This study examined 39 Taiwanese adult EFL learners' responses to reading children's literature in a non-major freshman English class. Exposed to authentic illustrated storybooks along with a variety of literacy practices, the students' end-of-the-semester feedback has shown that they generally enjoyed the books and felt they had made progress in…

With the advent of the computer and the Internet, many higher institutions in Malaysia have begun to integrate conventional teaching with these two technologies. This approach in learning which is also called "blended learning" offers significant benefits, namely time and location shifting. However, the principles applied to activities…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the discourse patterns characterizing individual special education teachers as they participated in a collaborative professional development (PD) group, and how these individual discourse patterns influenced other group members' opportunities to learn about reading instruction for upper elementary…

Manitoba's reading scores continue to be under scrutiny. A national report, the PCAP, indicated that Manitoba ranked last in the country in reading (O'Grady & Houme, 2014). This literature review records the author's investigation into ways to support struggling readers in the early years classroom. Research articles were reviewed and books…

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the Arts for Learning (A4L) Lessons Project on the literacy and life skills of students in grades 3, 4, and 5. A4L Lessons is a supplementary literacy curriculum designed to blend the creativity and discipline of the arts with learning science to raise student achievement in reading and…

In his new book, popular author Patrick Shannon examines reading as agency--why reading critically is essential to civic engagement and a healthy democracy. We follow the author on a journey of self discovery as he practices "wide-awake reading" with a variety of everyday texts, from radio programs to legal documents to more traditional books and…

In five phonic generalizations, this article introduces a logical system of letter-sound relationships. Ranging from 91% to 99% phonic transparency, these statements generalize a study of 16,928 words in children's literature. The r-controlled vowels aside, the analysis shows 54 basic transparent letters and letter combinations, 39 transparent…

Most learners experience the teaching of reading in the classroom in the form of intensive reading activities, where learners are provided with support, typically by the teacher, to make sense of texts that are too difficult for the learners to read successfully by themselves. After reading, learners are usually expected to answer a series of…

Many studies have investigated why learning to read is so problematic for deaf individuals. However, we still know very little about how to teach reading to signing students. In this article, we report on an exploratory qualitative study of deaf LSQ (Langue des signes quebecoise) signers learning to read with two teachers, in an effort to better…

I continue here the long-standing discussion on the familiar topic of whether subconscious language acquisition is more powerful than conscious language learning, with a focus on vocabulary, adding recent studies as well as older ones I missed in previous publications on this topic (e.g. Krashen, 2004).

Can informational text be used effectively in beginning reading instruction, as mandated by the Common Core State Standards? Yes, writes Nell K. Duke-in fact, the primary grades are the perfect place for informational text. Duke discusses seven features that characterize K-3 classrooms that make good use of informational text: (1) informational…

In this paper we try to assess whether there are differences in a group when their members try to remember the content of a text, and if this fact affects the learning levels through an experimental methodology with a design of two groups only with posttest to assess the readers' free recall after reading a text. We found firstly interindividual…

Background/Context: Institutional theories sometimes characterize the normative influence of institutions as diffusing like waves and as exerting uniform pressures on individuals. This article contributes to a growing literature on the microfoundations of institutions, investigating how intraorganizational networks mediate the diffusion of…

Story mapping is an effective visual strategy to enhance comprehension of narrative text in students, with or without disabilities. This article demonstrates how instruction can be designed using principles of universal design for learning with the evidence-based story-mapping strategy to improve reading comprehension for elementary students with…

This "Conversation Currents" features JoBeth Allen and Valerie Kinloch discussing their thoughts and experiences working with families and communities. Allen bases her comments on the belief that programs have to be adaptable to many different constituencies and demographics, and so must be recreated every year with every teacher and…