This elementary-intermediate level reader deals with the geography, civilization, and personalities of 28 countries in the Francophone world. It is intended primarily for Foreign Service students who are preparing for assignments in areas other than metropolitan France where French is one of the official languages. The five sections of the book…

A study was designed to determine if students' insights about the strategies they used to study and understand an expository passage were similar to basic types of comprehension skills developed in many reading programs. In addition, it examined (1) whether good and poor readers differed in the types of strategies they used, and (2) whether…

Three studies examined the nature of individual differences and the role of advance information in reading comprehension. The subjects, 116 college students, read short passages--in some cases preceded by a given type of advance organizer--recalled the information therein, and finally sorted ideas from the passage into groups of similar ideas.…

A study tested the effects of using a graphic advance organizer before, during, and after reading on the comprehension of written text. Subjects were 197 sixth-grade students who were assigned to a graphic advance organizer group or a reading-only control group and who were also designated as below-level, at-level, and above-level readers. The…

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the assumption of equivalent evaluative skills in good and poor readers. The first goal was to test whether in fact good and poor readers were equivalent in their evaluative skills when not constrained by the reading process. The second intent was to provide a reading condition in which good…

This monograph is the fourth in a series of semiannual reports of research related to reading in secondary schools. The five papers in the monograph are concerned with the pedagogical and research implications of reading comprehension. Specific topics dealt with include (1) a phenomenological perspective on the reading process, (2) the role of…

The Fry Graph for Estimating Readability (Extended) and George Magginnis' formula for passages shorter than 100 words were used in an investigation of the reading levels of 18 mathematics textbooks produced for grades one through six by three major publishers. The results indicated that the readability levels of the textbooks were inaccurate. Few…

Of 21 studies on the effect that question placement had on reading comprehension, ten favored and eleven opposed the use of prequestions. A review of these studies suggests that the issue is not whether prequestions or postquestions produce greater gains in reading comprehension. What remains to be examined is the change in reading comprehension…

In this analysis of prior knowledge and bilingual literacy, it is suggested that the basis upon which cognitive decisions are made and nonvisual inferences are drawn comes from the background knowledge that the reader possesses as tacit or prior knowledge. It is claimed that the only model that can account for the pluralistic nature of language is…

Results of a study to analyze factors affecting critical reading are reported. The factors are readability of textual material, pupil intelligence, and motivation. Passages from U.S. history textbooks, a critical reading and literal comprehension test, and a standard measure of student motivation were administered to 207 senior high school…

Each of 31 sixth grade students read and recalled two texts with different content and structure in a study of structural factors contributing to recall. The subjects' immediate and delayed (one week) recalls were categorized into propositional text bases for a comparative anlaysis of the effects of different text's recall proportions, recall…

Two experiments were conducted to examine children's understanding (metacognitive awareness) of the parts to a simple story. The following parts were considered essential for comprehending a story: what precipitates the character's action (initiating event), what the character did (action), and what followed the character's action (consequence).…

This paper examines the relationship between beginning reading and cognitive development and reviews some of the research conducted so far. It is noted that children learning to read may be in various stages of cognitive development, some at a preoperation stage, some at a concrete operation stage, and some at a transition stage. Instructional…

A study was undertaken to measure the effect on reading comprehension of forcing attention to different levels of analysis. The assumption was that since texts can be analyzed at a variety of levels, comprehension requires a basic strategic coordination of processing activities. Forty second grade, fifth grade, and college students read and…

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY DEVELOPED A CRITICAL READING TEST AS PART OF THE 3-YEAR USOE PROJECT 2612 CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE WHETHER CRITICAL READING COULD BE TAUGHT TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN. THE TEST AIMS TO MEASURE THE ANALYTIC AND EVALUATIVE ABILITIES OF CHILDREN IN REACTING CRITICALLY TO MATERIALS READ. CRITICAL READING SKILLS WERE…