The minimum competency goal that now dominates college basic skills instruction is not adequate to prepare the student for success in and beyond college. More can be accomplished within basic skills courses than the mere acquisition of literal information from a reading selection. The use of thematic unity can impose meaningful organization on the…

This study investigated the effects of hypnosis on the learning of reading skills and academic skills. The general hypothesis was that hypnotic suggestions related to the curriculum of a course for improvement of academic and study skills would facilitate students' academic skill learning. Ninety-three male and female students enrolled in a course…

A longitudinal study was conducted to determine the relative effectiveness of a developmental reading course taught to students in a college of nursing. Forty-two students in the experimental group were enrolled in a ten-week developmental reading course during the first semester of their freshman year; the control group, also composed of 42…

This study investigated the effect of embedded parts (intervening words between the main subject and verb of a sentence) on young readers' abilities to comprehend when the embedded parts do not present a significant change in sentence structure. Two schools in Bemidji, Minnesota, were selected for the study: school one is located in a low…

In three studies subjects read two successive passages and then were tested for retention of the first. Each passage described the characteristics of a series of entities (diseases or countries) along a series of dimensions (symptoms, cause, etc., or climate, soil type, etc.). The first passage described five diseases and was organized by name;…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between reading ability and self-concept of academic ability. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was administered to 253 freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior college subjects. The scores attained by the subjects were used to classify the subjects as reading above actual grade…

With increased awareness of the reading problems of college students, more attention in recent years has been focused on dyslexia. No reliable figures exist on the occurrence of dyslexia among college students, but 10 percent is a representative estimate among elementary students; hence there would logically be fewer dyslexic college students.…

Explains why the frequently taught study skill method SQ3R--survey, question, read, recite, review--works is based on an information processing theory of learning. (MKM)

Refutes six arguments commonly used to discredit remedial teaching of decoding skills to young adults in order to motivate both researchers and teachers to reexamine the role of decoding skills in reading in the upper grades and beyond. (SKC)

Offers several reasons why English teachers should set aside the notion of literature and center teaching around the related but distinct notion of textuality. Discusses why the study of textuality should play a major role in a full curriculum aimed toward the development of alert, aware citizens. (JD)

A study correlating Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores with American College Testing Program Assessments (ACT) indicates that reading skill can be predicted accurately from the ACT social studies reading and English usage subtests. (MSE)

Describes an assignment for students in content-based classes for English as a second language in which they read, listen, discuss, and write about a current topic in the business world. (DF)

Individual differences in working memory capacity affect the probability of resolving apparent inconsistencies in sentences. Resolution was less likely for readers with small working memories. Such readers devote so many resources to reading processes that they have less capacity for retaining earlier verbatim wording in working memory. (Author/RD)

This paper demonstrates how attention to developmental skills at every stage of language instruction enhances mastery of specific structural targets. A college German course in which a high degree of reading comprehension is the objective is used; Modified-Adjective Construction is the specific structural target. (CHK)

Standards of literacy in America have been severely criticized recently, but the author points out that the complaint was heard at least 100 years ago. The illusions surrounding America's literate past are shattered and reasons for the proportion of literate people remaining the same are explained. (Author/LBH)