Identifies five criteria for the selection of picture books, and discusses their potential benefits for children's reading attitudes and skills. The benefits discussed include offering a store of experiences, learning the possibilities of language, gaining an understanding of cultural heritages, developing imagination, and learning about…

Principles that should guide reading comprehension assessment include acknowledging the complexity of reading, focusing on orchestrating rather than isolating skills, regarding reading as a dynamic process, developing techniques that encourage student-teacher interactions, and using a variety of reading comprehension measures. The principles are…

Two studies involving 215 subjects tested the hypothesis that orthographic coding bypasses phonological coding after the early stages of reading or spelling. It was found that nondyslexics continue to develop phonological coding skill until adulthood and rely on it for reading and spelling to a significantly greater extent than do dyslexics.…

The relationship between reading comprehension and the number and complexity of idea units in a text was examined. The results showed that readers using text-entailed recall strategies gained the most insight into the meaning of text and that recall ability is an important encoding strategy for gaining meaning. (JAZ)

Analysis of reading comprehension and recall of text by college students studying Spanish indicated that three components of background knowledge--context, transparency, and familiarity--affected the way learners read, comprehend, and recall passages. Interaction between these components and the reader is extremely complex. (CB)

Describes two experiments that examined word recognition processes of second, fourth, and sixth graders. Shows that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (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)

Outlines three beliefs of theoretical orientations about teaching reading: the teacher's, the child's, and the material's. Shows how these beliefs develop and interrelate. (EL)

Explains how the SQ3R methods of reading textbooks was used to teach the writing of a research paper and tells of eighth grade remedial readers creating their own trivia game. (HOD)

Examines the evidence for and against three major approaches to the teaching of specific reading disabled children: the process approaches, the specialist methods, and the modality/treatment interaction methods. Concludes that all differ in terms of their assumptions and consequent remediation, and all have a number of associated difficulties.…

Compared comprehension of kindergarten-age precocious readers (who read at the third-grade level) with second- and third-grade-age children. Results on measures of letter, scrambled word, and text reading times indicated that, for precocious readers, efficiency in lower-order tasks is not a prerequisite for rapid text reading and good…

Analyzes the research on how readers use text patterns to understand writing and identifies five text patterns found in both school texts and work texts. (HOD)

Reports on the reading processes of seven research physicists using data gathered from a series of interviews and observations. Reveals reading processes permeated with individual purposes and schema. (FL)

Reports study on speed of response to printed letters, syllables, words, and word sequences in 150 children from kindergarten through grade 11. Tasks included visual matching to a visual sample, visual matching to an auditory sample, oral reading, and visual scanning tasks. (Author/SB)

Psycholinguists feel that the reading process and reading instruction should be reviewed in light of language and learning theories. (JH)