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Sample records for higher tcap reading

  1. Conceptual Design for Consolidation TCAP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klein, J.E.

    1999-01-01

    Two alternate Thermal Cycling Absorption Process (TCAP) designs have been developed for the Tritium Facility Modernization and Consolidation (TFM and C) Project. The alternate designs were developed to improve upon the existing Replacement Tritium Facility (RTF) TCAP design and to eliminate the use of building distributed hot and cold nitrogen system.A brief description of TCAP theory and modeling is presented, followed by an overview of the design criteria for the Isotope Separation System (ISS). Both designs are described in detail, along with a generic description of the complete TCAP system. A design is recommend for the Consolidation Project, and a development plan for both designs is proposed

  2. Materials performance in prototype Thermal Cycling Absorption Process (TCAP) columns

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, E.A.

    1992-01-01

    Two prototype Thermal Cycling Absorption Process (TCAP) columns have been metallurgically examined after retirement, to determine the causes of failure and to evaluate the performance of the column container materials in this application. Leaking of the fluid heating and cooling subsystems caused retirement of both TCAP columns, not leaking of the main hydrogen-containing column. The aluminum block design TCAP column (AHL block TCAP) used in the Advanced Hydride Laboratory, Building 773-A, failed in one nitrogen inlet tube that was crimped during fabrication, which lead to fatigue crack growth in the tube and subsequent leaking of nitrogen from this tube. The Third Generation stainless steel design TCAP column (Third generation TCAP), operated in 773-A room C-061, failed in a braze joint between the freon heating and cooling tubes (made of copper) and the main stainless steel column. In both cases, stresses from thermal cycling and local constraint likely caused the nucleation and growth of fatigue cracks. No materials compatibility problems between palladium coated kieselguhr (the material contained in the TCAP column) and either aluminum or stainless steel column materials were observed. The aluminum-stainless steel transition junction appeared to be unaffected by service in the AHL block TCAP. Also, no evidence of cracking was observed in the AHL block TCAP in a location expected to experience the highest thermal shock fatigue in this design. It is important to limit thermal stresses caused by constraint in hydride systems designed to work by temperature variation, such as hydride storage beds and TCAP columns

  3. T-Cap Pull-Off and Bending Behavior for Stitched Structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovejoy, Andrew E.; Leone, Frank A., Jr.

    2016-01-01

    The Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) is a structural concept that was developed by The Boeing Company to address the complex structural design aspects associated with a pressurized hybrid wing body aircraft configuration. An important design feature required for assembly is the integrally stitched T-cap, which provides connectivity of the corner (orthogonal) joint between adjacent panels. A series of tests were conducted on T-cap test articles, with and without a rod stiffener penetrating the T-cap web, under tension (pull-off) and bending loads. Three designs were tested, including the baseline design used in largescale test articles. The baseline had only the manufacturing stitch row adjacent to the fillet at the base of the T-cap web. Two new designs added stitching rows to the T-cap web at either 0.5- or 1.0-inch spacing along the height of the web. Testing was conducted at NASA Langley Research Center to determine the behavior of the T-cap region resulting from the applied loading. Results show that stitching arrests the initial delamination failures so that the maximum strength capability exceeds the load at which the initial delaminations develop. However, it was seen that the added web stitching had very little effect on the initial delamination failure load, but actually decreased the initial delamination failure load for tension loading of test articles without a stiffener passing through the web. Additionally, the added web stitching only increased the maximum load capability by between 1% and 12.5%. The presence of the stiffener, however, did increase the initial and maximum loads for both tension and bending loading as compared to the stringerless baseline design. Based on the results of the few samples tested, the additional stitching in the T-cap web showed little advantage over the baseline design in terms of structural failure at the T-cap web/skin junction for the current test articles.

  4. Role of the teneurins, teneurin C-terminal associated peptides (TCAP) in reproduction: clinical perspectives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovejoy, David A; Pavlović, Téa

    2015-11-01

    In humans, the teneurin gene family consists of four highly conserved paralogous genes that are the result of early vertebrate gene duplications arising from a gene introduced into multicellular organisms from a bacterial ancestor. In vertebrates and humans, the teneurins have become integrated into a number of critical physiological systems including several aspects of reproductive physiology. Structurally complex, these genes possess a sequence in their terminal exon that encodes for a bioactive peptide sequence termed the 'teneurin C-terminal associated peptide' (TCAP). The teneurin/TCAP protein forms an intercellular adhesive unit with its receptor, latrophilin, an Adhesion family G-protein coupled receptor. It is present in numerous cell types and has been implicated in gamete migration and gonadal morphology. Moreover, TCAP is highly effective at reducing the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) stress response. As a result, TCAP may also play a role in regulating the stress-associated inhibition of reproduction. In addition, the teneurins and TCAP have been implicated in tumorigenesis associated with reproductive tissues. Therefore, the teneurin/TCAP system may offer clinicians a novel biomarker system upon which to diagnose some reproductive pathologies.

  5. Next-generation TCAP hydrogen isotope separation process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heung, L. K.; Sessions, H. T.; Poore, A. S.; Jacobs, W. D.; Williams, C. S.

    2008-01-01

    A thermal cycling absorption process (TCAP) for hydrogen isotope separation has been in operation at Savannah River Site since 1994. The process uses a hot/cold nitrogen system to cycle the temperature of the separation column. The hot/cold nitrogen system requires the use of large compressors, heat exchanges, valves and piping that is bulky and maintenance intensive. A new compact thermal cycling (CTC) design has recently been developed. This new design uses liquid nitrogen tubes and electric heaters to heat and cool the column directly so that the bulky hot/cold nitrogen system can be eliminated. This CTC design is simple and is easy to implement, and will be the next generation TCAP system at SRS. A twelve-meter column has been fabricated and installed in the laboratory to demonstrate its performance. The design of the system and its test results to date is discussed. (authors)

  6. 78 FR 23775 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request: Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP)

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-04-22

    ... Information Collection; Comment Request: Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) AGENCY: Office of the Chief... information: Title of Proposed: Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP). OMB Approval Number: 2506-0181. Form Numbers: None. Description of the need for the information and proposed use: Tax Credit Assistance Program...

  7. Circadian regulation of myocardial sarcomeric Titin-cap (Tcap, telethonin: identification of cardiac clock-controlled genes using open access bioinformatics data.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter S Podobed

    Full Text Available Circadian rhythms are important for healthy cardiovascular physiology and are regulated at the molecular level by a circadian clock mechanism. We and others previously demonstrated that 9-13% of the cardiac transcriptome is rhythmic over 24 h daily cycles; the heart is genetically a different organ day versus night. However, which rhythmic mRNAs are regulated by the circadian mechanism is not known. Here, we used open access bioinformatics databases to identify 94 transcripts with expression profiles characteristic of CLOCK and BMAL1 targeted genes, using the CircaDB website and JTK_Cycle. Moreover, 22 were highly expressed in the heart as determined by the BioGPS website. Furthermore, 5 heart-enriched genes had human/mouse conserved CLOCK:BMAL1 promoter binding sites (E-boxes, as determined by UCSC table browser, circadian mammalian promoter/enhancer database PEDB, and the European Bioinformatics Institute alignment tool (EMBOSS. Lastly, we validated findings by demonstrating that Titin cap (Tcap, telethonin was targeted by transcriptional activators CLOCK and BMAL1 by showing 1 Tcap mRNA and TCAP protein had a diurnal rhythm in murine heart; 2 cardiac Tcap mRNA was rhythmic in animals kept in constant darkness; 3 Tcap and control Per2 mRNA expression and cyclic amplitude were blunted in Clock(Δ19/Δ19 hearts; 4 BMAL1 bound to the Tcap promoter by ChIP assay; 5 BMAL1 bound to Tcap promoter E-boxes by biotinylated oligonucleotide assay; and 6 CLOCK and BMAL1 induced tcap expression by luciferase reporter assay. Thus this study identifies circadian regulated genes in silico, with validation of Tcap, a critical regulator of cardiac Z-disc sarcomeric structure and function.

  8. Verifying a smart design of TCAP : a synergetic experience

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    T. Arts; I.A. van Langevelde

    1999-01-01

    textabstractAn optimisation of the SS No. 7 Transport Capabilities Procedures is verified by specifying both the original and the optimised {scriptsize sf TCAP in {scriptsize sf $mu$CRL, generating transition systems for both using the {scriptsize sf $mu$CRL tool set, and checking weak bisimulation

  9. Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) Field Campaign Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berg, Larry K [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

    2016-05-01

    cloud properties that were deployed for the first time during the TCAP. Key lessons learned during TCAP include the need for closer coordination between the AMF, MAOS, and the AAF so that all AMF instruments can be online and functioning during the AAF IOPs. Based on experiences from TCAP, it is also important for instrument mentors, or other relevant individuals, to review data on a regular basis to ensure that data quality remains high during the entire deployment. TCAP was marked by two important meteorological events including the passage of Hurricane Sandy at the end of October 2012 and the occurrence of one of the largest New England blizzards in recorded history. During Sandy the AMF received some, generally minor, damage and was largely functional a short time after the storm. The blizzard led to extensive power outages on Cape Cod and a multi-day interruption of measurements by the AMF, MAOS, and AAF. In each case, however, the ARM Facilities were returned to service and functioning as soon as was reasonably possible.

  10. Characterization of nanostructured pure aluminum tubes produced by tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mesbah, M. [Centre of Advanced Manufacturing and Material Processing, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Faraji, G., E-mail: ghfaraji@ut.ac.ir [School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, 11155-4563 Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Centre of Advanced Manufacturing and Material Processing, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Bushroa, A.R. [Centre of Advanced Manufacturing and Material Processing, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

    2014-01-10

    Ultrafine grained (UFG) aluminum tubes were fabricated by the tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP) process. The microstructural evolution was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and mechanical properties were evaluated by compression test and hardness measurements. TEM analysis of specimen subjected to one TCAP pass showed the formation of an array of elongated subgrains with high angle grain boundaries. Increase in the number of passes changes the elongated grains to equiaxed grains with ∼310 nm sizes. Microhardness value of the processed tubes was enhanced to 49.4 Hv after one pass from an initial value of 32.9 Hv. Yield and ultimate strengths were increased 2.5 and 2.28 times as compared to annealed specimen. Compression tests also showed that UFG aluminum tubes exhibit lower work hardening and almost perfect plastic behavior without any failure.

  11. Characterization of nanostructured pure aluminum tubes produced by tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mesbah, M.; Faraji, G.; Bushroa, A.R.

    2014-01-01

    Ultrafine grained (UFG) aluminum tubes were fabricated by the tubular channel angular pressing (TCAP) process. The microstructural evolution was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and mechanical properties were evaluated by compression test and hardness measurements. TEM analysis of specimen subjected to one TCAP pass showed the formation of an array of elongated subgrains with high angle grain boundaries. Increase in the number of passes changes the elongated grains to equiaxed grains with ∼310 nm sizes. Microhardness value of the processed tubes was enhanced to 49.4 Hv after one pass from an initial value of 32.9 Hv. Yield and ultimate strengths were increased 2.5 and 2.28 times as compared to annealed specimen. Compression tests also showed that UFG aluminum tubes exhibit lower work hardening and almost perfect plastic behavior without any failure

  12. Conceptualizing and Assessing Higher-Order Thinking in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Afflerbach, Peter; Cho, Byeong-Young; Kim, Jong-Yun

    2015-01-01

    Students engage in higher-order thinking as they read complex texts and perform complex reading-related tasks. However, the most consequential assessments, high-stakes tests, are currently limited in providing information about students' higher-order thinking. In this article, we describe higher-order thinking in relation to reading. We provide a…

  13. A Trustworthiness of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-CAP) Scale for American Consumers

    OpenAIRE

    Rice, Stephen C; Mehta, Rian; Winter, Scott; Oyman, Korhan

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to create a Trustworthiness of Commercial Airline Pilots (T-CAP) scale that could be used with American participants. Previous research (Rice, Mehta, Steelman, & Winter, 2014) created a similar scale that may be used with Indian participants. However, due to cultural differences, it was necessary to recreate an instrument that could be used with American consumers. In fact, the scale developed by American participants did differ significantly, both in terms of le...

  14. Hyperspectral aerosol optical depths from TCAP flights

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shinozuka, Yohei [NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States); Bay Area Environmental REsearch Institute; Johnson, Roy R [NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States); Flynn, Connor J [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Russell, Philip B [NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States); Schmid, Beat [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

    2016-06-01

    4STAR (Spectrometer for Sky-Scanning, Sun-Tracking Atmospheric Research), a hyperspectral airborne sunphotometer, acquired aerosol optical depths (AOD) at 1 Hz during all July 2012 flights of the Two Column Aerosol Project (TCAP). Root-mean-square differences from AERONET ground-based observations were 0.01 at wavelengths between 500-1020 nm, 0.02 at 380 and 1640 nm and 0.03 at 440 nm in four clear-sky fly-over events, and similar in ground side-by-side comparisons. Changes in the above-aircraft AOD across 3- km-deep spirals were typically consistent with integrals of coincident in situ (on DOE Gulfstream 1 with 4STAR) and lidar (on NASA B200) extinction measurements within 0.01, 0.03, 0.01, 0.02, 0.02, 0.02 at 355, 450, 532, 550, 700, 1064 nm, respectively, despite atmospheric variations and combined measurement uncertainties. Finer vertical differentials of the 4STAR measurements matched the in situ ambient extinction profile within 14% for one homogeneous column. For the AOD observed between 350-1660 nm, excluding strong

  15. Making a case for the teaching of reading across the curriculum in higher education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharita Bharuthram

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Over the past two decades there has been much written in the literature about the importance of reading and the importance of teaching students reading strategies to improve their reading comprehension. Reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. In higher education, students are exposed to a number of texts and textbooks that require independent reading. At this level they are expected to comprehend what they read so that they can analyse, critique, evaluate and synthesize information from various sources. Many students entering higher education are not adequately prepared to meet these challenges. This article highlights the literacy situation in South Africa with a particular focus on reading both in school and in higher education. In addition, the article highlights the importance of teaching students reading strategies across the curriculum in order to improve their reading comprehension, thereby enhancing their chances of academic success. The implications of this research for policy makers and academics in higher education institutions are outlined and some suggestions are made.

  16. Contemporary analysis of erectile, voiding, and oncologic outcomes following primary targeted cryoablation of the prostate for clinically localized prostate cancer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher J. Diblasio

    2008-08-01

    Full Text Available PURPOSE: To evaluate erectile function (EF and voiding function following primary targeted cryoablation of the prostate (TCAP for clinically localized prostate cancer (CaP in a contemporary cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed all patients treated between 2/2000-5/2006 with primary TCAP. Variables included age, Gleason sum, pre-TCAP prostate specific antigen (PSA, prostate volume, clinical stage, pre-TCAP hormonal ablation, pre-TCAP EF and American Urologic Association Symptom Score (AUASS. EF was recorded as follows: 1 = potent; 2 = sufficient for intercourse; 3 = partial/insufficient; 4 = minimal/insufficient; 5 = none. Voiding function was analyzed by comparing pre/post-TCAP AUASS. Statistical analysis utilized SAS software with p < 0.05 considered significant. RESULTS: After exclusions, 78 consecutive patients were analyzed with a mean age of 69.2 years and follow-up 39.8 months. Thirty-five (44.9% men reported pre-TCAP EF level of 1-2. Post-TCAP, 9 of 35 (25.7% regained EF of level 1-2 while 1 (2.9% achieved level 3 EF. Median pre-TCAP AUASS was 8.75 versus 7.50 postoperatively (p = 0.39. Six patients (7.7% experienced post-TCAP urinary incontinence. Lower pre-TCAP PSA (p = 0.008 and higher Gleason sum (p = 0.002 were associated with higher post-TCAP AUASS while prostate volume demonstrated a trend (p = 0.07. Post-TCAP EF and stable AUASS were not associated with increased disease-recurrence (p = 0.24 and p = 0.67, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Stable voiding function was observed post-TCAP, with an overall incontinence rate of 7.7%. Further, though erectile dysfunction is common following TCAP, 25.7% of previously potent patients demonstrated erections suitable for intercourse. While long-term data is requisite, consideration should be made for prospective evaluation of penile rehabilitation following primary TCAP.

  17. The Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) Science Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Berkowitz, CM; Berg, LK; Cziczo, DJ; Flynn, CJ; Kassianov, EI; Fast, JD; Rasch, PJ; Shilling, JE; Zaveri, RA; Zelenyuk, A; Ferrare, RA; Hostetler, CA; Cairns, B; Russell, PB; Ervens, B

    2011-07-27

    The Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) field campaign will provide a detailed set of observations with which to (1) perform radiative and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) closure studies, (2) evaluate a new retrieval algorithm for aerosol optical depth (AOD) in the presence of clouds using passive remote sensing, (3) extend a previously developed technique to investigate aerosol indirect effects, and (4) evaluate the performance of a detailed regional-scale model and a more parameterized global-scale model in simulating particle activation and AOD associated with the aging of anthropogenic aerosols. To meet these science objectives, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility will deploy the ARM Mobile Facility (AMF) and the Mobile Aerosol Observing System (MAOS) on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for a 12-month period starting in the summer of 2012 in order to quantify aerosol properties, radiation, and cloud characteristics at a location subject to both clear and cloudy conditions, and clean and polluted conditions. These observations will be supplemented by two aircraft intensive observation periods (IOPs), one in the summer and a second in the winter. Each IOP will deploy one, and possibly two, aircraft depending on available resources. The first aircraft will be equipped with a suite of in situ instrumentation to provide measurements of aerosol optical properties, particle composition and direct-beam irradiance. The second aircraft will fly directly over the first and use a multi-wavelength high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) and scanning polarimeter to provide continuous optical and cloud properties in the column below.

  18. Making a Case for the Teaching of Reading across the Curriculum in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bharuthram, Sharita

    2012-01-01

    Over the past two decades there has been much written in the literature about the importance of reading and the importance of teaching students reading strategies to improve their reading comprehension. Reading is one of the most important academic tasks encountered by students. In higher education, students are exposed to a number of texts and…

  19. The Effect of Higher Order Thinking Skill Instruction on EFL Reading Ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nava Nourdad

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This quantitative and quasi-experimental study dealt with the effect of the teaching higher order thinking (HOT on the reading comprehension ability of foreign language learners. Since reading ability plays a crucial role in learners’ education, it is language teachers’ mission to be aware of the useful and beneficial strategies to improve their students’ reading comprehension ability. Considering the fruitful results of applying HOT skills in education, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of their instruction on students’ reading comprehension ability. To achieve the objectives of the study, a group of 236 male and female university students majoring in various fields but all taking General English course was selected by convenience sampling. They were randomly assigned into two groups of control and experimental. PET test was applied to homogenize the participants of the two study groups. The study followed pre-test, treatment, post-test design. While the experimental group followed a nine-session treatment on strategies of HOT, the control group was instructed through conventional method determined by the course book. The results of independent samples t-test revealed the positive effect of teaching HOT skills on improving reading comprehension ability of adult EFL learners. Pedagogical implications of these findings for language learners, language teachers, course book developers, and educational policy makers are discussed.

  20. Reading Comprehension, Working Memory and Higher-Level Language Skills in Children with SLI and/or Dyslexia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.; Au, Terry K.-F.; McBride, Catherine; Ng, Ashley K.-H.; Yip, Lesley P.-W.; Lam, Catherine C.-C.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills--inferencing and comprehension monitoring--accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language…

  1. STRENGTHENING STUDENTS’ LITERACY THROUGH REFLECTIVE ESSAY WRITING: AN IMPLEMENTATION OF WRITING TO READ PROGRAM IN HIGHER EDUCATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arina Shofiya

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Literacy is a condition where a person has capability to read for knowledge, write to share knowledge, and think critically. Students’ literacy is a never-end issue in the field of English Language Teaching. Studies have been carried out to investigate literacy practices in various level of education including higher education. Among the problems of students’ literacy in higher education are the amount of their reading and writing practices and their motivation to read and write. The current paper is intended to share an experience in strengthening students’ literacy at the English Department of State Islamic Institute (Institut Agama Islam Negeri/IAIN Tulungagung, East Java. The preliminary investigation of the present study revealed that many students have low motivation to read. In addition, their comprehension was relatively low as represented in their paper works. Under a Classroom Action Research Design, the present study was conducted to propose writing to read program to strengthen the students’ literacy. In such program, the students were required to write a reflective essay based on the selected topics that they had to read prior to classes. The findings showed that writing reflective essay helped students strengthen their literacy as well as improve their motivation to read and to write because the reading and writing activities were done in a more relax and supportive environment that was at home.

  2. A Call to Embrace Social Reading in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dean, Matthew D.

    2016-01-01

    Social reading can broadly be described as the experience surrounding the reading of electronic books, more commonly known as eBooks. Utilising eTextbooks and social reading at a university offers some powerful potential to engage students and help them succeed in their studies. A broad overview of the current landscape and recent initiatives…

  3. SiGe HBT cryogenic preamplification for higher bandwidth donor spin read-out

    Science.gov (United States)

    Curry, Matthew; Carr, Stephen; Ten-Eyck, Greg; Wendt, Joel; Pluym, Tammy; Lilly, Michael; Carroll, Malcolm

    2014-03-01

    Single-shot read-out of a donor spin can be performed using the response of a single-electron-transistor (SET). This technique can produce relatively large changes in current, on the order of 1 (nA), to distinguish between the spin states. Despite the relatively large signal, the read-out time resolution has been limited to approximately 100 (kHz) of bandwidth because of noise. Cryogenic pre-amplification has been shown to extend the response of certain detection circuits to shorter time resolution and thus higher bandwidth. We examine a SiGe HBT circuit configuration for cryogenic preamplification, which has potential advantages over commonly used HEMT configurations. Here we present 4 (K) measurements of a circuit consisting of a Silicon-SET inline with a Heterojunction-Bipolar-Transistor (HBT). We compare the measured bandwidth with and without the HBT inline and find that at higher frequencies the signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) with the HBT inline exceeds the SNR without the HBT inline. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a U.S. DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences user facility. The work was supported by the Sandia National Laboratories Directed Research and Development Program. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed-Martin Company, for the U. S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC04-94AL85000.

  4. Effect of Various SPD Techniques on Structure and Superplastic Deformation of Two Phase MgLiAl Alloy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dutkiewicz, Jan; Bobrowski, Piotr; Rusz, Stanislav; Hilser, Ondrej; Tański, Tomasz A.; Borek, Wojciech; Łagoda, Marek; Ostachowski, Paweł; Pałka, Paweł; Boczkal, Grzegorz; Kuc, Dariusz; Mikuszewski, Tomasz

    2018-03-01

    MgLiAl alloy containing 9 wt% Li and 1.5% Al composed of hexagonal α and bcc β phases was cast under protecting atmosphere and hot extruded. Various methods of severe plastic deformation were applied to study their effect on structure and grain refinement. Rods were subjected to 1-3 passes of Twist Channel Angular Pressing TCAP (with helical component), cyclic compression to total strain ɛ = 5 using MAXStrain Gleeble equipment, both performed at temperature interval 160-200 °C and, as third SPD method, KOBO type extrusion at RT. The TCAP pass resulted in grain refinement of α phase from 30 μm down to about 2 μm and that of β phase from 12 to 5 μm. Maxstrain cycling 10 × up to ɛ = 5 led to much finer grain size of 300 nm. KOBO method performed at RT caused average grain size refinement of α and β phases down to about 1 μm. Hardness of alloy decreased slightly with increasing number of TCAP passes due to increase of small void density. It was higher after MAXStrain cycling and after KOBO extrusion. TEM studies after TCAP passes showed higher dislocation density in the β region than in the α phase. Crystallographic relationship (001) α|| (110) β indicated parallel positioning of slip planes of both phases. Electron diffraction technique confirmed increase of grain misorientation with number of TCAP passes. Stress/strain curves recorded at temperature 200 °C showed superplastic forming after 1st and 3rd TCAP passes with better superplastic properties due to higher elongation with increasing number of passes. Values of strain rate sensitivity coefficient m were calculated at 0.29 after 3rd TCAP pass for strain rate range 10-5 to 5 × 10-3 s-1. Deformation by MAXStrain cycling caused much more effective grain refinement with fine microtwins in α phase. Superplastic deformation was also observed in alloy deformed by KOBO method, however the value of m = 0.21 was obtained at lower temperature of deformation equal to 160 °C and deformation rate in the

  5. Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP): Ground-Based Radiation and Aerosol Validation Using the NOAA Mobile SURFRAD Station Field Campaign Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michalsky, Joseph [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States); Lantz, Kathy [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

    2016-05-01

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is preparing for the launch of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) satellite in 2015. This satellite will feature higher time (5-minute versus 30-minute sampling) and spatial resolution (0.5 km vs 1 km in the visible channel) than current GOES instruments provide. NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service has funded the Global Monitoring Division at the Earth System Research Laboratory to provide ground-based validation data for many of the new and old products the new GOES instruments will retrieve specifically related to radiation at the surface and aerosol and its extensive and intensive properties in the column. The Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) had an emphasis on aerosol; therefore, we asked to be involved in this campaign to de-bug our new instrumentation and to provide a new capability that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility’s Mobile Facilities (AMF) did not possess, namely surface albedo measurement out to 1625 nm. This gave us a chance to test remote operation of our new multi-filter rotating shadowband radiometer/multi-filter radiometer (MFRSR/MFR) combination. We did not deploy standard broadband shortwave and longwave radiation instrumentation because ARM does this as part of every AMF deployment. As it turned out, the ARM standard MFRSR had issues, and we were able to provide the aerosol column data for the first 2 months of the campaign covering the summer flight phase of the deployment. Using these data, we were able to work with personnel at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to retrieve not only aerosol optical depth (AOD), but single scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter, as well.

  6. Recent advances in SRS on hydrogen isotope separation using thermal cycling absorption process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xiao, X.; Kit Heung, L.; Sessions, H.T. [Savannah River National Laboratory - SRNL, Aiken, SC (United States)

    2015-03-15

    TCAP (Thermal Cycling Absorption Process) is a gas chromatograph in principle using palladium in the column packing, but it is unique in the fact that the carrier gas, hydrogen, is being isotopically separated and the system is operated in a semi-continuous manner. TCAP units are used to purify tritium. The recent TCAP advances at Savannah River Site (SRS) include compressor-free concept for heating/cooling, push and pull separation using an active inverse column, and compact column design. The new developments allow significantly higher throughput and better reliability from 1/10 of the current production system's footprint while consuming 60% less energy. Various versions are derived in the meantime for external customers to be used in fusion energy projects.

  7. Reading Amount as a Mediator of the Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation on Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaffner, Ellen; Schiefele, Ulrich; Ulferts, Hannah

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the role of reading amount as a mediator of the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation on higher order reading comprehension (comprised of paragraph-and passage-level comprehension) in a sample of 159 fifth-grade elementary students. A positive association between intrinsic reading motivation and reading amount…

  8. AN EVALUATION OF THE READING COMPREHENSION TEXTBOOKS TAUGHT AT THE ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION IN WEST SUMATERA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sirajul Munir

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of presentstudy is to critically assess the reading comprehension textbooks which have been prescribed for use at the English Education Department ofPublic Islamic Higher Education in West Sumatera.The writer used criteria taken from Cunningswoth’s(1995 and Miekley’s (2005. These include(1 Aims and Approaches; (2 Design and Organization; (3 Content; (4 Skills; (5 Vocabulary and Grammar; (6 Exercises and Activities; (7 Methodology; (8 Attractiveness of the Text and Physical Make-Up; (9 Teacher’s Manual; and (10 Practical Consideration. To interpret the checklist, the four rating scale was used, namely excellent, good, fair, and poor. The research showed that every textbook has strong and weak points. This result of this analysis could be used as the basis to gain more effective reading textbooks for the lecturer of reading comprehension. Keywords: evaluation; textbook; Islamic Higher Education

  9. Linguistic Knowledge Aspects in Academic Reading: Challenges and Deployed Strategies by English-Major Undergraduates at a Jordanian Institution of Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albashtawi, Abeer H.; Jaganathan, Paramaswari; Singh, Manjet

    2016-01-01

    This study aimed to investigate the linguistic knowledge aspect in academic reading, the challenges and the deployed strategies by English major undergraduates at a Jordanian institution of higher education. The importance of the study is attributed to the importance of the academic reading at university which is closely related to the academic…

  10. Reading motivation in elementary school students

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    Sonja Pečjak

    2005-02-01

    Full Text Available Reading motivation is one of the crucial factors of reading and consequently also learning efficiency of students. The purpose of the contribution is to establish the connection between dimensions of reading motivation and reading achievement in elementary school students. Participating in the study were 1073 third-grade and 1282 seventh-grade students. We used the questionnaire of reading motivation which consists of two factors: the reading competence factor and the interest and perceived reading importance factor. The findings of the study are the following: third-graders are more competent and more interested in reading compared to seventh-graders. The same is true for girls in both educational levels. Reading competence , interest and perceived reading importance reflect also in the actual reading behaviour of students – students who are more competent and more interested in reading read more frequently, for longer periods and more often autonomously decide to read compared to their less motivated peers. Higher reading motivation has implications also for higher reading efficiency. Namely, good readers are more competent, show higher interest and perceive reading as more important compared to average and bad readers.

  11. Conserved upstream open reading frames in higher plants

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    Schultz Carolyn J

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Upstream open reading frames (uORFs can down-regulate the translation of the main open reading frame (mORF through two broad mechanisms: ribosomal stalling and reducing reinitiation efficiency. In distantly related plants, such as rice and Arabidopsis, it has been found that conserved uORFs are rare in these transcriptomes with approximately 100 loci. It is unclear how prevalent conserved uORFs are in closely related plants. Results We used a homology-based approach to identify conserved uORFs in five cereals (monocots that could potentially regulate translation. Our approach used a modified reciprocal best hit method to identify putative orthologous sequences that were then analysed by a comparative R-nomics program called uORFSCAN to find conserved uORFs. Conclusion This research identified new genes that may be controlled at the level of translation by conserved uORFs. We report that conserved uORFs are rare (

  12. I read, you read, we read: the history of reading in Slovenia

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    Anja Dular

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACTPurpose: The aim of the article is to research reading habits in Slovenia in the period between 16th and 19th century and to find similarities with Austria and other European countries of that time.Methodology/approach: For the purpose of the analysis different resources were used – study books, catechisms, prayer books and manuals. We were focused on introductions in which readers are advised how to read, explaining to whom the work is intended and emphasizing the importance of meditation on the texts.Results: Historically the laud reading was prefered, as to continue the folk tradition. However, the 16th century texts were transmitted by women while the folk tradition was narrated by males. In the 18th century the higher level of literacy and greater book production and availability caused that the books were not a privilege of a few. At that time more texts were intended for silent, individual reading. Interestingly, the authors emphasized the importance of meditation on the texts, too. It was also advised when to read – it wasrecommedend to read in leisure time on Sundays, and on holidays. The role of books was also to breakaway with the reality and to forget everyday problems. Due to the overproduction of books in the 17th centrury it was concerned that books are misleading the crowds. The church considered the reading of books as inappropriate, and criticized fiction, novels and adventure stories mostly read by women.Research limitation: The study is based on Slovenian texts only, although the foreign literature, especially in German, was generally available, too.Originality/practical implications: The study is fullfiling the gap in the history of reading in Slovenia.

  13. L2 Reading in Thailand: Vocational College Students' Application of Reading Strategies to Their Reading of English Texts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasemsap, Bharani; Lee, Hugo Yu-Hsiu

    2015-01-01

    This study aims to explore the application of reading strategies to the reading of English texts by Thai vocational college students. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys, think-aloud experiments and semi-structured interviews. The research results reveal different typologies of reading strategies adopted by lower and higher level English…

  14. Understanding the Relative Contributions of Lower-Level Word Processes, Higher-Level Processes, and Working Memory to Reading Comprehension Performance in Proficient Adult Readers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hannon, Brenda

    2012-01-01

    Although a considerable amount of evidence has been amassed regarding the contributions of lower-level word processes, higher-level processes, and working memory to reading comprehension, little is known about the relationships among these sources of individual differences or their relative contributions to reading comprehension performance. This…

  15. Does higher quality early child care promote low-income children's math and reading achievement in middle childhood?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dearing, Eric; McCartney, Kathleen; Taylor, Beck A

    2009-01-01

    Higher quality child care during infancy and early childhood (6-54 months of age) was examined as a moderator of associations between family economic status and children's (N = 1,364) math and reading achievement in middle childhood (4.5-11 years of age). Low income was less strongly predictive of underachievement for children who had been in higher quality care than for those who had not. Consistent with a cognitive advantage hypothesis, higher quality care appeared to promote achievement indirectly via early school readiness skills. Family characteristics associated with selection into child care also appeared to promote the achievement of low-income children, but the moderating effect of higher quality care per se remained evident when controlling for selection using covariates and propensity scores.

  16. Effects of reading-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Kai-Lin; Lin, Fou-Lai

    2012-06-01

    This study compared the effects of reading-oriented tasks and writing-oriented tasks on students' reading comprehension of geometry proof (RCGP). The reading-oriented tasks were designed with reading strategies and the idea of problem posing. The writing-oriented tasks were consistent with usual proof instruction for writing a proof and applying it. Twenty-two classes of ninth-grade students ( N = 683), aged 14 to 15 years, and 12 mathematics teachers participated in this quasi-experimental classroom study. While the experimental group was instructed to read and discuss the reading tasks in two 45-minute lessons, the control group was instructed to prove and apply the same propositions. Generalised estimating equation (GEE) method was used to compare the scores of the post-test and the delayed post-test with the pre-test scores as covariates. Results showed that the total scores of the delayed post-test of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, the scores of the experimental group on all facets of reading comprehension except the application facet were significantly higher than those of the control group for both the post-test and delayed post-test.

  17. Reading Processes of University Students with Dyslexia - An Examination of the Relationship between Oral Reading and Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedersen, Henriette Folkmann; Fusaroli, Riccardo; Lauridsen, Lene Louise; Parrila, Rauno

    2016-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of oral reading and how it relates to reading comprehension in students with dyslexia. A group of Danish university students with dyslexia (n = 16) and a comparison group of students with no history of reading problems (n = 16) were assessed on their oral reading performance when reading a complex text. Along with reading speed, we measured not only the number and quality of reading errors but also the extent and semantic nature of the self-corrections during reading. The reading comprehension was measured through aided text retellings. The results showed that, as a group, the dyslexics performed poorer on most measures, but there were notable within-group differences in the reading behaviours and little association between how well university students with dyslexia read aloud and comprehended the text. These findings suggest that many dyslexics in higher education tend to focus their attention on one subcomponent of the reading process, for example, decoding or comprehension, because engaging in both simultaneously may be too demanding for them. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  18. Higher English for CFE

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    Bridges, Ann; Mitchell, John

    2015-01-01

    A brand new edition of the former Higher English: Close Reading , completely revised and updated for the new Higher element (Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation) - worth 30% of marks in the final exam!. We are working with SQA to secure endorsement for this title. Written by two highly experienced authors this book shows you how to practice for the Reading for Understanding, Analysis and Evaluation section of the new Higher English exam. This book introduces the terms and concepts that lie behind success and offers guidance on the interpretation of questions and targeting answer

  19. Reading motivation, reading amount, and text comprehension in deaf and hearing adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parault, Susan J; Williams, Heather M

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the variables of reading motivation, reading amount, and text comprehension in deaf and hearing adults. Research has shown that less than 50% of deaf students leave high school reading at or above a fourth-grade level (Allen, 1994). Our question is, how does this affect the levels of reading motivation and amount of reading in which deaf adults engage? Assessments of 30 hearing and 24 deaf adults showed that deaf participants reported significantly higher levels of reading motivation despite having been found to read at less than a sixth-grade level. No significant difference in the amount of reading between hearing and deaf adults was found. Amount of reading for personal reasons was found to be the best predictor of text comprehension in the deaf participants, and intrinsic motivation was found to be the best predictor of amount of reading in the deaf participants.

  20. Does systematic reading instruction impede prediction of reading a shallow orthography?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ALFRED SCHABMANN

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Different methods of reading instructions have been the subject of controversy. This study examined the influence of systematic phonics vs. non-systematic phonics methods of instruction on the prediction of reading. 443 kindergarten children were tested on phonological awareness, naming speed and visual word matching using the Bielefelder Screening (BISC. Children were retested in grades one and four. Results showed that although the prognostic validity of kindergarten measures was generally low, it was considerably higher for grade one children in classes with non-systematic phonics instruction. Children who received systematic phonics instruction scored significantly higher on measures of phonological decoding as compared to their peers who received less systematic instruction. Implications for the prediction of reading and early screenings are discussed.

  1. The Effect of Baby Books on Mothers’ Reading Beliefs and Reading Practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auger, Anamarie; Reich, Stephanie M.; Penner, Emily K.

    2014-01-01

    The impact of a baby book intervention on promoting positive reading beliefs and increasing reading frequency for low-income, new mothers (n = 167) was examined. The Baby Books Project randomly assigned low-income, first-time mothers to one of three study conditions, receiving educational books, non-educational books, or no books, during pregnancy and over the first year of parenthood. Home-based data collection occurred through pregnancy until 18 months post-partum. Mothers who received free baby books had higher beliefs about the importance of reading, the value of having resources to support reading, and the importance of verbal participation during reading. The results showed that providing any type of baby books to mothers positively influenced maternal reading beliefs, but did not increase infant-mother reading practices. Maternal reading beliefs across all three groups were significantly associated with self-reported reading frequency when children were at least 12 months of age. PMID:25264394

  2. Reading-Related Causal Attributions for Success and Failure: Dynamic Links With Reading Skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frijters, Jan C; Tsujimoto, Kimberley C; Boada, Richard; Gottwald, Stephanie; Hill, Dina; Jacobson, Lisa A; Lovett, Maureen W; Mahone, E Mark; Willcutt, Erik G; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R

    2018-01-01

    The present study investigated the relation among reading skills and attributions, naming speed, and phonological awareness across a wide range of reading skill. Participants were 1,105 school-age children and youths from two understudied populations: African Americans and Hispanic Americans. Individual assessments of children ranging in age from 8 to 15 years were conducted for reading outcomes, cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading, and attributions for success and failure in reading situations. Quantile regressions were formulated to estimate these relations across the full skill span of each outcome. Reading-related attributions predicted contextual word recognition, sight word and decoding fluency, and comprehension skills. Attributions to ability in success situations were positively related to each outcome across the full span. On three reading outcomes, this relation strengthened at higher skill levels. Attributions to effort in success situations were consistently and negatively related to all reading outcomes. The results provide evidence that the strength of the relation between reading and attributions varies according to reading skill levels, with the strongest evidence for ability-based attributions in situations of reading success.

  3. Reading speed, comprehension and eye movements while reading Japanese novels: evidence from untrained readers and cases of speed-reading trainees.

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    Hiromitsu Miyata

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence suggests that meditative training enhances perception and cognition. In Japan, the Park-Sasaki method of speed-reading involves organized visual training while forming both a relaxed and concentrated state of mind, as in meditation. The present study examined relationships between reading speed, sentence comprehension, and eye movements while reading short Japanese novels. In addition to normal untrained readers, three middle-level trainees and one high-level expert on this method were included for the two case studies. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In Study 1, three of 17 participants were middle-level trainees on the speed-reading method. Immediately after reading each story once on a computer monitor, participants answered true or false questions regarding the content of the novel. Eye movements while reading were recorded using an eye-tracking system. Results revealed higher reading speed and lower comprehension scores in the trainees than in the untrained participants. Furthermore, eye-tracking data by untrained participants revealed multiple correlations between reading speed, accuracy and eye-movement measures, with faster readers showing shorter fixation durations and larger saccades in X than slower readers. In Study 2, participants included a high-level expert and 14 untrained students. The expert showed higher reading speed and statistically comparable, although numerically lower, comprehension scores compared with the untrained participants. During test sessions this expert moved her eyes along a nearly straight horizontal line as a first pass, without moving her eyes over the whole sentence display as did the untrained students. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to revealing correlations between speed, comprehension and eye movements in reading Japanese contemporary novels by untrained readers, we describe cases of speed-reading trainees regarding relationships between these variables

  4. Critical reading and critical thinking Critical reading and critical thinking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Loni Kreis Taglieber

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to provide, for L1 and L2 reading and writing teachers, a brief overview of the literature about critical reading and higher level thinking skills. The teaching of these skills is still neglected in some language classes in Brazil, be it in L1 or in L2 classes. Thus, this paper may also serve as a resource guide for L1 and/or L2 reading and writing teachers who want to incorporate critical reading and thinking into their classes. In modern society, even in everyday life people frequently need to deal with complicated public and political issues, make decisions, and solve problems. In order to do this efficiently and effectively, citizens must be able to evaluate critically what they see, hear, and read. Also, with the huge amount of printed material available in all areas in this age of “information explosion” it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But often the information piled up on people’s desks and in their minds is of no use due to the enormous amount of it. The purpose of this paper is to provide, for L1 and L2 reading and writing teachers, a brief overview of the literature about critical reading and higher level thinking skills. The teaching of these skills is still neglected in some language classes in Brazil, be it in L1 or in L2 classes. Thus, this paper may also serve as a resource guide for L1 and/or L2 reading and writing teachers who want to incorporate critical reading and thinking into their classes. In modern society, even in everyday life people frequently need to deal with complicated public and political issues, make decisions, and solve problems. In order to do this efficiently and effectively, citizens must be able to evaluate critically what they see, hear, and read. Also, with the huge amount of printed material available in all areas in this age of “information explosion” it is easy to feel overwhelmed. But often the information piled up on people’s desks and in their minds is of

  5. Processing changes across reading encounters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levy, B A; Newell, S; Snyder, J; Timmins, K

    1986-10-01

    Five experiments examined changes in the processing of a text across reading encounters. Experiment 1 showed that reading speed increased systematically across encounters, with no loss in the extensiveness of analyses of the printed text, as indicated by the ability to detect nonword errors embedded within that passage. Experiment 2 replicated this improved reading fluency with experience and showed that it occurred even with typescript changes across trials, thus indicating that a primed visual operations explanation cannot account for the effect. The third and fourth experiments then extended the study of the familiarity effect to higher level processing, as indicated by the detection of word errors. Familiarity facilitated the detection of these violations at the syntactic-semantic levels. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that these higher level violations continued to be well detected over a series of reading encounters with the same text. The results indicate that prior experience improves reading speed, with no attenuation of analysis of the printed words or of the passage's message.

  6. A Case for Improved Reading Instruction for Academic English Reading Proficiency

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    Glenn Ole Hellekjær

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available This article presents a study of the academic reading proficiency in English of 217 senior level Norwegian upper secondary school students who upon graduation are considered qualified for higher education. Testing with an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Reading Module revealed that two thirds of the 178 respondents with ordinary EFL courses did not achieve the equivalent of the IELTS Band 6 score minimum that is usually required for admission to British and Australian universities. In comparison, two thirds of a sample of 39 respondents with a single, sheltered Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL subject achieved a Band 6 score or better. Closer analysis indicates that the poor test scores can be attributed to weaknesses in current English as a Foreign Language (EFL instruction where reading is neglected, where students do not learn to adjust how they read to reading purpose, and where they do not learn how to handle unfamiliar words to avoid disrupting the reading process. The article ends with suggestions on how to improve EFL instruction, in Norway and elsewhere.

  7. Does the accuracy of single reading with CAD (computer-aided detection) compare with that of double reading?: A review of the literature

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bennett, R.L.; Blanks, R.G.; Moss, S.M.

    2006-01-01

    Aim: To examine current evidence to determine whether the accuracy of single reading with computed-aided detection (CAD) compares with that of double reading. Methods: We performed a literature review to identify studies where both protocols had been investigated and compared. We identified eight studies that compared single reading with CAD against double reading, of which six reported on comparisons of both sensitivity and specificity. Results: Of the six studies identified, three showed no differences in either sensitivity or specificity. One showed single reading with CAD had a higher sensitivity at the same specificity, another that single reading with CAD had a higher specificity at the same sensitivity. However, one study, in a real-life setting, showed that single reading with CAD had a higher sensitivity but a lower specificity. Conclusion: As the majority of the studies were not in a real-life setting, used test sets, lacked sufficient training in the use of CAD and simulated double reading (using a protocol of recall if one suggests), current evidence is therefore limited as to the accuracy, in terms of sensitivity and specificity, of single reading with CAD in comparison with the most common practice in the UK of double reading using a protocol of consensus or arbitration

  8. How Reading Volume Affects both Reading Fluency and Reading Achievement

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    Richard L. ALLINGTON

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Long overlooked, reading volume is actually central to the development of reading proficiencies, especially in the development of fluent reading proficiency. Generally no one in schools monitors the actual volume of reading that children engage in. We know that the commonly used commercial core reading programs provide only material that requires about 15 minutes of reading activity daily. The remaining 75 minute of reading lessons is filled with many other activities such as completing workbook pages or responding to low-level literal questions about what has been read. Studies designed to enhance the volume of reading that children do during their reading lessons demonstrate one way to enhance reading development. Repeated readings have been widely used in fostering reading fluency but wide reading options seem to work faster and more broadly in developing reading proficiencies, including oral reading fluency.

  9. Fostering Fifth Graders’ Reading Comprehension through the use of Intensive Reading in Physical Science

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    Alethia Paola Bogoya González

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Reading comprehension in a content area needs to be seen from both the content and language perspectives. This paper examines the use of intensive reading, a strategy taken from the language teaching field, to help students improve their reading comprehension ability and develop understanding of science concepts. The study was carried out in a fifth grade class at a private bilingual institution of Bogotá. Reading was analyzed using a mixed-method approach that utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods. The first method was done through students’ interviews, artefacts, and a teacher’s journal, and the second by means of two reading tests, Cloze and CARI, Content Area Reading Inventory Test. The statistical analysis shows that students improved their reading comprehension ability as their scores for the post-test were higher than those of the pre-test; this increment is statistically significant as p ≤ .05 when applying a t-test. The qualitative analysis shows that structured reading practices lead to the development of students’ cognitive processes. Overall, the results indicate that reading in sciences hould be seen as dynamic process that incorporates learners’ strategies in order to develop conceptual understanding.

  10. Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-11-01

    A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Extensive Reading for Second Language Learners of Japanese in Higher Education: Graded Readers and Beyond

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakano, Teiko

    2016-01-01

    This paper reports on the implementation of Japanese extensive reading with international students studying at a Japanese university using graded readers (GRs). GRs chosen for the present study were simplified versions of original Japanese literature and were used to support students in acquiring a top-down reading strategy, a wide range of…

  12. The influence of working memory on reading growth in subgroups of children with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swanson, H Lee; Jerman, Olga

    2007-04-01

    This 3-year longitudinal study determined whether (a) subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) (children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal IQ readers) and skilled readers varied in working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) growth and (b) whether growth in an executive system and/or a phonological storage system mediated growth in reading performance. A battery of memory and reading measures was administered to 84 children (11-17 years of age) across three testing waves spaced 1 year apart. The results showed that skilled readers yielded higher WM growth estimates than did the RD groups. No significant differentiation among subgroups of children with RD on growth measures emerged. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that WM (controlled attention), rather than STM (phonological loop), was related to growth in reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results support the notion that deficient growth in the executive component of WM underlies RD.

  13. Using quality scores and longer reads improves accuracy of Solexa read mapping

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    Xuan Zhenyu

    2008-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Second-generation sequencing has the potential to revolutionize genomics and impact all areas of biomedical science. New technologies will make re-sequencing widely available for such applications as identifying genome variations or interrogating the oligonucleotide content of a large sample (e.g. ChIP-sequencing. The increase in speed, sensitivity and availability of sequencing technology brings demand for advances in computational technology to perform associated analysis tasks. The Solexa/Illumina 1G sequencer can produce tens of millions of reads, ranging in length from ~25–50 nt, in a single experiment. Accurately mapping the reads back to a reference genome is a critical task in almost all applications. Two sources of information that are often ignored when mapping reads from the Solexa technology are the 3' ends of longer reads, which contain a much higher frequency of sequencing errors, and the base-call quality scores. Results To investigate whether these sources of information can be used to improve accuracy when mapping reads, we developed the RMAP tool, which can map reads having a wide range of lengths and allows base-call quality scores to determine which positions in each read are more important when mapping. We applied RMAP to analyze data re-sequenced from two human BAC regions for varying read lengths, and varying criteria for use of quality scores. RMAP is freely available for downloading at http://rulai.cshl.edu/rmap/. Conclusion Our results indicate that significant gains in Solexa read mapping performance can be achieved by considering the information in 3' ends of longer reads, and appropriately using the base-call quality scores. The RMAP tool we have developed will enable researchers to effectively exploit this information in targeted re-sequencing projects.

  14. A Nordic comparison of national objectives for reading instruction and teachers' responses about actual reading practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rønberg, Louise; Mejding, Jan

    2014-01-01

    and functional goals in Finland. It appears that the Finnish descriptions are more aligned with current empirical research on reading comprehension. Swedish and Norwegian teachers have the most varied used of both literary and informational text types during a week, whereas Finnish teachers give informational...... texts a higher priority than literary texts – and the opposite is apparent for Danish teachers. The Finnish and Norwegian teachers prioritise activities that enhance students’ oral reading fluency, which is important for reading comprehension development, to a greater extent than teachers in Denmark......This article presents a comparison of the Nordic countries’ official objectives for reading and analyses of 1005 Nordic teachers’ responses regarding their reading instruction. The specificity and transparency vary greatly in the objectives, from broad outlines in Norway to more specific...

  15. Reading enjoyment amongst non-leisure readers can affect achievement in secondary school.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mol, Suzanne E; Jolles, Jelle

    2014-01-01

    This study aimed to evaluate determinants of differences in leisure reading behavior and school achievement. We specifically examined reading enjoyment, mental imagery, and sex as predictors in a large, age-homogeneous sample of Dutch secondary school students (N = 1,071). Results showed that the prevalence of leisure reading was low in both the lower, pre-vocational track (19.5%) and the higher, pre-academic track (32.5%). Boys read even less than girls. Almost all leisure readers enjoyed reading and engaged in mental imagery, i.e., the propensity "to see images" of a written story in the mind's eye. Overall, boys who did not like to read for leisure had the poorest school performance. Non-leisure readers who reported that they enjoyed reading got higher school grades in the higher educational track. In the lower track, this was the case for girls. Our study findings imply that reading promotion programs should take into account individual differences in sex, achievement level, and reading enjoyment when aiming to decrease the academic achievement gap.

  16. Reading enjoyment amongst non-leisure readers can affect achievement in secondary school

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suzanne E. Mol

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to evaluate determinants of differences in leisure reading behavior and school achievement. We specifically examined reading enjoyment, mental imagery, and sex as predictors in a large, age-homogeneous sample of Dutch secondary school students (N = 1,071. Results showed that the prevalence of leisure reading was low in both the lower, pre-vocational track (19.5% and the higher, pre-academic track (32.5%. Boys read even less than girls. Almost all leisure readers enjoyed reading and engaged in mental imagery, i.e., the propensity ‘to see images’ of a written story in the mind’s eye. Overall, boys who did not like to read for leisure had the poorest school performance. Non-leisure readers who reported that they enjoyed reading got higher school grades in the higher educational track. In the lower track, this was the case for girls. Our study findings imply that reading promotion programs should take into account individual differences in sex, achievement level, and reading enjoyment when aiming to decrease the academic achievement gap.

  17. Are reading and face processing related?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja; Petersen, Anders

    2015-01-01

    Traditionally, perceptual processing of faces and words is considered highly specialized, strongly lateralized, and largely independent. This has, however, recently been challenged by studies showing that learning to read may affect the perceptual and neural processes involved in face recognition......, a lower perceptual threshold, and higher processing speed for words compared to letters. In sum, we find no evidence that reading skills are abnormal in developmental prosopagnosia, a finding that may challenge the recently proposed hypothesis that reading development and face processing abilities...

  18. Examining the core: relations among reading curricula, poverty, and first through third grade reading achievement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crowe, Elizabeth Coyne; Connor, Carol McDonald; Petscher, Yaacov

    2009-06-01

    Policy changes at the federal and state level are endeavoring to improve student achievement at schools serving children from lower-SES homes. One important strategy is the focus on using evidence-based core reading curricula to provide a consistent framework for instruction across schools. However, rarely have these curricula undergone rigorous comparative testing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effects of six core reading curricula on oral reading fluency growth, while appraising whether these effects differ by grade level and for children living in lower socioeconomic (SES) households. Over 30,000 students in first through third grade Florida Reading First classrooms comprise this academically and economically diverse cross-sectional. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to model latent growth curves for students' reading fluency scores over the school year. Growth curves revealed differences across curricula as well as between students of lower and higher SES, suggesting that reading fluency growth trajectories for curricula varied depending on student SES and grade level. Findings indicate that while there are similarities among curricula, they sometimes differ in their ability to promote reading skill growth. Differences by grade level and SES were also detected. However, many of these differences were small. Implications for the use of curriculum as a conduit for improving reading instruction are discussed.

  19. Are reading and face processing related?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja K.; Petersen, Anders

    Traditionally, perceptual processing of faces and words is considered highly specialized, strongly lateralized, and largely independent. This has, however, recently been challenged by studies showing that learning to read may affect the perceptual and neural processes involved in face recognition......, reflected in better overall accuracy, a lower perceptual threshold, and higher processing speed for words compared to letters. In sum, we find no evidence that reading skills are abnormal in developmental prosopagnosia, a finding that may challenge the recently proposed hypothesis that reading development...

  20. Developing reading literacy by reading badge

    OpenAIRE

    Rejc, Blanka

    2017-01-01

    Reading is a fundamental activity of our society and is present in all areas of a person’s life. Authors who deal with reading define reading with different definitions, some of them I also presented in my master’s degree thesis. The ways of reading, typology of readers and knowledge of different reading models are only some of the important theoretical facts that serve as a basis for the research and defining reading. Reading motivation is an important motivational factor, which encourages a...

  1. Exploring the Relationship between Adolescent's Reading Skills, Reading Motivation and Reading Habits

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGeown, Sarah P.; Duncan, Lynne G.; Griffiths, Yvonne M.; Stothard, Sue E.

    2015-01-01

    The present study examines the extent to which adolescents' reading affect (reading motivation) and behaviour (reading habits) predict different components of reading (word reading, comprehension, summarisation and text reading speed) and also adds to the limited research examining group differences (gender, age, ability) in adolescents' reading…

  2. Children with ADHD symptoms have a higher risk for reading, spelling and math difficulties in the GINIplus and LISAplus cohort studies.

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    Darina Czamara

    Full Text Available Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD and dyslexia belong to the most common neuro-behavioral childhood disorders with prevalences of around 5% in school-aged children. It is estimated that 20-60% of individuals affected with ADHD also present with learning disorders. We investigated the comorbidity between ADHD symptoms and reading/spelling and math difficulties in two on-going population-based birth cohort studies. Children with ADHD symptoms were at significantly higher risk of also showing reading/spelling difficulties or disorder (Odds Ratio (OR = 2.80, p = 6.59×10⁻¹³ as compared to children without ADHD symptoms. For math difficulties the association was similar (OR = 2.55, p = 3.63×10⁻⁰⁴. Our results strengthen the hypothesis that ADHD and learning disorders are comorbid and share, at least partially, the same underlying process. Up to date, it is not clear, on which exact functional processes this comorbidity is based.

  3. Classroom Quality and Student Engagement: Contributions to Third-Grade Reading Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Ying; Connor, Carol McDonald; Tompkins, Virginia; Morrison, Frederick J.

    2011-01-01

    This study, using NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development longitudinal data, investigated the effects of classroom quality and students’ third-grade behavioral engagement on students’ third-grade reading achievement (n = 1,364) and also examined the extent to which students’ third-grade behavioral engagement mediated the association between classroom quality and children's reading skills. SEM results revealed that controlling for family socio economic risk and students’ first-grade reading achievement, classroom quality significantly, and positively predicted children's behavioral engagement, which in turn predicted greater reading achievement. Higher levels of children's behavioral engagement were associated with higher reading achievement. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. PMID:21779272

  4. Evidence for simultaneous syntactic processing of multiple words during reading.

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    Joshua Snell

    Full Text Available A hotly debated issue in reading research concerns the extent to which readers process parafoveal words, and how parafoveal information might influence foveal word recognition. We investigated syntactic word processing both in sentence reading and in reading isolated foveal words when these were flanked by parafoveal words. In Experiment 1 we found a syntactic parafoveal preview benefit in sentence reading, meaning that fixation durations on target words were decreased when there was a syntactically congruent preview word at the target location (n during the fixation on the pre-target (n-1. In Experiment 2 we used a flanker paradigm in which participants had to classify foveal target words as either noun or verb, when those targets were flanked by syntactically congruent or incongruent words (stimulus on-time 170 ms. Lower response times and error rates in the congruent condition suggested that higher-order (syntactic information can be integrated across foveal and parafoveal words. Although higher-order parafoveal-on-foveal effects have been elusive in sentence reading, results from our flanker paradigm show that the reading system can extract higher-order information from multiple words in a single glance. We propose a model of reading to account for the present findings.

  5. 〈Articles〉The Utility of Reading Strategies and Its Connection to Reading Self-Efficacy

    OpenAIRE

    Lance, Burrows

    2016-01-01

    [Abstract] Self-efficacy is the expectation that one can successfully complete a particular task within a specific domain. Although it has been used to predict human behavior in several different contexts, e.g., educational psychology and medicine, it has not been widely utilized in second language research. There has been some promising research that has shown preliminarily that reading strategy intervention may help promote higher levels of reading self-efficacy. But the studies that have b...

  6. Effects of a virtual platform in reading comprehension and vocabulary: An alternative to improve reading abilities in Elementary school

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    Cecilia Thorne

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Given, on the one hand, the poor results obtained by Peruvian children in the national and international reading assessments. And on the other hand, the increased investment intechnology for schools in the country, this study aimed to develop and test an online tool to improve reading comprehension. In order to do this, the reading comprehension strategies and vocabulary activities from the research-based digital environment ICON were adapted to design the platform LEO. A total of 88 fifth graders from urban middle-to-low-income private schools from Lima participated in this quasi-experimental study, which involved acontrol group and a treatment group that participated in a 12-week teacher-mediated digital intervention. All participants were administered reading and vocabulary assessments pre and post intervention. Results revealed that students who participated in the intervention achieved higher comprehension scores for narrative texts and higher vocabulary scores than those of the control group.

  7. Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Young-Suk Grace

    2015-01-01

    The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children ( N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.

  8. INCIDENTAL VOCABULARY LEARNING THROUGH READING

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    Holly Warzecha, M.A. TESOL

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the following paper is to take a closer look at the benefits of incidental learning through reading, with a specific focus on vocabulary acquisition. The teaching of vocabulary has traditionally been an explicit process where the target vocabulary is taken out of context and taught separately. However, this kind of explicit teaching and learning may only take into account a form-meaning connection. Therefore, this paper explores research on incidental learning and specifically looks at what it takes to acquire new vocabulary incidentally through reading while considering the coverage rates of texts, how many words must be known already from the text, how many repetitions it takes to learn a word, types of texts that promote learning, and the effects of pairing students‘ reading with learner tasks. After reviewing many studies, it can be concluded that more reading is better. More specifically, extensive reading of chosen novels at an appropriate level and interest to the students showed important gains in vocabulary. In addition, readings that were supplemented with additional activities that focused on both form and meaning showed an even higher increase in word retention.

  9. Effect of Piracetam on Dyslexic's Reading Ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilsher, C.; And Others

    1985-01-01

    Forty-six dyslexic boys (aged eight to 13) were administered Piracetam or placebo in a double-blind, parallel experiment. Although, overall, there were no significant group effects, the within-subject design revealed improvements in reading speed and accuracy in Piracetam Ss. Dyslexics with higher reading ages improved significantly compared to…

  10. The Effect of Three Kinds of Reading Strategies on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension and Gender Difference Using Think-aloud Protocol

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    Ali Fathi Karizak

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Reading comprehension strategy instruction is a powerful tool in teaching context. The present study examines the effect of teaching three kinds of reading strategies on L2 learners’ reading comprehension ability as well as identifying the gender role in this intervention. This quasi experimental study was carried out on 100 Iranian EFL students who were chosen on the basis of a convenient sampling procedure. These participants were divided into two groups of experimental and control.  50 students (experimental group were taught to use three reading comprehension strategies while reading English texts over 16 sessions, whereas the other 50 students (control group were taught reading comprehension traditionally. The results of the study revealed significant effect of reading strategies application on L2 learners’ reading comprehension ability. It also showed that not only male learners employ reading strategies more than their female counterparts, but also male learners had higher reading comprehension performance in comparison to their female counterparts. Thus, it seems that training of reading strategy raised students' awareness towards these strategies and could encourage some learners to use them; which in turn could improve the students' reading comprehension skill.

  11. Does Extensive Reading Promote Reading Speed?

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Mu

    2014-01-01

    Research has shown a wide range of learning benefits accruing from extensive reading. Not only is there improvement in reading, but also in a wide range of language uses and areas of language knowledge. However, few research studies have examined reading speed. The existing literature on reading speed focused on students' reading speed without…

  12. A Comparison of Reading Response Methods to Increase Student Learning

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    Cheryl J. Davis

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available It is common in college courses to test students on the required readings for that course. With a rise in online education it is often the case that students are required to provide evidence of reading the material. However, there is little empirical research stating the best written means to assess that students read the materials. This study experimentally compared the effect of assigned reading summaries or study questions on student test performance. The results revealed that study questions produced higher quiz scores and higher preparation for the quiz, based on student feedback. Limitations of the study included a small sample size and extraneous activities that may have affected general knowledge on a topic. Results suggest that study questions focusing students on critical information in the required readings improve student learning.

  13. Deaf persons' english reading levels and associations with epidemiological, educational, and cultural factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zazove, Philip; Meador, Helen E; Reed, Barbara D; Gorenflo, Daniel W

    2013-01-01

    One hundred six Michigan d/Deaf persons, part of a study evaluating how to improve d/Deaf persons' understanding of cancer prevention recommendations, had reading levels determined using the Test of Reading Comprehension, Syntactic Sentences. Respondents averaged 52 years old, 59% female, 84% Caucasian, 58% married, and 75% Deaf community members. The mean Test of Reading Comprehension, Syntactic Sentences score was 6.1 (women: 6.2, men: 6.0). Higher scores were associated with greater income (p = .02), employment (p = .01), education (high school p = .002, some college p home, teacher in school, at home now: all p speaking with and satisfaction with physicians and nurses (p Language with physicians and nurses (.019) and Deaf community membership (p = .02). In multivariate analysis, higher scores were associated with higher income, college degree, and teacher using English. Reading levels of a predominantly Deaf population were low. Higher income, college degree, and teacher using English were associated with higher reading levels.

  14. THE ESSENCE OF QUESTIONING AND EXPLICIT READING INSTRUCTION STRATEGY

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    Sa’dulloh Muzammil

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Teacher’s questioning may function to assist students comprehend more reading materials and to enable them to be proficient readers. Yet, the students may be less benefited from which if the teacher neither provides sufficient explicit reading strategy nor involves higher-level questions. Consequently, the teacher should pay more careful attentions as follows: 1 teacher should involve both lower- and high-lever questions; 2 teacher should provide students with explicit reading strategy; 3 teacher should be aware of the activities in reading phases: pre-, during-, and post-reading.

  15. Subjective Impressions Do Not Mirror Online Reading Effort: Concurrent EEG-Eyetracking Evidence from the Reading of Books and Digital Media

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kretzschmar, Franziska; Pleimling, Dominique; Hosemann, Jana; Füssel, Stephan; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias

    2013-01-01

    In the rapidly changing circumstances of our increasingly digital world, reading is also becoming an increasingly digital experience: electronic books (e-books) are now outselling print books in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, many readers still view e-books as less readable than print books. The present study thus used combined EEG and eyetracking measures in order to test whether reading from digital media requires higher cognitive effort than reading conventional books. Young and elderly adults read short texts on three different reading devices: a paper page, an e-reader and a tablet computer and answered comprehension questions about them while their eye movements and EEG were recorded. The results of a debriefing questionnaire replicated previous findings in that participants overwhelmingly chose the paper page over the two electronic devices as their preferred reading medium. Online measures, by contrast, showed shorter mean fixation durations and lower EEG theta band voltage density – known to covary with memory encoding and retrieval – for the older adults when reading from a tablet computer in comparison to the other two devices. Young adults showed comparable fixation durations and theta activity for all three devices. Comprehension accuracy did not differ across the three media for either group. We argue that these results can be explained in terms of the better text discriminability (higher contrast) produced by the backlit display of the tablet computer. Contrast sensitivity decreases with age and degraded contrast conditions lead to longer reading times, thus supporting the conclusion that older readers may benefit particularly from the enhanced contrast of the tablet. Our findings thus indicate that people's subjective evaluation of digital reading media must be dissociated from the cognitive and neural effort expended in online information processing while reading from such devices. PMID:23405265

  16. When left-hemisphere reading is compromised: Comparing reading ability in participants after left cerebral hemispherectomy and participants with developmental dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katzir, Tami; Christodoulou, Joanna A; de Bode, Stella

    2016-10-01

    We investigated reading skills in individuals who have undergone left cerebral hemispherectomy and in readers with developmental dyslexia to understand diverse characteristics contributing to reading difficulty. Although dyslexia is a developmental disorder, left hemispherectomy requires that patients (re)establish the language process needed to perform the language-based tasks in the nondominant (right) hemisphere to become readers. Participants with developmental dyslexia (DD; n = 11) and participants who had undergone left hemispherectomy (HEMI; n = 11) were matched on age and gender, and were compared on timed and untimed measures of single word and pseudo-word reading. The hemispherectomy group was subdivided into prenatal (in utero) and postnatal (>3 years) insult groups, indicating the timing of the primary lesion that ultimately required surgical intervention. On an untimed reading measure, the readers with DD were comparable to individuals who had undergone left hemispherectomy due to prenatal insult, but both scored higher than the postnatal hemispherectomy group. Timed word reading differed across groups. The hemispherectomy prenatal subgroup had low average scores on both timed and untimed tests. The group with dyslexia had average scores on untimed measures and below average scores on timed reading. The hemispherectomy postnatal group had the lowest scores among the groups by a significant margin, and the most pronounced reading difficulty. Patients with prenatal lesions leading to an isolated right hemisphere (RH) have the potential to develop reading to a degree comparable to that in persons with dyslexia for single word reading. This potential sharply diminishes in individuals who undergo hemispherectomy due to postnatal insult. The higher scores of the prenatal hemispherectomy group on timed reading suggest that under these conditions, individuals with an isolated RH can compensate to a significant degree. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016

  17. Subjective impressions do not mirror online reading effort: concurrent EEG-eyetracking evidence from the reading of books and digital media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kretzschmar, Franziska; Pleimling, Dominique; Hosemann, Jana; Füssel, Stephan; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina; Schlesewsky, Matthias

    2013-01-01

    In the rapidly changing circumstances of our increasingly digital world, reading is also becoming an increasingly digital experience: electronic books (e-books) are now outselling print books in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, many readers still view e-books as less readable than print books. The present study thus used combined EEG and eyetracking measures in order to test whether reading from digital media requires higher cognitive effort than reading conventional books. Young and elderly adults read short texts on three different reading devices: a paper page, an e-reader and a tablet computer and answered comprehension questions about them while their eye movements and EEG were recorded. The results of a debriefing questionnaire replicated previous findings in that participants overwhelmingly chose the paper page over the two electronic devices as their preferred reading medium. Online measures, by contrast, showed shorter mean fixation durations and lower EEG theta band voltage density--known to covary with memory encoding and retrieval--for the older adults when reading from a tablet computer in comparison to the other two devices. Young adults showed comparable fixation durations and theta activity for all three devices. Comprehension accuracy did not differ across the three media for either group. We argue that these results can be explained in terms of the better text discriminability (higher contrast) produced by the backlit display of the tablet computer. Contrast sensitivity decreases with age and degraded contrast conditions lead to longer reading times, thus supporting the conclusion that older readers may benefit particularly from the enhanced contrast of the tablet. Our findings thus indicate that people's subjective evaluation of digital reading media must be dissociated from the cognitive and neural effort expended in online information processing while reading from such devices.

  18. Subjective impressions do not mirror online reading effort: concurrent EEG-eyetracking evidence from the reading of books and digital media.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Franziska Kretzschmar

    Full Text Available In the rapidly changing circumstances of our increasingly digital world, reading is also becoming an increasingly digital experience: electronic books (e-books are now outselling print books in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, many readers still view e-books as less readable than print books. The present study thus used combined EEG and eyetracking measures in order to test whether reading from digital media requires higher cognitive effort than reading conventional books. Young and elderly adults read short texts on three different reading devices: a paper page, an e-reader and a tablet computer and answered comprehension questions about them while their eye movements and EEG were recorded. The results of a debriefing questionnaire replicated previous findings in that participants overwhelmingly chose the paper page over the two electronic devices as their preferred reading medium. Online measures, by contrast, showed shorter mean fixation durations and lower EEG theta band voltage density--known to covary with memory encoding and retrieval--for the older adults when reading from a tablet computer in comparison to the other two devices. Young adults showed comparable fixation durations and theta activity for all three devices. Comprehension accuracy did not differ across the three media for either group. We argue that these results can be explained in terms of the better text discriminability (higher contrast produced by the backlit display of the tablet computer. Contrast sensitivity decreases with age and degraded contrast conditions lead to longer reading times, thus supporting the conclusion that older readers may benefit particularly from the enhanced contrast of the tablet. Our findings thus indicate that people's subjective evaluation of digital reading media must be dissociated from the cognitive and neural effort expended in online information processing while reading from such devices.

  19. Reading from electronic devices versus hardcopy text.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hue, Jennifer E; Rosenfield, Mark; Saá, Gianinna

    2014-01-01

    The use of electronic reading devices has increased dramatically. However, some individuals report increased visual symptoms when reading from electronic screens. This investigation compared reading from two electronic devices (Amazon Kindle or Apple Ipod) versus hardcopy text in two groups of 20 subjects. Subjects performed a 20 min reading task for each condition. Both the accommodative response and reading rate were monitored during the trial. Immediately post-task, subjects completed a questionnaire concerning the ocular symptoms experienced during the task. In comparing the Kindle with hardcopy, no significant difference in the total symptom score was observed, although the mean score for the symptoms of tired eyes and eye discomfort was significantly higher with the Kindle. No significant differences in reading rate were found. When comparing the Ipod with hardcopy, no significant differences in symptom scores were found. The mean reading rate with the Ipod was significantly slower than for hardcopy while the mean lag of accommodation was significantly larger for the Ipod. Given the significant increase in symptoms with the Kindle, and larger lag of accommodation and reduced reading rate with the Ipod, one may conclude that reading from electronic devices is not equivalent to hardcopy.

  20. Reading Strategies to Develop Higher Thinking Skills for Reading Comprehension (Estrategias de lectura para el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento para la comprensión de lectura)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Echeverri Acosta, Luz Marina; McNulty Ferri, Maria

    2010-01-01

    This paper reports an action research project which examined the foreign language reading comprehension of public school eighth graders who experienced a directed reading-thinking approach with strategies for comprehension and application. The strategies used were prediction, prior knowledge, graphic organizers, and questions. Data analyzed…

  1. Learning to Read a Semitic Abjad: The Triplex Model of Hebrew Reading Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Share, David L; Bar-On, Amalia

    2017-07-01

    We introduce a model of Hebrew reading development that emphasizes both the universal and script-specific aspects of learning to read a Semitic abjad. At the universal level, the study of Hebrew reading acquisition offers valuable insights into the fundamental dilemmas of all writing systems-balancing the competing needs of the novice versus the expert reader (Share, 2008). At the script-specific level, pointed Hebrew initially employs supplementary vowel signs, providing the beginning reader a consistent, phonologically well-specified script while helping the expert-to-be unitize words and morphemes via (consonantal) spelling constancy. A major challenge for the developing Hebrew reader is negotiating the transition from pointed to unpointed Hebrew, with its abundance of homographs. Our triplex model emphasizes three phases of early Hebrew reading development: a progression from lower-order, phonological (sublexical) sequential spelling-to-sound translation (Phase 1, Grade 1) to higher-order, string-level (lexical) lexico-morpho-orthographic processing (Phase 2, Grade 2) followed, in the upper elementary grades, by a supralexical contextual level (Phase 3) essential for dealing with the pervasive homography of unpointed Hebrew.

  2. Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Young-Suk Grace

    2015-01-01

    The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)—how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text readi...

  3. "I Don't Know What It Is to Be Able to Read": How Students with Dyslexia Experience Their Reading Impairment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wennas Brante, Eva

    2013-01-01

    Better understanding of the diverse reading abilities of people with dyslexia is necessary for the design of more effective learning situations, which are vital both to students with dyslexia and to their teachers. Seven individuals with dyslexia currently or formerly in higher education were interviewed about their reading experiences to learn…

  4. Developmental relations between reading comprehension and reading strategies

    OpenAIRE

    Muijselaar, M.M.L.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.; Droop, W.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.; Jong, P.F. de

    2017-01-01

    We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary, and working memory were administered. A structural equation model was constructed to estimate the unique relations between reading strategies and reading comprehension, while controlling for reading...

  5. Teaching Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Day, Richard R.

    2013-01-01

    "Teaching Reading" uncovers the interactive processes that happen when people learn to read and translates them into a comprehensive easy-to-follow guide on how to teach reading. Richard Day's revelations on the nature of reading, reading strategies, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading objectives make fascinating…

  6. Slow Reading: Reading along "Lectio" Lines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badley, K. Jo-Ann; Badley, Ken

    2011-01-01

    The medieval monastic movement preserved and developed reading practices--lectio--from ancient Greek pedagogy as a slow, mindful approach to reading for formation. This ancient way of reading, now better known as lectio divina, challenges the fast, pragmatic reading so characteristic of our time. We propose that the present moment may be ripe for…

  7. L2 Working Memory Capacity and L2 Reading Skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrington, Mike; Sawyer, Mark

    1992-01-01

    Examines the sensitivity of second-language (L2) working memory (ability to store and process information simultaneously) to differences in reading skills among advanced L2 learners. Subjects with larger L2 working memory capacities scored higher on measures of L2 reading skills, but no correlation was found between reading and passive short-term…

  8. Students’ Reading Comprehension Performance with Emotional Literacy-Based Strategy Intervention

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    Yusfarina Mohd Yussof

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available An effective reading comprehension process demands a strategy to enhance the cognitive ability to digest text information in the effort to elicit meaning contextually. In addition, the role of emotions also influences the efficacy of this process, especially in narrative text comprehension. This quasi-experimental study aims to observe students’ performance in the Reading Comprehension Test resulting from Emotional Literacy-Based Reading Comprehension Strategy (ELBRCS, which is a combination of cognitive and affective strategies. This study involved 90 students, whereby 45 students were clustered in the Experimental Group and received the ELBRCS intervension. The remaining 45 students were placed in the Control Group and underwent the conventional strategy (prevalent classroom method.The students’ reading comprehension performance was measured using the Reading Comprehension Test (RCT. The findings show that the experimental group received a higher score than the control group for RCT. The intervention has successfully increased student’s Reading Comprehension from literal comprehension to higher levels of comprehension i.e. inferential, evaluative and appreciative levels, as indicated by Barret’s Taxonomy.

  9. Compulsão alimentar e bulimia nervosa em praticantes de exercício físico

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    Cláudia Raulino Tramontt

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available INTRODUÇÃO: Estudos nacionais mostram variações na prevalência de compulsão alimentar entre 14,9 a 18,1%, enquanto a bulimia nervosa (BN apresenta-se em torno de 1 a 3,6%. Indivíduos que apresentam transtornos alimentares procuram espaços onde o exercício físico é estimulado e assim mascaram características da doença, exercitando-se compulsivamente após um episódio de compulsão alimentar. OBJETIVO: Identificar a prevalência de transtorno da compulsão alimentar periódica (TCAP e bulimia nervosa em praticantes de exercício físico associando ao estado nutricional, modalidade, frequência, duração e objetivo da prática do exercício físico. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal composto por 103 indivíduos maiores de 18 anos com idade média de 37,7 (DP±15,6 anos, de ambos os sexos, praticantes de exercício físico há pelo menos três meses ininterruptos antes do início da pesquisa. Para análise da prevalência de TCAP e BN foi utilizado o Questionário sobre Alimentação e Peso (QEWP-R e um questionário específico sobre exercício físico. O estado nutricional foi classificado conforme o IMC. RESULTADOS: A prevalência de TCAP entre os indivíduos praticantes de exercício físico foi de 0,97%. Houve associação entre valores de IMC mais alto (p=0,026, idade menor (para TCAP p=0,036, BN p=0,01 e objetivo da prática de exercício físico declarado "estética" (para TCAP p=0,011 e BN p=0,043 com maiores pontuações nos escores de TCAP e BN. CONCLUSÃO: A prevalência de TCAP e BN encontrada neste estudo está de acordo com o referido na literatura internacional. Não foram encontradas associações entre compulsão alimentar e maior frequência de exercício físico.

  10. The role of phonological awareness in reading comprehension

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    Maria Silvia Cárnio

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose: to characterize the performance of 4th grade-Elementary School students with and without signs of reading and writing disorders as for phonological awareness and reading comprehension, and also verify possible correlations between them. Methods: 60 children enrolled in the 4th grade of Elementary School from two public schools, whose parents signed the Informed Consent Form, participated in the present study. They were selected and organized in groups, with and without signs of reading and writing disorders. All students were individually assessed regarding their phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts through standardized tests. The data underwent statistical analysis. Results: those with signs of reading and writing disorders showed the lowest performance in the reading comprehension of sentences and texts. A correlation was found between phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts in both groups. Conclusion: students with no signs of reading and writing disorders had a higher performance in the skills assessed. The correlation found between phonological awareness and reading comprehension of sentences and texts shows not only the importance of metaphonological skills for a proficient reading, but also for a comprehensive one.

  11. Reading with a simulated 60-channel implant

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    Angelica ePerez Fornos

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available First generation retinal prostheses containing 50-60 electrodes are currently in clinical trials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the theoretical upper limit (best possible reading performance attainable with a state-of-the-art 60-channel retinal implant and to find the optimum viewing conditions for the task. Four normal volunteers performed full-page text reading tasks with a low resolution, 60-pixel viewing window that was stabilized in the central visual field. Two parameters were systematically varied: (1 spatial resolution (image magnification and (2 the orientation of the rectangular viewing window. Performance was measured in terms of reading accuracy (% of correctly read words and reading rates (words/min. Maximum reading performances were reached at spatial resolutions between 3.6 and 6 pixels/char. Performance declined outside this range for all subjects. In optimum viewing conditions (4.5 pixels/char, subjects achieved almost perfect reading accuracy and mean reading rates of 26 words/min for the vertical viewing window and of 34 words/min for the horizontal viewing window. These results suggest that, theoretically, some reading abilities can be restored with actual state-of-the-art retinal implant prototypes if image magnification is within an optimum range. Future retinal implants providing higher pixel resolutions, thus allowing for a wider visual span might allow faster reading rates.

  12. Reading comprehension and reading related abilities in adolescents with reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghelani, Karen; Sidhu, Robindra; Jain, Umesh; Tannock, Rosemary

    2004-11-01

    Reading comprehension is a very complex task that requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span. There are fewer studies of reading comprehension relative to investigations of word reading abilities. Reading comprehension difficulties, however, have been identified in two common and frequently overlapping childhood disorders: reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The nature of reading comprehension difficulties in these groups remains unclear. The performance of four groups of adolescents (RD, ADHD, comorbid ADHD and RD, and normal controls) was compared on reading comprehension tasks as well as on reading rate and accuracy tasks. Adolescents with RD showed difficulties across most reading tasks, although their comprehension scores were average. Adolescents with ADHD exhibited adequate single word reading abilities. Subtle difficulties were observed, however, on measures of text reading rate and accuracy as well as on silent reading comprehension, but scores remained in the average range. The comorbid group demonstrated similar difficulties to the RD group on word reading accuracy and on reading rate but experienced problems on only silent reading comprehension. Implications for reading interventions are outlined, as well as the clinical relevance for diagnosis.

  13. The Explicit Instruction of Reading Strategies: Directed Reading Thinking Activity vs. Guided Reading Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Mehdi Yazdani

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Investigating the efficiencies and deficiencies of reading strategies is one of the noticeable issues in the related theory and research in reading comprehension instruction. This study was to examine the impact of Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA and Guided Reading (GR on reading comprehension. Sixty three Iranian students of grade one in Shahed high school in the city of Bojnourd took part in the study. They were assigned in three groups, one control and two experimental groups. The instruction lasted for ten weeks. This study utilized a pretest posttest control group in quantitative quasi- experimental design. The same reading comprehension test was administered as pre-test and post-test. The results were twofold: First, the instruction of learning strategies could foster reading comprehension skill. Second, while the explicit instruction of both strategies could improve the students' reading comprehension skill, Directed Reading Thinking Activity had a more significant positive effect than Guided Reading.

  14. Reading Processes and Parenting Styles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carreteiro, Rui Manuel; Justo, João Manuel; Figueira, Ana Paula

    2016-08-01

    Home literacy environment explains between 12 and 18.5 % of the variance of children's language skills. Although most authors agree that children whose parents encourage them to read tend to develop better and earlier reading skills, some authors consider that the impact of family environment in reading skills is overvalued. Probably, other variables of parent-child relationship, like parenting styles, might be relevant for this field. Nevertheless, no previous studies on the effect of parenting styles in literacy have been found. To analyze the role of parenting styles in the reading processes of children. Children's perceptions of parenting styles contribute significantly to the explanation of statistical variance of children's reading processes. 110 children (67 boys and 43 girls), aged between 7 and 11 years (M [Formula: see text] 9.22 and SD [Formula: see text] 1.14) from Portuguese schools answered to a socio-demographic questionnaire. To assess reading processes it was administered the Portuguese adaptation (Figueira et al. in press) of Bateria de Avaliação dos Processos Leitores-Revista (PROLEC-R). To assess the parenting styles Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran-parents (EMBU-P) and EMBU-C (children version) were administered. According to multiple hierarchical linear regressions, individual factors contribute to explain all reading tests of PROLEC-R, while family factors contribute to explain most of these tests. Regarding parenting styles, results evidence the explanatory power about grammatical structures, sentence comprehension and listening. Parenting styles have an important role in the explanation of higher reading processes (syntactic and semantic) but not in lexical processes, focused by main theories concerning dyslexia.

  15. Developmental Relations Between Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Muijselaar, M.; Swart, N.M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G,.; Droop, M.; Verhoeven, L.; de Jong, P.F.

    2017-01-01

    We examined the developmental relations between knowledge of reading strategies and reading comprehension in a longitudinal study of 312 Dutch children from the beginning of fourth grade to the end of fifth grade. Measures for reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading fluency, vocabulary,

  16. Forecasting Reading Anxiety for Promoting English-Language Reading Performance Based on Reading Annotation Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chih-Ming; Wang, Jung-Ying; Chen, Yong-Ting; Wu, Jhih-Hao

    2016-01-01

    To reduce effectively the reading anxiety of learners while reading English articles, a C4.5 decision tree, a widely used data mining technique, was used to develop a personalized reading anxiety prediction model (PRAPM) based on individual learners' reading annotation behavior in a collaborative digital reading annotation system (CDRAS). In…

  17. Training directionally selective motion pathways can significantly improve reading efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawton, Teri

    2004-06-01

    This study examined whether perceptual learning at early levels of visual processing would facilitate learning at higher levels of processing. This was examined by determining whether training the motion pathways by practicing leftright movement discrimination, as found previously, would improve the reading skills of inefficient readers significantly more than another computer game, a word discrimination game, or the reading program offered by the school. This controlled validation study found that practicing left-right movement discrimination 5-10 minutes twice a week (rapidly) for 15 weeks doubled reading fluency, and significantly improved all reading skills by more than one grade level, whereas inefficient readers in the control groups barely improved on these reading skills. In contrast to previous studies of perceptual learning, these experiments show that perceptual learning of direction discrimination significantly improved reading skills determined at higher levels of cognitive processing, thereby being generalized to a new task. The deficits in reading performance and attentional focus experienced by the person who struggles when reading are suggested to result from an information overload, resulting from timing deficits in the direction-selectivity network proposed by Russell De Valois et al. (2000), that following practice on direction discrimination goes away. This study found that practicing direction discrimination rapidly transitions the inefficient 7-year-old reader to an efficient reader.

  18. Relationship between oculomotor scanning determined by the DEM test and a contextual reading test in schoolchildren with reading difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Palomo-Alvarez, Catalina; Puell, María C

    2009-09-01

    The relationship between oculomotor scanning and reading in poor readers of primary school age is not well known. This study was designed to assess this relationship by determining mean Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) test times and reading speeds in a Spanish non-clinical population of children with poor reading skills but without dyslexia. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 81 poor readers (8-11 years of age) in the third to fifth grades recruited from 11 elementary schools in Madrid, Spain. In each subject with best spectacle correction, oculomotor scanning was measured using the DEM test, and reading speed (words per minute) was assessed by a standardized Spanish contextual reading test. Mean horizontal DEM times were higher than normative values for children in the third, fourth and fifth grades, by 20 seconds, 12 seconds, and 3 seconds respectively. Mean reading speeds were 18 words per minute lower than the norm for the third and fourth grades respectively, and 30 words per minute lower than the norm for the fifth grade. Reading speeds were significantly related to horizontal DEM times (r = -0.53, p school children at an early stage.

  19. Child-centered reading intervention: See, talk, dictate, read, write!

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammet BAŞTUĞ

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Poor reading achievement of children in elementary schools has been one of the major concerns in education. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a child-centered reading intervention in eliminating the reading problems of a student with poor reading achievement. The research was conducted with a student having difficulty in reading. A reading intervention was designed that targeted multiple areas of reading and aimed to improve reading skills through the use of multiple strategies. This intervention is child-centered and includes visual aids, talking, dictating, reading and writing stages. The study was performed in 35 sessions consisting of stages of a single sentence (5 sessions, two sentences (5 sessions, three sentences (20 sessions and the text stage (5 sessions. The intervention sessions were audio-taped. These recordings and the written responses to the reading comprehension questions provided the data for analysis. The findings on the reading intervention revealed positive outcomes. The student exhibited certain improvements at the levels of reading, reading rate and reading comprehension. These results were discussed in the literature and the findings suggest that child-centered reading strategies such as talking, dictating and writing should be the main focus of instruction for students with low reading literacy achievement to enable these students to meet the demands of the curriculum.

  20. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH IINTERACTIVE READ-ALOUD TECHNIQUE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Edi Santoso

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The present study, entitled Improving Students’ Reading Comprehension through Interactive Read-Aloud, attempts to unlock problems found in teaching and reading comprehension through interactive read-aloud in a Senior High School of Sport (SMAN Olah Raga Lampung, in Metro. The findings revealed that students’ reading comprehension improved through interactive read-aloud. The improvement can be seen from the increase of test results, meaning construction, and motivation. The process of reading activities showed that the teacher’s gesture and body language, 20 questions, explain and guess activities were proven to help the students construct meaning from the given texts. In addition, interactive read-aloud is effective to boost students’ motivation to comprehend the texts.   Key words: Reading comprehension, interactive read-aloud.

  1. Reading faster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Nation

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available This article describes the visual nature of the reading process as it relates to reading speed. It points out that there is a physical limit on normal reading speed and beyond this limit the reading process will be different from normal reading where almost every word is attended to. The article describes a range of activities for developing reading fluency, and suggests how the development of fluency can become part of a reading programme.

  2. Reading comprehension of deaf students in regular education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luccas, Marcia Regina Zemella; Chiari, Brasília Maria; Goulart, Bárbara Niegia Garcia de

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate and compare the reading comprehension of deaf students included in regular classrooms of public schools with and without specialized educational support. Observational analytic study with 35 students with sensorineural hearing loss, with and without educational support. All subjects were assessed with the Word Reading Competence Test (WRCT), the Picture-Print Matching Test by Choice (PPMT-C), and the Sentence Reading Comprehension Test (SRCT). In the tests regarding comprehension of words (WRCT and PPMT-C), the results showed no difference in the performance of deaf students who attend and do not attend educational support. Regarding reading comprehension of sentences, the application of the SRCT also did not show differences between the groups of deaf students. A significant correlation was found between age and grade, indicating that the older the students and the higher their educational level, the better their performance in reading sentences. The results indicate that deaf students, regardless of attending educational support, read words better than sentences. There is no difference in reading comprehension between deaf students who receive and do not receive specialized pedagogical monitoring.

  3. Verbal and visuospatial working memory as predictors of children's reading ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pham, Andy V; Hasson, Ramzi M

    2014-08-01

    Children with reading difficulties often demonstrate weaknesses in working memory (WM). This research study explored the relation between two WM systems (verbal and visuospatial WM) and reading ability in a sample of school-aged children with a wide range of reading skills. Children (N = 157), ages 9-12, were administered measures of short-term memory, verbal WM, visuospatial WM, and reading measures (e.g., reading fluency and comprehension). Although results indicated that verbal WM was a stronger predictor in reading fluency and comprehension, visuospatial WM also significantly predicted reading skills, but provided more unique variance in reading comprehension than reading fluency. These findings suggest that visuospatial WM may play a significant role in higher level reading processes, particularly in reading comprehension, than previously thought. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  4. Promoting preschool reading

    OpenAIRE

    Istenič, Vesna

    2013-01-01

    The thesis titled Promoting preschool reading consists of a theoretiral and an empirical part. In the theoretical part I wrote about reading, the importance of reading, types of reading, about reading motivation, promoting reading motivation, internal and external motivation, influence of reading motivation on the child's reading activity, reading and familial literacy, the role of adults in promotion reading literacy, reading to a child and promoting reading in pre-school years, where I ...

  5. A Nordic comparison of national objectives for reading instruction and teachers' responses about actual reading practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rønberg, Louise Flensted-Jensen; Mejding, Jan

    2014-01-01

    and Sweden do. The Nordic teachers in general appear to prioritise advanced comprehension activities to a lesser extent than teachers in the English-speaking countries do. Furthermore, 138 Northern Lights on TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 Danish teachers put the least emphasis on formative assessments compared...... texts a higher priority than literary texts – and the opposite is apparent for Danish teachers. The Finnish and Norwegian teachers prioritise activities that enhance students’ oral reading fluency, which is important for reading comprehension development, to a greater extent than teachers in Denmark...

  6. The Effects of the Use of Renzulli Learning on Student Achievement in Reading Comprehension, Reading Fluency, Social Studies, and Science

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gara B Field

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Renzulli Learning is an on-line educational profile and educational learning system designed to match student interests, learning styles, and expression styles with a vast array of educational activities and resources designed to enrich and engage students’ learning process. In this experimental study, quantitative procedures were used to investigate the use of Renzulli Learning on oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, science achievement, social studies achievement of 383 elementary and middle schools students. The research took place in two schools, an urban middle school in Georgia where half of all students are considered to be at risk due to poverty or other factors, and a suburban elementary school in southern California. Students in grades 3 5 (n = 185 and grades 6 8 (n = 198 were randomly assigned to use Renzulli Learning for 2-3 hours each week for a 16-week period. Students in the treatment groups were compared to students who did not have the opportunity to use Renzulli Learning in control classes in the same schools. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to explore differences between treatment and control students. After 16 weeks, students who participated in Renzulli Learning demonstrated significantly higher growth in reading comprehension (p < .001, significantly higher growth in oral reading fluency (p = .016, and significantly higher growth in social studies achievement (p = .013 than those students who did not participate in Renzulli Learning.

  7. Parents' reading-related knowledge and children's reading acquisition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ladd, Megan; Martin-Chang, Sandra; Levesque, Kyle

    2011-12-01

    Teacher reading-related knowledge (phonological awareness and phonics knowledge) predicts student reading, however little is known about the reading-related knowledge of parents. Participants comprised 70 dyads (children from kindergarten and grade 1 and their parents). Parents were administered a questionnaire tapping into reading-related knowledge, print exposure, storybook reading, and general cultural knowledge. Children were tested on measures of letter-word knowledge, sound awareness, receptive vocabulary, oral expression, and mathematical skill. Parent reading-related knowledge showed significant positive links with child letter-word knowledge and sound awareness, but showed no correlations with child measures of mathematical skill or vocabulary. Furthermore, parent reading-related knowledge was not associated with parents' own print exposure or cultural knowledge, indicating that knowledge about English word structure may be separate from other cognitive skills. Implications are discussed in terms of improving parent reading-related knowledge to promote child literacy.

  8. The effect of consanguineous marriage on reading disability in the Arab community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Rabia, Salim; Maroun, Lateefeh

    2005-02-01

    The present study examined the effect of consanguineous marriage in the Arab community on reading disabilities of offspring. It examined whether the rate of reading disabilities was higher among offspring of first-cousin parents than offspring of unrelated parents; and whether reading-disabled children of first-cousin parents were more disabled in phonological awareness and phonological decoding than reading-disabled children of unrelated parents and normally reading younger children. These questions were investigated among 814 pupils of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, using word recognition and reading comprehension tests. Two experimental groups were chosen from this population. These were a reading-disabled group of 22 pupils who were children of first-cousin marriages and 21 pupils who were children of unrelated parents. A control group was also selected, consisting of 21 younger normally reading pupils at the same reading level. All the groups were tested on non-words, real words, phonological, orthographic and working memory measures. The results indicated that the rate of reading disabilities among children of first-cousin parents was higher than that of with children of second-cousin parents, distantly related parents, or unrelated parents. Further, no differences were found in phonological awareness and decoding between the two reading-disabled groups. Moreover, the results indicate a significant advantage of the younger normal readers over the reading-disabled children in the measures of phonological awareness, decoding, and orthographical knowledge that requires spelling. However, in reading common words and choosing words in context, the performance of the reading-disabled groups and the normally reading group were similar. It has been suggested that further research is needed to evaluate the role of intelligence, nevertheless our results provide new evidence for a genetic basis to reading disabilities.

  9. Why should I read? - A cross-cultural investigation into adolescents' reading socialisation and reading attitude

    Science.gov (United States)

    Broeder, Peter; Stokmans, Mia

    2013-06-01

    While reading behaviour of adolescents is a frequent object of research, most studies in this field are restricted to a single country. This study investigates reading as a leisure-time activity across social groups from three regions differing in reading tradition as well as in the facilities available for reading. The authors analyse the reading behaviour of a total of 2,173 adolescents in the Netherlands, in Beijing (China), and in Cape Town (South Africa). Taking Icek Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour as a starting point, the authors adjusted it to model the three most important determinants of reading behaviour, namely (1) reading attitude; (2) subjective norms (implicit and explicit social pressure to read); and (3) perceived behavioural control, which includes reading proficiency and appropriateness of the available books (book supply). While they found the adjusted model to fit the Dutch and Beijing situation quite well, it appeared to be inappropriate for the Cape Town situation. Despite considerable cultural and situational differences between the Netherlands and Beijing, the results show a similar pattern for these two environments. The most important determinants turn out to be: the hedonic reading attitude, the implicit norm of family and friends, the attractiveness of the available choice of books, and the perceived reading proficiency.

  10. Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobson, Lisa A.; Koriakin, Taylor; Lipkin, Paul; Boada, Richard; Frijters, Jan; Lovett, Maureen; Hill, Dina; Willcutt, Erik; Gottwald, Stephanie; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R.; Mahone, E. Mark

    2018-01-01

    Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing “higher-level” or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty. PMID:26755569

  11. Factors in the development of higher levels of reading literacy: Argumentation skills in educational practice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Branković Marija

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The highest levels of reading literacy, as defined within PISA study, include the ability to use various cognitive skills, with argumentative skills being one of the most important among them. In the present study our goal was to reveal some of the factors that influence the development of argumentative skills in Serbian schools. We investigated the extent to which argumentative skills are required in PISA reading literacy tasks, as well as the specific difficulties our students have faced on these tasks, through an analysis of student performance. We also conducted an analysis of the educational practice - by doing in-depth interviews with teachers and content analysis of students' textbooks. The results revealed that: 1 Argumentations skills are an important requirement within PISA tasks; 2 Serbian students are mostly successful at basic tasks of recognizing arguments or providing arguments for the given position; they face difficulties answering the tasks which require precise formulation of relevant arguments as well as those demanding meta-cognitive skills (e.g. recognizing persuasive strategies in the given text. Their performance is particularly poor on tasks requiring the combination of information from different sources or information presented in different formats (text, tables, or graphs; 3 There is a significant gap between the requirements for argumentation skills our students usually encounter and PISA reading literacy tasks. In this paper we discuss some of the difficulties and obstacles to encouraging the development of argumentative thinking.

  12. Comparison of reading speed with 3 different log-scaled reading charts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buari, Noor Halilah; Chen, Ai-Hong; Musa, Nuraini

    2014-01-01

    A reading chart that resembles real reading conditions is important to evaluate the quality of life in terms of reading performance. The purpose of this study was to compare the reading speed of UiTM Malay related words (UiTM-Mrw) reading chart with MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart. Fifty subjects with normal sight were randomly recruited through randomized sampling in this study (mean age=22.98±1.65 years). Subjects were asked to read three different near charts aloud and as quickly as possible at random sequence. The charts were the UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart, MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart, respectively. The time taken to read each chart was recorded and any errors while reading were noted. Reading performance was quantified in terms of reading speed as words per minute (wpm). The mean reading speed for UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart, MNread Acuity Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart was 200±30wpm, 196±28wpm and 194±31wpm, respectively. Comparison of reading speed between UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart and MNread Acuity Chart showed no significant difference (t=-0.73, p=0.72). The same happened with the reading speed between UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart and Colenbrander Reading Chart (t=-0.97, p=0.55). Bland and Altman plot showed good agreement between reading speed of UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart with MNread Acuity Chart with the Colenbrander Reading Chart. UiTM-Mrw Reading Chart in Malay language is highly comparable with standardized charts and can be used for evaluating reading speed. Copyright © 2013 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  13. Comparing Performance Standards on the Retention of Words Read Correctly per Minute

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kubina, Richard M., Jr.; Amato, Janelle; Schwilk, Christopher L.; Therrien, William J.

    2008-01-01

    To measure retention of oral reading fluency, three students attending a learning support classroom used a repeating reading strategy with two passages. Each student read one passage to a high performance standard and the other passage to a lower performance standard. Results show it took the students more practice to reach the higher performance…

  14. What oral text reading fluency can reveal about reading comprehension

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veenendaal, N.J.; Groen, M.A.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.

    2015-01-01

    Text reading fluency – the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation – has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor

  15. FMLRC: Hybrid long read error correction using an FM-index.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jeremy R; Holt, James; McMillan, Leonard; Jones, Corbin D

    2018-02-09

    Long read sequencing is changing the landscape of genomic research, especially de novo assembly. Despite the high error rate inherent to long read technologies, increased read lengths dramatically improve the continuity and accuracy of genome assemblies. However, the cost and throughput of these technologies limits their application to complex genomes. One solution is to decrease the cost and time to assemble novel genomes by leveraging "hybrid" assemblies that use long reads for scaffolding and short reads for accuracy. We describe a novel method leveraging a multi-string Burrows-Wheeler Transform with auxiliary FM-index to correct errors in long read sequences using a set of complementary short reads. We demonstrate that our method efficiently produces significantly more high quality corrected sequence than existing hybrid error-correction methods. We also show that our method produces more contiguous assemblies, in many cases, than existing state-of-the-art hybrid and long-read only de novo assembly methods. Our method accurately corrects long read sequence data using complementary short reads. We demonstrate higher total throughput of corrected long reads and a corresponding increase in contiguity of the resulting de novo assemblies. Improved throughput and computational efficiency than existing methods will help better economically utilize emerging long read sequencing technologies.

  16. The Effects of Extensive Reading on Reading Comprehension, Reading Rate, and Vocabulary Acquisition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suk, Namhee

    2017-01-01

    Several empirical studies and syntheses of extensive reading have concluded that extensive reading has positive impacts on language learning in second- and foreign-language settings. However, many of the studies contained methodological or curricular limitations, raising questions about the asserted positive effects of extensive reading. The…

  17. Enhancing academic reading skills through extensive reading ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Abstract. The current study explores the feasibility of an extensive reading programme in the context of a low-income country (Mozambique), as well as the influence of extensive reading on academic reading. The programme took over 4 months and was conducted among 30 students majoring in Journalism at the Eduardo ...

  18. Digital reading practices of university students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karen Shirley LÓPEZ GIL

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents results of research on digital reading. The main objective of the research was to analyze the reading on screens practices of university students and how their practices are guided by professors and institutions of higher education. The research design was mixed and the type of study was descriptive of cross-sectional. The data collection techniques were questionnaire, document analysis and discussion group. ibm spss v.22 was used for statistical treatment of data and Atlas.Ti 7.0 was used for content analysis of qualitative information. The study showed that students usually read on screens, although many of their reading practices have recreational purposes. Students have troubles to find reliable information on the Internet when they have academic pursuits and frequently consult secondary sources. When texts are on screens, students generally scan information and surf from one document to another along hyperlinks. The boundaries between academic and leisure activities are not well defined; multitasking appears frequently. Students indicate there is a little guidance received from their professors or university. These findings show that students are constantly faced with digital reading, but practices do not always allow them to achieve their academic purposes, so it is necessary to strengthen the support offered to them, mainly from the classroom language. 

  19. Analysis of EFL Students' Ability in Reading Vocabulary of Synonyms and Antonyms

    OpenAIRE

    Vina Fathira

    2017-01-01

    Reading is an important thing for academic level. Every student must have many vocabularies to encourage her/his reading skill. The aim of this research is to analyze the students' understanding of reading vocabularies of synonyms and antonyms in the higher education level. Synonyms and antonyms are two important things should be mastered to get better reading comprehension. The method used in this research was quantitative with survey design. The population same as the sample of this researc...

  20. Reading enjoyment amongst non-leisure readers can affect achievement in secondary school

    OpenAIRE

    Mol, Suzanne E.; Jolles, Jelle

    2014-01-01

    This study aimed to evaluate determinants of differences in leisure reading behavior and school achievement. We specifically examined reading enjoyment, mental imagery, and sex as predictors in a large, age-homogeneous sample of Dutch secondary school students (N = 1,071). Results showed that the prevalence of leisure reading was low in both the lower, pre-vocational track (19.5%) and the higher, pre-academic track (32.5%). Boys read even less than girls. Almost all leisure readers enjoyed re...

  1. Reading: Time

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Annemarie Wennekers; Frank Huysmans; Jos de Haan

    2018-01-01

    Original title: Lees:Tijd The amount of time that Dutch people spend reading has been declining steadily since the 1950s. This decline in reading time contrasts starkly with the positive personal and social benefits that can be derived from reading, according to lots of research. The Reading:

  2. Does IQ affect the functional brain network involved in pseudoword reading in students with reading disability? A magnetoencephalography study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Panagiotis G Simos

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The study examined whether individual differences in performance and verbal IQ affect the profiles of reading-related regional brain activation in 127 students experiencing reading difficulties and typical readers. Using magnetoencephalography in a pseudoword read-aloud task, we compared brain activation profiles of students experiencing word-level reading difficulties who did (n=29 or did not (n=36 meet the IQ-reading achievement discrepancy criterion. Typical readers assigned to a lower-IQ (n=18 or a higher IQ (n=44 subgroup served as controls. Minimum norm estimates of regional cortical activity revealed that the degree of hypoactivation in the left superior temporal and supramarginal gyri in both RD subgroups was not affected by IQ. Moreover, IQ did not moderate the positive association between degree of activation in the left fusiform gyrus and phonological decoding ability. We did find, however, that the hypoactivation of the left pars opercularis in RD was restricted to lower-IQ participants. In accordance with previous morphometric and fMRI studies, degree of activity in inferior frontal and inferior parietal regions correlated with IQ across reading ability subgroups. Results are consistent with current views questioning the relevance of IQ measures and IQ-discrepancy criteria in the diagnosis of dyslexia.

  3. Dialogic Reading Aloud to Promote Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, George M.

    2016-01-01

    How can teachers motivate students to read extensively in a second language? One strategy is for teachers to read aloud to students to promote the joys of reading generally, to build students' language skills and to introduce students to specific authors, book series, genres, websites, etc. This article begins by discussing why teachers might want…

  4. An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner’s foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhongshe Lu

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS had important subcomponents, (b more than half of the students generally did not feel anxious when reading English, and were confident in and satisfied with their English reading proficiency. Meanwhile, (c more than half of them moderately used different types of reading strategies such as planning, checking and confirming, predicting and assessing, when reading English, (d compared with their female peers, male students felt significantly more anxious when facing reading activities, less satisfied with their English reading proficiency, and used specific analyzing and planning strategies significantly less often during a reading activity, (e FLRAS was significantly inversely related to FLRSUS, and both were significantly correlated with the students’ FL reading comprehension performance, and (f FLRAS (overall FL reading anxiety, FLRAS1 (general anxiety about FL reading, and FLRSUS2 (predicting strategies were good predictors of FL reading comprehension performance. Based on the findings, some implications are discussed.

  5. The Habit of Reading: A Neglected Dimension of Adult Reading Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fink, Katherine T.; Devine, Thomas G.

    1993-01-01

    Less competent adult readers have not developed the habit of reading. Ways to cultivate adult reading habits include relevant material, environment saturated with reading material, reading aloud to adults, having them read to children, sustained silent reading, modeling, book sharing, author conferences, and recognition. (SK)

  6. Miraculous Readings: Using Fantasy Novels about Reading to Reflect on Reading the Bible

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dalton, Russell W.

    2009-01-01

    This article reflects on the vivid images of reading presented in several popular fantasy novels, including "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "The Great Good Thing," and "The Neverending Story." It suggests that these images can be used to help children, youth, and adults reflect on the nature of reading and the potential power of reading sacred texts.…

  7. Using Anticipatory Reading Guides to Improve Elementary Students’ Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evan Ortlieb

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available One of the greatest challenges of an elementary school teacher is equipping students with comprehension strategies that transfer to all content areas. With stable levels of reading achievement over the last two decades in the United States, it is necessary that further research be conducted on methods of increasing students’ comprehension proficiencies. This experimental research study explores the use of an anticipatory reading guide with third grade struggling readers across multiple subject areas. Findings indicate that the experimental treatment group outperformed the control group by a statistically significant rate on both reading and content area measures, indicating that when struggling readers practice and use strategies to explicitly think what will be asked of them after reading the passage they perform at higher levels.

  8. Reading Every Single Day: A Journey to Authentic Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, Alida K.; Williams, Joan A.

    2015-01-01

    This article details one teacher's implementation of reading workshop in her second grade classroom. She provided a framework for authentic reading using the five components of reading workshop: time, choice, response, community, and structure. She found that reading workshop is a highly effective practice for not only increasing students'…

  9. Reading Comics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilley, Carol L.

    2008-01-01

    Many adults, even librarians who willingly add comics to their collections, often dismiss the importance of comics. Compared to reading "real" books, reading comics appears to be a simple task and compared to reading no books, reading comics might be preferable. After all, comics do have words, but the plentiful pictures seem to carry most of the…

  10. Reading fluency: implications for the assessment of children with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meisinger, Elizabeth B; Bloom, Juliana S; Hynd, George W

    2010-06-01

    The current investigation explored the diagnostic utility of reading fluency measures in the identification of children with reading disabilities. Participants were 50 children referred to a university-based clinic because of suspected reading problems and/or a prior diagnosis of dyslexia, where children completed a battery of standardized intellectual, reading achievement, and processing measures. Within this clinical sample, a group of children were identified that exhibited specific deficits in their reading fluency skills with concurrent deficits in rapid naming speed and reading comprehension. This group of children would not have been identified as having a reading disability according to assessment of single word reading skills alone, suggesting that it is essential to assess reading fluency in addition to word reading because failure to do so may result in the under-identification of children with reading disabilities.

  11. "Read the Text, as if!"The Reading Retention Strategy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Divoll, Kent; Browning, Sandra

    2013-01-01

    Students do not always read what is expected in college courses (Berry, Cook, Hill, & Stevens, 2010; Phillips & Phillips, 2007; Sikorski et al., 2002) or they read to cram for an exam or quiz (Clump, Bauer, & Bradley, 2004). The Reading Retention Strategy (RRS) is designed to motivate students to read and assist students in…

  12. Relationships among Learner Characteristics and Adolescents' Perceptions about Reading Strategy Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cantrell, Susan Chambers; Carter, Janis C.

    2009-01-01

    This study investigates relationships among adolescent students' perceived use of academic reading strategies and reading achievement, age, and gender. Good readers reported using global and problem-solving strategies to a greater extent than poor readers. Surface-level problem-solving strategies were more strongly related to higher reading…

  13. ReadDepth: a parallel R package for detecting copy number alterations from short sequencing reads.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher A Miller

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Copy number alterations are important contributors to many genetic diseases, including cancer. We present the readDepth package for R, which can detect these aberrations by measuring the depth of coverage obtained by massively parallel sequencing of the genome. In addition to achieving higher accuracy than existing packages, our tool runs much faster by utilizing multi-core architectures to parallelize the processing of these large data sets. In contrast to other published methods, readDepth does not require the sequencing of a reference sample, and uses a robust statistical model that accounts for overdispersed data. It includes a method for effectively increasing the resolution obtained from low-coverage experiments by utilizing breakpoint information from paired end sequencing to do positional refinement. We also demonstrate a method for inferring copy number using reads generated by whole-genome bisulfite sequencing, thus enabling integrative study of epigenomic and copy number alterations. Finally, we apply this tool to two genomes, showing that it performs well on genomes sequenced to both low and high coverage. The readDepth package runs on Linux and MacOSX, is released under the Apache 2.0 license, and is available at http://code.google.com/p/readdepth/.

  14. Do reading additions improve reading in pre-presbyopes with low vision?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alabdulkader, Balsam; Leat, Susan

    2012-09-01

    This study compared three different methods of determining a reading addition and the possible improvement on reading performance in children and young adults with low vision. Twenty-eight participants with low vision, aged 8 to 32 years, took part in the study. Reading additions were determined with (a) a modified Nott dynamic retinoscopy, (b) a subjective method, and (c) an age-based formula. Reading performance was assessed with MNREAD-style reading charts at 12.5 cm, with and without each reading addition in random order. Outcome measures were reading speed, critical print size, MNREAD threshold, and the area under the reading speed curve. For the whole group, there was no significant improvement in reading performance with any of the additions. When participants with normal accommodation at 12.5 cm were excluded, the area under the reading speed curve was significantly greater with all reading additions compared with no addition (p = 0.031, 0.028, and 0.028, respectively). Also, the reading acuity threshold was significantly better with all reading additions compared with no addition (p = 0.014, 0.030, and 0.036, respectively). Distance and near visual acuity, age, and contrast sensitivity did not predict improvement with a reading addition. All, but one, of the participants who showed a significant improvement in reading with an addition had reduced accommodation. A reading addition may improve reading performance for young people with low vision and should be considered as part of a low vision assessment, particularly when accommodation is reduced.

  15. Efficacy of a Word- and Text-Based Intervention for Students With Significant Reading Difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Garrett J; Miciak, Jeremy; Taylor, Pat; Fletcher, Jack M

    2018-05-01

    We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed treatment with reading outcomes of students in a business-as-usual (BAU) comparison condition. A total of 280 fourth- and fifth-grade students were randomly assigned within school in a 1:1 ratio to either the BAU comparison condition ( n = 139) or the treatment condition ( n = 141). Treatment students were provided small-group tutoring for 30 to 45 minutes for an average of 68 lessons (mean hours of instruction = 44.4, SD = 11.2). Treatment students performed statistically significantly higher than BAU students on a word reading measure (effect size [ES] = 0. 58) and a measure of reading fluency (ES = 0.46). Though not statistically significant, effect sizes for students in the treatment condition were consistently higher than BAU students for decoding measures (ES = 0.06, 0.08), and mixed for comprehension (ES = -0.02, 0.14).

  16. A 40 GByte/s read-out system for GEM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bowden, M.; Carrel, J.; Dorenbosch, J.; Kapoor, V.

    1994-04-01

    The preliminary design of the read-out system for the GEM (Gammas, Electrons, Muons) detector at the Superconducting Super Collider is presented. The system reads all digitized data from the detector data sources at a Level 1 trigger rate of up to 100 kHz. A total read-out bandwidth of 40 GBytes/s is available. Data are stored in buffers that are accessible for further event filtering by an on-line, processor farm. Data are transported to the farm only as they are needed by the higher-level trigger algorithms, leading to a reduced bandwidth requirement in the Data Acquisition System

  17. Professional reading and the Medical Radiation Science Practitioner

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shanahan, Madeleine; Herrington, Anthony; Herrington, Jan

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: Updating professional knowledge is a central tenet of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and professional reading is a common method health practitioners use to update their professional knowledge. This paper reports the level of professional reading by Medical Radiation Science (MRS) practitioners in Australia and examines organisational support for professional reading. Materials and Methods: Survey design was used to collect data from MRS practitioners. A questionnaire was sent to 1142 Australian practitioners, which allowed self-report data to be collected on the length of time practitioners engage in professional reading and the time workplaces allocate to practitioners for professional reading. Results: Of the 362 MRS practitioners who returned the survey, 93.9% engaged in professional reading on a weekly basis. In contrast, only 28.9% of respondents reported that their workplace allocates time for professional reading to practitioners. MRS practitioners employed in universities engaged in higher levels of reading than their colleagues employed in clinical workplaces (p < 0.01) and more university workplaces allocated time for professional reading to their employees than clinical workplaces (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences for clinical practitioners in level of reading across geographic, organisational and professional demographic factors. Significant differences in workplace allocation of time for professional reading in clinical workplaces were evident for health sector (p < 0.01); work environment (p < 0.01); geographic location (p < 0.01) and area of specialisation (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The vast majority of respondent MRS practitioners engage in professional reading to update their professional knowledge. This demonstrates an ongoing commitment at the individual practitioner level for updating professional knowledge. Updating professional knowledge is an organisational as well as an individual practitioner issue. Whilst

  18. Professional reading and the Medical Radiation Science Practitioner

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shanahan, Madeleine, E-mail: mshanahan@rmit.edu.a [School of Medical Science, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria (Australia); Herrington, Anthony [Head, School of Regional, Remote and eLearning (RRE), Curtin University, Perth (Australia); Herrington, Jan [School of Education, Murdoch University, Perth (Australia)

    2010-11-15

    Purpose: Updating professional knowledge is a central tenet of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and professional reading is a common method health practitioners use to update their professional knowledge. This paper reports the level of professional reading by Medical Radiation Science (MRS) practitioners in Australia and examines organisational support for professional reading. Materials and Methods: Survey design was used to collect data from MRS practitioners. A questionnaire was sent to 1142 Australian practitioners, which allowed self-report data to be collected on the length of time practitioners engage in professional reading and the time workplaces allocate to practitioners for professional reading. Results: Of the 362 MRS practitioners who returned the survey, 93.9% engaged in professional reading on a weekly basis. In contrast, only 28.9% of respondents reported that their workplace allocates time for professional reading to practitioners. MRS practitioners employed in universities engaged in higher levels of reading than their colleagues employed in clinical workplaces (p < 0.01) and more university workplaces allocated time for professional reading to their employees than clinical workplaces (p < 0.01). There were no significant differences for clinical practitioners in level of reading across geographic, organisational and professional demographic factors. Significant differences in workplace allocation of time for professional reading in clinical workplaces were evident for health sector (p < 0.01); work environment (p < 0.01); geographic location (p < 0.01) and area of specialisation (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The vast majority of respondent MRS practitioners engage in professional reading to update their professional knowledge. This demonstrates an ongoing commitment at the individual practitioner level for updating professional knowledge. Updating professional knowledge is an organisational as well as an individual practitioner issue. Whilst

  19. A conceptual framework for competence development in higher education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lystbæk, Christian Tang

    The paper presents a conceptual framework for competence development in management education, and higher education in general, which includes not only instrumental, but also practical, analytical and critical competencies. One consequence of the customization and marketization of higher education...... that competence development could and should be something more and something else than instrumental competence development. Based on a pragmatic reading of Batesons logical categories of learning, the paper develops a conceptual framework for competence development in higher education, which highlight...... contextually is blind, whereas contextual competence without instrumentality is empty. Based on a pragmatic reading and further development of Bateson´s logical categories of learning, the paper develops a conceptual framework for competence development in management education, and higher education in general...

  20. Maternal Reading Self-Efficacy Associated with Perceived Barriers to Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joyce Lin

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Although early reading practices impact a host of child literacy, language, and school outcomes, many parents do not read to their young children. One possible explanation for this lack of early literacy practices is mothers’ feelings about their ability to successfully read to their children. A series of multiple regressions were used to explore whether new mothers’ reading self-efficacy predicted their perceived barriers to reading to their 18-month-old children. Findings suggest that self-efficacy buffers against mother-centered (e.g., too tired, child-centered (e.g., toddler fussy, and structural (e.g., environmental distractions barriers to reading. Given the importance of early literacy and that not all mothers read to their toddlers, increasing reading self-efficacy may offer a way to reduce perceived barriers to early literacy practices.

  1. Reading Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners While Reading Academic Texts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vida Yousefian

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available The major aim of this study was to explore the nature and frequency of the reading strategies used by the EFL learners while reading academic texts. Normally, students tend to read all the information provided in reading materials. This study explores whether learners use reading strategies to assist them in reading comprehension. There was a sample of 45 English language (EFL learners from Islamic Azad University, Falavarjan Branch. The instrument utilized in this study was a survey questionnaire with 30 items including 13 global reading strategies, 8 problem solving strategies and 9 support reading strategies. The survey was going to signify how much EFL learners use each of these strategies while reading academic texts. The findings indicated that the participants used global reading strategies more (44.5% than problem solving strategies (29.0% and support reading strategies (26.5%. The results of the present study will let the instructors improve the reading strategies which are not used by EFL learners frequently. It also helps learners to promote the ability of using reading strategies and utilize the strategies in an appropriate and effective way.

  2. The Effect of Teaching Strategies and Curiosity on Students' Achievement in Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurning, Busmin; Siregar, Aguslani

    2017-01-01

    The objectives of this study were to find out whether 1) students' achievement in reading comprehension taught by using INSERT strategy was higher than those taught by using SQ3R strategy, 2) Students' achievement in reading comprehension having high curiosity was higher than those having low curiosity, 3) there was an interaction between teaching…

  3. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading. Davies, Florence (1995. Introducing Reading.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonia Maria Gomes Ferreira

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi. Arising at a time of unprecedented growth of interest in fostering critical thinking, Introducing Reading offers a clear introduction and thorough account of contemporary developments in the field of reading. While overtly focusing on the special demands of social and human aspects of the reading practice, the issues raised have crucial resonance in the sphere of critical reading. Explicitly addressed to teachers of mother tongue and foreign language contexts, the book claims to elaborate on aspects of reading which have received meager attention to date: individual readers engaged in different real-world reading tasks, the social contexts where such readers engage and interact with texts, and the nature and variety of texts, here regarded as “participants” in the interaction between reader and writer. To this extent, the book successfully reaches the ambitious aim of “socializing and humanizing reading and the teaching of reading” (p. xi.

  4. Mobile app reading speed test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kingsnorth, Alec; Wolffsohn, James S

    2015-04-01

    To validate the accuracy and repeatability of a mobile app reading speed test compared with the traditional paper version. Twenty-one subjects wearing their full refractive correction glasses read 14 sentences of decreasing print size between 1.0 and -0.1 logMAR, each consisting of 14 words (Radner reading speed test) at 40 cm with a paper-based chart and twice on iPad charts. Time duration was recorded with a stop watch for the paper chart and on the App itself for the mobile chart allowing critical print size (CPS) and optimal reading speed (ORS) to be derived objectively. The ORS was higher for the mobile app charts (194±29 wpm; 195±25 wpm) compared with the paper chart (166±20 wpm; F=57.000, pmobile app charts (0.17±0.20 logMAR; 0.18±0.17 logMAR) compared with the paper chart (0.25±0.17 logMAR; F=5.406, p=0.009). The mobile app test had a mean difference repeatability of 0.30±22.5 wpm, r=0.917 for ORS, and a CPS of 0.0±0.2 logMAR, r=0.769. Repeatability of the app reading speed test is as good (ORS) or better (CPS) than previous studies on the paper test. While the results are not interchangeable with paper-based charts, mobile app tablet-based tests of reading speed are reliable and rapid to perform, with the potential to capture functional visual ability in research studies and clinical practice. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  5. Easy-to-read texts for students with intellectual disability: linguistic factors affecting comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fajardo, Inmaculada; Ávila, Vicenta; Ferrer, Antonio; Tavares, Gema; Gómez, Marcos; Hernández, Ana

    2014-05-01

    The use of 'easy-to-read' materials for people with intellectual disabilities has become very widespread but their effectiveness has scarcely been evaluated. In this study, the framework provided by Kintsch's Construction-Integration Model (1988) is used to examine (i) the reading comprehension levels of different passages of the Spanish text that have been designed following easy-to-read guidelines and (ii) the relationships between reading comprehension (literal and inferential) and various linguistic features of these texts. Sixteen students with mild intellectual disability and low levels of reading skills were asked to read easy-to-read texts and then complete a reading comprehension test. The corpus of texts was composed of a set of forty-eight pieces of news selected from www.noticiasfacil.es, a Spanish digital newspaper that publishes daily journalistic texts following international guidelines for the design of easy-to-read documents (IFLA, Tronbacke B. (1997) Guidelines for Easy-to-read Materials. IFLA, The Hague). Participants correctly answered 80% of the comprehension questions, showing significantly higher scores for literal questions than for inferential questions. The analyses of the texts' linguistic features revealed that the number of coreferences was the variable that best predicted literal comprehension, but contrary to what the previous literature seemed to indicate, the relationship between the two variables was inverse. In the case of inferential comprehension, the number of sentences was a significant negative predictor; that is, the higher the sentence density, the lower the ability of these students to find relationships between them. The effects of the rest of linguistic variables, such as word frequency and word length, on comprehension were null. These results provide preliminary empirical support for the use of easy-to-read texts but bring into question the validity of some popular design guidelines (e.g. augmenting word frequency) to

  6. Book Clubs in Developmental Reading: Building Reading Comprehension, Fostering Reading Enjoyment, and Engaging Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maldonado, Michele

    2012-01-01

    The use of book clubs in college developmental reading classes is an effective way to encourage reluctant readers to build and strengthen reading skills, foster reading enjoyment, and engage students. In addition, book clubs build a sense of community within the classroom as the students converse and share their interpretations of the reading…

  7. Motivational reading on education, meaningful reading realisation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Qafa

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available In this study I will present some ideas on today’s educational practice for motivation, the realization of the meaningful reading. There is a special place for the methodical ranking of the reading process, starting in school. Main requests of this reading, consist of the deep meaning of the subject, exploration of the idea, and other elements of the subject, implementation of the technique’s rules of the expressive reading, such as breathing, voice, diction, intonation, spelling, stoppages, logical emphasizes, emotional expressions, temper, timber, gesticulations, and mimic. There is also highlighted the fact that the used method comes from the pupils’ results and depends on the capability and level of the teacher, from the programming’s scale, the tools that are put into disposition, the age and the level of the pupils, and from the environment that the teacher creates during courses. At the end there are some practical guidelines for the realization of the expressive reading in the literature subject.

  8. Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

    2012-01-01

    This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

  9. Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children Listening to Stories.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hutton, John S; Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Mendelsohn, Alan L; DeWitt, Tom; Holland, Scott K

    2015-09-01

    Parent-child reading is widely advocated to promote cognitive development, including in recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to begin this practice at birth. Although parent-child reading has been shown in behavioral studies to improve oral language and print concepts, quantifiable effects on the brain have not been previously studied. Our study used blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between home reading environment and brain activity during a story listening task in a sample of preschool-age children. We hypothesized that while listening to stories, children with greater home reading exposure would exhibit higher activation of left-sided brain regions involved with semantic processing (extraction of meaning). Nineteen 3- to 5-year-old children were selected from a longitudinal study of normal brain development. All completed blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging using an age-appropriate story listening task, where narrative alternated with tones. We performed a series of whole-brain regression analyses applying composite, subscale, and individual reading-related items from the validated StimQ-P measure of home cognitive environment as explanatory variables for neural activation. Higher reading exposure (StimQ-P Reading subscale score) was positively correlated (P eco-bio-developmental models of emergent literacy. Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  10. Remediation of internal phosphorus loads with modified clays, influence of fluvial suspended particulate matter and response of the benthic macroinvertebrate community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yin, Hongbin; Douglas, Grant B; Cai, Yongjiu; Liu, Cheng; Copetti, Diego

    2018-01-01

    Clay-based phosphorus (P) sorbents have been increasingly used as geoengineering materials for the management sediment-derived internal P loading in eutrophic lakes. However, the long-term behavior of these sorbents has remained elusive along with their response to burial under suspended particulate matter (SPM), and their effect on macroinvertebrate communities occupying dynamic regions at the sediment-water interface of shallow and turbid lakes. In this study, field mesocosm experiments were undertaken in Lake Chaohu, China, to study the effects of the application of lanthanum-modified bentonite (LMB) and thermally-modified calcium-rich attapulgite (TCAP) on sediment internal P loading and to assess their influence on macroinvertebrate community structure. A complementary laboratory core incubation study was also undertaken to investigate the effects of SPM deposition on LMB and TCAP performance. In the field, both LMB and TCAP effectively intercepted P released from sediment for up to five months. A P fractionation analysis indicated that LMB and TCAP application results in a substantial increase in inert P fractions in sediment. Laboratory studies indicated that deposition of SPM may increase in mobile P both in the upper sediment and across the new post-SPM deposition sediment-water interface. Importantly, a comparison of sediment chemical extractions and estimated P fluxes suggests that chemically-defined forms of P in the sediment may be used as a proxy to estimate the net sediment P flux. Significantly, the surficial application of either LMB or TCAP did not cause negative effects on macroinvertebrate communities. This study indicates that to sustain a low P flux across the sediment-water interface in shallow, turbid lakes, repeat dosing of geoengineering materials, temporally aligned to the deposition of fluvial SPM, may be required. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Short-read reading-frame predictors are not created equal: sequence error causes loss of signal

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Trimble William L

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Gene prediction algorithms (or gene callers are an essential tool for analyzing shotgun nucleic acid sequence data. Gene prediction is a ubiquitous step in sequence analysis pipelines; it reduces the volume of data by identifying the most likely reading frame for a fragment, permitting the out-of-frame translations to be ignored. In this study we evaluate five widely used ab initio gene-calling algorithms—FragGeneScan, MetaGeneAnnotator, MetaGeneMark, Orphelia, and Prodigal—for accuracy on short (75–1000 bp fragments containing sequence error from previously published artificial data and “real” metagenomic datasets. Results While gene prediction tools have similar accuracies predicting genes on error-free fragments, in the presence of sequencing errors considerable differences between tools become evident. For error-containing short reads, FragGeneScan finds more prokaryotic coding regions than does MetaGeneAnnotator, MetaGeneMark, Orphelia, or Prodigal. This improved detection of genes in error-containing fragments, however, comes at the cost of much lower (50% specificity and overprediction of genes in noncoding regions. Conclusions Ab initio gene callers offer a significant reduction in the computational burden of annotating individual nucleic acid reads and are used in many metagenomic annotation systems. For predicting reading frames on raw reads, we find the hidden Markov model approach in FragGeneScan is more sensitive than other gene prediction tools, while Prodigal, MGA, and MGM are better suited for higher-quality sequences such as assembled contigs.

  12. Exploring the association between visual perception abilities and reading of musical notation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Horng-Yih

    2012-06-01

    In the reading of music, the acquisition of pitch information depends primarily upon the spatial position of notes as well as upon an individual's spatial processing ability. This study investigated the relationship between the ability to read single notes and visual-spatial ability. Participants with high and low single-note reading abilities were differentiated based upon differences in musical notation-reading abilities and their spatial processing; object recognition abilities were then assessed. It was found that the group with lower note-reading abilities made more errors than did the group with a higher note-reading abilities in the mental rotation task. In contrast, there was no apparent significant difference between the two groups in the object recognition task. These results suggest that note-reading may be related to visual spatial processing abilities, and not to an individual's ability with object recognition.

  13. Developing New Reading Assessments to Promote Beginning Reading in Singapore

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, Kim H.; Paris, Scott G.

    2011-01-01

    Effective reading instruction and intervention are rooted in effective assessments of children's developing skills in reading. The article aims to describe the development of new reading assessments to help promote beginning reading in Singapore primary schools. We begin with an introduction to the educational landscape and policies before…

  14. Behavioural and electrophysiological effects related to semantic violations during braille reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glyn, Vania; Lim, Vanessa K; Hamm, Jeff P; Mathur, Ashwin; Hughes, Barry

    2015-10-01

    This study investigated the potential to detect event related potentials (ERPs) occurring in response to a specific task in braille reading. This would expand current methodologies for studying the cognitive processes underlying braille reading. An N400 effect paradigm was utilised, whereby proficient blind braille readers read congruent- and incongruent-ending braille sentences. Kinematic and electroencephalography (EEG) data were obtained simultaneously and synchronised. The ERPs differed between the incongruent and congruent sentences in a manner consistent with the N400 effect found with a previous sighted reading paradigm, demonstrating that ERPs can be obtained during braille reading. The frequency of finger reversals and the degree of intermittency in the finger velocity were significantly higher when reading incongruent versus congruent sentence endings. Both reversals and the potential N400 effect may reflect processes involved in semantic unification. These findings have significant implications for the modelling of braille reading. The refinement of the technique will enable other ERPs to be identified and related to behavioural responses, to further our understanding of the braille reading process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Reading Speed as a Constraint of Accuracy of Self-Perception of Reading Skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwon, Heekyung; Linderholm, Tracy

    2015-01-01

    We hypothesised that college students take reading speed into consideration when evaluating their own reading skill, even if reading speed does not reliably predict actual reading skill. To test this hypothesis, we measured self-perception of reading skill, self-perception of reading speed, actual reading skill and actual reading speed to…

  16. Exploring Students' Reading Profiles to Guide a Reading Intervention Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boakye, Naomi A. N. Y.

    2017-01-01

    There have been a number of studies on reading interventions to improve students' reading proficiency, yet the majority of these interventions are undertaken with the assumption that students' reading challenges are obvious and generic in nature. The interventions do not take into consideration the diversity in students' reading backgrounds and…

  17. I read. You read? Challenges and possibilities in working with literary literacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sayonara Abrantes de Oliveira

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This article is the result of a project linked to the Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation Scholarships for Higher Education (PIBIC-EM. The program’s objective was to analyze the contributing factors for the process of reading literacy training in order to verify how young people make their choices of literary texts, as well as know the difficulties and facilities they face in contact with these genres. To do so, we used the quantitative qualitative research through the application of a questionnaire, consisting of open questions, and applied to the students of the Integrated in Information Technology and Integrated Technician in the Environment of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraíba (IFPB/campus Sousa courses. We also analyzed the perceptions derived from the observations of the Reader Club of the same campus, in an attempt to verify how the intervention of activities that mediate literary literacy favors the stimulus to the reading formation. Based on the data analysis, we observed that the student's distance element from reading is the lack of incentive, that is, the construction of an atmosphere that surrounds him, both in the classroom and in the other environments that welcome him. To overcome this, it is necessary for the teacher to have a theoretical-methodological apparatus guiding in his classes, since mediation favors literary literacy, having as support the Receptional Method and a conception of reading that articulates the interactional to the discursive, helping in the organization and selection of texts, in order to achieve the objectives of the formation of the reader.

  18. Reading skills and mathematics | Bohlmann | South African Journal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article considers the relationship between poorly-developed reading skills and academic performance in mathematics. It discusses ... South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.16(3) 2002: 196-206 ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  19. Rcorrector: efficient and accurate error correction for Illumina RNA-seq reads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Li; Florea, Liliana

    2015-01-01

    Next-generation sequencing of cellular RNA (RNA-seq) is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of transcriptomic analysis. However, sequencing errors in the already short RNA-seq reads complicate bioinformatics analyses, in particular alignment and assembly. Error correction methods have been highly effective for whole-genome sequencing (WGS) reads, but are unsuitable for RNA-seq reads, owing to the variation in gene expression levels and alternative splicing. We developed a k-mer based method, Rcorrector, to correct random sequencing errors in Illumina RNA-seq reads. Rcorrector uses a De Bruijn graph to compactly represent all trusted k-mers in the input reads. Unlike WGS read correctors, which use a global threshold to determine trusted k-mers, Rcorrector computes a local threshold at every position in a read. Rcorrector has an accuracy higher than or comparable to existing methods, including the only other method (SEECER) designed for RNA-seq reads, and is more time and memory efficient. With a 5 GB memory footprint for 100 million reads, it can be run on virtually any desktop or server. The software is available free of charge under the GNU General Public License from https://github.com/mourisl/Rcorrector/.

  20. Improved Cognitive Development in Preterm Infants with Shared Book Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braid, Susan; Bernstein, Jenny

    2015-01-01

    To examine the effect of shared book reading on the cognitive development of children born preterm and to determine what factors influence shared book reading in this population. Secondary analysis using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, a large, nationally representative survey of children born in the United States in 2001. One thousand four hundred singleton preterm infants (22-36 weeks gestation). Cognitive development measured using the Bayley Mental Scale score from the Bayley Scales of Infant Development Research Edition. Adjusting for neonatal, maternal, and socioeconomic characteristics, reading aloud more than two times a week is associated with higher cognitive development scores in two-year-old children born preterm (p book reading holds potential as an early developmental intervention for this population.

  1. Connected text reading and differences in text reading fluency in adult readers.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Wallot

    Full Text Available The process of connected text reading has received very little attention in contemporary cognitive psychology. This lack of attention is in parts due to a research tradition that emphasizes the role of basic lexical constituents, which can be studied in isolated words or sentences. However, this lack of attention is in parts also due to the lack of statistical analysis techniques, which accommodate interdependent time series. In this study, we investigate text reading performance with traditional and nonlinear analysis techniques and show how outcomes from multiple analyses can used to create a more detailed picture of the process of text reading. Specifically, we investigate reading performance of groups of literate adult readers that differ in reading fluency during a self-paced text reading task. Our results indicate that classical metrics of reading (such as word frequency do not capture text reading very well, and that classical measures of reading fluency (such as average reading time distinguish relatively poorly between participant groups. Nonlinear analyses of distribution tails and reading time fluctuations provide more fine-grained information about the reading process and reading fluency.

  2. The Relationship between Implementation of Collaborative Strategic Reading and Student Outcomes for Adolescents with Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boardman, Alison; Buckley, Pamela; Maul, Andrew; Vaughn, Sharon

    2014-01-01

    Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) is a set of research-based strategies designed to improve reading comprehension, enhance students' content area learning, facilitate access to higher-level texts, and to promote student engagement. The present study examines how fidelity of implementation of CSR is associated with reading outcomes for students…

  3. The role of speech prosody and text reading prosody in children's reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenendaal, Nathalie J; Groen, Margriet A; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-12-01

    Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody - which is independent from reading skills - in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could provide more insight into the general role of prosody in reading comprehension. The current study investigates how much variance in reading comprehension scores is explained by speech prosody and text reading prosody, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. A battery of reading and language assessments was performed by 106 Dutch fourth-grade primary school children. Speech prosody was assessed using a storytelling task and text reading prosody by oral text reading performance. Decoding skills, vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension were assessed using standardized tests. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that text reading prosody explained 6% of variance and that speech prosody explained 8% of variance in reading comprehension scores, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness. Phrasing was the significant factor in both speech and text reading. When added in consecutive order, phrasing in speech added 5% variance to phrasing in reading. In contrast, phrasing in reading added only 3% variance to phrasing in speech. The variance that speech prosody explained in reading comprehension scores should not be neglected. Speech prosody seems to facilitate the construction of meaning in written language. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

  4. mpscan: Fast Localisation of Multiple Reads in Genomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rivals, Eric; Salmela, Leena; Kiiskinen, Petteri; Kalsi, Petri; Tarhio, Jorma

    With Next Generation Sequencers, sequence based transcriptomic or epigenomic assays yield millions of short sequence reads that need to be mapped back on a reference genome. The upcoming versions of these sequencers promise even higher sequencing capacities; this may turn the read mapping task into a bottleneck for which alternative pattern matching approaches must be experimented. We present an algorithm and its implementation, called mpscan, which uses a sophisticated filtration scheme to match a set of patterns/reads exactly on a sequence. mpscan can search for millions of reads in a single pass through the genome without indexing its sequence. Moreover, we show that mpscan offers an optimal average time complexity, which is sublinear in the text length, meaning that it does not need to examine all sequence positions. Comparisons with BLAT-like tools and with six specialised read mapping programs (like bowtie or zoom) demonstrate that mpscan also is the fastest algorithm in practice for exact matching. Our accuracy and scalability comparisons reveal that some tools are inappropriate for read mapping. Moreover, we provide evidence suggesting that exact matching may be a valuable solution in some read mapping applications. As most read mapping programs somehow rely on exact matching procedures to perform approximate pattern mapping, the filtration scheme we experimented may reveal useful in the design of future algorithms. The absence of genome index gives mpscan its low memory requirement and flexibility that let it run on a desktop computer and avoids a time-consuming genome preprocessing.

  5. Idea Sharing: The Use of Read-Share-Act to Promote Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Charumanee, Nisakorn

    2014-01-01

    Nisakorn Charumanee believes that a reading teacher has an active role in cultivating reading culture or reading habit and in activating students to "want" to read. One way to do this is to integrate extensive reading into the classroom (Day and Bamford, 1998; Bamford and Day, 2004) where extensive reading can be enhanced if the teacher…

  6. The Assessment of Reading Comprehension Difficulties for Reading Intervention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woolley, Gary

    2008-01-01

    There are many environmental and personal factors that contribute to reading success. Reading comprehension is a complex interaction of language, sensory perception, memory, and motivational aspects. However, most existing assessment tools have not adequately reflected the complex nature of reading comprehension. Good assessment requires a…

  7. The Role of Speech Prosody and Text Reading Prosody in Children's Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

    2014-01-01

    Background: Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody--which is independent from reading skills--in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could…

  8. Reading skills, creativity, and insight: exploring the connections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mourgues, Catalina V; Preiss, David D; Grigorenko, Elena L

    2014-08-04

    Studies of the relationship between creativity and specific reading disabilities have produced inconclusive results. We explored their relationship in a sample of 259 college students (age range: 17 to 38 years-old) from three Chilean universities. The students were tested on their verbal ability, creativity, and insight. A simple linear regression was performed on the complete sample, and on high- and low-achievement groups that were formed based on reading test scores. We observed a significant correlation in the total sample between outcomes on the verbal ability tasks, and on the creativity and insight tasks (range r =. 152 to r =. 356, ps creativity and insight tasks (range β = .315 to β = .155, ps creative tasks. Instead, higher verbal ability was found to be associated with higher creativity and insight.

  9. To read or not to read

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mol, Suzanne Elizabeth

    2010-01-01

    There is a widely held belief that reading (story)books makes us smarter and helps promote success in life. Does scientific evidence support this notion? The three meta-analyses in this thesis comprise 146 studies between 1988 and 2010 (N=10,308 participants) that addressed the role of book reading

  10. Teachers’ beliefs about reading and use of reading strategies

    OpenAIRE

    VASILIKA RRAKU

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this article is to place the focus on teachers’ beliefs about reading and reading strategies to the purpose of emphasizing the im portance of reading strategies in the reading process. The method of study is analytic analysis of teachers’ beliefs obtained through ques tionnaires delivered to 18 English language teachers of elementary, secondary and high level education in the region of Saranda in lbania. The results of the study pointed to a great concordance between teach ers’ bel...

  11. Online Test Tool to Determine the CEFR Reading Comprehension Level of Text

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Velleman, Eric Martin; van der Geest, Thea

    2014-01-01

    On the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale, the average reading comprehension level of the Dutch population is B1 and the average level of text provided by Dutch government organisations requires a considerably higher reading skills level (C1). This means that part of

  12. Multicultural Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veltze, Linda

    2004-01-01

    Multicultural reading advocates believe in the power of literature to transform and to change people's lives. They take seriously the arguments that racism and prejudice can be lessened through multicultural reading, and also that children from undervalued societal groups who read books that depict people like themselves in a positive light will…

  13. READING HABITS AND PREFERENCES OF EFL POST GRADUATES: A CASE STUDY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Noorizah Mohd. Noor

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, more emphasis has been given on the role of the learner in the language learning process considering that language learning is primarily a learner’s oriented activity. Thus, learners’ needs and interests should be taken into consideration for effective language learning and teaching to take place. One significant area where learners’ preferences influence their learning can be seen in reading. In any academic or higher learning context, reading is perceived as the most prominent academic language skill for all second and foreign language learners. It is through reading that these learners learn new information and become able to synthesize, evaluate and interpret in order to learn more about their subject matter. Pursuing a postgraduate study requires extensive reading practices which will enable the learners to extend their literacy development.  The present study examines the reading habits and preferences of a group of EFL graduate students. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analysed quantitatively. The findings will report on: i the types of reading materials preferred ii reasons for reading and iii the preferred language for reading. To conclude, the paper will further discuss the implications of the findings in terms of instructional materials development within an EFL context. Key words: EFL learners, reading habits, reading preferences, reading behaviour

  14. SchemaOnRead: A Package for Schema-on-Read in R

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    North, Michael J.

    2016-08-01

    Schema-on-read is an agile approach to data storage and retrieval that defers investments in data organization until production queries need to be run by working with data directly in native form. Schema-on-read functions have been implemented in a wide range of analytical systems, most notably Hadoop. SchemaOnRead is a CRAN package that uses R’s flexible data representations to provide transparent and convenient support for the schema-on-read paradigm in R. The schema-on- read tools within the package include a single function call that recursively reads folders with text, comma separated value, raster image, R data, HDF5, NetCDF, spreadsheet, Weka, Epi Info, Pajek network, R network, HTML, SPSS, Systat, and Stata files. The provided tools can be used as-is or easily adapted to implement customized schema-on-read tool chains in R. This paper’s contribution is that it introduces and describes SchemaOnRead, the first R package specifically focused on providing explicit schema-on-read support in R.

  15. Examining Associations between Reading Motivation and Inference Generation beyond Reading Comprehension Skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clinton, Virginia

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between reading motivation and inference generation while reading. Undergraduate participants (N = 69) read two science articles while thinking aloud, completed a standardized reading comprehension assessment, and self reported their habitual reading motivation. Findings indicate that…

  16. Computer assisted analysis of research-based teaching method in English newspaper reading teaching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jie, Zheng

    2017-06-01

    In recent years, the teaching of English newspaper reading has been developing rapidly. However, the teaching effect of the existing course is not ideal. The paper tries to apply the research-based teaching model to English newspaper reading teaching, investigates the current situation in higher vocational colleges, and analyzes the problems. It designs a teaching model of English newspaper reading and carries out the empirical research conducted by computers. The results show that the teaching mode can use knowledge and ability to stimulate learners interest and comprehensively improve their ability to read newspapers.

  17. The relationship between different measures of oral reading fluency and reading comprehension in second-grade students who evidence different oral reading fluency difficulties.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wise, Justin C; Sevcik, Rose A; Morris, Robin D; Lovett, Maureen W; Wolf, Maryanne; Kuhn, Melanie; Meisinger, Beth; Schwanenflugel, Paula

    2010-07-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine whether different measures of oral reading fluency relate differentially to reading comprehension performance in two samples of second-grade students: (a) students who evidenced difficulties with nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, and oral reading fluency of connected text (ORFD), and (b) students who evidenced difficulties only with oral reading fluency of connected text (CTD). Participants (ORFD, n = 146 and CTD, n = 949) were second-grade students who were recruited for participation in different reading intervention studies. Data analyzed were from measures of nonsense-word oral reading fluency, real-word oral reading fluency, oral reading fluency of connected text, and reading comprehension that were collected at the pre-intervention time point. Correlational and path analyses indicated that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension performance in both samples and across average and poor reading comprehension abilities. Results of this study indicate that real-word oral reading fluency was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and suggest that real-word oral reading fluency may be an efficient method for identifying potential reading comprehension difficulties.

  18. An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner’s foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

    OpenAIRE

    Zhongshe Lu; Meihua Liu

    2015-01-01

    The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a) Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS) had important subcomponents, (b) more than half of the stu...

  19. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cao, Fan; Perfetti, Charles A

    2016-01-01

    Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  20. Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fan Cao

    Full Text Available Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

  1. Electrophysiological Correlates of Reading the Single- and Interactive-Mind

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yi-Wen; Zheng, Yu-Wei; Lin, Chong-De; Wu, Jie; Shen, De-Li

    2011-01-01

    Understanding minds is the cognitive basis of successful social interaction. In everyday life, human mental activity often happens at the moment of social interaction among two or multiple persons instead of only one-person. Understanding the interactive mind of two- or multi-person is more complex and higher than understanding the single-person mind in the hierarchical structure of theory of mind. Understanding the interactive mind maybe differentiate from understanding the single mind. In order to examine the dissociative electrophysiological correlates of reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind, the 64 channels event-related potentials were recorded while 16 normal adults were observing three kinds of Chinese idioms depicted physical scenes, one-person with mental activity, and two- or multi-person with mental interaction. After the equivalent N400, in the 500- to 700-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of late positive component (LPC) over frontal for reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind were significantly more positive than for physical representation, while there was no difference between the former two. In the 700- to 800-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of LPC over frontal–central for reading the interactive mind were more positive than for reading the single mind and physical representation, while there was no difference between the latter two. The present study provides electrophysiological signature of the dissociations between reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind. PMID:21845178

  2. Electrophysiological correlates of reading the single- and interactive-mind

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Wen eWang

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Understanding minds is the cognitive basis of successful social interaction. In everyday life, human mental activity often happens at the moment of social interaction among two or multiple persons instead of only one person. Understanding the interactive mind of two- or multi-person is more complex and higher than understanding the single-person mind in the hierarchical structure of theory-of-mind. Understanding the interactive mind maybe differentiate from understanding the single mind. In order to examine the dissociative electrophysiological correlates of reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind, the 64 channels event-related potentials (ERP were recorded while 16 normal adults were observing three kinds of Chinese idioms depicted physical scenes, one-person with mental activity and two- or multi-person with mental interaction. After the equivalent N400, in the 500- to 700-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of late positive component (LPC over frontal for reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind were significantly more positive than for physical representation, while there was no difference between the former two. In the 700-to 800-ms epoch, the mean amplitudes of LPC over frontal-central for reading the interactive mind were more positive than for reading the single mind and physical representation, while there was no difference between the latter two. The present study provides electrophysiological signature of the dissociations between reading the single mind and reading the interactive mind.

  3. Reading Approach Use Effectiveness And EFL Reading Comprehension In University Muhammadiyah Of Parepare

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baharuddin

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated Indonesian EFL learners approach of two reading approaches cognitive and metacognitive their perceived contact on effectiveness and the association between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension. Fifty-Three English-major freshmen from University Muhammadiyah of Parepare participated in these lessons. Two principal questions were addressed 1 what is the most frequent use of reading approach reported by individual students 2 Is there any significant association between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension To examine the effects of approach instruction on students reading performance a qualitative interview technique and quantitative research methods including a paired-sample t-test and Person Product Moment Correlation were used to estimate the relationship between reading approach use and effectiveness on students reading accomplishment. Significance showed that the most frequent use of reading approach was found to be metacognitive approach followed by the cognitive approach. In addition there was a significant positive connection between reading approach and effectiveness on their English reading comprehension. Reading approach on the other hand was unrelated to reading achievement. Results of interview findings were analyzed to explore in-depth in sequence about the condition of approach used. The implications of these findings for implementing effective reading strategy instruction are discussed.

  4. Pupil's motivation in the 3. grades for required reading and The Reading Badge

    OpenAIRE

    Logar, Renata

    2013-01-01

    Reading is extremely important for pupils and their development. The pupil with reading habits riches his vocabulary and gaining knowledge. On the other hand the pupil through reading entry into the world of imagination and stories. Major role in motivating students to read have parents and teachers. In this graduation thesis I was interested in how third grade teachers motivate their pupils to read. In doing so, I was focused mainly to reading for required reading and The Reading Badge. ...

  5. COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC READING IMPLEMENTATION TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Desy Olivia Riani

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This collaborative action research is aimed to find out whether or not the implementation of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR improves students' reading comprehension and also to identify students' attitude towards the implementation of CSR. CSR is reading strategy that employs four strategies namely Preview, Click and Clunk, Get the Gist and Wrap Up during students’ cooperative learning. A class of eleventh grade students of a public senior high school in Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia is participated as the participant of the study. The required data were collected through the use of questionnaire, observation checklist, and reading test. The data from the questionnaire indicated that 82% students had positive attitude toward the implementation of CSR. They feel that CSR improves their motivation in learning English and CSR brings more fun to the process of learning. Moreover, it was found from observation data that the students were actively participated during CSR implementation and they were motivated when comprehending a text by means CSR strategy. Finally, the study proved that CSR improved students’ reading comprehension. Students’ mean score of reading test in the beginning of the study was 67, meanwhile, after applying CSR as reading strategy, their mean scores improved to 88.

  6. Iowa City Reads! The Reading Event Worth Shouting About.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donham van Deusen, Jean; Langhorne, Mary Jo

    1997-01-01

    Describes the Community Reading Month (CRM) initiative in Iowa City, Iowa; its goals are to promote the value of reading and to build a sense of community. Topics include the development of CRM, increased reading scores of Iowa City's elementary school students, activities for people of all ages, and planning and evaluation. (AEF)

  7. Reading, Writing, and Animation in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Yi; Chang, Li-Yun; Zhang, Juan; Perfetti, Charles A.

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies suggest that writing helps reading development in Chinese in both first and second language settings by enabling higher-quality orthographic representation of the characters. This study investigated the comparative effectiveness of reading, animation, and writing in developing foreign language learners' orthographic knowledge…

  8. Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Julia M; Fox, Amy C

    2016-01-01

    The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child's perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures.

  9. Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carroll, Julia M.; Fox, Amy C.

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child’s perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures. PMID:28144223

  10. Metacognitive Reading Strategies, Motivation, and Reading Comprehension Performance of Saudi EFL Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meniado, Joel C.

    2016-01-01

    Metacognitive reading strategies and reading motivation play a significant role in enhancing reading comprehension. In an attempt to prove the foregoing claim in a context where there is no strong culture for reading, this study tries to find out if there is indeed a relationship between and among metacognitive reading strategies, reading…

  11. Differences in game reading between selected and non-selected youth soccer players.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Den Hartigh, Ruud J R; Van Der Steen, Steffie; Hakvoort, Bas; Frencken, Wouter G P; Lemmink, Koen A P M

    2018-02-01

    Applying an established theory of cognitive development-Skill Theory-the current study compares the game-reading skills of youth players selected for a soccer school of a professional soccer club (n = 49) and their non-selected peers (n = 38). Participants described the actions taking place in videos of soccer game plays, and their verbalisations were coded using Skill Theory. Compared to the non-selected players, the selected players generally demonstrated higher levels of complexity in their game-reading, and structured the information of game elements-primarily the player, teammate and field-at higher complexity levels. These results demonstrate how Skill Theory can be used to assess, and distinguish game-reading of youth players with different expertise, a skill important for soccer, but also for other sports.

  12. Reading Fluency and Students with Reading Disabilities: How Fast Is Fast Enough to Promote Reading Comprehension?

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connor, Rollanda E.

    2018-01-01

    The goal of improving reading rate and fluency is to positively impact reading comprehension; however, it is unclear how fast students with learning disabilities (LD) need to read to reap this benefit. The purpose of this research was to identify the point of diminishing return for students who were dysfluent readers. Participants included 337…

  13. The Relationship between Strategic Reading Instruction, Student Learning of L2-Based Reading Strategies and L2 Reading Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akkakoson, Songyut

    2013-01-01

    This study investigates the relationship between strategic reading instruction, the process of learning second language-based reading strategies and English reading achievement for Thai university students of science and technology. In a course in reading general English texts for 16?weeks, 82 students were taught using a strategies-based approach…

  14. Paragraph-reading comprehension ability in Mandarin-speaking children with cochlear implants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Che-Ming; Lee, Li-Ang; Chao, Wei-Chieh; Tsou, Yung-Ting; Chen, Yen-An

    2015-06-01

    1) To investigate different aspects of paragraph reading in Mandarin-speaking students with cochlear implants (CIs) and the factors associated with unfavorable outcomes, and 2) to understand the replaceability of a paragraph-reading test with a sentence-reading test. Cross-sectional, case-controlled study. Fifty-three students with CIs (aged 11.0 ± 1.4 years) and 53 grade- and gender-matched children with normal hearing (NH) participated in the study. A paragraph-reading comprehension test was conducted. Sentence and word reading, speech perception, language skills, and child/family characteristics were examined. An unfavorable paragraph-reading outcome was defined as a score lower than one standard deviation below the NH mean. The CI subjects had significantly worse paragraph-reading comprehension than did the NH controls (P = 0.017, d = 0.54). Their performance in grades 5 to 6 was not significantly higher than of those with NH in grades 2 to 4. The CI children's abilities to understand semantics (P = 0.012) and syntax (P = 0.020) significantly fell behind the NH controls in grades 2 to 4, and the lag continued in grades 5 to 6 (P = 0.039, P = 0.002, respectively). Grade and sentence reading were independently associated with unfavorable paragraph-reading outcomes (R(2)  = 0.453). The optimal sensitivity and specificity of the sentence-reading test in identifying unfavorable paragraph-reading outcomes were 90.9% and 90.0%, respectively (area under the curve = 0.923). Specialists should pay attention to CI students' development of different reading skills. Paragraph-reading tests enable a multidimensional evaluation of reading competence. Use of sentence-reading tests is suggested only as a tool for preliminary screening for basic reading capacities. 3b. © 2014 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

  15. Extensive Reading Program Which Changes Reluctant Engineering Students into Autonomous Learners of English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishizawa, Hitoshi; Yoshioka, Takayoshi; Itoh, Kazuaki

    This article introduces extensive reading (ER) as an approach to improve fundamental communication skills in English of reluctant EFL learners : average Japanese engineering students. It is distinct from concurrent translation approach from a perspective that the learners use English instead of Japanese to grasp the meaning of what they read and enjoy reading. In the ER program at Toyota National College of Technology, many students developed more positive attitude toward English, increased their reading speed, and achieved higher TOEIC scores, which was compared to those of the students before this ER program was introduced. Comparison between three groups of the students showed strong correlation between their TOEIC scores and the reading amount.

  16. The Effect of Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on EFL Learners' Reading Anxiety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shabnam Abbasnezhad

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The present study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of reading instructional approach called MCSR- Modified Collaborative Strategic Reading on reducing intermediate EFL learner's reading anxiety. Based on a pretest-posttest design, MCSR was implemented with 64 EFL learners at intermediate level. They received EFL reading instruction according to MCSR over two and a half months. A questionnaire called English as a Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory EFLRAI was group-administered atthepretest and the posttest. Quantitative results indicated that participating students demonstrated significant gains in reducing reading anxiety. This study highlighted our understanding by considering the effectiveness of MCSR program and also it elaborated the effects of using strategies like MCSR in overcoming the big problem of reading anxiety among EFL learners as non-native students. And teachers changed the focus of attention from using traditional methods for teaching the essential skill of reading to modern programs like MCSR in order to remove their students' anxiety and stress in reading.

  17. Pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and Turkish preparatory school teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities

    OpenAIRE

    Jecksembieyva, Nurgaisha

    1993-01-01

    Ankara : Faculty of Humanities and Letters and the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1993. Thesis (Master's) -- -Bilkent University, 1993. Includes bibliographical references leaves 35-40. The main focus of this study was to investigate pre-reading activities in EFL/ESL reading textbooks and to determine teachers' attitudes toward pre-reading activities. Fifteen reading textbooks for EFL/ESL students for different proficiency levels (beginning, interm...

  18. Effects of low speed wind on the recognition/identification and pass-through communication tasks of auditory situation awareness afforded by military hearing protection/enhancement devices and tactical communication and protective systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kichol; Casali, John G

    2016-01-01

    To investigate the effect of controlled low-speed wind-noise on the auditory situation awareness performance afforded by military hearing protection/enhancement devices (HPED) and tactical communication and protective systems (TCAPS). Recognition/identification and pass-through communications tasks were separately conducted under three wind conditions (0, 5, and 10 mph). Subjects wore two in-ear-type TCAPS, one earmuff-type TCAPS, a Combat Arms Earplug in its 'open' or pass-through setting, and an EB-15LE electronic earplug. Devices with electronic gain systems were tested under two gain settings: 'unity' and 'max'. Testing without any device (open ear) was conducted as a control. Ten subjects were recruited from the student population at Virginia Tech. Audiometric requirements were 25 dBHL or better at 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000 Hz in both ears. Performance on the interaction of communication task-by-device was significantly different only in 0 mph wind speed. The between-device performance differences varied with azimuthal speaker locations. It is evident from this study that stable (non-gusting) wind speeds up to 10 mph did not significantly degrade recognition/identification task performance and pass-through communication performance of the group of HPEDs and TCAPS tested. However, the various devices performed differently as the test sound signal speaker location was varied and it appears that physical as well as electronic features may have contributed to this directional result.

  19. Development of a Case-based Reading Curriculum and Its Effect on Resident Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messman, Anne M; Walker, Ian

    2018-01-01

    Textbook reading plays a foundational role in a resident's knowledge base. Many residency programs place residents on identical reading schedules, regardless of the clinical work or rotation the resident is doing. We sought to develop a reading curriculum that takes into account the clinical work a resident is doing so their reading curriculum corresponds with their clinical work. Preliminary data suggests an increased amount of resident reading and an increased interest in reading as a result of this change to their reading curriculum.

  20. The Role of Reading Fluency in Children's Text Comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

    2015-01-01

    Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

  1. Increased Stroop interference with better second-language reading skill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braet, Wouter; Noppe, Nele; Wagemans, Johan; Op de Beeck, Hans

    2011-03-01

    Skilled readers demonstrate remarkable efficiency in processing written words, unlike beginning readers for whom reading occurs more serially and places higher demands on visual attention. In the present study, we used the Stroop paradigm to investigate the relationship between reading skill and automaticity, in individuals learning a second language with a different orthographic system. Prior studies using this paradigm have presented a mixed picture, finding a positive, a negative, or no relationship between the size of Stroop interference and reading skills. Our results show that Stroop interference in the second language was positively related to reading skill (when controlled for interference in the first language). Furthermore, interference was positively related to objective but not subjective indices of the amount of exposure to the second language. We suggest that the lack of consistency in the results of earlier studies may be due, at least in part, to these studies looking at Stroop interference in isolation, rather than comparing interference between languages.

  2. Upgrade of the ATLAS Calorimeters for Higher LHC Luminosities

    CERN Document Server

    Carbone, Ryne Michael; The ATLAS collaboration

    2016-01-01

    The upgrade of the LHC will bring instantaneous and total luminosities which are a factor 5-7 beyond the original design of the ATLAS Liquid Argon (LAr) and Tile Calorimeters and their read-out systems. Due to radiation requirements and a new hardware trigger concept the read-out electronics will be improved in two phases. In Phase-I, a dedicated read-out of the LAr Calorimeters will provide higher granularity input to the trigger, in order to mitigate pile-up effects and to reduce the background rates. In Phase-II, completely new read-out electronics will allow a digital processing of all LAr and Tile Calorimeter channels at the full 40 MHz bunch-crossing frequency and a transfer of calibrated energy inputs to the trigger. Results from system design and performance of the developed read-out components, including fully functioning demonstrator systems already operated on the detector, will be reported. Furthermore, the current Forward Calorimeter (FCal) may suffer from signal degradation and argon bubble form...

  3. Development of a Case-based Reading Curriculum and Its Effect on Resident Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anne M. Messman

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Textbook reading plays a foundational role in a resident’s knowledge base. Many residency programs place residents on identical reading schedules, regardless of the clinical work or rotation the resident is doing. We sought to develop a reading curriculum that takes into account the clinical work a resident is doing so their reading curriculum corresponds with their clinical work. Preliminary data suggests an increased amount of resident reading and an increased interest in reading as a result of this change to their reading curriculum.

  4. Reading Comprehension Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Unal Ulker

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The academic success of the university students greatly depends on the mastery of an academic reading skill. However, students as well as teachers, take the learning of this skill for granted, as they tend to presuppose that reading skill is acquired as a part of their secondary education. As a result, most first-year students employ non university strategies to read academic texts, which leads to a surface approach to reading and prevents students from a better understanding of the material. This paper will discuss the strategies that involve students in taking a deep approach to reading academic texts.

  5. Early reading intervention by means of a multicomponent reading game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ven, M.A.M. van de; Leeuw, L.C. de; Weerdenburg, M.W.C. van; Steenbeek-Planting, E.G.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effects of an intervention with a multicomponent reading game on the development of reading skills in 60 Dutch primary school children with special educational needs. The game contains evidence-based reading exercises and is based on principles of applied gaming. Using a

  6. The Importance of Metacognitive Reading Strategy Awareness in Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza; Ismail, Hairul Nizam; Abdullah, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan

    2013-01-01

    Metacognitive reading strategy awareness plays a significant role in reading comprehension and educational process. In spite of its importance, metacognitive strategy has long been the ignored skill in English language teaching, research, learning, and assessment. This lack of good metacognitive reading strategy skill is exacerbated by the central…

  7. Exploring Engagement in Shared Reading Activities Between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Caregivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleury, Veronica P; Hugh, Maria L

    2018-06-05

    Reading aloud to children is a valued practice to promote emergent literacy and language skills that form the foundation for future reading success. We conducted a descriptive study of shared book reading practices between caregivers and their children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 17) and caregivers and their typically developing children (n = 20) to identify factors that can promote or inhibit children's engagement in reading. Caregivers and their children read nine books (familiar, non-fiction, fiction). Children with ASD demonstrated lower levels of passive engagement (looking at the book) and higher levels of non-engaged behavior compared to typically developing children. Caregiver reading quality and book type contributed to joint engagement during reading. Implications of these findings for intervention development are discussed.

  8. Prospective study aiming to compare 2D mammography and tomosynthesis + synthesized mammography in terms of cancer detection and recall. From double reading of 2D mammography to single reading of tomosynthesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romero Martín, Sara; Raya Povedano, Jose Luis; Cara García, María; Santos Romero, Ana Luz; Pedrosa Garriguet, Margarita; Álvarez Benito, Marina

    2018-06-01

    To evaluate tomosynthesis compared with 2D-mammography in cancer detection and recalls in a screening-programme, and assess performing synthesized instead of 2D, and compare double reading of 2D with single reading of tomosynthesis. Women (age 50-69 years) participating in the screening-programme were included. 2D-mammography and tomosynthesis were performed. There were four reading models: 2D-mammography (first); 2D-mammography (second); tomosynthesis + synthesized (third); tomosynthesis + synthesized + 2D (fourth reading). Paired double reading of 2D (first+second) and tomosynthesis (third+fourth) were analysed. In 16,067 participants, there were 98 cancers and 1,196 recalls. Comparing double reading of 2D with single reading of tomosynthesis, there was an increase of 12.6 % in cancer detection with the third reading (p= 0.043) and 6.9 % with the fourth reading (p=0.210), and a decrease in recalls of 40.5 % (ptomosynthesis. Single reading of tomosynthesis plus synthesized increased cancer detection and decreased recalls compared with double reading 2D. 2D did not improve results when added to tomosynthesis. • Tomosynthesis increases cancer detection and decreases recall rates versus 2D mammography. • Synthesized-mammography avoids performing 2D, showing higher cancer detection. • Single reading of tomosynthesis + synthesized is feasible as a new practice.

  9. How do children read words? A focus on reading processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Boer, M.

    2014-01-01

    Being able to read is very important in our literate society. Many studies, therefore, have examined children’s reading skills to improve our understanding of reading development. In general, there have been two types of studies. On the one hand, there is a line of research that focuses on the

  10. ELL High School Students' Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategy Use and Reading Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong-Nam, Kay

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the metacognitive awareness and reading strategies use of high school-­aged English language learners (ELLs) and the relationship between ELL reading strategy use and reading proficiency as measured by a standardized reading test and self-­rated reading proficiency. Results reveal that participants reported moderate use of…

  11. Rearing a reading habit

    OpenAIRE

    Sridhar, M. S.

    2009-01-01

    Discusses the importance and ways of inculcating reading habit in children at the right age, describes the five reading phases in children along with interest and the material to satiate the need, explains how four deterministic factors affect the reading habit of children, enlists motivations that are behind the reading process with tips to improve reading habit of children.

  12. Effects of Listening While Reading (LWR on Swahili Reading Fluency and Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filipo Lubua

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available A number of studies have examined the contribution of technology in teaching such languages as English, French, and Spanish, among many others. Contrarily, most LCTL’s, have received very little attention. This study investigates if listening while reading (LWR may expedite Swahili reading fluency and comprehension. The study employed the iBook Author tool to create weekly mediated and interactive reading texts, with comprehension exercises, which were eventually used to collect descriptive and qualitative data from four Elementary Swahili students. Participants participated in a seven week reading program, which provided them with some kind of directed self-learning, and met with the instructor for at least 30 minutes every week for observation and more reading activities. The teacher recorded their reading scores, and a number of themes on how LWR influenced reading fluency and comprehension are discussed here. It shows that participants have a positive attitude towards LWR and they suggest it for all the reading classes.

  13. How logical reasoning mediates the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

    The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of (verbal) logical reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning as a control measure. Syllogistic reasoning was divided into a measure tapping basic, coherence inferencing skill using logical syllogisms, and a measure tapping elaborative inferencing skill using indeterminate syllogisms. Results showed that both types of syllogisms partly mediated the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension, but also had a unique additional effect on reading comprehension. The indirect effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension via syllogisms was driven by vocabulary knowledge. It is concluded that measures of syllogistic reasoning account for higher-order thinking processes that are needed to make inferences in reading comprehension. The role of lexical quality appears to be pivotal in explaining the variation in reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via syllogistic reasoning.

  14. Reading aids for adults with low vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Virgili, Gianni; Acosta, Ruthy; Bentley, Sharon A; Giacomelli, Giovanni; Allcock, Claire; Evans, Jennifer R

    2018-04-17

    outcomes included reading duration and acuity, ease and frequency of use, quality of life and adverse outcomes. We graded the certainty of the evidence using GRADE. We included 11 small studies with a cross-over design (435 people overall), one study with two parallel arms (37 participants) and one study with three parallel arms (243 participants). These studies took place in the USA (7 studies), the UK (5 studies) and Canada (1 study). Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) was the most frequent cause of low vision, with 10 studies reporting 50% or more participants with the condition. Participants were aged 9 to 97 years in these studies, but most were older (the median average age across studies was 71 years). None of the studies were masked; otherwise we largely judged the studies to be at low risk of bias. All studies reported the primary outcome: results for reading speed. None of the studies measured or reported adverse outcomes.Reading speed may be higher with stand-mounted closed circuit television (CCTV) than with optical devices (stand or hand magnifiers) (low-certainty evidence, 2 studies, 92 participants). There was moderate-certainty evidence that reading duration was longer with the electronic devices and that they were easier to use. Similar results were seen for electronic devices with the camera mounted in a 'mouse'. Mixed results were seen for head-mounted devices with one study of 70 participants finding a mouse-based head-mounted device to be better than an optical device and another study of 20 participants finding optical devices better (low-certainty evidence). Low-certainty evidence from three studies (93 participants) suggested no important differences in reading speed, acuity or ease of use between stand-mounted and head-mounted electronic devices. Similarly, low-certainty evidence from one study of 100 participants suggested no important differences between a 9.7'' tablet computer and stand-mounted CCTV in reading speed, with imprecise estimates

  15. Reading Fluency Instruction for Students at Risk for Reading Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ring, Jeremiah J.; Barefoot, Lexie C.; Avrit, Karen J.; Brown, Sasha A.; Black, Jeffrey L.

    2013-01-01

    The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction…

  16. Early Reading Intervention by Means of a Multicomponent Reading Game

    Science.gov (United States)

    van de Ven, M.; de Leeuw, L.; van Weerdenburg, M.; Steenbeek-Planting, E. G.

    2017-01-01

    This study examined the effects of an intervention with a multicomponent reading game on the development of reading skills in 60 Dutch primary school children with special educational needs. The game contains evidence-based reading exercises and is based on principles of applied gaming. Using a multiple baseline approach, we tested children's…

  17. STUDENTS’ READING PRACTICES AND ENVIRONMENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aiza Johari

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: The challenges of reading are indeed apparent in most teaching and learning processes in ESL classrooms. As a result, this study is conducted to resolve the issues of students who seem to find reading to be unbearable. Many of them have limited ability to read well and hence, possess insufficient reading habits to become competent readers, particularly out-of-school context. Besides, poor home literacy environments also contribute to their shortcomings in reading. The main objectives of this study are to identify the students’ reasons for reading as well as to find out their home reading environments (reading backgrounds and habits; reading attitudes and motivation; reading exposure and supports. To identify these, questionnaires were distributed to 120 secondary school students (Form 4: 16 years old from one of the urban schools in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings indicate that the students read to gain information and knowledge though many chose reading as a hobby as their last choice in explaining their motives of reading. Besides, they preferred non-academic reading materials, mainly lighter forms reading materials such as comics, story books and magazines. Though the students acknowledged the importance of reading in their daily lives, their average reading habits, attitude, motivation, exposure and support within the home domain had suggested otherwise. They mainly read for instrumental purposes while reading for pleasure seemed not to be given priority. Besides, the respondents acknowledge that their parents and themselves did not read much at home. As an implication, it is vital for students to improve their reading perceptions, abilities and practices to achieve personal, societal and national progress. On a final note, parents’ early and continuous efforts to be involved in their children’s literacy events in an out-of-school context are believed to be vital to inculcate positive reading environments, habits and culture

  18. Measuring adult literacy students' reading skills using the Gray Oral Reading Test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenberg, Daphne; Pae, Hye Kyeong; Morris, Robin D; Calhoon, Mary Beth; Nanda, Alice O

    2009-12-01

    There are not enough reading tests standardized on adults who have very low literacy skills, and therefore tests standardized on children are frequently administered. This study addressed the complexities and problems of using a test normed on children to measure the reading comprehension skills of 193 adults who read at approximately third through fifth grade reading grade equivalency levels. Findings are reported from an analysis of the administration of Form A of the Gray Oral Reading Tests-Fourth Edition (Wiederholt & Bryant, 2001a, b). Results indicated that educators and researchers should be very cautious when interpreting test results of adults who have difficulty reading when children's norm-referenced tests are administered.

  19. Reading: United States.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weber, Rose-Marie

    1983-01-01

    An exploration of the increasingly important role of linguistics in literacy research and instruction reviews literature on reading comprehension, written language, orthography, metalinguistics, classroom language use, reading disabilities, native tongues, nonstandard dialects, bilingual education, adult literacy, and second-language reading. (86…

  20. Question answer relationship strategy increases reading comprehension among Kindergarten students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leena Furtado

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available The Question Answer Relationship (QAR strategy equips students with tools to successfully decode and comprehend what they read. An action research project over 18 days with twenty-three kindergarteners adapted exposure to QAR’s "In the Book" and "In my Head" categories with similar questions for each of two popular Aesop’s fables. The challenges and outcomes are presented with special emphasis on teacher-preparation, teacher-reflections, and a hands-on, day-by-day project-implementation. An oral pre-test, after reading The Tortoise and the Hare, served as a baseline assessment for student-comprehension levels. The QAR strategy was then explicitly taught, with opportunities to practice the comprehension skills in small and large groups with parental assistance. Students overwhelmingly scored higher on the post-test reading comprehension after the read-aloud of The Jay and the Peacock with some receiving perfect scores.

  1. Reading Disabilities and PASS Reading Enhancement Programme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mahapatra, Shamita

    2016-01-01

    Children experience difficulties in reading either because they fail to decode the words and thus are unable to comprehend the text or simply fail to comprehend the text even if they are able to decode the words and read them out. Failure in word decoding results from a failure in phonological coding of written information, whereas reading…

  2. Lessons learnt: Observation of Grade 4 reading comprehension teaching in South African schools across the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006 achievement spectrum

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lisa Zimmerman

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The evidence of the huge challenges of literacy development faced by South African learners is primarily gleaned from the results of learners’ external assessments. There is little research which explores, in-depth, the strategies used by teachers to teach reading literacy and reading comprehension specifically. Questions remain about what is going wrong and, most importantly,what can be changed to rectify the poor outcomes of learners. To gain insight into the poor achievement of Grade 4 learners, in South Africa in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006, six case studies were undertaken. Each school case had a different class average achievement profile ranging from low to high on the PIRLS achievement scale.This article presents findings from the observation of Grade 4 reading comprehension lessons in six schools. The comparison of observations of teaching practices aligned to higher achieving schools, against those of lower performing schools, indicates the discrepancies in the quality of teaching reading comprehension across the schools, and reveals potential foci for teacher development. The value of comparative lesson observation for these purposes is highlighted.

  3. The Effect of Collaborative Strategic Reading on Grade Six Students’ Reading Achievement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Siti Tamah

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available One of the language skills to master by Indonesian EFL learners is reading. In order to assist learners comprehend reading texts, teachers are challenged to apply various teaching strategies. As this paper focuses on teaching reading, two teaching strategies dealing with reading instruction are compared. To be specific, in this paper the writers conduct a study to find the difference between Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR and teacher-centered teaching strategy (by applying skimming and scanning. This study was a quasi experimental, which was conducted upon the sixth graders of an elementary school. The finding showed that reading achievements of the students who are taught using CSR and teacher-centered teaching strategy are not significantly different. Nevertheless, this study using Cohen’s d formula finds that CSR gave a small effect on students’ reading achievement.

  4. [Reading ability of junior high school students in relation to self-evaluation and depression].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yamashita, Toshiya; Hayashi, Takashi

    2012-01-01

    Guidelines for the diagnosis of reading disorders in elementary school students were published recently in Japan. On the basis of these guidelines, we administrated reading test batteries to 43 Japanese junior high-school students from grade two. The reading test consisted of single sounds, single words, and single sentences. We evaluated the reading speed and the number of reading errors made by the test takers; their performance was compared with the normal value for elementary school students in grade six, as stated in the guidelines. The reading ability of the junior high-school students was not higher than that of the elementary school students. Seven students (16.3%) were found to have reading difficulties (RD group) and they met the criterion for diagnosis of reading disorder as per the guidelines. Three students had difficulties in reading single sounds and single words, but they faced no problems when reading single sentences. It was supposed that the strategies used by the students for reading sentences may have differed from those used for reading single sounds or single words. No significant differences were found between the RD and non-RD group students on scores of scholastic self-evaluation, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. Therefore, reading difficulty did not directly influence the level of self-evaluation or depression.

  5. THE EFFECT OF LEARNING STRATEGY AND READING INTEREST TO THE READING UNDERSTANDING ABILITY OF STUDENTS OF IAIN BUKIT TINGGI

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    Reflinda

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to determine the influence of learning strategies and reading interest on the ability of reading comprehension of IAIN Bukittinggi students. The question posed is: Whether the discoveri learning strategy associated with learning interests is better than expository learning. The research population is a 5th semester student at the Department of Religious Education at IAIN Bukittinggi. Samples are taken in two classes where one class is taught by a discoveri strategy and the other is taught by an expository strategy. Data were analyzed by using t test (different test. The results show that discover learning strategies in high interest groups and low interest have higher learning outcomes than classes taught with expository strategies

  6. Influence of reading habits on cerebral plasticity for discourse comprehension in aging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charles-Olivier Martin

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2012n63p101   The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of reading habits on cerebral plasticity in the performance of a discourse comprehension task in aging. The main hypothesis was that participants with higher frequency and quality of reading habits should exhibit reduced brain activity because the task should be easier for them. two groups of native French speakers, 16 young adults and 16 elderly adults, participated in a task using the nirS (near-infrared spectroscopy technique. They read short stories and answered true or false probes after each one. They also completed a questionnaire about their previous reading habits. The results show that the more experienced readers had higher activation in the superior left region of the prefrontal cortex while they were reading the stories but lower activation in the same region when they were retrieving the information to answer the probe. Thus, more effort is required to acquire and maintain the information needed to answer, and this effort makes it easier to give the answer. These results reinforce the hypothesis that brain plasticity is promoted by cognitive activities throughout the lifespan.

  7. The Effect of Background Music While Silent Reading on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    sakineh sahebdel

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This study attempted to determine the effect of background music while silent reading on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The participants were 57 Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 14 and 16 in two 3rd grade high schoolclasses at pre-intermediate proficiency level. Before treatment,both experimental and control groups took a reading comprehension pretest. In the experimental group, the researchers played Mozart sonatas as background music and asked them to read the passage silently and then answer the reading comprehension questions. In the control group, the procedure was the same, but no music was played while silent reading by the students. After ten sessions, the students of both groups were asked to answer another independent but parallel form of reading section of PET as their post-test. The independent samples t-testresultsindicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group in reading comprehension posttest, and listening to background music while silent reading had a significantly positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The results of the present study have implications for EFL students, teachers, and teacher educators as well as syllabus designers and materials developers.

  8. TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE READING BY USING SURVEY, QUESTION, READ, WRITE AND (SQRW STRATEGY TO THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA MUHAMMADIYAH 1 PALEMBANG

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    marlen rahmawati

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The objectives of this study are to find out whether or not there is a significant improvement before and after the treatment on the tenth grade students’ reading comprehension scores of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang by using SQRW strategy and to find out whether or not there is a significant difference on the tenth grade students’ reading comprehension scores of SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Palembang between the students who are taught by using SQRW strategy and those who are not. This study used quasi-experimental design using nonequivalent pretest-posttest design. There were 68 students from class X MIPA 4 and X MIPA 6 chosen as the sample. In collecting the data, test was used. The test was given twice to experimental and control groups, for pretest and posttest. To verify the hypotheses, the data of pretest and posttest were analyzed by using independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test in SPSS 18 program. The findings showed that the p-output from paired sample t-test (sig2-tailed was 0.000 which was lower than 0.05, and t-value 11.294 was higher than t-table (34-1 with df=33 (2.034. The result of p-output from independent sample t-test was 0.003 which was lower that 0.05 and the t-value 3.104 was higher than t-table (68-2 with df=66 (1.996. Therefore it could be stated that teaching reading descriptive text by using SQRW strategy had significant improvement and showed significant difference on the students’ reading comprehension scores.

  9. Investigation on the Relationship between Information Communication Technology and Reading Literacy for Northeast Asian Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lai Yi-Horng

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of internet communication technologies (ICT usage and reading literacy of Northeast Asian Students in PISA 2009. ICT was crucial for all governments in the world towards promoting equity. ICT had been considered a low cost opportunity towards equalizing educational systems. A multilevel modelling (MLM was applied to identify at which school-level the largest variations in the three indicators exist in this study. With MLM, it could be examine simultaneously the effects of different hierarchical school-level variables; to take account of possible correlations of students’ reading literacy in this study within higher levels (Urbanization, Total number of students Computers for education which may otherwise lead to incorrect standard errors and inefficient estimates; to treat higher levels as related; and to examine inter-area variations at each level. The empirical results include the different between group components was significant. Self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was positive with students’ reading literacy, and self-confidence in ICT high level tasks was negative with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area and total number of students of schools were positive with students’ reading literacy. The urbanization of schools’ area was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy. Total number of students was negative with the relationship of ICT for school related tasks and students’ reading literacy, and ICT availability in school and students’ reading literacy.

  10. Reading Journal as A Way to Improve Students’ Comprehension toward A Textbook Reading Material

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Menik Winiharti

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Reading journal is one way to record students’ independent learning based on text they read. This study was conducted to find out the students’ level of reading comprehension through some notes written in the reading journal, the extent to which the activity of writing reading journals improved students’ reading comprehension, whether the students got benefit from reading journal. There were 104 respondents coming from four different departments in Bina Nusantara University were asked to read a text related to the subject they learned in a certain session. Then they were assigned to write a journal that records the things they had read. When this task was finished, the lecturer ran a quiz containing related questions to check whether they really understood the content of the text. Afterwards, students were to fill in a questionnaire regarding their opinion on the impact of the reading journal toward their reading comprehension. The findings indicate that more than half of the participants appear to understand the material well, and the task plays a certain role in improving students’ understanding. The most crucial thing is that most students think they get benefit by writing the reading journal.

  11. SchemaOnRead Manual

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    North, Michael J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

    2015-09-30

    SchemaOnRead provides tools for implementing schema-on-read including a single function call (e.g., schemaOnRead("filename")) that reads text (TXT), comma separated value (CSV), raster image (BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF, and JPG), R data (RDS), HDF5, NetCDF, spreadsheet (XLS, XLSX, ODS, and DIF), Weka Attribute-Relation File Format (ARFF), Epi Info (REC), Pajek network (PAJ), R network (NET), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), SPSS (SAV), Systat (SYS), and Stata (DTA) files. It also recursively reads folders (e.g., schemaOnRead("folder")), returning a nested list of the contained elements.

  12. 501 reading comprehension questions

    CERN Document Server

    2014-01-01

    This updated edition offers the most extensive and varied practice for all types of questions students might face on standardized and in-class tests. With this guide, students will learn to develop expert reading strategies, understand how to read faster and with greater comprehension, overcome reading anxiety, and increase appreciation of reading for pleasure. This book's step-by-step approach provides graduated coverage that moves from the basics to more advanced reading.

  13. How reading differs from object naming at the neuronal level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, C J; McCrory, E; Noppeney, U; Mechelli, A; Moore, C J; Biggio, N; Devlin, J T

    2006-01-15

    This paper uses whole brain functional neuroimaging in neurologically normal participants to explore how reading aloud differs from object naming in terms of neuronal implementation. In the first experiment, we directly compared brain activation during reading aloud and object naming. This revealed greater activation for reading in bilateral premotor, left posterior superior temporal and precuneus regions. In a second experiment, we segregated the object-naming system into object recognition and speech production areas by factorially manipulating the presence or absence of objects (pictures of objects or their meaningless scrambled counterparts) with the presence or absence of speech production (vocal vs. finger press responses). This demonstrated that the areas associated with speech production (object naming and repetitively saying "OK" to meaningless scrambled pictures) corresponded exactly to the areas where responses were higher for reading aloud than object naming in Experiment 1. Collectively the results suggest that, relative to object naming, reading increases the demands on shared speech production processes. At a cognitive level, enhanced activation for reading in speech production areas may reflect the multiple and competing phonological codes that are generated from the sublexical parts of written words. At a neuronal level, it may reflect differences in the speed with which different areas are activated and integrate with one another.

  14. Psychometric Research in Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Frederick B.

    This review of psychometric research in reading analyzes the factors which seem related to reading comprehension skills. Experimental analysis of reading comprehension by L. E. Thorndike revealed two major components: knowledge of word meanings and verbal reasoning abilities. Subsequent analysis of experimental studies of reading comprehension…

  15. Reading and Empathy

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCreary, John J.; Marchant, Gregory J.

    2017-01-01

    The relationship between reading and empathy was explored. Controlling for GPA and gender, reading variables were hypothesized as related to empathy; the relationship was expected to differ for males and females. For the complete sample, affective components were related to GPA but not reading. Perspective taking was related to reading…

  16. Reading Big Words: Instructional Practices to Promote Multisyllabic Word Reading Fluency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Toste, Jessica R.; Williams, Kelly J.; Capin, Philip

    2017-01-01

    Poorly developed word recognition skills are the most pervasive and debilitating source of reading challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD). With a notable decrease in word reading instruction in the upper elementary grades, struggling readers receive fewer instructional opportunities to develop proficient word reading skills, yet…

  17. Theme: Parents and Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jund, Suzanne, Ed.

    1977-01-01

    This journal issue concentrates on the theme "Parents and Reading." It presents articles on sharing books with young children, using public relations in a reading program, guiding preschool learning, assessing language readiness, working with reading problems, and teaching reading readiness in Wisconsin kindergartens. Resources and a review of…

  18. Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele

    Science.gov (United States)

    ENGLISH, LIANNE; BARNES, MARCIA A.; FLETCHER, JACK M.; DENNIS, MAUREEN; RAGHUBAR, KIMBERLY P.

    2011-01-01

    Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9–19 years of age) and 39 controls (8–17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension. PMID:20338082

  19. Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele.

    Science.gov (United States)

    English, Lianne; Barnes, Marcia A; Fletcher, Jack M; Dennis, Maureen; Raghubar, Kimberly P

    2010-05-01

    Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9-19 years of age) and 39 controls (8-17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension.

  20. Prenatal and childhood perfluoroalkyl substances exposures and children's reading skills at ages 5 and 8years.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Hongmei; Yolton, Kimberly; Webster, Glenys M; Ye, Xiaoyun; Calafat, Antonia M; Dietrich, Kim N; Xu, Yingying; Xie, Changchun; Braun, Joseph M; Lanphear, Bruce P; Chen, Aimin

    2018-02-01

    Exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) may impact children's neurodevelopment. To examine the association of prenatal and early childhood serum PFAS concentrations with children's reading skills at ages 5 and 8years. We used data from 167 mother-child pairs recruited during pregnancy (2003-2006) in Cincinnati, OH, quantified prenatal serum PFAS concentrations at 16±3weeks of gestation and childhood sera at ages 3 and 8years. We assessed children's reading skills using Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement III at age 5years and Wide Range Achievement Test-4 at age 8years. We used general linear regression to quantify the covariate-adjusted associations between natural log-transformed PFAS concentrations and reading skills, and used multiple informant model to identify the potential windows of susceptibility. Median serum PFASs concentrations were PFOS>PFOA>PFHxS>PFNA in prenatal, 3-year, and 8-year children. The covariate-adjusted general linear regression identified positive associations between serum PFOA, PFOS and PFNA concentrations and children's reading scores at ages 5 and 8years, but no association between any PFHxS concentration and reading skills. The multiple informant model showed: a) Prenatal PFOA was positively associated with higher children's scores in Reading Composite (β: 4.0, 95% CI: 0.6, 7.4 per a natural log unit increase in exposure) and Sentence Comprehension (β: 4.2, 95% CI: 0.5, 8.0) at age 8years; b) 3-year PFOA was positively associated with higher children's scores in Brief Reading (β: 7.3, 95% CI: 0.9, 13.8), Letter Word Identification (β: 6.6, 95% CI: 1.1, 12.0), and Passage Comprehension (β: 5.9, 95% CI: 1.5, 10.2) at age 5years; c) 8-year PFOA was positively associated with higher children's Word Reading scores (β: 5.8, 95% CI: 0.8, 10.7) at age 8years. Prenatal PFOS and PFNA were positively associated with children's reading abilities at age 5years, but not at age 8years; 3-year PFOS and PFNA were positively associated

  1. Reading disorders and dyslexia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

    2016-12-01

    We review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension. Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension. There are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

  2. The role of reading fluency in children’s text comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marta eÁlvarez-Cañizo

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade. Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances, pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

  3. Status of Higher Secondary School Libraries in Thiruvallur District

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seenivasan, M.; Kumar, N. Ashok

    2014-01-01

    Libraries are the main sources of knowledge. They play a major role in fostering reading habit among school children. Hence, it is deemed interactive to study the status of higher secondary school libraries in Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu. For the Analysis 50 Higher Secondary Schools were selected randomly comprising of Government Higher…

  4. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation as Predictors of Reading Literacy: A Longitudinal Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, Michael; McElvany, Nele; Kortenbruck, Marthe

    2010-01-01

    The purpose in this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with reading literacy development. In particular, the authors (a) investigated reading amount as mediator between motivation and reading literacy and (b) probed for bidirectional relationships between reading motivation and reading…

  5. Predictors of Foreign Language Reading Comprehension in a Hypermedia Reading Environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akbulut, Yavuz

    2008-01-01

    This study investigated factors affecting second/foreign language (L2) reading comprehension in a hypermedia environment within the theoretical framework of dual coding and cognitive load theories, and interactive models of L2 reading. The independent variables were reading ability, topic interest, prior topical knowledge, and the number of times…

  6. Tracking the reading eye: towards a model of real-world reading

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jarodzka, Halszka; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia

    2018-01-01

    Eye tracking has helped to understand the process of reading a word or a sentence, and this research has been very fruitful over the past decades. However, everyday real-world reading dramatically differs from this scenario: we read a newspaper on the bus, surf the Internet for movie reviews or

  7. [Ophthalmologic reading charts : Part 2: Current logarithmically scaled reading charts].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radner, W

    2016-12-01

    To analyze currently available reading charts regarding print size, logarithmic print size progression, and the background of test-item standardization. For the present study, the following logarithmically scaled reading charts were investigated using a measuring microscope (iNexis VMA 2520; Nikon, Tokyo): Eschenbach, Zeiss, OCULUS, MNREAD (Minnesota Near Reading Test), Colenbrander, and RADNER. Calculations were made according to EN-ISO 8596 and the International Research Council recommendations. Modern reading charts and cards exhibit a logarithmic progression of print sizes. The RADNER reading charts comprise four different cards with standardized test items (sentence optotypes), a well-defined stop criterion, accurate letter sizes, and a high print quality. Numbers and Landolt rings are also given in the booklet. The OCULUS cards have currently been reissued according to recent standards and also exhibit a high print quality. In addition to letters, numbers, Landolt rings, and examples taken from a timetable and the telephone book, sheet music is also offered. The Colenbrander cards use short sentences of 44 characters, including spaces, and exhibit inaccuracy at smaller letter sizes, as do the MNREAD cards. The MNREAD cards use sentences of 60 characters, including spaces, and have a high print quality. Modern reading charts show that international standards can be achieved with test items similar to optotypes, by using recent technology and developing new concepts of test-item standardization. Accurate print sizes, high print quality, and a logarithmic progression should become the minimum requirements for reading charts and reading cards in ophthalmology.

  8. Parents Using Explicit Reading Instruction with Their Children At-Risk for Reading Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    McConnell, Bethany M.; Kubina, Rick

    2016-01-01

    Kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties were selected for participation in a parent implemented reading program. Each parent provided instruction to his or her child using the reading program "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" ("TYCTR"; Engelmann, Haddox, & Bruner, 1983). Parents were expected to…

  9. Oral Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Silent Reading Fluency at Secondary and Postsecondary Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seok, Soonhwa; DaCosta, Boaventura

    2014-01-01

    This research investigated oral reading fluency as a predictor of silent reading fluency at the secondary and postsecondary levels. Several measures were used, including the Gray Oral Reading Test, the Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency, the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency, and the Reading Observation Scale. A total of 223 students…

  10. Investigating Chinese English Majors’ Use of Reading Strategies : A Study on the Relationship between Reading Strategies and Reading Achievements 

    OpenAIRE

    Sun, Ling

    2011-01-01

    For several decades, reading strategies have aroused many researchers’ interest.Readingis a very important language skill for English learners; however, many English majors feel that their reading proficiency is far from satisfying though they have studied English for more than ten years. Therefore, the current situation of using reading strategies among Chinese sophomore English majors is studied in this paper. The research aims to study the relationship between the use of reading strategies...

  11. Who Says They Don’t Read? Slovene Elementary School Students’ Reading Motivation in EFL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anja Pirih

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available A typical (Slovene teenager today no longer finds reading materials on the book shelves in the local library, but forms a reading list of electronic sources, very often in English. However, in contrast with an abundance of studies focusing on first language (L1 reading strategies and motivation, not a lot of literature can be found on reading motivation in a foreign language, even though it is perceived as one of the most important factors influencing second language (L2 development. The aim of this research is to determine the influences on reading motivation in English as a foreign language in the group of young teenagers (11-14-year-olds and a possible transfer of L1 reading attitudes to L2 reading. The theoretical framework relies on Wigfield and Guthrie’s (1997 self-efficacy theory and Day and Bamford’s (1998 expectancy value model. The data obtained from 197 questionnaires give an insight into not only the frequency of reading in English and the type of reading materials, but also the factors influencing teenagers’ reading motivation in EFL.

  12. INTEREST AND READING MOTIVATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alhamdu Alhamdu

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between interest and reading motivation based on literature review. The concept of the interest portrayed as a psychological state that occurs during interaction between individual and specific topic, object or activity including process of willingness, increased attention, concentration and positive feeling to the topic, object or activity. Meanwhile reading motivation emphasized to mental readiness, willingness and refers to beliefs and perception of individual to engage in reading activity. Some researchers were identified factors that influenced reading motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic factors, self-concept and value of reading, and interest. In general, the literature review described that have positive relationship between interest and reading motivation.

  13. Using Reading Guides and On-Line Quizzes to Improve Reading Compliance and Quiz Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maurer, Trent W.; Longfield, Judith

    2015-01-01

    This study compared students' daily in-class reading quiz scores in an introductory Child Development course across five conditions: control, reading guide only, reading guide and on-line practice quiz, reading guide and on-line graded quiz, and reading guide and both types of on-line quizzes. At the beginning of class, students completed a 5-item…

  14. School Reading Performance and the Extended School Day Policy in Florida. REL 2016-141

    Science.gov (United States)

    Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Petscher, Yaacov; Osborne-Lampkin, La'Tara; Cooley, Stephan; Herrera, Sarah; Partridge, Mark; Smith, Kevin

    2016-01-01

    Florida law requires the 100 lowest performing elementary schools in reading to extend the school day by one hour to provide supplemental reading instruction. This study found that those schools were smaller than other elementary schools and served a higher proportion of racial/ethnic minority students and students eligible for the school lunch…

  15. The Impact of Project-Based Learning on Fourth-Grade Students' Understanding in Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Dana L.

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive study was to determine if participation in project-based learning developed the understanding students need to transfer their knowledge and skills to achieve higher composite and reading scores, as well as demonstrate the ability to read increasingly complex texts on the ACT Aspire as…

  16. Effects of sequential and discrete rapid naming on reading in Japanese children with reading difficulty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wakamiya, Eiji; Okumura, Tomohito; Nakanishi, Makoto; Takeshita, Takashi; Mizuta, Mekumi; Kurimoto, Naoko; Tamai, Hiroshi

    2011-06-01

    To clarify whether rapid naming ability itself is a main underpinning factor of rapid automatized naming tests (RAN) and how deep an influence the discrete decoding process has on reading, we performed discrete naming tasks and discrete hiragana reading tasks as well as sequential naming tasks and sequential hiragana reading tasks with 38 Japanese schoolchildren with reading difficulty. There were high correlations between both discrete and sequential hiragana reading and sentence reading, suggesting that some mechanism which automatizes hiragana reading makes sentence reading fluent. In object and color tasks, there were moderate correlations between sentence reading and sequential naming, and between sequential naming and discrete naming. But no correlation was found between reading tasks and discrete naming tasks. The influence of rapid naming ability of objects and colors upon reading seemed relatively small, and multi-item processing may work in relation to these. In contrast, in the digit naming task there was moderate correlation between sentence reading and discrete naming, while no correlation was seen between sequential naming and discrete naming. There was moderate correlation between reading tasks and sequential digit naming tasks. Digit rapid naming ability has more direct effect on reading while its effect on RAN is relatively limited. The ratio of how rapid naming ability influences RAN and reading seems to vary according to kind of the stimuli used. An assumption about components in RAN which influence reading is discussed in the context of both sequential processing and discrete naming speed. Copyright © 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Developing reading and writing competences of year 4 primary school pupils

    OpenAIRE

    Turičnik, Mateja

    2016-01-01

    The fundamental aim of Slovene lessons is to develop communication competences as competences of receiving and producing diverse texts. The curriculum for Slovene gives a special attention to teaching of reading and writing, with the aim of teaching to not merely master the fluent reading and writing, but also to use written language to communicate, think, create, learn, and for entertainment. Therefore, the aim is to enable all children to achieve a higher level of so-called critical literac...

  18. The Reading Habits of Developmental College Students at Different Levels of Reading Proficiency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheorey, Ravi; Mokhtari, Kouider

    1994-01-01

    Examines differences in reading habits of developmental college students with varying levels of reading proficiency. Finds that subjects spent an unusually low amount of time on academic reading and even less time on nonacademic reading. Finds no significant differences between high- and low-proficient readers with regard to amount of time spent…

  19. Reading for Pleasure in Paradise: Paired Reading in Antigua and Barbuda

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warrington, Molly J.; George, Patricia

    2014-01-01

    Reading for pleasure is essential in the development of literacy. This paper reports on findings from a paired reading strategy introduced into primary schools in Antigua and Barbuda in order to foster children's pleasure in reading. This programme of cross-age peer tutoring intervention began with the training of teachers in a small group of…

  20. Reading use in preschool

    OpenAIRE

    Laísa Cristina dos Santos Guilherme; Rodrigo Ferreira Daverni

    2016-01-01

    Abstract: Reading in preschool is a time of awakening the taste and pleasure in reading, it is also a source of reflection, discovery and learn to listen. It is then necessary that the contact with the reading start from pre-school, with a variety of texts and the teacher also has the habit of reading in their daily lives. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefits of daily reading in the classroom pre-school life of a student, which the characteristics of a player and teacher re...

  1. STAD AS A STRATEGY OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fitri Ferina

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This research investigated whether there was a significant difference on students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught using STAD and lecture method. The sample was the eighth-graders of SMPN 3 Banjarmasin. A quasi-experimental design was employed in this research. The experimental group was taught using STAD while control group was taught using lecture method. A reading comprehension test as the instrument of collecting data was administered for both groups. Based on the research result using t-test, it was found that the t value was higher than t-table (2.39315 > 2.00 which means that there is a significant difference of achievement between the experimental group and control group. From these findings it can be interpreted that the use of STAD is more effective than lecture method in teaching reading comprehension for junior high school students. It is suggested for English teachers in Junior High School to use STAD in teaching reading since it is useful in improving students’ reading comprehension achievement.

  2. The Role of Reading Skills on Reading Comprehension Ability of Turkish EFL Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ebru Kaya

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Reading is a part of our daily lives. It is performed both for pleasure and information. Reading skills are important for the individuals since they foster comprehension in reading. If the students do not have knowledge of reading skills, they cannot be expected to be successful readers. Thus, they cannot achieve the level of comprehension required to pass exams in their own departments. For this reason, reading skills should be taught in universities for the students to be able to cope with comprehension problems. This case study aims to find out whether or not reading skills has a role on the reading comprehension ability of Turkish EFL students. This study is both a qualitative and a quantitative study which lasted for a duration of 14 weeks. Two groups were selected (experimental and control among prep classes at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University. Both groups were administered a pre-test and questionnaire at the beginning of the study to find out if they were aware of reading skills. In addition, 10 students were chosen randomly for interview. During the study, reading skills were infused into the curriculum through designing lesson plans in accordance with the language content and topics for level C students, as determined by the Common European Language Framework. The lessons required the students to use reading skills before, during, and post reading. At the end of the study, the same questionnaire was re-administered. The students were given the post-test and then interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The obtained data revealed that the students enhanced their comprehension ability provided that they were taught to use reading skills.

  3. The Influence of Translation on Reading Amount, Proficiency, and Speed in Extensive Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakurai, Nobuko

    2015-01-01

    This study attempted to examine the influence of a decrease in translation on the number of words read, reading comprehension, and reading rate in an extensive reading (ER) program. The participants were 70 first-year university students who experienced ER both in and outside the classroom for 15 weeks. The results of regression analyses confirmed…

  4. THE USE OF SCHEMATA IN READING COMPREHENSION: A CASE OF LEARNERS’ READING PROBLEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cucu Sutarsyah

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The Use of Schemata in Reading Comprehension: A Case of Learners’ Reading Problems. Schemata have an important role in the process of reading. It is almost impossible for a person to read without utilizing schemata. This study aimed to find learners’ reading problem in terms of using sche­mata.  A group of second year students of English Department of State University of Malang were in­volved in this study. As a case study, an interview, observation, and test were used to collect the data. The study reveals that the main reading problems were lack of background knowledge, over-reliance on background knowledge, and lack of background knowledge activation. In the process of reading, learn­ers’ background knowledge should be activated. Without optimal activation, the process of reading does not reach satisfactory results. It is also suggested that learners should not be over confident in get­ting the meaning from the text. Over-reliance on background knowledge might lead to misinterpretation.

  5. Reimagining Reading: Creating a Classroom Culture That Embraces Independent Choice Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickerson, Katie

    2015-01-01

    Many of us are plagued by negative memories of sustained silent reading. In some of these memories, we are the students, attempting to read a book that didn't hold our interest or trying to read over the din of our disengaged classmates. In other memories, we are the teachers, suffering through a ten-minute classroom management nightmare, deciding…

  6. Fostering the Love of Reading: The Affective Domain in Reading Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cramer, Eugene H., Ed.; Castle, Marrietta, Ed.

    Representing current thinking about a wide range of issues related to reading motivation, this book offers a look at how to create classroom cultures that foster in students the love of reading. The book is about teachers and the critical role they play in helping children develop into motivated, active, engaged readers who read both for pleasure…

  7. Effect of Kanji and Kana reading on cerebral blood flow patterns measured by PET

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiyosawa, Motohiro; Itoh, Masatoshi; Nakagawa, Youichi; Kobayashi, Naoki; Tamai, Makoto.

    1995-01-01

    To investigate the respective functions of pathways in processing visual information from different types of symbols, by positron emission tomography (PET) we examined the effect on cerebral blood flow (CBF) of reading the Japanese morphogram (kanji) versus the syllabogram (kana). Nine Japanese men were presented with three visual conditions in random order 2 minutes before the scan: eyes open controls, kanji morphogram reading, and kana syllabogram reading. Three words written in kanji or kana were shown, and subjects were instructed to read them silently and to identify the word unrelated logically to the other two. The reading and analyzing tasks activated wide areas of vision-related cortices. The comparison of the kanji and kana readings showed higher metabolism, with the former only in the posterior part of the primary visual cortex. Most of the CBF increases were common for both stimuli, although the patterns of these increases differed slightly. The correlation matrix of CBF change in the left hemisphere showed a ventral connection in kanji reading and a dorsal connection in kana reading. Our results suggest there is a functional differentiation in the brain between patterned and sequential perception when reading Japanese morphograms and syllabograms. (author)

  8. Reading in developmental prosopagnosia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Starrfelt, Randi; Klargaard, Solja K; Petersen, Anders

    2018-01-01

    exposure durations (targeting the word superiority effect), and d) text reading. RESULTS: Participants with developmental prosopagnosia performed strikingly similar to controls across the four reading tasks. Formal analysis revealed a significant dissociation between word and face recognition......, that is, impaired reading in developmental prosopagnosia. METHOD: We tested 10 adults with developmental prosopagnosia and 20 matched controls. All participants completed the Cambridge Face Memory Test, the Cambridge Face Perception test and a Face recognition questionnaire used to quantify everyday face...... recognition experience. Reading was measured in four experimental tasks, testing different levels of letter, word, and text reading: (a) single word reading with words of varying length,(b) vocal response times in single letter and short word naming, (c) recognition of single letters and short words at brief...

  9. Information-optimal genome assembly via sparse read-overlap graphs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shomorony, Ilan; Kim, Samuel H; Courtade, Thomas A; Tse, David N C

    2016-09-01

    In the context of third-generation long-read sequencing technologies, read-overlap-based approaches are expected to play a central role in the assembly step. A fundamental challenge in assembling from a read-overlap graph is that the true sequence corresponds to a Hamiltonian path on the graph, and, under most formulations, the assembly problem becomes NP-hard, restricting practical approaches to heuristics. In this work, we avoid this seemingly fundamental barrier by first setting the computational complexity issue aside, and seeking an algorithm that targets information limits In particular, we consider a basic feasibility question: when does the set of reads contain enough information to allow unambiguous reconstruction of the true sequence? Based on insights from this information feasibility question, we present an algorithm-the Not-So-Greedy algorithm-to construct a sparse read-overlap graph. Unlike most other assembly algorithms, Not-So-Greedy comes with a performance guarantee: whenever information feasibility conditions are satisfied, the algorithm reduces the assembly problem to an Eulerian path problem on the resulting graph, and can thus be solved in linear time. In practice, this theoretical guarantee translates into assemblies of higher quality. Evaluations on both simulated reads from real genomes and a PacBio Escherichia coli K12 dataset demonstrate that Not-So-Greedy compares favorably with standard string graph approaches in terms of accuracy of the resulting read-overlap graph and contig N50. Available at github.com/samhykim/nsg courtade@eecs.berkeley.edu or dntse@stanford.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  10. Basic Concepts of Reading Instruction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gökhan ARI

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Reading act is performed by connected physiological, psychological and cognitive processes. The operations taking place in these processes are expected to continue for life by being developed with certain strategies. A lot of information is gained with reading skill in education life. Therefore, basic concepts that constitute reading education in teaching and improving reading are important for teachers. The aim of this study is to submit information compiled from the literature about reading education process and which basic concepts are used in reading education. While teaching reading from part to whole, from whole to part and interactional approaches are used. From part to whole approach is at the forefront. Then with interactional approach strategies, both code solving and making sense is improved. Teachers should know the characteristics of bouncing, stopping, turning back, and scanning movements of the eye both in code solving and making sense. The teacher should configure the teaching for the students to gain fluid reading elements by making use of reading out and reading silently. After reading act is acquired; good reader characteristics should be gained by improving asking questions, guessing, summarizing, interpretation skills in integrated readings. Reading skill is improved by studies on the text. Therefore, the students should come across texts that are suitable to their levels, textuality and readability criteria. The vocabulary of children should be improved in a planned way with text-based word and meaning studies. Fluid reading, making sense and interpretation skills of children should be pursued with different evaluation types. In the long term, work should be done to make reading a habit for them.

  11. Writing-Reading Relationships: Effectiveness of Writing Activities As Pre-Reading Tasks to Enhance L2 Inferential Reading Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thilina Indrajie Wickramaarachchi

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The study examines the interaction between reading and writing processes in general and more specifically the impact of pre-reading tasks incorporating writing tasks (referred to as “prw tasks” in helping the development of inferential reading comprehension. A sample of 70 first year ESL students of the University of Kelaniya were initially selected with one group (experimental group engaging in “prw tasks” while the other group (control group performing the tasks without a pre-reading component. The intervention was for 6 sessions (one hour in each session. At the end of each session, the performance of the two groups was measured and the test scores were analyzed using the data analysis package SPSS to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated that the experimental group had significantly performed better than the control group which indicated the effectiveness of the prw tasks in improving reading comprehension.

  12. Reading comprehension in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Laura L; Rutledge, Stefanie

    2014-05-01

    Although individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) self-report reading problems and experience difficulties in cognitive-linguistic functions that support discourse-level reading, prior research has primarily focused on sentence-level processing and auditory comprehension. Accordingly, the authors investigated the presence and nature of reading comprehension in PD, hypothesizing that (a) individuals with PD would display impaired accuracy and/or speed on reading comprehension tests and (b) reading performances would be correlated with cognitive test results. Eleven adults with PD and 9 age- and education-matched control participants completed tests that evaluated reading comprehension; general language and cognitive abilities; and aspects of attention, memory, and executive functioning. The PD group obtained significantly lower scores on several, but not all, reading comprehension, language, and cognitive measures. Memory, language, and disease severity were significantly correlated with reading comprehension for the PD group. Individuals in the early stages of PD without dementia or broad cognitive deficits can display reading comprehension difficulties, particularly for high- versus basic-level reading tasks. These reading difficulties are most closely related to memory, high-level language, and PD symptom severity status. The findings warrant additional research to delineate further the types and nature of reading comprehension impairments experienced by individuals with PD.

  13. Does Use of Text-to-Speech and Related Read-Aloud Tools Improve Reading Comprehension for Students with Reading Disabilities? A Meta-Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wood, Sarah G.; Moxley, Jerad H.; Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Wagner, Richard K.

    2018-01-01

    Text-to-speech and related read-aloud tools are being widely implemented in an attempt to assist students' reading comprehension skills. Read-aloud software, including text-to-speech, is used to translate written text into spoken text, enabling one to listen to written text while reading along. It is not clear how effective text-to-speech is at…

  14. Reading and writing in order not to drop out of university

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giohanny Olave Arias

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17227/01234870.38folios45.59 This text investigates the relationships between dropping out of university and difficulties in reading and writing, in accordance with the recent overview of both phenomena. After a general review of the studies on dropping out of university, in which their importance for the continued development of Colombia’s professionalization is gauged, the practices of reading comprehension and producing texts are problematized specifically in the field of higher education and are then causally related to the phenomenon of dropping out of university. Finally, the current processes of literacy at university, based on recognition of its relevance in the educational mission of higher education, are discussed.

  15. No strong evidence for lateralisation of word reading and face recognition deficits following posterior brain injury

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gerlach, Christian; Marstrand, Lisbet; Starrfelt, Randi

    2014-01-01

    Face recognition and word reading are thought to be mediated by relatively independent cognitive systems lateralized to the right and left hemisphere respectively. In this case, we should expect a higher incidence of face recognition problems in patients with right hemisphere injury and a higher......-construction, motion perception), we found that both patient groups performed significantly worse than a matched control group. In particular we found a significant number of face recognition deficits in patients with left hemisphere injury and a significant number of patients with word reading deficits following...... right hemisphere injury. This suggests that face recognition and word reading may be mediated by more bilaterally distributed neural systems than is commonly assumed....

  16. An evaluation of reading comprehension of expository text in adults with traumatic brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Griffiths, Gina G; Fickas, Stephen

    2014-05-01

    This project was conducted to obtain information about reading problems of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and to investigate how these readers respond to reading comprehension strategy prompts integrated into digital versions of text. Participants from 2 groups, adults with TBI (n = 15) and matched controls (n = 15), read 4 different 500-word expository science passages linked to either a strategy prompt condition or a no-strategy prompt condition. The participants' reading comprehension was evaluated using sentence verification and free recall tasks. The TBI and control groups exhibited significant differences on 2 of the 5 reading comprehension measures: paraphrase statements on a sentence verification task and communication units on a free recall task. Unexpected group differences were noted on the participants' prerequisite reading skills. For the within-group comparison, participants showed significantly higher reading comprehension scores on 2 free recall measures: words per communication unit and type-token ratio. There were no significant interactions. The results help to elucidate the nature of reading comprehension in adults with TBI with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and endorse further evaluation of reading comprehension strategies as a potential intervention option for these individuals. Future research is needed to better understand how individual differences influence a person's reading and response to intervention.

  17. The eye movements of dyslexic children during reading and visual search: impact of the visual attention span.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prado, Chloé; Dubois, Matthieu; Valdois, Sylviane

    2007-09-01

    The eye movements of 14 French dyslexic children having a VA span reduction and 14 normal readers were compared in two tasks of visual search and text reading. The dyslexic participants made a higher number of rightward fixations in reading only. They simultaneously processed the same low number of letters in both tasks whereas normal readers processed far more letters in reading. Importantly, the children's VA span abilities related to the number of letters simultaneously processed in reading. The atypical eye movements of some dyslexic readers in reading thus appear to reflect difficulties to increase their VA span according to the task request.

  18. ESL Students’ Online and Offline Reading Strategies: Scrolling, Clicking, Flipping and Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Izyani Mohamad Zaki

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available In this borderless world, computers and the Internet have become important tools of communication and learning and they have also become an important part of our lives. The opportunity to seek information through the computer has made reading an important language skill. Despite the importance of reading and technology, little research to date has been carried out to compare the reading strategies employed by readers when reading online compared to offline. Such studies are important because awareness of the similarities and differences on the strategies employed between these two modes of learning will enable teachers to help develop students’ reading ability. Hence, this study investigates if there is a difference between online and offline strategies used by second language readers. The participants in this study were ESL undergraduates at a university in Malaysia. The instrument employed was the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS (Sheorey and Mokhtari, 2001 and Online Survey of Register Strategies (OSORS by Anderson (2003. These questionnaires tap three different types of information: global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their pedagogical implications in the L2 classroom.

  19. Reading literacy and reading self-concept of year 6 primary school students

    OpenAIRE

    Cegnar, Katja

    2017-01-01

    In the present Master thesis, we research the relation between the reading literacy and its components and the reading self-concept in grade 6 elementary school students. Sixth grade students were chosen because they are partially taught by class teachers and because we assume that they are already familiar with the reading comprehension technique and have a more-or-less stable reading self-concept. In the theoretical part, we present the importance of functional literacy and of other types o...

  20. A Probabilistic Genome-Wide Gene Reading Frame Sequence Model

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Have, Christian Theil; Mørk, Søren

    We introduce a new type of probabilistic sequence model, that model the sequential composition of reading frames of genes in a genome. Our approach extends gene finders with a model of the sequential composition of genes at the genome-level -- effectively producing a sequential genome annotation...... as output. The model can be used to obtain the most probable genome annotation based on a combination of i: a gene finder score of each gene candidate and ii: the sequence of the reading frames of gene candidates through a genome. The model --- as well as a higher order variant --- is developed and tested...... and are evaluated by the effect on prediction performance. Since bacterial gene finding to a large extent is a solved problem it forms an ideal proving ground for evaluating the explicit modeling of larger scale gene sequence composition of genomes. We conclude that the sequential composition of gene reading frames...

  1. Engaging Struggling Early Readers to Promote Reading Success: A Pilot Study of Reading by Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendez, Linda M. Raffaele; Pelzmann, Catherine A.; Frank, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    In this study, we piloted a Tier 2 intervention designed to improve reading skills among struggling early readers using an intervention that included SRA Reading Mastery, listening-while-reading activities, strategies to increase motivation and engagement in reading, and parent involvement in reading homework. The study included 6 students in…

  2. Reading Evaluation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fagan, W. T.

    1978-01-01

    The Canadian Institute for Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences of Calgary was awarded a contract by the Provincial Government of Alberta to assess student skills and knowledge in reading and written composition. Here evaluation is defined and the use of standardized and criterion referenced tests for evaluating reading performance are…

  3. TagDust2: a generic method to extract reads from sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lassmann, Timo

    2015-01-28

    Arguably the most basic step in the analysis of next generation sequencing data (NGS) involves the extraction of mappable reads from the raw reads produced by sequencing instruments. The presence of barcodes, adaptors and artifacts subject to sequencing errors makes this step non-trivial. Here I present TagDust2, a generic approach utilizing a library of hidden Markov models (HMM) to accurately extract reads from a wide array of possible read architectures. TagDust2 extracts more reads of higher quality compared to other approaches. Processing of multiplexed single, paired end and libraries containing unique molecular identifiers is fully supported. Two additional post processing steps are included to exclude known contaminants and filter out low complexity sequences. Finally, TagDust2 can automatically detect the library type of sequenced data from a predefined selection. Taken together TagDust2 is a feature rich, flexible and adaptive solution to go from raw to mappable NGS reads in a single step. The ability to recognize and record the contents of raw reads will help to automate and demystify the initial, and often poorly documented, steps in NGS data analysis pipelines. TagDust2 is freely available at: http://tagdust.sourceforge.net .

  4. An analysis of the reading profiles of first-year students at ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Erna Kinsey

    Many South African students enter higher education under-prepared for the reading demands ... quate strategies to face the challenges that emanated from their imple- .... vocal relationship between teaching vocabulary and improving com-.

  5. Reading Incentives that Work: No-Cost Strategies to Motivate Kids to Read and Love It!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Small, Ruth V.

    2009-01-01

    In education, it is possible to find dozens of examples of "forced" reading incentive programs that categorize student reading levels, provide limited reading lists coordinated with those reading levels, assess student reading through computer-based tests, and award tangible prizes when they pass the test. Those who perform best get the most…

  6. The Impact of Reading for Pleasure on Georgian University EFL Students' Reading Comprehension (IBSU Case)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goctu, Ramazan

    2016-01-01

    Reading is one of the most significant skills, particularly for EFL students. Many students today do not have the reading skills needed to do effective work in their courses. This paper explores reading for pleasure, its importance and impact on reading comprehension. Pleasure reading helps students to communicate, listen and, most importantly, to…

  7. E-Readers and the Effects on Students' Reading Motivation, Attitude and Comprehension during Guided Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Long, Deanna; Szabo, Susan

    2016-01-01

    This quasi-experimental mixed methods study examined the use of e-readers during guided reading instruction and its impact on 5th grade students' reading motivation, attitude toward reading, and reading comprehension. For 10 weeks, 19 students received guided reading instruction by means of the traditional paper/text format, while 16 students…

  8. The Impact of a Therapy Dog Program on Children's Reading Skills and Attitudes toward Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirnan, Jean; Siminerio, Steven; Wong, Zachary

    2016-01-01

    An existing school program in which therapy dogs are integrated into the reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading. Previous literature suggests an improvement in both reading skills and attitudes towards reading when students read in the presence of a therapy dog. Using a mixed method model, the researchers…

  9. "Passageless" Administration of the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension Test: Associations with IQ and Reading Skills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ready, Rebecca E.; Chaudhry, Maheen F.; Schatz, Kelly C.; Strazzullo, Sarah

    2013-01-01

    There are few tests that assess reading comprehension in adults, but these tests are needed for a comprehensive assessment of reading disorders (RD). "The Nelson-Denny Reading Test" (NDRT) has a long-passage reading comprehension component that can be used with adolescents and adults. A problem with the NDRT is that reading comprehension…

  10. Understanding Children's Reading Activities: Reading Motivation, Skill and Child Characteristics as Predictors

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGeown, Sarah P.; Osborne, Cara; Warhurst, Amy; Norgate, Roger; Duncan, Lynne G.

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

  11. Cell Phone Use and Child and Adolescent Reading Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofferth, Sandra L.; Moon, Ui Jeong

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the association between cell phone use, including minutes spent talking and number of text messages sent, and two measures of children’s reading proficiency — tests of word decoding and reading comprehension — in the United States. Data were drawn from the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a nationally representative survey of 1,147 children 10–18 in 2009. Children whose parents were better educated, who had higher family incomes, who had fewer siblings, and who lived in urban areas were more likely to own or share a cell phone. Among those with access to a phone, children who spent more time talking on the phone were less proficient at word decoding, whereas children who spent more time sending text messages had greater reading comprehension. Although girls spent more time texting than did boys, there were no gender differences in the association between time spent talking or number of text messages sent with achievement. In spite of racial/ethnic differences in cell phone use levels, there were no racial/ethnic differences in the association between cell phone use and reading proficiency. PMID:27683624

  12. Effects of EFL Individual Learner Variables on Foreign Language Reading Anxiety and Metacognitive Reading Strategy Use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lien, Hsin-Yi

    2016-08-01

    Past research has shown an association between foreign language reading anxiety and reading strategy. However, individual variables tend to affect foreign language anxiety and strategy use. The present study examined a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect effects among English and foreign languages readers' distinct variables, including academic level; self-perceived English level; and satisfaction with reading proficiency, reading anxiety, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. A total of 523 volunteer Taiwanese college students provided 372 valid responses to a written questionnaire (281 women and 91 men; M age = 19.7 years, SD = 1.1) containing the translated versions of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, Survey of Reading Strategies Inventory, and self-assessment background questionnaire. The results showed that self-evaluation of reading proficiency did not correlate with academic level and readers' perceptions. Satisfaction had a direct effect on foreign language reading anxiety but not on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Results of path analysis demonstrated that the perception learners who had their own reading proficiency predicted their foreign language reading anxiety and was a mediating variable for metacognitive reading strategy use. © The Author(s) 2016.

  13. Reading for All; Proceedings of the IRA (International Reading Association) World Congress on Reading (4th, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 3-5, 1972).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karlin, Robert, Ed.

    This book contains papers presented at the Fourth International Reading Association World Congress on Reading in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August 1972. The contents of the book are divided into three parts: "Literacy and Literature" includes papers on libraries, books, and reading by Jorge Borges, the future of reading by Theodore Harris, the…

  14. The Relationship between Reading Proficiency and Reading Strategy Use: A Study of Adult ESL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Jiuhan; Nisbet, Deanna

    2014-01-01

    This article explores the relationship between reading strategy use and reading proficiency among 121 adult ESL learners. Reading strategy use was measured by the SORS, and reading proficiency was determined by the CASAS Reading Test and BEST Literacy Test. Findings of the study reveal that (a) adult ESL learners are active strategies users; (b)…

  15. It Takes Two to Read: Interactive Reading with Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dirks, Evelien; Wauters, Loes

    2018-04-04

    Interactive storybook reading is an important activity to enhance the emergent literacy skills of young deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Parents have a crucial role to play in promoting their children's literacy development. However, parents often do not read in an interactive way; therefore guidance is recommended in applying these interactive reading strategies. In the present study we examined how parent reading behavior was affected by implementing an interactive reading training program for parents of young DHH children. Parents of 18 DHH toddlers in the Netherlands participated in a series of group training sessions and their interactive reading behavior was compared to that of 10 parents who did not participate. The results showed that parents' interactive reading behavior tended to increase after they participated in the interactive reading program. After the program, they applied the interactive reading strategies more often than parents who had not participated in the program. The findings suggest that interactive reading programs should be incorporated into early intervention programs for DHH children.

  16. Functional Anatomy of Listening and Reading Comprehension during Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berl, Madison M.; Duke, Elizabeth S.; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R.; Moore, Erin N.; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J.; Gaillard, William Davis

    2010-01-01

    Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task…

  17. Reading in a Digital Age: Issues and Future of Reading on the Web among Young People

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shan-Ju Lin Chang

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available “Reading on the Internet” or digital reading has been a controversial issue in recent years as more and more young adults spent more time on Internet, and engaged in reading activities which may differ from the traditional conception of reading. More importantly, some observe that digital reading seems to have negative impacts on students’ reading capabilities at the individual level and citizens’ literacy at the national level. How can we understand the phenomenon of reading in a digital age? Online activities are facilitating or hindering the development of reading capabilities of young adults? What do we mean when we evaluate the reading capabilities in a digital age? This paper explores the pros and cons of reading on the Internet or digital reading, the technological, social and economic forces that influence those viewpoints, and discusses the findings of some empirical studies. The implications from this study for educational policy makers and educators conclude this paper. [Article content in Chinese; Extended abstract in English

  18. Examining the Effectiveness of Pre-Reading Strategies on Saudi EFL College Students' Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al Rasheed, Hana S. S.

    2014-01-01

    Reading comprehension is a key issue in learning English as a foreign language, and it is critical that teachers utilize pre-reading strategies in reading classes in order to help students enhance their comprehension. The present study investigates the effectiveness of two pre-reading strategies on EFL students' performance in reading…

  19. READING COMPREHENSION. NOTION OF READING AND USE OF MACRORREGLAS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana María Montes-Salas

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the NMS has been relevant to investigate the notion of reading and how reading comprehension skills are developed as they are the basis of learning. According to Frida Diaz Barriga and Hernandez (2002 critical and reflective understanding of the composition of texts written are nodal activities in the construction of meanings. We now know that the skills of reading and typesetting apprentices develop in subjects strategically and self-regulated, thanks to this research. Promote the development of communication skills contributes to the foundation of the curriculum consists of educating for students to acquire skills that allow them to face problems collaboratively and competently.

  20. Doing justice to social justice in South African higher education ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper attempts to develop a conceptualisation of social justice in higher education based on a close reading of the current literature in the field. An important assumption we make is that higher education is a valuable mechanism for social justice. We set the literature against policy documents that detail South African ...

  1. Adventures in Meaning Making: "Teaching in Higher Education" 2005-2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clegg, Sue

    2015-01-01

    The paper presents an analysis of the forms of meaning making in "Teaching in Higher Education" between 2005 and 2013. Unlike other papers which have reviewed higher education journals the analysis was based on reading full papers. Previous analyses of journals have commented on the a-theoretical nature of much research into higher…

  2. Fostering EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension: Animation Film Technique

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asefeh Torabian

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The current study investigated the effect of implementing animation films on developing reading comprehension texts among EFL learners of a language institute in Kerman. For this purpose, two groups of pre-intermediate EFL learners were chosen (30 participants in each group. After three months of instruction, twice a week, 2story books named the "Good Dinosaur" and "Little Prince" including totally 20 chapters in both groups and animation films including 60 minutes divided into 6 to 7 minutes in each session in experimental group were presented. To estimate the primary knowledge of the subjects, a pretest was taken from both groups and after the experiment came to an end, a posttest was followed. The result revealed that a meaningful relationship could be identified between the procedures incorporated for both groups. However, the experimental group achieved higher degree of achievement using animation films presented to them by scoring higher in the total mean and also, interview participants were satisfied with the use of animation films in the reading class.

  3. Reading the Web: Internet Guided Reading with Young Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salyer, David

    2015-01-01

    Online reading requires traditional and new comprehension skills and strategies, and these skills and strategies will have to be taught and supported, especially for young beginning readers. But how do elementary teachers go about doing this? Much of the research regarding teaching and supporting online reading comprehension has focused on older…

  4. The Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading: A Window into the Reading Process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keefe, Donald

    1993-01-01

    Contains part of the Keefe Inventory of Silent Reading, a silent informal reading inventory. Presents a case study of a student to whom it was administered, including analysis of this individual's reading ability and description of the specific strategies used with this individual on the basis of the results of the inventory. (RS)

  5. Reading for Writing: A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Reading Interventions on Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graham, Steve; Liu, Xinghua; Bartlett, Brendan; Ng, Clarence; Harris, Karen R.; Aitken, Angelique; Barkel, Ashley; Kavanaugh, Colin; Talukdar, Joy

    2018-01-01

    This meta-analysis examined if students' writing performance is improved by reading interventions in studies (k = 54 experiments; 5,018 students) where students were taught how to read and studies (k = 36 investigations; 3,060 students) where students' interaction with words or text was increased through reading or observing others read. Studies…

  6. THINK ALOUD PAIR PROBLEM SOLVING (TAPPS STRATEGY IN TEACHING READING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Muhammad Zuhri Dj

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This research is aim to know what extent the achievement of students’ reading comprehension by using Think Aloud Pair Problem Solving (TAPPS strategy at the tenth grade students of SMKN 3 Watampone. the objectives of the research is to know what extent the achievement of student’s reading comprehension by using Think Aloud Pair Problem Solving (TAPPS strategy. The population of this research is the tenth grade students of SMKN 3 Watampone which has 149 students. The writers applied random sampling, because the school has students more than 100 students. The X Multimedia Class is taken as the sample, because it has many students who have low values in English subject based on their teacher report. This research employs an instrument based on the problem statements investigated, It is Reading comprehension test. After several meetings, this research finds out the achievement of students’ reading comprehension significantly effective to improve the student’s reading comprehension. The result of this research shows that the mean score obtained by the students through pretest was 46.545 and posttest was 88.364; the t-test value was higher than the t-table (49.385 > 2.080. It means that there is a significant difference between the result of the students’ pretest and posttest

  7. [Developmental changes in reading ability of Japanese elementary school children--analysis of 4 kana reading tasks].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kobayashi, Tomoka; Inagaki, Masumi; Gunji, Atsuko; Yatabe, Kiyomi; Kaga, Makiko; Goto, Takaaki; Koike, Toshihide; Wakamiya, Eiji; Koeda, Tatsuya

    2010-01-01

    Five hundred and twenty-eight Japanese elementary school children aged from 6 (Grade 1) to 12 (Grade 6) were tested for their abilities to read Hiragana characters, words, and short sentences. They were typically developing children whom the classroom teachers judged to have no problems with reading and writing in Japanese. Each child was asked to read four tasks which were written in Hiragana script: single mora reading task, four syllable non-word reading task, four syllable word reading task, and short sentence reading task. The total articulation time for reading and performance in terms of accuracy were measured for each task. Developmental changes in these variables were evaluated. The articulation time was significantly longer for the first graders, and it gradually shortened as they moved through to the upper grades in all tasks. The articulation time reached a plateau in the 4th grade for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks, while it did so for the single mora and four syllable non-word reading tasks in the 5th grade. The articulation times for the four syllable word and short sentence reading tasks correlated strongly. There were very few clear errors for all tasks, and the number of such errors significantly changed between the school grades only for the single mora and four syllable word reading tasks. It was noted that more than half of the children read the beginning portion of the word or phrase twice or more, in order to read it accurately, and developmental changes were also seen in this pattern of reading. This study revealed that the combination of these reading tasks may function as a screening test for reading disorders such as developmental dyslexia in children below the age of ten or eleven years old.

  8. The relationship between children's reading motivation and reading competence

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    白晴雪

    2016-01-01

    It has been found that motivation is very important to children's reading competence. This paper intended to study intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and find their relationship with children's reading competence. In order to do so, previous investigations about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were critically reviewed, and their results were discussed in this paper.

  9. Reading assessment and training program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, C.L.

    1991-01-01

    The objective was to ensure ourselves and the general public that the workers in the Nuclear Materials Processing Department (NMPD) could read, follow, and understand procedures. Procedures were randomly selected and analyzed for reading levels. A tenth grade reading level was established as the standard for all NMPD employees. Employees were tested to determine reading levels and approximately 12% could not read at the target level. A Procedure Walk-Through Evaluation was administered to each person not reaching tenth grade reading level. This was a job performance measure given to ensure that the worker was competent in his/her present job, and should remain there while completing reading training. A mandatory Reading Training Program utilizing Computer Based Training was established. This program is self-paced, individualized instruction and provided to the worker on Company time. Results of the CBT Program have been very good. Instruction is supplemented with test-taking skills seminars, practice exams, individual conferences with their own reading specialist, and some self-directed study books. This paper describes the program at Savannah River Site

  10. Reading up on sex: Learning to read. Why sex matters, and whether physical fitness and activity are relevant in reading acquisition

    OpenAIRE

    Tunstad, Hege Jørgensen

    2013-01-01

    When you read this thesis, you rely on a skill you acquired as a child. Most children start at the age of 5-6 years to learn single letters, write their name, and gradually develop the functional skill of decoding strings of letters; in other words, reading. By the age of 10 they are expected to read texts with concentration, endurance, fluency and coherence. The success rate varies, and Norwegian children score slightly above average when reading skills are measured globally, and are better ...

  11. Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Lynne G; McGeown, Sarah P; Griffiths, Yvonne M; Stothard, Susan E; Dobai, Anna

    2016-05-01

    This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13 years) or middle adolescence (14-15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non-fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference-making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

  12. Improve your reading

    CERN Document Server

    Fry, Ron

    2012-01-01

    Help your students discover the practical solution to their reading frustrations, with Improve Your Reading. Written by bestselling author and education advocate Ron Fry, this book avoids gimmicks and tricks in favor of proven strategies that will help your students better retain and comprehend what they've read in any textbook, in any course, at any academic level. Endlessly adaptable to each student's individual learning needs, the text focuses on fundamental skills students can carry beyond the classroom.

  13. Follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down's syndrome: the role of reading skills and listening comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, Chiara

    2011-01-01

    According to the 'Simple View of Reading', reading comprehension requires some abilities such as reading skill and listening comprehension. Individuals with Down's syndrome show relative strengths in reading skills, mainly in word recognition, where they attain a reading age of about 7-8 years. Compared with word recognition, their reading comprehension is usually delayed by at least 6 months. Poor reading comprehension is paralleled by weak listening comprehension. It is claimed that poor listening comprehension might constrain the development of reading comprehension and, therefore, be a cause for the asynchrony between reading skills and reading comprehension. A follow-up study was carried out in order to analyse the improvements in reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension, and to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between listening and reading comprehension. Ten children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, aged between 11 years 3 months and 19 years 10 months, were assessed twice over a one-year period as to their reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (1) reading skills, on the one hand, and comprehension (both listening and reading), on the other hand, are independent; (2) reading comprehension development is determined mainly by listening comprehension, which in the present study proved to be very poor; and (3) an improvement after a one-year period, even though limited, occurred for all examined abilities except for listening comprehension. The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical framework of the 'Simple View of Reading' and of their relevance for practical and educational issues. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

  14. Reading While Listening on Mobile Devices: An Innovative Approach to Enhance Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rochdi, Aicha; Eppard, Jenny

    2017-01-01

    This poster session will describe a study that took place at a university in the United Arab Emirates. The study included a reading app that was downloaded onto each student's individual mobile device. Students could read while listening to the stories. The primary goal of the study was to determine how, if at all, listening while reading in a…

  15. The Role of RAN and Reading Rate in Predicting Reading Self-Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasperski, Ronen; Shany, Michal; Katzir, Tami

    2016-01-01

    Social identity theory states that a person's self-concept is created from comparison with others (Walsh & Gordon, 2008). In the case of reading, oral reading is a salient feature young children have to compare themselves on to their classroom peer group. The current study was set to explore the ability of oral reading tasks such as rapid…

  16. Overlapping genetic and child-specific nonshared environmental influences on listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schenker, Victoria J; Petrill, Stephen A

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the genetic and environmental influences on observed associations between listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Univariate and multivariate quantitative genetic models were conducted in a sample of 284 pairs of twins at a mean age of 9.81 years. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors accounted for statistically significant variance in listening and reading comprehension, and nonshared environmental factors accounted for variance in reading motivation. Furthermore, listening comprehension demonstrated unique genetic and nonshared environmental influences but also had overlapping genetic influences with reading comprehension. Reading motivation and reading comprehension each had unique and overlapping nonshared environmental contributions. Therefore, listening comprehension appears to be related to reading primarily due to genetic factors whereas motivation appears to affect reading via child-specific, nonshared environmental effects. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Overlapping Genetic and Child-Specific Nonshared Environmental Influences on Listening Comprehension, Reading Motivation, and Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schenker, Victoria J.; Petrill, Stephen A.

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the genetic and environmental influences on observed associations between listening comprehension, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Univariate and multivariate quantitative genetic models were conducted in a sample of 284 pairs of twins at a mean age of 9.81 years. Genetic and nonshared environmental factors accounted for statistically significant variance in listening and reading comprehension, and nonshared environmental factors accounted for variance in reading motivation. Furthermore, listening comprehension demonstrated unique genetic and nonshared environmental influences but also had overlapping genetic influences with reading comprehension. Reading motivation and reading comprehension each had unique and overlapping nonshared environmental contributions. Therefore, listening comprehension appears to be related to reading primarily due to genetic factors whereas motivation appears to affect reading via child-specific, nonshared environmental effects. PMID:26321677

  18. AUTHENTIC TEXTS FOR CRITICAL READING ACTIVITIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ila Amalia

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This research takes an action research aimed at promoting critical reading (“thinking” while reading skills using authentic materials among the students. This research also aims to reveal the students perception on using critical reading skills in reading activities. Nineteen English Education Department students who took Reading IV class, participated in this project. There were three cycles with three different critical reading strategies were applied. Meanwhile, the authentic materials were taken from newspaper and internet articles. The result revealed that the use of critical reading strategies along with the use of authentic materials has improved students’ critical reading skills as seen from the improvement of each cycle - the students critical reading skill was 54% (fair in the cycle 1 improved to 68% (average in cycle 2, and 82% (good in cycle 3.. In addition, based on the critical reading skill criteria, the students’ critical reading skill has improved from 40% (nearly meet to 80% (exceed. Meanwhile, from the students’ perception questionnaire, it was shown that 63% students agreed the critical reading activity using authentic text could improve critical thinking and 58% students agreed that doing critical reading activity could improve reading comprehension. The result had the implication that the use of authentic texts could improve students’ critical reading skills if it was taught by performing not lecturing them. Selectively choosing various strategies and materials can trigger students’ activeness in responding to a text, that eventually shape their critical reading skills.

  19. Investigating the Effects of Repeated Reading and NLP : Language Patterns on Reading Rate

    OpenAIRE

    Ben, Backwell; Brian, Cullen

    2018-01-01

    This paper investigates EFL student reading speed and describes a quasi-experimental study that attempted to quantify the effects of repeated reading and the use of NLP language patterns in the instructions. An experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=30) carried out the same timed reading activity three times each lesson for five lessons. The instructions for the experimental group included NLP language patterns designed to promote faster reading. It was shown that the repeated readi...

  20. Enhancing the Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Children with Reading Disabilities in an Orthographically Transparent Language

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snellings, Patrick; van der Leij, Aryan; de Jong, Peter F.; Blok, Henk

    2009-01-01

    Breznitz (2006) demonstrated that Hebrew-speaking adults with reading disabilities benefited from a training in which reading rate was experimentally manipulated. In the present study, the authors examine whether silent reading training enhances the sentence reading rate and comprehension of children with reading disabilities and whether results…

  1. Neuropsychological and cognitive processes in reading

    CERN Document Server

    Pirozzolo, Francis J

    2013-01-01

    Neuropsychological and Cognitive Processes in Reading explores reading and reading disabilities within the context of cognitive psychology and neuropsychology. Emphasis is on the roles of brain mechanisms in reading and reading disturbances. In the areas of perception and cognition, theoretical models of the reading process are used to highlight the various psychological processes involved in the act of skilled reading. Comprised of 12 chapters, this volume begins with an introduction to the fundamental processes of reading, giving particular attention to a psychological theory that builds on two concepts: that the basic processes of reading are few in number, and that they are separable from one another. A useful and testable information-processing model of reading that consists of three separable, fundamental processes - decoding, word meaning, and sentence comprehension - is described. Subsequent chapters deal with some of the external and internal factors involved in reading; a model of disorders of readi...

  2. Monitoring Progress toward Independent Silent Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franc, Lillian H.; Hildebrandt, Jeannette

    1984-01-01

    Concludes, among other things, that fluent oral reading is an important step toward reading for meaning and independent silent reading and that silent reading should be encouraged from the beginning of reading instruction. (FL)

  3. Teachers’ perceptions of reading instruction in selected primary schools in the Eastern Cape

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madoda Cekiso

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Background: There is a general outcry that too many South African Foundation Phase (Grades 1–3 teachers do not know how to teach reading and are currently teaching reading in an ad hoc, unsystematic way. Objectives: In response to this, this study explored the Foundation Phase teachers’ perceptions of their role in teaching reading. The focus was on the relevance of the initial training, awareness of reading strategies and how these strategies were reflected in their classroom practice. Method: The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was followed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine teachers who were purposively selected from three public schools. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Regarding the initial training programme, teachers received at tertiary institutions, the findings of the study showed that the majority of teachers were not adequately prepared to teach reading and to deal with learners who experience problems in reading. Some teachers indicated that they were not even trained to teach in the Foundation Phase. The findings also showed that the majority of respondents doubted if their classroom practice would yield positive results as far as reading instruction is concerned. The findings further indicated that the majority of respondents only paid attention to oral reading (observing punctuation marks and pronunciation, without attending to reading comprehension. There was a general consensus that the new ways of teaching reading were necessary in order to improve the reading ability of learners. Conclusion: Recommendations based on the findings are that institutions of higher learning that train Foundation Phase teachers should do so in ways that adequately equip them to produce student teachers who are knowledgeable about research and theory regarding how individuals learn to read. Workshops on appropriate instruction of reading strategies are recommended for in

  4. Early Identification of Reading Difficulties

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Poulsen, Mads; Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber; Juul, Holger

    2017-01-01

    Early screening for reading difficulties before the onset of instruction is desirable because it allows intervention that is targeted at prevention rather than remediation of reading difficulties. However, early screening may be too inaccurate to effectively allocate resources to those who need...... them. The present study compared the accuracy of early screening before the onset of formal reading instruction with late screening six months into the first year of instruction. The study followed 164 Danish students from the end of Grade 0 to the end of Grade 2. Early screening included measures...... of phonemic awareness, rapid naming, letter knowledge, paired associate learning, and reading. Late screening included only reading. Results indicated that reading measures improved substantially as predictors over the first six months of Grade 1, to the point where late reading measures alone provided...

  5. Overlapping Neural Correlates of Reading Emotionally Positive and Negative Adjectives

    OpenAIRE

    Demirakca, Traute; Herbert, Cornelia; Kissler, Johanna; Ruf, Matthias; Wokrina, Tim; Ende, Gabriele

    2009-01-01

    Comparison of positive and negative naturally read adjectives to neutral adjectives yielded an overlapping higher BOLD response in the occipital and the orbitofrontal cortex (gyrus rectus). Superior medial frontal gyrus and posterior cingulate gyrus showed higher BOLD response to negative adjectives and inferior frontal gyrus to positive adjectives. The overlap of activated regions and lack of pronounced distinct regions supports the assumption that the processing of negative and positive wor...

  6. Mothers' Reading-Related Activities at Home and Learning to Read during Kindergarten

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silinskas, Gintautas; Parrila, Rauno; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Niemi, Pekka; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

    2010-01-01

    This longitudinal study investigates how the reading-related activities of mothers at home relate to the development of reading skills among their kindergarten children. A total of 1,529 children (5-to-6-year-olds) were tested on word reading twice, once at the beginning and once at the end of a kindergarten year. The mothers of the children (n =…

  7. Teaching of reading to school beginners : a study of reading programmes in primary one in Uganda

    OpenAIRE

    Kemizano, Rosert

    2007-01-01

    Abstract The study examines reading programmes with the reference to the teaching/learning of reading to school beginners. The teaching of reading at the early stages is important because it is the quality of the experiences that children get that affect or lay the foundation for reading development (Chall, 1996).Therefore, the phenomenon, “teaching of reading to school beginners” studied is of great importance. The theoretical background used includes reading and its importance, Languag...

  8. Rcount: simple and flexible RNA-Seq read counting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schmid, Marc W; Grossniklaus, Ueli

    2015-02-01

    Analysis of differential gene expression by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is frequently done using feature counts, i.e. the number of reads mapping to a gene. However, commonly used count algorithms (e.g. HTSeq) do not address the problem of reads aligning with multiple locations in the genome (multireads) or reads aligning with positions where two or more genes overlap (ambiguous reads). Rcount specifically addresses these issues. Furthermore, Rcount allows the user to assign priorities to certain feature types (e.g. higher priority for protein-coding genes compared to rRNA-coding genes) or to add flanking regions. Rcount provides a fast and easy-to-use graphical user interface requiring no command line or programming skills. It is implemented in C++ using the SeqAn (www.seqan.de) and the Qt libraries (qt-project.org). Source code and 64 bit binaries for (Ubuntu) Linux, Windows (7) and MacOSX are released under the GPLv3 license and are freely available on github.com/MWSchmid/Rcount. marcschmid@gmx.ch Test data, genome annotation files, useful Python and R scripts and a step-by-step user guide (including run-time and memory usage tests) are available on github.com/MWSchmid/Rcount. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  9. Double versus single reading of mammograms in a breast cancer screening programme: a cost-consequence analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Posso, Margarita C; Puig, Teresa; Quintana, Ma Jesus; Solà-Roca, Judit; Bonfill, Xavier

    2016-09-01

    To assess the costs and health-related outcomes of double versus single reading of digital mammograms in a breast cancer screening programme. Based on data from 57,157 digital screening mammograms from women aged 50-69 years, we compared costs, false-positive results, positive predictive value and cancer detection rate using four reading strategies: double reading with and without consensus and arbitration, and single reading with first reader only and second reader only. Four highly trained radiologists read the mammograms. Double reading with consensus and arbitration was 15 % (Euro 334,341) more expensive than single reading with first reader only. False-positive results were more frequent at double reading with consensus and arbitration than at single reading with first reader only (4.5 % and 4.2 %, respectively; p cancer detection rate were similar for both reading strategies (4.6 and 4.2 per 1000 screens; p = 0.283). Our results suggest that changing to single reading of mammograms could produce savings in breast cancer screening. Single reading could reduce the frequency of false-positive results without changing the cancer detection rate. These results are not conclusive and cannot be generalized to other contexts with less trained radiologists. • Double reading of digital mammograms is more expensive than single reading. • Compared to single reading, double reading yields a higher proportion of false-positive results. • The cancer detection rate was similar for double and single readings. • Single reading may be a cost-effective strategy in breast cancer screening programmes.

  10. Read-To-Write-Tasks” in English for Specific Purposes Classes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galina Kavaliauskienė

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available At university level students face demanding tasks of reading an enormous amount of professional materials in English. Writing various assignments is another challenging part of higher education. Online activities are the priority for conducting assignments at tertiary level. Students usually start doing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP course before learning subject-matters of the future profession, i.e. in their first year. The cornerstone of the ESP is unfamiliar lexis and numerous concepts of subject-matter. In order to succeed, students need to develop proficiency in reading professional texts and writing skillfully on relevant subject issues. The aim of this paper is to study, first, learners‘ attitudes to online reading of professional materials as well as to writing various assignments online and, second, to examine learners‘ self-assessment of proficiency in these skills. Our research employed brief written surveys designed in accordance with the standards in Social Sciences, which were administered to the students doing the ESP course, and the verbal data obtained during individual interviews intended to assess learners‘ success and achievements throughout the academic year. The respondents were the students specializing in psychology at Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. All the participants were unanimous in the importance of writing and reading skills for the ESP tasks. 100% of respondents support reading professional materials, and 80% of respondents support exercising online writing. Self-assessment of reading proficiency demonstrates that 90% of students believe they possess very good or good skills of reading, and 70% of learners are sure of their good skills in writing. Respondents’ performance in these skills is less impressive. Some recommendations towards perfecting students’ proficiency in “read-to-write-tasks” are suggested. It is important to help learners develop better rates of reading

  11. MisReading LIS Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiegand, Wayne

    1997-01-01

    Discusses the need to place a greater emphasis on the subject of reading in library and information science (LIS) education and research. Topics include literacy studies, print culture history, reader-response theory, ethnography of reading, genre fiction and cultural studies, information versus reading, and access to information versus content of…

  12. Early Reading and Concrete Operations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polk, Cindy L. Howes; Goldstein, David

    1980-01-01

    Indicated that early readers are more likely to be advanced in cognitive development than are nonearly-reading peers. After one year of formal reading instruction, early readers maintained their advantage in reading achievement. Measures of concrete operations were found to predict reading achievement for early and nonearly readers. (Author/DB)

  13. A Longitudinal Study of the Role of Reading Motivation in Primary Students' Reading Comprehension: Implications for a Less Simple View of Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cartwright, Kelly B.; Marshall, Timothy R.; Wray, Erica

    2016-01-01

    Although substantial research indicates motivation contributes significant variance to reading comprehension in upper elementary students, research with students in primary grades has focused, instead, on the relation of motivation to word reading. Assessment of reading motivation in 68 first and second graders indicated word and nonword reading…

  14. Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Regarding the Role of Executive Functions in Reading and Arithmetic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shirley Rapoport

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The current study investigated early elementary school teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding the role of Executive Functions in reading and arithmetic. A new research questionnaire was developed and judged by professionals in the academia and the field. Reponses were obtained from 144 teachers from Israel. Factor analysis divided the questionnaire into three valid and reliable subscales, reflecting (1 beliefs regarding the contribution of executive functions to reading and arithmetic, (2 pedagogical practices, and (3 a connection between the cognitive mechanisms of reading and arithmetic. Findings indicate that teachers believe executive functions affect students’ performance in reading and arithmetic. These beliefs were also correlated with pedagogical practices. Additionally, special education teachers’ scored higher on the different subscales compared to general education teachers. These findings shed light on the way teachers perceive the cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic and indicate to which extent these perceptions guide their teaching practices.

  15. Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Regarding the Role of Executive Functions in Reading and Arithmetic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rapoport, Shirley; Rubinsten, Orly; Katzir, Tami

    2016-01-01

    The current study investigated early elementary school teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding the role of Executive Functions (EFs) in reading and arithmetic. A new research questionnaire was developed and judged by professionals in the academia and the field. Reponses were obtained from 144 teachers from Israel. Factor analysis divided the questionnaire into three valid and reliable subscales, reflecting (1) beliefs regarding the contribution of EFs to reading and arithmetic, (2) pedagogical practices, and (3) a connection between the cognitive mechanisms of reading and arithmetic. Findings indicate that teachers believe EFs affect students’ performance in reading and arithmetic. These beliefs were also correlated with pedagogical practices. Additionally, special education teachers’ scored higher on the different subscales compared to general education teachers. These findings shed light on the way teachers perceive the cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic and indicate to which extent these perceptions guide their teaching practices. PMID:27799917

  16. Teachers' Beliefs and Practices Regarding the Role of Executive Functions in Reading and Arithmetic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rapoport, Shirley; Rubinsten, Orly; Katzir, Tami

    2016-01-01

    The current study investigated early elementary school teachers' beliefs and practices regarding the role of Executive Functions (EFs) in reading and arithmetic. A new research questionnaire was developed and judged by professionals in the academia and the field. Reponses were obtained from 144 teachers from Israel. Factor analysis divided the questionnaire into three valid and reliable subscales, reflecting (1) beliefs regarding the contribution of EFs to reading and arithmetic, (2) pedagogical practices, and (3) a connection between the cognitive mechanisms of reading and arithmetic. Findings indicate that teachers believe EFs affect students' performance in reading and arithmetic. These beliefs were also correlated with pedagogical practices. Additionally, special education teachers' scored higher on the different subscales compared to general education teachers. These findings shed light on the way teachers perceive the cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic and indicate to which extent these perceptions guide their teaching practices.

  17. The relationship between component skills, reading experience, and reading comprehension in Danish 3rd graders

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rønberg, Louise Flensted-Jensen; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

    data sets were obtained from 179 Danish Grade 3 pupils. Participants were given a standard reading comprehension test requiring multiple-choice answers to six different texts of various length and type. Orthographic and phonological coding, as well as non-verbal problem solving were assessed by means......Purpose The main aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of aspects of vocabulary, word reading abilities, and reading experience to reading comprehension, and to analyse sub-samples of students with comprehension difficulties. Method The study employed a cross-sectional design. Full......: path, street, road, river). Results Data analyses showed that in the entire sample, skills of semantic lexical structuring and reading experience made strong contributions to reading comprehension. Analyses of the pupils below the 25%-percentile in reading comprehension revealed that for the vast...

  18. Guided Reading and Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hauptman, Allyson L.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between Guided Reading and student motivation to read across fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The study defined literacy motivation as: (a) task value; (b) self-perceived competence; (c) students' perceptions of the Guided Reading format. Factor analysis and repeated measures ANOVAs were…

  19. Operating Classroom Aesthetic Reading Environment to Raise Children's Reading Motivation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Mei-Ju; Cheng, Jui-Ching; Cheng, Ya-Wen

    2016-01-01

    This research aims to explore how preschool educators understand about raising children's reading motivation through operating classroom aesthetic reading environment. With one year qualitative research, sixteen 4-6 years old young were observed and interviewed. The first stage interviews were undergone with environmental guidance. After the…

  20. Reading in a Digital Age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baron, Naomi S.

    2017-01-01

    The many advantages of reading digitally also bring with them implications for how we learn differently when we read differently. The author suggests that new contemporary technologies are changing the very notion of what it means to read. Even millennials acknowledge that their attention is more focused when they read print rather than online.…

  1. Teaching Reading with Puppets.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bennett, Ruth

    The use of traditional stories in American Indian language programs connects students' reading to their lives and familiarizes learners with the rhythms of the oral language. Puppet performances are one way of connecting reading programs to the Native oral tradition. A high school reading lesson in a first-year Hupa language class uses many…

  2. Sex differences in mathematics and reading achievement are inversely related: within- and across-nation assessment of 10 years of PISA data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoet, Gijsbert; Geary, David C

    2013-01-01

    We analyzed one decade of data collected by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), including the mathematics and reading performance of nearly 1.5 million 15 year olds in 75 countries. Across nations, boys scored higher than girls in mathematics, but lower than girls in reading. The sex difference in reading was three times as large as in mathematics. There was considerable variation in the extent of the sex differences between nations. There are countries without a sex difference in mathematics performance, and in some countries girls scored higher than boys. Boys scored lower in reading in all nations in all four PISA assessments (2000, 2003, 2006, 2009). Contrary to several previous studies, we found no evidence that the sex differences were related to nations' gender equality indicators. Further, paradoxically, sex differences in mathematics were consistently and strongly inversely correlated with sex differences in reading: Countries with a smaller sex difference in mathematics had a larger sex difference in reading and vice versa. We demonstrate that this was not merely a between-nation, but also a within-nation effect. This effect is related to relative changes in these sex differences across the performance continuum: We did not find a sex difference in mathematics among the lowest performing students, but this is where the sex difference in reading was largest. In contrast, the sex difference in mathematics was largest among the higher performing students, and this is where the sex difference in reading was smallest. The implication is that if policy makers decide that changes in these sex differences are desired, different approaches will be needed to achieve this for reading and mathematics. Interventions that focus on high-achieving girls in mathematics and on low achieving boys in reading are likely to yield the strongest educational benefits.

  3. The Inculcation of Loving Reading Quran Values at the Reading Quran Institution, Home, and Community

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wirdanengsih Wirdanengsih

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was intended to describe the value of loving reading Al-Quran that was implemented by three education centers; Reading Quran Insitution Awaliyah, Family and Community Education for children between 9-12 years old in Nagari Balai Gurah. Also, this research was to discover how is the implementation of loving reading Al-Quran values and who are involved in it.  The result indicated that the implementation of the values of loving reading Al-Quran basically used surveillance approaches and guidance from the tutors, parents, and community in Reading Al-Quran. The socialization pattern that was used in implementing the value of love reading Al-Quran at Reading Quran Institution and family tended to use flexible patterns between authoritative and permissive patterns. Parties who involved in implementing the value of loving reading Al-Quran were the Awaliyah Institution, teacher and management, and family consisting of fathers, mothers, siblings, and grandparents. The uniqueness came from the roles of cultural social values in the community stating children who did not learn and love Al-Quran will be an embarrassment to the family. Moreover, the ceremony of Khatam Quran became the strong factor for children in implementing loving reading Al-Quran, due to this ceremony there was a process of social acknowledgement to the children who love reading Al-Quran.

  4. Nurturing a lexical legacy: reading experience is critical for the development of word reading skill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nation, Kate

    2017-12-01

    The scientific study of reading has taught us much about the beginnings of reading in childhood, with clear evidence that the gateway to reading opens when children are able to decode, or `sound out' written words. Similarly, there is a large evidence base charting the cognitive processes that characterise skilled word recognition in adults. Less understood is how children develop word reading expertise. Once basic reading skills are in place, what factors are critical for children to move from novice to expert? This paper outlines the role of reading experience in this transition. Encountering individual words in text provides opportunities for children to refine their knowledge about how spelling represents spoken language. Alongside this, however, reading experience provides much more than repeated exposure to individual words in isolation. According to the lexical legacy perspective, outlined in this paper, experiencing words in diverse and meaningful language environments is critical for the development of word reading skill. At its heart is the idea that reading provides exposure to words in many different contexts, episodes and experiences which, over time, sum to a rich and nuanced database about their lexical history within an individual's experience. These rich and diverse encounters bring about local variation at the word level: a lexical legacy that is measurable during word reading behaviour, even in skilled adults.

  5. Device-independent quantum reading and noise-assisted quantum transmitters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roga, W; Buono, D; Illuminati, F

    2015-01-01

    In quantum reading, a quantum state of light (transmitter) is applied to read classical information. In the presence of noise or for sufficiently weak signals, quantum reading can outperform classical reading by reason of enhanced state distinguishability. Here we show that enhanced quantum efficiency depends on the presence in the transmitter of a particular type of quantum correlations, the discord of response. Different encodings and transmitters give rise to different levels of efficiency. Considering noisy quantum probes, we show that squeezed thermal transmitters with non-symmetrically distributed noise among the field modes yield higher quantum efficiency compared with coherent thermal quantum states. The noise-enhanced quantum advantage is a consequence of the discord of response being a non-decreasing function of increasing thermal noise under constant squeezing, a behavior that leads to increased state distinguishability. We finally show that, for non-symmetric squeezed thermal states, the probability of error, as measured by the quantum Chernoff bound, vanishes asymptotically with increasing local thermal noise with finite global squeezing. Therefore, with fixed finite squeezing, noisy but strongly discordant quantum states with a large noise imbalance between the field modes can outperform noisy classical resources as well as pure entangled transmitters with the same finite level of squeezing. (paper)

  6. Reading, syntactic, orthographic, and working memory skills of bilingual Arabic-English speaking Canadian children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abu-Rabia, Salim; Siegel, Linda S

    2002-11-01

    This study assessed the reading, language, and memory skills of 56 bilingual Arab-Canadian children age's 9-14. English was their main instructional language, and Arabic was the language spoken at home. All children attended a Heritage Language Program in Toronto where they were taught to read and write Arabic. The children were administered word and pseudo-word reading, language, and working memory tests in English and Arabic. The majority of the children showed at least adequate proficiency in both languages. There was a significant relationship between the acquisition of word and pseudo-word reading working memory, and syntactic awareness skills in the two languages. The poor readers in Arabic had lower scores on all linguistic tasks, except the visual task. There were no significant differences between bilingual English Arabic children and monolingual English-speaking children on the reading, language, and memory tasks. However, bilingual English Arabic children who had reading problems in English had higher scores on English pseudo-word reading and spelling tasks than monolingual English-speaking children with reading disabilities, probably because of positive transfer from the regular nature of Arabic orthography. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to have negative consequences for the development of language reading skills in both languages--Arabic and English--despite the different nature of the two orthographies.

  7. Do You Read Me? Service Supplement: Reading Development Activities Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kendall, Elizabeth L.; Chenoweth, Roberta

    This activity guide is one of four supplements to be used with "Do You Read Me? Prevocational-Vocational Reading Development Activities" (ED 210 454). Each supplement deals with a different occupational category. Games, puzzles, and other activities are offered to aid in developing the word recognition, vocabulary, and comprehension…

  8. Measuring the Effects of Reading Assistance Dogs on Reading Ability and Attitudes in Elementary Schoolchildren

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenihan, Dawn; McCobb, Emily; Diurba, Amanda; Linder, Deborah; Freeman, Lisa

    2016-01-01

    Reading assistance dogs can be incorporated into reading programs to increase a child's desire and ability to read. However, more data is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of such programs. A 5-week reading assistance dog program was implemented to assess feasibility and effectiveness. Participants included 18 children entering the 2nd grade…

  9. Reading for Understanding: Towards an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Snow, Catherine

    2001-01-01

    This draft report from the Rand Reading Study Group (RRSG)1 formulates an initial proposal concerning the research issues that the community of reading researchers most urgently needs to address over the next 10-15 years...

  10. From a WebQuest to a ReadingQuest: learners' reactions in an EFL extensive reading class

    OpenAIRE

    Barros, Ana Cláudia; Amorim Carvalho, Ana Amélia

    2007-01-01

    Most students don’t like reading in a foreign language. They find it a difficult task, mainly due to the high number of unknown words they encounter when reading a text. They consider reading classes boring and uninteresting and as a result our students are poor readers. Concerned with this situation, we conducted a study on the impact of a learning environment based on the WebQuest, a ReadingQuest, and on student engagement in an extensive reading task. The results show that the ReadingQuest...

  11. Reliable and redundant FPGA based read-out design in the ATLAS TileCal Demonstrator

    CERN Document Server

    Åkerstedt, Henrik; The ATLAS collaboration; Drake, Gary; Anderson, Kelby; Bohm, Christian; Oreglia, Mark; Tang, Fukun

    2015-01-01

    The Tile Calorimeter at ATLAS is a hadron calorimeter based on steel plates and scintillating tiles read out by PMTs. The current read-out system uses standard ADCs and custom ASICs to digitize and temporarily store the data on the detector. However, only a subset of the data is actually read out to the counting room. The on-detector electronics will be replaced around 2023. To achieve the required reliability the upgraded system will be highly redundant. Here the ASICs will be replaced with Kintex-7 FPGAs from Xilinx. This, in addition to the use of multiple 10 Gbps optical read-out links, will allow a full read-out of all detector data. Due to the higher radiation levels expected when the beam luminosity is increased, opportunities for repairs will be less frequent. The circuitry and firmware must therefore be designed for sufficiently high reliability using redundancy and radiation tolerant components. Within a year, a hybrid demonstrator including the new read-out system will be installed in one slice of ...

  12. Dynamic Testing, Working Memory, and Reading Comprehension Growth in Children with Reading Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swanson, H. Lee

    2011-01-01

    This longitudinal study assessed (a) whether performance changes in working memory (WM) as a function of dynamic testing were related to growth in reading comprehension and (b) whether WM performance among subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD; children with RD only, children with both reading and arithmetic deficits, and low verbal…

  13. Free Reading Is UTOPIA

    Science.gov (United States)

    LeCrone, Nancy

    2010-01-01

    In high school students get tied up in extracurricular activities and have little time for pleasure reading. It is true that with rigorous academic schedules they have little time for pleasure reading. Thus began a conversation with a sophomore English teacher at the author's high school. As they were discussing the plight of free reading he was…

  14. Readability and Reading Ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Benjamin D.; Stenner, A. Jackson

    This document discusses the measurement of reading ability and the readability of books by application of the Lexile framework. It begins by stating the importance of uniform measures. It then discusses the history of reading ability testing, based on the assumption that no researcher has been able to measure more than one kind of reading ability.…

  15. Automatic and creative skills in reading Automatic and creative skills in reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leonor Scliar Cabral

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available In this article I will discuss the automatic and creative skills in reading, focusing on the differences between 1 processes involved while learning how to read and processes employed by the proficient reader and 2 knowledge for using language and metalinguistic awareness. The arguments will derive mainly from the definition of reading as a process where the receivers combine the information extracted from the written material with their specialized knowledge activated during this process (i.e. linguistic systems and correspondent rules and enciclopedic knowledge in order to comprehend, interpret and internalize structured new information and/or to experience aesthetic pleasure. Evidence to illustrate the arguments comes from experiments (1 with pre-school children and beginning readers on narrativity and on the dichotic paradigm, and with illiterate and literate adults with diferent levels of proficiency of reading in a task of erasing an initial syllable and an initial consonant. In this article I will discuss the automatic and creative skills in reading, focusing on the differences between 1 processes involved while learning how to read and processes employed by the proficient reader and 2 knowledge for using language and metalinguistic awareness. The arguments will derive mainly from the definition of reading as a process where the receivers combine the information extracted from the written material with their specialized knowledge activated during this process (i.e. linguistic systems and correspondent rules and enciclopedic knowledge in order to comprehend, interpret and internalize structured new information and/or to experience aesthetic pleasure. Evidence to illustrate the arguments comes from experiments (1 with pre-school children and beginning readers on narrativity and on the dichotic paradigm, and with illiterate and literate adults with diferent levels of proficiency of reading in a task of erasing an initial syllable

  16. ENGLISH IN INDONESIAN ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION: Examining The Relationship between Performance in The Yes/No Test and Reading Skills

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sahiruddin Sahiruddin

    2008-12-01

    Full Text Available This study examines the relationship between performance in the Yes/No test of English recognition vocabulary and reading skills in Indonesian Islamic learners of English as a foreign language (EFL. Participants in the study were 83 Indonesian undergraduate students, comprising an Advanced group (n=41 and Intermediate group (n=42 of EFL learners enrolled in the English department at the State Islamic University (UIN of Malang, Indonesia. All participants completed both tests. The results reveal that the hits accuracy performance between the Advanced EFL group and the Intermediate EFL group was statistically significant, indicating that Yes/No test performance, in context of hits accuracy, did discriminate between levels of English proficiency. However, the differences disappeared with corrected scores since both groups indicated a high false alarm rate. In addition, this study also reveals that there was no evidence of a relationship between Yes/No performance and reading scores. Several pedagogical implications for EFL language teachers are discussed.

  17. Lexical-Semantic Processing and Reading: Relations between Semantic Priming, Visual Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobre, Alexandre de Pontes; de Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate relations between lexical-semantic processing and two components of reading: visual word recognition and reading comprehension. Sixty-eight children from private schools in Porto Alegre, Brazil, from 7 to 12 years, were evaluated. Reading was assessed with a word/nonword reading task and a reading…

  18. TRAINING FUTURE TEACHERS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL FOR TEACHING RATIONAL READING TO PRIMARY SCHOOLCHILDREN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliia Rudichieva

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The main task of a modern pedagogical institution is a teacher’s professional training, who is able to provide comprehensive development of an individual as a personality and a supreme value of a society. Forming skills and abilities, and in the broad sense – competences – is becoming the principal aim of the higher education. The analysis of books on psychology and pedagogy allows to reveal various approaches to defining the concept of ‘reading’, mechanism of reading. In accordance with the level of reading skill formation, four types of reading have been defined: reading of letters, syllables, words, and concepts. The components of the reading skill, namely semantic and technical have been detailed. The criterion for assessing the semantic component of reading skills is the coefficient of material assimilation. The technical component of the reading skills (reading technique is presented by the way of reading, correctness, expressiveness, and speed. In the article we use as a basis the term introduced by O. Andrieiev and L. Khromov – ‘rational reading’, which is interpreted as continuous reading of a text, that ensures complete and qualitative mastering of the read text and is performed by non-traditional methods. The criterion for assessing the level of the formation of the reading skills is the performance of reading – an integrated indicator that takes into account both the quantitative and qualitative assessment and the amount of material absorbed per unit of time. The degree of primary school teachers’ rational reading skills has been studied and presented. The analysis of the obtained results proves low performance indicators in the students’ group. Along with the high speed of reading, the level of content assimilation is very low (45%. Even low reading speed does not ensure full comprehension. It is advisable to inform future teachers of the skills of rational reading which contributes to forming the skills of

  19. Language arts achievement level, attitude survey format, and adolescents' attitudes towards reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, L R; Ryan, B E

    1997-01-01

    The joint effects of student achievement level and attitude survey format upon attitudes toward reading were investigated. Sixth-grade students completed reading attitude surveys involving a standard Likert-type format or one involving pictures of the comic strip character, Garfield. The survey items were identical for both formats; only the presentation format was varied. There was no significant main effect on attitude responses due to achievement level, but the main effect due to survey format was significant, with the Likert-type format producing significantly higher attitude responses than the Garfield format. The interaction between achievement level and format also was significant, with above average students and average students giving higher attitude responses than did below average students when the Garfield format was used. When the Likert-type format was used, average students and below average students gave higher attitude responses than did above average students. The results imply that attitude responses of adolescents can be manipulated by varying the format of the survey.

  20. Reading motivation in elementary school students

    OpenAIRE

    Sonja Pečjak; Nataša Bucik

    2005-01-01

    Reading motivation is one of the crucial factors of reading and consequently also learning efficiency of students. The purpose of the contribution is to establish the connection between dimensions of reading motivation and reading achievement in elementary school students. Participating in the study were 1073 third-grade and 1282 seventh-grade students. We used the questionnaire of reading motivation which consists of two factors: the reading competence factor and the interest and perceived r...

  1. The Effect of Four Different Approaches to Parent-Child Reading on Young Chinese Children's Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Feng

    2016-01-01

    Forty families with four- to five-year-old Chinese children were chosen as experiment participants and equally divided into four groups for an eight-week parent-child reading experiment in different reading modes. (1) Groups A, B, and C read one of three kinds of Chinese-English audio bilingual picture books respectively: touch reading books,…

  2. Evaluating the Efficacy of Using a Digital Reading Environment to Improve Reading Comprehension within a Reading Clinic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ortlieb, Evan; Sargent, Stephan; Moreland, Meagan

    2014-01-01

    This study examined the effectiveness of using the online digital reading environment to increase elementary students' comprehension within a reading clinic. Preservice teachers at a four-year university in the Midwest worked one-on-one with 58 fourth-grade students from three schools who were assigned to one of three conditions: print-based text…

  3. Analysis of EFL Students' Ability in Reading Vocabulary of Synonyms and Antonyms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vina Fathira

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Reading is an important thing for academic level. Every student must have many vocabularies to encourage her/his reading skill. The aim of this research is to analyze the students' understanding of reading vocabularies of synonyms and antonyms in the higher education level. Synonyms and antonyms are two important things should be mastered to get better reading comprehension. The method used in this research was quantitative with survey design. The population same as the sample of this research was from fifth semester students of STIBA Persada Bunda Pekanbaru. The procedures of the research were divided into 3 parts. First, students were asked to choose the best choice in the multiple choice for synonyms and anton, number and the wrong number, and grouped the wrong number into difficulties level. Last, the researcher analyzed the students' ability in reading vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms and concluded the result of students' ability in reading vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms in elementary, intermediate, and advanced level. The result of this research showed that the students' ability in reading vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms was categorized into "excellent" level with mean score 85. From the three difficulties level of question, the findings of this research were explained every level of question. In synonyms, the mean score of students' ability were 89, 85, and 84 for elementary, intermediate, and advanced level of question. Whereas, in antonyms, the mean score of students' ability were 97, 85, and 69 for elementary, intermediate, and advanced level of question.Keywords: students' ability, reading vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms

  4. Simple View of Reading in Down's syndrome: the role of listening comprehension and reading skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roch, Maja; Levorato, M Chiara

    2009-01-01

    According to the 'Simple View of Reading' (Hoover and Gough 1990), individual differences in reading comprehension are accounted for by decoding skills and listening comprehension, each of which makes a unique and specific contribution. The current research was aimed at testing the Simple View of Reading in individuals with Down's syndrome and comparing their profiles with typically developing first graders. Listening comprehension and the ability to read both words and non-words was compared in two groups with the same level of reading comprehension: 23 individuals with Down's syndrome aged between 11 years 3 months and 18 years 2 months and 23 first-grade typically developing children aged between 6 years 2 months and 7 years 4 months. The results indicate that at the same level of reading comprehension, individuals with Down's syndrome have less developed listening comprehension and more advanced word recognition than typically developing first graders. A comparison of the profiles of the two groups revealed that reading comprehension level was predicted by listening comprehension in both groups of participants and by word-reading skills only in typically developing children. The Simple View of Reading model is confirmed for individuals with Down's syndrome, although they do not show the reading profile of typically developing first graders; rather, they show an atypical profile similar to that of 'poor comprehenders' (Cain and Oakhill 2006). The crucial role of listening comprehension in Down's syndrome is also discussed with reference to the educational implications.

  5. Physiological patterns during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique compared with patterns while reading Sanskrit and a modern language.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Travis, F; Olson, T; Egenes, T; Gupta, H K

    2001-07-01

    This study tested the prediction that reading Vedic Sanskrit texts, without knowledge of their meaning, produces a distinct physiological state. We measured EEG, breath rate, heart rate, and skin conductance during: (1) 15-min Transcendental Meditation (TM) practice; (2) 15-min reading verses of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit; and (3) 15-min reading the same verses translated in German, Spanish, or French. The two reading conditions were randomly counterbalanced, and subjects filled out experience forms between each block to reduce carryover effects. Skin conductance levels significantly decreased during both reading Sanskrit and TM practice, and increased slightly during reading a modern language. Alpha power and coherence were significantly higher when reading Sanskrit and during TM practice, compared to reading modern languages. Similar physiological patterns when reading Sanskrit and during practice of the TM technique suggests that the state gained during TM practice may be integrated with active mental processes by reading Sanskrit.

  6. Enhancing Reading Comprehension of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners through Task-based Reading Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vahid Fallah Golchin

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Language learning has experienced a shift of focus from a form-focused to a meaning-focused approach, and the necessity of using task-based learning, a relatively recent approach, has emerged. The vital role of task-based materials makes it obligatory not to exclude them from the language learning syllabi.  The current study aims at investigating whether task-based reading can contribute significantly to the development of reading comprehension of Iranian advanced EFL learners of English. An experimental study was carried out in order to scrutinize the applicability of task-based language teaching. To this end, 60 female advanced EFL learners, selected from among a pool of 100 learners, were assigned equally and randomly into two groups of thirty, consisting of an experimental and a control group. The selection of the participants was based on the results of a standard and piloted version of Paper-based TOEFL. The participant’s mean age was about 23, ranging from 20 to 27 years of age. Both groups received a pretest and a post-test of reading. During the treatment period the experimental group received task-based reading activities while the control group received reading instructions through traditional methods. The impact of the treatment upon the reading comprehension ability of the participants was analyzed through an independent-samples t-test, and comparisons between groups were made. The results clearly indicated the development of reading comprehension ability of the participants in the first group (the experimental group through the application of task-based reading activities.

  7. Reading and reading instruction for children from low-income and non-English-speaking households.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesaux, Nonie K

    2012-01-01

    Although most young children seem to master reading skills in the early grades of elementary school, many struggle with texts as they move through middle school and high school. Why do children who seem to be proficient readers in third grade have trouble comprehending texts in later grades? To answer this question, Nonie Lesaux describes what is known about reading development and instruction, homing in on research conducted with children from low-income and non-English-speaking homes. Using key insights from this research base, she offers two explanations. The first is that reading is a dynamic and multifaceted process that requires continued development if students are to keep pace with the increasing demands of school texts and tasks. The second lies in the role of reading assessment and instruction in U.S. schools. Lesaux draws a distinction between the "skills-based competencies" that readers need to sound out and recognize words and the "knowledge-based competencies" that include the conceptual and vocabulary knowledge necessary to comprehend a text's meaning. Although U.S. schools have made considerable progress in teaching skills-based reading competencies that are the focus of the early grades, most have made much less progress in teaching the knowledge-based competencies students need to support reading comprehension in middle and high school. These knowledge-based competencies are key sources of lasting individual differences in reading outcomes, particularly among children growing up in low-income and non-English-speaking households. Augmenting literacy rates, Lesaux explains, will require considerable shifts in the way reading is assessed and taught in elementary and secondary schools. First, schools must conduct comprehensive reading assessments that discern learners' (potential) sources of reading difficulties--in both skills-based and knowledge-based competencies. Second, educators must implement instructional approaches that offer promise for

  8. Improving Efl Students' Reading Comprehension And Students' Perception On Metacognitive Reading Strategies

    OpenAIRE

    Linda, Kristina; Regina; Sutapa,, Y. Gatot

    2015-01-01

    The aims of this study were improving EFL students' reading comprehension by using Metacognitive Reading Strategies and finding out the students' perceptions on Metacognitive Reading Strategies. The method of the research was a classroom action research. The research subjects were 29 students majoring in Accounting Program class 3 of Year-10. This research was conducted in three cycles to maximize the students' improvement in comprehending the text. The findings of data collecting revealed th...

  9. Children Reading to Dogs: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sophie Susannah Hall

    Full Text Available Despite growing interest in the value of human-animal interactions (HAI to human mental and physical health the quality of the evidence on which postulated benefits from animals to human psychological health are based is often unclear. To date there exist no systematic reviews on the effects of HAI in educational settings specifically focussing on the perceived benefits to children of reading to dogs. With rising popularity and implementation of these programmes in schools, it is essential that the evidence base exploring the pedagogic value of these initiatives is well documented.Using PRISMA guidelines we systematically investigated the literature reporting the pedagogic effects of reading to dogs. Because research in this area is in the early stages of scientific enquiry we adopted broad inclusion criteria, accepting all reports which discussed measurable effects related to the topic that were written in English. Multiple online databases were searched during January-March 2015; grey literature searches were also conducted. The search results which met the inclusion criteria were evaluated, and discussed, in relation to the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine levels of evidence; 27 papers were classified as Level 5, 13 as Level 4, 7 as Level 2c and 1 as Level 2b.The evidence suggests that reading to a dog may have a beneficial effect on a number of behavioural processes which contribute to a positive effect on the environment in which reading is practiced, leading to improved reading performance. However, the evidence base on which these inferences are made is of low quality. There is a clear need for the use of higher quality research methodologies and the inclusion of appropriate controls in order to draw causal inferences on whether or how reading to dogs may benefit children's reading practices. The mechanisms for any effect remain a matter of conjecture.

  10. Children Reading to Dogs: A Systematic Review of the Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Sophie Susannah; Gee, Nancy R; Mills, Daniel Simon

    2016-01-01

    Despite growing interest in the value of human-animal interactions (HAI) to human mental and physical health the quality of the evidence on which postulated benefits from animals to human psychological health are based is often unclear. To date there exist no systematic reviews on the effects of HAI in educational settings specifically focussing on the perceived benefits to children of reading to dogs. With rising popularity and implementation of these programmes in schools, it is essential that the evidence base exploring the pedagogic value of these initiatives is well documented. Using PRISMA guidelines we systematically investigated the literature reporting the pedagogic effects of reading to dogs. Because research in this area is in the early stages of scientific enquiry we adopted broad inclusion criteria, accepting all reports which discussed measurable effects related to the topic that were written in English. Multiple online databases were searched during January-March 2015; grey literature searches were also conducted. The search results which met the inclusion criteria were evaluated, and discussed, in relation to the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine levels of evidence; 27 papers were classified as Level 5, 13 as Level 4, 7 as Level 2c and 1 as Level 2b. The evidence suggests that reading to a dog may have a beneficial effect on a number of behavioural processes which contribute to a positive effect on the environment in which reading is practiced, leading to improved reading performance. However, the evidence base on which these inferences are made is of low quality. There is a clear need for the use of higher quality research methodologies and the inclusion of appropriate controls in order to draw causal inferences on whether or how reading to dogs may benefit children's reading practices. The mechanisms for any effect remain a matter of conjecture.

  11. Reading and company

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kuzmičová, Anežka; Dias, Patrícia; Vogrinčič Čepič, Ana

    2017-01-01

    in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments....... Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential...

  12. THE EFFECT OF A READING COMPREHENSION SOFTWARE PROGRAM ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN MATHEMATICS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David E. Proudfoot

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In an effort to increase student achievement, research was conducted to determine the degree in which a reading comprehension software program effected the reading and math abilities of fourth and fifth grade students. Cognitive and educational studies were examined to select a reading comprehension software program as an intervention that would produce positive results in reading comprehension and possibly transfer positive results to achievement in other academic areas, specifically in math. The effects of the intervention were measured by assigning subjects to an experimental group. The total sample consisted of 39 students who were deficient in reading comprehension, and also exposed a significant weakness with word problem items on mathematical assessments. Four instruments were used to collect data before and after the treatment to measure student achievement. To determine the degree to which the software program effected student achievement, data from the four instruments were analyzed using SPSS software. A paired-samples dependent t test and a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was computed with ratio level data to test for a correlation between increased math scores and reading comprehension scores. Results yielded statistically significant and positive results in increasing reading comprehension skills that could possibly benefit students in reading and understanding mathematical problems. Results did not conclusively support that the increase of reading-comprehension skills had a collateral effect on students scoring higher with math word problems. The results are conducive to providing insight to educational leaders who plan to implement software as a means for increasing student achievement.

  13. TEACHING READING USING MAGAZINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henny Uswatun Hasanah

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Teaching is a process of communication. It has to be created through the way of teaching and exchanging the message or information by every teacher and student. The message can be knowledge, skills, ideas, experiences, and many others. Through the process of communication, the people can receive the message or information. To avoid misunderstanding in the process of communication, media are needed in the process of teaching. Magazine can be other alternative as reading material in the classroom. Magazine as reading material has appeal for the students. To make the students get information from magazine, the teacher can ask the students to observe table of content and giving the students training to use it. Like, what is done on text book. Distinguishing informative reading material with fictive reading, important to know students in reading magazine. Like analyzing advertisements to detect propaganda.

  14. Assistive technology as reading interventions for children with reading impairments with a one-year follow-up.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindeblad, Emma; Nilsson, Staffan; Gustafson, Stefan; Svensson, Idor

    2017-10-01

    This pilot study investigated the possible transfer effect on reading ability in children with reading difficulties after a systematic intervention to train and compensate for reading deficiencies by using applications in smartphones and tablets. The effects of using assistive technology (AT) one year after the interventions were completely studied. School related motivation, independent learning and family relations were also considered. 35 pupils aged 10-12 years participated. They were assessed five times with reading tests. The participants, their parents and teachers were surveyed with questionnaires regarding their experience of using AT. The data from the assessments were analyzed with paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using content analysis. The paper shows that using AT can create transfer effects on reading ability one year after the interventions were finished. This means that reading impaired children may develop at the same rate as non-impaired readers. Also, increased school motivation and an increase in independent learning and family effects have been shown. This paper provides implications in how to facilitate reading impaired pupils' learning process and realizes the need to challenge the concept of reading to change to fit modern means of gaining information. Implications for rehabilitation Children with reading impairment could benefit from assistive technology in regards of their reading development process and increase their chances of not falling behind peers. Assistive technology as applications in smartphones and tablets may aid children with reading impairment to have an equal platform for learning in school as their peers without reading difficulties. Assistive technology could facilitate the information gaining process and subsequently increase motivation to learn and increase interest in reading activities. Assistive technology had wider effects on its users: stigmatizing

  15. Technology tools to support reading in the digital age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biancarosa, Gina; Griffiths, Gina G

    2012-01-01

    Advances in digital technologies are dramatically altering the texts and tools available to teachers and students. These technological advances have created excitement among many for their potential to be used as instructional tools for literacy education. Yet with the promise of these advances come issues that can exacerbate the literacy challenges identified in the other articles in this issue. In this article Gina Biancarosa and Gina Griffiths characterize how literacy demands have changed in the digital age and how challenges identified in other articles in the issue intersect with these new demands. Rather than seeing technology as something to be fit into an already crowded education agenda, Biancarosa and Griffiths argue that technology can be conceptualized as affording tools that teachers can deploy in their quest to create young readers who possess the higher levels of literacy skills and background knowledge demanded by today's information-based society. Biancarosa and Griffiths draw on research to highlight some of the ways technology has been used to build the skills and knowledge needed both by children who are learning to read and by those who have progressed to reading to learn. In their review of the research, Biancarosa and Griffiths focus on the hardware and software used to display and interface with digital text, or what they term e-reading technology. Drawing on studies of e-reading technology and computer technology more broadly, they also reflect on the very real, practical challenges to optimal use of e-reading technology. The authors conclude by presenting four recommendations to help schools and school systems meet some of the challenges that come with investing in e-reading technology: use only technologies that support Universal Design for Learning; choose evidence-based tools; provide technology users with systemic supports; and capitalize on the data capacities and volume of information that technology provides.

  16. Effect of phonological and morphological awareness on reading comprehension in Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schiff, Rachel; Schwartz-Nahshon, Sarit; Nagar, Revital

    2011-06-01

    This research explored phonological and morphological awareness among Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) and its effect on reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities. Participants included 39 seventh graders with RD and two matched control groups of normal readers: 40 seventh graders matched for chronological age (CA) and 38 third graders matched for reading age (RA). We assessed phonological awareness, word reading, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. Findings indicated that the RD group performed similarly to the RA group on phonological awareness but lower on phonological decoding. On the decontextualized morphological task, RD functioned on par with RA, whereas in a contextualized task RD performed above RA but lower than CA. In reading comprehension, RD performed as well as RA. Finally, results indicated that for normal readers contextual morphological awareness uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities, whereas no such unique contribution emerged for the RD group. The absence of an effect of morphological awareness in predicting reading comprehension was suggested to be related to a different recognition process employed by RD readers which hinder the ability of these readers to use morphosemantic structures. The lexical quality hypothesis was proposed as further support to the findings, suggesting that a low quality of lexical representation in RD students leads to ineffective reading skills and comprehension. Lexical representation is thus critical for both lexical as well as comprehension abilities.

  17. Interaction Quality during Partner Reading

    OpenAIRE

    Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Schwanenflugel, Paula J.; Bradley, Barbara A.; Stahl, Steven A.

    2004-01-01

    The influence of social relationships, positive interdependence, and teacher structure on the quality of partner reading interactions was examined. Partner reading, a scripted cooperative learning strategy, is often used in classrooms to promote the development of fluent and automatic reading skills. Forty-three pairs of second grade children were observed during partner reading sessions taking place in 12 classrooms. The degree to which the partners displayed social cooperation (instrumental...

  18. Writing and reading in the electronic health record: an entirely new world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauri Lopp

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: Electronic health records (EHRs are structured, distributed documentation systems that differ from paper charts. These systems require skills not traditionally used to navigate a paper chart and to produce a written clinic note. Despite these differences, little attention has been given to physicians’ electronic health record (EHR-writing and -reading competence. Purposes: This study aims to investigate physicians’ self-assessed competence to document and to read EHR notes; writing and reading preferences in an EHR; and demographic characteristics associated with their perceived EHR ability and preference. Methods: Fourteen 5-point Likert scale items, based on EHR system characteristics and a literature review, were developed to measure EHR-writing and -reading competence and preference. Physicians in the midwest region of the United States were invited via e-mail to complete the survey online from February to April 2011. Factor analysis and reliability testing were conducted to provide validity and reliability of the instrument. Correlation and regression analysis were conducted to pursue answers to the research questions. Results: Ninety-one physicians (12.5%, from general and specialty fields, working in inpatient and outpatient settings, participated in the survey. Despite over 3 years of EHR experience, respondents perceived themselves to be incompetent in EHR writing and reading (Mean = 2.74, SD = 0.76. They preferred to read succinct, narrative notes in EHR systems. However, physicians with higher perceived EHR-writing and -reading competence had less preference toward reading succinct (r= − 0.33, p<0.001 and narrative (r= − 0.36, p<0.001 EHR notes than physicians with lower perceived EHR competence. Physicians’ perceived EHR-writing and -reading competence was strongly related to their EHR navigation skills (r=0.55, p<0.0001. Conclusions: Writing and reading EHR documentation is different for physicians. Maximizing

  19. Using Cooperative Learning In Teaching Critical Thinking In Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anit Pranita Devi

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates how cooperative learning facilitates students in learning critical thinking in reading and to find out the benefits and challenges during the implementation of cooperative learning in one vocational school in Cimahi. A case study is utilized by using instruments of classroom observations, questionnaires, semi structured interview and students’ written tests. The findings show that the implementation of cooperative learning facilitates students develop their critical thinking and enhance critical thinking dispositions in reading. Three features which contribute to the development of students’ critical thinking in reading are: the encouragement of student-student interaction; the provision of group purposes; and the provision of stimulus to the students’ development of thought and ideas. The aforementioned features promote benefits which involved higher motivation and involvement, increased opportunity for language use, and developed interpersonal relationship. Nevertheless, these benefits are constrained by the availability of time, students’ English proficiency, and students’ contribution to the groupwork. It is recommended that further researchers conduct the similar study in a longer period to make sure that the key elements of cooperative learning are well-structured.

  20. Functional anatomy of listening and reading comprehension during development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berl, Madison M; Duke, Elizabeth S; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R; Moore, Erin N; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J; Gaillard, William Davis

    2010-08-01

    Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task performance on fMRI activation and hemispheric laterality. Areas of supramodal language processing are identified, with the most robust region being left-lateralized activation along the superior temporal sulcus. Functionally, this conjunction has a role in semantic and syntactic processing, leading us to refer to this conjunction as "comprehension cortex." Different from adults, supramodal areas for children include less extensive inferior frontal gyrus but more extensive right cerebellum and right temporal pole. Broader neuroanatomical pathways are recruited for reading, reflecting the more active processing and larger set of cognitive demands needed for reading compared to listening to stories. ROI analyses reveal that reading is a less lateralized language task than listening in inferior frontal and superior temporal areas, which likely reflects the difficulty of the task as children in this study are still developing their reading skills. For listening to stories, temporal activation is stable by age four with no correlations with age, neuropsychological skills or post-task performance. In contrast, frontal activation during listening to stories occurs more often in older children, and frontal activation is positively correlated with better performance on comprehension questions, suggesting that the activation of frontal networks may reflect greater integration and depth of story processing. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Write to read: the brain's universal reading and writing network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perfetti, Charles A; Tan, Li-Hai

    2013-02-01

    Do differences in writing systems translate into differences in the brain's reading network? Or is this network universal, relatively impervious to variation in writing systems? A new study adds intriguing evidence to these questions by showing that reading handwritten words activates a pre-motor area across writing systems. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Promoting reading and good reading culture through the use of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This paper is the findings from existing literature on the mechanics of using book talks and story books to inculcate reading and the steps to develop good reading culture in children. This work is an ongoing action research work in selected private and public schools in Lagos Mainland. It has so far been established that the ...

  3. The Interplay of Silent Reading, Reading-While-Listening and Listening-Only

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakashima, Kohji; Stephens, Meredith; Kamata, Suzanne

    2018-01-01

    Leading scholars (Gilbert, 2009; Walter, 2008) have highlighted the importance of phonological processing in learning to read. Nevertheless, reading in Japan has traditionally been taught without adequate attention to the role of phonological processing. Accordingly, it was speculated that Japanese university students would demonstrate superior…

  4. Motivation for Reading and Upper Primary School Students' Academic Achievement in Reading in Kenya

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mucherah, Winnie; Herendeen, Abbey

    2013-01-01

    This study examined primary school students' reading motivation and performance on the standardized exam. Participants included 901 seventh and eighth grade students from Kenya. There were 468 females and 433 males. Contrary to previous studies, results showed reading challenge and aesthetics, but not efficacy, predicted reading achievement,…

  5. Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yong, Keir X X; Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Leff, Alexander P; Crutch, Sebastian J

    2015-07-28

    We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%-270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. © 2015 American Academy of Neurology.

  6. Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J.; Leff, Alexander P.; Crutch, Sebastian J.

    2015-01-01

    Objective: We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Methods: Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Results: Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%–270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. PMID:26138948

  7. Print exposure, reading habits, and reading achievement among deaf and hearing college students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marschark, Marc; Sarchet, Thomastine; Convertino, Carol M; Borgna, Georgianna; Morrison, Carolyn; Remelt, Sarah

    2012-01-01

    This study explored relations of print exposure, academic achievement, and reading habits among 100 deaf and 100 hearing college students. As in earlier studies, recognition tests for book titles and magazine titles were used as measures of print exposure, college entrance test scores were used as measures of academic achievement, and students provided self-reports of reading habits. Deaf students recognized fewer magazine titles and fewer book titles appropriate for reading levels from kindergarten through Grade 12 while reporting more weekly hours of reading. As in previous studies with hearing college students, the title recognition test proved a better predictor of deaf and hearing students' English achievement than how many hours they reported reading. The finding that the recognition tests were relatively more potent predictors of achievement for deaf students than hearing students may reflect the fact that deaf students often obtain less information through incidental learning and classroom presentations.

  8. Technological Transformations of Reading Culture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Albrechtslund, Anne-Mette Bech

    The increasing use of social media along with the rapidly developing digitization of the book has led to a range of new circumstances for writing, publishing and reading books, resulting in transformations in reading culture and practices. The social aspect of reading is emphasized when readers...... relations in the network of writers, publishers, readers, and reviewers. Similarly, the increasing use of electronic reading devices plays a key role in the acceleration of a culture in which the audience engages with cultural works in new ways. The print book has an “easy materiality” (Marshall, 2010, p....... 17), but with the electronic book, the materiality of reading becomes more ambiguous and malleable as the book as technology is being radically reconstructed. The purpose of this paper is to explore these changes through an investigation into the technology relations (Ihde, 1990) in fiction reading...

  9. The Relationship between FL Reading Strategies and FL Reading Proficiency: A Study on Turkish EFL Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gönen, Ipek Kuru

    2015-01-01

    Reading in FL possesses certain challenges for FL readers such as difficulty in inferring underlying messages in texts and dealing with unfamiliar cultural load. All these challenges may be associated with FL learners' reading proficiency and their use of FL reading strategies especially while reading academic materials. This study aims at…

  10. Reading Patterns Changing

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2011-01-01

    Modern life is changing the way people read April 23 was the 16th World Book and Copyright Day,also known as the World Book Day.Reading-related problems have once again attracted people’s attention.Today,living a life with an increasingly rapid pace,most people are

  11. Underlying skills of oral and silent reading

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Den Boer, Madelon; van Bergen, Elsje; de Jong, Peter F.

    2014-01-01

    Many studies have examined reading and reading development. The majority of these studies, however, focused on oral reading rather than on the more dominant silent reading mode. Similarly, it is common practice to assess oral reading abilities rather than silent reading abilities in schools and in

  12. Comparison of Reading Levels of Pharmacy Students and Reading Level of Primary Literature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cathy H Ficzere

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: The project purpose was to evaluate pharmacy students’ reading levels using the Nelson-Denney Reading Test (NDRT and compare these results with the reading level of primary literature to investigate incongruities between student’s comprehension ability and the readability level of assigned reading in the curriculum. Methods: The NDRT was administered to first- through third-year student pharmacists to determine grade equivalents (GE for vocabulary and reading comprehension. Twenty articles previously identified as Patient-Oriented Evidence that Matters (POEMs were analyzed to determine the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and Gunning-Fog Score. Student demographics, information regarding language spoken, and reading habits, were also assessed. Pearson product moment correlations, t-tests, ANOVA, and descriptive statistics were used to assess relationships between demographic data and NDRT scores. Results: One hundred students participated. The mean NDRT total grade equivalent (±SD was 16.95 ± 2.1 (median = 17.3. NDRT grade equivalents were statistically different for students with different racial or ethnic backgrounds (t(98=3.74, p=0.026, English as a second language (ESL students (t(98=5.19, p=0.021, and students that read works of fiction for pleasure (t(98=4.31, p=0.002. The average Gunning-Fog Score for all primary literature articles was 11.48, with the introduction section being the most complex. The average Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 17.04, with the results section scoring the lowest average grade level. Implications: While the overall reading grade level of our pharmacy students suggests that they are capable of comprehending reading assigned in the pharmacy curriculum, minority students and students for whom English is a second language may struggle with comprehending complex text. Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have

  13. Temporal Resolution Ability in Students with Dyslexia and Reading and Writing Disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chaubet, Juliana

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction The Gaps-in-Noise (GIN test assesses the hearing ability of temporal resolution. The development of this ability can be considered essential for learning how to read. Objective Identify temporal resolution in individuals diagnosed with reading and writing disorders compared with subjects with dyslexia. Methods A sample of 26 subjects of both genders, age 10 to 15 years, included 11 diagnosed with dyslexia and 15 diagnosed with reading and writing disorders. Subjects did not display otologic, neurologic, and/or cognitive diseases. A control group of 30 normal-hearing subjects was formed to compare thresholds and percentages obtained from the GIN test. The responses were obtained considering two measures of analysis: the threshold gap and the percentage of correct gap. Results The threshold was lower in the GIN for the typical group than for the other groups. There was no difference between groups with dyslexia and with reading and writing disorders. The GIN results of the typical group revealed a higher percentage of correct answer than in the other groups. No difference was obtained between the groups with dyslexia and with reading and writing disorders. Conclusion The GIN test identified a difficulty in auditory ability of temporal resolution in individuals with reading and writing disorders and in individuals with dyslexia in a similar way.

  14. Reading across Mediums: Effects of Reading Digital and Print Texts on Comprehension and Calibration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singer, Lauren M.; Alexander, Patricia A.

    2017-01-01

    This study explored differences that might exist in comprehension when students read digital and print texts. Ninety undergraduates read both digital and print versions of newspaper articles and book excerpts on topics of childhood ailments. Prior to reading texts in counterbalanced order, topic knowledge was assessed and students were asked to…

  15. What Is the Value of Connecting Reading and Writing? Reading Education Report No. 55.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tierney, Robert J.; Leys, Margie

    The study of reading-writing connections involves appreciating how reading and writing work together as tools for information storage and retrieval, discovery and logical thought, communication, and self-indulgence. There are numerous benefits that can be accrued from connecting reading and writing. Thus far, for example, the research data have…

  16. Reading Strategies Employed by University Business English Majors with Different Levels of Reading Proficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jun; Intaraprasert, Channarong

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of reading strategies by the university Business English majors in relation to their levels of reading proficiency. The participants were 926 university Business English majors from 6 universities in southwest China. The Strategy Questionnaire for Business English Reading (SQBER) and the…

  17. Listening to Students: Modification of a Reading Program Based on the Sources of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Belgin Aydin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper is concerned with the modifications implemented in a second year foreign language (FL reading program with respect to the problems students experience while reading in FL. This research draws on the sources of FL reading anxiety identified in the first year reading program with a motivation to re-design the second year program to help the students perceive reading positively free from the anxiety. This paper reports on the responses of students to the modifications implemented in the second year reading program

  18. The Growing Trend of Reading Movements in Japan: Animacion a la Lectura, Ten-Minutes Reading in the Morning, and Reading Aloud by Parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adachi, Sachiko

    This study examines the growing trend of reading movements in Japan and their origins. There are three main movements: Animacion a la Lectura; Ten-Minutes Reading in the Morning; and Reading Aloud by Parents in schools. This paper reports on the three movements from a review of the literature, personal observations, and practice. The paper…

  19. Language differences in the brain network for reading in naturalistic story reading and lexical decision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Xiaojuan; Yang, Jianfeng; Yang, Jie; Mencl, W Einar; Shu, Hua; Zevin, Jason David

    2015-01-01

    Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English) and morpho-syllabic (Chinese) writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG) and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG) were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.

  20. Effects of Different Text Display Types on Reading Comprehension, Sustained Attention and Cognitive Load in Mobile Reading Contexts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chih-Ming; Lin, Yu-Ju

    2016-01-01

    Despite the popularity of mobile reading devices, many studies have indicated that small screens restrict information transmission, adversely affecting reading performance on mobile devices. Moreover, mobile reading typically occurs in different reading contexts. Therefore, suitable text display type for mobile reading in different reading…

  1. Investigation of the Effect of Using a Novel as an Extensive Reading on Students’ Attitudes and Reading Ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shima Ghiabi

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The present study aims at investigating learners’ perceptions on the use of a novel as an extensive reading in a college EFL reading course. For this purpose, fifty Iranian EFL students read and received instructions on an unabridged short novel in addition to, their text book for one semester. Three questionnaires were used to measure students’ attitudes toward novel-reading, students’ confidence in novel reading ability and students’ perceptions toward using a novel as an auxiliary material, prior to and after reading the novel. In addition, three open questions were offered to obtain benefits and obstacles of the novel reading. T-test analysis were used and findings revealed that there was a significant improvement after reading the novel in students’ attitudes, confidence, interest and their novel-reading ability. However, they suggested reading the novels according to the theme that they preferred. The result of this study are of pedagogic significance to EFL teaching in that they indicated how well a novel was received in an EFL Advanced reading class.

  2. libgapmis: extending short-read alignments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alachiotis, Nikolaos; Berger, Simon; Flouri, Tomáš; Pissis, Solon P; Stamatakis, Alexandros

    2013-01-01

    A wide variety of short-read alignment programmes have been published recently to tackle the problem of mapping millions of short reads to a reference genome, focusing on different aspects of the procedure such as time and memory efficiency, sensitivity, and accuracy. These tools allow for a small number of mismatches in the alignment; however, their ability to allow for gaps varies greatly, with many performing poorly or not allowing them at all. The seed-and-extend strategy is applied in most short-read alignment programmes. After aligning a substring of the reference sequence against the high-quality prefix of a short read--the seed--an important problem is to find the best possible alignment between a substring of the reference sequence succeeding and the remaining suffix of low quality of the read--extend. The fact that the reads are rather short and that the gap occurrence frequency observed in various studies is rather low suggest that aligning (parts of) those reads with a single gap is in fact desirable. In this article, we present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. Apart from the standard CPU version, it includes ultrafast SSE- and GPU-based implementations. libgapmis is based on an algorithm computing a modified version of the traditional dynamic-programming matrix for sequence alignment. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the functions of the CPU version provided in this library accelerate the computations by a factor of 20 compared to other programmes. The analogous SSE- and GPU-based implementations accelerate the computations by a factor of 6 and 11, respectively, compared to the CPU version. The library also provides the user the flexibility to split the read into fragments, based on the observed gap occurrence frequency and the length of the read, thereby allowing for a variable, but bounded, number of gaps in the alignment. We present libgapmis, a library for extending pairwise short-read alignments. We

  3. Effects of Metalinguistic Awareness on Reading Comprehension and the Mediator Role of Reading Fluency from Grades 2 to 4

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Liping; Wu, Xinchun

    2015-01-01

    Purpose This study examined the contribution of metalinguistic awareness including morphological awareness, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness to reading comprehension, and the role of reading fluency as a mediator of the effects of metalinguistic awareness on reading comprehension from grades 2 to 4. Methods Four hundred and fifteen elementary students in China mainland were administered a test battery that included measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, reading fluency, reading comprehension and IQ. Hierarchical regression and structural equation models (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results Morphological awareness uniquely explained 9%, 10% and 13% variance of reading comprehension respectively from grade 2 to grade 4, however, phonological awareness and orthographical awareness did not contribute to reading comprehension; Reading fluency partially mediated the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in grades 2-4. Conclusions These findings indicated that reading fluency and morphological awareness should be facilitated in the Chinese instruction. Morphological awareness played an important role in Chinese reading and affected reading comprehension in grades 2 to 4; Reading fluency was a significant link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in grades 2-4. PMID:25799530

  4. Eye Movement during Silent and Oral Reading: How Can we Compensate the Loss of Multisensory Process during Silent Reading?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maiko Takahashi

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available While reading texts orally, we process the multisensory language information. Accordingly, in the context of reading aloud, we process the visually presented text and produce the auditory information of the text through articulatory movement. These multisensory processing activities are assumed to facilitate the memory and comprehension of textual information. Conversely, while reading silently, we process only the visual information of the text. Although we cannot use the multisensory language information while reading silently, several researchers have found that there is little difference between the degree of comprehension based on silent and oral reading for adult readers. The purpose of this study is to explain how we compensate the loss of multisensory process during silent reading by comparing the visual processing process during silent and oral reading. By conducting two experiments, we measured and compared the eye movement during silent and oral reading. The results showed that silent reading took shorter time for comprehension than oral reading, and readers had more visual fixation points and read back frequently during reading silently than orally. These reading strategies during silent reading seemed to compensate the loss of multisensory process and support the text comprehension.

  5. Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S.I. Wassenburg (Stephanie); B.B. de Koning (Björn); de Vries, M.H. (Meinou H.); M. van der Schoot (Menno)

    2016-01-01

    textabstractUsing a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by

  6. Priming effect on word reading and recall

    OpenAIRE

    Faria, Isabel Hub; Luegi, Paula

    2008-01-01

    This study focuses on priming as a function of exposure to bimodal stimuli of European Portuguese screen centred single words and isolated pictures inserted at the screen’s right upper corner, with four kinds of word-picture relation. The eye movements of 18 Portuguese native university students were registered while reading four sets of ten word-picture pairs, and their respective oral recall lists of words or pictures were kept. The results reveal a higher phonological primin...

  7. Reorganizing the Instructional Reading Components: Could There Be a Better Way to Design Remedial Reading Programs to Maximize Middle School Students with Reading Disabilities' Response to Treatment?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calhoon, Mary Beth; Sandow, Alexia; Hunter, Charles V.

    2010-01-01

    The primary purpose of this study was to explore if there could be a more beneficial method in organizing the individual instructional reading components (phonological decoding, spelling, fluency, and reading comprehension) within a remedial reading program to increase sensitivity to instruction for middle school students with reading disabilities…

  8. Science teacher's discourse about reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Isabel Martins

    2006-08-01

    Full Text Available In this research we start from the assumption that teachers act as mediators of reading practices in school and problematise their practices, meanings and representations of reading. We have investigated meanings constructed by a group of teachers of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, working at a federal technical school. Having French discourse analysis as our theoretical-methodological framework, we considered that meanings, concepts and conceptions of reading are built historically through discourses, which produce meanings that determine ideological practices. Our results show that, for that group of teachers, there were no opportunities during either initial training or on-going education for reflecting upon the role of reading in science teaching and learning. Moreover, there seems to be an association between the type of discourse and modes of reading, so that unique meanings are attributed to scientific texts and their reading are linked to search and assimilation of information.

  9. Building up Autonomy Through Reading Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexander Izquierdo Castillo

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This article reports on an action research project conducted with six ninth grade students in a rural public school in Colombia. The purpose of the study was to determine how the implementation of three reading strategies (skimming, scanning, and making predictions, when reading topics selected by learners, helps them to improve their reading comprehension and promotes their autonomy in the learning process. The results show that these learners developed some autonomous features such as making decisions for learning and doing assigned homework, increasing reading awareness and motivation. Additionally, the training on reading strategies allowed them to succeed in their reading comprehension. We conclude that these reading strategies are tools that take learners along the path of autonomy.

  10. The relations between reading and spelling: an examination of subtypes of reading disability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bar-Kochva, Irit; Amiel, Meirav

    2016-07-01

    Three groups of reading-disabled children were found in studies of English, German, and French: a group with a double deficit in reading and spelling, a group with a single spelling deficit, and a more rarely reported group presenting a single reading deficit. This study set out to examine whether these groups can be found in adults, readers and spellers of Hebrew, which differs from the previously studied orthographies in many aspects. To this end, Hebrew-speaking adults with or without reading disability were administered various literacy and literacy-related tests. Results confirm the existence of the same three groups. While all shared a phonological deficit, subtle differences in phonological decoding ability and in speed of processing distinguished between the groups. The study therefore suggests that the previously reported associations and dissociations between reading and spelling are not restricted to English, German, or French and may not be only developmental in nature.

  11. Transformation towards a Renewable Energy System in Brazil and Mexico—Technological and Structural Options for Latin America

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sonja Simon

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Newly industrialized countries face major challenges to comply with the Paris Treaty targets as economic growth and prosperity lead to increasing energy demand. Our paper analyses technological and structural options in terms of energy efficiency and renewable energies for a massive reduction of energy-related CO2 emissions in Latin America. Brazil and Mexico share similar growth prospects but differ significantly with respect to renewable energy potentials. We identify, how this leads to different transformation pathways. By applying an energy system balancing model we develop normative energy system transformation scenarios across the heating, power, and mobility sectors, including their potential interactions. The normative scenarios rely on three basic strategies for both countries: (1 strong exploitation of efficiency potentials; (2 tapping the renewable energy potentials; and (3 sector coupling and electrification of heat supply and transport. Despite economic growth, significant CO2 emission reductions could be achieved in Brazil from 440 Gt/a (2.2 t/cap in 2012 to 0.4 Gt (2 kg/cap in 2050 and in Mexico from 400 Gt/a (3.3 t/cap to 80 Gt (0.5 t/cap. Our study shows the gap between existing policy and scenarios and our strategies, which provide an economically feasible way to comply with the Paris treaty targets.

  12. High School Students With Reading Comprehension Difficulties: Results of a Randomized Control Trial of a Two-Year Reading Intervention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Greg; Wexler, Jade; Vaughn, Michael G; Fall, Anna-Mária; Schnakenberg, Jennifer B

    2015-01-01

    A 2-year, randomized control trial with 9th to 10th grade students with significant reading problems was provided for 50 minutes a day in small groups. Comparison students were provided an elective class and treatment students the reading intervention. Students were identified as demonstrating reading difficulties through failure on their state accountability test and were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions and a business as usual (BAU) condition: reading without dropout prevention, reading with dropout prevention, dropout prevention without reading, or a BAU condition. Findings from the 2-year reading intervention (reading with and without dropout prevention combined and BAU) are reported in this article. Students in reading treatment compared to students in BAU demonstrated significant gains on reading comprehension (effect size = .43), and improved reading was associated with better grades in social studies. Findings from this study provide a rationale for further implementation and investigation of intensive intervention for high school students with reading difficulties. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

  13. Imitated prosodic fluency predicts reading comprehension ability in good and poor high school readers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mara Breen

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Researchers have established a relationship between beginning readers’ silent comprehension ability and their prosodic fluency, such that readers who read aloud with appropriate prosody tend to have higher scores on silent reading comprehension assessments. The current study was designed to investigate this relationship in two groups of high school readers: Specifically Poor Comprehenders (SPCs, who have adequate word level and phonological skills but poor reading comprehension ability, and a group of age- and decoding skill-matched controls. We compared the prosodic fluency of the two groups by determining how effectively they produced prosodic cues to syntactic and semantic structure in imitations of a model speaker’s production of syntactically and semantically varied sentences. Analyses of pitch and duration patterns revealed that speakers in both groups produced the expected prosodic patterns; however, controls provided stronger durational cues to syntactic structure. These results demonstrate that the relationship between prosodic fluency and reading comprehension continues past the stage of early reading instruction. Moreover, they suggest that prosodically fluent speakers may also generate more fluent implicit prosodic representations during silent reading, leading to more effective comprehension.

  14. The Library at School: Effects on reading attitude and reading frequency

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huysmans, F.; Kleijnen, E.; Broekhof, K.; van Dalen, T.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose ‐ This paper aims to describe the effects of the Dutch policy program the Library at School on primary school pupils' leisure book reading and attitude towards reading books, in the first year of the nationwide implementation of the program. Design/methodology/approach ‐ In monitoring the

  15. Would You Like Fries with That? The Dangers of the Customer Service Model of Reading Teacher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ness, Molly K.; Osborn, Terry A.

    2010-01-01

    Reading teacher education, as is true with much of higher education, is plagued with pressures of providing "here and now" answers to very complex, entangled issues. The reading methods course becomes the site of many of these pressures, despite considerable insights provided by scholars such as Kumaravadivelu (2001) that "methods" may be more of…

  16. Building a Community of Readers: Social Reading and an Aggregated eBook Reading App for Libraries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jenny Ellis

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available In Brief: Library ebooks are currently read in different, unconnected reading platforms. Because all library ebook vendors use the same Adobe ADEPT system to circulate ebooks, they could be delivered to a single aggregated reading app. This article discusses social reading and why libraries should look at the technology, and details the Adobe ADEPT DRM [...

  17. The Non-Fiction Reading Habits of Young Successful Boy Readers: Forming Connections between Masculinity and Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Susannah

    2004-01-01

    The reading experiences of six young successful boy readers were studied over a two-year period. In this article, their non-fiction reading is analysed and ways in which the boys make positive connections between masculinity and reading are identified. The boys' non-fiction reading centres on typical boy interest areas and hobbies (for example,…

  18. Assessment of the usefulness of telemammography for the second reading in screening mammography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Okuda, Itsuko; Nakajima, Yasuo; Okazaki, Hiroko; Shimamoto, Hiroshi; Okamoto, Kyoko; Kanemaki, Yoshihide; Irimoto, Masahiro

    2010-01-01

    We assessed the usefulness of telemammography by soft-copy diagnosis. A wide area network for teleradiology was set up incorporating seven institutions located in two prefectures. A total of 1053 subjects were enrolled. The first reading was performed using hard-copy images at the institution where mammography was undertaken. The second reading using hard-copy images was then performed. These images were transferred to our institution, where a second reading based on soft-copy images was performed. The result of soft-copy diagnosis were then compared with those of the hard-copy diagnosis. The diagnosis concordance rate, which was higher than category 3, was evaluated. Category 1 or 2 accounted for 956 cases at the stage of the second hard-copy diagnosis, of which category 1 or 2 accounted for 930 cases analyzed in the second soft-copy diagnosis. A category higher than 3 accounted for 97 cases at the second hard-copy diagnosis, of which a category higher than 3 accounted for 75 cases at the stage of the second soft-copy diagnosis. The κ-value for the diagnosis concordance rate was 0.751. The diagnostic concordance between hard-copy diagnosis and soft-copy diagnosis was good. Diagnostic accuracy showed no significant difference between the two. We conclude that soft-copy diagnosis by telemammography is useful, and that its application is desirable for screening mammography. (author)

  19. Reading Fluency as a Predictor of Reading Proficiency in Low-Performing, High-Poverty Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baker, Scott K.; Smolkowski, Keith; Katz, Rachell; Fien, Hank; Seeley, John R.; Kame'enui, Edward J.; Beck, Carrie Thomas

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine oral reading fluency (ORF) in the context of a large-scale federal reading initiative conducted in low performing, high poverty schools. The objectives were to (a) investigate the relation between ORF and comprehensive reading tests, (b) examine whether slope of performance over time on ORF predicted…

  20. Colorado Student Assessment Program: 2001 Released Passages, Items, and Prompts. Grade 4 Reading and Writing, Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura, Grade 5 Mathematics and Reading, Grade 6 Reading, Grade 7 Reading and Writing, Grade 8 Mathematics, Reading and Science, Grade 9 Reading, and Grade 10 Mathematics and Reading and Writing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colorado State Dept. of Education, Denver.

    This document contains released reading comprehension passages, test items, and writing prompts from the Colorado Student Assessment Program for 2001. The sample questions and prompts are included without answers or examples of student responses. Test materials are included for: (1) Grade 4 Reading and Writing; (2) Grade 4 Lectura y Escritura…

  1. Reading Abilities and Strategies: A Short Introduction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Feng

    2010-01-01

    This paper gives a short analysis of reading abilities and reading strategies. Much research has been done to investigate the nature of reading, though it's had to exactly define reading abilities and strategies. Different kinds of readings are discussed in this paper and distinctions are made between first language reading and second or foreign…

  2. Does the component processes task assess text-based inferences important for reading comprehension? A path analysis in primary school children

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wassenburg, Stephanie I.; de Koning, Björn B.; de Vries, Meinou H.; van der Schoot, Menno

    2016-01-01

    Using a component processes task (CPT) that differentiates between higher-level cognitive processes of reading comprehension provides important advantages over commonly used general reading comprehension assessments. The present study contributes to further development of the CPT by evaluating the

  3. Introducing Newspapers in Developmental Reading Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karstadt, Roberta; Rey, Victoria M.

    2009-01-01

    Newspapers are an effective educational and motivational tool in developmental reading classes. However, many students are unfamiliar with newspapers and read them infrequently. In order to foster newspaper reading and familiarize the college freshmen enrolled in their developmental reading classes with newspapers, the writers of this article…

  4. Early Identification of Reading Comprehension Difficulties

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catts, Hugh W.; Nielsen, Diane Corcoran; Bridges, Mindy Sittner; Liu, Yi-Syuan

    2016-01-01

    Most research on early identification of reading disabilities has focused on word reading problems and little attention has been given to reading comprehension difficulties. In this study, we investigated whether measures of language ability and/or response to language intervention in kindergarten uniquely predicted reading comprehension…

  5. Adult reading teachers’ beliefs about how less-skilled adult readers can be taught to read.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janet McHardy

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Despite large-scale interventions, significant numbers of adults worldwide continue to have problems with basic literacy, in particular in the area of reading. To be effective, adult reading teachers need expert knowledge at practitioner level. However, practices in adult reading education vary widely, often reflecting the individual beliefs of each teacher about how an adult can learn to read. In this study, phenomenographic analysis was used to identify categories of approaches to teaching adult reading, used by a group of 60 teachers in Western Australia and New Zealand. Four approaches were identified: reassurance, task-based, theory-based and responsive. It is argued that for teachers to become effective and consistent in responding to learner needs, they must understand their own beliefs and the consequences of these. The identification of different approaches in adult reading education is an important step in this process.

  6. Initial Reading through Computer Animation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Geoffrion, Leo D.; Bergeron, R. Daniel

    The Computer Animated Reading Instruction System (CARIS) was developed to introduce reading to children with varied sensory, cognitive, and physical handicaps. CARIS employs an exploratory learning approach which encourages children to experiment with the reading and writing of words and sentences. Brief computer-animated cartoons provide the…

  7. Language differences in the brain network for reading in naturalistic story reading and lexical decision.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaojuan Wang

    Full Text Available Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English and morpho-syllabic (Chinese writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.

  8. Sharing a Reading Technique with Families

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irish, Christy K.; Parsons, Seth A.

    2016-01-01

    Sharing reading techniques with families is an important responsibility of teachers. Dialogic reading is one way to improve young students' expressive vocabulary skills, which are important for later reading success. Dialogic reading also supports students' understanding of story structure and content. This well researched technique has not been…

  9. The Contributions of a Hispanic Immigrant Home Reading Practices to A Child’s Bilingual Reading Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ángela María López-Velásquez

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available The characteristics of the Spanish home reading practices of a US immigrant Hispanic household are studied highlighting the many connections existing between the reading practices at home and at school. This longitudinal study explores how the home and school L1 reading instruction contributed to a first-grader’s initial steps towards reading in English or biliteracy. Details of Natalia ́s reading in Spanish at home and at school are presented and the relationships between the reading practices in both contexts are documented.The findings in this study remind us of the importance of strong native language literacy foundations and of the role that both home and school play in fostering high literacy levels among children.

  10. Rate of Speech and Reading in Second and Fifth Grade Primary Students in Tehran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hourieh Ahadi

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Aim: The purpose of this research is to study the standardization of speaking and reading rates in a group of normal speaker of female students, and to compare them. As the rate of speech is an important variable in the evaluation and treatment of stuttering, cluttering, dysarthria and apraxia. Materials and Method: One hundred of second grade students of primary school and an equal number of fifth grade students participated in this study. All subjects were native speakers of Farsi, who passed an informal, screening test of articulation and speech. None of the subjects had a history of speech, hearing, or neurological disorders. The subjects were asked to read from the 180 words portion of their Farsi book and tell story. Their speech was recorded by using a tape recorder. Then the data were analyzed for word and syllable rate. In transcribing the samples, single morpheme was counted as single word and compound words were counted as two words if they had two free morphemes. Non-word interjections were excluded from word and syllable counts while word interjections and repeated words were included in the count. Independent t-test and paired t-test were used for analyzing. Results: In the second grade students the reading rate is, on the average, 189.4 syllable per minute (SPM(94.9 word per minute(WPM, 3.1 syllable per second(SPS and the talking rate is 189.8 SPM (99.1 WPM, 3.1 SPS and in the fifth grade student the reading rate is 223.9 SPM (119.0 WPM, 3.7SPS and the talking rate is 210.26 SPM (109.5 WPM , 3.4 SPS. Conclusion: The result highlight that in the fifth grade students, reading rates are higher than talking rates while in the second grade they are not, because they do not have enough skills for whole word reading. A remarkable finding in this research is that, reading and talking rates in the fifth grade students are higher than the second grade students.

  11. Brain bases of reading fluency in typical reading and impaired fluency in dyslexia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna A Christodoulou

    Full Text Available Although the neural systems supporting single word reading are well studied, there are limited direct comparisons between typical and dyslexic readers of the neural correlates of reading fluency. Reading fluency deficits are a persistent behavioral marker of dyslexia into adulthood. The current study identified the neural correlates of fluent reading in typical and dyslexic adult readers, using sentences presented in a word-by-word format in which single words were presented sequentially at fixed rates. Sentences were presented at slow, medium, and fast rates, and participants were asked to decide whether each sentence did or did not make sense semantically. As presentation rates increased, participants became less accurate and slower at making judgments, with comprehension accuracy decreasing disproportionately for dyslexic readers. In-scanner performance on the sentence task correlated significantly with standardized clinical measures of both reading fluency and phonological awareness. Both typical readers and readers with dyslexia exhibited widespread, bilateral increases in activation that corresponded to increases in presentation rate. Typical readers exhibited significantly larger gains in activation as a function of faster presentation rates than readers with dyslexia in several areas, including left prefrontal and left superior temporal regions associated with semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations. Group differences were more extensive when behavioral differences between conditions were equated across groups. These findings suggest a brain basis for impaired reading fluency in dyslexia, specifically a failure of brain regions involved in semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations to become fully engaged for comprehension at rapid reading rates.

  12. Effects of working memory and reading acceleration training on improving working memory abilities and reading skills among third graders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nevo, Einat; Breznitz, Zvia

    2014-01-01

    Working memory (WM) plays a crucial role in supporting learning, including reading. This study investigated the influence of reading acceleration and WM training programs on improving reading skills and WM abilities. Ninety-seven children in third grade were divided into three study groups and one control group. The three study groups each received a different combination of two training programs: only reading acceleration, WM followed by reading acceleration, and reading acceleration followed by WM. All training programs significantly improved reading skills and WM abilities. Compared with the control group, the group trained with only the reading acceleration program improved word accuracy, whereas the groups trained with a combination of reading and WM programs improved word and pseudo-word fluency. The reading-acceleration-alone group and the WM-program-followed-by-reading-acceleration group improved phonological complex memory. We conclude that a training program that combines a long reading acceleration program and a short WM program is the most effective for improving the abilities most related to scholastic achievement.

  13. A study on reliability of roentgenographic interpretation; An important of dual reading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Chu Wan; Kim, Kun Sang

    1973-01-01

    The photofluorography is the single best method for mass survey for defection of chest diseases, especially for determination of the pulmonary tuberculosis. However, the reliability of photofluorography as a diagnostic method is mostly depend upon quality of films, reader's perceptual experiences and his knowledge on chest diseases, and upon the process of interpretation, i.e., interpretation by single or dual reading. A statistical analysis and discussion were made on the results of 1,394,581 photofluorograms in the mass survey which had carried out from 1969 to 1971. Results were as follows: 1. The ratio of positive cases to all examines shows a range of 1.45%- 4.05%. 2. The most frequent disease in the positive case was minimal pulmonary tuberculosis. 3. There it showed good expectancy for detecting positive cases at the second reading which was interpreted by experienced radiologist than at the first reading done by the other doctors. It gives an accent one an importance of dual reading by the experienced radiologist for the higher reliability in diagnosis of chest disease

  14. Influence of wearing latex gloves on electric pulp tester readings in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holan, G

    1993-12-01

    Electric pulp testers operated by completing an electric circuit. Latex examination gloves have been claimed to interrupt this circuit and lead to false-negative results. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of wearing latex gloves on electric pulp tester (EPT) readings. The pulps of 80 maxillary permanent incisors of 22 children 10-13 1/2 years old were tested using the Pelton & Crane 'Vitapulp' instrument. Each tooth was tested twice: with gloves and with bare hands. Teeth failing to respond to the EPT without gloves were excluded from the study. All EPT readings ranged between 1 and 9.5. Five teeth gave the same responses with gloved and ungloved hands. Only five teeth did not respond when gloves were worn, and all of these gave readings near the top of the EPT scale when tested without gloves. The other 70 teeth presented significantly higher readings with gloves than without gloves. It is concluded that removal of examination gloves during the operation of the EPT is necessary only if no response is obtained.

  15. A study on reliability of roentgenographic interpretation; An important of dual reading

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Chu Wan; Kim, Kun Sang [Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    1973-04-15

    The photofluorography is the single best method for mass survey for defection of chest diseases, especially for determination of the pulmonary tuberculosis. However, the reliability of photofluorography as a diagnostic method is mostly depend upon quality of films, reader's perceptual experiences and his knowledge on chest diseases, and upon the process of interpretation, i.e., interpretation by single or dual reading. A statistical analysis and discussion were made on the results of 1,394,581 photofluorograms in the mass survey which had carried out from 1969 to 1971. Results were as follows: 1. The ratio of positive cases to all examines shows a range of 1.45%- 4.05%. 2. The most frequent disease in the positive case was minimal pulmonary tuberculosis. 3. There it showed good expectancy for detecting positive cases at the second reading which was interpreted by experienced radiologist than at the first reading done by the other doctors. It gives an accent one an importance of dual reading by the experienced radiologist for the higher reliability in diagnosis of chest disease.

  16. Readability, Reading Ability, and Readership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kern, Richard P.; And Others

    This paper presents data describing large differences between the reading difficulty levels of printed materials used in certain military occupational specialties (MOSs) and the relatively lower reading ability levels of men assigned to these MOSs. Initial data explore the relationship between reading ability and utilization of printed materials…

  17. Incorporating IStation into Early Childhood Classrooms to Improve Reading Comprehension

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tian Luo

    2017-07-01

    implementing such technology to a diverse array of learners on different reading levels, such as Tier 1 (high reader, Tier 2 (medium average benchmark reader, and Tier 3 (low reader. It is essential to provide professional development and training opportunities for teachers. Teachers can also train and elevate the higher achieving students with using IStation to monitor their own progress as well as set their own individual learning goals. Recommendation for Researchers: We recommend studies with a larger sample size that would likely yield more definitive and generalizable results, studies using a randomized control group that would have teased out extraneous factors and truly measuring the effects of IStation alone on STAR, as well as longitudinal studies examining the long-term effects of IStation.

  18. The Impact of Electronic Reading Devices on Reading Speed and Comfort in Patients with Decreased Vision

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Henry L. Feng

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background/Aims. To evaluate the impact of back-illuminated and nonilluminated electronic reading devices on reading speed and comfort in patients with decreased vision. Methods. A prospective study involving a convenience sample of 167 patients at a single retina practice from January 2011 to December 2012. Participants were asked to read five different excerpts on five different media in a randomly assigned order. Media included a printed book at 12-point font (12PF, iPad2 at 12PF, iPad2 at 18-point font (18PF, Kindle2 at 12PF, and Kindle2 at 18PF. Reading speed in words per minute (WPM and medium preference were recorded and stratified by visual acuity (VA. Results. Mean reading speeds in WPM: iPad2 at 18PF (217.0, iPad2 at 12PF (209.1, Kindle2 at 18PF (183.3, Kindle2 at 12PF (177.7, and printed book at 12PF (176.8. Reading speed was faster on back-illuminated media compared to nonilluminated media. Text magnification minimized losses in reading performance with worsening patient VA. The majority of participants preferred reading on the iPad2 at 18PF. Conclusions. Back-illuminated devices may increase reading speed and comfort relative to nonilluminated devices and printed text, particularly in patients with decreased VA.

  19. Effective Reading Comprehension in EFL Contexts: Individual and Collaborative Concept Mapping Strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zahra Riahi

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The present study attempted to investigate the possible impacts of Individual Concept Mapping (ICM and Collaborative Concept Mapping (CCM strategies on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension. For this purpose, 90 pre-intermediate female language learners ranged between 12 to 17 years of age were selected to randomly assign into ICM, CCM and Control groups in this study. After taking Key English Test (KET, the ICM and CCM groups received EFL reading materials presented and practiced with ICM and CCM strategies, respectively, while the Control group received only conventional instructions to reading comprehension. After conducting the treatment, all participants took a Concept Mapping post-test constructed by the researchers. The hypothetical assumptions in this study were in favor of ICM and CCM strategies to improve the Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Statistics supported the outperformance of the ICM and CCM groups comparing to Control group who received convention PPP teaching techniques on Concept Mapping post-test. However, the superiority of neither strategies was statistically proved so that no meaningful difference between the reading comprehension of the ICM and CCM groups were detected. Therefore, the researchers failed to determine which strategy caused a better or higher impact. Some pedagogical implications and recommended topics for further research were provided to the motivated researchers.

  20. Dissociative Disturbance in Hangul-Hanja Reading after a Left Posterior Occipital Lesion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Key-Chung Park

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Since the Korean language has two distinct writing systems, phonogram (Hangul and ideogram (Hanja: Chinese characters, alexia can present with dissociative disturbances in reading between the two systems. A 74-year-old right-handed man presented with a prominent reading impairment in Hangul with agraphia of both Hangul and Hanja after a left posterior occipital- parietal lesion. He could not recognize single syllable words and nonwords in Hangul, and visual errors were predominant in both Hanja reading and the Korean Boston Naming Test. In addition, he had difficulties in visuoperceptual tests including Judgment of Line Orientation, Hierarchical Navon figures, and complex picture scanning. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that Hangul reading impairment results from a general visual perceptual deficit. However, this assumption cannot explain why performance on visually complex Hanja was better than performance on visually simple Hanja in our patient. In addition, the patient did not demonstrate higher accuracy on Hanja characters with fewer strokes than on words with more strokes. Thus, we speculate that the left posterior occipital area may be specialized for Hangul letter identification in this patient. This case demonstrates that Hangul-Hanja reading dissociation impairment can occur after occipital-parietal lesions.

  1. Using Comic Books as Read-Alouds: Insights on Reading Instruction from an English as a Second Language Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ranker, Jason

    2007-01-01

    A first-grade teacher used comic books as read-alouds during her implementation of a reading/writing workshop. The students, primarily English-language learners, were able to make use of this medium in order to learn new reading practices. The teacher used the comics to teach multiple aspects of various reading processes such as reading with an…

  2. Why Do Boys and Girls Perform Differently on PISA Reading in Finland? The Effects of Reading Fluency, Achievement Behaviour, Leisure Reading and Homework Activity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torppa, Minna; Eklund, Kenneth; Sulkunen, Sari; Niemi, Pekka; Ahonen, Timo

    2018-01-01

    The present study examined gender gap in Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Reading and mediators of the gender gap in a Finnish sample (n = 1,309). We examined whether the gender gap in PISA Reading performance can be understood via the effects of reading fluency, achievement behaviour (mastery orientation and task-avoidant…

  3. A Review of Reading Motivation Scales

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Marcia H.; Tonks, Stephen M.; Hock, Michael; Wang, Wenhao; Rodriguez, Aldo

    2018-01-01

    Reading motivation is a critical contributor to reading achievement and has the potential to influence its development. Educators, researchers, and evaluators need to select the best reading motivation scales for their research and classroom. The goals of this review were to identify a set of reading motivation student self-report scales used in…

  4. "You Don't Read a Science Book, You Study It": An Exploration of Cultural Concepts of Reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Jim; Gunderson, Lee

    2001-01-01

    Discusses how the differing views held by teachers and immigrant parents and their children affect early reading instruction, secondary content reading, and reading involving technology. Demonstrates that immigrant students and their parents hold different beliefs about reading and schooling than those held by many teachers. Concludes it is…

  5. Preparing beginning reading teachers: An experimental comparison of initial early literacy field experiences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Lake, Vickie E; Greulich, Luana; Folsom, Jessica S; Guidry, Lisa

    2012-01-01

    This randomized-control trial examined the learning of preservice teachers taking an initial Early Literacy course in an early childhood education program and of the kindergarten or first grade students they tutored in their field experience. Preservice teachers were randomly assigned to one of two tutoring programs: Book Buddies and Tutor Assisted Intensive Learning Strategies (TAILS), which provided identical meaning-focused instruction (shared book reading), but differed in the presentation of code-focused skills. TAILS used explicit, scripted lessons, and the Book Buddies required that code-focused instruction take place during shared book reading. Our research goal was to understand which tutoring program would be most effective in improving knowledge about reading, lead to broad and deep language and preparedness of the novice preservice teachers, and yield the most successful student reading outcomes. Findings indicate that all pre-service teachers demonstrated similar gains in knowledge, but preservice teachers in the TAILS program demonstrated broader and deeper application of knowledge and higher self-ratings of preparedness to teach reading. Students in both conditions made similar comprehension gains, but students tutored with TAILS showed significantly stronger decoding gains.

  6. Teaching Reading in Vocational Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia. Office of Vocational Education.

    This handbook on teaching reading in vocational education is designed to provide vocational education teachers with a resource to use in helping students to develop sound reading skills. Provided in the handbook are information sheets, self-checks, practice activities, and suggestions for further reading dealing with the following topics:…

  7. From emergent literacy to reading: how learning to read changes a child's brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Hutton, John S

    2015-07-01

    The ability to comprehend language is uniquely human. Behavioural and neuroimaging data reinforce the importance of intact oral language as foundational for the establishment of proficient reading. However, proficient reading is achieved not only via intact biological systems, but also a stimulating Home Literacy Environment. Behavioural and neuroimaging correlates for linguistic ability and literacy exposure support the engagement of neural circuits related to reading acquisition. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. The role of reading time complexity and reading speed in text comprehension

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wallot, Sebastian; O'Brien, Beth; Haussmann, Anna

    2014-01-01

    results show that recurrence metrics that quantify the degree of temporal structure in reading times yield better prediction of text comprehension compared to reading speed. However, the results for fractal metrics are less clear. Furthermore, prediction of text comprehension is generally strongest...

  9. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2010-2011

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brantmeier, Cindy, Ed.; Yu, Xiucheng, Ed.; Bishop, Tracy Van, Ed.

    2011-01-01

    This feature offers an archive of articles and books 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 by author,…

  10. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2015-2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Shenika, Ed.; Bernales, Carolina, Ed.; Romero-Ghiretti, Gabriela, Ed.; Dolosic, Haley, Ed.; Liu, Huan, Ed.; Van Bishop, Tracy, Ed.

    2016-01-01

    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…

  11. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2012-2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brantmeier, Cindy, Ed.; Van Bishop, Tracy, Ed.; Yu, Xiucheng, Ed.; Davis, Stacy, Ed.

    2013-01-01

    This feature offers an archive of articles and books published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL"). It deals with any topic within the scope of "RFL" and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order, each…

  12. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2013-2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brantmeier, Cindy; Schultz, Lyndsie; Aquino-Sterling, Cristian; Van Bishop, Tracy

    2014-01-01

    This feature offers an archive of articles and books 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…

  13. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2014-2015

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brantmeier, Cindy, Ed.; Dolosic, Haley, Ed.; Schultz, Lyndsie, Ed.; Aquino-Sterling, Cristian, Ed.; Van Bishop, Tracy, Ed.

    2015-01-01

    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…

  14. A comparison of blood pressure in community pharmacies with ambulatory, home and general practitioner office readings: systematic review and meta-analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albasri, Ali; O'Sullivan, Jack W.; Roberts, Nia W.; Prinjha, Suman; McManus, Richard J.; Sheppard, James P.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Blood pressure (BP) readings are traditionally taken in a clinic setting, with treatment recommendations based on these measurements. The clinical interpretation of BP readings taken in community pharmacies is currently unclear. This study aimed to systematically review all literature comparing community pharmacy BP (CPBP) readings with ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), home BP monitoring and general practitioner clinic readings. Method: Studies were included if they compared CPBP with at least one other measurement modality used for the diagnosis or management of hypertension. Mean CPBP readings were compared with other measurement modalities and summarized using random-effects meta-analyses. The primary outcome was to compare CPBP with gold standard ABPM readings. Results: Searches generated 3815 studies of which eight were included in the meta-analyses. The mean systolic CPBP-daytime ABPM difference was small [+1.6 mmHg (95% confidence interval −1.2 to 4.3) three studies, n = 319]. CPBP was significantly higher than 24-h ABPM [+7.8 mmHg (95% confidence interval 1.5–14.1) three studies n = 429]. Comparisons with general practitioner clinic readings (six studies, n = 2100) were inconclusive with significant heterogeneity between studies. CPBP and home BP monitoring readings (five studies, n = 1848) were nonsignificantly different. Diastolic comparisons mirrored systolic comparisons in all but the CPBP-daytime ABPM comparison, where CPBP was significantly higher. Conclusion: Current evidence around the clinical interpretation of CPBP is inconclusive. Although this review suggests that adopting the 135/85 mmHg threshold for hypertension might be reasonable and potentially result in a higher sensitivity for detecting patients with truly raised BP in pharmacies, the impact of this lower threshold on increased referrals to general practice clinics must be considered. PMID:28594707

  15. The influence of reading motives on the responses after reading blogs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Li-Shia; Chou, Yu-Jen; Lin, Che-Hung

    2008-06-01

    As the number of blogs increases dramatically, these online forums have become important media people use to share feelings and information. Previous research of blogs focuses on writers (i.e., bloggers), but the influence of blogs also requires investigations from readers' perspectives. This study therefore explores motives for reading blogs and discusses their effects on the responses after reading blogs. According to a factor analysis of 204 respondents in Taiwan, motives for reading blogs consist of affective exchange, information search, entertainment, and getting on the bandwagon. A regression analysis suggests the effects of these motives on three major responses--opinion acceptance, interaction intentions, and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions--reflect the influence of blogs. Specifically, readers who focus on affective exchanges believe blog messages, interact with bloggers, and spread messages to others. Information search and entertainment motives positively affect opinion acceptance; blog readers who focus on information and those who read for fun both view blogs as trustworthy sources. Getting on the bandwagon also positively influences interaction and WOM intentions; these readers interact with bloggers and transmit messages to others.

  16. Reading the Tourist Guidebook

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Therkelsen, Anette; Sørensen, Anders

    2005-01-01

    of information sought, amount of information read and level of involvement displayed, indicating a three-pronged typology of guidebook readers. The guidebook reader typology thus constructed may be regarded as a first step in understanding the effect of guidebooks on tourists’ behaviour and their experience......This article investigates tourists’ ways of reading their guidebooks on the basis of qualitative interviews with tourists visiting Copenhagen, Denmark. Tourist guidebooks have only been dealt with sporadically by tourism scholars. The relatively few studies that focus on guidebooks either present...... a historical perspective on the guidebook or centre on content analyses of place representation, whereas virtually no research exists on the way in which tourists read and use their guidebooks. This study reveals that tourists read the same guidebooks in a number of different ways regarding types...

  17. STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS: BRAILLE READING RATE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniela Blagoj Dimitrova-Radojichikj

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available A comparison reading performance was done between 8 students who are using Braille and 14 students who are using enlarged print to read. Reading performance was determined using reading rate (words per minute, wpm. Reading rate results showed no significant difference (p>0.05 between those using the Braille (16.62±11.61 wpm and those using the enlarged print (27.21±24.89 wpm. This study has shown that Braille reader students read at lower reading rate compared to print reader students with visual impairment.

  18. The Short Circuit Hypothesis of ESL Reading--Or when Language Competence Interferes with Reading Performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clarke, Mark A.

    1980-01-01

    Examines a sampling of current ESL reading instruction practices, addressing the concern that the lack of a generally accepted theory of L2 reading constitutes a major obstacle to teaching and testing ESL reading skills. Summarizes the results of two studies and discusses their implications for ESL teachers. (MES)

  19. The COMT Val/Met polymorphism is associated with reading related skills and consistent patterns of functional neural activation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Landi, Nicole; Frost, Stephen J.; Mencl, W. Einar; Preston, Jonathan L.; Jacobsen, Leslie K.; Lee, Maria; Yrigollen, Carolyn; Pugh, Kenneth R.; Grigorenko, Elena L.

    2013-01-01

    In both children and adults there is large variability in reading skill, with approximately 5–10% of individuals characterized as having reading disability; these individuals struggle to learn to read despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although it is well established that a substantial portion of this variability is attributed to the genetic differences between individuals, specifics of the connections between reading and the genome are not understood. This article presents data that suggest that variation in the COMT gene, which has previously been associated with variation in higher-order cognition, is associated with reading and reading-related skills, both at the level of brain and behavior. In particular, we found that the COMT Val/Met polymorphism at rs4680, which results in the substitution of the ancestral Valine (Val) by Methionine (Met), was associated with better performance on a number of critical reading measures and with patterns of functional neural activation that have been linked to better readers. We argue that this polymorphism, known for its broad effects on cognition, may modulate (likely through frontal lobe function) reading skill. PMID:23278923

  20. Can verbal working memory training improve reading?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Banales, Erin; Kohnen, Saskia; McArthur, Genevieve

    2015-01-01

    The aim of the current study was to determine whether poor verbal working memory is associated with poor word reading accuracy because the former causes the latter, or the latter causes the former. To this end, we tested whether (a) verbal working memory training improves poor verbal working memory or poor word reading accuracy, and whether (b) reading training improves poor reading accuracy or verbal working memory in a case series of four children with poor word reading accuracy and verbal working memory. Each child completed 8 weeks of verbal working memory training and 8 weeks of reading training. Verbal working memory training improved verbal working memory in two of the four children, but did not improve their reading accuracy. Similarly, reading training improved word reading accuracy in all children, but did not improve their verbal working memory. These results suggest that the causal links between verbal working memory and reading accuracy may not be as direct as has been assumed.

  1. Reading Processes and Parenting Styles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carreteiro, Rui Manuel; Justo, João Manuel; Figueira, Ana Paula

    2016-01-01

    Home literacy environment explains between 12 and 18.5% of the variance of children's language skills. Although most authors agree that children whose parents encourage them to read tend to develop better and earlier reading skills, some authors consider that the impact of family environment in reading skills is overvalued. Probably, other…

  2. Speaking My Mind: Stop Reading Shakespeare!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spangler, Susan

    2009-01-01

    Reading skills are vital to student success, and those skills could be practiced with Shakespeare "if students are taught reading skills in the classroom." The problem is that many teachers of English do not consider themselves reading specialists and do not teach reading skills to their students. Fred L. Hamel notes that teachers in a recent…

  3. Waging a Battle to Promote Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dix, Suzanne Liacos

    2010-01-01

    As advocates for reading, librarians cannot help but love a reading program. In this article, the author talks about the Battle of the Books, a reading enrichment program that had been in place since 1996. Battle of the Books promotes reading among middle school students by offering interesting books and a trivia-type competition. The author…

  4. Readings on L2 Reading: Publications in Other Venues 2011-2012

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brantmeier, Cindy, Ed.; Van Bishop, Tracy, Ed.; Yu, Xiucheng, Ed.; Anderson, Britta, Ed.

    2012-01-01

    This feature offers an archive of articles and books published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL") treating topics within the scope of "RFL" and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order by author, each with a complete reference as…

  5. The skills related to the early reading acquisition in Spain and Peru.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sellés, Pilar; Ávila, Vicenta; Martínez, Tomás; Ysla, Liz

    2018-01-01

    This paper deals with the skills related to the early reading acquisition in two countries that share language. Traditionally on reading readiness research there is a great interest to find out what factors affect early reading ability, but differ from other academic skills that affect general school learnings. Furthermore, it is also known how the influence of pre-reading variables in two countries with the same language, affect the development of the reading. On the other hand, several studies have examined what skills are related to reading readiness (phonological awareness, alphabetic awareness, naming speed, linguistic skills, metalinguistic knowledge and basic cognitive processes), but there are no studies showing whether countries can also influence the development of these skills.Our main objective in this study was to establish whether there were differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between Spanish (119 children) and Peruvian (128 children), five years old children assessed in their own countries and after controlling Economic, Social and Cultural Status (ESCS). The results show that there are significant differences in the degree of acquisition of these skills between these two samples. It's especially relevant, in these results, that the main predictor in a regression study was the country of origin, explaining a higher percentage of variance than other variables such as age differences, in months, or gender. These findings corroborate the results obtained in other studies with migrant population.

  6. Access of Digitized Print Originals in US and UK Higher Education Libraries Combined with Print Circulation Indicates Increased Usage of Traditional Forms of Reading Materials. A Review of: Joint, Nicholas. “Is Digitisation the New Circulation?: Borrowing Trends, Digitisation and the nature of reading in US and UK Libraries.” Library Review 57.2 (2008: 87-95.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kurt Blythe

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available Objective – To discern the statistical accuracy of reports that print circulation is in decline in libraries, particularly higher education libraries in the United States (USand United Kingdom (UK, and to determine if circulation patterns reflect a changing dynamic in patron reading habits.Design – Comparative statistical analysis.Setting – Library circulation statistics from as early as 1982 to as recent as 2006, culled from various sources with specific references to statistics gathered by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA, the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL.Subjects – Higher education institutions in the United States and United Kingdom, along with public libraries to a lesser extent.Methods – This study consists of an analysis of print circulation statistics in public and higher education libraries in the US and UK, combined with data on multimedia circulation in public libraries and instances of digital access in university libraries. Specifically, NEA statistics provided data on print readership levels in the US from 1982 to 2002; LISU statistics were analyzed for circulation figures and gate counts in UK public libraries; ARL statistics from 1996 to 2006 provided circulation data for large North American research libraries; NCES statistics from 1990 to 2004 contributed data on circulation in “tertiary level” US higher education libraries; and ACRL statistics were analyzed for more circulation numbers for US post-secondary education libraries. The study further includes data on UK trends in print readership and circulation in UK higher education libraries, and trends in US public library circulation of non-print materials.Main Results – Analysis of the data indicates that print circulation is down in US and UK public libraries and in ARL member

  7. Reading Intervention Using Interactive Metronome in Children with Language and Reading Impairment: A Preliminary Investigation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, Michaela; Colson, Karen A.; Park, Jungjun

    2013-01-01

    This exploratory study examined the effects of Interactive Metronome (IM) when integrated with a traditional language and reading intervention on reading achievement. Forty-nine school-age children with language and reading impairments were assigned randomly to either an experimental group who received the IM treatment or to a control group who…

  8. Linking crowding, visual span, and reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    He, Yingchen; Legge, Gordon E

    2017-09-01

    The visual span is hypothesized to be a sensory bottleneck on reading speed with crowding thought to be the major sensory factor limiting the size of the visual span. This proposed linkage between crowding, visual span, and reading speed is challenged by the finding that training to read crowded letters reduced crowding but did not improve reading speed (Chung, 2007). Here, we examined two properties of letter-recognition training that may influence the transfer to improved reading: the spatial arrangement of training stimuli and the presence of flankers. Three groups of nine young adults were trained with different configurations of letter stimuli at 10° in the lower visual field: a flanked-local group (flanked letters localized at one position), a flanked-distributed group (flanked letters distributed across different horizontal locations), and an isolated-distributed group (isolated and distributed letters). We found that distributed training, but not the presence of flankers, appears to be necessary for the training benefit to transfer to increased reading speed. Localized training may have biased attention to one specific, small area in the visual field, thereby failing to improve reading. We conclude that the visual span represents a sensory bottleneck on reading, but there may also be an attentional bottleneck. Reducing the impact of crowding can enlarge the visual span and can potentially facilitate reading, but not when adverse attentional bias is present. Our results clarify the association between crowding, visual span, and reading.

  9. Supporting read-across using biological data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Hao; Bouhifd, Mounir; Donley, Elizabeth; Egnash, Laura; Kleinstreuer, Nicole; Kroese, E Dinant; Liu, Zhichao; Luechtefeld, Thomas; Palmer, Jessica; Pamies, David; Shen, Jie; Strauss, Volker; Wu, Shengde; Hartung, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    Read-across, i.e. filling toxicological data gaps by relating to similar chemicals, for which test data are available, is usually done based on chemical similarity. Besides structure and physico-chemical properties, however, biological similarity based on biological data adds extra strength to this process. In the context of developing Good Read-Across Practice guidance, a number of case studies were evaluated to demonstrate the use of biological data to enrich read-across. In the simplest case, chemically similar substances also show similar test results in relevant in vitro assays. This is a well-established method for the read-across of e.g. genotoxicity assays. Larger datasets of biological and toxicological properties of hundreds and thousands of substances become increasingly available enabling big data approaches in read-across studies. Several case studies using various big data sources are described in this paper. An example is given for the US EPA's ToxCast dataset allowing read-across for high quality uterotrophic assays for estrogenic endocrine disruption. Similarly, an example for REACH registration data enhancing read-across for acute toxicity studies is given. A different approach is taken using omics data to establish biological similarity: Examples are given for stem cell models in vitro and short-term repeated dose studies in rats in vivo to support read-across and category formation. These preliminary biological data-driven read-across studies highlight the road to the new generation of read-across approaches that can be applied in chemical safety assessment.

  10. Middle School Students' Perceptions of Their Interests in Reading as Defined by Engagement and Social Interaction When Using Sustained Silent Reading, SSR, and Peer Interests Reading Strategies, PIRS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ware, Regina J.

    2012-01-01

    Alarming statistics report that middle school students are not reading as much as they should be reading. This study is an examination of two interventions that were incorporated into the regular curriculum to determine if these two reading interventions would encourage this researcher's students to read more. The "Nation's Report Card"…

  11. The "RAP" on Reading Comprehension

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hagaman, Jessica L.; Luschen, Kati; Reid, Robert

    2010-01-01

    Reading problems are one of the most frequent reasons students are referred for special education services and the disparity between students with reading difficulties and those who read successfully appears to be increasing. As a result, there is now an emphasis on early intervention programs such as RTI. In many cases, early intervention in…

  12. Slower saccadic reading in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jehangir, Naz; Yu, Caroline Yizhu; Song, Jeehey; Shariati, Mohammad Ali; Binder, Steven; Beyer, Jill; Santini, Veronica; Poston, Kathleen; Liao, Yaping Joyce

    2018-01-01

    Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (PD) is characterized by degeneration of dopaminergic and other neurons, leading to motor and non-motor deficits. Abnormal eye movements in PD, including fixations, saccades, and convergence, are well described. However, saccadic reading, which requires serial and alternating saccades and fixations, is not well studied, despite its obvious impact on the quality of life. In this study, we assessed saccadic reading using variations of the King-Devick (KD) test, a rapid single digit number naming test, as a way to assess the ability to make serial left-to-right ocular motor movements necessary for reading. We recruited 42 treated PD patients and 80 age-matched controls and compared their reading times with a variety of measures, including age, duration of disease, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the National Eye Institute 25-Item Visual Functioning Questionnaire 25 (VFQ-25), and Montreal Cognitive assessment (MoCA) test. The subjects performed 4 trials of reading 120 single digit numbers aloud as fast as possible without making errors. In each trial, they read 3 pages (KD1, KD2, and KD3), and each page contained 40 numbers per page in 8 lines with 5 numbers/line. We found that PD patients read about 20% slower than controls on all tests (KD1, 2, and 3 tests) (p < 0.02), and both groups read irregularly spaced numbers slower than regularly spaced numbers. Having lines between numbers to guide reading (KD1 tests) did not impact reading time in both PD and controls, but increased visual crowding as a result of decreased spacing between numbers (KD3 tests) was associated with significantly slower reading times in both PD and control groups. Our study revealed that saccadic reading is slower in PD, but controls and PD patients are both impacted by visuospatial planning challenges posed by increased visual crowding and irregularity of number spacing. Reading time did not correlate with UPDRS or MoCA scores in PD patients but

  13. A Comparison of Reading Rates, Comprehension, and Stamina in Oral and Silent Reading of Fourth-Grade Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trainin, Guy; Hiebert, Elfrieda H.; Wilson, Kathleen M.

    2015-01-01

    This study examined the relationships between silent and oral reading fluency and comprehension. Findings indicated that fourth grade students had consistent levels of comprehension in both reading modes. Students of all reading levels showed a similar pattern across the segments of a text set in both oral and silent reading--a gradual increase in…

  14. Applying PQ4R Strategy for Teaching Reading

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moh.Rodli

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Despite receiving more attention than other language skills in English classroom, the result of students’ reading comprehension achievement is still far from expectation. To help students comprehend English reading texts and have better achievement in reading skill, PQ4R strategy can be an alternative to offer. The PQ4R (also well known as SQ4R strategy of comprehending reading material is an extension of SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review This method involves previewing the reading material, questioning the reading, reading to answer the questions, reflecting upon the reading, reciting the reading, and reviewing the material. This method is useful for improving students’ reading effectiveness in addition to help students better remember what they read. This paper highlights the PQ4R strategy and its use as an alternative to improve students’ reading comprehension achievement.

  15. APPLYING PQ4R STRATEGY FOR TEACHING READING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moh Rodli

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Despite receiving more attention than other language skills in English classroom, the result of students’ reading comprehension achievement is still far from expectation. To help students comprehend English reading texts and have better achievement in reading skill, PQ4R strategy can be an alternative to offer. The PQ4R (also well known as SQ4R strategy of comprehending reading material is an extension of SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review This method involves previewing the reading material, questioning the reading, reading to answer the questions, reflecting upon the reading, reciting the reading, and reviewing the material. This method is useful for improving students’ reading effectiveness in addition to help students better remember what they read. This paper highlights the PQ4R strategy and its use as an alternative to improve students’ reading comprehension achievement.

  16. Accuracy of reading liquid based cytology slides using the ThinPrep Imager compared with conventional cytology: prospective study

    Science.gov (United States)

    d'Assuncao, Jefferson; Irwig, Les; Macaskill, Petra; Chan, Siew F; Richards, Adele; Farnsworth, Annabelle

    2007-01-01

    Objective To compare the accuracy of liquid based cytology using the computerised ThinPrep Imager with that of manually read conventional cytology. Design Prospective study. Setting Pathology laboratory in Sydney, Australia. Participants 55 164 split sample pairs (liquid based sample collected after conventional sample from one collection) from consecutive samples of women choosing both types of cytology and whose specimens were examined between August 2004 and June 2005. Main outcome measures Primary outcome was accuracy of slides for detecting squamous lesions. Secondary outcomes were rate of unsatisfactory slides, distribution of squamous cytological classifications, and accuracy of detecting glandular lesions. Results Fewer unsatisfactory slides were found for imager read cytology than for conventional cytology (1.8% v 3.1%; Pcytology (7.4% v 6.0% overall and 2.8% v 2.2% for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 1 or higher). Among 550 patients in whom imager read cytology was cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 or higher and conventional cytology was less severe than grade 1, 133 of 380 biopsy samples taken were high grade histology. Among 294 patients in whom imager read cytology was less severe than cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 and conventional cytology was grade 1 or higher, 62 of 210 biopsy samples taken were high grade histology. Imager read cytology therefore detected 71 more cases of high grade histology than did conventional cytology, resulting from 170 more biopsies. Similar results were found when one pathologist reread the slides, masked to cytology results. Conclusion The ThinPrep Imager detects 1.29 more cases of histological high grade squamous disease per 1000 women screened than conventional cytology, with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 as the threshold for referral to colposcopy. More imager read slides than conventional slides were satisfactory for examination and more contained low grade cytological

  17. An investigation into kana reading development in normal and dyslexic Japanese children using length and lexicality effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sambai, Ami; Uno, Akira; Kurokawa, Suzuko; Haruhara, Noriko; Kaneko, Masato; Awaya, Noriko; Kozuka, Junko; Goto, Takashi; Tsutamori, Eishi; Nakagawa, Kazumi; Wydell, Taeko N

    2012-06-01

    This is the first study to report differences between Japanese children with and without dyslexia in the way string-length and lexicality effects are manifested when reading Japanese kana. These children were asked to read kana words and non-words consisting of either two or five kana characters. The results showed that the error rates of the normal Preschoolers and Primary-School children with dyslexia were higher than those of the normal Primary-School children. Further, the reading latencies of the normal Preschoolers, First-graders and dyslexics were significantly longer than those of the normal Second, Third and Fifth/Sixth graders. Moreover, reading latencies became shorter as the age of the participants increased. Both normal and dyslexic children showed significant effects of length and lexicality on reading latencies. However, the interaction between the length and lexicality was only seen in normal children from the Second-grade onwards. These results suggest that (1) normal First-graders reach a ceiling in terms of reading accuracy and that (2) as Japanese normal children become older, they become better at lexical reading processes, which leads to fluent kana reading, but that (3) the dyslexics, even at Fifth/Sixth grades, have not developed sufficient lexical reading processes. Copyright © 2011 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. All rights reserved.

  18. Pathway evidence of how musical perception predicts word-level reading ability in children with reading difficulties.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hugo Cogo-Moreira

    Full Text Available To investigate whether specific domains of musical perception (temporal and melodic domains predict the word-level reading skills of eight- to ten-year-old children (n = 235 with reading difficulties, normal quotient of intelligence, and no previous exposure to music education classes.A general-specific solution of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA, which underlies a musical perception construct and is constituted by three latent factors (the general, temporal, and the melodic domain, was regressed on word-level reading skills (rate of correct isolated words/non-words read per minute.General and melodic latent domains predicted word-level reading skills.

  19. Construction, integration, and mind wandering in reading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dixon, Peter; Bortolussi, Marisa

    2013-03-01

    In two experiments, we investigated how text recall was related to moment-to-moment variations in mental state while reading, and how both recall and mental state were related to the interest value of the text. In both experiments, subjects read either an interesting text (a segment of Rice's Interview with the Vampire [A. Rice, 1997, Interview with the vampire, New York. NY: Ballantine Books] or a less interesting text (a segment of Thackery's The History of Pendennis [W. M. Thackery, 2009/1914, The history of Pendennis, Project Gutenberg, Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7265]). The texts were read sentence-by-sentence on a computer screen, and subjects were periodically interrupted to answer a probe question. In Experiment 1, the probe asked whether subjects were attending to the text; in Experiment 2, the probe asked whether subjects were engaged with the story world. After reading the text, subjects were asked to recall as much of the story as possible. Recall of the material just prior to the probe was examined as a function of the whether the ratings were high, medium, or low. As expected, both on-task ratings and engagement ratings were higher for Interview than for Pendennis, but there were a substantial number of medium ratings given to both stories. In Experiment 1, there was a clear effect of story on recall over and above the effect of on-task rating. However, in Experiment 2, recall was purely a function of engagement rating. The results were interpreted in terms of a model in which recall is largely determined by the situation model representation of the narrative and in which engagement ratings (but not on-task ratings) provide a relatively pure index of the allocation of resources to processing of the situation model.

  20. Reading for the Purpose of Responding to Literature: EFL Students' Perceptions of E-Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, I-Chia

    2016-01-01

    As electronic books continue to attract attention as a pedagogical tool in language classrooms, the impact that e-books are expected to have on higher education cannot be ignored. Despite the pervasiveness of e-book reading studies in higher education, most studies show that students' reactions to e-books are often negative. However, the effects…

  1. The relation between attitude toward reading adolescent literature and literary reading behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Schooten, E; de Glopper, Kees

    The research presented in this article concludes that the widely accepted Model of Planned Behavior (MPB) is an adequate model for measuring the attitude toward reading adolescent literature [By 'adolescent literature' we mean works of fiction to be read by middle grade students. These can be works

  2. Reading Recovery: Exploring the Effects on First-Graders' Reading Motivation and Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bates, Celeste C.; D'Agostino, Jerome V.; Gambrell, Linda; Xu, Meling

    2016-01-01

    This study examined the effects of Reading Recovery on children's motivational levels, and how motivation may contribute to the effect of the intervention on literacy achievement. Prior studies concluded that Reading Recovery was positively associated with increased student motivation levels, but most of those studies were limited…

  3. Encouraging Students to Read Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepherd, Mary D.

    2005-01-01

    It is generally agreed that the ability to read mathematics is an important skill--one that few of our students possess. A number of people have published some suggestions for helping students learn to read their mathematics textbooks. What these have in common is suggestions for getting students more active while reading. Using these resources as…

  4. Reading by Children with Low Vision

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gompel, Marjolein; van Bon, Wim H. J.; Schreuder, Robert

    2004-01-01

    This study of the reading of text found that despite their lower reading speed on a reading-comprehension task, the children with low vision comprehended texts at least as well as did the sighted children. Children with low vision need more time to read and comprehend a text, but they seem to use this time with enough efficiency to process the…

  5. Preliteracy signatures of poor-reading abilities in resting-state EEG

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppina eSchiavone

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The hereditary character of dyslexia suggests the presence of putative underlying neural anomalies already in preliterate age. Here, we investigated whether early neurophysiological correlates of future reading difficulties—a hallmark of dyslexia—could be identified in the resting-state EEG of preliterate children. The children in this study were recruited at birth and classified on the basis of parents’ performance on reading tests to be at-risk of becoming poor readers (n = 48 or not (n = 14. Eyes-open rest EEG was measured at the age of 3 years, and the at-risk children were divided into fluent readers (n = 24 and non-fluent readers (n = 24 after reading assessment at their third grade of school. We found that fluent readers and non-fluent readers differed in normalized spectral amplitude. Non-fluent readers were characterized by lower amplitude in the delta-1 frequency band (0.5–2 Hz and higher amplitude in the alpha-1 band (6–8 Hz in multiple scalp regions compared to control and at-risk fluent readers. Interestingly, across groups these EEG biomarkers correlated with several behavioral test scores measured in the third grade. Specifically, the performance on reading fluency, phonological and orthographic tasks and rapid automatized naming task correlated positively with delta-1 and negatively with alpha-1. Together, our results suggest that combining family-risk status, neurophysiological testing and behavioral test scores in a longitudinal setting may help uncover physiological mechanisms implicated with neurodevelopmental disorders such as the predisposition to reading disabilities.

  6. Eye movements and the perceptual span during first- and second-language sentence reading in bilingual older adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitford, Veronica; Titone, Debra

    2016-02-01

    This study addressed a central yet previously unexplored issue in the psychological science of aging, namely, whether the advantages of healthy aging (e.g., greater lifelong experience with language) or disadvantages (e.g., decreases in cognitive and sensory processing) drive L1 and L2 reading performance in bilingual older adults. To this end, we used a gaze-contingent moving window paradigm to examine both global aspects of reading fluency (e.g., reading rates, number of regressions) and the perceptual span (i.e., allocation of visual attention into the parafovea) in bilingual older adults during L1 and L2 sentence reading, as a function of individual differences in current L2 experience. Across the L1 and L2, older adults exhibited reduced reading fluency (e.g., slower reading rates, more regressions), but a similar perceptual span compared with matched younger adults. Also similar to matched younger adults, older adults' reading fluency was lower for L2 reading than for L1 reading as a function of current L2 experience. Specifically, greater current L2 experience increased L2 reading fluency, but decreased L1 reading fluency (for global reading measures only). Taken together, the dissociation between intact perceptual span and impaired global reading measures suggests that older adults may prioritize parafoveal processing despite age-related encoding difficulties. Consistent with this interpretation, post hoc analyses revealed that older adults with higher versus lower executive control were more likely to adopt this strategy. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Bidirectional relations between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper primary school grades: A longitudinal perspective

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Veenendaal, N.J.; Groen, M.A.; Verhoeven, L.T.W.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the directionality of the relationship between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper grades of primary school. We compared 3 theoretical possibilities: Two unidirectional relations from text reading prosody to reading comprehension and

  8. PROMOTING AUTONOMOUS LEARNING IN READING CLASS

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    Agus Sholeh

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available To have good acquisition and awareness in reading, the learners need a long and continuous process, and therefore, they are required to have autonomy in learning reading. This study aims to promote learner autonomy in reading class by combining learner-centered reading teaching and extensive reading teaching. Learner-centered reading teaching was carried out through group discussion, presentation, and language awareness activities. Meanwhile, extensive reading teaching was done to review the learners‘ materials in presentation and reinforce their acquisition. Those two different approaches were applied due to differences on learner's characteristics and needs. The result showed some success in the practice of autonomy, indicated by changes on learners' attitude. However, many learners showed that they focused more on obtaining score than on developing their language acquisition. By implementing the approach, the teacher can assist learners to be aware of their ability to learn independently and equip them with the skill needed for long-life learning.

  9. Levelling the Reading Gap: A Socio-spatial Study of School Libraries and Reading in Singapore

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    Loh, Chin Ee

    2016-01-01

    This article takes a comparative socio-spatial approach at the intersection of social class and reading politics to provide a fresh way of examining school reading policies and practices, unearthing previously hidden spaces of inequity for reading intervention. The juxtaposition of two nested case studies in Singapore, one of an elite all-boys'…

  10. Camp Wanna-Read: Program Guide for the Texas Reading Club 1991.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Switzer, Robin Works

    Camp Wanna-Read is the theme for the 1991 program for the Texas Reading Club, which centers around the experiences and types of things that happen at summer camp. Each chapter is a type of camp a child might attend such as cooking camp, art camp, music camp, science camp, Indian camp, nature camp, and regular summer camp. The chapters are divided…

  11. Kids & Family Reading Report™. 5th Edition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scholastic Inc., 2015

    2015-01-01

    This report presents the 5th Edition of Scholastic's biannual study of children's and parents' attitudes and behaviors about reading. The latest research touches on reading aloud to children of all ages, the impact of reading independently for fun at school and at home, the importance of frequent reading, and the books children want most to read.…

  12. Reading in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian): An Investigation into Reverse Transfer of Reading Strategies

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    Talebi, Seyed Hassan

    2012-01-01

    This study investigates the effect of reading strategies instruction in L2 (English) on raising reading strategies awareness and use and reading ability of Iranian EFL learners in L2 (English) and L1 (Persian) as a result of transfer of reading strategies from L2 to L1. To this purpose, 120 students of intermediate and advanced English proficiency…

  13. A sensitive short read homology search tool for paired-end read sequencing data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Techa-Angkoon, Prapaporn; Sun, Yanni; Lei, Jikai

    2017-10-16

    Homology search is still a significant step in functional analysis for genomic data. Profile Hidden Markov Model-based homology search has been widely used in protein domain analysis in many different species. In particular, with the fast accumulation of transcriptomic data of non-model species and metagenomic data, profile homology search is widely adopted in integrated pipelines for functional analysis. While the state-of-the-art tool HMMER has achieved high sensitivity and accuracy in domain annotation, the sensitivity of HMMER on short reads declines rapidly. The low sensitivity on short read homology search can lead to inaccurate domain composition and abundance computation. Our experimental results showed that half of the reads were missed by HMMER for a RNA-Seq dataset. Thus, there is a need for better methods to improve the homology search performance for short reads. We introduce a profile homology search tool named Short-Pair that is designed for short paired-end reads. By using an approximate Bayesian approach employing distribution of fragment lengths and alignment scores, Short-Pair can retrieve the missing end and determine true domains. In particular, Short-Pair increases the accuracy in aligning short reads that are part of remote homologs. We applied Short-Pair to a RNA-Seq dataset and a metagenomic dataset and quantified its sensitivity and accuracy on homology search. The experimental results show that Short-Pair can achieve better overall performance than the state-of-the-art methodology of profile homology search. Short-Pair is best used for next-generation sequencing (NGS) data that lack reference genomes. It provides a complementary paired-end read homology search tool to HMMER. The source code is freely available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/short-pair/ .

  14. Music-reading deficiencies and the brain

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    Lola L. Cuddy

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews the literature on brain damage and music-reading for the past 25 years. Acquired patterns of selective loss and sparing are described, including both the association and dissociation of music and text reading, and association and dissociation among components of music reading. As well, we suggest that developmental music - reading deficiencies may be isolated in a form analogous to developmental dyslexia for text or congenital amusia for auditory music processing. Finally, we propose that the results of brain damage studies can contribute to the development of a model of normal music reading.

  15. Improving South African third graders’ reading skills: Lessons learnt from the use of Guided Reading approach

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    Mohlanhledi P. Makumbila

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This professional development project, known as Literacy Leadership Project, enabled four Foundation Phase teachers in South Africa to implement the Guided Reading approach. Developed by American researchers Fountas and Pinnell (1996, Guided Reading helps elementary students strengthen their phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency in small group activities. Over an 8-month period, lessons learnt came from data collected from this professional development included workshop activities, classroom observations, teachers’ group discussions and students’ artefacts. Results indicated improvement in students’ literacy engagement and motivation because of the use of levelled books, oral reading and group activities Keywords:  Guided Reading programme; foundation phase; childhood literacy; teacher professional development; literacy leadership; South Africa

  16. How Does Parental Reading Influence Children's Reading? A Study of Cognitive Mediation

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    van Bergen, Elsje; Bishop, Dorothy; van Zuijen, Titia; de Jong, Peter F.

    2015-01-01

    Cognitive processes underlying a behavioural outcome (like reading ability) and the impact of familial risk (e.g., for dyslexia) have been studied in isolation. We present a novel design, linking the two avenues. How do familial influences impact on children's cognitive skills, which subsequently underlie reading development? Participants from the…

  17. Literacies in portuguese and english in brazilian higher education: landmarks and perspectives

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    Vera Lucia Lopes Cristovão

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This project aims at contributing to the project called Initiatives of reading and writing in Higher Education (ILEES in Latin America, whose objective was to identify and describe the initiatives of teaching and research in reading and writing in higher education in Brazil. In this article, we aim at covering the second stage of the research by identifying the writing centers and analyzing the interviews with the researchers mostly cited as references or those considered responsible for gathering research groups and/or literacy projects in different state and federal universities in the country. For our analyses, we use Bronckart’s (2008 and Bulea’s (2010 methodological framework in order to recognize, in the interviews, the themes (thematic organization segment – SOT and how the interviewees (E develop such themes in their discourse through the thematic treatment segments (STT. The results show five writing centers regarding academic reading and writing in the national context. The interviews emphasize theoretical frameworks towards literacy and recognize the lack of initiatives in different Brazilian universities and, regarding sustainability, enlargement, strengthening and recognition are urgent needs, according to our interviewees.

  18. Rapid naming, phonological memory and reading fluency in Brazilian bilingual students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleury, Fernanda Oppenheimer; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

    2015-01-01

    To characterize the performance of Brazilian students exposed to two languages in reading fluency, phonological memory, and rapid naming, according to grade level, and to investigate correlations between these variables. Sixty students took part in this study (50% female), enrolled in the third to the fifth grades of two elementary schools of the city of São Paulo. They constituted two groups - bilingual group: 30 Brazilian children whose mother tongue and language spoken at home was Brazilian Portuguese and who were daily exposed to English at school for a period not shorter than three years; monolingual group: 30 students, from a monolingual Brazilian elementary school, who were paired by gender, age, and grade level with the bilingual students. Foreign children, children with complaint or indication of speech and language disorder, or who had been retained were excluded. A rapid automatized naming, pseudoword repetition, and oral reading tests were administered. The bilingual children were assessed in both languages and their performances were compared among themselves and with the monolingual group, which was only assessed in Brazilian Portuguese. The bilingual group showed better performance in English, rapid naming, and pseudoword repetition tasks, whereas Brazilian Portuguese, in reading fluency. A higher number of correlations were found in Brazilian Portuguese. The results suggest that the acquisition of a second language may positively influence the abilities of rapid naming, reading rate, and accuracy. Brazilian bilingual students performed better in tasks of phonological memory in English and Brazilian Portuguese performed better in reading fluency. Different correlation patterns were found between the rapid naming, accuracy, and reading rate, in the bilingual group analysis, in both languages.

  19. Prereader to beginning reader: changes induced by reading acquisition in print and speech brain networks.

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    Chyl, Katarzyna; Kossowski, Bartosz; Dębska, Agnieszka; Łuniewska, Magdalena; Banaszkiewicz, Anna; Żelechowska, Agata; Frost, Stephen J; Mencl, William Einar; Wypych, Marek; Marchewka, Artur; Pugh, Kenneth R; Jednoróg, Katarzyna

    2018-01-01

    Literacy acquisition is a demanding process that induces significant changes in the brain, especially in the spoken and written language networks. Nevertheless, large-scale paediatric fMRI studies are still limited. We analyzed fMRI data to show how individual differences in reading performance correlate with brain activation for speech and print in 111 children attending kindergarten or first grade and examined group differences between a matched subset of emergent-readers and prereaders. Across the entire cohort, individual differences analysis revealed that reading skill was positively correlated with the magnitude of activation difference between words and symbol strings in left superior temporal, inferior frontal and fusiform gyri. Group comparisons of the matched subset of pre- and emergent-readers showed higher activity for emergent-readers in left inferior frontal, precentral, and postcentral gyri. Individual differences in activation for natural versus vocoded speech were also positively correlated with reading skill, primarily in the left temporal cortex. However, in contrast to studies on adult illiterates, group comparisons revealed higher activity in prereaders compared to readers in the frontal lobes. Print-speech coactivation was observed only in readers and individual differences analyses revealed a positive correlation between convergence and reading skill in the left superior temporal sulcus. These results emphasise that a child's brain undergoes several modifications to both visual and oral language systems in the process of learning to read. They also suggest that print-speech convergence is a hallmark of acquiring literacy. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

  20. Listening to Students: Modification of a Reading Program Based on the Sources of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety

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    Belgin Aydın

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper is concerned with the modifications implemented in a second year foreign language (FL reading program with respect to the problems students experience while reading in FL. This research draws on the sources of FL reading anxiety identified in the first year reading program with a motivation to re-design the second year program to help the students perceive reading positively free from the anxiety. This paper reports on the responses of students to the modifications implemented in the second year reading program. The participants of the study were 50 FL students who were in their second year at a state university in Turkey. All participants had already taken the first year reading course and were enrolled in the second year reading course. It was based on two qualitative research instruments. The first instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire administered to all participants. The second one was a semi-structured interview conducted with half of the participants to obtain more in depth information concerning the modifications that had been introduced. Both instruments revealed that students responded positively to the modifications introduced. The results of the study put forward that obtaining students’ opinions, giving them responsibility and involving them in decision making processes enhance their motivation, confidence and analytical skills while reading in a foreign language.