Assesses the effects of headings on text processing behaviors during immediate and delayed testing of 65 undergraduate students. Finds that headings did not appear to affect overall comprehension or overall answer location accuracy. (MG)

Investigates whether individual differences in working-memory (WM) capacity are related to the ways readers use inferences to facilitate text comprehension. Finds several differences between low-memory-span and high-memory-span readers. Notes that readers with adequate WM capacity can keep interpretations open ended and await more information from…

Presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. Notes that the causal model identifies familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall.…

Explores the nature of point-driven and purpose-driven understanding in undergraduate and graduate students. Finds that readers following a point-driven reading strategy tend to get locked into a particular level of interpretation. Discovers an asymmetric relation between readers' main-point identification and their interpretation of the author's…

A discussion of the relationship between background knowledge and reading comprehension examines evidence that American students have insufficient world knowledge and reading ability for the demands of higher education, and suggests methods instructors can use to enrich students' prior knowledge to enhance reading comprehension. (Author/MSE)

Three experiments involving a total of 137 undergraduates examined processing and recall differences associated with two types of seductive details, highly interesting but unimportant text segments. Context-dependent and context independent details were distinguished, with context-independent seductive details recalled better than dependent…

States that previous research shows that readers who are given multiple perspectives on a domain excel in solving problems using material from that domain. Reports on three experiments that provide online evidence for a reinstatement-and-integration theory hypothesized previously as a possible processing account for problem solving with domain…

Explains how five experiments were conducted to examine readers' access to backgrounded causal information in the absence of a local coherence break. States that participants read surprise-ending stories in which some story actions were explained by information in the preceding context and others were not. Finds that participants receiving prior…

The present study examined the unique contributions of readers' goal and text structure on comprehension. In Experiment 1, participants read procedural and descriptive passages to perform the procedures, summarize the passages, or to answer questions. The perform goal showed highest comprehension, with no difference due to text type. In Experiment…

Students enter higher education with multiple identities that reflect their social, ethnic and cultural origins. Students from minority ethnic groups (as opposed to "new immigrant" or international students) straddle more than one cultural and language setting. This paper reports a Scottish study which suggests that, as university…

Questionnaires were completed by 62 college professors in a study to determine the specific reading and listening comprehension difficulties students were having in various introductory courses (including humanities, natural and social sciences, and the technical professions), and to determine the instructional techniques used by professors to…

Class activities for developing Spanish proficiency in third- and fourth-year high school students and first- and second-year college students are presented. Activities include a discussion of teaching for proficiency, drawing on recent research, and notes on the design and intent of the activities. Sample exercises for listening comprehension…

Regardless of the way in which one chooses authentic texts for a course in reading a language for special purposes, at one time or another, one is confronted with the problem of textual analysis. The analysis has to be done in view of the course objectives. A pre-instructional analysis allows the instructor to work out teaching strategies which…

This volume is part of a revision of the 1968 edition of "Elementary Modern Standard Arabic." It consists of 30 lessons covering the basic grammatical structures of Modern Standard Arabic, and presupposes a knowledge of the phonological and writing systems. The first priority is the comprehension of written materials, but other skills…

This book is presented for teachers who do not use a reading course and who wish to produce their own material as well as for individuals developing materials for tailor-made courses. Various types of reading comprehension exercises are described and classified. The exercise-types suggested can be adapted for all reading levels. The book begins…