Studies the effects of tutorial instruction, utilizing students' interests and trade books, on the attitudes of poor readers. Suggests that the attitudes of poor readers may be positively influenced through such instruction in an integrated language arts approach. (HB)

Investigates whether reading instruction for adult English-as-a-Second-Language students should focus on fostering linguistic ability or on increasing background knowledge. Demonstrates that both linguistic knowledge and prior knowledge contribute significantly to reading comprehension. Argues that an integrative approach to reading instruction is…

Ten Spanish adolescents with profound, prelingual hearing impairments received instruction in organizing their written stories. Instruction emphasized the importance of the narrative structure and the writing process and offered different activities about the narrative text. Some of the students improved the quality of their writing and their…

Explores how auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and symbolic/abstract learning modalities can be applied to interpretive presentations to capture an entire audience. In addition to addressing diverse learning styles, the article discusses presentation outlines, making the concept personal, combining song, music, and drama, and using action rather than…

Use of television as material for French second-language instruction is explored. It is proposed that, over the course of a three-year sequence, students can progress through three stages of listening comprehension skill development: discovery of the medium's unique characteristics; autonomy and mastery in its use; and familiarity. (MSE)

Adolescent students of low socioeconomic status (n=120)--whose reading comprehension was behind that of their peers--were assigned to one of three experimental conditions in a six-week remedial reading program. Significant gains were found on space relations, abstract reading skills, and aspects of skilled reading for those given perceptual…

Describes 12 successful practices for literature programs which evolved as students and teachers talked about books. Finds that these practices minimize the basalization of literature and maximize the analysis of and dialogue about literature. (MG)

Discussion of children's comprehension of television focuses on a study in the United Kingdom that examined whether a successful course of television literacy could be developed for use with students from 5 to 12 years old. Treatments of experimental and control groups are explained, and correlations to other media are examined. (29 references)…

Determines the incidence, distribution, and relationships of various error types when disabled readers responded to inference questions based on narrative and expository selections. Finds greater proportions of errors in three of the seven categories: integration of text and prior information, ability to write intended responses, and recall of…

Analyzes whether comprehensible input via captioned television influences acquisition of science vocabulary and concepts using 129 bilingual seventh and eighth graders. Finds that comprehensible input is a key ingredient in language acquisition and reading development. (MG)

The effect of graphic organizers on 14 learning-disabled students' (grades 5 and 6) recall of science content was compared with that of students taught identical content without the graphic organizer condition. Evaluation two weeks later found no statistically significant differences between the groups on production or choice response tasks. (DB)

Four experiments examined the possibility that second and fourth graders and college students are sensitive to inference constraint when they make causal inferences and assess their understanding of a story. Inference likelihood and understanding ratings varied with constraint for all ages. Results suggest that comprehension monitoring and text…

Reviews current developments in second-language reading research and its implications for the classroom, particularly the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom. It is argued that the last 10 years have yielded insights that challenge previous views of first- and second-language reading and imply future avenues of research. (67 references) (VWL)

Interviews with 13 recent college graduates and written comments of 11 seniors revealed different forms of understanding paralleling different conceptions of learning. Further analysis suggests that types of structure used in a lecture-based course can influence the ease with which students integrate information for comprehension. (Author/MSE)

Conflicting evidence regarding listening comprehension as a separate trait in language proficiency is reviewed. Two studies conducted in Japan are presented that use the multitrait-multimethod methodology to examine the construct validity of the listening trait. (74 references) (Author/LB)