Since the average child spends an estimated 30 hours a week watching television, it is important to consider the negative and positive effects of television viewing on the development of reading attitudes and habits. Possible negative aspects of television viewing include the following: the rapid pacing of programs encourages shallow reading; the…

Extensive research has proven that the functions of the two hemispheres of the brain tend to be qualitatively different. The left hemisphere, which for most people is dominant, is the major controller of speech, reading, and writing; it is the hemisphere toward which education traditionally has been directed. The right hemisphere excels in…

Successful reading is a complex, interactive process in which the reader's experience and information are as important to comprehension as the content of the printed page. This article describes several reading processes, discusses the problems involved for the beginning reader, and indicates some implications for reading instruction. Five…

This study sought to ascertain the extent to which professional reading teachers participate in the decision-making processes that affect various aspects of their programs. Questionnaires were returned by 74 high school teachers (59%) and 67 college teachers (53%). Responses indicated that a much higher percent of both high school and college…

Achievement gains of 78 fourth-grade students taught with an individualized approach using peer teaching were compared with gains of 64 fourth-grade students in another school who were taught with a basal-reader approach. Analysis of results from pretesting and posttesting with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills indicated that the gains of the…

Reading teachers vary in their teaching methods for reading instruction, usually emphasizing either the meaningful functions (meaning) or the technical features (coding) of written language. This paper reviews literature on the meaning/coding dichotomy and focuses on a "cognitive clarity theory" that stresses linguistic awareness and…

Compressed speech tapes--recordings of a voice reading a selection at the normal rate of approximately 150 words per minute that are speeded up to as much as 400 words a minute--can be used successfully with students to provide practice in improving reading rate and comprehension. In a field test conducted with 23 high school juniors and seniors…

The report of the Bullock Committee of Enquiry was published in January 1975, under the title "A Language for Life," and presented extensive recommendations concerning all aspects of English teaching, including reading, writing, talking, and listening, the role of initial and inservice training, and monitoring of general levels of…

This report presents the results of followup studies concerning participants' attitudes and reactions to two courses delivered during the experimental phase of the Appalachian Education Satellite Project (AESP). Graduate level teacher training was the objective of the courses, entitled Diagnostic and Prescriptive Reading Instruction and Career…

A course for teaching reading in the secondary school, designed for teachers both with or without previous study in the teaching of reading, is presented in outline form. The course is divided into the following five sections: reading perspectives or theory, secondary programs, assessment, classroom organization, and content-specific…

This study was designed to discover the answers to two general questions concerning the instrucitonal level of reading: (1) What is the percentage of word recognition that is necessary for second and fifth graders to maintain in order to achieve a certain percentage of comprehension? (2) Are those word recognition percentages the same for both…

This study investigated students' learning performances in reading and academic achievement after an experimental group took a reading improvement course in which vocabulary and comprehension improvement exercises were derived from their content area textbooks and a comparison group took a general reading improvement course with materials…

The "Epistle" is the Publication Forum of Professors of Reading Teacher Educators, which is a special-interest group of the International Reading Association. The topics considered in this issue are the areas of legislation and certification as they affect the demand for graduate studies in reading education. Charles and Nathaniel Peters relate…

The Adult Career Education Resources Survey was designed to (a) compile career information resources for adults and (b) provide materials that will encourage adult educators to integrate career education activities into ongoing curricula. The document was developed and revised by the Suvey staff to meet the second objective; it provides a group of…

The first report in this research monograph, "Black English as an Instructional Tool for Teaching Arithmetic," states that black elementary school students in a suburban school improved in ability to do math problems after a 6-week program in which Black English and easier-to-read words were used in the problems. At the same time, a control group…