A growing concern in elementary schools is how to bridge the gap between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) so that limited-English-proficient (LEP) children may participate fully in an academic environment. However, many of the innovations in teaching children ESL have focused on the development of oral language (BICS) while neglecting innovations in literacy practices (CALP). If LEP students are to participate fully in an academic environment, they must be literate. Therefore, the development of reading comprehension skills is viewed as essential. / This study examined the cognitive span of questioning, i.e., levels of questioning, in ESL and L1 reading materials according to Barrett's taxonomy of reading comprehension skills, compared the levels of questioning following ESL reading passages with those following L1 reading passages, and analyzed the results of this comparison to determine whether a source of inadequate ESL reading comprehension skills exists. / The materials selected for this study included all Florida adopted series for ESOL grades K-6 (24 texts) and all adopted series for Reading, Basal Programs, grades 1, 3 and 5 (67 texts). A systematic sampling of reading comprehension questions and tasks were classified using the Barrett Taxonomy of Reading Comprehension. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to report and analyze findings. Total numbers of items classified into the four levels of the taxonomy, into each subcategory of the taxonomy, and for each publisher and text in a program were reported for ESOL and basal texts. The scale of measurement for all variables was nominal. / Analysis of the data revealed significant differences in levels of questioning between the ESOL and basal reading series, with the ESOL series containing a very limited number of higher-level tasks. This gap between the comprehension tasks required in the ESL reading class and the mainstream reading class might be a factor in overall literacy levels and/or in the cognitive rigors of the two sets of language arts materials. If ESL reading comprehension instruction could parallel the requirements of the L1 reading curriculum, the legislatively mandated need for ESL students to be mainstreamed might be more effectively and efficiently achieved. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-05, Section: A, page: 1162. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

The trope density of the Newbery Bronze Medal winners and the selected Advanced Teacher's Choices books (1983-1985) was studied to determine the most common type of trope found in each of the eight prize-winning children's literature books. The readability level of each Newbery Bronze Medal winner and each selected Advanced Teacher's Choice was studied. The investigator utilized eight advanced children's literature books in seeking answers to the following questions. / Is there is significant difference between the trope density of the Newbery Bronze Medal Award books and the Advanced Teacher's Choices Books? Is there a significant difference in the readability levels of the two categories of books? Is there a significant relationship between readability levels and trope densities? Is there a significant difference in the trope types found in the Newbery Bronze Medal Award Books and the Teacher's Choices Books? These are the questions this investigator sought to answer in this study. / The four hypotheses were tested by using the following: (1) The Mann-Whitney U Test for small samples was employed for hypotheses 1 and 2; (2) The Spearman Rank Order Correlation was employed for hypothesis 3; (3) Chi-square and Binomial statistics were employed to test hypothesis 4. / No significant differences were found in the mean trope densities of the three Newbery Bronze and the five selected Advanced Teacher's Choices books. No significant differences were found in the readability levels of the three Newbery Bronze Medal Award Books and the five selected Advanced Teacher's Choices. However, a significant relationship between Award type and trope frequency was found. It was also found that the most frequently used trope was sense and the least used tropes were synecdoche, litote, and metonomy. / Further studies of metaphorical language should be conducted utilizing advanced fictional and nonfictional children literature books, pop literature, and newspapers. The readability levels of prize winning literature books, pop literature, and newspapers should be examined. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1717. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

An information processing model of reading comprehension accounts for influence over thought processes by the text (bottom-up variables) and the reader (top-down variables). Prior knowledge, a top-down variable, has been found to influence reading comprehension both in the quality and the quantity of what is remembered. In this study it was hypothesized that emotion, also a top-down variable, would affect reading comprehension in the same way as prior knowledge. To test this hypothesis the emotional orientation of passages was manipulated to determine the effect on the reader's comprehension. / First, a semantic differential was developed to measure fourth graders' feelings about passages. Then, 75 fourth graders read passages, freely recalled what they remembered, orally answered probe questions, and responded to the semantic differential. Each student read a total of three passages, each on a different topic (families, pets, and classrooms) and each with a different emotional context (positive, neutral, and negative). Transcripts of the free recall and probe question responses were scored for the percentage of correct responses. An analysis of variance using these two sets of scores yielded significant results. Linear regression using these two sets of scores and the scores from the semantic differential yielded significant results for two cases: (a) using probe question scores for negative passages only, and (b) using free recall scores for positive and negative passages together. Correlations conducted with comprehension scores and modified semantic differential scores were not significantly different from zero. Chi square tests to compare the recall of specific relationships were significant for four out of the ten relationships tested. / The findings of this study indicated that the emotional orientation of a passage has a stronger effect on the amount of information than on the kind of information recalled. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: A, page: 1721. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

"Word recognition automaticity" is defined as the rapid and accurate processing of whole words as units, rather than the use of word attack skills to sound words out for identification. Individual words that are recognized to a level of automaticity that includes a criterion in both accuracy and speed are referred to as part of a reader's "sight word vocabulary." / This investigation examined the effects that two different instructional techniques (context-free and repeated reading) have on increases in the sight vocabulary of children who have been identified as moderately delayed readers. Both techniques, independently, have been found to increase children's word recognition automaticity. This study compared and contrasted them in terms of effectiveness, retention, and efficiency. / All children received two weeks of repeated reading instruction and two weeks of context-free instruction. The repeated reading condition consisted of multiple oral readings of stories. The context-free condition consisted of practice on a series of multiple choice items, each composed of a vocal representation of a word and three printed words. The instructional materials in both conditions contained a common set of target words that was not part of the children's sight vocabulary at the time they were selected for the study. All instructional materials and tests were administered via computer. / The four testing conditions were (1) an immediate context-free posttest, (2) a delayed in-context posttest, (3) a delayed context-free posttest, and (4) a diagnostic progress test. / The results of a series of analyses of variance with repeated measures indicate that repeated reading instruction may be more effective than context-free instruction for increasing the number of words in the sight vocabulary of moderately delayed readers, regardless of the testing format. In addition, the results suggest that repeated reading may be more efficient than the context-free technique (increasing the number of words in sight vocabulary in less instructional time). Finally, the results suggest that the two different instructional techniques may be equally effective for maintaining increases in performance over an extended period. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-10, Section: A, page: 2589. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

The major purpose of this study was to determine if the textbooks used in tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade social studies, science, and literature classes are appropriate for the students who are using them. A secondary purpose was to compare the difficulty of the texts at each grade level and in each content area. An exact word scored cloze test was administered to determine difficulty. Minor exceptions were made in scoring. / An F-test with an alpha level of.01 was used to determine if a significant difference existed in each content area. The same method was used to determine significance of difference at each grade level. If a significant difference was found, the Tukey-Kramer Modification of The Tukey Honest Significance Difference Test was used to find the source or sources of difference. / The results indicated that 92 per cent of the subjects (N = 772) tested at the frustration reading level. This result means that only eight per cent of the subjects are able to profit from attempting to read these textbooks. / The results also indicated that the social studies textbooks were less difficult than science or literature books for both tenth and twelfth graders. For eleventh graders, social studies and science textbooks were more difficult than literature books. / Eleventh grade social studies was more difficult than both tenth and twelfth grade social studies, but eleventh grade literature was less difficult than tenth or twelfth grade literature. / Because of the high percentage of subjects who scored in the frustration reading level range, the following recommendations were made: (1) The school system should implement programs to improve the reading level of its students. (2) Teachers should teach reading in the content area. (3) Teachers should develop alternatives to textbook assignments for this population. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-12, Section: A, page: 3085. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

The major purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative difficulty of interpreting six common types of tropes. A secondary purpose was to determine if the ability of students to interpret each of the six types of tropes is significantly different between grade six and grade eleven. / The population was composed of 265 sixth-grade students and 329 eleventh-grade students. All of the subjects had at least fifth-grade reading ability. / The instrument used in this study was the Tullos Trope Test developed by the researcher. The instrument was field tested for validity and reliability. / Three hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis one stated that there are no significant differences between the mean scores of six types of tropes for sixth-grade students. This hypothesis was tested using a one-way analysis of variance. The null hypothesis was rejected. A multiple range test identified the significant differences to be between personification; allusion, litotes and synecdoche; hyperbole; and metonymy, with personification being the most difficult type to interpret and metonymy being the easiest. / Hypothesis two stated that there are no significant differences between the mean scores of six types of tropes for eleventh-grade students. This hypothesis was tested using a one-way analysis of variance. The null hypothesis was rejected. A multiple range test identified the significant differences to be between personification; litotes; allusion and synecdoche; hyperbole; and metonymy, with personification being the most difficult type and metonymy being the easiest. / Hypothesis three stated that there are no significant differences between the mean scores of sixth-grade and eleventh-grade students in the ability to interpret each of the six types of tropes. This hypothesis was tested using student t tests. The null hypothesis was rejected. There were significant differences in the mean scores of each trope type between grade six and grade eleven. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-07, Section: A, page: 2298. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

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The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze teacher interactions when students read a text during one-to-one literacy tutoring sessions in order to identify features of their interactions and describe how these help further the students' literacy learning. The sociocultural nature of learning was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The research was conducted using a qualitative case study approach. A teacher and one group of students were observed during an academic semester. Data were collected from the following sources: lesson plans, interviews with participants, field notes, Reading Miscue inventory, and audio and video tapes of the tutoring sessions. Only the reading experiences of the tutoring sessions were analyzed. The results showed the types of teaching and learning strategies used by the teacher and students, and changes in the students' reading strategies. The findings suggested that the changes in the students' reading strategies might be due to the teacher's efforts at critical learning moments during their interactions, to guide the students into making use of their intuitive knowledge of language cues. The results of the study reflect the need for educators to focus on the nature of teacher-student interactions during literacy tutoring and the way in which teachers scaffold students' learning of literacy concepts and strategies. While scaffolds are necessary to a child's learning, what is done in these scaffolds is more critical to moving the child toward independence.

Miscue analysis and eye-movement recording technology are combined in this dissertation to explore the reading processes of adult, skilled readers. The combination of approaches forms a new reading research methodology termed Eye Movement Miscue Analysis, or EMMA, that provides a powerful view of the reading process. Miscue analysis, the psycholinguistic analysis of unexpected responses in a reader's oral text, provides a verbal dimension of data for reading research. Similarly, eye-movement recording, which shows precisely where in a text a reader looks, provides a visual dimension of data. When these two research approaches are combined, both verbal and visual data are analyzed, resulting in a powerful, multi-dimensional view of the reading process. This dissertation focuses on adult readers' eye movements made during the production of miscues and other oral reading phenomena. Patterns of eye movements relative to substitutions, omissions, insertions, partials, and repetitions are described, analyzed, and compared. Results of the analysis are discussed in terms of whether current causal explanations of miscues are augmented or refuted. Original conceptions about the reading process formed as a result of this research are developed and placed in existing theoretical frameworks. Major findings include that the eye movements relative to different types of miscues and other oral reading phenomena exhibit different patterns, and both eye movements and miscues, and the relationship between them, are functions of comprehension. Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, most miscued words are examined, and examined thoroughly, before the miscue is produced; miscues are not caused by careless or reckless reading, or visually skipping words. Implications for theories and models of the reading process are discussed, and areas of needed research are described.

The relationship between reading and time in the oral reading of an authentic, connected text is conceptualized using a hydrological "flow" metaphor in this theoretical dissertation. The concept of reading fluency in oral and silent reading is critically examined. The concepts of "reading fluency" and "reading rate" have historically been part of a word identification view of reading. In this view, the act of reading is defined as the ability to identify words. Accordingly, reading fluency is characterized as rapid and accurate word identification. In an alternative sociopsycholinguistic transactional view (the view taken in this dissertation) reading is described as a meaning construction process in which a reader constructs a personal meaning by transacting with a written text. The concept of reading fluency is supplanted with a hydrological reading-as-flow metaphor. In this dissertation, a deconstruction of "reading fluency" is initially provided. Next, a definition of "reading flow" is offered along with a procedure for its documentation. The procedure makes extensive use of miscue analysis. This is followed by a fine-grained analysis of reading and time relationships for several readers reading orally. Major findings include that oral reading rate varies throughout a text in response to readers' employment of cognitive reading strategies; reading rate varies for both effective and proficient readers; the variability of reading rate can be represented as a quantity. Implications for a theory of the reading process, a theory of reading instruction, and teacher education are included.