Focuses on the performance levels of the Test of English for Educational Purposes (TEEP) and English Language Testing Service (ELTS) tests. It is concluded that more attention should be paid to the process underlying test performance. (15 references) (GLR)

The types of vocabulary in three short novels were analyzed to determine the text coverage of the most frequent 2,000 words of English, and the vocabulary needed to gain 97-98% coverage of the running words in each text. It was found that a 5,000-word vocabulary was necessary for adequate coverage in pleasure reading. (Contains nine references.)…

Many curricula for teaching reading in a foreign language do not include the skill of understanding the implicit meaning of texts. This article presents a taxonomy of inferences drawn from selected taxonomies of Pearson and Johnson, Warren et al., and Nicholas et al., which are also reviewed. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/LB)

Story grammar is a recent area of research related to an interactive conceptualization of reading. A study of 70 sixth-grade students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) suggests that direct instruction in story grammar helps students abstract a story's episodic sequence and metastructure. Sample texts are appended. (Contains 21…

An approach to teaching and testing advanced French reading comprehension of expository social science texts is presented within a "communicative-cognitive" framework. Learners receive instructions that encourage them to perceive and use the writer's overall rhetorical scheme as a conceptual-functional framework for integrating the components.…

Reports on an investigation into the reading proficiency of primary school children in two African countries and tests two hypotheses regarding the relative reading ability of the children in these countries. Test results reveal statistically significant differences in favor of Malawi for reading proficiency in the first language and no…

Investigates the performance on different types of inference questions of 2 groups of Zambian secondary school students at grade 10 and grade 8. The texts used were "familiar" (Zambian-focused) or "unfamiliar" (British-focused). Results showed that grade 10 students performed significantly better than grade 8 students. (38 references) (Author/CK)

Examines the performance of native speakers of Chinese and of English on a random detection cloze in their native language, and in the case of the Chinese, also in English as a Second Language, for what they reveal about native and nonnative readers' strategies and about reading in the two different languages. (24 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates differences between English-as-a-Foreign-Language students at two levels of reading comprehension performance with respect to the global and analytic reading styles. No significant differences were found with regard to meaning memorization. There were slightly significant differences in favor of the global style with reference to…

Suggests a way to overcome the difficulty of teaching effective reading skills to students with diverse interests. The approach is based on four specifications: (1) each student studies a text on a topic in his own specialty; (2) reading practice images students' academic contexts; (3) classes are learner centered; and (4) students are evaluated…

Discusses the relevance for the valid testing of reading of the difference between a 'unitary skill' approach to reading and a multiskills approach. The article produces evidence suggesting that a distinction may be drawn between language-based skills and 'global' reading skills. (55 references) (Author/CK)

Describes the assessment of the revised objectives of an English reading course offered at Kuwait University to foster reading comprehension for academic purposes. Analysis of data obtained from pre- and posttests showed improvement in reading skills although there were differences between students who were Arts and Science majors. (19 references)…

Presents a model reading lab design for advanced English for Academic Purposes students and describes the four major instructional components of the lab as well as the logistics of running a lab. (44 references) (Author/CK)

Presents a theory of reading and a justification in the form of a defense of a highly generalized approach to the different forms of reading and of a lexical approach to receptive grammar. The article also addresses the question of the usefulness of models in general and this one in particular, specifically with relation to foreign-language…