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This study examines three questions: What kinds of think-aloud statements, in particular what kinds of inferences, are made by middle school students while reading expository text? Does thinking aloud affect comprehension as measured by recall and answers to questions? Does thinking aloud add value to the assessment of comprehension beyond what is learned through recall and question answering? Sixty-eight middle-school students read expository texts and thought aloud on one segment and did not think aloud on another segment. After completing each segment, the students recalled the texts and answered comprehension questions. The content of think-alouds and recall was examined using Trabasso and Magliano's (1996a) clausal coding scheme and inferences were differentiated as explanatory, predictive or associative. Students primarily paraphrased the text as they thought aloud and made associative inferences using text information. Thinking aloud was associated with more associative inferences in recall, which correlated negatively with the ability to answer comprehension questions. The content of think-alouds may provide a more sensitive picture of readers' processing than unaided recall or answers to questions. (Contains 5 tables.)

When proficient middle school readers enter high school, it is generally expected that they can successfully comprehend high school text. If any literacy instruction is provided in high school, it is generally limited to students with a history of struggling with reading. Is it a reasonable expectation that successful middle school readers will be equally successful when dealing with high school text? If proficient middle school readers do encounter difficulties, what strategies might be helpful? What support might they need? Thinking aloud during the process of reading has been recommended as a strategy for improving comprehension (Harvey & Goudas, 2000; Wilhelm, 2002). Would such a strategy help proficient readers with a difficult reading assignment? Would thinking aloud have a positive impact on their ability to retell difficult text or answer questions about its content? The results of this study suggest that proficient middle school readers may not succeed equally in all high school texts, and thinking aloud is not equally facilitative to their success. (Contains 2 figures.)

Finds in year 1, children showed effects of neighborhood size in high frequency words read in stories and in low frequency words read in lists and stories; in year 2, rimes from large neighborhoods were read more accurately than rimes from other neighborhoods; and by year 3, effects on low-frequency words continued, but not for high-frequency words. (RS)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV are correlated and endemic in South Africa. However, safety strategy use to prevent IPV among HIV-positive women is understudied. This study assesses correlates of specific safety strategy use among 166 Black South African women recently experiencing IPV and testing positive for HIV. Associations were observed between consultation with formal (i.e., counselors, clergy, IPV specialists) and informal networks (i.e., friends/family) and participant language (isi Zulu, isi Xhosa, Sesotho, and English), past year IPV, and engaging in HIV care. Future HIV-IPV programs should consider how characteristics of different IPV safety strategies may influence strategy uptake and ultimately HIV care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning readers were studied in 2 experiments to examine the influence of reading ability, word frequency, and time-neighborhood size (the number of single-syllable words with the same time) on word and nonword recognition. Forty 1st and 2nd graders read 53 words and 27 nonwords containing times from different-size neighborhoods. Children reading at or below a 2nd-grade level were less affected by time-neighborhood size than children reading at or above a 3rd-grade level. Rimes from large neighborhoods were read correctly more often in lists and stories than times from moderate or small neighborhoods, particularly in low-frequency words. As children learn to read, they become increasingly sensitive to rime-neighborhood size.

How prior knowledge influences short-term non-verbal and verbal memory and long-term retention was studied in 32 seventh and 32 eighth graders of high and low reading ability. Greater knowledge of the text's subject resulted in improved recall and retention. No interactions were found between prior knowledge and reading ability. (SLD)

Examines the effects of prior knowledge and oral reading accuracy on miscues and comprehension of third-grade average readers who read expository passages orally. Finds that children with high prior knowledge made fewer miscues which resulted in meaning loss, and that their miscues were graphically less similar to the text word. (MM)

Examines the relationship between word recognition ability, knowledge of orthographic structures, and use of orthographic knowledge in word recognition. Finds that children with a second grade reading vocabulary demonstrate a generalized effect of orthographic structure when searching for multiple word targets and when searching for members of a category. (RS)

Changes in oral reading miscues as a function of quantity of miscues were studied by evaluating the oral reading of eighth-grade children reading passages of sixth-, eighth-, eleventh-, and thirteenth-grade readability. (HOD)

Investigates the use of graphic and contextual information by average and below-average readers when reading with equal rates of miscues. (HOD)

Examines the development of knowledge of orthographic structure among beginning readers by testing their ability to discern which word in a pair looked most like a word. (HOD)