Interrelationships between productive oral proficiency in black dialect and in standard English and reading comprehension of passages differing in dialect and content were investigated in a sample of 98 sixth-grade black students. Results indicated that students were better readers as their oral patterns of speech were more representative of…

This paper addresses the study of children's reading interests and their attitudes toward reading as these factors relate to leisure-time reading. The problem of poor performances on measures of reading achievement by African-American children from low-income families has been studied for over 3 decades. Additionally, sociocultural and…

In order to examine factors associated with success in reading, reading teachers in four middle schools identified low-income black students in grades six, seven, and eight who met specified criteria for success or failure in reading. Results from a series of affective tests indicated that significant relationships existed between low-income black…

A study explored the lives of families and successful readers within "at-risk" environments. This inquiry sought to identify and understand the home and family characteristics that enable children to defy the myths and become successful readers and literacy users, when individuals and institutions would suggest they would fail. Through…

A study investigated the efficacy of using the Language Experience Approach (LEA) with a 15-year-old special education fifth-grade rural black student who did not seem to benefit from traditional skills training procedures. The subject was reading below the first grade level and was a sole survivor of two parallel single-subject design studies.…