Studies indicate that cultural properties of texts affect reading at the content and textual levels. However, research has not adequately addressed the effects of the cross-cultural pragmatics of discourse on readers. Therefore, this study explored whether or not cultural factors play a role in reading comprehension by comparing Turkish and…

Twenty subjects from the United States and nineteen from India read letters describing a typical Indian and a typical American wedding and recalled them following interpolated tasks. Among the findings were that subjects read the native passage more rapidly, recalled a larger amount of information from the native passage, produced more culturally…

Noting that register and cohesion are two concepts that define a text, this paper describes register as the variety of language that is appropriate for the situation of the speech event and cohesion as the semantic relations in a text that make it coherent. The first part of the paper discusses three cross-cultural studies of comprehension…

This study investigated the differential performance of subjects across cultures (U.S. and Ireland); grade levels (grades 2, 3, and 4); and three test formats (multiple-choice-cloze, maze, and cloze). Recognition test formats produced higher scores than the cloze format. Cultural influences were also reported. (Author/GDC)

Examines how cross-cultural schemata influence reading comprehension and offers some guidelines for developing comprehension of culturally different students. (HOD)

The paper endeavors to delineate more clearly the special reading comprehension problem of the Alaskan Eskimo and Indian. Reading comprehension is essentially a cognitive process -- the ability to engage in rigorous abstract thinking. A number of formal anthropological reports indicate that Alaskan natives, especially the Eskimo, are deficient in…

It is the purpose of this volume to present some of the highlights of the literature survey inaugurated by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement which was undertaken in nine countries: Belgium, Chile, England, Finland, Iran, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United States. Information was sought concerning…

The effect of cultural background knowledge on comprehension and on the language of recall was investigated using an oral presentation. Fifteen Aboriginal women in northern Australia and 15 American women in an adult education class in Illinois were matched in age and educational level. Two stories were read aloud to the subjects, each based on…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: (1) developmental differences in preschoolers' comprehension of WH-questions; (2) discourse analysis and early literacy in minority education; (3) effects of text structure on…