Reading in Arabic Orthography: The Effect of Vowels and Context on Reading Accuracy of Poor and Skilled Native Arabic Readers in Reading Paragraphs, Sentences, and Isolated Words

This study investigated the effect of vowels and context on the reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and words. Central to this study is the belief that reading theory today should consider additional variables, especially when explaining the reading process in Arabic orthography among poor and normal/skilled readers. This orthography has not been studied. Reading theory today is the sum of conclusions from studies conducted in Latin orthography. The subjects were 77 native Arabic speakers, 34 of them poor readers and 44 normal/skilled readers. The subjects had to read in Arabic 15 paragraphs, 60 sentences, and 210 words. There were three reading conditions: fully vowelized, partially vowelized, and unvowelized texts. The results showed that vowels and contexts were important variables to facilitate word recognition in poor and normal/skilled readers in Arabic orthography.     

The Role of Short Vowels in Arabic Listening Comprehension

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of short Arabic vowels on listening comprehension. It is well documented that short vowels affect...     

The Role of Short Vowels in Reading Arabic: A Critical Literature Review

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - The purpose of the present review is to examine the studies that tested the role of short vowels in reading Arabic. Most of the studies are reviewed in this...     

The Reading Fluency and Comprehension of Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Struggling Readers Across Brief Tests of Various Intervention Approaches

Although several different reading fluency intervention approaches appear promising for adolescents who are struggling readers, few studies have directly compared various approaches. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine the relative effects of word-oriented, fluency-oriented, comprehension-oriented, and multi-component interventions on the reading fluency performance of fifth and sixth grade struggling readers; and 2) to examine the concomitant effects of each intervention approach on comprehension. A within participant design, where all 29 participants received all interventions, was used. Outcomes were measured using instructional and transfer materials. The results provide support for a fluency-oriented and multi-component approach.     

阅读理解困难儿童的认知加工

阅读理解困难是阅读障碍的一个主要类型,近年来受到西方研究者的重视。阅读理解认知加工,核心是有层次的语义加工,理解困难儿童在词汇语义加工和篇章推理和整合上都存在落后。理解困难儿童的信息推理水平落后,可能原因来自两个方面：一方面是语音工作记忆缺陷导致推理加工能力缺陷,另一方面是阅读元认知缺陷导致阅读目的和理解监控发展不正常。这些缺陷之间复杂的关系,还需要进一步研究     

The Effects of Oral and Silent Reading on Reading Comprehension

This study examined the effects of reading mode (oral and silent) and text genre (narrative and expository) on fourth graders’ reading comprehension. While controlling for prior reading ability of 48 participants, we measured comprehension. Using a repeated measured design, data were analyzed using analysis of covariance, paired t-tests, and correlational statistics. Results revealed that silent reading was stronger for narrative passages in retell measures, but there was no difference for comprehension questions. The expository passages revealed no difference between the reading modes. Comprehension of narrative texts was consistently stronger than expository texts in both silent and oral reading.     

汉语儿童语素意识对阅读理解的影响:默读流畅性的中介效应

通过对149名小学一年级学生两年的追踪研究,在控制了一般认知能力、语音意识以及所关注变量自回归效应的情况下,探讨默读流畅性在语素意识与阅读理解关系中的作用。结果发现：（1）儿童语素意识、默读流畅性及阅读理解随时间均有显著发展;（2）一年级下学期儿童的默读流畅性在一年级上学期语素意识影响二年级上学期阅读理解过程中的中介作用显著,而二年级上学期的默读流畅性在一年级下学期语素意识影响二年级下学期阅读理解过程中的中介作用不显著。结果表明,在小学低年级阶段,默读流畅性在早期语素意识与之后的阅读理解中发挥跨时间点的中介作用,且该中介效应随儿童认知技能的发展会发生一定的变化。     

Academic Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Skills Among Seventh-Graders in Arabic as L1

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - The current study attempted to investigate the contribution of an intervention program to fostering Arabic academic vocabulary knowledge and reading...     

Predictors of Reading Comprehension in Children with Cerebral Palsy and Typically Developing Children

Predictors of reading comprehension were evaluated in 41 children with cerebral palsy and 74 typically developing children between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the relative contributions of measures of phonemic awareness, receptive vocabulary, and general reasoning to variance in reading comprehension. All three independent variables were statistically significant predictors of reading comprehension in both groups of participants. The impact of phonemic awareness on reading comprehension was moderated by age, but only in the typically developing group. Within the group with cerebral palsy, there was an indirect effect of functional expressive ability on reading comprehension, mediated by phonemic awareness. It is concluded that largely the same variables predict reading comprehension in children with cerebral palsy as in typically developing children, but that children with cerebral palsy continue to rely on phonological processing for a more protracted period of time.     

The Effects of Choice on the Reading Comprehension and Enjoyment of Children with Severe Inattention and no Attentional Difficulties

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - It has been proposed that enhancing motivation supports the learning of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Less is...     

汉语儿童口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系:一项三年追踪研究

对196名小学二年级儿童进行为期三年的追踪测查,使用交叉滞后模型检验了儿童字词阅读流畅性和篇章朗读流畅性等不同层面口语流畅性与阅读理解的关系。在控制了一般认知能力、汉字识别、口语词汇知识、快速命名和自回归效应之后发现：（1）模型比较的结果支持字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解作用的单向预测模型,儿童二年级时字词阅读流畅性对三年级的阅读理解,以及三年级时字词阅读流畅性对四年级的阅读理解均有显著预测作用;（2）模型比较的结果支持篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解的双向预测模型,前一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的阅读理解,同时,前一个测量时间点的阅读理解也可以稳定地预测后一个测量时间点的篇章朗读流畅性。结果表明在排除了自回归效应和其他变量的作用后,只存在字词阅读流畅性对阅读理解的单向预测关系,而篇章朗读流畅性与阅读理解之间存在双向预测关系,这一发现支持了认知资源和自动化理论,并对阅读的交互-补偿模型进行了一定的补充。     

Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit

We examined reading comprehension in children with ADHD by assessing their ability to build a coherent mental representation that allows them to recall central and peripheral information. We compared children with ADHD (mean age 9.78) to word reading-matched controls (mean age 9.89) on their ability to retell a passage. We found that even though children with ADHD recalled more central than peripheral information, they showed their greatest deficit, relative to controls, on central information—a centrality deficit (Miller and Keenan, Annals of Dyslexia 59:99–113, 2009). We explored the cognitive underpinnings of this deficit using regressions to compare how well cognitive factors (working memory, inhibition, processing speed, and IQ) predicted the ability to recall central information, after controlling for word reading ability, and whether these cognitive factors interacted with ADHD symptoms. Working memory accounted for the most unique variance. Although previous evidence for reading comprehension difficulties in children with ADHD have been mixed, this study suggests that even when word reading ability is controlled, children with ADHD have difficulty building a coherent mental representation, and this difficulty is likely related to deficits in working memory.     

The Contributions of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency to Reading Comprehension

Silent reading fluency has received limited attention in the school-based literatures across the past decade. We fill this gap by examining both oral and silent reading fluency and their relation to overall abilities in reading comprehension in fourth-grade students. Lower-level reading skills (word reading, rapid automatic naming) and vocabulary were included in structural equation models in order to determine their impact on reading fluency and comprehension. Results suggested that oral and silent reading fluency represent separate constructs, but only oral reading fluency contributed to reading comprehension. Vocabulary was found to contribute uniquely to comprehension even after controlling for reading fluency.     

Examining the Effects of Skill Level and Reading Modality on Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading skill and reading modality (oral versus silent) on reading comprehension. A normative sample of sixth-grade students (N = 74) read texts aloud and silently and then answered questions about what they read. Skill in word reading fluency was assessed by the Test of Word Reading Efficiency, Second Edition (Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 2012), and students were identified as either normal or at-risk readers based on those scores. A 2 (reading skill) X 2 (reading modality) mixed factorial ANOVA was conducted. Results revealed that both normal and at-risk readers demonstrated better comprehension of text read orally as compared to text read silently. The middle school curriculum requires independent silent reading, yet students may enter middle school without the literacy skills they need to be successful. These findings suggest that students transitioning to middle school may benefit from additional pedagogical support in silent reading comprehension.     

Cross-Language Perception of Cantonese Vowels Spoken by Native and Non-native Speakers

This study examined the effect of native language background on listeners’ perception of native and non-native vowels spoken by native (Hong Kong Cantonese) and non-native (Mandarin and Australian English) speakers. They completed discrimination and an identification task with and without visual cues in clear and noisy conditions. Results indicated that visual cues did not facilitate perception, and performance was better in clear than in noisy conditions. More importantly, the Cantonese talker’s vowels were the easiest to discriminate, and the Mandarin talker’s vowels were as intelligible as the native talkers’ speech. These results supported the interlanguage speech native intelligibility benefit patterns proposed by Hayes-Harb et al. (J Phonetics 36:664–679, 2008). The Mandarin and English listeners’ identification patterns were similar to those of the Cantonese listeners, suggesting that they might have assimilated Cantonese vowels to their closest native vowels. In addition, listeners’ perceptual patterns were consistent with the principles of Best’s Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best in Speech perception and linguistic experience: issues in cross-language research. York Press, Timonium, 1995).     

The Effect of Morphological Complexity on Verbal Working Memory: Results from Arabic Speaking Children

To examine the role of morphology in verbal working memory. Forty nine children, all native speakers of Arabic from the same region and of the same dialect, performed a Listening Word Span Task, whereby they had to recall Arabic uninflected words (i.e., base words), inflected words with regular (possessive) morphology, or inflected words with irregular (broken plural) morphology. Each of these words was at the end of a sentence (henceforth, target word). The participant’s task was to listen to a series of sentences and then recall the target words. Recall of inflected words was significantly poorer than uninflected words, and recall of words with regular morphology was significantly poorer than recall of words with irregular morphology. These findings, albeit preliminary, suggest a role of morphology in verbal working memory. They also suggest that, at least in Arabic, regular morphological forms are decomposed into their component elements and hence impose an extra load on the central executive and episodic buffer components of working memory. Furthermore, in concert with findings from other studies, they suggest that the effect of morphology on working memory is probably language-specific. The clinical implications of the present findings are addressed.     

自我解释与工作记忆对汉语阅读理解的影响

采用组间实验设计,以汉语科技说明文为阅读材料,探讨自我解释与工作记忆对汉语阅读理解的影响以及工作记忆对自我解释活动本身的影响.结果表明:(1)自我解释活动促进了被试对文本的理解.(2)较高的言语工作记忆容量对汉语阅读理解有促进作用.(3)高工作记忆容量组比低工作记忆容量组不仅在阅读过程中产生了更多数量的自我解释,而且还更多地使用衔接和推理的解释模式.     

学生认知方式影响文章阅读理解的实验研究

以初二学生为被试 ,考察了不同认知方式学生对不同体裁文章以及对有无标记说明文的学习效果。结果表明,(1)不同认知方式学生对散文的学习无明显差异,对说明文的学习场独立学生要好于场依存者;(2)场独立者对有标记的说明文的学习效果要好于场依存者;对无标记说明文的学习,场独立与场依存者之间不存在明显差异。     

养老院老人社会支持网络和生活满意度研究

本研究所用问卷的编制参照了《中国心理卫生评定量表手册》中的PASS、GWB和社会支持评定等量表。以企了解上海市区养老院老人的社会支持网络状况及其与生活满意度之间的关系。研究表明：(1)养老院老人的社会支持与其生活满意度之间存在极其显著的相关;(2)经回归分析,影响养老院老人生活满意度的最主要因素是养老院的软硬件设施条件与院中老人之间的相互支持;但在生病等特殊状况下,子女仍是最主要的支持来源;(3)对养老院中的老人来说,精神支持的需求比物质支持和认知支持更重要。     

The Contribution of Executive Skills to Reading Comprehension

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9–15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD.