This experimental research study examined the effects of the Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) taxonomy on ninth-grade students’ ability to answer comprehension questions. Participants included 32 incoming ninth-grade students who were required to attend summer school due to poor attendance, grades, and/or standardized test scores. Participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Experimental group participants received one week of initial strategy instruction followed by three weeks of maintenance activities. Results indicated that the strategy had a negative effect on students’ question-answering ability and raised questions regarding comprehension instruction, length of interventions, and the role of scaffolded support for a target population of adolescent readers. Discussion of the results revolves around interventions, QAR instruction, reading ability, and motivation of the participants.

The goal of this research was to determine whether communication apprehension impacted reading comprehension in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students and to examine the impact of family socio-economic status. Many studies have demonstrated the negative relationship between communication apprehension and academic achievement, however, studies of elementary and middle school students have been conspicuously missing from this research. Findings of this study indicated that the levels of communication apprehension rose slightly as grade level increased. Results showed that females in the study had higher levels of communication apprehension than males. The study also found that those students receiving free and reduced lunch had slightly higher levels of communication apprehension. Finally, nonminority status students had higher levels of communication apprehension than minority students. A review of previous studies found that children, exposed to high language input from their parents, know more words than those who are exposed to lower levels of input. Researchers have found that students who do not talk much in the classroom are evaluated less positively by their teachers, achieve less on teacher-made and standardized tests, and develop less positive affect toward school in general. Results of this study suggest that effort should be made to identify communication anxiety in children. The iii development of an age and grade appropriate instrument is warranted for early identification.

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The increased popularity of listening to audiobooks has influenced the discussion of literacy, pressuring the educational system to adjust accordingly. This study investigates if the audiobook is being used as a teaching tool in the upper secondary, SLA classroom and what attitude teachers have toward using audiobooks in their teaching as well as the reasons behind their attitudes. This research also investigates whether there is a correlation between age or student program and the usage of audiobooks. To gather data, a questionnaire was sent out to 46 English language teachers in upper secondary school in Halland. The questionnaire included open-ended questions which resulted in qualitative answers from 28 participants. The retrieved result proved that most upper secondary school English teachers are using the audiobook as a teaching tool, however, the reason for their usage differed. Some participants, who did not make use of the audiobook in their classroom still had a positive attitude towards using it and could present many beneficial aspects of it. The result contradicts the initial hypothesis about teachers showing reluctance using audiobooks in their teaching.

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