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Purpose: Converging evidence demonstrates that robust academic vocabulary and morphology instruction improves literacy outcomes of multilingual adolescents. However, few interventions have focused on teaching word analysis using bound Latin roots, the major meaning-carrying constituents of academic words (e.g. voc meaning "speak" in "advocate"). Moreover, how students leverage a home language (L1; e.g. voz = "voice" in Spanish) to analyze academic words and develop robust representations has been understudied. This contribution to the special issue on the "science of teaching reading" presents results from an intervention focused on high-impact, general academic words, cross-linguistic connections, and inferring unfamiliar word meanings through morphological analysis. Method: We evaluated a 16-week intervention, employing a quasi-experimental design with 192 multilingual middle schoolers (mean grade = 7.7; 63.02% Latino, 20.83% Asian/Pacific Islander, 8.86% Black, and 7.29% unknown). Adjusting for clustering of students (n = 100 intervention) within classrooms, we estimated treatment effects on root meanings, word meanings, orthographic processing, multidimensional vocabulary knowledge, morphological analysis, and reading comprehension. We examined interactions by L1 (Spanish or other) for each outcome. Results: Significant and practically meaningful main treatment effects were found for five of six outcomes (d = 0.98 to d = 0.32), except reading comprehension where effects were positive but small. Interactions showed small advantages for Spanish L1 adolescents for root meanings, word meanings, and multidimensional vocabulary knowledge. Conclusion: Our findings contribute evidence to the science of teaching reading, demonstrating how emphasis on cross-language analysis of morphological relationships and Latin roots supports flexible and generative vocabulary learning for multilingual adolescents.

The annual "What's Hot in Literacy" survey identifies current priorities in literacy education, highlighting the evolving landscape of the field. A panel of twenty-five literacy leaders participate in interviews to identify the most emphasized, least emphasized, and most deserving topics of increased attention. The 2024 findings highlight three topics as "extremely hot:" banned books, phonics/phonemic awareness, and the science of reading and structured literacy. There are also six topics found to be "very hot," including artificial intelligence in literacy, cultural and linguistic diversity and literacy for multilingual learners, dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities, early literacy, high-quality instructional materials, and social justice/equity/anti-racism in literacy. Overall, the literacy field has received unprecedented focus this year, driven by legislative mandates in 38 states, policies on the science of reading, book banning, and discussions on essential early literacy skills for long-term academic and career success. This article examines the highlighted topics and the possibility that some of these are misguided trends. Additionally, it addresses the ongoing division within the literacy field, between advocates of content-focused and child-focused approaches to teaching and learning.

More than fifteen million native Chinese-speaking children are at risk for reading difficulties (RD), making effective Chinese reading interventions crucial for enhancing individual and societal well-being. A total of 51 studies from 2,015 children aged 6 to 13 years were included in the current meta-analysis to examine what works for reading interventions among Chinese children at risk for RD. For decoding outcomes, results indicated positive effects of interventions targeting decoding skills, g = 1.18, meta-linguistic skills, g = 0.57, and cognitive skills, g = 0.52. Interventions targeting decoding skills showed a stronger effect than those targeting cognitive skills. Interventions solely targeting decoding skills were as effective as multi-component interventions (e.g., combining decoding and meta-linguistic skills). For reading comprehension outcomes, results indicated positive effects of interventions targeting decoding skills, g = 0.64, and meta-linguistic skills, g = 0.79, but not of those targeting cognitive skills, g = - 0.08. Interventions targeting decoding skills were more effective than those targeting cognitive skills. These findings, taken together, suggest that compared to cognitive skills, interventions targeting decoding or meta-linguistic skills are consistently effective for improving decoding and reading comprehension. Decoding seems to be the active ingredient for successful reading interventions. Implications for future research were also discussed.

The science of reading refers to the extensive body of research on how we learn to read and the most effective methods for teaching reading. Our knowledge of what works in reading instruction is based on decades of rigorous, scientifically based research in the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. This research digest provides an overview of the science of reading, followed by a brief summary of research-based frameworks that explain the reading process, and concludes with a discussion of reading research in adult education.

This article conveys one practitioner's career-long journey related to teaching reading. The author gained valuable information from relevant research reports regarding the keys to effective reading instruction and has learned even more while implementing a systematic approach to teaching reading as a volunteer tutor.

Background: The teaching of reading or reading instruction has largely been carried out in terms of well-developed pedagogies in the field. These pedagogical approaches are, however, derived from research and development in a broad international context, and are often adopted by and implemented in various country settings. Given the contextual variation and resource disparities in South Africa, we feel such settings where approaches are adopted and used to represent a 'one size fits all' approach can be less than ideal. Aim: To explore scientific approaches to reading instruction as alternative approaches that are context specific. Setting: This article questions reading instruction as prescribed in the National Curriculum of South Africa. Methods: A conceptual review of literature was conducted to distil and propose alternatives to the dominant discourses for reading instruction. Results: Given the resource disparities and contextual variations, we argue for and propose a structured approach to reading instruction. Conclusion: Such an alternative should consider scientific evidence, and the teaching of reading needs to be explicit and systematic as well as contextually relevant. We believe it holds promise for improvement in literacy rates as it provides flexible and adaptable approaches. Contribution: We advocate for an alternative approach to reading instruction that is grounded in scientific evidence and emphasises explicit, systematic, and contextually relevant instruction.

This year's conference theme was a collective invitation to face how we, as a literacy research collective, may have played a role in marginalization and disenfranchisement and the further promotion and perpetuation of conceptual and linguistic hierarchies. The conference theme also became an invitation to propose ways to counter these existing hierarchies and how we use research as part of that solution. That was the spirit behind this year's Integrative Research Review Panel. This panel brought together five scholars, encompassing four perspectives, to tackle this year's conference theme of "Interrogating Hierarchies." The four papers approached the conversation about hierarchies from research on Black writing, English as a global affair, the science of reading, and social design-based experiments, not only outlining the pressing issues but also proposing solutions that our research community can embrace. As we read the four papers comprising this panel, it is worth pointing out how, despite the divergent departure points that each panelist's work represents, the four papers organically lay out a series of agreements about the need to rethink how we conceive English to avoid disenfranchisement, the importance of valuing minoritized and marginalized voices to rethink literacy, and the challenges to align our research with advocacy efforts.

Helping students engage with complex texts has been a longstanding challenge, though teachers have received little guidance about practices that help students in engaging with texts. This paper provides a range of empirical evidence about a tool designed to provide formative insight into text-focused teaching, which we used to reliably score more than 500 reading lessons in a large district. We describe the structure of the tool, its relationship to other measures of teaching, teacher and school attributes, and student outcomes. We then provide guidance to practitioners and researchers seeking to employ such a tool for teacher development.

The International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was updated 20 years ago and has been referenced frequently in research and practice. In this paper, researchers from the Florida Center for Reading Research consider the components of the definition and make recommendations for revisions. These include recognizing the persistence of word-reading, decoding, and spelling difficulties, acknowledging the multifactorial causal basis of dyslexia, clarifying exclusionary factors, and denoting comorbidity with other developmental disorders. It is also suggested that the academic and psychosocial consequences of dyslexia be highlighted to reinforce a preventive service delivery model. Lastly, the inclusion of dyslexia within a specific learning disability category is supported.

Recent studies have accumulated to suggest that children, akin to adults, exhibit a processing advantage for formulaic language (e.g. "save energy") over novel language (e.g. "sell energy"), as well as sensitivity to phrase frequencies. The majority of these studies are based on formulaic sequences in their canonical form. In natural language use, however, many formulaic sequences, collocations in particular, can be modified with words intervening in between the individual constituents (e.g. "save energy [right arrow] save all forms of energy"). For some collocations, their nonadjacent forms are equally, and even more frequently used than their adjacent form. Despite this, it remains almost unknown whether the processing advantage and sensitivity to phrase frequencies persist in nonadjacent collocations in children. Based on reading times in a self-paced reading experiment, the current study found that two age groups -- third and sixth graders -- exhibited a processing advantage for Chinese collocations and sensitivity to phrase frequencies, with two and even four Chinese characters inserted in the middle. The persistence of processing advantage and sensitivity was affected by insertion length as well as age. These results are in line with a usage-based theoretical approach to language learning, processing and use.

Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of human learning describes learning as a social process and the origination of human intelligence in society or culture in which the social and cultural context of development cannot be separated. The sociocultural theory of mind attempts to explain the processes through which learning and development occur. A tenet of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory is the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is used as a measure of the distance between what a learner is able to do and a proximal level that they might attain through guidance and collaboration with a more knowledgeable other. The ZPD is important in both education and psychology. By understanding how ZPD and a teacher's ZPD (TZPD) function, teachers and professional development (PD) trainers can be better prepared to create meaningful learning opportunities which maximize the tools and strategies available to educators, thus further improving student learning outcomes. The absence of current research on TZPD, especially in regard to reading comprehension instruction, results in the lack of evidence for how teachers develop TZPD and use evidence-based reading comprehension strategies in classroom instruction. The goal of this study was to investigate previous research conducted regarding Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and its implications for preservice and in-service teachers through what has been termed teachers' zone of proximal development. A systematic literature search identified studies tied to ZPD and TZPD. After screening and elimination, 13 studies were selected and reviewed for study design, theoretical framework, constructs being investigated, and the impact of methods used to collect data related to ZPD and TZPD.

While previous research has provided insights into vocabulary learning through extensive reading, the differential effects of word frequency and word class on active form and passive meaning word recognition remain less understood. By evaluating learners' post-test performance in active form recognition and passive meaning recognition, this study offers a comprehensive view of how these factors influence incidental vocabulary acquisition. The findings reveal a complex picture: while verbs showed a more significant improvement in active form recognition with increased exposure, underscoring the importance of repeated encounters, nouns were more effectively acquired in passive meaning recognition, suggesting differing cognitive processes involved in learning nouns versus verbs. Additionally, the study highlights that word frequency had a varied impact on learning outcomes, with multiple exposures facilitating a deeper understanding of verb forms, whereas noun learning showed less sensitivity to frequency. These results challenge the assumption that pleasure reading uniformly enhances all facets of word knowledge and suggest a complex interplay between word frequency, word class, and type of vocabulary recognition. The implications of these findings underscore the need for tailored strategies in L2 vocabulary instruction, advocating for a diversified approach to reading materials selection and emphasizing the importance of exposure diversity for effective vocabulary acquisition.

We aim to examine similarities and differences in the developmental patterns of habitual (HRM) and situational reading motivation (SRM). We investigated the correlated change of SRM and two aspects of HRM: habitual reading enjoyment and habitual reading for interest. The sample comprised N = 1508 students with four waves of data collections spaced approximately every 18 months. Applying multivariate curve-of-factors models, first we found a decline in all three aspects of reading motivation from T1 to T3, and a stable trajectory from T3 to T4. Second, all three aspects of reading motivation correlated strongly regarding time-specific aspects, as well as level and trend factors. Third, the two HRM aspects showed higher correlations than did any aspect of HRM with SRM. Implications of the correlated declines of HRM and SRM, and for future research on reading motivation in general, are discussed.

The science of reading (SOR) refers to the sum of what we know about how people learn to read based on empirical studies across multiple disciplines. The purpose of this review was to identify research evidence to inform the SOR for multilingual learners (MLs). We reviewed 30 systematic reviews related to reading and reading instruction for MLs conducted primarily in K-5 U.S. classrooms. Results identified four broad clusters of components related to English reading comprehension as well as instructional practices and programs effective in addressing each component. Clusters included oral language, phonological awareness, decoding and oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Notably, oral language and reading skills in both MLs' first language and in English were essential components of the SOR for MLs. Implications for theory and research as well as policy, curriculum, and instruction are provided.

Background: Digital literacy instruction is increasingly common in contemporary practices and can accommodate learners with a range of needs. This systematic review explores the use and effects of technology during reading comprehension instruction involving school-aged children learning English as an additional language (EAL). Our aim was to provide broad, global coverage that reflects the state of research in the field. Methods: We searched databases using terms related to EAL, reading comprehension and digital literacy instruction to identify relevant studies published on the topic between 2010 and 2023. Data were extracted regarding study context, participant characteristics, methodology, instruction characteristics and outcomes. We quantified the outcomes of instruction using standardised measures of effect size where possible and appraised the research quality of each study. Results: A total of 4382 studies were identified. Of these, 53 met our inclusion criteria. Studies were conducted across a variety of low- and high-resource environments, including countries where English is a majority language and those where it is a non-majority language. Learners from kindergarten through 11th grade were included across the studies. A range of reading comprehension strategies were utilised within the context of digital instruction, with multiple-strategy instruction the most common. Digital instruction resulted in statistically significant gains in reading comprehension in 32 studies (small to large effect sizes). Our research quality analysis revealed variability in terms of rigour, further adding to the diversity across studies. We conducted a sub-analysis of eight studies that met the highest standards of research quality. Like the full set of 53 studies, these eight studies reported on diverse types of digital instruction and diverse reading comprehension outcomes but tended to result in smaller effect sizes. Conclusions: Digital reading comprehension instruction can result in reading comprehension gains for children learning EAL, though findings are mixed. Further high-quality research is needed.

Most of the previous studies focused on lexical and syntactic features in adapted texts while little attention has been paid to the structural complexity from the perspective of the amount of information. In this study, we intend to examine the differences in structural complexity in adapted texts from the perspective of the amount of information at the lexical and grammatical levels. We also aim to identify the lexical and grammatical features that contribute most to such differences. The data used in this study were reading texts from Newsela, that is, reading materials for English learners under the educational system of K-12 in the United States. This study yields several findings of interest. First, the adapted texts differ in the structural complexity at both lexical and grammatical levels in terms of their amount of information. Second, the differences display a decreasing trend. That is, the differences become smaller when the level of the text increases. Third, function words and part-of-speech trigrams with a preposition(s) and/or a noun(s) contribute most to the differences. The findings provide significant implications for the adaptation of language materials such as reading texts and test materials.

The unique orthographic complexities of Japanese, which utilizes multiple types of scripts (morphographic kanji and syllabic hiragana and katakana) for the same spoken language, place unique demands on early learners. Much research has centered on the average ability of Japanese readers, but given the varying challenges of these scripts, attention may need to be oriented towards the outer bounds of ability, specifically those who both deeply struggle (including dyslexia) and excel at reading. In this article, we provide a review of past research on Japanese literacy along with a pre-registered analysis using quantile generalized additive models that tested two theories in cross-language literacy research, the orthographic depth and breadth hypotheses. Our results confirmed that the relationships between cognitive skills (phonological awareness and morphological awareness) and reading outcomes differed by script (hiragana vs. kanji). However, their relationships varied in curvilinearity and associations seemed to change based on reading ability. These findings provide supporting evidence for the general scope of the orthographic depth and breadth hypotheses, but may ultimately question the uniformity of these theories.

The narrative review examines the current state of research on reading for pleasure and its relevance in education and personal development. By analysing 22 studies published over the past several years (2014-2022), the authors have sought to identify the key trends and areas of focus within this field. The selected articles have been coded and analysed, and the results have been used to, among others, examine the type of research on reading for pleasure, the subject areas covered, the research methods used, the variables analysed, and the target groups involved. A particular attention has been paid to possible conceptualisations of reading for pleasure and reading for pleasure pedagogy, to the type of reading and the texts reading for pleasure may predominantly be associated with, as well as to its social dimension and relationship to the digital literary environment. The literature review shows that the studies on reading for pleasure highlight the importance of personalisation in reading for pleasure pedagogy and acknowledge the role of the material and social dimension of reading. Further, there are signs of a broader definition of reading materials, like comics, also in the educational context. The findings of the present review indicate the gaps in the research of reading for pleasure and highlight the need for a more profound understanding of the title concept and its benefits, thus contributing to the development of its future research and promotion.

Reading is one of the main skills to be learned and used in schools and through the entire life of an individual. Its crucial importance made reading one of the central topics in different academic disciplines such as education, psychology, linguistic and neuroscience. Advances in multidisciplinary approaches to and studies of reading gave us the reason to talk about the science of reading. Improvement in research into reading during the last century reveals the fact that different approaches emphasized the importance of partially different aspects of reading skills. Different approaches presented sound arguments for different priorities in teaching and learning of reading. For some decades ago strong dichotomic arguments were so sharp that in the United States the reading literature talked about 'the reading wars'. During the recent decades, the debate of reading and approaches to reading, reading skills and reading processes have changed. Studies of reading presented different arguments for partially different priorities. The Reading Teacher (RT) has for many decades been the one of the most important arenas for the presentation of new findings, ideas, arguments, and trends. Our present corpus-based study captured the frequent collocations and their usage in the RT publications -- 952 articles comprising 3 548 008 words - during the last decade, 2012-2021. TreeTagger was used for part-of-speech tagging and CQPWeb/CWB framework was employed as the corpus interface in the analysis process. The findings clearly revealed that "reading comprehension" was the most frequently used collocation, and it has never weakened its position in the RT publications in the last decade. While instructional activities and processes like 'shared reading', 'during reading', 'while reading', and 'after reading' were given considerable attention, 'before reading' was almost forgotten. Findings also show that linguistic diversity among students, particularly in the US, also made an impact on the emerging of new topics and thus frequency of concepts like bilingual, multilingual, translanguaging, and coaching. Findings related to the ascending and descending trends reading collocations in RT publications regarding other aspects of reading, teaching of reading, and reading processes are discussed and some ideas for future research are presented.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission's (OHCR) "Right to Read Report" calls for school districts to implement early literacy interventions that have been scientifically proven to be effective for young children with reading difficulties. The acknowledgment of early intervention as an essential service for young children experiencing reading difficulties is a strong and welcome message in the report. However, the report recommends a narrow course for reading interventions in Ontario, drawing on discourse from the Science of Reading community, which questionably frames current interventions, such as Reading Recovery, as unscientific, ineffective commercial programs. In this response, the authors contest the one-sidedness of these recommendations based on a paradox in the report between what constitutes an effective early literacy intervention supported by science and the standards for effectiveness the OHRC requires of interventions it endorses versus those it discredits. Rather than dismissing one approach or the other outright, a call is made for school leadership to consider broader reading science and the strengths of various approaches instead of narrowing the menu of effective literacy interventions that may support diverse learners.

This paper examines how kaiako (teachers) view professional learning and development training (PLD) in structured literacy (SL) in a Maori-medium immersion context. Through interviews with kaiako in a kura kaupapa Maori (Maori-medium educational setting) who teach students in Years 1-6, and images of the literacy environment to capture some of the literacy practices in classrooms, participants share their perspectives on their PLD training. The findings revealed some of the difficulties kaiako face, such as limited resources and working within a standardisded curriculum, whilst attempting to implement changes based on their PLD training. The findings highlight the need for support from all stakeholders (including policy makers and the school leadership team) to successfully implement SL in Maori-medium settings. The need for further resources in Maori-medium settings and the challenge of making changes to a standardised curriculum also emerged from the study. Finally, the findings indicate some of the potential benefits of PLD in SL for Maori-medium educators and akonga (students), such as an understanding of how the brain learns to read, some of the key elements of reading success, and instructional principles for effective literacy instruction.

This feature offers an archive of articles published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL"). It treats any topic within the scope of "RFL" and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order, each with a complete reference as well as a brief summary. The editors of this feature attempt to include all related articles that appear in other venues. However, undoubtedly, this list is not exhaustive.

This paper contributes to a research program within extensive reading (ER) and "Reading in a Foreign Language" using corpora to simulate ER input to develop vocabulary through incidental learning to 9,000 words. This helps researchers/teachers evaluate ER. If corpora indicate no 'pathway' from smaller to larger vocabulary sizes through authentic ER input, with vocabulary recurrence rates sufficient for incidental learning, then graded readers or other pedagogy appear essential. Studies offer different conclusions due to modeling issues. This study replicates previous research on a larger corpus of general fiction, with improved modeling. For every vocabulary size, a substantial amount of comprehensible fiction is found, with enough repetition of vocabulary from subsequent levels that pathways from smaller to larger vocabulary sizes are possible without graded readers. Prior estimates of approximately 3 years to acquire 9,000 words at 1 hour a day are underestimates, with modeling indicating 2 hours a day would be required.

In second language (L2) reading strategy research, two concerns need addressing: (1) the discrepancy in assessing strategy use between written surveys and verbal reports, and (2) the effect of using strategies on readers' comprehension outcomes when different types of comprehension tasks are utilized. The present study addressed these concerns by asking five more-proficient and five less-proficient Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) university learners to read two domain-specific texts while assessing their strategy use. The results from both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed a "gap" between the survey and verbal reports for assessing L2 reading strategy use. Additionally, the contribution of strategies to the readers' comprehension was found to vary by comprehension task type. Similarly, the variety of strategy use had a strong association with the readers' performance on only one of three types of comprehension tasks, free recall. The findings hold important implications on L2 reading strategy instruction.

This bibliometric study analyzed the research topic structure of the "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL") journal in the past two decades. Using two well recognized bibliometric approaches, namely, the keyword co-occurrence analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, the study examined author keywords and their co-occurrence of 184 research articles from 2002 to 2020. Results revealed that (1) the journal covered a wide range of reading research topics, and its most frequently researched topics were extensive reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, reading of foreign languages other than English, etc; (2) frequently researched topics were clustered into eight groups, including development of reading fluency, learner factors, vocabulary, etc.; and (3) the network of research topics centered around six large nodes (i.e., standardized keywords), namely extensive reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, reader characteristics, reading instructions, and reading comprehension. The findings might help readers and potential contributors familiarize with the research topic structure of the "RFL" journal. This study has important pedagogical implications.

This paper attempts to provide a new understanding of the gutter and how it is used to significant effect in Gene Luen Yang's, Boxers & Saints. This research draws upon the work of Scott McCloud to establish a framework for the theoretical applications of the gutter. Most prior research focuses on the gutter within the page. This article demonstrates how Yang pushes the concept of the gutter further by creating a new type of gutter that moves beyond the pages and across texts. Then the research attempts to demonstrate how the idea of the textual gutter heightens the transnational elements that define Boxers & Saints.

Reading, like all areas of human learning, is complex and multidimensional. Educational psychology has an opportunity to contribute further to a science of reading, and potentially to a science of reading instruction, by expanding its traditional theoretical and methodological orientations to embrace this complexity. Topics central to this effort are discussed in the five papers in this special issue. They make apparent the need to reconceptualize reading comprehension as involving a multitude of cognitive and metacognitive processes shaped by the purposes and sociocultural contexts of its enactment and reflecting developmental, linguistic, and ethnic variation among learners. Addressing this complexity is critical to equitable reading comprehension instruction and assessment that meets the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

The science of reading consists of a large, evolving, and impressive body of evidence about how humans learn to read and how reading should be taught. This body of evidence has accumulated via diverse epistemological perspectives and methods, yet points to undeniable consensus on many issues (e.g., the importance of explicit phonics instruction, the influence of prior knowledge on reading comprehension). Scholars in educational psychology have robust research programs in the area of reading and are well-positioned to contribute to expanding the science of reading beyond narrow conceptualizations that have been popularized in the media or certain policy efforts. In this paper, we introduce a set of contributions to the special issue that is designed to achieve such expansion by focusing on both the descriptive and explanatory aspects of theory, integrating minoritized perspectives, and contextualizing reading processes and outcomes. Additionally, we illustrate how such an expansion can be done specifically with regard to the role of prior knowledge and a conceptual integrative framework of reading that draws on dynamic systems theory. We conclude by highlighting the theoretical advances the special issue offers collectively and discussing directions for future research.

In this paper, we present an Asset-Based Interactive View of Reading that builds on the Active View of Reading, Self-Determination Theory, and Asset-Based Pedagogy to consider the role of students' individual, linguistic, and cultural resources in understanding reading processes. We begin by discussing some of the limitations with the ways Science of Reading has been narrowly conceived, which includes the (perhaps unintended) consequences of reliance on the Simple View of Reading. We then elaborate on each of the three components of our proposed framework to address assumptions of cultural neutrality and universal application in educational psychology. We conclude with implications for research, policy, and practice.

Using reading research as an example, this article aims to provide new conceptual tools for examining the production of scientific knowledge. Drawing on the metaphor of a theatre of truth, it explores how scientific knowledge is staged, dramatised and communicated within the field of reading research. It highlights the performative and public nature of knowledge production and examines the role of human and non-human actors, such as researchers, audiences, methods and visualisations, in shaping what counts as scientific truth. Focusing on the articles published in the Journal of Reading Behavior (later Journal of Literacy Research), the study traces how shifts in paradigms -- such as the transition from qualitative to qualitative and interpretative approaches -- reconfigure the 'stage' of reading science. The article also introduces the concept of a contract of intelligibility to explore how shared assumptions and conventions govern the production and reception of scientific knowledge. We also consider the techniques of dramatisation that are used to differentiate concepts and demonstrate scientific truth in an accessible and persuasive way. Ultimately, the article underlines the need to critically examine the mechanisms through which educational research constructs and communicates its truths, thereby revealing its broader societal and political implications.

Empirical research on advanced literacy skills among students in elementary and middle school, and on literacy instruction related to such skills, was reviewed to map current scientific knowledge on the topic, and to map identification methods and terms used to describe these students. A comprehensive search in three databases was conducted. Twenty-six studies met the criteria for inclusion. Relevant results were summarized after a data extraction and thematic analysis. The majority of the included studies were conducted in North America on elementary school students. Five research themes were identified, where the overarching results emphasize needs for a differentiated literacy instruction, both in terms of content and tasks, explicit instruction, ability grouping, and enrichment to enable gifted students to develop according to their potential. Furthermore, the findings indicate the importance of teacher professional development and access to resources such as appropriate materials and time.

Purpose: In the Fall of 2019, Marietta College and Marietta City Schools, in Marietta, Ohio, piloted a program to improve literacy knowledge and pedagogy through completing LETRS training, a two-year literacy professional development based on the science of reading, as peers. Design/methodology/approach: This project was aligned to effective professional development research that states better trainings are content-specific, allow support and collaboration and are ongoing throughout the school year (Blank and de las Alas, 2009; Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardener, 2017) and respect participants work/life schedules (Bigsby and Firestone, 2017). Findings: Some benefits of this collaboration were that teachers, college faculty and teacher candidates were able to communicate more effectively about literacy because we all had shared background knowledge and spoke the same language when it came to literacy. We were also able to make more meaningful clinical experiences for our teacher candidates because we created a stronger connection between the knowledge and pedagogy taught in students' literacy courses and the practices they saw in real classrooms. Inservice teachers saw the college faculty and teacher candidates as strong partners, which greatly strengthened our clinical preparation. Practical implications: The paper includes implications for the development of stronger partnerships between teacher preparation program faculty and school partnership faculty and more authentic and meaningful clinical experiences for teacher candidates. Originality/value: This project shows how meaningful partnerships and clinical experiences can be created when partnership faculty are seen as peers.

This study conducted a systematic review to identify the mainstreams of contemporary digital reading research. We performed a co-citation network analysis to examine the streams and features of key topics in digital reading research. We also performed content analysis and used the bibliometrix R-package to map digital reading research themes and identify several trends in the field. In this study, we (a) identified three mainstreams of research within the digital reading co-citation network (namely, differences in reading comprehension between print books and e-books, adolescents' habits and preferences related to digital reading and their digital reading literacy, and the analysis of reading behaviors as well as the use of interactive learning books); (b) determined that most studies on digital reading have employed quantitative or mixed methods, involved the use of tests and questionnaires to evaluate learners' performance, and have not focused on specific application domains or learning strategies; and (c) discovered that most studies on digital reading had investigated the affective aspects of learners' experiences, followed by cognition, learning behavior, and correlation or cause-and-effect analysis. We identified "engagement," "digital media," and "digital literacy" as key topics in research on digital reading. Directions for future research and digital reading education are provided..

Academic language and its associations with school success have been established in many prior studies. However, the scholarship lacks research on the mechanisms that constitute these relations. This study investigates the mediating role of motivational-­affective variables, specifically reading self-concept and reading enjoyment, in relations between academic language and reading comprehension assessed one year later. Path analyses were performed with a newly developed German measure of academic language proficiency on two samples (N = 198, M[subscript age] = 9.05 years [SD = 0.76], 49% girls, and N = 360, M[subscript age] = 9 years [SD = 0.80], 52% girls) of primary school students in Grades 2 and 3. Results reveal differential outcomes, suggesting an effect mediated via reading self-concept when academic language is operationalized as the comprehension of connectives. The findings are discussed within the context of contemporary perspectives on mental abilities, ranging academic language into current views on cognitive capabilities.

Purpose: This study aims to examine whether binocular vision plays a facilitating or impeding role in lexical processing during sentence reading in Chinese. Method: Adopting the revised boundary paradigm, we orthogonally manipulated the parafoveal and foveal viewing conditions (monocular vs. binocular) of target words (high- vs. low-frequency) within sentences. Forty participants (30 females, mean age = 19.9 years) were recruited to read these sentences and their eye movements were monitored. Results: Through directly comparing the eye movement measures in different viewing conditions, the results indicated that compared with monocular viewing, binocular viewing resulted in shorter fixation durations, thereby facilitating lexical processing. Critically, in addition to the higher information encoding speed toward the currently fixated word in the fovea, the more efficient preprocessing of the upcoming text to the right of fixation in the parafovea may also contribute to the superiority of binocular vision over monocular. Conclusion: Our findings provide the first evidence to support the binocular advantages in Chinese reading, which reveals that high-quality visual input from binocular vision plays a vital role in fluent and efficient written text reading.

This article offers an update on key developments in research related visual literacy, children's reading and children's literature. Beginning with an overview of the field, we chart several distinctive 'turns' or research trajectories: the aesthetic, the intercultural or empathic, and the ethical. We then consider how questions of power, authenticity and representation are visible in three important areas of the field: research with marginalised groups; research that focuses on mediation within the visual reading process; advances in the types of visual texts being used in research. Key emergent ideas include the challenges of adult mediators' expectations on children's visual reading, the potential of texts' material affordances, and new directions in open, more inclusive opportunities to respond to, and with, visual texts. We conclude with a hopeful look forward at emerging directions in policy and research.

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses. We then provide a bird's-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies.