A look at one adult literacy class in India indicated that, despite apparently ideal educational conditions, students remained almost illiterate. The author comments on the results and speculates on the reasons. (MF)

Compares gains in reading rate and comprehension of students using traditional texts and those using a computer-based, commercially prepared, speed reading package. Offers recommendations for the use of computers in college reading courses, focusing on hardware/software needs and student/teacher responsibilities. (DMM)

Experiments with 12 sixth-grade students doing mathematics assignments and 9 students doing reading assignments under differing conditions of radio and television distraction indicate no sizable distractor effects on time studying, accuracy of computation or reading comprehension, and reading rate. Results are consistent with the conceptualization…

Discusses a study of the relationship of Australian elementary school students' word reading strategies to comprehension level, reading time, and phonemic awareness. Reports that performance in reading both irregular and nonsense words is a reasonably good predictor of subsequent performance. Recommends remedial training for students lacking…

Presents multimedia tools to enhance language arts and social studies lessons. These include stories on video; a computer program for increasing reading speed; and Educast, a free online service that gives teachers access to up-to-the-minute news along with extension activities and Internet-based, cross-curricular lesson plans. (SM)

A 2 x 3 factorial design was employed to assess the efficacy of peer teaching and token reward contingencies (contingent tokens, noncontingent "yoked" tokens, and no tokens) in a remedial reading program. The relationship between on-task performance and reading improvement was also assessed. Forty-two fourth grade to sixth grade rural Appalachian…

Three experiments, in which subjects read passages of variable readability, measured "cognitive capacity usage" (the attention level to reading material) by recording by subjects reaction times in a secondary task (responding to a "click"). The data indicated that the easy texts filled cognitive capacity more completely than the difficult texts,…

Three techniques for teaching effective reading--using students' textbooks, reading modules, and individual instructional packets--have proven successful in reducing reading time while improving comprehension skills for students in a reading and study skills course at a Texas university. Students assigned to the course use their content area…

THIS EXPERIMENT WAS DESIGNED TO FURTHER EARLIER INVESTIGATIONS OF THE GENERAL "SUBSTRATA-FACTOR THEORY OF READING" AND TO TEST TWO HYPOTHESES AT THE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL OF SUCH KNOWN-GROUPS AS (1) TOTAL, (2) BOYS VERSUS GIRLS, (3) BRIGHT VERSUS DULL, (4) FAST VERSUS SLOW READERS, AND (5) POWERFUL VERSUS NONPOWERFUL READERS. THE MAJOR…

READING COMPREHENSION OF BLIND CHILDREN READING BRAILLE SELECTIONS WAS COMPARED WITH COMPREHENSION OF BLIND CHILDREN WHO HEARD THE SAME SELECTIONS AT VARIED RATES. CHANGES IN WORD RATES WERE ACCOMPLISHED WITH SPEECH COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES. APPROXIMATELY 290 BRAILLE READERS OF BOTH SEXES FROM SIXTH-, SEVENTH-, AND EIGHTH-GRADE RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS…

TRENDS EVIDENT IN ADULT READING DURING THE 1960'S IN THE AREAS OF ADMINISTRATION, PROGRAMS, TEACHING, TECHNIQUES, RESEARCH PROJECTS, AND METHODS OF PROMOTION OF READING PROGRAMS ARE DISCUSSED. TWO INSTANCES OF COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION BASED ON INTENSE AND OFTEN FALLACIOUS ADVERTISING AND ON PUBLIC IGNORANCE ARE CITED. A POSITIVE TREND IN THE AREA…

TO COMPARE THREE METHODS OF TRAINING FOR READING IMPROVEMENT, 56 EXECUTIVES OF ONE CORPORATION WERE DIVIDED INTO FOUR GROUPS, EQUATED ACCORDING TO READING RATE, READING COMPREHENSION, READING INDEX, MENTAL ALERTNESS SCORES, AGE, AND VOCABULARY. GROUP A WAS TRAINED WITH THE AID OF ALL AVAILABLE COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT INCLUDING THE HARVARD FILMS, THE…

A sample of 48 second grade and fifth grade children, containing equal numbers of high and low ability readers, participated in a study that explored the degree to which oral and silent reading represented the same cognitive process for different age and ability level children. Their reading rates and comprehension scores for both oral and silent…

After a consideration of the causes of ineffective reading, this publication presents organized lessons (including 50 reading selections) for improving adult reading skills, and specific suggestions for securing the main idea, developing word power, developing such skills as skimming, following directions, visualization, and perceptual ideas, and…

This case study reports the use of token reinforcement in remedial reading instruction with an eleven-year-old boy from rural Appalachia. During phase one, tokens were given for reading 50-word passages without error; token value was contingent upon the number of attempts necessary to read without error. During phase two, words missed in phase one…