Previous research has demonstrated that readers utilize orthographic structure in their perceptual recognition of letter strings. Two experiments were conducted to assess whether this utilization varied with reading ability. Anagrams of words were made to create strings that orthogonally combined high and low single letter positional frequency and…

The major purpose of this study was to provide insights into some of the reasoning strategies that may be used by students in obtaining meaning from the printed page. The study was designed to collect and analyze the verbal protocols of 11 seventh grade students involved in introspection as they responded to standardized measures of reading…

Through the meaningful interpretation of sensory data and a background in language experiences, an individual can build more effective knowledge structures. With more effective knowledge structures, one can react more discriminatingly to the written and printed word. Sound knowledge structures involve not only the ability to organize and…

In an investigation of the "shaping" function of postquestions in prose and of a new methodological approach, fifth-grade children read forty text cards, each consisting of four attributive statements. Each card was followed by an experimental question, which during training tested information related to specified concepts or positions, or…

The process of reading and how children learn to read is the focus of this book. Practical experience is related to studies in developmental psychology, and the special needs of individual children are also considered. The basic areas of consideration are: (1) learning theories and the reading process, (2) stages in cognitive growth and reading,…

The preliterate child must acquire from reading instruction at least the following skills: (a) appropriate scanning behavior, (b) letter and word recognition, (c) letter-sound generalizations, and (d) comprehension of written materials, at least to the degree that the reader can comprehend the same message when received aurally. Almost all modern…

The National Assessment of Reading was not based on any one particular approach to the subject of reading. Its primary assumption was that information would help anyone who is interested in reading--regardless of his approach to the subject--determine for himself how well Americans read. The results of this assessment are reported according to a…

There seems to be a pendulum in the field of education that sways from one extreme to another when a teaching method is introduced. The whole language concept caught on, and phonics instruction was then considered defunct. The pendulum now in the process of swinging back is being intercepted, before it goes to the extreme of "all…

Discusses Piaget's notion of intelligence, characteristics of formal operational thought, and the relationship between formal thought and reading ability. (HOD)

Reports two studies using a microcomputer-driven self-paced reading task to examine reading strategies of good and poor readers. Finds that reading ability influences reading strategies differently according to whether text is presented in single words or in phrases, and that poor readers read more slowly than good readers. (RS)

Notes that the goal of interactive assessment is to discover the conditions under which a student will succeed in reading, rather than simply describing a student's current status as a reader. Illustrates the differences between static and interactive assessment by presenting a case study of a seventh grade at-risk student. (RS)

Examined whether age-related change in naming time reflects automatic access of familiar names because of greater familiarity with the named objects or global change in speed of processing. The path analyses and structural-equation modeling of 8- to 13-year olds were consistent with the second explanation. Time and age were linked to reading…

Reinterprets the question of whether second-language reading is a language problem (linguistic threshold) or a reading problem (linguistic interdependence), using data from a study of 186 adult native English speakers reading in English and Spanish. Results indicated that neither hypothesis is wholly reflective of the second-language reading…

Examined three factors that influence rereading transfer in children: story relatedness, reading ability, text difficulty. In four experiments, elementary school students read pairs of texts related by word overlap, content overlap, both kinds of overlap, or no overlap at all. Extent to which children benefited from word or content overlap…