This appraisal of the readability of materials used by Adult Basic Education (ABE) teachers determines readability by using the Dale-Chall Readability Formula, the Fry Readability Graph, and the Gunning Fog Readability Formula. An introductory chapter states the problem, defines terms, and presents the importance, hypotheses, design, limitations,…

The problem of this study was concerned with instruction in reading rate acceleration and the effects upon comprehension. Correlates of reading achievement, sex, IQ, age, and interest were also considered. A six-week reading rate training program was completed by the three experimental classes randomly selected in each of grades two, four, and six…

The purpose of this research was to perform computer analysis and modification of complex musical tones and to develop models of perceptual and learning processes in music. Analysis of the physical attributes of sound (frequency, intensity, and harmonic content, versus time) provided necessary information about the musical parameters of…

A skills development course for secondary grades is outlined which is designed to improve skills in reading for understanding via the identification of main and subordinate ideas, reading and listening for directions and purposes, and reading and listening for information. It is aimed to assist both students with satisfactory performance and…

This review of psychometric research in reading analyzes the factors which seem related to reading comprehension skills. Experimental analysis of reading comprehension by L. E. Thorndike revealed two major components: knowledge of word meanings and verbal reasoning abilities. Subsequent analysis of experimental studies of reading comprehension…

Starting with the second semester of the 1971-72 school year, the Phoenix Union High School System accepted a performance contract with Educators Service Incorporated of Edina, Minnesota. The contract enabled the district to implement a one-semester program, which was a multimedia course consisting of 36 thirty-minute videotaped sessions which…

Two experiments concerned with memory and comprehension of prose passages were conducted with children from second through seventh grade. In both experiments the major variable was the provision of appropriate frameworks for comprehending ambiguous sections of the passages. In the initial experiment, recognition of theme-congruent and…

Thirty fifth-grade children participated in a study of regressions in oral reading of narrative and expository material. A cloze test, a retelling task, and a comprehending task were administered to each student. Analysis of regressions in reading indicated nine categories of cause of regression: correction, anticipatory problems, intonation…

This paper discusses two methods used for investigating how students can acquire greater skill in reading for learning. The first study, carried out at Loughborough College of Education, involved students in a pre-packaged sequence of learning experiences. The content of the packages or modules and the sequence in which they were offered embodied…

Fifty-six third graders were randomly assigned to two treatment groups, in a study of the relationship between clause structure and the readability of written texts. The treatment groups read sets of passages which were identical except for certain word-order modifications. The dependent variables were silent- and oral-reading comprehension, rate…

These conference papers discuss the history of reading and readability research in the Navy, contemporary literacy research in the Navy, and research dealing with the readability and comprehensibility of written materials used in training or on the job. The first paper traces the interest in and development of literacy training in the Navy from…

This booklet is a revision of an earlier annotated bibliography, "Speed Reading," compiled by Allen Berger in 1967 and revised in 1970. The 82 entries are arranged alphabetically by author in the following ten categories: tachistoscope and controlled pacing, paperback scanning, flexible rates of comprehension, retention of gains, perception,…

Writing samples representing argumentation, exposition, narration, and description were gathered from 51 fifth-grade pupils. Significant differences were found among the four modes of writing and among high-, medium-, and low-ability groups for T-unit length, clauses per T-unit, and clause length. Argumentation produced the most complex writing,…

This paper reports on a study of the acquisition of subject and object relative clauses by monolingual French speaking children aged 4-10 years, in Rimouski, Quebec. The children were tested for their comprehension of six types of relative sentences. A coordinate sentence control test was administered. An adult control group was also tested on the…

The six levels of understanding used to compare the skills of achieving and nonachieving readers investigated in this study were taken from the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. It was hypothesized that there is a significant difference, favoring achieving readers, between mean total scores of achieving and…