Assesses speed, accuracy, and types of errors in decoding lists of words and pseudo words and performance in two phonemic awareness tasks for first- and second-grade German and American children. Suggests that successful reading in English depends upon more complex grapheme to phoneme correspondence rules than does reading in German. (SC)

Examines the relationship between optimal listening rate and reading rate of 56 Japanese college students of English at different proficiency levels. (Author/VWL)

Describes a parent/school reading program in which parents were encouraged to increase the amount of time spent reading with their children at home. Notes that the school provided easily accessible reading materials, suggestions for encouraging reading at home, prizes and special activities. Concludes that program participants demonstrated a…

In a study at California State University, Sacramento, the effects of color light and relaxation exercise therapy were investigated with 16 students (ages 23 to 48) with learning disabilities. Therapy consisted of either 20 sessions viewing color light through a Lumatron instrument or 20 sessions listening to relaxation exercise tapes. Diagnostic…

A study examined the relationship between text schemata and comprehension monitoring to determine elementary school children's detection and remediation of internal inconsistencies in narrative and expository passages. Data were elicited (through computerized experimental reading passages containing internal inconsistencies) from 87 students in…

A study examined how both children and adults process inferences when reading prose. Subjects, 24 third-, fifth-, and eighth-graders, and adults, read stories where a consequence was implied, and then answered questions. The stories differed in the degree to which the inference was necessary for comprehension, and the readers engaged in either…

Using extensive data gathered from a follow-up study on an early reading program which tested the reading competence of high school seniors who had received formal beginning reading instruction in kindergarten, an ancillary study investigated the effects of early formal reading instruction on bilingual students. Three of the dependent variables…

A study examined oral and silent reading rates at various levels of difficulty to establish criterion rates for fluent reading at the fourth grade level. Subjects, 27 male and 45 female students from 6 classes in 3 public schools in central Oklahoma who read at an average of more than one year above grade placement, had their oral and silent…

A comparison was made of Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty and informal reading inventory (IRI) independent and instructional level designations for 15 children, aged 9 to 11 years, who had been referred to a diagnostic clinic for reading assessment. The children's reading performance was first scored according to procedures outlined in the…

To determine whether increasing decoding speed affects the comprehension of poor readers, two experiments were designed to test two groups consisting of seven good readers and eleven poor readers chosen from fourth and fifth grade. In the first experiment, poor readers were trained to read a list of words as rapidly as the good readers and were…

In an analysis of a processing activities model of memory applied to connected discourse, 206 college students assigned to eight conditions in two studies evidenced significantly greater recall when provided with semantic level tasks than either surface feature analysis or reading control (intentional and incidental) conditions. Additionally,…

The 1976 reading achievement scores of year 5 pupils in Queensland (Australia) primary schools were compared with the scores of year 5 pupils in 1971, using Reading Test QR5. The sample included 1,754 students in 111 primary schools. Analysis of the results showed that scores for vocabulary development, comprehension of implied meaning, and…

The speed and accuracy of skilled and less skilled first-grade readers were assessed in the fall and spring. Children read random lists of words and coherent paragraphs. Poor decoding skills, rather than an inability to use content to facilitate word recognition, caused the poor performance of less skilled readers. (Author/BS)

Elementary school children's understanding was assessed after they read or listened to brief texts that described a scene, explained a sequence of events, or told a story. Results indicated that effectiveness in understanding depends on the fluency with which component processes of perceptual recognition, comprehension, and memory are coordinated.…

Verbal coding and listening comprehension ability differed among skilled and less skilled readers in second, third, and fifth grades. As verbal coding speed increased, comprehension skill became the more important predictor of reading skill. Apparently, verbal coding processes, which are slow, inhibit other reading processes. (Author/CP)