Comprehension tests are often used interchangeably, suggesting an implicit assumption that they are all measuring the same thing. We examine the validity of this assumption by comparing some of the most popular reading comprehension measures used in research and clinical practice in the United States: the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT), the two…

In an effort to learn at which level of language proficiency English for Special Purposes can be taught effectively to nonnative speakers, 50 students at an electronics institute in Algeria were administered eight tests after a 16-week intensive English course. Four of the tests were of skills in English as a second language (ESL): the grammar…

The authors reviewed studies on teaching reading comprehension to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with a focus on text (academic reading) comprehension and sight word (functional) comprehension. Eleven of 754 studies met the inclusion criteria: participants with ASD, published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, and use of an…

Since an author does not provide all critical information, a text is never fully explicit; it demands that the reader/listener supply missing elements in order to form a coherent and logical whole. A study was conducted to explore both the types of responses urban first grade students made when asked to predict a narrative ending and differences…

Discusses distinctions between story grammar and schemata, arguing that knowledge of these two concepts has its best educational applications when placed within a developmental perspective. Provides a theoretical framework for story comprehension questioning strategies for teachers. (HTH)

The study found no significant difference between 50 deaf and 50 hearing readers' sensitivity to contextual build-up as evaluated in a cumulative cloze exercise, using readers at the eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth- grade levels. Differences in the number of deaf and hearing readers' responses were found at the fourth- and sixth-grade levels.…

The Nature of Science Scale (NOSS) was administered to 21 preservice students in a science teaching methods course. Their performance was compared to that of 24 preservice teachers who took the NOSS in 1969. Results show that the 1984 group was significantly higher than the 1969 group. (JN)

Two experiments investigated preschoolers' acquisition of spatial words in Mandarin Chinese. In one experiment, 5 groups of 10 children at 34, 39, 46, 52, and 57 months were tested for comprehension and production of 14 pairs of Chinese spatial words. In the comprehension test the children were asked to point to pictures corresponding to the words…

The level of meaning (membership, partial association, or generalization) that English-speaking (N=1635) and Hindi-speaking students (N=823) preferred when thinking about each of 16 key concept definitions associated with the theme "the nature of matter" was measured for each concept. Results and implications for science instruction are…

Presents data on the impact of oral and silent reading on reading comprehension. Hypothesizes that reading comprehension is enhanced significantly by silent, rather than oral reading, and that re-reading is an effective mode for increasing comprehension in either mode. (EKN)

Presents results of a study comparing self-correction rates among good and poor readers in a reading level design that controlled text difficulty. Reports no significant differences between the groups when reading identical passages at equivalent error rates. Concludes that self-correction rates correlate with reading accuracy but not…

Thirty learning-disabled students in grades five-eight read several passages and attempted to identify and remember main ideas. Students were assigned to one to three conditions: control, monitoring and self-questioning, or mnemonic. The monitoring strategy was most effective for main-idea finding, whereas the mnemonic strategy was most effective…

Data from Think Aloud protocols were used to determine how two groups of adult subjects approached reading. Analysis indicates that vocabulary proficiency has a power impact on psychological processing of second-language reading by novices but also that culturally determined literacy practices may be a factor. (Contains 34 references.) (LB)

A study investigated the role of metacognitive skills and the conception of reading in the reading comprehension of adult native speakers of Spanish and English. The study differed from others in its examination of reading conceptions and comprehension in both the first and second languages. Results suggest that both first language reading ability…

A study to determine whether college students in first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses who saw and heard dialogs between native speakers would score significantly higher on a listening comprehension test than those who only heard the dialogs had as its subjects 178 students randomly divided into two treatment groups. Twenty-seven…