While the importance of academic language and literacies in students' meaningful participation in higher education has been well-explored, studies have focused on writing rather than reading. There has been a significant silence in the literature around what constitutes reading in higher education, the sociocultural complexities of reader…

One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found…

Increasing multiculturalism and globalization have resulted in new literacies in Australia and other Western countries. "Reading between the lines" is a critical skill that children need to develop as they grapple with stories and information from other socio-cultural settings. The parable is an excellent conventional literary device for…

Reports results of two national literacy and numeracy testing programs in Australia revealing that there is a sizable fringe group of people unable to function effectively because they cannot meet minimal demands of reading skills. (JL)

This study attempted to determine whether the findings of psycholinguists to syntax and reading comprehension could be generalized to children of other English-speaking cultures. Specifically, the influence of material written at different levels of syntactic maturity (according to the T-unit analysis) upon the reading comprehension of selected…

Reports results of literacy tests of 5,500 10-year-old and 5,100 14-year-old students throughout Australia in 1980. Compares these results with those of testing in 1975, pointing out that in reading, overall results were almost identical, while in writing some tasks showed improvement. (JM)

Compares the reading and comprehension ages of children who were in Reading Recovery at age 6 to those in a comparison group as they enter their fifth and sixth years in school. Reports that the ex-Reading Recovery children were 12 and 13 months superior in terms of reading and comprehension ages, respectively. (CMK)

This paper reports on a series of three studies designed to assess the effectiveness of a metacognitive approach to teaching word identification and reading comprehension skills to upper primary poor readers, and to investigate effective methods for implementing the metacognitive program in the regular classroom. To improve word identification…

Children's mastery of reading skills would be facilitated if reading programs capitalized on children's already-developed oral language competence. Barriers against "reading for meaning" exist when the cues used for predicting in oral language are not present in the written language which confronts children; yet anaylses of four reading…

Examines the word-reading strategies of a sample of second- and third-grade students in normal classrooms, focusing on the students' relative reliance on decoding versus sight-word associations. Suggests that lack of efficient decoding skills will begin to take a toll on reading comprehension by grade 3. (SR)

States that there is concern in Western nations that literacy rates are falling. Asserts Reading Recovery programs can reverse this trend. Reports on evaluation studies of Reading Recovery and contends that the short-term gains that result from Reading Recovery programs require further research. (CFR)

A study examined reading performance, metacognitive knowledge about reading, awareness of the conventions about print, perceptions of reading ability, and causal attributions for success and failure in reading of children with reading difficulties in Year 2 in Australia. One hundred children from the Brisbane region were involved in the…

Reports on a study that found that children who read, write, and discuss whole texts of their own choice show remarkable insights into literature and its making, and that the insights match those of experienced adult literary critics. (SKC)

The first of a two-volume set, this monograph concentrates on a rapidly developing area of reading research, comprehension. Eleven articles cover theoretical aspects, ways of measuring comprehension, and strategies for teaching. Sense of story and its effect on comprehension and the facility to read, listen to, retell, and create stories are…

A study investigated ways of establishing links between different methods of reading instruction, children's conceptualizations of the reading process, and children's actual reading behavior. Two instruments were used to assess the relationships between the three variables: a revised version of "The Reading Miscue Inventory" and…