This study aimed to explore the role of inference making in the relation between vocabulary knowledge (breadth and depth) and reading comprehension for 487 ninth-grade Chinese EFL students who were categorized as either struggling or adequate. Path analysis was used to examine both direct and mediated effects. The results indicated a statistically…

Previous research has documented reliable effects of teachers' judgments or expectations, respectively, on their students' school performance. However, the importance of those effects has been controversially discussed because of their limited effect size. The impact of teacher judgments on students' lives might have been underestimated due to a…

Academic language is a kind of social language for the purpose of schooling. It is central to disciplinary learning, thinking, and communication. This study examined adolescents' use of academic language in informational writing, a genre highly valued in school, workplace, and society. Ninety-three seventh and ninth grade students from a U.S.…

This study reports findings from an exploration of the literacy practices of 10 high school science teachers. Based on observations of teachers' instruction, we report teachers' use of text, evidence-based vocabulary and comprehension practices, and grouping practices. Based on interviews with teachers, we also report teachers' perceptions…

Several instruments previously validated for use in school library research were tested for their appropriateness in the context of public libraries' summer reading programs for youth. The researchers were also interested in whether the connection between perceived competence in one's own information skills and perceived competence in one's own…

Despite the general effectiveness of multimedia instruction, students do not always benefit from it. This study examined whether students' learning from multimedia can be improved by teaching them relevant learning strategies. On the basis of current theories and research on multimedia learning, the authors developed a strategy training for…

This study explored the relationship between the reading ability and science achievement of students in grades 5, 8, and 9. Reading ability was assessed with four measures: word recognition, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and comprehension (23% of all passages were on science topics). Science achievement was assessed with state…

This essay considers the analysis Jacques Ellul carried out about the devaluation of language. This investigation also explores the consequences of that devaluation (or humiliation as Ellul called it) wrought by our orientation to technology. Our existence in technology transforms language and our use of it, shifting emphasis as well to the visual…

Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

Graphs are widely used to present scientific information. Information presented in graphs can be classified into three kinds: explicit information, tacit information, and conclusive information. Reading information from graphs requires not only science content knowledge and understanding but also general logical reasoning. This study examined the…

How proficiency in reading the first language (L1) influences proficiency in reading in the second language (L2) was explored in this study. Reading scores in Mandarin Chinese (L1) and in English (L2) for 30,000 Taiwanese ninth-grade students were randomly selected from all who took the national Basic Competency Test during a 6-year period in…

Reading ability is fundamental to teaching and learning (AFT 2004). This study assessed the reading ability of 25 in-service science educators at the University of Limpopo for three science texts: Grades 7, 8 and 9, using a cloze test and exploring materials that educators read. The scores were categorised as being independent, instructional and…

This qualitative study examines the perceptions and responses of struggling ninth-grade readers who are teaching reading to struggling second- and third-grade students in a cross-age tutoring program. The program was designed to overcome the entrenched, negative affective barriers that older students often bring to the required reading class by…