This study investigated whether cultural familiarity influences comprehension of short stories and whether nativizing the story or using reading activities can compensate for the lack of such familiarity. The study was conducted with 44 advanced-level students of English at a state university in Turkey. In a 2 x 2 experimental research design, the…

The purpose of this session is to describe a research project that involved preservice teacher education candidates in a field experience incorporating individualized tutoring for at-risk elementary students. Specifically, do these struggling elementary readers improve their reading? The first and second graders (n = 190) were all given the…

As a follow up to the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) national studies of how well elementary teachers are prepared to teach reading and mathematics, NCTQ looked at preparation in both subjects in all undergraduate teacher preparation programs in Utah. This study evaluated Utah's nine undergraduate elementary teacher preparation…

In May 2006 the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released a groundbreaking study, "What Education Schools Aren't Teaching About Reading - and "What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning." The primary findings were disheartening: in a representative sampling of education schools in 35 states, only 15 percent of schools…

To determine the extent to which knowledge of evidence-based reading instruction and mathematics is assessed on licensure tests for prospective special education teachers, this study drew on information provided by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and National Evaluation Systems (now…

This system summary highlights the high school graduates who attended a community or technical college in the year following graduation (Part A and B). Part C provides information on the students who delayed enrollment at the college for one or two years after high school graduation. Part D describes the expenditures for pre-college courses.…

Each year, thousands of American students enter postsecondary institutions unprepared for college-level work and are subsequently placed in remedial or developmental courses. Several recent studies have examined the impact of these courses on student outcomes, but such studies focus exclusively on students who need just one or two classes; the…

Pre-service teachers' perceptions of their own learning are important to the ways they integrate technology into their practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the pre-service teachers' perspectives of asynchronous discussion board (ADB) as a tool of learning to teach. ADB was integrated into two literacy courses for 33…

The aim of this book was to present innovative applications of technology in second language teaching and learning, as well as to explore the transformation of the different techniques to different theoretical frameworks. It has also been desired to have a representation of researchers from different parts of the world as contributors. When the…

Situated within a university-based content literacy course, this article considers the spaces between the curricular realities of middle school and high school classrooms, what we call the "what is," and potential alternative configurations of curriculum and instruction for these classrooms, what we call the "what could be."…

This study represents an attempt to understand the roles and discourse of preservice teachers engaged in literature discussion with elementary students through e-mail exchanges. After local fourth graders chose books from a list appropriate for their reading ability, they were paired with a preservice teacher for an online experience involving…

If the purpose of language learning is communication, then improving students' reading comprehension competence becomes an overall goal in language teaching. This paper examines the online resources of reading comprehension tests with non-English major college students, and tackles the problem with the teaching method of integrating web-based…

The success of a developmental reading course really should be measured several semesters later by how well the students have transferred their new strategies to their content courses. To help facilitate this transfer, a list of ten instructional strategies are presented that have been developed from the literature and classroom experience.…

This paper reports on the inclusion of extensive reading in three separate 12-week courses taught by different teachers on an EAP programme at a New Zealand university. The inclusion of extensive reading was experimental and sought answers to two questions: would students respond positively to the extensive reading component, and how could…

Students and teachers inevitably enter classrooms with differing expectations and experiences; those differences provide opportunities for both conflict and growth. This article examines this phenomenon in an undergraduate teacher education course on reading instruction at the middle-school level, presents case studies of students' improvisations…