This study investigated direct and indirect pathways from listening comprehension (LC) to reading comprehension (RC) via fluent word reading (FWR) in grades 1-3, and path equivalence across these grades. LC's total effects predicting RC range from 0.45 to 0.59 in grades 1-3, a stronger relationship than found in previous studies. Overall, LC's…

A child's ability to understand text (reading comprehension) can greatly impact both their ability to learn in the classroom and their future contributions to society. Reading comprehension draws on oral language; behavioural measures of knowledge at the word and sentence levels have been shown to be related to children's reading comprehension. In…

This study investigated the effect of cloze item practice on reading comprehension, where cloze items were either created by humans, by machine using natural language processing techniques, or randomly. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 302) took a pre-test, read a text, and took part in one of five conditions, Do-Nothing, Re-Read,…

This paper is based on an analysis of a portion of data collected during a 6-month field study in a chemistry department in a Canadian university. Specifically, the views on the interaction among science, technology, and society (STS) held by undergraduates in this department were examined using a variation of VOSTS CDN-2. In addition, individual…

Children's understanding of a first order false belief was compared with their understanding of a third order embedding of mental states, defined as "an intention about a false belief about an intention." Subjects were 72 Canadian middle-class children who were 3, 4, or 5 years of age. Materials were playfigures of a mother, little boy,…

Language for success in curricular and extracurricular contexts shows a range and complexity beyond the scope of most secondary school ESL programs in Canadian schools. The subject-specific language structure, rhetoric, and vocabulary for secondary level geography, history, and science are used as examples. (MSE)

A study investigated whether or not the global structure of a text influences its readability and how that influence might be related to the already recognized influences of vocabulary and sentence length. The subjects, 250 fourth-grade students in Quebec, each read four texts representing four different structures, four subjects, and two levels…

This study was designed to determine whether children 3, 4, and 5 years of age could demonstrate their metaphorical competence equally well in words and in pictures. Previous studies which have investigated young children's metaphorical ability have often encouraged young children to make judgments of similarity which rely almost exclusively on…

A study investigated the degree to which the page layout of a book affects the young reader's association of text with appropriate illustrations. Four hundred native French-speaking third-graders in eight Montreal (Canada) schools participated. In a third-grade text about animals, the names of the animals illustrated in pictures and other words…

The relationship between preschool children's level of gender understanding and their ability to identify gender-linked attributes was examined. Participants were 26 3-year-old and 30 4-year-old children who were administered a single-cue gender labelling task, Slaby and Frey's (1975) gender constancy test, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test.…

Implications of research into human ability and metacognition for adaptive instruction are examined. Traditionally, adaptive instruction has largely involved the adaptation of instruction to suit the cognitive idiosyncrasies of individual learners. Through the development of learning strategies and metacognitive abilities to manage them, this…

A study examined the effects of the level of knowledge of a second language (linguistic factor) and of the level of familiarity of texts based on cultural scripts (cultural factor) on comprehension. Subjects, 111 young adults whose average age was 23 years, were divided into 3 groups according to their different levels of linguistic knowledge. Two…

As part of a larger study of developmental deficits in the skills of automaticity of name retrieval, phonological awareness, and memory span and their role in reading disabilities, a study tested 13 average and 14 poor fourth-grade readers for digit and letter naming speed, phonological awareness, and digit span. Among the reading skills assessed…

This study assesses 7- to 12-year-old children's abilities to understand the figural and metrical aspects of rhythm. Tasks were developed to assess children's ability to (1) make figural and metrical descriptions, (2) interpret figural and metrical descriptions, (3) produce the metrical hierarchy through drumming, (4) describe the metrical…

Thirty grade 4 subjects were individually tested on a digit span test of working memory capacity (Case and Kurland) and the Reading Span Test (Daneman and Carpenter). The Reading Span Test was administered using sentences at a grade 2, grade 4, and grade 6 reading level. It was predicted that, as the decoding demands of the stimulus sentences in…