One element in debates over core college curricula, balancing breadth and depth of reading, is addressed from the point of view of Paulo Freire and his theory of critical literacy. Three levels at which a college course based on Freirean principles might be developed are outlined. At each level, the aim is to enhance breadth of perspective through…

This paper focuses on methods to improve the reading abilities of college students. A list of five elements college instructors (who are not reading specialists) should establish in a content reading agenda is offered; (1) an instructional basis for the reading process which will work for them; (2) content literacy environments; (3) insights into…

This digest discusses some of the ways basic skills instructors can help students become real learners. The digest argues that the "learning specialist" (a term preferable to "remedial/developmental" reading specialist) should operate from a philosophical perspective stressing strategic approaches to reading-to-learn as driven…

This book addresses a wide range of reading needs by providing exercises that focus on comprehension and word strategies. It also provides an instructional process for meeting those needs. The instructional process is individualized, and is designed to: (1) assess initial reading competence; (2) direct learners to the chapters specifically related…

This 3-year project examined the processes and strategies employed by English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and native-English-speaking students when learning from academic texts. A conceptual model guided the analysis of talk aloud protocols elicited from students as they answered questions from textbook materials used in an introductory…

Students at the secondary and postsecondary levels exhibit difficulty in the oral reading of scientific terminology, in part because of the abundance of polysyllabic words derived from Greek and Latin. Some of the problems observed include faulty stress placement, vowel insertion and deletion, vowel discrimination, and consonant insertion. Such…

A study reanalyzed data from two previous studies to investigate (1) validity of imagery ratings and reports as measures of reader response to a story, and (2) similarity of final regression models for recall and imagery reports. Imagery and affect ratings of story paragraphs were found to predict both imagery reports and recall of a second,…

Eighty-two undergraduate and graduate students at a major southwestern university participated in a study integrating reading research utilizing tachistoscopes with current knowledge based on analysis of reading connected texts. A tachistoscope was used to examine the nature of visual perception in relation to the ability of the subjects to apply…

Intended for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in reading methods, as well as by classroom teachers, this book brings together teaching strategies and materials suggested by recent developments in the study of reading comprehension. Each of the eight chapters includes the background and rationale for the practices described. The first…

Noting the growing interest in recent years in the use of mentalistic measures in studying the reading process, this paper draws upon findings of studies conducted at the Hebrew University in Israel to show how mentalistic measures have been used effectively in reading research. Following a discussion of the unique role mentalistic data can play…

Designed to introduce the study skills needed for college work for students in grades 11 through 13, this teacher's guide provides a series of 12 activity-oriented units, most of which require from 70 to 100 minutes of instructional time. The guide is designed to address a wide range of student needs, allow for the participation of students with a…

The 12 activity-oriented units described in this study skills guide are designed to help students in grades 11 through 13 become more skillful at learning on their own. The guide addresses a wide range of student needs, allows for the participation of students with a diversity of skills, and promotes learning on various levels of competence. The…

A study investigated whether exposure to contrastive rhetoric would deepen international students' awareness of first- and second-language conventions characterizing their own and other students' writing. Participants included 46 University of Arizona students who represented a variety of language backgrounds and were enrolled in four sections of…

In order to test the efficacy of having college students read texts in which phrase boundaries are explicitly cued, the phrased text treatments were administered to 42 college students from 3 developmental reading courses in one southeastern university. An experimental group was given the phrased texts, while a control group was given the…

The concept of metacognition involves two processes: an awareness of certain skills--strategies and resources that are needed to perform a task effectively--and the ability to use self-regulatory mechanisms to ensure the successful completion of the given task. A review of the literature suggests that (1) metacognitive development differs among…