Contrasts the author's experiences teaching mathematics in Russia and as an immigrant to the United States. The author is particularly critical of the emphasis on grades and formal records in American higher education. American education is often guilty of confusing good grades or a degree with competence. (SLD)

A first-grade teacher investigated the use of daily poetry readings to help students develop certain characteristics of skilled readers, including fluency and comprehension. Students in a class receiving poetry-reading instruction had higher comprehension scores and reading levels than students in a control class receiving basal-reader…

Finds that a strategy-instruction approach helped second-grade students to find needed information in the nonfiction texts they read and eliminate the copying of text. Discusses how students learned to search for information, take notes, organize notes, and use those notes to compose a report in their own words. (SR)

Discusses research conducted to develop Japanese multimedia teaching materials for use on the Internet. The research verified the effects of different types of images used in multimedia teaching materials on the story understanding and reproduction ability of Japanese language learners based on a Japanese fairy tale. (Author/VWL)

Explains the relevance of reading-comprehension research for classroom teachers, discussing how knowledge of the world and active engagement with ideas in the text influence comprehension and looking at how to develop both these capabilities. Four sections discuss the power of background knowledge, reading aloud and discussing literature with…

Describes three experiments that examined college students' self-determination, problem-solving, and reading comprehension when using a linear, navigational, or generative computerized system to solve a problem or to prepare for a reading-comprehension test. Suggests that understanding students' goals explains outcomes of instruction, effects of…

Describes an extraordinary experience teaching comprehension strategies to fourth-grade reluctant readers through literature study. Notes how the experience was a fusion of three critical elements: an extraordinary group experience, a text that taught itself, and an instructional model that met the students' needs. (SR)

Explores whether listeners can discern if melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic parameters and pairings of these parameters are abstracted from the ongoing flow of a musical event. Reports that students in grades 3, 6, and 9 identified phrases as being the same as the initial phrase; grade 12 students identified different phrases more often. (CMK)

Gathers information from students and faculty in order to find ways to help community college students overcome their difficulties learning new concepts from content area readings. Research findings indicate that students' and instructors' responses indicated some agreement and some discrepancy between the students' perceptions of themselves as…

A study investigated effectiveness of use of World Wide Web texts in a college English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writing class, finding that the reading comprehension and writing skills of 15 students using the Web-based materials improved more than those of students not using the materials. Ethnographic observation also focused on four…

The effect of the presence of cafeteria noise on the perception of native English and Mandarin-accented speech was assessed in a sentence-verification task and a sentence-transcription task. The outcomes of both tasks indicated strong adverse effects of noise on the intelligibility of many of the accented utterances. (Author/JL)

Seven high school students of English as a Second Language (ESL) underwent a short course of reading strategy training, including learner needs assessment, focus on why and when strategies are used, and carefully selected reading texts. Six of seven improved reading comprehension in at least one of two measures, supporting the notion that reading…

The 11 chapters of this theme issue explore important issues that relate cognitive style to educational concerns. They link cognitive style with reading comprehension, parental teaching, family qualities, teaching, distance learning, strategic learning, socialization, and athletic performance. (SLD)

Literacy instruction of about 100 adults at the Harvard Adult Literacy Center (Massachusetts) revealed different patterns for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners or for learners with learning disabilities. Adult learners showing the learning disability pattern averaged a 1-year gain after 1 semester (20 hours) of instruction. ESL learners…

A study investigated the role of video and/or sound in the processing of aural French as a second language in grade-eight core French. Results indicate visual cues were informative and enhanced general comprehension but did not necessarily stimulate understanding of the specific text. Affective and attentional advantages were noted. (Contains 28…