Designed to provide information about reading in New Zealand, this report offers an overview of theory and practice in that area. Among the topics discussed are: the current concern about reading standards; developmental reading; effective methods of reading instruction; research into the nature of the reading process; preparation of teachers of…

A variety of factors related to beginning reading in Sweden are considered in this paper. Among the topics discussed are the following: age of school entrance and beginning reading, factors related to school maturity and reading readiness, the importance of appropriate teaching techniques in the critical beginning stages of reading instruction,…

This report provides a detailed account of a three-year project that sought to determine how average and above average ten- and fifteen-year-old readers in Great Britain actually used reading in school. The 11 chapters cover the following topics: the origins, background, and development of the project; the differences between spoken and written…

Noting that a study of semantics can inform teachers' understanding of the reading process, this paper describes seven basic types of meaning, illustrates how the interrelatedness of meanings within a semantic field may be shown, and discusses children's acquisition of semantic fields. It cites research into the development of semantic fields in…

The 21 essays in this collection consider the conditions under which reading is most effectively taught and learned. Topics deal with the ways in which a desire to read can be "caught" by children in their early years; the case for humanistic education; the need for changes in people's attitudes toward learning and teaching; ways of…

Describes a teacher's development of a "book-share" reading program for nursery school children which involves students, parents, and teacher in a process of sharing books, responses to books, and concerns about reading skills. Suggests that such a program increases children's confidence about reading. (ARH)

Investigates the effects of four types of prereading activities on comprehension of Australian fifth grade students: (1) irrelevant tasks (control); (2) pictorial introductions to the subject; (3) content-directed questions; and (4) free-association to the passage's titles. Determines that, although the pictorial introduction group performed best,…

Primary school teachers tended greatly to overestimate the scores that their students would achieve in mathematics and English achievement tests and to greatly underestimate the scores they would achieve in the reading achievement test. Factors that influenced teachers' judgments include academic competence, student relationship with the teacher,…

This book for beginning readers focuses on a South African woman named MaMkhize, who has no money to pay the rent or buy food because no matter how much she cries and pleads, her husband spends all the money on drinking at the "shebeen." She asks the "sangoma" for help. Together, they plan a clever trick to help stop her…

This practical guide to teaching reading offers activities to teach reading readiness and mathematics. It also discusses the reasons for reading to children, teaching phonics, and using the basal reader. The section on reading readiness focuses on the importance of such skills, and specific reading readiness skills such as visual discrimination,…

Over the past two decades, researchers and language specialists have addressed the problem of a lack of resources in developing nations for teaching English as a Second Language by using the Book Flood approach, which "floods" classroom with high-interest illustrated story books. Components of such programs include language experience,…

This booklet explains the goals of Easter Schools, part of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. Easter Schools should be planned to cover four half-days and include four literacy and four mathematics lessons each covering the equivalent of at least an hour. The booklet addresses the following issues: why funding has been made…

The Open University of Israel (OUI) is a distance education institution that offers over 250 computer-mediated courses through the Internet. All OUI students must pass an English reading comprehension exemption exam or take the University's English reading comprehension courses. Because reading instruction differs from content instruction,…

Russia is undergoing the most difficult ethical, moral, political, and economic period of its existence. The greatest hope of the Russians is the development of the schools; in particular, the moral and ethical healing and rebirth. This is a collection of experiences of Russian pedagogues, including teachers and researchers in the area of…

Discusses the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) to Islamic students finishing their secondary education to enable them to read, with reasonable speed and comprehension, texts in their special subject areas. Gives specific teaching strategies that can be applied to normal ESL instruction. (EKN)