Examines reading comprehension as it applies to the chemistry lab and describes techniques that promote better comprehension of lab materials. Lists four levels of reading to understand: literal, inferential, evaluative, and creative. Notes three methods to teach reading: the reference approach, mapping, and request. (MVL)

Investigates whether thematic organizers can facilitate generalizability of ideas from one context to another for low ability readers enrolled in a college developmental studies program. Finds that the thematic strategy facilitated transfer of learning. (RS)

Investigates how readers use schemata and purpose in learning vocabulary from context. Examines Sternberg's model of verbal comprehension acquisition as well as the interaction among vocabulary acquisition and components of the reading process. Finds the effects of comprehension ability and purpose are significant, while the effect of schemata is…

Compares retention of popular science material by fifth grade students using either computer simulation software or expository text as the instructional tool. Finds a statistically significant superiority in favor of the expository text group. (RS)

Two studies at Haifa University examined the effects on oral reading comprehension scores of these factors: (1) anxiety under varying test situations, (2) student gender, (3) students' native language, (4) individual vs. group testing, and (5) the relative difficulty of the English language texts. (MSE)

Investigates whether novelistic prose can be dated by considering marked stylistic changes that occurred over the past 240 years. Finds a positive correlation between publication date and stylistic markers of sentence length, word length, rare punctuation, and word shortening or informality. Argues that this process can form the basis for new…

Asserts that reading tests can be neither ignored, nor allowed to control the classroom. Describes the teaching of "reading-test reading" as a genre in a first grade literature-based classroom. Presents children's views of the genre and how their understanding of it affects their view of themselves as readers. (SR)

Examines how students use geographical maps in history and social studies textbooks for comprehension purposes. Reports training 32 eleventh graders to use maps as aids in their comprehension of information. Finds a positive impact upon comprehension and learning of the original training passage. (MG)

Explains the details of a method of teaching text structure that proved successful in improving both reading comprehension and summary writing of fifth graders. Reports that students quickly learned how to attend to and remember main ideas from problem-solution passages in their textbooks and how to write summaries. (MG)

Examines the relevance of decoding, comprehension, and reading rate as used by teachers for evaluation of their students' reading competence. Finds that teachers claim to rely only on decoding and comprehension in assessing reading competence, but that in practice teachers rely quite heavily on reading rate as a diagnostic tool. (RS)

Reflects on some of the problems encountered in the authors' experimental approach to a study of reading comprehension. Discusses the limitations of experimental research, and presents an alternative to experimental or quantitative research, focusing on the relationship between teachers and learners as they interact in classrooms. (MM)

The use by 31 reading specialists, compensatory education teachers, and secondary reading teachers of Angoff and Nedelsky methods for setting cutting scores for a high-school graduation test in reading comprehension was studied. The Angoff method provides a wider variety of information and yields estimates closer to actual p values. (TJH)

Reviews multidisciplinary research on second culture and second language reading comprehension to support the claim that second language reading is an interactive process, involving the interrelationship of cultural schemata and discourse structure. Argues for the roles of cultural schemata and discourse structure in an interactive model of first…

Discussion of the amount of mental effort children invest in television viewing versus book reading focuses on a Dutch study based on Salomon's model and his studies with children in Israel and the United States. The depth of information processed is discussed, and differences in results are examined. (18 references) (LRW)

Reports on research into the interactive roles played in the verbal comprehension processes by the sequence of textual elements, text-specific prior knowledge, and levels of language proficiency. Four cloze tests were administered to undergraduate and graduate native speakers of English and to undergraduate non-native speakers of English at three…