Japanese society is faced with many problems in the areas of early childhood education and day care--problems which will not be easily solved in the near future. Lack of continuity between early childhood education programs and elementary school curricula, lack of parent involvement in school activities, ambiguity as to the purpose of preschool…

Designed to alert adult basic education teachers to the factors of readability and to suggest ways that some readability problems can be alleviated, this resource unit discusses the problems posed by readability formulas and suggests that teachers must both press for more readable adult texts and question intelligently the products of publishers…

It is uncertain what a college reading program can do to enhance retention of college students who leave before graduating. Unfortunately, studies of college reading instruction's impact on grade point average (GPA) have not produced clear results. Additional content instruction, however, has been found to have significant impact on GPA's. Still,…

A study examined hierarchical relationships among three developmental components of reading ability in grades 1 through 3. It was predicted that semantic skills develop initially, followed by letter identification skills, phonological skills, and visual skills. Reading ability was assessed with a word identification task. The semantic components…

A study was conducted to explore the reading habits, interests, and attitudes of older readers. One hundred and twenty readers aged 60 to 64 years participated in the Adult Inventory of Reading Interests and Attitudes (AIRIA) and were classified as minimal, moderate, and avid book readers. Fifty-five of these subjects were then interviewed. Among…

A study investigated the role of visual imagery in the comprehension and retention of prose. Subjects were 48 fifth grade students who orally read a story and then completed three comprehension tasks directly related to the story: a retelling, an oral reading cloze test, and a multiple choice question test comprised of items demonstrated to be…

A course was developed for teaching reading comprehension of English technical texts to German speaking professionals. Before proceeding with the course, students are administered a memory test and vocabulary test to determine their initial skill levels in English. The materials used for the course include learner's dictionaries of approximately…

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that first grade children with a full-day kindergarten experience would achieve higher scores on the Tests for Analysis and Placement (TAP) Level 2 (Readiness) Basic than those children with half-day experience. Subjects were 19 first grade students who completed the TAP on two consecutive days. In…

A teacher's theoretical viewpoint is pervasive. It determines not only the materials chosen and the way the materials are used, but also the perception the teacher holds of the reading process. It is important, therefore, for teachers to understand the theory on which their views are based so that they can understand why they have chosen a…

Based on gestalt psychology, guided fantasy is a technique that uses sensory images related to a particular situation to create a subjective understanding of that experience. For the young child, guided fantasy can be a process of creating an inner subjective experience that is subsequently integrated with objective knowledge (language) to produce…

Through reflections upon the ideas and events that have shaped current views about reading comprehension and its teaching, this paper characterizes patterns of development in three related domains: theory and research about basic processes in reading comprehension, research about reading comprehension instruction, and practices in teaching reading…

A study investigated the effects of a spatial adjunct aid--maps--upon probed comprehension and free recall with respect to a text in which map-related information (macropropositions) could be clearly distinguished from more abstract information (micropropositions). Forty-eight tenth grade students were randomly assigned to either a control group…

Intended for elementary school reading teachers, this booklet offers insight into the nature of comprehension and suggestions for enhancing children's comprehension skills. The first chapter discusses trends in comprehension research, and several specific points about the nature of comprehension and how it can best be taught. The second chapter…

A curriculum guide series developed by the City of Chicago's Board of Education to help native Spanish speaking, limited English speaking students develop Spanish language reading skills as a preliminary step in teaching English reading skills consists of 13 books. The level L corresponds to grade 6 instruction. The approach used is…

A curriculum guide series developed by the City of Chicago's Board of Education to help native Spanish speaking, limited English speaking students develop Spanish language reading skills as a preliminary step in teaching English reading skills consists of 13 books. The level M corresponds to grade 7 instruction. The approach used is…