This is a summary of the final report of the Cardston School Division Project for Improvement in the Language Arts, a three-year project in Alberta, Canada, using Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction (ECRI) strategies and materials and having as its objectives the improvement of language arts teaching, student achievement in language arts,…

This paper suggests that by emphasizing word identification skills and oral reading and by using limited reading materials, teachers have neglected reading for meaning. Following a review of current instructional practices, the paper explains how understanding writing depends on the world experience, language knowledge, and processing strategies…

Students from Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, participated in a study to determine their overall reading ability as measured by norm- and criterion-referenced reading tests and to discover the extent to which linguistically related reading difficulties were manifested in their oral and silent reading performance. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading…

This paper examines the efforts of the Chinese Communist government since 1949 to bring literacy to the masses through its language reform policies. The policies discussed include the establishment of a common dialect, simplification of Chinese characters, and the development of a Chinese phonetic alphabet. In addition, the paper discusses methods…

Six same-different matching tests, both verbal and nonverbal in three modalities along with a set of reading tests, were administered to 120 Israeli children in second, third and fourth grade. (MS)

If Anglophone students are to read French at an adult level, they must not only acquire a selected small vocabulary but also be trained to interpret words creatively within a context in order to use their vocabulary. Instruction should include exercises to foster this creativity. (MSE)

Reports that readiness tests given to children in bilingual villages in Papua New Guinea showed that children learning to read in an unfamiliar language were more confused than were children who had never had literacy instruction. (FL)

This book for beginning readers tells the story of five South Africans who, though not very famous, all did things that no black South African had ever done before. They include: Simon Mkhize who, year after year, ran the Comrades Marathon unofficially, ignoring its racial bans; Magema M. Fuze, who was the first black South African to publish a…

Following the style of the 1958 original, this third edition of the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability is both a standardized attainment test and a diagnostic test for readers of all ages and thus can be used to assess reading progress objectively as well as to obtain structured diagnostic observations of an individual's reading behavior. It…

The approach taken to testing reading comprehension in a Bombay University English program is described. A distinction is drawn between communicative and communicational teaching approaches. Reading skills and the traditional techniques for teaching them are examined, and sample reading comprehension test items using the communicational approach…

Describes an education program designed to improve the literacy of Australian students from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds and to increase their knowledge of Australian history. (HTH)

Investigates how the language in which formal education is conducted affects learners' reading ability in the context of Malawi and Zambia. Administration of English- and local-language reading tests reveals that no significant difference exists in English-language reading ability between learners in each country, but large differences in favor of…

This study was conducted in the context of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) research to conceptually validate the roles of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension in academic settings and to empirically evaluate a test measuring three elements of the depth dimension of vocabulary knowledge, including,…

Report on an experiment to discover if self-questioning as a reading strategy would help Filipino ESL students improve comprehension of English prose texts. Concludes that self-questioning as a strategy does not significantly affect comprehension despite the number and types of questions asked. (Contains 4 tables and 25 references.) (WFA)

Examines strategic differences between more and less competent novices in story-sorting, problem-solving tasks by comparing two Hong Kong primary school teachers, two competent and two less competent secondary students on problem-solving tasks. Indicates subjects used a wide variety of solution strategies. Suggests that success depended on how…