A practicum addressed the significant difference between the reading comprehension levels of gifted students and their ability to demonstrate achieved levels on exams designed to measure these levels. Nineteen fifth-grade students participated in daily timed activities targeting reading comprehension, reading rate, attitudes towards test taking,…

An action research project studied the attitudes and achievement of low-achieving fifth-grade students after participating in a 1-year heterogeneously grouped, literature-based reading program. The project explored the changes in student attitudes towards reading, and changes in students' knowledge in comprehension and vocabulary development.…

The study summarized (in both English and French) in this report, is an evaluation of the listening comprehension and speech skills of ninth grade students in Manitoba's (Canada) French immersion programs. It is intended for parents and teachers in Manitoba involved in the French immersion program. The report consists of an overview of the study,…

The study summarized (in both English and French) in this report, is an evaluation of the listening comprehension and speech skills of sixth grade students in Manitoba's (Canada) French immersion programs. It is intended for parents and teachers in the province involved in the French immersion program. The report consists of an overview of the…

Although each of the 11 programs evaluated in this report during the 1989-90 school year had its own unique design and objectives, their common goal was to increase the likelihood that at-risk students in Cleveland (Ohio) schools would complete their high school education. Programs were evaluated in terms of changes from the previous year in the…

Computer courseware appropriate for instruction in grades K-12 is listed in this document. Entries are classified by subject or application: (1) communication skills, which include instruction in reading, writing, and research sources; (2) mathematics; (3) college selection services; (4) problem solving; and (5) social studies. Information on each…

This technical report describes a series of three studies designed to instruct students in the relationship between texts, comprehension questions, and two sources of answer information--the text to which a given question refers and their own background knowledge. The focus of the technical report is on individual differences in the amount and…

To determine how procedural instructions comprised of text and pictures are comprehended and executed, a research review focused on (1) differences in comprehension and performance attributable to variations in the information's organization, (2) the format of the information, (3) the metacognitive strategies employed by the readers, and (4) the…

To determine whether aural enhancements, or actualities, increase either audience recall of, or interest in, radio newscasts, two versions of the same newscast were presented to different groups of university students. One group heard the control report while the other listened to an experimental report supplemented with actualities. A…

A study examined the differences in the appreciation of language ambiguity as represented in the word play of children aged 6 through 11 years. In six weekly play sessions, students were read stories containing many lexical ambiguities and pictures and were invited to verbalize and to draw similar ambiguities. Criteria necessary to the…

The assumption that phonological processes support comprehension guided two experiments in manipulating the similarity of the consonant code both within silently read sentences and between these sentences and concurrently vocalized phrases. The first experiment examined whether tongue-twisters would take longer to read than phonetically…

To teach listening as a discreet skill, teachers need a suitable definition of the word "skill." The author suggests defining a skill as a complex of techniques and behaviors from which performers select, depending upon the situation, to fullfill their purposes. The curricular design should be based on four components: (1) establishing attention,…

A two-year study is reported of the transfer of two literacy skills, narrative comprehension and learning from text, from elementary school children's first language (Spanish) to their second (English). For each skill, the primary research question was the degree to which the students' first language (L1) performance was predictive of their second…

The background, research, development, and recommended use of a set of instructional materials for teaching listening comprehension to adult learners of English as a second language are outlined in detail. The materials were developed in response to a need for real-life language samples for use in teaching listening comprehension of English. A…

This report describes research that focused on the comprehension and composition of simple texts. The first section reviews the overall goals and theoretical perspectives of the project. The second section describes the following studies carried out during the project: analysis and extension of prior thinking-out-loud (TOL) data, TOL and reading…