This study investigated growth in reading, vocabulary, and memory in children (ages 5 to 10) learning English as a second language identified at risk for reading disabilities (RD). A growth curve analysis showed that RD children were significantly below children not at risk in English and Spanish reading, Spanish short-term memory (STM), Spanish…

Much research has validated procedures to enhance reading fluency in children and adolescents, but more is needed to determine whether such procedures work with adults who have deficits in reading skills. A within-subjects design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of listening while reading (LWR) and repeated readings (RR) on reading…

There is increasingly negative sentiment against IQ-achievement discrepancy as a method to identify children with learning disabilities (LD) and, more broadly, intelligence as an explanation of poor academic performance. The evidence for this latter view was examined by reviewing 13 studies involving 1,542 children who were at risk or reading…

Librarians can help kids expand their view of the world by introducing them to critical literacy. Critical literacy encourages readers to question an author's intentions and to examine issues from multiple perspectives to avoid simplistic statements. It supports a more complex and nuanced understanding of events, recognizing social and political…

The study compares the effectiveness of Focus on Form (FonF) and Focus on FormS (FonFs) approaches in learning new L2 words by 158 high-school learners of English as L2. In phase 1 of the study, the FonF group read a text containing the target words, discussed it in small groups, and answered comprehension questions. The FonFs group studied the…

The validity of TOEIC Bridge™ scores as a measure of English language skill was examined from the standpoint of a unified concept of test validity. In this study, more than 6,000 test takers in 3 Latin American countries (Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador) took 1 form of the TOEIC Bridge test, and their scores were compared to additional information…

This report presents findings from the third and final year of the Reading First Impact Study (RFIS), a congressionally mandated evaluation of the federal government's initiative to help all children read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established Reading First (RF) and mandated its…

Numerous studies have shown that thinking aloud while reading can be an effective instructional technique in helping students improve their reading comprehension. However, most of the studies that examined the effects of think-aloud involve subjects reading individually and carried out in isolation away from the classroom context. Recently,…

This meta-analysis offers decision-makers research-based guidance for intervening with adolescent struggling readers. The authors outline major implications for practice: (1) Adolescence is not too late to intervene. Interventions do benefit older students; (2) Older students with reading difficulties benefit from interventions focused at both the…

Students demonstrated their reading comprehension skills by responding to questions about various types of reading passages on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment. Reading abilities were assessed in the contexts of literary experience, gaining information, and performing a task. A nationally…

Accessible and user-friendly, this volume presents evidence-based practices for integrating language and literacy knowledge to enhance children's learning in today's standards-based classrooms. While grounded in theory and research, the book focuses on day-to-day concerns in instruction and intervention, identifying models for effective…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the nature of reading comprehension processes while reading on the Internet. Eleven sixth-grade students with the highest combination of standardized reading scores, reading report card grades, and Internet reading experiences were selected from a population of 150 sixth graders in three…

A group of seventh- and eighth-grade Italian students with low achievement (LA) in learning English as a foreign language (FL) was selected and compared to a group with high achievement (HA) in FL learning. The two groups were matched for age and nonverbal intelligence. Two experiments were conducted to examine the participants' verbal and…

A central focus in the study of metacognition is that readers need to recognize what they know about a topic, they need to realize when they have read something they do not understand, and they need to know how to remediate any discrepancies in their understanding. This paper is presented in three sections. The first section discusses what is…

Growing populations of older adults, ethnic minorities, and the low-literate create unique concerns for the design of visual information. Those for whom text presents a barrier will respond most to legibility, use of familiar formats and symbols, and simplification. Guidelines for those processes are needed, and this paper, in particular,…