This paper presents a survey of scientific research, professional literature, and doctoral dissertations on reading comprehension done from 1948 to 1972. The following reading factors believed to affect reading comprehension were identified: fate, vocabulary, sentence structure, questioning, and purpose setting. The research pertaining to the…

The word-identification approach has long been the basis for teaching reading in both native and second languages. Recent work has a new approach, particularly that of Frank Smith, who developed a feature analysis model of reading. As we can identify letters in different configurations or before all the strokes are completed, so can we identify…

A programed reading curriculum involving map-graph skill acquisition was evaluated experimentally with 77 rural adolescents. Subjects, who were financially impoverished and three to four years behind national reading norms, were assigned randomly to the reading program alone or to the reading program supplemented by self-instructional exercises…

The human cognitive system may have a developmental property that makes acquisition of fluent reading skills difficult after a certain age. This problem may be seen to affect two different populations: participants in adult literacy programs who lacked access to schools as children and educated adults fluent in languages with non-Latin scripts.…

An empirical study is reported that investigated the relationship between first language (L1) and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) reading in terms of efficiency, speed, and comprehension with Chinese university students of English as subjects. Results indicate that reading speed transfers readily from L1 to EFL readers for those who are slow…

A study sought to create and pilot a reasonable method for estimating reading rate by grade level and level of reading proficiency within grade level, and to identify reasonable estimates of reading rate at independent, instructional, and frustration levels of reading. Data were elicited from 66 third grade and 64 fifth grade students attending…

One hundred thirty-nine college students participated in an experiment designed to examine the basis of their abilities to make relative importance distinctions among ideas in a text while reading. Subjects read two texts of 13 paragraphs each. The topics of the two texts were unrelated, but their topic structure was similar. For each of the…

In an investigation of the effectiveness of self-managed reading improvement programs, a program incorporating self-monitoring (observing and recording relevant activity), self-reinforcement (increasing the probability of some target behavior by the self-presentation of positive consequences or the removal of negative consequences), and shaping…

After research between 1960 and 1977 relating to college reading program effectiveness was identified, a statistical procedure called Meta-Analysis was used to integrate findings and determine any composite benefit of instruction. Of 676 references on the initial list, 66 studies were identified as having quantifiable data within the limits of the…

The first step in arriving at techniques for the improvement of reading rate is the careful and thoughtful formulation of a specific objective. Once a reading rate objective has been phrased, the next step is to examine all available resources of help in reaching that objective. These resources include films for use with regular motion picture…

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…

To help students develop techniques which lead to maximum reading efficiency, it is first necessary to help them develop a positive self-image. Growing evidence is focusing attention on self-image as the crucial determiner of progress. Poor progess in reading at the elementary level leads to poor self-image, which in turn hinders the student in…