Investigates whether reading ability improves when students read relatively easy library books. Compares reading achievement of students in grades three, four, and five who read books at either above or below their reading level. Finds no evidence that either group gained in reading ability. Notes that later empirical evidence indicated no actual…

A survey of the current research on readability formulas is presented in this paper, which distinguishes this research from research on the more general questions that surround formulas: What features of a text, particularly the language it is written in, make the text easy or difficult to read? and, What will predict that readers with particular…

This study is concerned with the measurement of reading flexibility. The contents include: "Review of Literature," which discusses the different concepts of reading flexibility and presents several definitions followed by a summary of variables revealed in these definitions; "Synthesis of Strengths and Weaknesses," which looks…

A standardized method, called programed prose, has been developed which can be used to automatically convert prose training material into a form which forces trainees to read the material with at least a minimal level of comprehension. From the results of a series of experimental studies, it was concluded that programed prose facilitates learning…

Explores the reading activities and kinds of materials technical and managerial people encounter. (HOD)

This feasibility study for developing a measure of effectiveness in reading contains five sections. "The Need and Requirements for a Measure of Effectiveness in Reading" presents the problem, functional specifications for a measure of effectiveness in reading, the minimum number of tasks required to uild an effectiveness measure, approaches to the…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate a methodology which could be used to estimate the reading skills of Air Force personnel and the reading requirements of different career fields in an attempt to determine the extent of the difference between the reading skills of personnel and the reading requirements of the training materials in a…

Discusses the attributes of daily comic strips that make them an ideal media for use in reading and English courses. Presents information and readability analyses of various comic strips readily available to students and teachers. Argues that comic strips can be used effectively to build reading skills and processes. (HB)

A total of 180 reports found relevant fo r the annual review of research on college-adult reading was treated under five major headings. Studies that dealt with trends, origin and development of programs, descriptions of specific programs, and the evaluation of the improvement of program participants were classified under the heading of programs.…

United States Air Force personnel at two levels of reading ability (eighth and tenth grades) were the subjects in a study that measured the effects of three experimental variables on comprehension of two text passages developed from Air Force reading materials. The factors investigated were reading ability, "literacy gap" (the difference in the…

A study examined the effects of controlled language ("primerese") on children's reading. Four primerese stories from basal readers were rewritten to make the language less controlled and more natural, and the effects of these changes on several aspects of oral reading and comprehension were examined. Sixty first graders were divided into…

This report provides a detailed account of a three-year project that sought to determine how average and above average ten- and fifteen-year-old readers in Great Britain actually used reading in school. The 11 chapters cover the following topics: the origins, background, and development of the project; the differences between spoken and written…

The proceedings of the fifth annual meeting of the College Reading Association, held in 1962, consisted of the following papers: (1) "President's Report to the College Reading Association" (Albert J. Mazurkiewicz); (2) "Medical Aspects of Written Language Disability" (James J. Smith); (3) "Research and Secondary…

For a potential drop-out who had difficulty comprehending what she had read because she could not recognize a word, even though she often knew its meaning, a methodology for teaching word decoding provided an effective technique for achieving systematic early gains. Lessons for the eighth-grade girl followed this methodology: (1) decoding the…