Discusses the role of visual aids in second language teaching, focusing on their ability to represent sounds or structures; portray cultural features; provide situational awareness; and elicit verbal output, both controlled and free. (39 references) (MDM)

This review of research on reading instruction uses an interactive model to identify learner characteristics, learning conditions, and language processes that are best treated through a meaning-oriented or a code-emphasis instructional program. Resulting instructional guidelines are offered. (Author/DB)

Considers how metaphor's central position in the structure of language, its contribution to concept development, and its cognitive functions endow it with properties uniquely combined to assist in the learning of grammar and vocabulary. Frames of reference based on metaphor are well placed to simplify instruction and encourage learner…

Discusses ways that whole-language teachers can address the concerns raised by parents and others about why they do not teach phonics in isolation, drill students on sight words, or expect word-perfect oral reading. Notes that teachers often need to explain and justify their expertise and teaching methods to individuals not familiar with the…

Outlines how contemporary reading theorists conceptualize reading fluency, discussing why it is a good indicator of reading process efficiency. Suggests ways to foster development of reading fluency. Children must acquire the automatic word and phrase processing that enables fluent reading and lets them allocate cognitive capacity to…

A meta-analysis of instructional research with students with learning disabilities in the domains of word recognition and reading comprehension indicates effect sizes for comprehension measures were higher when studies included derivatives of both cognitive and direct instruction, whereas effect sizes were higher for word recognition when studies…

Background: Many studies carried out in first language contexts tend to demonstrate the positive effects of activity programmes aimed at (1) developing metaphonological abilities and (2) developing language skills through active story listening on learning to read and to spell by first-grade students. Aims: This study seeks to extend previous…

Whether electronic books, CD-ROM'S, or interactive media are beneficial in teaching reading should be determined on evidence that they aid reading comprehension. Reading is worthless unless one comprehends. In order to examine the effectiveness of electronic books in a reading program, the characteristics and attributes of how…

Teachers can help parents foster emerging literacy skills in their preschool children in a way that is developmentally appropriate and fun: by collaborating to develop their child's lifelong love of reading and writing. Incorporating selected teacher-tested activities from the popular book "More Than Letters," this accessible guide…

"Phonological Awareness Training plus Letter Knowledge Training" is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children's phonological awareness, print awareness, and early reading abilities. Phonological awareness, the ability to detect or manipulate the sounds in words independent of meaning, is a precursor to reading. Phonological…

Schema Theory, the use of the learner's background knowledge for the building of new knowledge, is applied to improving reading comprehension skills and teaching vocabulary words and concepts to learning disabled students. Semantic mapping is a vocbulary strategy which produces the interaction between prior knowledge in a graphic form. For…

The use of context clues is basic to the reading act. This paper emphasizes the importance of teaching students to recognize context clues and outlines reasons for teachers' frequent failure to do so. It then suggests ways of helping students become aware of ways context clues can be of value to them as readers and of teaching them to identify…

Six learning disabled boys served as subjects in a study designed to examine the effects of two instructional conditions on word recognition. In one instructional condition, students practiced reading exclusively in connected text (contextualized practice). In a second condition, reading in connected text was supplemented with drill on isolated…

Sixty-six children from average and low-ability reading groups in grades one through five participated in a study of the effects of vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension. The children were pretested for their ability to identify words and to supply meanings for the new vocabulary words in the next basal reader story they encountered. The…

The effects of vocabulary instruction on word knowledge and reading comprehension were assessed in three experiments. In experiment one, employing 12 "average" fourth grade readers, and experiment two, employing six learning disabled intermediate level students, word synonyms were taught to pairs of students on three consecutive days.…