Describes a college reading rate improvement course in which students review reading research regarding the variables involved in reading and explicitly analyze their own reading behavior. Argues that students aware of their own reading behavior can better plan their reading assignments. (RS)

Demonstrates the following four-stage procedure for adapting foreign-language texts to improve college students' Spanish reading proficiency: selecting specific objectives for each section; selecting the linguistic elements needed to realize objectives; stating the type of control that is expected (conceptual, partial, or full); using appropriate…

Examines the effectiveness of a remediation program that coordinated the existing remediation curriculum with required academic courses. Finds that the program was successful in improving student reading abilities, assisting them in performing well in a beginning history course and retaining them at the university. (RS)

Describes how Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading has been successfully incorporated into college reading classes with developmental learners as an authentic method of assessing and improving students' attitudes toward reading. (SR)

Describes teaching an approach to clarifying relationships among ideas in texts (based on S. Toulmin's model of argument analysis) which helps students move from teacher-directed classroom reading to independent self-monitored comprehension. (SR)

Describes a study which shows that pairing content and English classes has immediate benefits for students of English as a Second Language. Suggests that content and language learning reinforce each other. Shows that such a pairing helped ESL community college students compete with native speakers in a psychology course. (SR)

Presents annotations of eight books, journal articles, and research reports (published between 1991 and 1995) on the topic of helping underachieving readers. (RS)

Reviews research concerning computer-based reading instruction for college students. Finds that most studies suggest that computers can provide motivating and efficient learning, but it is not clear whether the computer, or the instruction via computer, accounts for student gains. Notes many methodological flaws in the studies. Suggests…

Describes a Web-based reading course for college developmental reading classes. Discusses course features, the first week of class, the benefits of Web-based instruction, old media versus new media, designing a successful site, and the benefits of patience. (SR)

A study examined the extent of peer tutors' awareness of reading comprehension problems as a source of academic difficulties. The study, conducted in the spring of 1996, used a questionnaire to determine some of the reading habits of peer tutors and their perceptions of reading comprehension difficulties among students they tutored. The…

For the first year in "what seems like eons," California's school districts will see an influx of new money, a large portion of it earmarked for developing competency in reading for students in kindergarten through grade 3. The expanded funding for reading results from a consensus among policy makers that the achievement of early…

If people can evoke mental images when listening to a story, they can extend the process by turning words on a printed page into speech and evoke images for the "speech on the page." This is an exercise for reading comprehension that does not come naturally but can be worked on deliberately. A few moments of self-observation, when…

To determine whether remedial readers in the Kean College (New Jersey) reading clinic made a significant gain in reading, 70 sample cases were taken from the 128 most recent remediation case studies in the files of the clinic. The sample included only students attending the diagnostic sessions and one remediation session. The remediation sessions…

Three studies examined the nature of individual differences and the role of advance information in reading comprehension. The subjects, 116 college students, read short passages--in some cases preceded by a given type of advance organizer--recalled the information therein, and finally sorted ideas from the passage into groups of similar ideas.…

Surveyed administrators at 25 institutions of higher learning in West Virginia concerning administrators' perception of reasons for establishing reading improvement programs, the importance of the programs, and the administrators' interest in and plans for the programs