, they are not…

A developmental study investigated the pictorial and linguistic main idea identification skills of 104 students in second, fifth, and eighth grades. In the pictorial task, the subjects studied a complete picture story and ranked the effectiveness of four separate main idea alternatives at capturing the meaning of the story. Following the same…

The intended significance of text conventions must be understood if reasonably convergent text interpretation is to occur. If students can learn to recognize structural cues or signals, then they can group words into units with particular inner relationships. Expository text comprehension consists of integrating at least three structures: the…

Test wiseness programs and computer assisted study skills instruction (CASSI) were found to be valuable resources for college reading and study skills instructors and students at St. Cloud State University (Minnesota). Two booklets on test wiseness cues were reorganized and used as computer programs to allow the information to be presented outside…

Graphs are increasingly being used in written communication and writers expect readers to understand them. One definition of graphs--information transmitted by position of point, line or area on a two dimensional surface--excludes displays composed chiefly of numbers or words such as tables or outlines. However, it does include time lines, flow…

Designed to assess how people read and comprehend information presented in picture-text amalgams in procedural texts, this instrument presents various combinations of text information and illustrative information on slides. Subjects are assigned to one of four conditions and directed to follow the instructions presented on the slides. Videotapes…

Learning strategies can be defined as behaviors and thoughts in which a learner engages and which are intended to influence the learner's encoding process. Thus, the goal of any particular learning strategy may be to affect the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge. Good teaching includes teaching…

Major collections of research contributions on the fundamental nature of children's television viewing have been compiled in this book. Each chapter presents the assumptions, methodologies, theories, and major research findings of a particular research program or tradition. Chapters 1 through 4 are directed toward the examination of children's…