The main purpose of this study was to examine the effects of type of testing method and reading proficiency level on readers' comprehension scores. A secondary purpose was to examine any interaction between these two factors. In addition, a question of interest was whether Bernhardt's Second Language Reading Model could help explain the comprehension processes of these group of readers. / The subjects were 162 Malaysian ESL students from three levels of reading proficiency courses at the National University of Malaysia. The subjects read a 306-word passage about the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Subjects then performed either a multiple-choice task or an immediate written recall task. Comprehension was measured by the scores obtained on the two tasks. Both tasks were measured on the same scale based upon number of weighted idea units or propositions. / A 3 x 2 Factorial ANOVA was applied to examine the effects of testing method and reading proficiency level on subjects' comprehension scores. The results of the ANOVA reveal that there is a main effect for type of testing method. However, there seems to be no significant effect of proficiency level on the comprehension scores. The results also indicate an absence of interaction between the two factors. The qualitative analysis of 81 recall protocols provides evidence in support of Bernhardt's Second Language Reading Model. / The study calls for the use of multiple-assessment techniques in ESL reading comprehension. The immediate written recall task is recommended as a valid assessment instrument for classroom application. Further pedagogical and testing implications are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2496. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The research literature has established a solid link between early development of phonological awareness and subsequent development of beginning reading skills. In addition to the empirical data obtained from longitudinal-correlational studies, training studies have indicated that the relationship is a causal one. The training studies have reported that it is possible to increase phonological awareness skills through training and that the training has an effect on subsequent acquisition of beginning reading skills. Few studies, however, have reported individual differences in response to phonological awareness training. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine which child characteristics would predict response to a twelve-week phonological awareness training program. One hundred kindergarten children participated in the study. Sixty children received phonological awareness training, while forty children served as a no-treatment control group. An analysis of covariance verified that the training had an effect on the children's phonological awareness skills. Once group-level differences were obtained, correlates of growth were examined by analyzing individual growth curves with hierarchical linear models. The best predictor of growth in both segmenting and blending was performance on the nonword spelling measure prior to training. The best model for predicting growth in segmenting included nonword spelling and general verbal ability, while the best model for blending included nonword spelling and rapid serial naming of digits. These latter variables accounted for essentially all of the reliable growth in blending skills, while the predictive model for segmenting left a significant proportion of the variance in growth unexplained. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-02, Section: A, page: 0246. / Major Professor: Joseph K. Torgesen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The original purpose of this study was to explore an alternative concept for selecting multicultural literature for secondary schools in Trinidad, a pluralistic country. The investigator studied models of instruments that are used to select multicultural literature in pluralistic countries, such as Great Britain, Canada, Australia and the United States, where Multicultural Education has been instituted. It was the investigator's intention to create a model for selecting multicultural literature suited to Trinidad's multicultural needs. / The investigator found that no instrument could be sensitized to all human variables, hence the reason that selected literature is often censored. Censorship has no place in intellectual growth and is definitely contrary to the purpose for multicultural literature which seeks to educate about as many cultures as possible. The recommendation, then, is for teachers to prepare to teach their students about culturally sensitive aspects that may appear in the literature being taught. In this way, teachers will not impinge upon the intellectual growth of their students. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-10, Section: A, page: 3083. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This study assessed the impact of Greek bilingual education programs on (1) the academic achievement of students who attend Greek language schools and Greek bilingual programs, (2) the ability of these students to speak the Greek language; and (3) the ethnic identity and self-concept of the Greek-American students. / The general hypothesis of the study was that Greek-American students who attend Greek schools or Greek bilingual programs will have higher academic achievement, better language preservation and more positive self-concept than those who do not attend such schools. The major purpose of the study was to determine whether Greek bilingual education would prove effective in increasing the Greek-American students' knowledge and ethnic identity. / The study took place in Chicago. The instruments of the study were two questionnaires and a language test. The first questionnaire was the Student Greek Language Attitude Questionnaire (SGLAC) and was used to measure the attitude towards the Greek language. The second questionnaire was the Greek American Student Culture Attitude Inventory (GSCAI), and was used to measure Greek-American students' attitudes toward and knowledge of the Greek culture. The Regents Comprehensive Examination in Modern Greek was used to assess student proficiency in modern Greek. The instruments were administered to two groups of students who attend Greek bilingual schools and students who attend monolingual schools. Also, student school records were obtained to ascertain the academic achievement of students. The size of the sample was exactly 139 students of seventh and eighth grade. All subjects were approximately of equal socioeconomic status. / The collected data were analyzed through quantitative procedures, such as t-test and chi-square analyses. The findings of the study indicated that there were significant differences between Greek-American students who attend Greek schools or Greek bilingual programs and Greek-American students who attend English monolingual schools. / Overall, Greek-American students who attend Greek schools or Greek bilingual programs have higher academic achievement in all the academic areas of study: math, English, social studies, and science. Also they have better preservation of the Greek language and more positive self concept towards their ethnic identity and culture, than Greek-American students who do not attend Greek schools or Greek bilingual programs. / A significant finding is that Greek bilingual education has positive effects on pupils' educational development. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0416. / Major Professor: Byron G. Massialas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

The primary goal of the research was to investigate the capability of ESL readers to cope with the interference to reading comprehension in "bottom-up" processing caused by language-based deficiencies through the application of more "top-down" processing. In particular, the study investigated the facilitating effect of thematic context on the completion of a series of cloze tasks by ESL readers. / The 128 subjects in this study were primarily students in intensive English programs at Florida universities. A battery of three cloze tests on the same topic and a battery of three tests on three unrelated topics constituted the instruments in the study. The passages from which the clozes were constructed had been matched for readability, and the clozes had met statistical criteria to be considered equivalent forms. / A one-way analysis of covariance, with TOEFL scores serving as covariate, was applied to determine if the group taking the related-topic clozes performed any differently from the group taking the unrelated-topic clozes. Further observation of the data was carried out by plotting the results of subgroups determined a posteriori. / The correlations between the TOEFL and the cloze battery scores were above.88 for both groups, and no significant difference was found between the groups in the ANCOVA. Similarly, the plotting of scattergrams and graphing of regression lines for subgroups (determined by TOEFL) did not suggest that subjects at different proficiency levels differed in their application of thematic context in the completion of the cloze tasks, although thematic context did appear to interfere with the performance of less proficient subjects. Although the study did not support the notion of compensatory strategies, it was proposed that the cloze may limit the ability to apply top-down processing. The findings were related to the use of thematic materials in ESL curricula and to proficiency testing for admission decisions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-10, Section: A, page: 2952. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a one-to-one interactive read-aloud intervention on the emergent storybook reading and verbal abilities of low socioeconomic status kindergarten children. Twenty-two reader-facilitators were trained in interactive read-aloud. Four children were randomly selected from the lowest third of the SES groups in each of twenty-two kindergarten classes. The children were pretested and posttested using the Verbal Scale of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities and the Sulzby Observation of Emergent Storybook Reading. The children in the intervention group were read to on an individual basis over a period of ten weeks. All read-aloud sessions were audiotaped for further analysis. A 2 x 2 x 2 design using ANCOVA analysis was conducted using the appropriate pretests as covariates. A significant effect was found for both emergent storybook readings and verbal abilities (p $<$.01) Analysis of the audiotapes showed no significant increase in either the number of questions answered or asked by the children during the read-aloud sessions over the period of intervention although the number of words spoken by the children increased significantly. This was attributed to their active involvement with the stories being read; reading along, repeating familiar refrains and lines. An affective rating scale completed by the reader-facilitators after each read-aloud session also showed an increase in the children's enjoyment of the read-aloud sessions and the stories over the period of intervention. Based on these findings, it was concluded that one-to-one interactive read-aloud has a positive causal relationship on a kindergarten child's improved emergent storybook reading and increased verbal abilities / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-10, Section: A, page: 3196. / Major Professor: Charles Hall Wolfgang. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

This study examined the effects of simplification of a short story on the readability and comprehensibility of the text for EFL readers at varying L2 proficiencies, and on these readers' response to the story. The research was conducted with the assumption that simplification procedures which reduce semantic, syntactic, and content features of texts do not adequately reflect current reading theory and may render texts more "readable" but not necessarily more comprehensible or engaging. Familiarity with story discourse may provide readers schematic resources to overcome linguistic complexity. / The subjects were 256 French and Yugoslav university students. TOEFL scores, ranging from 320 to 630, served as the covariate in the statistical analyses of the comprehension measures. / Readability of the two text versions was addressed through application of readability formulas and analyses of propositional content, cohesion, and stylistic features. Comprehension was measured by means of cloze passages scored with exact and acceptable word criteria, a multiple-choice test, and written recall protocols eliciting variables of percentage of propositions recalled and total words written. Response was measured by readers' conclusions for the story, and their justifications of their conclusions. / Descriptive statistics for the readability measures show the original version has higher difficulty ratings, greater propositional density and number of metadiscourse features, and greater cohesion, particularly lexical cohesion. Inferential statistics for the comprehension measures uniformly demonstrate that the original version was more difficult to understand. Summary statistics for the response variables indicate, however, that readers of the original version wrote longer story conclusions, included more reader-based inferences in their justifications, and showed more awareness of story genre and stylistic characteristics. / Procedural and instrumental limitations are discussed, with instructional implications for the use of cohesive, coherent, simplified materials in L2 contexts where reading for information (as in ESP), or independent reading for pleasure (as with SSR), are the goals. The importance of the role of the teacher in preparing readers to interact with unsimplified texts is stressed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1144. / Major Professor: Frederick L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Twenty contemporary young adult romance series novels were examined in order to determine attitudes, values, and literary quality. This examination was done by content analysis. All 20 novels were selected from Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller's Bestsellers lists. The number of positive and negative attitudes toward Family, Peers, School, Love and Sex, Religion, Authority Figures, Neighborhood, Free-time Recreation, and Part-time Work was determined. The findings revealed that there were more positive attitudes (181) than there were negative attitudes (128). Free-time Recreation had more positive attitudes (68) than any other category, and Family and Peers had more negative attitudes (42). / Literary quality was determined by using a modification of Charlotte Huck's (1987) criteria for judging young adult literature. The main topics of the criteria were: plot, setting, theme, characterization, style, point of view, and format. The books were considered good literary choices if the answer was yes to 80% of the criteria. The findings revealed that 17 of the 20 novels studied met the criteria above 80%, and three books met 77.8% of the criteria. The novels rated high as literary choices, according to the criteria. It was concluded that romance series novels, with teachers guiding the reading of students, may be a part of the English curriculum. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: A, page: 0068. / Major Professor: John S. Simmons. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

It was argued (with support from literature on observational classroom research and literary criticism) that understanding data collected during classroom observations--transcripts, fieldnotes, etc.--requires one to interpret the language of teachers, students, and researchers, and that such a process might be well guided by a method of textual criticism. / To test the strength of this argument, the researcher studied a set of data, consisting of transcribed audiotaped interviews (conducted with two college composition teachers, both before and after instruction) and of transcribed instruction of those same teachers. The purpose of this research was to devise and attempt a critical analysis of the data modelled on literary theory. / A critical work, J. Hillis Miller's The Linguistic Moment, was selected as the model for interpreting the data described above. This model guides readers' interpretations by alerting them to "linguistic moments" in literature, points at which readers' theories about literature are contradicted by what the page presents, and which are reconciled by the language that readers bring to bear during interpretation. / So that linguistic moments in teaching could be studied, the teachers' preliminary references to teaching, learning, students, and writing were recorded and categorized. Those categories, termed "operational theories" of instruction, were compared with the actual processes of the classroom. / When perceived as textual, the data from each class portrayed many voices and contexts. The teachers occasionally responded to this multiplicity in a way which disregarded the voices (the assumptions, goals, needs) of students, in favor of the voices of their own preliminary plans or assumptions. At other times, however, the classroom language was co-authored by students and teacher; educational goals and assumptions were regularly and mutually expressed, monitored, and revised. / Conclusions emphasize the role of multiple contexts in the planning, practicing, or studying of classroom instruction. They also reiterate the demonstrated textuality of teaching and the value of critical theory as an educational research tool. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-12, Section: A, page: 3835. / Major Professor: James Hoetker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Peer response groups, in which students give and receive feedback on drafts of essays, embody many features of effective language teaching environments: student-centered activities; the opportunity for students to play a role other than the passive learner; the need for students to negotiate as they discuss meaning. This study examined one L2 writing group as they responded to each others' papers, and searched for links between feedback and revisions made to the papers. This was a case study of three advanced ESL writers in an Intensive English Program over a seven-week period. Qualitative research methods included collecting videotaped, audiotapes, interview, and written data and analyzing them using inductive procedures. / These students talked extensively and exclusively on text-related issues. They demonstrated an awareness of vital concepts in academic writing: the need to consider audience and not make assumptions about readers' cultural understanding; the importance of providing adequate detail in their texts; and the need to use conventional aspects of academic writing. In their creation of the response group activity, the students were critical but offered usable suggestions and respected the author's control. The writers learned how to accept critical comments, and how to justify the text and reject suggestions if they wished. / Analysis of revisions made following peer review revealed large differences in behavior between the students. One who readily accepted suggestions during the talk revised accordingly. One who regularly justified the original text incorporated few suggested changes. One who spent considerable time explaining the text made extensive revisions that could not easily be traced back to the talk. It was concluded that revision habits of these writers were strongly influenced by their interaction behaviors during the text discussions. / The peer feedback activity was revealed to be a forum for developing skills of giving and receiving critical response. Writers learned to trust and use peer feedback in revision, but, equally important, they learned how to make their own decisions about revising. Implications for teachers include the need to assist student writers in practising oral revision in the group in order to practise changes in texts in front of an audience of peers. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3031. / Co-Major Professors: E. Platt; F. L. Jenks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.