During oral and silent reading, retention was related to segment length and existence of sentence boundary. Next limits on retention were tested by increasing segment length and difficulty. Performance of less skilled readers was uniformly low; performance of skilled and older readers was again affected by length and sentence boundary. (Author/CP)

This study investigates age differences in children's semantic expectations regarding causal relations in stories about three realistic goal situations (being friendly, getting a dog, and doing chores). Twenty children at each of three age levels (ages 6, 9, and 12) were asked to produce stories and answer probe questions about wanting and not…

A group of studies of children's understanding of narratives, the degree to which knowledge available in the child's first language is used in understanding second-language input, and the relationship between knowledge use in two languages as children become bilingual and acquire age-appropriate literacy skills are discussed. The subjects were…

Looks at the role of paragraphing on the identification of and memory for main ideas as compared to elaborative information in expository passages. Finds that paragraph manipulation had a greater effect on the differentiation of main ideas and elaborations when passage content was less familiar. (RS)

A study is reported in which short-term memory capacity, estimated by a probe digit task, and memory for structured language, measured by a probe discourse task, were investigated in an experiment with third and fifth grade IQ-matched children representing two levels of reading comprehension skill. (Author/RM)

Developmental differences in summaries of expository texts were examined for fourth and sixth grade students in two experiments. Experiment 1 used texts that had a description content structure whereas Experiment 2 texts had a thesis/evidence content structure. Manipulation of the presence or absence of the topic sentence allowed the examination…

The purpose of these studies was to test the hypothesis that thematization affects the probability that a probe word will produce meaning-preserving recall of a sentence that is part of a discourse. Sentences were constructed along the lines of subject-verb-object and were presented in three experiments: free recall of isolated sentences, prompted…

Concludes that poor readers' comprehension of stories was improved by instruction that focused on causal structure, but that a few learners still struggling with basic decoding were too preoccupied to attend to story structure. (FL)

Discusses nontext knowledge necessary for reading comprehension. Examines the composition of children's real world knowledge for ordinary situations. (FL)

This research examines adolescents' learning about a historical issue from multiple information sources. Adolescents read 2 contradictory texts explaining the Fall of Rome and thought out loud after each sentence. After reading, a series of questions probed their understanding and ability to reason with the information. Think-aloud protocols were…

Three issues were examined in a study of children's use of first language knowledge in acquiring a second language: (1) understanding of narratives, (2) the degree to which knowledge available in the child's first language is used in understanding second language input, and (3) the relationship between knowledge utilization in two languages as…

Thematization, the relative frequency of a discourse referent, and topicalization are conceptualized as related discourse functions. In a probe recall experiment, a word with a thematized referent was a better recall probe than a word with a nonthematized referent. Also, an agent noun was a better prompt than a recipient, and this semantic…

Examines fourth- and sixth-grade children's strategies (using think-aloud protocols or silent reading) for processing informational text. Finds that silent readers engaged in more physical backtracking to previously-read sentences, while think-aloud protocol processing tended to focus on the local, sentence level. Illustrates complex relations…

A two-year study is reported of the transfer of two literacy skills, narrative comprehension and learning from text, from elementary school children's first language (Spanish) to their second (English). For each skill, the primary research question was the degree to which the students' first language (L1) performance was predictive of their second…

Children's understanding of fables and the degree to which knowledge used by the child to understand first language input is also used to understand second language input were studied. In addition, the way that such a relationship changes as the second language is acquired was examined. Students in Spanish-English bilingual programs in…