Cognitive and affective responses to one authentic and three edited texts were examined with four levels of university-level learners of Spanish. Results indicated that all students comprehended significantly more from the authentic passage than from the edited ones and also responded more favorably to the authentic passages. (Contains 47…

A model is offered for building the vocabulary skills of students with deafness or hearing impairments. The model is based on Piaget's theoretical concepts of assimilation and accommodation. The model presents six sequenced steps for learning new vocabulary and suggests using the Language Experience approach, environmental print, predictable…

The vocabulary, sentence structure, and organization of a pharmacy education handout were lowered, main ideas were highlighted, and special introductions were written. There was no statistically significant difference in reading comprehension scores between subjects receiving the modified pamphlet and subjects receiving the standard version. (21…

Suggestions are offered for teaching young children with hearing impairments to read and write. The strategies emphasize the importance of making the sign-to-print relationship explicit, helping children understand that there is not always perfect sign-to-word correlation, increasing students' metalinguistic knowledge, and building comprehension.…

Investigates how graphic organizers function in the cognitive processes. Finds that graphic organizers do not significantly improve college students' retention ability. Finds that instruction and training in organizer use as a strategy for organizing and encoding information from texts merits consideration as supported by scores on the retention…

Preliminary criteria are presented to consider in the writing of English for academic purposes (EAP) reading comprehension tests. The criteria pertain to the test as a whole as well as to the form of individual questions. A checklist is appended. (42 references) (Author/LB)

Finds that fifth grade remedial reading students' comprehension skill, as measured by standardized and criterion-referenced tests, are enhanced through a reading program that utilizes the strategy of creative drama integrated with children's literature reading material. (SR)

Finds that low ability and average ability students benefit more from reading plays than reading stories. Finds that the performance of low ability readers equalled high ability readers when both participated in group oral readings of plays. (RS)

Estimated impacts of on- and off-campus work on first-year student (n=210) cognitive outcomes. With controls made for precollege cognitive level and other relevant influences, amount of on- and off-campus work had little negative impact on first-year students' reading comprehension, mathematics achievement, or critical thinking. (Author/NB)

Examines the development of the schema, or cognitive structure, theory of reading comprehension. Advances a model for improving listening comprehension within the classroom through a teacher-facilitated approach which leads students to selecting and utilizing existing schema within a whole-language environment. (MDM)

Examined whether activating conditional knowledge about appropriate strategies for studying a text would enhance self-efficacy and comprehension monitoring in college students. Found that subjects in the activation condition outperformed those in the control condition on reading comprehension monitoring and on comprehension performance but not on…

Investigates effects of text coherence and active engagement on students' comprehension of textbook information. Finds a continuum of increased performance from original silent text, to original text with thinking aloud, to revised text read silently, and finally revised text with thinking aloud. (SR)

Assessment of 15 students with learning disabilities (ages 9-13) found that their ability to answer comprehension and synthesis questions was poorer than that of their peers, but their ability to answer knowledge, analysis, and application questions was commensurate with age peers. Findings suggest that individual assessment of levels of…

This study examined the interaction of 3 schemata on overall reading comprehension in 95 first-year English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) college students: language skills, content knowledge, and rhetorical structure. The results indicated that content schemata best predicted EFL test comprehension, although all three schemata contributed in some…

Investigates the reading comprehension skills of 34 college students, particularly the roles of basic reading processes and prior knowledge in understanding expository texts. Indicates that word identification and propositional encoding measures were related to individual differences in reading comprehension ability. (HB)