Whether vocabulary and comprehension skills as measured by a content reading test were more related to achievement than the same skills as measured by general tests was investigated. The subjects were 140 high-school juniors. Also, whether or not there was a significant difference between high and low achievers in the skills measured was assessed…

The objectives of this investigation were to study the effects of instruction in the development of qualitative vocabulary on overt, latent, and written qualitative vocabulary performance of urban students of lower socioeconomic background, and to study the effects of such instruction on pupil performance in reading comprehension. Data used to…

A study was conducted to aid in the process of finding vocabulary instruction that would lead to more effective comprehension. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in the comprehension of the two samples of students when one sample was taught the vocabulary of the entire selection while the other was taught the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 9 titles discuss the following topics: (1) a comparison of the effects of three methods of vocabulary instruction on vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension; (2) the use of an elaboration strategy combined with classroom…

In presenting a historical overview of trends in vocabulary research, this paper emphasizes the importance of word knowledge as a critical component in reading comprehension. It describes research examining current psychological and pedagogical models as they relate to vocabulary knowledge, and explores vocabulary research in the area of specific…

An ideal secondary level remedial reading program would be based on the philosophy that both freedom and structure are required, that learning demands involvement and feedback, and that success breeds success. Such programs should be structured (i.e., based on clearly defined content and a clearly designated mode of presentation). There are many…

A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more…

Cooperative classroom structures create more positive student attitudes and interpersonal relations. Their effect on student learning is less clear. TGT (Teams-Games-Tournament) is one cooperative-competitive classroom structure which facilitates learning mathematics and language arts. A study applying TGT to third grade reading classes is…

Reviews current research on free voluntary reading and discusses its benefits for vocabulary development, reading ability, writing style, spelling, grammar, pleasure, personal discovery, and literacy. Positive correlations are made between free voluntary reading and academic achievement and second-language acquisition. Eleven relevant documents…

A study examined the use of cloze procedure as a measure of learning from content instruction. Subjects were 35 physician assistant (PA) students in a cancer prevention course and 31 education students (ED) enrolled in reading instruction courses. Cloze passages were constructed from published selections on the reading process and occupationally…

Differences in reading achievement of bilingual and monolingual groups of fifth, sixth, and seventh graders were investigated in several Texas schools where the Czech-American culture was significant. Sixty-three bilingual students were compared with monolingual students who had Czech surnames or Czech-American backgrounds, on the basis of…

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…

A study was conducted to investigate children's ability to deal with multiple meaning words in isolation and in context. Four low-ability students and four high-ability students from grades two, four, and six were shown nouns rated at the prefourth, presixth, and pretenth grade levels, and asked to give the meaning of the words. Students received…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether lower-class students would exhibit greater retention of reading vocabulary with a language experience approach to reading than with a basal text approach. Sixty low socioeconomic level students from the seven first grades of one elementary school in a small South Carolina town were randomly…

To compare the effects of two different comprehension treatments on the reading of university students enrolled in a developmental reading laboratory, 74 students were administered pretests measuring reading achievement and reading attitudes and were given five weeks of instruction in text organizing strategies and vocabulary development. After…