The importance of phonological awareness for learning to read may depend on the linguistic properties of a language. This study provides a careful examination of this language-specific theory by exploring the role of phoneme-level awareness in Mandarin Chinese, a language with an orthography that, at its surface, appears to require little…

The study examined whether exposure to Kindergarten PAVEd for Success, a vocabulary instruction program, improved expressive vocabulary of kindergartners. The study analyzed data for nearly 1,300 kindergarten students in 64 schools serving predominantly rural and high poverty youth in the Mississippi Delta region and surrounding areas.…

This paper examines influences in a teacher's working context on policy implementation in a Kindergarten reading program. This exploration is based on a year's observations, interviews and artefact collection in the teacher's classroom; and is framed by Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device (2000). Positioned between policy and the history of…

Reading teachers, novice or experienced, face the hard task of having to teach students how to read by moving beyond the mere "surface level" of reading (finding meanings in the text) into a more critical perspective (assigning meaning to what is being read). Many teachers struggle in trying to reconcile these two perspectives as they…

This literature review synthesizes the effects of computer-assisted instruction to enhance the reading comprehension of students with disabilities and struggling readers from 1985-2009. First, it addresses research investigates the impact on comprehension when students are presented with computerized versus printed reading material. Second, it…

Research indicates that the most effective instruction in basic reading skills and reading comprehension should take place in the classroom. For some students, however, additional reading instruction outside of the regular classroom may be needed and should begin early in a student's educational career. Since reading comprehension is the goal of…

Consensus documents on reading research provide clear direction for effective practice in reading instruction and intervention in general, but systematic study of reading development instruction and intervention with those diagnosed with ASDs is lacking. The current study had as its purpose to evaluate the effects of a manipulative letter…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how different genres affect the quality and quantity of parent/child reading utterances. I analyzed the reading utterances of parent/child dyads with preschool aged child while reading informational and narrative books contributing to this line of research by systematically selecting books based on…

Reading Plus[R] is a web-based reading intervention that uses technology to provide individualized scaffolded silent reading practice for students in grade 3 and higher. Reading Plus[R] aims to develop and improve students' silent reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Reading Plus[R] is designed to adjust the difficulty of the content…

The "Herman Method"[TM] teaches reading in small groups of up to three students. The curriculum provides instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, while also teaching spelling and writing. It contains 20 modules of instruction through a fifth grade level. Each module includes a reading,…

Today's elementary classrooms are made up of a representation of all cultures, races, religions, ethnicities and abilities. The reading instruction of elementary students should equally represent the demographics of our rapidly growing student population. Students are not being provided with an equal education through a lack of accurate and…

Two successful and two struggling beginning readers were studied with the goal of understanding how beginning readers of varying ability levels make sense of instruction in learning to read. Through interviews, classroom observations, and the collection of artifacts from home and school, the author explored meanings constructed by the students…

This article investigates issues surrounding the adoption of the "simple view" of reading. While this theory of the reading process has recently been espoused as the official view of early reading instruction in England, a recent Irish study, discussed in this article, indicated that this view of reading is also widespread among Irish…

Classwide instructional strategies to improve not only reading fluency but also comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are essential for student reading success. The current study examined the immediate effects of two classwide listening previewing strategies on reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. Twenty-one, fourth-grade general…

This article presents the authors' reply to Beniko Mason and Stephen Krashen's comments on their recent article published in "TESOL Quarterly." Mason and Krashen have provided an interesting reinterpretation of the authors' results and have also brought up several valid points regarding the efficiency of vocabulary learning from instruction,…