Inaug.-diss.--Basel. / At head of title: Aus dem Neurologischen ambulatorium an der Medizinischen universitäts-poliklinik, Basel. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. 17-18.

Theses (Ed.S.)--Marshall University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains iii, 20 p. Bibliography: p. 17-20.

This study attempts to establish whether or not the ability to comprehend long passages of text-book material is reflected in the usual reading comprehension test score. The skills which result in a high score on a standardized reading test may not be identical with those required in regular classroom reading. A test was constructed to serve as a criterion of the ability to read a Grade 9 science text-book. The study was limited to the kind of reading which is done when the reader's purpose is total grasp of a fairly long passage of new and difficult material. Study skills were specifically excluded. The Criterion Test, and Test 1 of the Stanford Advanced Reading Test, and Part III of the Cooperative Science Test for Grades 7, 8, and 9 were administered to 90 Science 10 students. This group was a representative sample of the Grade 9 population of the public schools of Vancouver, British Columbia. The intercorrelations of the test scores were computed. For the sample used, the correlation between Stanford scores and Criterion scores was .58; between Stanford scores and Cooperative scores, .66; between Cooperative scores and Criterion scores, .72. The main Inferences derived from these data were: 1. The size of the correlation coefficient (.72) between Cooperative scores and Criterion scores implies that the two tests measure groups of skills which are similar but not identical. 2. For most practical purposes, Part III of the Cooperative Science Test could be used to appraise the ability to read material from Science in Action, Book 1.¹ 3. The Stanford Test does not seem to be as good a measure of the ability to understand science text-book material as the Cooperative Test. 4. The correlations obtained suggest that the test scores are affected by content and length of passage, content being the more important factor. It is possible that a better criterion would have resulted from having the students read one long passage directly from the text-book. Such a criterion would be more like a natural reading situation and less like a standardized test. ------------¹ Paterson, G. M., and Cameron, E. E. Toronto: Dent, 1955. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The problem of this thesis was to explore the relationship between first grade reading failure and certain environmental and developmental factors, using the case study method. The subjects were sixteen boys and six girls from a Vancouver school in a poor neighborhood. They ranged in age from 7 years 1 month to 8 years 2 months, and in IQ from 73 to 113 according to the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test (Form A). All had been taught by veteran primary teachers using the auditory-visual, basal reader method. Achievement was assessed on the basis of report card grades, a Pupil Rating Scale designed for this project, and the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty. The etiological factors investigated were intelligence, visual perception, style of learning, self-concept and home environment. Eight students repeating grade I were matched with eight who had been regularly promoted to grade II. It was hypothesized that differences in reading achievement between the matched pairs would be accounted for by significant differences in one or more of the factors studied. Evaluative techniques included: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Raven Coloured Matrices, Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, Mills' Learning Methods Test, and a 45-90 minute parent interview for each child. Twenty-two case studies were assembled, in which the beginning stages were noted of a variety of reading disabilities - maturational lag, linguistic handicap, cultural deprivation, inadequate motivation, emotional disturbance, faulty reading habits. The major findings were: 1) The Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test appear to assess inaccurately the functioning intelligence of 10/22 children in this sample. Six of these pupils were successful readers with defects of visual perception revealed by the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, sub-tests II, III and IV. 2) The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test had a high correlation with reading success, and did not appear to discriminate against the ten children who came from bilingual or Canadian Indian homes. 3) Anomalies of biological endowment characterized 9/l4 unsuccessful readers - organic defect, slow development, premature birth, hypo- or hyper-activity - although only one was mentally retarded. It) The aspects of home environment basic to reading success in grade I appeared to be parental literacy, standards of behavior adjusted to the child's capacity, reasonable methods of discipline, and a warm relationship between the child and at least one parent. 5) Lack of flexibility in methods of teaching reading were seen as contributing to the high failure rate. For 12/14 pupils, the only solution offered for a wide variety of beginning reading problems was a second year in grade I, with no adjustment of curriculum. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

No description available.

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Leesmotivering is van uiterste belang vir toekomstige akademiese sukses. Tog toon heelwat skoolleerlinge 'n geleidelike onwilligheid om te lees soos die jare vorder, met stygende skoolverlating tot gevolg. Een van die moontlike redes hiervoor is reeds in die skrywer se vorige navorsing uitgewys, naamlik, onderontwikkelde leervaardighede as gevolg van morfofonologiese bewustheidstekortkominge. Morfofonologiese bewustheid is leerlingbesef van die klankeenhede van gesproke woorde wat nodig is vir die vloeiende dekodering en begrip van woorde van die geskrewe teks. Leerlinge, geidentifiseer in die vorige studie as potensiele swak lesers, het 'n morfofonologiese bewustheidstekort getoon. Om hierdie skoliere by te staan, is 'n morfofonologiese bewustheidsopleidingsprogram (MSO) deur die navorser opgestel wat vir amper 'n jaar tegelykertyd met die konvensionele leesonderrigmetodes deur die leerkrag geimplementeer is. Daaropvolgende leesresultate het sonder twyfel die kwintessensiele rol van morfofonologiese bewustheid vir leesvaardigheidontwikkeling bevestig, en het verder die rehabiliterende gevolge van die MBO-program vir risiko lesers openbaar. Of hierdle gevofge buite die lmplementeringstydperk kon funksioneer en toekomstige lees kon motiveer, was nog onbekend. Ole doelstelling van die huidige ondersoek was om die vroee bevindinge te verleng deur die langtermyneffekte van die MBO-program op leesvaardighede en motivering oor 'n tydperk van drie jaar na te vors. In die natuurlike klaskameromgewing het die studie op die oorspronklike steekproeflede gefokus wat voorheen vir die eksperimentele en kontrole groep op regverdige wyse geselekteer is. Motiveringsverskynsels is in terme van attribusie teorie, spesifiek, en sosiaal-kognitiewe teorie, oor die algemeen, bespreek. Gestandaardiseerde, projektiewe, waarnemings - en onderhoudsmetodes het openbaar dat, in vergelyking met die kontrole groeplede, eksperimentele leerlinge meer leesmotivering getoon het. Ander konstruktiewe langtermyneffekte van die MBO-program is opgemerk: vir akademiese prestasie, spelling, woordeskat, persoonlikheid, attribusies, emosies, leerling-leerkrag en leerling-ouer interpersoonlike verhoudings wat die motiverende effekte blyk te konsolideer. Daar word beweer dat leesmotivering minstens twee vereistes benodig, naamlik, vroee identifikasie van probleemlesers en vroee implementering van die leerkragvriendelike MBO-program. / Reading motivation is of paramount importance for future academic success. Yet numerous school pupils display gradual reluctance to read in advancing years, the outcomes of which compound drop-out rates. One of the possible reasons for this was already identifioo in the earlier research of the writer, namely, underdeveloped reading skills as a result of morphophonological awareness deficits. Morphophonological awareness is pupil consciousness of the sound units of spoken words whlch are vital to fluently decode and understand the sound elements of written text. Pupils Identified in the previous study as potential at-risk readers capable of later reading difficulties indicated a lack of morphophonological awareness. To assist these pupils, a morpho phonological awareness training (MAT) programme was constructed by the researcher and implemented by the class teacher for almost a year in tandem with the conventional reading instructional methods. Subsequent reading results unequivocally confirmed the quintessential role of morphophonological awareness for reading skill development, and moreover revealed the rehabilitating effects of the MAT programme for at-risk readers. However, it was not known at that time whether these effects could extend beyond the period of application and mollvate future reading. The aim of this current investigation was to extend the earlier findings by exploring the long-term effects ofthe MAT programme on reading skills and motivation ov·er a period of three years. In the naturalistic classroom setting, the study focused on the original sample members previously randomly assigr.ed to experimental and control groups. Motivational phenomena are discussed in terms of attribution theory, in particular, and social-cognitive theory. in general. Standardized, projective, observational and interview methods revealed that, relative to control group rnambers, experimentals exhibited more motivation to read. Other constructive long-term effects of the MAT programme were noted for general academic achievement, spelling, vocabulary, personality. attributions. emotions, pupil-teacher and pupil-parent interpersonal relationships which appear to consolidate the motivational effects. It Is concluded that reading motivation requires at least two conditions to be met, namely, early identification of problem readers and early implementati9n of the teacher-friendly MAT programme. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgia State University, 2005. / Title from title screen. Rose Sevcik, committee chair; Robin Morris, Mary Ann Romski, Byron Robinson, committee members. 194 p. [numbered xii, 180] ; ill. (some col.) Description based on contents viewed Feb. 26, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-180).

Published also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1916. / Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this study was to investigate readers' processing of a short paragraph containing six embedded errors in order to test the predictive capacity of a psycholinguistic theory of the reading process and provide insight into readers' perceptual and semantic processing of meaningful text. Two hundred and forty junior high school and college subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. One group was instructed to read for meaning with no knowledge of the presence of the errors. The other group was instructed to read to detect the errors. After silently reading the passage all subjects were instructed to write a recall of the errors detected and a recall of the semantic content of the passage, after which they were permitted unlimited exposure to the passage in a second attempt to detect all the errors. In order to fulfill the main purposes of the study five research questions were developed involving twelve hypotheses. The research hypotheses were formulated on the basis of the Goodman Model of Reading and focused on possible differences across groups (meaning and error focus), across levels (junior high school and college), and across reading ability at the junior high school level (above and below average). The primary measures of the study were the mean number of errors detected under both limited and unlimited exposure conditions, the proportion of total possible detections made for individual errors under both limited and unlimited exposure, and passage recall scores. The data were subject to a number of analyses of variance, Tukey post hoc tests, and confidence interval calculations. The analyses resulted in the following principal findings: (1) Although error focus subjects detected significantly more errors than meaning focus subjects, all groups had difficulty detecting errors under both exposure conditions. (2) Passage recall scores revealed that all groups of subjects were drawn into processing the semantic content of the passage in spite of instructions. (3) More mature, efficient readers performed better on both error detection and comprehension than their counterparts. (4) As predicted on the basis of the underlying theoretical rationale, a powerful linear order of ease of detectability trend across the individual errors was revealed. In general the findings of the study provided considerable support for a psycholinguistic theory of the reading process in the form of the following major conclusions: the need to comprehend is central to the reading process; attention to meaning inhibits attention to fine graphic detail; accuracy in reading is a misnomer; readers do not process meaningful text letter by letter or word by word; cognitive processes influence perception; readers attend differentially to various syntactic and semantic components of text; more experienced, efficient readers display greater flexibility in their use of the process and are more easily able to change purposes during reading than their counterparts; reading is best described as an integrated, psycholinguistic process in which the reader, the text, and the message of the writer are important; the Goodman Model of Reading is a sound theoretical statement with considerable predictive capacity.

No description available.