In order to get some idea of how 18- to 25-year-olds felt about some of their reading moments in school, a reading interest survey was given to 189 college students at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse. Females reacted more positvely to questions about the impact of teachers, home life, and methods on their feelings for reading. Oral reading…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 5 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the influence of background knowledge on non-native students' memory for reading passages, (2) the development of a reading textbook with a teacher's manual for English as a second…

A study examined how word recognition automaticity develops and its relationship to the acquisition of comprehension skill. Two different methods for teaching reading were used: (1) a global method using the Houghton Mifflin basal reading program, and (2) a code method using the New Reading System, which emphasizes word decoding skills along with…

By emphasizing the similarities between writing and speaking, writing instructors can help students generate coherent, natural sounding prose. Instructors can point out the connections between speaking and writing by (1) reading good student writing aloud, (2) having students read their work aloud in class, (3) encouraging students to develop…

A review of the literature on read-aloud programs reveals two studies that extensively examine program content and practices and teacher procedures. The first study, conducted in 1969, compiled responses from 582 intermediate teachers of grades four, five, and six throughout the United States. The second study, conducted in 1979, surveyed 29…

A discussion of the use of voice as an effective tool in second language instruction examines the role of teachers as readers, the process of selecting and interpreting texts, preparation of reading passages, and reading aloud in class. The dimension of voice added to other aspects of language emphasizes the communicative purpose of the language,…

The first two parts of a three-part final report on a series of studies that examined the nature, characteristics, and effects of verbal feedback to student reading miscues are contained in this volume. Part I consists of a summary of the nine specific objectives of the research, an overview of the project's methods, and the findings for each of…

A modified impress approach to teaching reading has been successfully used in a program involving first grade students. The program was multisensory and included aural, oral, visual, and kinesthetic learning experiences gained through listening, group discussions, dramatic play, art activities, audience reading, and recorded oral reading. These…

Research on children's oral reading errors provides evidence that both top down and bottom up processes interactively contribute to reading. Syntactic and semantic expectations are sources of information for top down processing, while knowledge of letter-sound relations provides information for bottom up processing. As children learn to read,…

A study was designed to assess the effect of text format on the decoding and comprehension proficiency of third and fifth grade students. Subjects were 36 students at each grade level who completed a battery of comprehension and decoding measures and then read a set of four stories that had been especially constructed for the study. Each story…

This study examined the reading progress under different teaching approaches of 89 children with diagnosed learning disabilities. The learning-disabled children were placed either in an experimental group that received reading instruction with materials that sequenced learning in increasingly complex levels (from letter-sound to word to context…

Many parents who wish to help their children with reading at home need assistance in choosing the right technique. This illustrated guide for parents outlines simple enrichment experiences designed to encourage and develop children's reading skills. Each experience assumes a positive parent attitude and aims at stimulating thinking and arousing…

An experiment was conducted with twenty native French speakers using a set of four reading passages, each followed by five multiple choice comprehension questions. Each subject was tested twice when reading aloud and twice when reading silently. Other test materials included a pre-test designed to check whether certain lexical items from the…

A study was conducted to further understanding of students' perceptions of the teacher's role during guided oral reading. Observations were made of 36 first through sixth grade students reading orally in groups composed of one good reader, one poor reader, and one good or poor reader playing the "teacher." The observations were followed…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the comprehension of 33 second grade students on a standardized test is the same whether the test is read silently or orally. The students silently read Level B, Form 1 of the "Gates MacGinitie Reading Test"; during the month that followed, individual students read Level B, Form 2, of the test orally,…