Examines the effects of reading comprehension ability and the presence of explicit or implicit causal relationships upon recall of propositional content and comprehension of interpropositional relationships. Finds that, in the late elementary grades, better readers begin to develop a strategy for the processing of written text which involves…

Examines how vocabulary knowledge, the familiarity of words, and analytical reasoning affect sixth-grade students' ability to learn word meanings from passages in basal reading textbooks. Finds that general and passage-specific vocabulary knowledge are important variables that influence learning from context. Finds that analytical reasoning was…

Investigates the importance of using student interviews in the development of Chapter 1 diagnostic reading profiles. Finds that the type of information most often recorded in the existing reading profiles was from standardized measures. Finds that teachers and students were able to state unique and pertinent information. (RS)

Finds that teachers used more than one activity to teach new words but typically did not use activities identified in the research literature as effective; teachers' stated purposes for vocabulary instruction were congruent with the requirements of the basal reading series used; and teachers defined the importance of vocabulary knowledge in terms…

Uses hierarchical regression logic to isolate the relationship between wide reading and reading-related language development in 122 fourth graders. Finds that higher levels of wide reading were associated with stronger listening comprehension ability. Finds indirect evidence to suggest that wide readers may be increasing their listening…

Examines how bilingualism and biliteracy affect metacognition. Finds three strategies unique to successful Latina/o readers: (1) they actively transferred information across languages; (2) they translated from one language to another but most often from Spanish to English; and (3) they openly accessed cognate vocabulary when they read. (RS)

Finds an overall drop in reading attitudes across the upper elementary school years in three of the four schools examined. Reveals few significant relationships between reading attitudes and teacher-reported enrichment activities. Notes that activities that fit with a traditional, direct instruction approach to teaching reading correlated…

Compares Possible Sentences with traditional vocabulary instruction to examine the effect on student ability to pronounce and define targeted basal words. Finds that subjects were able to correctly pronounce many terms when they were presented in story context prior to actual instruction, but they could not define them. Encourages supplementing…

Compares children's learning from structurally equivalent television and print versions of two stories. Finds that children invested more mental effort in reading than watching television, but the reverse was found using reaction time as a measure; inferential learning does not go better with print at all times; and television and print are not…

Investigates the effects of instructions to induce mental imagery and attend to text illustrations on fourth graders' reading comprehension and recall of narrative text. Finds that images and illustrations independently enhanced reading performance and that, in combination, these two strategies resulted in impressive increases in children's…

Finds that children who are deaf use textual schemata (rather than content schema activated through thematic organizers) for comprehension processing while reading narrative text. (SR)

Studies fourth-grade children's lexical acquisition ability for aurally taught words. Finds that reading ability predicted facility at learning novel phonological sequences, while intelligence was the only factor which accounted for performance level for the semantic content of the words. Suggests that vocabulary deficits of less-skilled readers…

Studies error detection by Swedish children. Finds that the sixth-grade children were better at the task, that errors were easiest to detect while listening, that errors were easiest to detect from paper copy, but that fourth graders detected more errors when reading from the moving window. (RS)

Finds (1) significant increase in reading rate and comprehension as the number of repeated reading increased; (2) students trained to segment sentences read faster and scored higher in comprehension than students given intonation training but not to a statistically significant degree; and (3) no interaction between repeated readings and…

States that reading educators are becoming concerned with aliteracy and that research is only now focusing on reading habits. Studies 39 avid readers and non-avid readers to examine home and personal factors related to leisure reading habits. Discovers differences for some aspects of reading attitudes, for motivation, and for several home factors.…