bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oral and Written Language Mode Adaptations in Stories by Kindergarten Children
Authors: Sulzby Elizabeth
Published: December 2009

The study describes differences between two kinds of oral production, told and dictated stories, by kindergarten children who vary in emergent reading ability. Two replications of told, dictated, and handwritten story sets were elicited from 24 kindergarten children who were not being instructed in reading and writing. Re-reading attempts were collected and used to derive Judgments of Emergent Reading Abilities for Dictated and Handwritten Stories. The Judgments and scores from a traditional readiness test were significantly correlated. Results from examination of story characteristics indicated that children's oral productions signalled differences between told and dictated stories; that children adapted told stories toward the related language mode of conversation and adapted dictated stories toward the related mode of handwritten composition; and that these adaptations were related to degree of reading-related abilities for children at extremes of the distribution.
Differences between Oral and Written Discourse and the Acquisition of Reading Proficiency
Authors: Leu Donald J.
Published: December 2009

Examines discourse conflicts between the structure of written text and the oral expectations of young readers. Twenty-eight second grade students read and retold two stories: one with oral and one with written discourse structures. ANOVA results suggest that written discourse stories were more difficult to comprehend. In addition, an interaction appeared between familiarity with written discourse structures and comprehension of the two story versions. As familiarity with written discourse structures increased, the interference effect on reading comprehension decreased. Oral reading error results paralleled these findings, suggesting that expectations based on a knowledge of oral discourse structures may, in some cases, actually interfere with the reading comprehension of young readers.
Effects of Facultative Questions and Practice on Intermediate Students' Understanding of Character Motives
Authors: Carnine Douglas , Stevens Candy , Clements Jean , Kameenui Edward J.
Published: December 2009

The study investigated the effects of a six-step facultative questioning strategy, a practice with feedback strategy and a no-intervention strategy on intermediate-grade children's ability to make inferences about a character's motives. The results of the study indicate that both the facilitative questioning strategy and the practice with feedback strategy contributed significantly to intermediate grade students' ability to make inferences about a character's motives. The results of this study indicate that a practice with feedback procedure would be a more efficient strategy for practitioners to employ in teaching children to identify character motives since it requires far less teaching time than a complex questioning procedure.
Metacognitive Knowledge about Reading Proficiency: Its Relation to Study Strategies and Task Demands
Authors: Alvermann Donna E. , Ratekin Ned H.
Published: December 2009

Ninety-eight average 7th- and 8th-grade readers were assigned to one of four groups based on their own proficiency predictions (high vs. low) under two task demands (reading for essay vs. multiple-choice exams). Subjects read one of two folk tales, took the appropriate exam, retrospectively reported strategies used, and freely recalled the folk tale read. Results indicated that when scores on the essay and free recall measures were adjusted for prior reading achievement, the self-perceived high proficiency group performed significantly better than the self-perceived low proficiency group. There was also some evidence to suggest that students' perceptions of proficiency affected their choice of strategic activity. Implications of these findings for educational practice and research methodology are discussed.
The Effects of Coherence Explicitness on College Readers' Prose Comprehension
Authors: Irwin Judith Westphal
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to investigate the comparative effects of the ex-plicitness of two types of intersentential coherence relations on college students' comprehension. The explicitness of argument repetitions (AR) and connective concepts (CC) was varied across forms of an experimental passage resulting in the following four versions: explicit AR/implicit CC, explicit CC/implicit AR, both explicit, both implicit. College students were randomly assigned to one of the four versions. They silently read the passage and then immediately wrote their recall protocols. The results indicated that there were no significant differences among the groups at either the micro or macro levels in terms of reading times, amount recalled, or reading time/amount recalled ratios. There were, however, significant differences among the variances in the four groups. These results are discussed in terms of processing theories and in terms of possible individual difference variables.
Students' Studying Processes on Course Related Texts: The Impact of Inserted Questions
Authors: Schumacher Gary M. , Moses John D. , Young Daniel
Published: December 2009

This article reports the results of two studies which investigated the impact of inserted questions on the studying activities of students reading their own course related materials. In both studies macro eye-movements of the students were monitored as they studied texts with or without inserted questions. In Study 1, involving 36 undergraduate university students, the Question Group showed more lookbacks to relevant information than the No Question Group with one of two sets of questions, and more lookbacks to incidental information with both sets of questions. However, neither reading time nor performance on a test differed between the two groups. Study 2 was designed to extend the findings to elementary school children and to examine the effects of ability. A sample of 54 fifth-grade better and poorer readers were given course related materials either with or without inserted questions. Children given inserted questions did not look back to relevant material more often than children without questions. Poorer readers given one of two sets of inserted questions did look back to incidental material more often than poorer readers without questions, but this was not the case with better readers. Presence of questions did not influence test performance; however, better readers scored higher on the test than poorer readers. Generally, it was concluded that inserted questions do influence students' studying activities on their own texts where text access is allowed but that questions inserted in such situations have little impact on test performance.
Depth of Processing and Text Recall in Adulthood
Authors: Dixon Roger A. , von Eye Alexander
Published: December 2009

The depth of processing model suggests that incidental learning occurs at various “depths” corresponding to the degree of semantic analysis. Because deep processing is associated with improved recall, and because older adults generally perform at a lower level than younger adults, this model has been applied to aging research. The present study examined the validity of this model by comparing a sample of three German adult age groups with a similar sample in an earlier American study. Specifically, subjects read a 500-word narrative under one of four conditions: (a) a shallow, nonsemantic orienting task; (b) and (c) two deep, semantic orienting tasks; or (d) an intentional condition. Results indicated that, overall, younger adults performed better than older adults, that recall in the intentional condition was significantly better than in the two deep processing conditions, and recall in these conditions was better than in the shallow condition. Cross-sample comparisons and subsequent implications for the validity of the model are discussed.
The Effects of Time, Access, and Question Type on Response Accuracy and Frequency of Lookbacks in Older, Proficient Readers
Authors: Alexander Patricia A. , Hare Victoria Chou , Garner Ruth
Published: December 2009

This investigation examined the effects of variation in conditions for learning on lookback use and response accuracy in proficient readers and explored readers' awareness of their strategic behavior. Fifty-two college undergraduates studied a 1300-word expository passage and answered three text-based questions and one reader-based question. Half of the subjects worked under a 10-minute time limit, while the others had unlimited time. For half of the subjects, questions were presented with the passage; for the other half, questions were received after the passage had been studied and turned over. Analysis revealed that subjects who had the questions presented with the text looked back more and responded more accurately than did those receiving questions separately. Time limit did not affect use of lookbacks or accuracy, and subjects looked back for text-based questions only. Based on comparison with observational data, post-task verbal reports were found to be fairly accurate records of lookback use.
A Technique for the Assessment and Training of Comprehension Monitoring Skills
Authors: Grabe Mark , Mann Steve
Published: December 2009

More skilled and less skilled upper-elementary readers and college students played reading games in which they tried to determine if prose statements were internally consistent or inconsistent. The elementary students were assigned either to a control condition in which they played only the pre- and posttest versions of the reading games or to a training condition in which they were provided exposure to similar games in an effort to improve their comprehension monitoring skills. Ability group comparisons indicated significant differences in monitoring skill. Training resulted in a significant increase in monitoring proficiency. However, the training advantage was limited to an improvement in the ability to identify consistent statements.
A Shift from Phonological Recoding to Direct Access in Reading as a Result of Previous Exposure
Authors: Zecker Steven G. , DuMont Mark
Published: December 2009

The present study examined the effect of repeated exposures of a visually presented phrase on the mode of lexical access (phonological recoding vs. visual mediation) used. Subjects made meaningfulness decisions about two- and three-word phrases. Following five exposures to each phrase, some of which sounded meaningful but were not (“drops of do”), and others which were neither (“nut and bout”), the significant reaction time advantage on the first exposure for rejecting the latter phrase type was eliminated. Results supported the dual access hypothesis that subjects use phonological recoding upon initial exposure to a phrase, but following repeated exposures are able to use direct visual access. A dual access model compatible with these results is discussed.
The Effect of Three Forms of Summarization Instruction on Sixth Graders' Summary Writing and Comprehension
Authors: Bean Thomas W. , Steenwyk Fern L.
Published: December 2009

Three forms of summarization instruction comprised the treatment and control conditions explored in this study of sixth graders. The two treatment groups received direct instruction in either a rule-governed approach to summarization or an intuitive approach. A control group simply received advice to find main ideas with no explicit modeling. Two dependent measures were used to judge the efficacy of the three instructional approaches to summarization: (a) a paragraph summary writing task and (b) a standardized test of paragraph comprehension. On both measures, treatment groups significantly outperformed the control group. The results are discussed from the perspective of a combined textlinguistic and direct instruction model of learning.
The Relationship between the Use of Study Strategies and Test Performance
Authors: Nist Sherrie L. , Simpson Michele L. , Hogrebe Mark C.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the use of appropriate study strategies and test scores on three different content area exams. The subjects were 37 students enrolled in an upper level college reading course who had been taught to use and apply a variety of effective study strategies. Prior to receiving test results, subjects were asked to write out in detail how they prepared for each exam. Responses were coded as positive or negative, and a composite score of the positive minus the negative behaviors was also computed. The behavior scores were then correlated with test scores. The results indicated a high correlation between the use of positive strategies and test performance. Implications of the findings as well as recommendations for further research are discussed.
Instructional Objectives in Text: Managing the Reader's Attention
Authors: Britton Bruce K. , Glynn Shawn M. , Muth K. Denise , Penland M. J.
Published: December 2009

It is well established that the provision of instructional objectives before reading a text increases the learning of objective-relevant material in the text. The purpose of the present study was to identify some of the mechanisms by which objectives affect learning. College students studied text under three conditions: with specific objectives, with a general objective, and with no objectives. The objective-relevant material was located either high or low in the content structure of the text. The dependent measures were secondary task reaction time—a measure of cognitive capacity use—reading time, and free recall for objective-relevant material. The results indicated that with specific objectives, the secondary-task reaction times while reading objective-relevant material were longer, reading times were longer, and recall was greater than with either a general objective or with no objectives. Reading times were significantly correlated with recall, but secondary task reaction times were not. In addition, more information was recalled when the objective-relevant material was located high in the text structure. The interpretation of these results is that, with specific objectives, students devote more cognitive capacity to objective-relevant material, spend more time reading it, and recall more of it than when they do not have specific objectives.
Reading Achievement and Automatic Recognition of Words and Pseudowords
Authors: De Soto Janet L. , De Soto Clinton B.
Published: December 2009

Picture-word interference tasks were used to examine the relationship between reading achievement and the automatic recognition of familiar and less familiar words and pseudowords. Superimposed upon pictures (line drawings) were pronounceable nonwords (pseudowords), letter strings, and sets of words which varied over four levels of difficulty, from first-grade nouns to fourth-and fifth-grade nouns. The results of this study indicate that achieving ( n = 60) and nonachieving ( n = 60) fourth-grade readers show similar automatic recognition of both familiar and less familiar words. As the words increased in difficulty, interference with picture naming decreased for readers in both groups. Interference from pseudowords was evident for only the achieving readers, an indication that automatic recoding skills had not yet been attained by the nonachieving readers.
The Effects of Repeated Readings and Attentional Cues on Reading Fluency and Comprehension
Authors: O'Shea Lawrence J. , Sindelar Paul T. , O'Shea Dorothy J.
Published: December 2009

The failure of some researchers to find improved reading comprehension with increased fluency may result from the assumption that readers automatically shift attention to comprehension when fluency is established. Research on cuing readers to a purpose in reading suggests that a simple cue about comprehension may be sufficient to prompt this attentional shift. In this study, the effects of repeated readings and attentional cues on measures of reading fluency and comprehension were examined. Thirty third graders read separate passages one, three, and seven times following cues to attend to either reading rate or meaning. After the final reading of each passage, the students retold as much of the story as they could. Fluency and proportion of story propositions retold were analyzed in repeated measures analyses of variance. Significant main effects for both repeated readings and attentional cues were obtained on both dependent measures. Thus, both fluency and comprehension increased as the number of repeated readings increased. In addition, readers cued to fluency read faster but comprehended less than those cued to comprehension. These results suggest that increasing fluency is a less efficient means of improving comprehension than presenting cues about comprehension.
Memory for Sentences and Prose: Levels-of-Processing or Transfer-Appropriate-Processing?
Authors: Glover John A. , Rankin Joan , Langner Nancy , Todero Cathy , Dinnel Dale
Published: December 2009

Four experiments were conducted in order to contrast the levels-of-processing perspective with the transfer-appropriate-processing perspective. Experiment 1 employed a within-groups design to contrast the effects of various types of questions at different positions on subjects' recognition of sentences. The results seemed to support the transfer-appropriate-processing perspective's predictions but were confounded by the form of design. Experiment 2 examined the same questions with a between-groups design, while Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 with the use of a free recall posttest. The results of both Experiments 2 and 3 seemed to support the predictions of the transfer-appropriate-processing perspective and disconfirm the predictions of the levels-of-processing framework. Experiment 4 extended the work to subjects' memory for paragraphs. The results of Experiment 4, however, did not match the pattern observed in Experiments 1–3 and, instead, seemed to bear out the predictions of the levels-of-processing perspective. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of experimental design, choice of study materials, choice of dependent variables, and their interaction.
Effects of Structural Guidance in Story Retelling on Children's Dictation of Original Stories
Authors: Morrow Lesley Mandel
Published: December 2009

The study sought to determine if frequent story retellings with structural guidance could improve kindergarten children's use of structural elements in dictations of original stories and increase the oral language complexity of the stories. Treatments were administered to children once a week for eight weeks. After a story was read, the control children ( n = 44) drew a picture about it and the experimental children ( n = 38) retold the story individually to a research assistant. Story dictation pre- and posttests were administered. Analysis of covariance indicated significant improvement for the experimental group in dictation of original stories and in oral language complexity. Retelling proved to be an instructional strategy capable of improving children's dictations of original stories and oral language complexity within those stories.
Memory for Prose: Relational and Lexical Item-Specific Processing for Intentional Recall
Authors: Dinnel Dale , Glover John A.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments contrasted processing manipulations designed to focus readers' attention on sequential and relational aspects of passages with processing activities presumed to focus readers' attention on individual lexical items and the propositions in which they were embedded. Employing an intentional recall paradigm, both experiments found recall to be superior when the readers engaged in sequential and relational processing to recall when they performed individual item-specific lexical processing. These results disagree with those of previous work on individual item-specific lexical processing conducted with an incidental paradigm but agree closely with a broad range of studies that have focused on relational and sequential processing. The results are discussed in terms of differences between intentional and incidental learning paradigms.
Direct Instruction in Processing Metaphors
Authors: Readence John E. , Baldwin R. Scott , Head Martha H.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments were conducted to explore the efficacy of instruction with third-grade subjects in processing metaphors based on the principles of the direct explicit teaching of reading comprehension and current metaphor theory. In Experiment 1, process instruction was validated. In Experiment 2, process instruction was compared to traditional basal instruction in the context of a unit on metaphor. Statistically significant differences were found in favor of process instruction. The psychological processes involved in metaphorical interpretation are discussed and directions for future research suggested.
Eye Fixation Patterns during Informed and Uninformed Comprehension Monitoring
Authors: Grabe Mark , Antes James , Thorson Ingrid , Kahn Helen
Published: December 2009

This study investigates the pattern of eye movements produced when adult readers encounter cross-sentence contradictions. Subjects read paragraphs which did or did not contain contradictions while their eye movements were being monitored. Uninformed subjects were asked to prepare to answer a question that would follow each paragraph. Informed subjects were told that the paragraphs might contain contradictions and that they were to prepare to report the contradictions and to answer a question after each paragraph. Eye fixations were categorized to indicate the frequency of different operationally defined patterns of eye movements. Analyses of the frequency of these categories provided evidence that both informed and uninformed subjects were aware of the inserted contradictions and that instructions to search for inserted errors caused readers to alter their reading behavior.
Enhancing Comprehension Skill and Self-Efficacy with Strategy Value Information
Authors: Schunk Dale H. , Rice Jo Mary
Published: December 2009

Two experiments investigated how providing remedial readers with information that strategy use improves performance influenced their self-efficacy and comprehension skill. In both studies, children were given training on finding main ideas. Children in Experiment 1 received specific strategy value information, general strategy value information, specific plus general (combined) information, or no strategy value information. In Experiment 2, children received strategy effectiveness feedback, specific strategy value information, or feedback plus specific (combined) information. In each study, the combined treatment enhanced self-efficacy and skill better than the other conditions, which did not differ. These results suggest that remedial readers may not benefit much from minimal information on how strategy use can improve performance. Multiple sources of strategy value information may be necessary to enhance self-efficacy and comprehension skill.
Effects of Text Structure Instruction on Foreign Language Readers' Recall of a Scientific Journal Article
Authors: Davis James N. , Lange Dale L. , Samuels S. Jay
Published: December 2009

Intermediate-level college students of French were randomly assigned to a condition in which they received information on the organization of a journal article or to a control condition where they did not receive this training. Half the students from each of these groups were assigned to read a scientific article in French which used canonical organization while the other half read the same article in a coherent form which did not. Afterwards, the students completed a free recall task in English, and the written recalls were scored for number of idea units recalled. Results indicated a significant main effect for instruction in text structure. This effect obtained only, however, when the text was in canonical experimental report order (problem, description of the investigation, results and conclusion). The discussion addresses how knowledge of structure gained through instruction may be used in comprehension and recall in the case of foreign-language readers.
The Interaction of Metadiscourse and Anxiety in Determining Children's Learning of Social Studies Textbook Materials
Authors: Crismore Avon , Hill Kennedy T.
Published: December 2009

The role of attitudinal, voice, and informational metadiscourse characteristics and level of student anxiety were studied as they affect learning from social studies textbooks for 120 sixth-graders. Analyses of covariance, controlling for reading ability, revealed significant interaction effects involving metadiscourse and anxiety. As expected, high anxious students showed their best performance with first person voice and no attitudinal metadiscourse while low anxious students showed the opposite effect. The importance of studying the joint effects of metadiscourse and anxiety as determinants of textbook reading is discussed.
Developing Print Awareness: The Effect of Three Instructional Approaches on Kindergarteners' Print Awareness, Reading Readiness, and Word Reading
Authors: Reutzel D. Ray , Oda Linda K. , Moore Blaine H.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the effectiveness of three instructional approaches for developing kindergarteners' print concepts and print awareness. The study also sought to determine if developing children's print concepts exerted an influence upon their reading readiness and word reading ability at the end of kindergarten. Three intact kindergarten classrooms participated in the study with a total of 132 kindergarten students. The three instructional treatments consisted of (a) a “traditional readiness” approach—the control, (b) an “immersion in print approach—an experimental group, and (c) an “immersion in print + teacher-led instruction” approach—an experimental group. Teachers were trained and provided the appropriate instructional methodologies and materials. They were also monitored regularly to check for compliance. A series of posttests assessing print awareness, readiness and word reading were administered at the conclusion of the study. Results indicated that “teacher-led” print concept lessons resulted in significantly greater print concept development, although increasing children's print concepts did not lead to improved reading readiness nor improved word reading ability among young readers. Finally, it was shown that an immersion in print, whether or not “teacher-led” print lessons were offered, resulted in significantly better readiness and word reading abilities at the end of kindergarten than did the “traditional readiness” approach.
Verbal Reports as Measures of Comprehension Evaluation
Authors: Moore DeWayne , Zabrucky Karen
Published: December 2009

The present study assessed several commonly used measures of children's comprehension evaluation ability. Third and sixth grade higher and lower ability readers (N= 120) read texts that either contained an inconsistency or did not. Following each passage reading, six measures of comprehension evaluation were obtained: one performance measure and five commonly used verbal report measures. The results revealed that different verbal report measures are not comparable measures of children's comprehension evaluation ability. The verbal report measures were differently affected by grade level, reading ability, and text variables. Moreover, the verbal report measures did not all relate equally to comprehension evaluation performance and relationships between verbal reports and performance were stronger for higher ability readers and young readers. The results suggest that caution is needed in interpreting studies using verbal report measures in isolation to assess children's evaluation skills, and that the use of poorly defined verbal report measures may be one factor contributing to inconsistent findings concerning the development of such skills.
Rescaling the Degrees of Reading Power Test to Provide Valid Scores for Selecting Materials at the Instructional Level
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

The Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) test provides DRP scores that can be matched to the difficulty of materials in order to select textbooks at the instructional level. However, the DRP test scores appear to provide invalid units for matching material difficulty. These original DRP test scores, called DRP-Ability or OldDRP scores, have been rescaled into NewDRP scores so that they are more valid for selecting instructional level materials. The OldDRP scores indicated large mismatches between the average difficulty of the books used in each grade and the average ability of students in that grade whereas the NewDRP scores indicated a very small mismatch; the average of the absolute sizes of the mismatches in Grades 4–12 was 7.4 in OldDRP units but only 1.2 in NewDRP units. These NewDRP scores have also been given in grade equivalent (GE) units, called NewDRP-GE. It was found that the average NewDRP-GE scores in each grade closely matched that grade, thus adding to the validity of these rescaled scores. When the original DRP test scores, OldDRP, are rescaled into NewDRP and NewDRP-GE units, they provide scores that seem to be valid for selecting materials at the instructional level.
Preservice Teachers' Perspectives on why Every Teacher is not a Teacher of Reading: A Qualitative Analysis
Authors: O'Brien David G. , Stewart Roger A.
Published: December 2009

Although content reading courses are mandated in a majority of states for preservice secondary teachers in a variety of teaching endorsement areas, these prospective teachers often resist such courses, viewing them as irrelevant to their future success as teachers. In order to better understand this resistance, dimensions of preservice teachers' resistance to content reading instruction were examined through a discussion of a qualitative analysis of five data sources. The overall analysis indicated that preservice teachers hold misconceptions about content reading common among their practicing peers; such surface misconceptions are easy to counter. However, in addition, we found a dimension of the resistance deeply rooted in beliefs and traditions of school life relating to teachers' roles and allegiance to content disciplines; these complex misconceptions are more resilient. Suggestions are offered for modifying preservice content reading courses so that preservice teachers can confront the deeply rooted beliefs and traditions that run counter to the tenets and pedagogy associated with content reading courses.
Sight Word Reading in Prereaders: Use of Logographic vs. Alphabetic Access Routes
Authors: Scott Judith Ann , Ehri Linnea C.
Published: December 2009

In a previous study, Ehri and Wilce (1985) found that prereaders who had not mastered letters were better at forming logographic access routes than letter-sound access routes into memory to read words by sight. Of interest here was whether prereaders who knew all their letters would reveal the same pattern. Preschoolers and kindergartners who could read few if any words out of context but who knew letters were taught to read either six simplified phonetic spellings whose letters corresponded to sounds (e.g., JRF for “giraffe”), or six logographic spellings whose letters were non-phonetic but were more visually distinctive (e.g., JRF for “candy”). Word reading practice included either naming or counting letters in phonetic spellings or counting letters in visual spellings. Letter naming was expected to draw prereaders' attention to phonetic cues. Letter counting was the control. Results revealed that phonetic spellings were learned better than visual spellings regardless of whether letters were named or counted. We conclude that prereaders become capable of forming letter-sound access routes when they learn letters well enough to take advantage of the phonetic cues they provide.
Reducing the Number of Reading Skill Activities in the Elementary Classroom
Authors: Taylor Barbara M. , Frye Barbara J. , Gaetz Thomas M.
Published: December 2009

A series of three studies was conducted, the first two at the intermediate grade level and the third at the primary grade level. The purpose of these studies was to investigate the effects of an experimental classroom reading program in which students who passed pretests on basal skills were excused from subsequent instruction and practice on these skills. Most students were able to pass pretests on reading skills before the skills were covered in the basal reader program. Without instruction their performance on end-of-book skill tests remained high. Results suggest that it may be possible to excuse many students in the elementary grades from many of the skill activities in the basal reader program and that students' attention could be directed, instead, to other reading activities.
Fifth-Graders' Recall of Propositional Content and Causal Relationships from Expository Prose
Authors: Zinar Susan
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine 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. Subjects were fifth-grade children with above and below-average reading comprehension ability. Materials were three types of expository passages: explicit causal, containing causal relationships signalled by connecting words; implicit causal, without connecting words; and non-causal, without explicit or implicit causal ties. A significant effect for ability level was found for free recall of interpropositional relationships, with above-average comprehenders recalling more causal relationships when these were explicit. Below-average comprehenders recalled almost no causal relationships in either condition. The better readers were apparently at an intermediate stage in the awareness of connective relationships: beginning to respond to connectives but dependent upon explicit cues. Subjects' recalls were then examined further in order to explore the semantic variables and individual recall strategies that may be conducive to the successful recall of causal relationships.
Intergenerational Literacy Learning with Bilingual Families: A Context for the Analysis of Social Mediation of Thought
Authors: Thornburg Devin G.
Published: December 2009

This research initiative was undertaken to examine the effects of an intergenerational literacy program, held weekly for 2 hours over a 6-month period, on the measured English proficiency of nine bilingual families (9 parents, 15 children). The research was also conducted to explore the relationships among changes in the participants' use of identified categories of discourse during literacy activities and changes in their second-language competency on tests of literacy. Program goals were to encourage the parents to read storybooks to their children in the home as well as to provide literacy-based activities to family members, including storybook reading, hands-on projects related to the stories read, formal English instruction for the parents, and free play for the children. Sixteen observations (24 hours) of participants' discourse were conducted by the researcher and an assistant using a format adapted from research of family-based literacy learning and classroom discourse; semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers were also held. Results of pre-post comparisons of children's scores on the PLS and parents' scores on the CTBS revealed significant improvements. Frequencies of identified categories of parent-and-child discourse between the third and fifteenth observations were also compared and revealed several significant differences. Significant correlations were also found between participant test scores and differences in their use of identified categories of discourse. These empirical results, as well as descriptive findings, are interpreted using Vygotsky's (1978, 1987) sociocultural theory of learning. It is proposed that teacher scaffolding strategies, as well as the parents' and children's efforts to linguistically mediate each other's learning, were integral to the gains in the families' second-language proficiency.
Inclass or Pullout: Effects of Setting on the Remedial Reading Program
Authors: Bean Rita M. , Cooley William W. , Eichelberger R. Tony , Lazar Meryl K. , Zigmond Naomi
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to describe the remedial reading instruction received by students assigned to inclass or pullout programs with respect to the instructional behaviors of teachers, the nature of lessons, and the reading behaviors of students. The study was conducted in an urban school system in which the pullout and inclass programs existed concurrently. One hundred nineteen students (Grades 4 and 5) were observed over a 4-month period. In both settings, students received a great deal of skill-related instruction; not much time was spent in prereading activities and students spent most of their time with worksheets. Over 60% of classroom time in both settings was spent in listening, transcribing, and silent reading. Pullout students experienced more direct teaching activities in a group situation while inclass students experienced more time in a one-on-one tutoring mode. Overall, there were differences between settings in what students experienced in remedial reading.
Effects of Passage Type on Comprehension Monitoring and Recall in Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Zabrucky Karen , Ratner Hilary Horn
Published: December 2009

An error detection paradigm was used to assess the effects of passage type on students' comprehension monitoring and recall of texts. Good and poor readers in the sixth grade ( M age =12 years, 0 months) read inconsistent expository and narrative passages presented one sentence at a time. On- and off-line measures (reading times and verbal reports of passage inconsistencies) were used to examine students' comprehension evaluation, and look-backs to inconsistencies during reading were used to measure comprehension regulation. Although all students detected problems on-line, good readers were better able to verbally report on passage consistency following reading. Passage type affected regulation of understanding with students more likely to look back at inconsistencies in narratives but not expository passages. Students were more likely to reread expository passages, however, when passages did not contain problems and were less able to recall expository passage information. Implications for instruction and directions for future research are discussed.
Effects of Proofreading on Spelling: How Reading Misspelled and Correctly Spelled Words Affects Spelling Accuracy
Authors: Bradley John M. , King Priscilla Vacca
Published: December 2009

The effects of proofreading on the spelling accuracy of fifth-grade students were studied by having them read and detect errors in text containing misspelled words. The treatment involved an error detection task requiring a decision as to whether an underlined stimulus word embedded in a sentence was correctly spelled or misspelled. Serving as their own controls, the students were exposed to three spelling exposure frequency conditions during the proofreading treatment: (a) four exposures to a misspelling, (b) two exposures to a misspelling and two exposures to the correct spelling, and (c) four exposures to the correct spelling. The students proofread two types of spelling words in terms of sound-spelling correspondence; half were predictable and half were unpredictable. The major finding was that exposure to correctly spelled words did improve spelling accuracy for immediate and delayed posttests. Exposure to misspelled words did not significantly affect the spelling accuracy of the sample as a whole, but the accuracy of a few outliers was substantially impaired. Unpredictable words were found more difficult to spell than predictable words. No interaction was found between spelling ability and spelling accuracy improvement as the result of proofreading correctly spelled words; poor spellers improved as much as average and good spellers.
Forty Years of Nrc Publications: 1952–1991
Authors: Baldwin R. Scott , Readence John E. , Schumm Jeanne Shay , Konopak John P. , Konopak Bonnie C. , Klingner Janette K.
Published: December 2009

This article synthesizes the history and research trends of the National Reading Conference through a global analysis of 2,139 articles published in the Journal of Reading Behavior and the NRC Yearbooks. All articles published in JRB and the Yearbook through 1991 were classified by topic and method of analysis and stored in a permanent database. Systematic searches of the database yielded summary data for topic popularity, authorship trends, and methodological and philosophical shifts within the organization. The article includes recommended reading lists of NRC “firsts, classics and oddballs.”
Is Narrative “Primary”? Some Insights from Kindergarteners' Pretend Readings of Stories and Information Books
Authors: Pappas Christine C.
Published: December 2009

This paper involves a consideration of the validity of the common assumption in literacy development that narrative or story is somehow primary—that children's abilities to understand and compose stories precede their capabilities to understand and use non-story, informational written language. An examination of kindergarteners' repeated pretend readings of two stories and two information books was made to gain insights into their strategies in dealing with the distinctive textual properties of the two genres. Two features were specifically addressed: (a) their use of co-referentiality of stories versus the co-classification aspects of information books, and (b) their acquisition of lexical items in the two genres. These analyses indicated that children were just as successful in reenacting the information books as they were the stories. Based on these findings, as well as children's preferences for the information books over the stories, it is argued that our unexamined, unacknowledged narrative as primary ideology needs to be reevaluated.
The Contribution of Understanding Academic Vocabulary to Answering Comprehension Questions
Authors: Cunningham James W. , Moore David W.
Published: December 2009

This study was designed to investigate whether the vocabulary of written comprehension questions is an independent factor in determining students' reading comprehension performance. The factors controlled were reader characteristics, text characteristics, and question-text-answer relationships. Sets of matched comprehension questions differing only in type of vocabulary (academic vs. everyday) were answered by 106 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students. Subjects' scores on the ITBS meaning vocabulary subtest and an informal measure of academic vocabulary knowledge were also collected. Differences between means indicated that academic vocabulary in comprehension questions significantly decreased question-answering performance. To shed additional light on this decrease, a series of simple, multiple, and semipartial correlations between vocabulary measures and comprehension question scores were computed. These correlations consistently supported the interpretation that differences in terminology between the matched sets of questions accounted for the difference in performance on the questions. Possible directions for further research and implications for practice are discussed.
Validity and Structure, Coherence, and Quality Measures in Writing
Authors: Spencer Sharon L. , Fitzgerald Jill
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the present study was to investigate convergent and divergent validity of inferences from selected measures of struture, coherence, and quality for compositions. Thirty sixth-graders wrote two stories each. Each story was scored six times, for each of three constructs (structure, coherence, and quality), using two ways of measuring (reader- and text-based). Patterns in correlation matrices were examined for the extent to which they conformed to expectations which would support convergent and divergent validity. The major conclusions of the study were: (a) Overall, the findings strongly supported validity of inferences from the structure measures, called into serious question the validity of inferences from the coherence measures, and weakly supported it for inferences from the quality measures; (b) some evidence was provided for the distinctiveness of the three constructs, structure, coherence, and quality; and (c) some method/halo bias emerged in the reader-based method of assessment.
Cognitive and Motivational Determinants of Reading Comprehension in Good and Poor Readers
Authors: Ehrlich Marie-France , Kurtz-Costes Beth , Loridant Catherine
Published: December 2009

Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational factors were examined as predictors of individual differences in the reading comprehension abilities of good and poor readers. Two hundred twenty seventh graders were measured on reading comprehension, and the top 30% and bottom 30% were identified as good and poor readers, respectively. Subjects were then measured on word recognition, metacognitive knowledge about text processing, perceived competence, and attributional beliefs about the reasons underlying academic outcomes. The results indicated that good readers in comparison to poor readers scored higher on the word recognition measure, possessed richer metacognitive knowledge, and had more positive beliefs about their academic abilities. Regression analyses indicated that word recognition and metacognition predicted reading comprehension in the whole sample; however, regression analyses within subgroups indicated that word recognition was the most important predictor variable for poor readers, whereas perceived competence predicted the reading comprehension abilities of good readers.
The Study Strategies of Successful and Unsuccessful High School Students
Authors: Loranger Ann L.
Published: December 2009

I examined the study strategies of successful and unsuccessful learners to determine if successful learners would differ in the quality of their information processing from unsuccessful learners. It was expected that good learners would use studying techniques requiring greater cognitive effort, such as notetaking, summarizing, and outlining. Three high school students in Grade 11 were studied as successful students; three unsuccessful students were studied as well. Each of the six participants was interviewed individually for a single, 1-hour session. During the session, students read and studied an article. A videotaped interview with the researcher followed reading and studying. The successful students were more active, purposeful, and flexible in their strategy use. Although the unsuccessful students were generally less efficient in their use of learning strategies, they were satisfied with their academic performance. That is, the unsuccessful students perceived themselves as successful learners, lacking self-knowledge of their inefficient strategy use.