REVIEW OF RESEARCH ON READING INSTRUCTION FOR ADULTS

The following conclusions are reached in this critical review of research on teaching instruction. There is a vast amount of literature concerning the teaching of advanced reading skills to adults. The literature tends to be subjective rather than research oriented, and the research designs that have been employed tend to be rather unsophisticated. No one method, material, or program organization has been shown to be best for teaching reading skills to adults. Nor has any one kind of subject been shown to have more aptitude for achieving reading skill gains. Some of the popularly stated benefits of reading instruction appear to be due to test artifacts or to a confounding of variables, for example, the confounding of reading comprehension with reading speed in timed tests. It may be said with some confidence, though, that adults attending reading improvement programs do achieve significant and relatively stable gains in reading speed. Consequently, courses in reading improvement are useful and could be particularly beneficial to naval personnel whose further education and work are largely dependent on reading a great amount of material. Author