Demonstrates that the application of reading and study skills during subject-area teaching does transfer to higher achievement scores on standardized tests. Suggests a realistic strategy for including reading instruction within subject areas at the junior high school level. (Author/RL)

First graders taught with the initial teaching alphabet showed superior word recognition when compared with matched subjects taught in the traditional English alphabet instructional format. Retesting in third grade showed no significant differences between the groups, but indicated that auditory memory affected reading performance in both…

Based on results from the nonequivalent control group design, the mean performance in the nonvoucher and traditional voucher programs remain similar. It is quite plausible that the loss of teacher time due to planning, developing, and modifying a new curriculum led to the loss in reading achievement. (Author/CTM)

Describes the components of a reading program for deaf children that is characterized by systematic and carefully planned increments of instruction, intensive review and reinforcement, and the use of materials that control the semantic and syntactic features of language. (MAI)

Advocates oral reading in the classroom for diagnostic purposes, skill development, and recreation; presents seven specific situations children should not be required to read before a peer audience. (MAI)

Two prose passeges (one English, one Yoruba) were used as reading texts in a study of 29 undergraduates in the University of Ibadan to determine whether native speakers of Yoruba read English texts faster and more efficiently than they read equivalent texts in Yoruba. Most read Yoruba more slowly than in English. (LBH)

Television has had a major impact on the reading habits and achievement of children. Preschool and primary students benefit the most from viewing but after age 12, students' total knowledge declines as they increase viewing. (Author/IRT)

This study examined the extent to which learning disabled students scored poorly on a reading readiness test administered when they entered school, the incidence of undiagnosed oral language deficits among these learning disabled children, and the predictive relationships between reading readiness skills and components of oral language. (Author/MV)

Reports on a study comparing the use of the language experience approach and a traditional reading lab approach in which LEA students made equal or greater gains in verbal ability. (MKM)

Recommends that effective reading instruction be evaluated by comparing actual and expected reading growth, identifying effective teaching techniques, using research methodology that creates better understanding rather than design sophistication, and considering both the cognitive and affective dimensions of reading instruction. (RL)

This study compared the causal attribution by sex for academic failures of 38 learning disabled and 38 nondisabled elementary school students. The relationship between different attributional tendencies and a reading persistence task were also examined. (BS)

Analyzes the effect of written assignments on improvement of reading. Describes a study conducted with 40 first-quarter college freshmen in a developmental reading program in which one group had written assignments and the other had none. Concludes that writing has a positive influence on reading. (JG)

Four learning-disabled students, aged 12-15, were given relaxation training exercises, after which their performance in oral reading was measured. Results indicated that, for three of the four students, the use of audiotaped relaxation exercises improved their oral reading performances. (Author/JDD)

Explores how well measures of verbal short-term memory and naming speed tasks predict children's reading achievement under various IQ control conditions. Both were effective, but when controlling for verbal IQ, memory measures are less reliable, whereas digit-naming speed remains a significant predictor of reading achievement. (MM)

Indicates a reasonable range of individual differences in the dark interval threshold (DIT). Reveals a significant interaction between DIT and illumination level in their effect on reading accuracy. Finds that children with a short DIT read more accurately in high rather than low illumination and that this performance was reversed for long DIT…