Some of the major research on the effects of meaning, frequency, context, and redundancy on word identification in first language reading comprehension is reviewed. The research indicates that the ability to identify words accurately and automatically has a direct effect on comprehension; at the same time comprehension affects word identification.…

A study was conducted to investigate the compensatory effects of graphic organizers on text organization. Subjects were 114 tenth grade students who read two versions of an expository passage containing identical information but differing in top level structure. The version organized to show opposing views (comparison/contrast) was considered…

A study examined the nature of the questions contained in two major standardized reading comprehension tests in terms of their centrality to the text. It was hypothesized that the use of a discrimination index for item selection would tend to favor relatively trivial questions. Half the reading selections from the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test…

Intermediate grade teachers can help students deal with content area reading problems by using the directed reading activity (DRA) approach. Prior to using this approach the teacher needs to decide the major concepts to be emphasized in the content selection, the vocabulary terms to be taught, the specific skills to be taught to aid in…

The fill-in-test, a modified version of the cloze procedure, is relatively easy to construct, is easier to score than the cloze procedure, and yields a greater number of questions per line of text than the conventional multiple choice comprehension test. The fill-in-test is constructed by inserting blank spaces into a text and providing a number…

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 120 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from front page stories, feature stories, and editorials of newspapers; and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise carries the code…

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 120 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from news magazines, and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise carries the code letter of the section to which it belongs.…

Given the general agreement that learning of texts is facilitated by learners using relevant concepts or schemata to subsume contents, a study was conducted to see if giving learners an advance organizer and requiring anticipation activity would help in the formation of new schemata and, therefore, result in the enhancement of learning. Subjects…

One hundred twenty-three fifth grade students participated in a study that investigated the role of prosodic cues in children's comprehension of discourse. The subjects, both good and poor readers, read, listened to, or read and listened to a story in one of four modes of visual and auditory presentation: (1) no audio, (2) normally intoned, (3)…

The Reading Strategy Project is designed for intermediate grade students who need assistance in the mastery of basic reading skills. The available data demonstrated that the Title I treatment group enhanced their average reading comprehension scores significantly. The gain exceeded the project objective of four normal curve equivalent points. The…

A graphic organizer is a tree diagram that consists of vocabulary related to one particular concept. A modified version of a graphic organizer contains empty slots that represent missing information and actively involves students during the reading process as opposed to before or after. This modified graphic organizer can provide both the…

Two views of the sources of poor reading comprehension are currently distinguishable in the research literature: a decoding sufficiency view and a comprehension skills view. The decoding sufficiency view argues that decoding is the only skill that must be acquired for general language comprehension. The broader, comprehension skills hypothesis…

Using a list of 15 logical connectives and a selected sample of 216 students from the higher range of ability in two British comprehensive schools, a study investigated the comprehension of those logical connectives in two contexts, "everyday" and "history." The 15 connectives tested occurred in a chapter of the textbook,…

Designed for use by elementary school teachers, this newsletter issue contains activities to help children acquire reading skills while handling various types of reading materials. Following a description of the shared book experience, an approach to teaching reading that incorporates modelling, recreational reading, and instructional reading, the…

In an effort to learn at which level of language proficiency English for Special Purposes can be taught effectively to nonnative speakers, 50 students at an electronics institute in Algeria were administered eight tests after a 16-week intensive English course. Four of the tests were of skills in English as a second language (ESL): the grammar…