A meta-analysis was conducted of 14 studies examining whether whole-language instruction increases the reading skills of low-SES students in grades K-3. Evidence suggested that low-SES primary school children do not benefit from whole-language instruction, compared to basal instruction. Findings indicated that there may be some advantages to the…

ACT conducts the only nationwide curriculum survey that empirically identifies current instructional practices and postsecondary expectations in order to develop tests that measure critical skills and knowledge. Every three years, it surveys thousands of middle school/junior high school, secondary, and postsecondary teachers in English/writing,…

Evidence regarding the centrality of word recognition to the reading process is considered, based on a review of research on beginning reading from 15 secondary sources. The research includes diverse learners who are low performers, learning or reading disabled, remedial readers, high achievers, culturally disadvantaged, language delayed, and…

This book contains 14 essays on reading and vocabulary learning in second language acquisition. Chapters include: "Research on ESL/EFL Vocabulary Acquisition: Putting It in Context" (James Coady); "Implications for L2 Vocabulary Acquisition and Instruction From L1 Vocabulary Research" (Fredricka Stoller and William Grabe); "Patterns and Perils of…

The purpose of this paper is to update the review of science-related reading research conducted by Yore and Shymansky (1985) and to provide a current research foundation for a science reading research agenda. This review emphasizes the post-1985 literature and selected pre-1985 literature not included in the earlier summary. This summary addresses…

This 16th annual report presents information on current trends and issues informally discussed by the directors of six National Council of Teachers of English commissions. Issues discussed included the following: (1) Commission on Composition (Rick Gerhardt, director): the role of writing in literacy; computers and writing instruction;…

The views and practices of literacy advocates who focus on workplace literacy foster an impoverished understanding of adult literacy and, ultimately, life itself. They reduce literacy to something that is "functional" in the reductive sense of serving someone else's ends as a functionary. A "functionally literate" person is a consumer of someone…

Native students rank far below norms in reading, language arts, and language arts related subjects. This paper reviews the literature to address strategic plans for reading and language arts curricula for Native students. An overview is presented of theories of first and second language acquisition and learning, stages of language development, and…

This paper discusses the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in an English-as-a-Second-Language approach to teaching reading and writing skills to deaf students. The paper poses and answers the following theoretical and practical questions: (1) What is the nature of first language reading? (2) What is the nature of second language reading? (3)…

To provide the most effective instruction, materials, and support for beginning readers, teachers need to know if young children are more likely to process from print to meaning-- bottom-up or text-driven processing--or to interpret print to follow meaning--top-down or concept-driven processing. While some studies reveal a correlation between…

Reviewing computer applications in reading and reading instruction, this article covers the following topics: the emergence of computer instruction from teaching with television, the variety of input and output devices, types of interaction between user and program, methods and approaches, degrees of generalization, scope and capacity of programs,…

This paper discusses the concept of literacy and proposes several theses with regard to the difficulty experienced by youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds in acquiring literacy in present-day school environments. It recommends studies to explore the funding of programs designed to improve schools as educational organizations, rather than…

A review of several classroom observation and survey studies of comprehension instruction, content area reading for homework, and aspects of reading assignments raises the question of whether enough is being done in Irish schools to develop critical reading competency. It appears from these studies that many students are being left to their own…

Summaries of several papers are presented to develop a working theoretical analysis of reading comprehension and an understanding of development in language comprehension based upon empirical studies. Contributions from the areas of assessment, artificial intelligence, cognition (including schema theory), instruction, linguistics, learning…

Noting that parents have considerable influence on their children's learning during the process of general socialization, this paper reviews literature from primary and post primary schools about involving parents with their children's reading development. Following an introduction which summarizes the pertinent literature, the first section…