Reviews research on the relationship between children's television viewing and their school achievement and describes learning activities related to television that are designed to teach vocabulary, grammar, and reading comprehension; promote independent reading; and encourage students to become more critical viewers. (Author/EM)

Studies the development of word-retrieval speed and its relationship to reading in 72 average and 11 severely impaired readers in kindergarten through the second grade. (HOD)

The performance of native and nonnative Hindi-Urdu speaking children (N=131) and adults (N=30) in the comprehension of the Hindi-Urdu correlative constructions was analyzed. Results indicated that Hindi-Urdu correlative constructs are acquired relatively late by both native and nonnative speakers, suggesting that language universals are available…

Discusses the problems that children who do not speak the language of their school experience, as well as the personal, social, and cultural characteristics of learners that affect their progress in a second language. (DF)

Describes liaison interpreting, a technique whereby students use bilingual dialogs to become aware of important differences (lexical, phonological, syntactical) between their mother tongue and the foreign language. They practice selecting a passage and encoding it for transmission. Examples of Italian-English dialogs and guidelines for use of…

Research on the schema theory of comprehension and cultural schemata, on background cultural knowledge, is reviewed and related to reading comprehension theory and practice. In line with the research findings, several activities for pre-reading, reading, and post-reading are described, with suggestions for teacher preparation and classroom use.…

Describes a study which measures the threshold of second language reading competence and explains its nature. Results indicate that the threshold is reflected in a 65-70% score on the reading section of the First Certificate of English exam and that the most important element for text interpretation is vocabulary. (SED)

Describes the implementation of a first-year comprehension-based Spanish language program at New Mexico State University. Includes a discussion of the history of the program and of the problems encountered in changing a traditional curriculum. Also describes the materials, classroom practice, and testing and evaluation techniques used in the…

Describes a technique for teaching students of English as a second language to understand English passages through structural and contextual clues. Gives detailed steps of the technique using Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" as the text. (SED)

Reports on two experiments that explore the comprehension difficulties of children with normal word recognition ability. Concludes that skilled readers engage in more constructive processing and that comprehension difficulties are not the result of a defective working memory. (SRT)

Evaluates relevance of existing instructional research on computer-assisted instruction, programed instruction, instructional video, and instructional television to the study of interactive video; describes several assumptions about interactive video use which require validation and study; and proposes a propositional framework to guide the…

Reports on a program for the improvement of reading skills of children whose scores were below the 50th percentile on the reading subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test. Concludes that, in general, the program helped poor readers improve their reading skills. (SRT)

This study investigated the relationship of phonological awareness to learning to read. Australian first-grade children were tested for verbal intelligence, phonemic segmentation ability, and reading achievement. Path analysis revealed phonological awareness affected reading comprehension indirectly through phonological recoding. The development…

Reviews some notions that have influenced the generation of comprehension questions, and describes a study that compared the knowledge sources third-grade students drew upon in answering text questions with the assumptions underlying the question hierarchies represented. (HOD)

Examines the changes made in the Nelson Reading Skills Test, Forms 3 and 4, noting that the authors of the revised test have strengthened the test by requiring students to define words in context and by adding sections related to phonic skills, word parts, and reading rate. (HOD)