In order to gain a better understanding of metaphor comprehension in different cultural contexts, this study compared the performances of two groups of children from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds but with common schooling experiences on two tests of metaphor: the Metaphor Triads Task (MTT) and the Proverbs Test. The Ravens Colored…

Preliminary results of a comparison of the language modifications made by teachers when telling stories to native English speakers and non-native speakers of English at various proficiency levels suggest that teachers need to do more than make the routine modifications in linguistic input to lower-level learners. Teachers need to: (1) act on the…

This study investigated the diagnostic effectiveness of the Language Assessment Tasks (LAT) in differentiating language disordered students from nonhandicapped students. LAT was administered individually to two groups of subjects (experimental and control) matched for sex, race, and birthdate (ages 9-14 years). The performances of each group of…

This study investigated the development of students' abilities to integrate information in stories as an aspect of reading comprehension. Students aged 8, 11, 14, and 18 judged the importance of key statements, which varied in their causal relations within an episode, between episodes, and in a higher-order structure, yielding three levels of…

Two studies of integrated language instruction for students of English as a second language (ESL) are reported. The first had two objectives: to (1) investigate the effects of writing activities on the comprehension and retention of content area reading and (2) examine the relationship between the students' ability to select the main idea and…

Reading comprehension can be more effectively taught using new instructional frameworks--such as explicit comprehension instruction--rather than the basal reading model. Traditionally, comprehension has been taught through a process of mentioning the skill that students should apply, practicing the skill in workbooks, and assessing student…

One of a series of Parallel Alternative Strategies for Students (PASS) packages developed to provide Florida teachers with modified approaches for presenting content courses to mainstreamed exceptional students, this guide was designed as a supplementary text and workbook for a high school English course. The guide is divided into seven units of…

Because Australia does not include listening instruction in its higher education curriculum does not mean that Australians deny its significance as an important communication skill. Rather, the assumption is that the best place to teach listening is in the elementary schools, a contention that few educators would reject. Four specific…

In spring 1988, a study was conducted at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus (Ohio) to measure the reading comprehension level of a sample of 1988 students and to compare their reading test scores with the scores of students who had taken the same test in 1979 and 1980; to determine if there were a correlation between the number of items a…

Television's impact on children and the positive role of parents in moderating that impact is discussed in terms of: (1) the view that television has a largely negative impact on children; (2) the importance of television literacy; (3) ways in which parents are molding television's impact to their purposes; (4) variation in television's impact…

Students in a college introductory statistics class were evaluated with conceptual and computational tests and the relationship between their levels of knowledge on the two forms of testing was assessed. There were significant correlations between their abilities to perform computations and to answer more conceptual questions on individual tests…

A study was conducted in Cuyahoga Community College's (Ohio) Principles of Economics classes to determine: (1) whether microcomputer-assisted instruction using tutorial/drill programs would significantly increase students' learning of economic concepts as measured by pre- and post-tests; (2) the relationship between demographic variables and pre-…

A 3-phase project to adapt, develop, and evaluate computer-aided instructional materials in elementary education basics (specifically word recognition, reading comprehension, and mathematics) for Alaska Native and American Indian students included in its design and planning phase a conference with project staff and six nationally recognized…

All first, second, and third grade teachers in one rural southwestern school district were observed to find out (1) what they were doing while their reading groups read stories, (2) whether they changed their teaching strategies when they changed reading groups, and (3) whether their strategies during story reading changed from grade to grade.…

A study investigated whether reading comprehension would improve if children were made aware of story grammar and were asked schema-related questions. Subjects were 33 fifth grade students, half scoring on or above grade level and half scoring below grade level on the reading section of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests. During 11 sessions, 45…