Lervag and Hulme’s neuro-developmental theory and Wolf and Bowers’s double-deficit hypothesis were examined in this longitudinal study. A total of 130 children were tested in preschool and followed through fifth grade, when 84 remained in the study. During preschool and kindergarten the participants were given tests of end-sound discrimination…

Using Beck, McKeown and Kucan's (2002) three-tiered model as a general framework for vocabulary, this article sheds light on the construct of academic vocabulary and how it might be measured. Using illustrative writing samples of student work of different genres and drawing on corpus based studies, I highlight the distinction between general, high…

Background: School-entry characteristics predict adult educational attainment, which forecasts dispositions toward disease prevention. Health and education risks can also be transmitted from one generation to the next. As such, school readiness forecasts a set of intertwined biopsychosocial trajectories that can influence the developmental…

This meta-analysis summarizes research on the effects of a comprehensive, interactive web-based software (AXXX) on the development of reading competencies among kindergarteners and elementary students. Findings from seven randomized control trials and quasi-experimental studies undertaken in a variety of contexts across Canada, Australia and Kenya…

Why does the United States lag behind so many other countries on international education assessments? The traditional view targets school-based explanations--U.S. schools attract poorer teachers and lack the proper incentives. But the U.S. educational system may also serve children with comparatively greater academic challenges as a result of…

This study explored the effectiveness of a speech and language intervention that was designed to be culturally responsive and adapted to provide explicit language instruction. Participants included all 774 kindergarten students from a mid-sized rural school district in British Columbia. Seventy-seven students screened as at risk received the…

Exposure to print is a significant predictor of vocabulary growth and declarative knowledge in normally achieving readers (Stanovich, West, & Harrison, 1995). Research has also shown that initial differences in print exposure can be used to predict differences in reading comprehension in children studied ten years after initial assessment…

Younger (6- to 8-year-old) and older (9- to 11-year-old) children took a multiple-choice test that yielded comparable performances at the two age levels. When subjects estimated their overall performance at the end of the entire test, older children were more accurate and less variable than younger children. (Author)

This tutoring guide contains eight short sections of instruction for tutors working with adult basic education students in Alberta, Canada. Each section, introduced by a question, contains tips for beginning tutoring and working with adult students in literacy education classes. The sections cover the following topics: (1) What is the problem?;…

The two components of this publication are the student's book and the teacher's guide to the module, "The Business World" or "Le monde des affaires," which would be suitable for use in an advanced French course or in a class of business French. The teacher's book in French and English has four parts: (1) an explanation of the…

Examined high school students' scores on test of formal thinking and those on test of reading. Students' success on both tests was disappointingly low. Lack of motivation appeared to be major problem. Correlations between scores on two tests were relatively low, although there was suggestive similarity between distribution of scores for formal…

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised (WRMT-R) is advertised as usable with English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students (with provisions to ensure students' understanding of instructions). This articles describes new features of the WRMT-R and examines criticisms of it since its debut in 1973. (SM)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among variables that may contribute to poor phonological awareness (PA) skills in preschool-aged children with speech sound disorders (SSD). Method: Ninety-five 4- and 5-year-old children with SSD were assessed during the spring of their prekindergarten year. Linear structural…

Investigated whether low-income mothers learned to interact with their preschoolers in ways that fostered narrative skills. Mothers of intervention children were encouraged to elicit questions, encourage longer narratives, and participate in narrative conversation. Assessment of children's pre- and post-intervention narrative and vocabulary skills…

Reports on evaluation studies of the French proficiency of graduates of early- and late-entry immersion programs in Ottawa and Carleton, describes the tests used, and interprets results. The report also examines the students' perceptions of their ability to participate effectively in out-of-school situations using all four language skills. (MSE)