Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Skills is a web-based assessment system published by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The test publishers purport that MAP Skills provides information about essential K-8 building blocks in Language Usage, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary to quickly assess student progress toward…

Practitioners as well as language approach and language development scholars need to work together to create an environment in which research-based learning methods can be put into practice with developmentally appropriate content. Inadequate attention has been given to the crucial language skills that underpin children's language and literacy…

The effects of a multicomponent intervention strategy to increase peer-directed social communication in eight Head Start children at risk for poor language and social skill development were examined. The intervention consisted of three components: (a) a planning period, including reading a storybook that illustrated the play theme and use of the…

In vocabulary testing, whether to adopt context is a heat-debated topic. In the article, an experiment is designed to investigate what is the effect of zero context and sentence context on the vocabulary testing? And how do the different kinds of context in vocabulary affect the subjects' performance? The experimental result demonstrates that…

A language skills program was developed at Lake City Community College to increase remedial students' chances of academic success in college courses. The program concentrates first on developing students' speaking and listening skills and then proceeds to more complex reading and writing skills. The program provides 16 weeks of developmental study…

Reviews current research on free voluntary reading and discusses its benefits for vocabulary development, reading ability, writing style, spelling, grammar, pleasure, personal discovery, and literacy. Positive correlations are made between free voluntary reading and academic achievement and second-language acquisition. Eleven relevant documents…

This study examined a new screening tool (Get Ready to Read) for assessing early reading skills in 73 three-year-old and 79 four-year-old children from low-income families and relating performance to more extensive assessments of phonological sensitivity and language skills (vocabulary and print knowledge) that have been found to be related to the…

This pilot study compared developmental outcomes, academic achievement, and parent involvement for children attending a Title I full-day kindergarten with those of children attending a Title I half-day program in New Albany, Indiana. The subjects were nine children from the full-day program and ten children from the half-day program. The…

Designed to serve newly arrived, immigrant pupils in the Cleveland Public Schools, the English-as-a-Second-Language project aims to help participants acquire enough English proficiency for adequate functioning. The project uses a pull-out model in which, for about 30 minutes daily, small groups of students are given additional reading, language,…