Reports that story-type chapters with dialogues, presented to lower secondary pupils (N=546) before they read a bio-technical text: (1) increased their objective understanding in terms, bio-technical instruction, and sequences in a process; and (2) enhanced their subjective assessment of the ease and attractiveness of the bio-technical text. (DH)

A study examined (1) relationships between background knowledge and reading passage comprehension, (2) the reliability of a passage-specific background knowledge measure used as the knowledge criterion, (3) the effect of a prereading language and concept organizer activity on available background knowledge, and (4) the effect of that prereading…

Reviews contributions made by Marie Clay to the field of reading instruction and literacy. Maintains that Clay refused to be drawn into the battle between the phonics and "whole-word" approaches to reading instruction. Discusses the current status of language instruction in Great Britain and Clay's continuing significance. (CFR)

Drawing upon research on the composing process and schema theory, a study explored the effects of a generative writing task presented prior to reading on the delayed recall of fourth grade students. The purpose of the study was to determine if a writing task that required the learner to identify with events in a text to be read later would assist…

Intended to help classroom teachers, curriculum developers, and researchers, this book provides current information on theoretical and instructional aspects of main idea comprehension. Titles and authors are as follows: "The Confused World of Main Idea" (James W. Cunningham and David W. Moore); "The Comprehension of Important…

A study investigated whether semantic feature analysis (SFA) significantly improves the content related vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension of adolescent, learning disabled readers. SFA is a set of vocabulary development activities designed to help students categorize vocabulary words and compare related ideas. Subjects, 62 learning…

Since an author does not provide all critical information, a text is never fully explicit; it demands that the reader/listener supply missing elements in order to form a coherent and logical whole. A study was conducted to explore both the types of responses urban first grade students made when asked to predict a narrative ending and differences…

Analyzes data collected from 121 primary education teachers concerning methods of teaching reading. Discovers that the majority of teachers employ a wide range of reading and writing activities. While most schools maintain a devoted commitment to reading instruction, a lack of consistency suggests a more comprehensive policy. (MJP)

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) cognitive sophistication and story recall in early adolescence, (2) readability as an interactive process, (3) a sustained silent reading program with seventh and eighth grade…