Abstract: A connectionist approach to processing in quasi-regular domains, as exemplified by English word reading, is developed. Networks using appropriately structured orthographic and phonological representations were trained to read both regular and exception words, and yet were also able to read pronounceable nonwords as well as skilled readers. A mathematical analysis of a simplified system clarifies the close relationship of word frequency and spelling-sound consistency in influencing naming latencies. These insights were verified in subsequent simulations, including an attractor network that accounted for latency data directly in its time to settle on a response. Further analyses of the ability of networks to reproduce data on acquired surface dyslexia support a view of the reading system that incorporates a graded division of labor between semantic and phonological processes, and contrasts in important ways with the standard dual-route account.

Abstract: PART ONE: READING THE CRISIS Lessons James Joyce Teaches Us Visual Truth and the Ethnographic Project PART TWO: EXPERIENTIAL TEXTS The Standpoint Epistemologies Performance Texts The New Journalism The Private Eye Ethnographic Poetics and Narratives of the Self PART THREE: WHOSE TRUTH? Reading Narrative The Sixth Moment

Abstract: Contents: Preface. An Introduction to Protocol Analysis of Reading. Methods Employed to Construct a Summary of Conscious Processes During Skilled Reading. What Readers Can Do When They Read: A Summary of the Results from the On-Line Self-Report Studies of Reading. Text Processing in Light of Think-Aloud Analyses of Reading: Constructively Responsive Reading. The Future of Reading Protocol Analyses: Addressing Methodological Concerns in Order to Advance Conceptual Understanding.

Abstract: A review of 39 studies indicated that achievement test scores decline over summer vacation. The results of the 13 most recent studies were combined using meta-analytic procedures. The meta-analysis indicated that the summer loss equaled about one month on a grade-level equivalent scale, or one tenth of a standard deviation relative to spring test scores. The effect of summer break was more detrimental for math than for reading and most detrimental for math computation and spelling. Also, middle-class students appeared to gain on grade-level equivalent reading recognition tests over summer while lower-class students lost on them. There were no moderating effects for student gender or race, but the negative effect of summer did increase with increases in students’ grade levels. Suggested explanations for the findings include the differential availability of opportunities to practice different academic material over summer (with reading practice more available than math practice) and differences in the mater...

Abstract: Reading impaired first graders were given daily tutoring as a first cut diagnostic to aid in distinguishing between reading difficulties caused by basic cognitive deficits and those caused by experiential deficits. Reading achievement in most of these children was found to be within or above the average range after one semester of remediation. Children who were difficult to remediate performed below both children who were readily remediated and normal readers on kindergarten and first-grade tests evaluating phonological skills, but not on tests evaluating visual, semantic and syntactic skills. The results are consistent with convergent findings from previous research suggesting that reading problems in some poor readers may be caused primarily by phonological deficits.

Abstract: Foreword Index of Figures and Reproducibles Preface 1 Moving Toward Authentic Assessment * Assessment of English Language Learning Students * Definition of Authentic Assessment * Purposes of this Book and Target Audience * Overview of the Book 2 Designing Authentic Assessment * Approaches to Teaching and Learning * Types of Authentic Assessment * Awareness of Authentic Assessments * Designing Authentic Assessments * Technical Quality of Authentic Assessments * Issues in Designing Authentic Assessment * Conclusion * Application Activities 3 Portfolio Assessment * Instructional Context * What a Portfolio Is and Isn't * Self-Assessment: The Key to Portfolios * Managing Portfolios * Using Portfolio Assessment in Instruction * Conclusion * Application Activities 4 Oral Language Assessment * Nature of Oral Language * Authentic Assessment of Oral Language * Using Oral Language Assessment in Instruction * Conclusion * Application Activities 5 Reading Assessment * Nature of Reading in School * Authentic Assessment of Reading * Using Reading Assessment in Instruction * Conclusion * Application Activities 6 Writing Assessment * Nature of Writing in School * Authentic Assessment of Writing * Using Writing Assessment in Instruction * Conclusion * Application Activities 7 Content Area Assessment * Content Area Instruction in Schools * Authentic Assessment in Content Areas * Using Content Area Assessment in Instruction * Conclusion * Application Activities 8 Examples from the Classroom * Talk Show * Geoboard * Magnet Experiment * Interpreting Portfolio Entries * Reading Response Time * Anecdotal Records * Book Talks: Integrated Reading Appendix Sample Entries from Roxana's Portfolio Glossary References Index of Classroom-based Assessment Techniques

Abstract: Individual growth curves were used to test whether the development of children with reading disabilities is best characterized by models of developmental lag or developmental deficit. Developmental changes in reading ability were modeled by using 9 yearly longitudinal assessments of a sample of 403 children classified into three groups representing (a) deficient reading achievement relative to IQ expectations (RD-D), (b) deficient reading achievement consistent with IQ expectations (LA), and (c) no reading deficiency (NRI). Using a model of quadratic growth to a plateau, the age and level at which reading scores plateaued were estimated for each child. Reading-disabled children differed on average from nondisabled children in the level but not in the age at which reading skills plateaued. The RD-D and LA groups did not differ in reading plateau or age at plateau. The subgroup of RD-D children scoring below the 25th percentile in reading differed from LA children only in reading plateau. Results suggest that the developmental course of reading skills in children with reading disability is best characterized by deficit as opposed to lag models. In addition, no support for the validity of classifications of reading disability based on IQ discrepancies was apparent.

Abstract: Two experiments, theoretically motivated by the construction‐integration model of comprehension (W. Kintsch, 1988), investigated effects of prior knowledge on learning from high‐ and low‐coherence history texts. In Experiment 1, participants’ comprehension was examined through free recall, multiple‐choice questions, and a keyword sorting task. An advantage was found for the high‐coherence text on recall and multiple‐choice questions. However, high‐knowledge readers performed better on the sorting task after reading the low‐coherence text. In Experiment 2, participants’ comprehension was examined through open‐ended questions and the sorting task both immediately and after a 1‐week delay. Little effect of delay was found, and the previous sorting task results failed to replicate. As predicted, high‐knowledge readers performed better on the open‐ended questions after reading the low‐coherence text. Reading times from both experiments indicated that the low‐coherence text requires more inference processes. Th...

Abstract: Research on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition has revealed that words associated with actual objects or imagery techniques are learned more easily than those without. With multimedia applications, it is possible to provide, in addition to traditional definitions of words, different types of information, such as pictures and videos. Thus, one of the fundamental research questions posed in the use of multimedia systems is: How effective are annotations with different media types for vocabulary acquisition? This article discusses the results of three studies done with 160 university German students using CyberBuch, a hypermedia application for reading German texts that contains a variety of annotations for words in the form of text, pictures, and video. The issues examined are related to (a) how well vocabulary is learned incidentally when the goal is reading comprehension, (b) the effectiveness of different types of annotations for vocabulary acquisition, and (c) the relationship between look-up behavior and performance on vocabulary tests. The results showed a higher rate of incidental learning than expected (25% accuracy on production tests, 77% on recognition tests), significantly higher scores for words that were annotated with pictures + text than for those with video + text or text only, and a correlation between looking up a certain annotation type and using this type as the retrieval cue for remembering words.

Abstract: Dutch advanced students of French read a French short story in one of three text reading conditions: Marginal Glosses (provision of L1 translations of unknown words), Dictionary (opportunity to use a bilingual dictionary), or Control. After reading, students were tested for their recall of 16 words that had appeared either once or three times in the text. Support was found for the hypothesis that frequency of occurrence will foster incidental vocabulary learning more when advanced second language (L2) readers are given the meanings of unknown words through marginal glosses or when they look up meanings in a dictionary than when no external information concerning unknown words' meanings is available. In the former case, reappearance of a word will reinforce the form-meaning connection in the reader's mental lexicon. In the latter case, readers will often ignore unknown words or incorrectly infer their meanings, which will limit the frequency effect. This article ends with recommendations for teachers and researchers.

Abstract: The review examines ways in which working memory contributes to individual and particularly to developmental differences in writing skill. It begins with a brief definition of working memory and then summarizes current debates regarding working memory and capacity theories in the field of reading. It is argued that a capacity theory of writing can provide a framework within which to consider the development of writing skill, and relevant data are discussed. Effects of capacity limitations are documented in all three component writing processes: planning, translating, and reviewing.

Abstract: The second edition of Unraveling the "Model Minority Stereotype: Listening to Asian American Youth" extends Stacey Lee's groundbreaking research on the educational experiences and achievement of Asian American youth. Lee provides a comprehensive update of social science research to reveal the ways in which the larger structures of race and class play out in the lives of Asian American high school students, especially regarding presumptions that the educational experiences of Koreans, Chinese, and Hmong youth are all largely the same. In her detailed and probing ethnography, Lee presents the experiences of these students in their own words, providing an authentic insider perspective on identity and inter ethnic relations in an often misunderstood American community. This second edition is essential reading for anyone interested in Asian American youth and their experiences in U.S. schools.

Abstract: Introduction The long-neglected issue of vocabulary acquisition is currently receiving attention in second language pedagogy and research – reflecting the importance always accorded it by learners. But it is still far from clear how learners acquire vocabulary or how it can best be taught. Reading comprehension processes may offer some clues. There is considerable evidence from first language studies that extensive reading for meaning leads to vocabulary acquisition over time, and indeed that reading probably accounts for most L1 vocabulary expansion beyond the first few thousand words in common oral usage. Second language research on this issue is sparse, but what there is indicates that extensive reading programs are generally more effective than systematic vocabulary instruction using decontextualized exercises (see, for example, Elley and Mangubhai, 1983; Krashen, 1989). The process by which “incidental” acquisition through reading occurs is slow, however, and there is no way to predict which words will be learned, when, nor to what degree. The question remains as to whether instructional intervention could support the process and make it more directed and efficient. The classroom experiments reported here attempt to do this, using instructional procedures designed to increase the salience and cognitive processing of targeted words encountered by L2 students in reading texts. These experiments track the acquisition of these words using a recently developed instrument, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 1993; Wesche & Paribakht, forthcoming).

Abstract: The effect of contextual constraint on eye movements in reading was examined by asking subjects to read sentences that contained a target word that varied in contextual constraint; high-, medium-, or low-constraint target words were used. Subjects fixated low-constraint target words longer than they did either high- or medium-constraint target words. In addition, they skipped high-constraint words more than they did either medium- or low-constraint target words. The results further confirm that contextual constraint has a strong influence on eye movements during reading.

Abstract: Objectives To understand the difficulties that patients with poor reading ability have interacting with the health care system and to identify the coping mechanisms they use to deal with these problems. Design Focus groups and individual interviews with patients who are illiterate and patients with low literacy. Setting Two large, urban public hospitals. Participants Sixty patients with marginal to poor reading abilities as measured by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine were interviewed in focus groups or individual interviews. Measurements and main results Patients with low literacy harbor a deep sense of shame, which is reinforced by hospital staff who become frustrated or angry when someone cannot complete a form or read instructions. Seeking medical care is intimidating for patients with low literacy because they cannot understand signs and registration forms. Many patients recounted serious medication errors resulting from their inability to read labels. To cope with these problems, the patients with low literacy rely heavily on oral explanations, visual clues, and demonstrations of tasks to learn new material. Most also use a friend or family member as a surrogate reader. Conclusions Patients with poor reading ability have important problems accessing the health care system, understanding recommended treatments, and following the instructions of providers. Because of their shame, patients with low literacy may be unwilling to disclose their problem to health care providers, and screening tests of reading ability may be necessary to identify those who need special assistance. Patients' coping mechanisms give insight into possible interventions that may improve their interactions with the health care system.

Abstract: The system enables a user to dispose information such as an icon to identify the article that the user posts from the client computer, on the display screen thereof, for example, at the position closer to an icon of an article that another user posted if the former user intends to express the opinion positively to the latter user's posted article. The server computer where many client computers can post articles and read the articles posted from other client computers, manages the coordinate data of the icons respectively disposed at the client computers according to the respective intentions of the articles and reproduces the icons on the display screen of a client computer, at the respective disposed positions so that a user at the client computer can instantly understand the intentions of the posted articles without reading the contents thereof.

Abstract: Second-grade, low-achieving students experienced a year of either transactional strategies instruction or highly regarded, more conventional second-grade reading instruction. By the end of the academic year, there was clear evidence of greater strategy awareness and strategy use, greater acquisition of information from material read in reading group, and superior performance on standardized reading tests by the transactional strategies instruction students. This is the clearest validation to date of educator-developed transactional strategies instruction.

Abstract: This article presents a discussion of the relationship between classification systems and individuals' everyday activities. The concept of “boundary work” is defined as the practices that concretize and give meaning to mental frameworks by placing, maintaining, and challenging cultural categories. “Home” and “work” provide a case study for examining boundary work across a range of realm relationships, from those that are highly “integrating” to those that are highly “segmenting.” Boundary practices involving calendars and keys, clothes and appearances, eating and drinking, money, people and their representations (like photographs and gifts), talk styles and conversations, reading materials and habits, and work breaks (including lunches and vacations) are discussed. Mary Douglas's work on categorical purity helps illustrate the relationship between cognitive order and visible behavior seen in the boundary work of home and work.

Abstract: Preface: how to use this bookAuthor's acknowledgementsPublisher's acknowledgements 1. Who is stylistics? 2. More on foregrounding, deviation and parallelism 3. Style variation in texts 4. Sound, meaning and effect 5. Rhythm and metre in the reading of poetry 6. Drama: the conversational genre 7. The meaning of speech acts, turn-taking and politeness 8. Assumptions, presuppositions and the inferring of meaning 9. Fictional prose and point of view 10. Speech and thought presentation 11. Prose style 12. Bringing it all together Appendix: a list of English phonemes References Index

Abstract: His latest book vibrates with the strange political and literary energies of ancien regime France. The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France traces the merging of philosophical, sexual, and anti-monarchical interests into the pulp fiction of the 1780s, banned books that make fascinating reading more than two centuries later. French literature of the eighteenth century means to us today Rousseau and Voltaire and the "classic" texts that, we imagine, gave rise to the Revolution. Yet very few of the standard works of the Enlightenment were as widely read as books whose names we have never heard, books that were the currency of a huge literary underground during the reign of Louis XVI. Included in this volume are Darnton's translations of excerpts from three of these works. After twenty-five years of research, Darnton has summarized his findings in one brilliant work that examines the reciprocal relationship between private literature and the public world, the (illegal) spread of Enlightenment thought, and the interesting possibility that the writings of some not-so-famous authors contributed to the fall of the French aristocracy.

Abstract: Using a think-aloud procedure, we observed the behavior of 15 university students in Australia with experience in Italian as they attempted to learn the meanings of new foreign language (Italian) words. The great majority of the procedures they used involved some form of repetition of the new words and their meanings-mostly a simple reading of the dictionary-like entries provided, or repetitions of the word-meaning complexes. They gave relatively little attention to the physical or grammatical features of words, nor did they commonly use elaborative acquisition procedures. The lack of association between use of context and recall of word meaning is of major interest, given the stress placed on context by many researchers and commentators. Even when students did use the cues in the sentences to generate possible meanings for the target words, this did not help them establish representations for the meanings of the words. Consideration of the use of context in vocabulary acquisition suggests a need to distinguish between the use of context for

Abstract: This article is concerned with aspects of phonological processing and linguistic awareness that may set the stage for initial reading development. The aims are first to provide a current review of phonological processes (both underlying and metaphonological) that have been found to be associated with initial reading achievement, secondly to present a new hypothesis relating differences in the nature of phonological representations in the lexicon to the development of phonological awareness and other phonological processes. The hypothesis is concerned withdistinctness of phonological representations, i.e. the separateness of phonological representations. Phonological representations of high distinctness are distinguished from other representations by many features. The distinctness hypothesis is compared to the lexical restructuring hypothesis which suggests that lexical representations gradually become increasingly segmental between one and eight years of age. Implications of each hypothesis (emphasizing the distinctness hypothesis) for the development of language abilities and reading are presented, along with suggestions regarding future research directions.

Abstract: L1 vocabulary acquisition The incidental vocabulary learning hypothesis (Nagy 8t Herman, 1985) is based on research into how children learn vocabulary in their native language. It proposes that the vast majority of vocabulary words are learned gradually through repeated exposures in various discourse contexts. Proponents of this view claim that learners typically need about ten to twelve exposures to a word over time in order to learn it well. They observe that native speakers can learn as many as fifteen words per day from the ages two to seven and therefore conclude that direct instruction of vocabulary cannot possibly account for the vast growth of students' knowledge of vocabulary. Consequently, Nagy and Herman (1987) argue that teachers should promote extensive reading because it can lead to greater vocabulary growth than any program of explicit instruction alone ever could. L2 vocabulary acquisition Following this same logic, it is argued that L2 learners who achieve advanced reading proficiency in a language will acquire most of their vocabulary knowledge through extensive reading rather than from instruction. For example, Krashen (1989), a leading proponent of extensive reading, argues that language learners acquire vocabulary and spelling most efficiently by receiving comprehensible input while reading. He claims that this results from the Input Hypothesis, i.e., successful language learning results from comprehensible input as the essential external ingredient coupled with a powerful internal language acquisition device. Krashen originally postulated the Input Hypothesis for oral language acquisition and in a recent study of oral vocabulary acquisition Ellis (1994) argues that it is “not comprehensible input but comprehended input that is important” (p. 481).

Abstract: Presents specific methods and models for carrying out all phases of field-based research, and offers hands-on practice. This title addresses the reading, writing, listening and speaking techniques necessary for understanding, interpreting and presenting the lives of those interviewed.

Abstract: by Jonathan Cole, (Foreword by Oliver Sacks), 193 pp., Cambridge, MIT Press, 1995, $15.00. This entrancing book is well worth reading for neurologists, rehabilitation specialists, and all readers who admire ``true grit.'' The book may be read on many levels. It is first a story about the courage and character of Ian Waterman, the hero (and I believe many readers will agree with the use of this noun). Second, it is a story that reminds physicians, if they need reminding, not only to look …

Abstract: Through textured case studies of engaged and relectant readers, this text addresses the following issues: what do highly engaged, adolescent readers do as they read?; what is it about traditional schooling, reading instruction and literary instruction that deters engaged reading and serves to disenfranchise young readers?; how can interventions like dramatic and artistic responses to literature be used in classrooms to help all readers, especially reluctant ones, to take on the strategies and stances of more expert readers - and to reconceive of reading as a personally meaningful, pleasurable and productive pursuit? The work will serve as a supplemental text in graduate and undergraduate courses in language arts, reading and writing methods, and remedial reading. It should also be of use to teacher educators, special educators and parents.