The improvement of college students' reading rate and comprehension is a major educational concern. Many students arrive at college unprepared for the massive amount of required reading. This study presents several attempts to improve vocabulary, reading rate, and comprehension and addresses tangential issues related to the improvement of reading…

Notes that as student enrollment in colleges and universities has increased, there has simultaneously been a proliferation of developmental skills programs. Presents some empirical evidence of the effectiveness of three reading skills courses. Suggests that underprepared readers' success in college is directly related to taking and passing a…

Discusses comments about and responses to an article on semiotics by Donald J. Cunningham in the June 1992 issue of the "Educational Psychology Review." Discusses the semiotic method of juxtaposition, juxtaposing a menace being posed to reading teachers with the menace experienced in W. W. Jacobs' classic ghost story "The Monkey's Paw." (SR)

Offers a brief history of college level reading programs from the 1920s to the present. Concludes that, despite past trials and errors, most established college reading programs appear to be in firm ground. (PRA)

Describes a vocabulary project in which developmental college students created and distributed word lists to the class, and provided and administered quizzes for their word lists. Finds that students who participated in the 1000-word project scored significantly higher on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test than students who studied vocabulary using…

A study was conducted to investigate the effects of humor on the performance of college freshmen on the Nelson Denny Reading Post Test. The subjects, 36 college freshmen from two developmental reading improvement classes, were randomly assigned to experimental A or B or control sample groups. Students had previously taken forms F and C of the test…

Provides a facetious look at the declining literacy rate by using a fairy-tale motif to ridicule some of the current practices that are intended to solve the reading problem in the nation's schools. (RB)

Proposes that the difficulty of many developmental/remedial college students is not a specific reading or writing problem but insufficient precollege experience with written discourse. Discusses the impact of reading instruction on writing and of writing instruction on reading. (Author/FL)

Contends that teaching students to read is the same as teaching historical interpretation. Provides a framework for teaching historical interpretation through a case study of books concerning Thomas Jefferson and his alleged illegitimate children. Identifies motives governing academic writing. Provides an analytical framework for historical…

Describes how reading for pleasure for 20 minutes of each class period in a beginning, intermediate-level reading course for adults in English as a Second Language resulted in language development in terms of reading, writing, and comprehension, as well as increased confidence. (SR)

Presents an inventory intended to make junior high through college students think about what they do while reading and help them become aware of metacognitive strategies. Suggests that the inventory may provide teachers with at least some basic ideas of what their students know with respect to achieving higher levels of comprehension. (RS)

Studies the number of reading articles published in major journals by the leading research universities' reading faculties. Presents institutional productivity ratings of various universities. Provides data from several time periods. Finds that several institutions continue to make substantial scholarly contributions. (HB)

Studies the different effects on college readers of mnemonic imagery conditions compared to no-strategy control conditions. Indicates that both remedial and nonremedial readers scored significantly higher through exposure to mnemonic imagery conditions. (HB)

Considers the significant processes shared by the acts of reading and writing. Argues for the use of literary response to enhance the productivity of the reading-writing connections. Discusses literary reading and response and their potential pedagogical value in reading-writing activities. (HB)