bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reading and Listening to Expository Text
Authors: Horowitz Rosalind , Samuels S. Jay
Published: December 2009

Poor reading comprehension may result from a general comprehension problem, a decoding problem, or a combination of these problems. Using a counterbalanced design, 38 good and poor sixth-grade readers read aloud and listened to easy and hard texts. Immediately after reading and listening, students orally retold what they had read or heard. Their recalls were scored for number of idea units produced. Results indicated no difference in listening comprehension between good and poor readers for either easy or hard texts, but a significant difference in oral reading comprehension in favor of good readers on both easy and hard texts. The finding of no difference in listening suggests that the poor readers in this sample did not have a general comprehension problem, while their poor oral reading performance indicates that they did have a decoding problem. These findings support a more complex comprehension process model of listening and reading than has typically been described in the literature.
Text Type and Reader Ability: The Effects on Paraphrase and Text-Based Inference Questions
Authors: Olson Mary W.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated good and poor readers' ability to answer text-based inference and paraphrase questions after reading two narrative stories and two expository passages. Subjects were selected that differed only on reading comprehension, not decoding accuracy or language comprehension, and were asked text-based informational and logical inference questions which were classified according to the Warren, Nicholas, and Trabasso (1979) inference taxonomy. Subjects were also asked questions that paraphrased the verbatim information in the text. Dependent measures were researcher-designed questions and reading times for each text. Results indicate that (a) logical text-based inference questions were significantly more difficult to answer than either informational inference questions or paraphrase questions, but only after reading narrative stories; (b) paraphrase questions were as difficult to answer as informational inference questions on both types of text; (c) expository passages were significantly more difficult for the children to understand than narrative stories; (d) good readers answered significantly more text-based inference questions and paraphrase questions than poor readers on both types of text; and (e) good readers read the texts faster than poor readers.
Metacognitive Abilities of Above and below Average Readers: Effects of Conceptual Tempo, Passage Level, and Error Type on Error Detection
Authors: Erickson Lawrence G. , Stahl Steven A. , Rinehart Steven D.
Published: December 2009

A number of researchers have suggested recently that differences between good and poor comprehenders lie in differences in metacognitive skills. This study examines one of the paradigms used to measure metacognitive skill–the error detection task. Seventy-four above and below grade level sixth graders were asked to detect order changes and nonsense word substitutions in third-grade and sixth-grade level passages. It was found that conceptual tempo (impulsivity/reflectivity), passage readability, and error type, as well as reading ability, all influenced the performance of these children on the error detection tasks. No differences were found between above and below average readers on two other metacognitive tasks, a reading difficulty judgment, and a knowledge and purposes of reading interview. Results indicate that conceptual tempo should be considered in any explanation of the relationship between metacognitive monitoring and reading ability.
Passive Failure in Reading
Authors: Johnston Peter H. , Winograd Peter N.
Published: December 2009

This paper examines the notion that many of the problems evidenced by poor readers are related to their passive response to the interactive task of reading. An integrative review of research in metacognition, attribution theory, and other related fields supports this notion by emphasizing the roles that appropriate goal-directed intentionality and active participation play in effective reading. Implications for reading instruction are examined and areas in need of research are identified.
Use of Conjunctions in Expository Texts by Skilled and Less Skilled Readers
Authors: Geva Esther , Ryan Ellen Bouchard
Published: December 2009

The present study was designed to shed light on whether some of the problems that average and below average readers have in comprehending expository texts stem primarily from lack of familiarity with conjunctions or a tendency to ignore these markers. On the basis of Gates-MacGinitie reading comprehension scores, 93 students in grades 5 and 7 were classified into high, medium, and low reading levels. All students read short expository texts under four conjunction manipulation conditions and answered comprehension questions. The conjunction manipulations within the texts were designed for examination of the roles of analyzed linguistic knowledge and cognitive control in comprehension. Analyses indicated that all groups benefited from the highlighting of explicit conjunctions. The comprehension of interpropositional relationships by average and below average readers was enhanced when explicit conjunctions were available, relative to an implicit condition. Furthermore, the deep processing manipulation (conjunction multiple-choice cloze) actually hindered, rather than facilitated, comprehension for all students. Data on appropriate selection of conjunctions in this condition revealed less knowledge of these important cohesive indicators among average and below average readers than above average readers. Together with the comprehension findings, we conclude that average and below average readers exhibit problems with both knowledge of conjunctions and control over their use in comprehending expository text.
The Influence of Normative Relative Importance on the Perceived Importance of Information
Authors: Roller Cathy M.
Published: December 2009

The experiment addressed the issue of what makes information important. The effects of three factors — category membership, normative relative importance, and goal-relatedness — were examined. Since these factors are difficult to isolate in existing schemas and categories, training materials were used to create a new schema for a fictitious insect family. The results indicated that all three factors were influencing the perceived importance of information to some extent. However, normative relative importance appeared to influence a writing task more strongly than a rating task.
Effect of Rewritten Content Textbook Passages on Middle Grade Students' Comprehension of Main Ideas: Making the Inconsiderate Considerate
Authors: Baumann James F.
Published: December 2009

This study sought to determine if content area textbook passages could be rewritten such that middle grade students' main idea comprehension ability was enhanced. Excerpts from fifth-grade science textbooks were read by fifth-grade students in one of two versions: (a) an original (inconsiderate) version in which main ideas were frequently implicit, those main ideas that were explicitly stated in the text were not always prominent (i.e., placed initially) in paragraphs and passages, and there were few, if any, headings or typographical aids to cue main ideas, or (b) a rewritten (considerate) version in which all main ideas were explicit in the text and typed in italic, each main idea appeared at the beginning of the text unit, and headings cued main ideas. Several recognition and recall items assessed students' ability to identify and generate main ideas at both the paragraph and passage levels. Results revealed that after reading the rewritten text versions, some students were able to compose significantly more passage main ideas, and all students were able to compose significantly more paragraph main ideas. Groups did not differ on a main idea recognition task. Additional data from a series of questions which required the students to compare original and rewritten versions of the science texts tended to support the finding that content area selections rewritten to make them more considerate improves students' main idea comprehension.
The Influence of Metacognitive Aspects of Literacy on Job Performance of Electronics Technicians
Authors: Mikulecky Larry , Ehlinger Jeanne
Published: December 2009

A major problem facing educators is the growth of higher level literacy demands required to compete in the workplace. This presents a problem for educators wishing to provide literacy training best suited to the literacy demands of the workplace. Several research studies have documented the nature of workplace literacy demands, but only a few have attempted to assess the relationship between literacy abilities and on-the-job performance. This study involved observing, interviewing, testing, and rating job performance of electronics technicians from three different employment levels (i.e., from training, experienced, and supervisory levels). Data were analyzed for differences between level of experience groups and the relationships of rated job performance to literacy-related factors. The subjects were 29 electronics technicians who volunteered from a technical school, a naval base, a major Fortune 500 electronics plant, and a small, local electronics plant. Job-related reading time averaged nearly two hours daily (104.3 minutes) and job-related writing added another half hour (32.6 minutes). Only 15 minutes of total reading time and only a minute of writing time were uninterrupted. Nearly all job-related literacy was problem solving in nature. Reading ability, as measured with job-related cloze tests, did not significantly correlate to job performance and could not discriminate electronics supervisors, experienced workers, and trainees. Metacognitive aspects of literacy did consistently and significantly correlate to job performance.
Toward Understanding the Effects of Cross-Cultural Schemata and Discourse Structure on Second Language Reading Comprehension
Authors: Barnitz John G.
Published: December 2009

Research on second culture and second language reading comprehension is reviewed to support the claim that second language reading is an interactive process, involving the interrelationship of cultural schemata and discourse structure. Studies on content schemata include investigations of the roles of cultural knowledge and second language proficiency in comprehension. Studies on discourse processing include linguistic descriptions of ethnolinguistic discourse patterns (contrastive rhetoric), as well as psycholinguistic comprehension studies on expository prose, story structure, and cohesion. This multidisciplinary review functions as an argument for the roles of cultural schemata and discourse structure in an interactive model of first and second language reading.
A Comparison of Analogy-and Rule-Based Decoding Strategies in Normal and Dyslexic Children
Authors: Manis Franklin R. , Szeszulski Patricia A. , Howell Margaret J. , Horn Colette C.
Published: December 2009

Use of two alternative decoding strategies, one based on spelling-sound correspondence rules and one based on analogies, was investigated in fifth-sixth-grade dyslexic and normal children, as well as a group of younger normal readers matched on reading age to the dyslexics. Children pronounced nonwords (e.g., fody) constructed so that use of one strategy would produce a difference response from the other. Results indicated that dyslexic children lagged behind age-matched normals in the use of both strategies, and behind reading-age matched normals in use of analogies but not rules. An analysis of decoding errors indicated that normals were more likely to notice and make analogies to real words embedded in the nonsense words than dyslexics. In addition, the likelihood of an analogy response to a nonword was found to increase in all groups as the frequency of the analogy word increased. The latter finding suggests that the mechanism by which analogy words are accessed in memory is similar across groups, although dyslexics produce analogy responses less often.
The Use of Orthographic Knowledge in Beginning Reading
Authors: Leslie Lauren , Thimke Brenda
Published: December 2009

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between word recognition ability, knowledge of orthographic structures, and use of orthographic knowledge in word recognition. Fifty-six first and second graders were administered a word recognition test, two tests of orthographic knowledge, and two search tasks. The results indicated that when searching for multiple word targets children with word recognition levels of less than 2–2 searched similarly through all fields, whereas children with word recognition levels of 2–2+ searched faster through pseudowords and nonwords than through words. When searching for members of a category, children with word recognition levels below 2–1 searched faster through nonwords and pseudowords than through words providing no evidence for the use of orthography in word search. Children with word recognition levels above 2–1 searched faster through nonwords than through pseudowords and words, demonstrating a generalized effect of orthographic structure.
The Influence of Reading Content on Students' Perceptions of the Masculinity or Femininity of Reading
Authors: Kelly Patricia R.
Published: December 2009

This study examined the effect of the content of reading material on students' perceptions of reading as masculine or feminine. Students in this study included 492 pupils (255 females, 237 males) from two suburban school districts. Students were enrolled in kindergarten, grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and high school. Students were shown a slide presentation consisting of 60 slides depicting various children's activities including the following reading activities: reading a book, a TV Guide, a mystery book, the newspaper comics, a science book, a dictionary, an animal book, a running book, and a poetry book. The reading slides were interwoven among nonreading activity slides to mask the emphasis of the study. In the slides, only the hands of the children were shown to prevent identification of the child in each slide as male or female. As each slide was shown, students were directed to respond by circling either “boy” or “girl” on their answer sheets. The total responses of “boy” for each reading item were analyzed for male, female, and total students. The percentages of responses of “boy” were generated and chi square analyses were conducted to determine differences between “boy” versus “girl” responses. The data indicated that the content of the reading material affected students' responses. Depending on the sex and grade level of the students, some reading items were viewed as masculine, some as feminine, and one as equally masculine and feminine. The specific content of the reading materials influenced the way in which reading was perceived.
The Role of Graphic Organizers and Social Structure in Content Area Instruction
Authors: Darch Craig B. , Carnine Douglas W. , Kameenui Edward J.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the effectiveness of three techniques for informing sixth-grade students of content area information. Students were taught content area information through either a graphic organizer strategy, a directed reading strategy, or an SQ3R strategy. Students were also taught content area information in either a group social structure or an individual, independent work structure. The results of the study suggest that the use of a graphic organizer strategy in a group social structure is more effective in facilitating comprehension of content area information than a graphic organizer strategy used in an independent structure or a directed reading strategy used in a group structure. Results of a transfer test revealed that the graphic organizer and the SQ3R strategies were more effective than the directed reading approach.
The Use of Contextual and Graphic Information in Word Recognition by Second-, Fourth-, and Sixth-Grade Readers
Authors: Simons Herbert D. , Leu Donald J.
Published: December 2009

This study evaluated the relative importance of graphic and contextual information in word recognition as well as the relative importance of several specific sources of contextual information (lexical, semantic, syntactic, discourse) among students at three different grade levels (second, fourth, and sixth). In addition, word recognition behavior was compared at both target word locations where various aspects of context were disrupted and at non-target word locations where naturally occurring oral reading errors appeared. Results indicated that all students used greater graphic than contextual information at target word locations. The use of graphic information during word recognition tended to increase with development. The use of contextual information tended to decrease with development. These results are interpreted as being generally consistent with recent work by Stanovich (1980) and others who emphasize the importance of automatic context-free word recognition ability. Context use at non-target word locations occurred largely at function word locations that were rich in syntactic context. These results suggest that word recognition processing varies not only with the proficiency level of a reader, as Stanovich's model suggests, but also with the amount of contextual richness that surrounds any particular word.
The Development of Written Language Awareness in Black Preschool Children
Authors: Morgan Argiro L.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of written language awareness in black preschool children enrolled in a day-care environment. Subjects were three-, four-, and five-year-olds from an urban community. Data were collected in three individual interviews using environmental print, printed stimuli, manipulative materials, and storybooks in a sequence of semistructured tasks. Additionally, samples of the subjects' attempts at writing were analyzed. The following concepts pertaining to written language were measured: knowledge about the purposes of print, awareness of the conventions of the writing system (e.g., linearity, horizontality, directionality), development of book orientation concepts, development of letter and word concepts, knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, evidence of beginning reading. The children's performance indicated both general and specific information about their written language competence, with five-year-olds performing significantly better than three-year-olds on some measures.
An Analysis of Decoding, Comprehension, and Story Text Comprehensibility in Four First-Grade Reading Programs
Authors: Meyer Linda A. , Greer Eunice A. , Crummey Lorraine
Published: December 2009

This study focuses on the instructional approaches to decoding and comprehension in the first-grade basal reading programs published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1983), Houghton Mifflin (1979), Ginn (1976) (analytical phonics, meaning-emphasis programs), and S.R.A. Reading Mastery (1983) (a synthetic phonics, code-emphasis program). In addition, analyses were completed on the comprehensibility of matched and selected stories from each of the four programs. Results reveal that with the exception of consonant sound instruction and text-tied comprehension interactions, the programs vary considerably. Results of the analysis of comprehensibility show similar differences between programs.
The influence of Variations in Syntax on Oral Reading Fluency
Authors: Cooper Barbara A. , Stewart Krista J.
Published: December 2009

This study examined the effect of variations in syntactic structure on oral reading. Forty fourth graders and 26 college students read aloud one of two narrative passages. Each passage contained three instances of a target structure (noun + participle) and three instances of a less complex control structure (verb phrase of a subject-verb-object clause). Identical words comprised corresponding target and control structures. Subjects also read aloud individual sentences containing the target and control phrases from the passage they had not read. With respect to the findings for children, significantly more disruptions in oral reading occurred on target structures in the stories than on control structures; in the sentences, there was no difference between target and control structures in the number of disruptions. Also, significantly more disruptions were found on target structures in the stories than in the sentences. For adults, few disruptions occurred regardless of structure or task. Results support the hypothesis that ability to read less common syntactic structures is related to the development of competent use of those structures.
Semantic Code Deficit for Reading Disabled Children on an Auditory Lexical Decision Task
Authors: Zecker Steven G. , Zinner Tanya E.
Published: December 2009

Disabled and normal readers made lexical decisions to orally presented pairs of letter strings. Half of the word-word pairs were semantically related while the other half of the pairs were semantically unrelated. A significant group by relatedness interaction was observed; disabled readers showed a nonsignificant relatedness effect and normal readers showed a significant relatedness effect. Results suggest that disabled readers have difficulty in making available the full range of semantic cues when processing stimuli in an acoustic form, supporting a verbal-processing deficit hypothesis of reading disability.
Students' Knowledge of Text Structure
Authors: Garner Ruth , Gillingham Mark G.
Published: December 2009

Fifteen students in each of grades 5 and 7 were presented with seven sentences on a computer screen. They were asked to construct a good paragraph and a bad paragraph and then to report what makes a good paragraph good. Products and verbal reports were scored for topical relatedness, superordination, and cohesion, three important structural properties of text. The relation between knowledge reported and knowledge demonstrated was weak for two of the properties. Students were only moderately knowledgeable about topical relatedness and superordination, and unknowledgeable about cohesion.
The Influence of Self-Instruction on the Comprehension Monitoring Performance of Average and above Average Readers
Authors: Miller Gloria E.
Published: December 2009

Fifth-grade students, classified as either above average or average readers, were tested on their ability to detect errors in short essays prior to, immediately after, and one week after receiving self-instruction or didactic instruction. In the self-instruction condition (SI), students were taught a self-verbalization routine composed of task-specific statements. Students in the control didactic condition (CD) received equivalent practice and instruction without active self-verbalization. After training, the performance of the SI above average readers was significantly greater than that of the CD above average readers. The average readers displayed a similar although nonsignificant trend favoring the self-instruction strategy training. The results suggest that self-instruction procedures may effectively promote increased comprehension monitoring during reading. Implications of SI for reading instruction and directions for future research are discussed.
The Potential for Directing Study in Combined Reading and Writing Activity
Authors: Hayes David A.
Published: December 2009

An experiment investigated the memorial effects of three different writing tasks and worksheet exercises assigned as study activities to accompany reading. High school boys and girls read and recalled a pretreatment target text and then read a sequence of topically related passages and reacted to each by paraphrasing, formulating questions, comparing and contrasting, or completing matching exercises on worksheets. Afterward, the students again recalled the target text. A comparison of information given in retelling the target text before and after performing the study tasks indicated that quality of inferences differed according to assigned writing task. Writing questions and compare-contrast statements resulted in the generation of significantly more new information, and writing questions resulted in the recall of proportionally more superordinate information. The results are explained as stemming from the organizing requirements of writing.
The Influence of Illustrations on Children's Comprehension of Written Stories
Authors: O'Keefe Elizabeth J. , Solman Robert T.
Published: December 2009

In Australian schools, comparisons were made of the story recall of 70 average readers in grade five under five picture-text conditions: the absence of a picture; two conditions in which three normal, related pictures were presented before or after related text; and two conditions in which three composite, related pictures were presented before or after related text. Recalls were scored according to Frederiksen's (1975) system of text analysis. An observable trend in group means, suggesting that pictures aided recall, did not reach significance, and neither picture placement nor picture composition influenced comprehension. The absence of an advantage for the picture conditions may have been due to the ability of grade five readers to extract sufficient information from the text alone. The second study made similar comparisons with 48 younger grade three children. Again, an observed advantage for the picture conditions did not reach significance. An experiments-by-conditions analysis over both studies indicated that illustrations did significantly improve performance, but that picture placement (before or after related text) did not affect recall. A final experiment examined the influence of further picture-text relationships on comprehension ( N=80). Variables examined were the number of pictures (three or eight) and the type of picture (normal or composite). In contrast to the previous studies, pictures were situated adjacent to related text. While there were clear differences in recall favouring the picture groups, there was no advantage for the number of pictures or the type of picture. It was concluded that the influence of illustrations on comprehension was small for children of normal reading ability and depended to a large extent on their placement adjacent to related textual material.
Fostering Comprehension Monitoring in below Average Readers through Self-Instruction Training
Authors: Miller Gloria E. , Giovenco Andrea , Rentiers Katheryn A.
Published: December 2009

The benefits of self-instruction training on the comprehension monitoring performances of below average and above average readers were examined. Fourth- and fifth-grade students were tested on their ability to detect between-sentence contradictions in short expository texts after receiving either three sessions of self-instruction or equivalent didactic instruction. Additionally, generalization was assessed on text passages different from those employed during training and on postreading monitoring measures. A significant self-instruction effect was found for both reading ability levels on all of these measures. Moreover, the below average readers performed at a level commensurate with their higher ability peers on the transfer measures. It was concluded that self-instruction training was successful in enhancing student's regulatory processing during reading.
Effects of Rapid Word Recognition Training on Sentence Context Effects in Children
Authors: Raduege Tracy A. , Schwantes Frederick M.
Published: December 2009

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the degree to which practice in isolated word recognition would affect children's speed of recognizing words presented within a sentence context. In the first experiment, it was found that both isolation and context methods of word recognition practice, relative to a control group, increased the speed with which second and third graders read words presented within a sentence context. In the second experiment, isolation practice was used to increase the speed of word recognition and the effect of this practice on developmental differences in the magnitude of sentence context effects was examined. Results indicated that word recognition practice had a marked impact on the benefit derived from reading words presented within a congruous versus a neutral sentence context and that this impact was relatively greater for younger readers. Specifically, the degree of facilitation ordinarily produced by congruous context in third graders was significantly reduced for those words on which practice had been given. In contrast, the effect of practice on the degree of contextual facilitation observed in sixth graders was much smaller. The results suggest that increased speed of word recognition per se interacts in a compensatory fashion with reliance upon context as an aid to facilitate word recognition.
The Development of Word Consciousness Prior to First Grade
Authors: Ganopole Selina J.
Published: December 2009

This study investigated (a) the development of word consciousness prior to first grade and (b) the relationship between word consciousness and reading ability. Subjects were 76 children ranging in age from 3 years 2 months to 6 years 4 months. Presented with a variety of graphic displays on cards, children were required to judge which ones were “something for reading.” The imposition of conventional linguistic terminology (e.g., letter, word, sentence) was eliminated, allowing children to describe, in their own language, their perceptions of the graphic displays. Results suggest that the development of word consciousness occurs through a process of gradual extension and refinement of both perceptual awareness of print features and concepts about print. In brief, the perceptions of 3-year-olds about a written word were found to be linked primarily to notions about linearity and quantity of symbols. By age 4, additional characteristics such as variety of symbols and the “unit” aspect of a word were used as criteria for judging whether something is “for reading.” By age 5, the transition from reliance on the superordinate structural features of writing to a stage where the distinctive features of the symbols take precedence was well in progress. Additional findings indicated a strong relationship between word consciousness and beginning reading ability.
Effects of Inconsiderate vs. Considerate Text on Secondary Students' Vocabulary Learning
Authors: Konopak Bonnie C.
Published: December 2009

This study examined differences in secondary students' vocabulary learning from original and revised contextual information. Materials included two passages from a U.S. history text, each embedding 10 pertinent target words. One version left the original passage intact; a second version was revised for each target word according to four contextual characteristics: proximity, clarity of connection, explicitness, and completeness. Subjects were 55 high-ability and average-ability students enrolled in U.S. history classes. Prior to reading, subjects were asked to indicate their knowledge of each target word and to write a definition. Then, over a two-day period, they read an original version of one passage and a revised version of the second passage; text and version were counterbalanced within groups. Following their readings, the subjects were asked again to indicate their knowledge of each word and to provide a meaning. In addition, they were asked to write the significance of each word in understanding the topic. Results showed that the high- ability group outscored the average-ability group on all dependent measures, although both groups did significantly better on posttest over pretest tasks. On the revised text passages, subjects received higher scores on both the definition and significance measures but not on the indication of knowledge measure. These findings suggest that contextual information in natural text may be inconsiderate for word learning, but students may be satisfied with the partial/erroneous knowledge acquired.
The Effects of the Vocabulary Overview Guide on Vocabulary Comprehension and Retention
Authors: Carr Eileen M. , Mazur-Stewart Marianne
Published: December 2009

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Vocabulary Overview Guide in improving vocabulary comprehension and retention of terms from connected discourse. The guide incorporates a graphic organizer to relate text information, personal clues to associate terms with background knowledge, and a selfmonitoring checklist to assess understanding. This strategy was compared to a traditional method of listing and studying definitions. Subjects, developmental college readers, were administered pretests, posttests, and delayed posttests. An Analysis of Variance indicated that the Vocabulary Overview Guide group was significantly superior to the traditional group in improving vocabulary comprehension and retention and in increasing metacognitive awareness on post and delayed posttests.
Young Children's Written Language Knowledge: What Environmental and Functional Print Reading Reveals
Authors: McGee Lea M. , Lomax Richard G. , Head Martha H.
Published: December 2009

The purpose of this study was to describe attempts by nonword readers, novice word readers, and expert word readers to read environmental and functional print items. Eighty-one children aged 3 to 6 years were included in the study. Children were assessed for word-reading ability and letter-naming knowledge. They were then categorized into reader groups based on ability to read preprimer and primer words in isolation. Next, children were shown nine print items and asked, “What can you read here?” Responses were judged for whether they maintained the communication contract by showing an attempt to read. Attempts to read were then judged for whether they included text from the print item, were meaningful, and/or indicated attention to graphic detail. The results revealed that children attempted to read more frequently than they renegotiated the task or refused to respond. Over 75% of the attempts to read were meaningful, more than 35% included text from the print items, and nearly 50% indicated attention to graphic detail. Differences were found between attempts to read a potato chip bag (environmental print item) and attempts to read functional print items. Despite similarities in letter-naming ability, expert word readers and novice word readers differed in their attempts to read and in their attention to graphic detail.
Reading Ability and Attention to Words and Letters in Words
Authors: Marmurek Harvey H. C.
Published: December 2009

Students in grades 2, 4, and 6 were tested in two blocks of visual comparison trials. In one block, the primary task was to decide whether two words matched, and in the other block the task was to decide whether a single letter target matched the first letter of a word. On some trials in both blocks, the word comparison item was omitted and subjects were to decide whether a “7” occurred in the replacement display. On those probe trials, the “7” occurred either to the left or right of the display. In all grades, latencies for the primary task were faster for whole-word than for first-letter decisions. On the probe trials, latencies were faster when the probe item appeared in the first position of the display, but only in the block of first-letter trials. Moreover, the first-position advantage on probe trials was greater for good than for poor readers. The results were interpreted to be consistent with the hypothesis that both good and poor readers process words holistically. Poor readers are not more likely than good readers to attend to single-letter units in visual memory (cf. LaBerge & Samuels, 1974). Rather, poor readers are deficient in analyzing a word's components (cf. Wolford & Fowler, 1984).
Teachers' Rejoinders to Students' Responses in Reading Lessons
Authors: Weber Rose-Marie , Shake Mary C.
Published: December 2009

The rejoinders that teachers give to students' responses in the questioning phase of comprehension lessons were examined with respect to their type and their function. Thirty-seven lessons taught by six second-grade teachers conducting small group sessions organized by students' reading ability (high, average, and low) were transcribed and analyzed. Eight types of rejoinders appeared: the null rejoinder, as well as explicit evaluation of the students' response, repetition of it, elaboration of it, and combinations of these three. The null rejoinder predominated; types involving repetition were the next most favored. The teachers showed individual preferences in choosing one type over another, lending varying movement to the quality of the questioning sessions, but as a group showed negligible differences with respect to readers of varying abilities.
Promoting Functional Literacy through Cooperative Learning
Authors: O'Donnell Angela M. , Dansereau Donald F. , Rocklin Thomas , Hythecker Velma I. , Young Michael D. , Hall Richard H. , Skaggs Lisa P. , Lambiotte Judith G.
Published: December 2009

The effects of cooperative learning strategy manipulations on the enactment and recall of a medical procedure were explored. One hundred and twenty-three college students completed the experiment. During training, participants were randomly assigned to a dyad in one of four conditions: (a) no-strategy, (b) baseline strategy, (c) prompting strategy, and (d) planning strategy. During testing, participants both performed and produced written recalls of the procedure instructions. Test order was counterbalanced within dyad. Training and test performances were videotaped. The planning group produced the best recalls and recalled more conditions of the procedure. The prompting group performed best. Recall of the procedure in all groups was enhanced by prior performance. However, performance was enhanced by prior recall in only two groups. The groups differed also in the nature of the transition from training to testing. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.
Instructional Frameworks and Instructional Choices: Comparisons between Preservice and Inservice Teachers
Authors: Kinzer Charles K.
Published: December 2009

One hundred and twenty-seven subjects (83 preservice and 44 inservice teachers) were administered identical instruments consisting of (a) an inventory designed to identify beliefs about how reading takes place and how reading ability develops, and (b) a set of three lesson plans each in vocabulary, comprehension and syllabication. Lesson plans were written to reflect different explanations for how reading takes place and develops; subjects chose the plan in each area that they felt was most effective and that they would choose to teach. Results imply that (a) there is little difference between groups in theoretical orientation regarding how reading takes place and how reading ability develops; (b) both preservice and inservice teachers with reader-based/holistic explanations for how reading takes place and develops tend to choose vocabulary and comprehension lessons reflecting their beliefs; and (c) subjects in both groups holding text-based, interactive, mastery of specific skills, and differential acquisition explanations for how reading takes place and develops did not choose lessons consistent with their theoretical orientation.
An Investigation of Task Requirements Associated with the Invented Spellings of 4-Year-Olds with above Average Intelligence
Authors: Burns Jeanne M. , Richgels Donald J.
Published: December 2009

This study examined whether conscious use of phonological knowledge is associated with invented spelling and whether a relation exists between invented spelling and reading. Thirty-two 4-year-olds with scores of 116 or higher on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test were classified as Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers based on their spellings of 10 words on the Invented Spelling Test. All subjects were administered 11 different tasks which examined alphabet knowledge, word segmentation, sound/letter association, and reading knowledge. Results indicated that all subjects displayed a similar ability when required to recite the alphabet, recognize uppercase letter names, segment words into syllables, and identify basic concepts about print. Inventive Spellers demonstrated superiority at letter/sound identification and segmentation of words by phonemes. Although significant differences were observed between Non-spellers and Inventive Spellers on wordknowledge tasks, dramatic differences among Inventive Spellers were evident. Forty-four percent of the Inventive Spellers were found to be Proficient Word Readers whereas the remaining 56% displayed reading proficiency at a similar level as the Non-spellers. A relation was found between spelling ability and conscious use of phonological knowledge; however, word reading appeared to be a related (but separate) ability from word writing.
Facilitating Children's Comprehension through the Use of Advance Organizers
Authors: Townsend Michael A. R. , Clarihew Anne
Published: December 2009

Recent investigations of Ausubel's advance organizer technique, a prereading instuctional intervention which serves to link new material with existing prior knowledge, have examined the interaction between learner characteristics and the characteristics of an advance organizer. However, this research fails to make eplicit the relationship between the advance organizer and the existing prior knowledge of the learner. The current study investigated the effects on comprehension of verbal and pictorial advance organizers with 8-year-old children having high or low prior knowledge relative to a science topic. In Experiment 1 a verbal advance organizer assisted the comprehension of only the children in the strong prior knowledge group. In Experiment 2 the addition of a pictorial component to the verbal advance organizer facilitated the comprehension of children in the weak prior knowledge group.
The Effects of Writing in a Reader-Based and Text-Based Mode on Students' Understanding of Two Short Stories
Authors: Newell George E. , Suszynski Karen , Weingart Ruth
Published: December 2009

This study examined how personal versus formal writing tasks affect what students take from literary text. The writing samples produced by sixty-five 10th-grade students in response to two short stories were analyzed for quality of response, audience, function, syntactic complexity, fluency, and types of response statements. Findings indicated that the reader-based or personal writing tasks enabled the students to produce qualitatively more effective responses that tended to be more fluent and constructed with a wider range of response statements. A shift in audience from teacher-as-examiner to teacher-student dialogue in the personal writing indicated a tentativeness that permitted the students to invite their reader into their explorations of the short stories.
Effects of Reading Ability on Children's Comprehension Evaluation and Regulation
Authors: Zabrucky Karen , Ratner Hilary Horn
Published: December 2009

Good and poor readers in the sixth grade ( M age = 11.92 years) were videotaped reading inconsistent stories presented one sentence at a time. Children's comprehension evaluation was assessed with on-line (reading times) and verbal report measures; comprehension regulation was assessed by examining look-backs during reading. All children read inconsistencies more slowly than consistent control information but good readers were more likely than poor readers to look back at inconsistencies during reading, to give accurate verbal reports of passage consistency following reading, and to recall text inconsistencies. Results highlight the importance of using multiple comprehension monitoring measures in assessing children's abilities and of treating comprehension monitoring as a multidimensional process.
From Oral to Written Language: Preschool Children Dictating Stories
Authors: Pontecorvo Clotilde , Zucchermaglio Cristina
Published: December 2009

This study, part of a larger longitudinal research project, examined the process and products of story dictation of beginning readers. The subjects were 14 six-year-old Italian school children from low socioeconomic backgrounds who were interviewed four times (March, May, December and May of the following year) over a period of 16 months. In the interviews, the subjects were asked to construct and dictate a story in response to a picture stimulus, to reflect on their own stories, and to respond to questions from the scribes. The products (the stories) were analyzed for story structure elements, variety of verbal tenses, use of connectives, and anaphoric references. The processes (metatextual elements of interaction with the scribe) were analyzed according to variations in dictation speed, text segmentation, terminal signalling, and indications of revision. Results support an emergent literacy perspective, provide direction for further research, and are related to the needs of the early childhood curriculum.
The Effect of Textual Errors on Dyadic and Individual Learning
Authors: Hall Richard H. , Dansereau Donald F. , O'Donnell Angela M. , Skaggs Lisa P.
Published: December 2009

The major objective of the present experiment was to assess the effects of textual errors on dyadic and individual learning. One hundred undergraduates were taught a four-step learning strategy, after which they studied a text passage either dyadically or individually. Half of the passages within both conditions contained syntactic errors. Total recall measures indicated that dyads performed better than individuals on recall of text in sections not containing errors, whereas the groups did not differ on recall of the material in text sections containing errors. Further, dyads outscored individuals on measures of recall of error location, error frequency, and perceived difficulty of the text sections which contained errors. In addition, subjective processing measures indicated that motivation and interest were strongly related to recall.
Silent Reading Rates in Grade Equivalents
Authors: Carver Ronald P.
Published: December 2009

Silent reading rates have been converted into grade equivalent (GE) units. Data presented in several different sources were evaluated and the Taylor (1965) data were selected to represent GEs. The Taylor data were further evaluated by comparisons with the results of other research data. From all these data it appears that the growth in reading rate is approximately constant each year in school for typical students. And, the Taylor GEs seem to provide reasonably valid, criterion-referenced GEs that may be used to evaluate the status and progress of individuals or groups.
Intermediate-Grade Students' Sensitivity to Macrostructure Intrusions
Authors: Smith Therese F. , Hahn Amos L.
Published: December 2009

Students' sensitivity to four top-level text structures was investigated using a methodology not used previously in this area of research—the error-detection paradigm. Forty-eight students in Grades 4, 6, and 8 read short paragraphs organized according to the following text structures: compare/contrast, description, enumeration, and sequence. An intrusion sentence which signalled an enumeration text structure was inserted in the compare/contrast, description, and sequence paragraphs. The enumeration paragraphs did not contain any intrusive text-structure information. Following the reading of each paragraph, students performed a recall and a recognition task. Oral recalls were assessed qualitatively according to the following criteria: (a) followed the text's structure, (b) followed the text's structure but included the intrusion, (c) followed the text's structure/recognized the intrusive information, and (d) did not follow the text's structure. Students' performance on the recognition task was assessed according to the following criteria: (a) did not recognize the intrusion, (b) recognized the intrusion after a prompt, and (c) spontaneously recognized the intrusion. Results of the study showed that task, text structure, and grade level differentially affected students' sensitivity to the four text structures. Implications for future research are proposed.