Finds that Japanese fifth graders' naming speed was a good indicator of the automaticity of the lexical access for both syllabaries and morphograms, but that skilled/less-skilled differences in vocalization latencies were greater for real words than for pseudowords for both hiragana and kanji. Discusses the applicability of C. A. Perfetti's verbal…

Tests the effectiveness of an instructional graphic (frames) on fourth and fifth grade students' ability to learn from reading their social studies textbooks. Finds that, for fifth grade students, framing was a more effective instructional technique than was the instruction suggested in the teacher's edition of the regular classroom social studies…

Explores the role of literacy and curriculum in identity construction among fifth graders. Suggests: (1) there was a coherence of perspectives about six of the students while there was less agreement for the other six students; (2) literacy was a more important feature of some students' identities than others; and (3) the literacy curriculum…

Concludes that when presented stories, some of which were inconsistent because of missing pages, less skilled readers were poorer at reporting a missing page, placing it correctly, and fixing the story than were skilled readers. Stories are appended. (FL)

Examines the effects of teaching individual word meanings and deriving word meaning from context. Concludes that instruction in individual word meanings effectively teaches specific word meanings, training in deriving meaning from context improves students' ability to derive word meanings, and practice in either method leads to higher levels of…

Examines how dimensions of reading motivation related to students' reading activity and achievement. Finds that the strength of the relations between reading motivation and reading achievement was greater for girls and for white students. Demonstrates that reading motivation is multidimensional and should be regarded as such in research and in…

Reports a study indicating that students who received instructions to induce mental imagery identified both explicit and implicit inconsistencies in text significantly more often than did those in a control group, supporting the use of mental imagery as a comprehension-monitoring strategy. (HTH)

Presents results of a study of fifth-grade students' ability to interpret novel metaphors and similes when provided with a subschemata of semantic attributes. (AEA)

Explores reader and text effects on the production of mental imagery during and after reading a poem, a story, and two expository texts. Finds that imagery occurs spontaneously during and after reading all texts and that the production of imagery is affected by both reader and text. (RS)

Finds an immediate and delayed effect of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction for lesson words; an immediate effect of the instruction for transfer words; no evidence the instruction enhanced students' text comprehension; and students were generally just as effective at inferring word meanings when the instruction was provided in…

Looks at literature discussion groups from the student's perspective. Finds three major themes: (1) students have a clear notion of the conditions that are conducive to effective discussions; (2) students perceived the gender make-up of their group to influence how they participated in and experienced their discussions; and (3) students found the…

Reports on a study designed to determine the effects of preteaching vocabulary of differing levels of importance to a text using two different methods of instruction on children's comprehension of basal stories. Concludes that, in general, the results supported the growing evidence for the "direct effect" of instruction on children's text…

Investigates whether the use of the computer to mediate text affects reading comprehension and concludes that computer-mediated text can influence reading comprehension and that comprehension was most consistently increased when manipulations of the text were under computer control. (HOD)

Supports the hypothesis that, with time held constant, children instructed to build relationships between text and their knowledge and experience and among the different parts of a text comprehend that text better than do children who are not so instructed. (AEA)