Genre effects on higher education students' text reading for understanding

This study provides empirical support for the proposalthat student learning in higher education is affectednot only by prior subject knowledge and by approachesto learning but also by ability to deal with textgenre. It first explores how 22 higher degreestudents on a course in education understood selectedtext extracts from different genres when reading attheir own pace under conditions expected to promotethorough understanding. After reading a text eachstudent wrote answers to a set of questions abouttheir reading and understanding of the text. Intape-recorded discussion with another reader of thesame text they then looked for similarities anddifferences between their responses. They laterreported on their feelings about the task and text. Understandings were found to vary between readers ofthe same text, difference being largely attributed bythe students to difficulty with the language andstructure of the texts in terms which pointed to thegenre. Considerable anxiety about difficulty anddifference in understanding was partly allayed throughdiscussion, but understanding was not much furthered. Most students felt that more work on the texts wouldbe fruitful.In a second part of the study a further 39 studentsfrom a new intake to the same course were asked abouttext types in their recommended and actual coursereading. The types they reported as most frequentlyrecommended were also felt to be the most difficultfor reasons to do with text genre. They were alsothose from which the earlier text extracts had beendrawn. Theoretical and practical issues arediscussed.     

Teaching English Language Learners At Risk for Reading Disabilities to Read: Putting Research into Practice

The purpose of this article is to describe features of interventions that are empirically validated for use with first‐grade students at risk for reading disabilities who are English language learners (ELLs) and whose home language is Spanish. The empirical evidence supporting these interventions is summarized. Interventions for improving oral language and reading abilities with struggling readers who are ELLs taught in either Spanish or English are described as a means to assist school districts and teachers in defining and implementing effective interventions for ELLs at risk for reading difficulties. The interventions described may be useful to educators seeking information about Response to Intervention as a means of identifying ELLs who require services for learning disabilities.     

Effects of Analysis and Evaluation Questions on Various Levels of Achievement

This study investigated whether a dominant use of analysis and evaluation questions in social studies text-type materials would improve various levels of sixth grader’s social studies achievement. Sixth grade pupils numbering 260 in eleven classes were randomly assigned by class to either experimental Condition A or B. During a 4-week experimental period, pupils in each condition used specially prepared materials. Condition A’s materials contained a dominant emphasis of analysis and evaluation questions (47. 53 percent), while Condition B’s materials utilized primarily knowledge questions (87. 38 percent). At the experiment’s termination, an achievement test was administered that provided six sub-scores, one for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. ANACOVA was the principal method of analysis . Students in Condition A achieved significantly better in the area of evaluation than did students in Condition B. Reading significantly affected all sub-scores with better readers performing at higher levels than poorer readers. The use of analysis and evaluation questions produced significantly greater scores in the area of evaluation than did the use of knowledge questions. Better readers in both conditions achieved significantly higher than did poorer readers in all six areas of the achievement test.