Methods to contextualize tests in the four skill areas of listening, reading, writing, and speech are described. The roles of grammatical and lexical cues, recording semantic details, cloze adaptation, comprehensive questions, logical continuation items, global classification, and sociolinguistic factors are examined in relation to test formats.…

Although listening provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development and plays a lifelong role in the processes of learning and communication essential to productive participation in life, there is a tendency for teachers not to emphasize listening objectives. Even though no widely accepted model for listening has been…

Reviews research on listening instruction. (MM)

Presents the issues in the cultural literacy debate as exemplified in an illuminating set of articles exchanged by E. D. Hirsch and John Warnock. (JD)

Surveys research on the effects of visual material on student comprehension and describes a strategy that uses pictures to teach the main idea. (AEA)

Argues that writing promotes engagement with a text, leading to better comprehension, and that writing tasks should vary depending on the nature of the reading task. (RAE)

Discusses the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension. Cites recent research supporting the utility of both direct and indirect vocabulary instruction. (MM)

This digest links the development of listening comprehension to the emerging reading comprehension of young American Indian students, and suggests ways that teachers can use locally produced materials to enhance young students' emergent literacy. Reading comprehension is the key to literacy, and prior knowledge supports listening and reading…

Reviews recent ERIC materials on comprehension monitoring. (FL)

Presents an annotated bibliography on listening skills instruction and research for secondary and higher education business communication classes. (MM)

Discusses issues in reading assessment, including the concern that tests can not measure the reading process. Concludes that tests will never be more than useful indicators; calls for more research and examination of existing and new types of reading comprehension tests. (MM)

Focuses on the role of pictures in books used for reading instruction to determine how they are used, how their content has changed over the years, and how pictures affect reading comprehension. (FL)

Discusses instructional approaches to content area reading that are described in ERIC documents. Among the areas discussed are prereading activities; strategies to support comprehension as students read; an integrated approach to vocabulary, comprehension, and textbook organization; and kits of materials for integrating reading skills into content…

Provides a 17-item annotated bibliography addressing issues of measures of readability for languages other than English, the mismatch between student reading ability and text readability, and promising new approaches to readability. (MG)

Describes documents in the ERIC data base that review research on schemata and reading comprehension and discuss the implications of using the schemata paradigm in educational research and practice. (MKM)