Because thematic statements are too global to aid poor readers in comprehending texts, a series of studies using a common procedure was conducted to determine the relationship between teaching thematic concepts prior to reading and reading comprehension. The thematic organizers used in the studies contained three paragraphs that defined the…

Three experiments with 120 college undergraduates and 62 seventh graders examined the utility of inserting a delay between reading an advance organizer and its related text. A moderate delay may enhance the effects of advance organizers. Results support an "accessibility" hypothesis and do not support a "rehearsal" hypothesis.…

Examines the theoretical and research perspectives (including metacognition, schema theory, and text structure) related to the direct instruction of comprehension at the college level for developmental readers. Concludes that many such strategies are not grounded in solid research bases and recommends that future research focus on the…

Techniques to help students with language deficiencies include teacher-prepared aids to help individual work, such as marginal glosses, vocabulary guides, cued text, and advance organizers. Teacher-directed group activities include the structured overview, use of semantic webs, use of the language experience approach, and attribute/classification…

A study investigated the effects of using topic-related pictures to build and activate readers' schemata as a means of increasing background knowledge and, consequently, reading comprehension. Subjects, two special education middle school students with low scores on standardized reading comprehension and vocabulary tests, were taught to interpret…

Ways in which semantic mapping can be used for general vocabulary development, as a prewriting and prereading activity, as a postreading activity, and as a study skill strategy are presented in this teaching guide. The first two sections provide an introduction to semantic mapping, and outline the three most common uses of semantic mapping as an…

Nonverbal context is important in the language acquisition process. The present study compares different amounts and ordering of pictorial context with respect to their effect on learning word-referent relations in a second language. Twenty-five monolingual English-speaking high school students were shown twenty Spanish sentences and pictures of…

Focusing on reading comprehension instruction at the word, sentence, paragraph, and larger unit levels, the articles in this volume were drawn from a variety of sources. The three articles in the first section deal with theoretical bases and conceptual concerns. Specific topics covered include the argument for a discourse analysis model, the…

Students' macroprocessing of instruction was studied in a learning situation which used adjunct questions. The subjects were offered various macroprocessing options while reading a passage on data processing and computer programming. Each sentence appeared on a computer CRT screen one at a time. The options included: (1) review any sentence or…

This document is the United States/Canada edition of the information bulletin for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Test of Spoken English (TSE). The bulletin provides information and registration forms necessary for taking the TOEFL or TSE. The purpose of the TOEFL is to evaluate the North American English proficiency of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: children's ability to read their own dictated oral language; adjunct structure and reading comprehension; learning and comprehension of simultaneously presented stimuli in children of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: the relationship of text organization to readability and reading ability; how advance organizers, outlining, and other preparatory procedures affect learning and…

Theoreticians and empiricists have stressed the importance of organization in the learning process and, therefore, the importance of instructional strategies that help develop a child's ability to organize information. Theoreticians have also stressed the importance of the student's active participation in the learning process. The Directed…

Intended to help teachers both improve students' text comprehension and better understand the teaching-learning process involved, this book focuses on comprehension and concept development as the central core of an effective educational program. The book's five sections deal with teaching explicit comprehension skills, precomprehension and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 16 titles deal with the following topics: (1) guiding the learner through a textual passage with an associate passage; (2) use of direct-functional study skill technique in seventh grade social studies classes; (3) three types of…