Describes the activities in a first grade classroom in a small rural school district where reading instruction mirrors the kinds of reading done in the real world. (FL)

A model of early literacy acquisition focused on development in word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, and writing and on the interrelation of growth in each of these skills. Results of longitudinal data suggest that without phonemic awareness, exposure to print does little to foster spelling-sound knowledge. (Author/LMO)

The role of syntactic/semantic structure in the motor programing of speech by five-year-olds, eight-year-olds, and adults was investigated. Repetition durations were found to be shorter for simple than for complex sentences at all ages. However, linguistic complexity affected durational variability only for adults. (Author/SED)

Describes a study which investigated the effect of training in nonverbal and verbal cue identification on notetaking and listening comprehension by 100 Chinese graduate students. The paper also provides a model for future materials development, teaching methodology, testing, and research in this area. (Author/SED)

Reports on data collected in nine age ranges from 18 months to 71 months that examined children's ability to understand emotion-descriptive adjectives when used by adults and their own use of these words in productive vocabulary. (HOD)

Studies in self-questioning designed to improve students' prose processing are reviewed in the context of three theoretical perspectives: active processing perspective, metacognitive theory, and schema theory. The effects of self-questioning training on students' prose processing seem successful. Constraints of content knowledge and metacognitive…

This study explores the relationship between Black English skills acquired outside school and figurative language comprehension in standard English. Path analysis confirmed the direct influence of "sounding" skill (a Black language ability) on figurative language, comprehension for Black youth. Only general verbal ability affected White…

Describes the results of a remedial program provided to an adult subject who had incurred aphasia and alexia as a result of a series of strokes. (FL)

Suggests that the activity of retelling a story in a second language reveals a student's knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and sense of story. Describes a story-telling activity with students in Spanish, levels three-five, and notes a strong relationship between language proficiency and years of study. (SED)

Concludes that teaching fourth- and fifth-grade children to ask themselves questions about key points in a story significantly improved their performance on tests about story content. (FL)

Describes a procedure termed free associational assessment that uses free recall and associational thinking. A sample lesson is provided. (HOD)

Elucidates the reading problems of nonnative English speakers, noting reasons for the problems, giving signs of the problems, and demonstrating results of the problems. (HOD)

Describes cultural bias at four levels: lexico-syntactic, content and concepts, social and cognitive, and schematic or frame of reference. A study is described which provides examples of cultural bias in reading comprehension items because of a mismatch between the culture of the test item and that of the test taker.

Using sixth-grade students, a study examines (1) relationships between background knowledge and passage comprehension, (2) relative usefulness of certain variations in measuring available knowledge, (3) value of a background measure as applied to a teacher-directed small group prereading language and concept organizer activity, and (4) effect of a…

Points out, by citing a recently completed longitudinal study at the University of Iowa, that children are more likely to discover how reading works and make it work for them if the book is not too hard. (EL)