文章标记对阅读理解困难学生信息保持的促进研究

根据阅读理解困难学生不能合理分配注意资源的特点,设置了文章标记这一能引导注意分配的外在线索,并以高层次的主题信息回忆和低层次的从属信息回忆为指标,考察阅读理解正常与困难学生接受标记影响的不同特点。结果表明:(1)文章标记对于阅读理解正常和困难学生的主题信息的回忆均有显著的促进效果,而对于阅读理解困难者的促进作用更为明显。(2)文章标记只促进了阅读理解困难者的从属信息的回忆,对于阅读正常者来说,文章标记反而有损于对从属信息的回忆。     

Understanding print: early reading development and the contributions of home literacy experiences

This study explored the development of children's early understanding of visual and orthographic aspects of print and how this is related to early reading acquisition. A total of 474 children, ages 48 to 83 months, completed standardized measures of phonological awareness and early reading skills. They also completed experimental tasks that tapped their understanding of what constitutes "readable" print. The parents of participants completed a questionnaire regarding their children's home literacy experiences. The data showed systematic development in children's understanding of print conventions and English orthography and spelling. Regression analyses indicated that print knowledge was related to early reading skill, even after accounting for variance due to age and phonological awareness. Furthermore, parents' ratings of the extent of their children's involvement in activities that led to practice in reading and writing most consistently predicted the development of emerging literacy skills, including understanding of the conventions of the English writing system. Little relation between print knowledge and the frequency of storybook reading by adults was observed.     

Italian developmental dyslexic and proficient readers: where are the differences?

Italian dyslexic children are characterized by a pervasive reading speed deficit, with relatively preserved accuracy. This pattern has been associated with predominant use of the nonlexical reading procedure. However, there is no evidence of a deficit in the lexical route of Italian dyslexics. We investigated both lexical and nonlexical reading procedures in dyslexic children through two marker effects, namely, the word frequency effect and the effect of contextual grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. Although dyslexics were slower and less accurate than controls, they were affected by word frequency, grapheme contextuality, and their interaction in a similar manner as average readers. These results show the use of lexical reading in Italian dyslexics, and refute the claim of a deficit in whole-word processing with consequent over-reliance on the nonlexical route.     

阅读理解情境下中学生提问能力发展特点研究

从北京市一所普通中学四个年级随机选取学生169名为被试,采用开放式问卷法研究了学生在阅读理解背景下提问能力的发展特点,结果发现:(1)学生提问的频次变化范围较广,随着提问频次的增加,人数呈现波浪式下降趋势;(2)学生所提问题被分为三种水平:事实性问题,推论性问题和评价性问题;(3)随着年级的上升,学生提问水平逐渐增高;(4)学生提问性别差异显著,尤其是在高水平问题上,女生提问数量多于男生。     

Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition: cross-language and writing system transfer

This study investigated cross-language and writing system relationship in biliteracy acquisition of children learning to read two different writing systems-Chinese and English. Forty-six Mandarin-speaking children were tested for their first language (Chinese-L1) and second language (English-L2) reading skills. Comparable experiments in Chinese and English were designed focusing on two reading processes-phonological and orthographic processing. Word reading skills in both writing systems were tested. Results revealed that Chinese onset matching skill was significantly correlated with English onset and rime matching skills. Pinyin, an alphabetic phonetic system used to assist children in learning to read Chinese characters, was highly correlated with English pseudoword reading. Furthermore, Chinese tone processing skill contributed a moderate but significant amount of variance in predicting English pseudoword reading even when English phonemic-level processing skill was taken into consideration. Orthographic processing skill in the two writing systems, on the other hand, did not predict each other's word reading. These findings suggest that bilingual reading acquisition is a joint function of shared phonological processes and orthographic specific skills.     

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

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.     

Structure of preschool phonological sensitivity: overlapping sensitivity to rhyme,words, syllables,and phonemes

Phonological sensitivity is an important causal variable in reading acquisition; however, there is controversy concerning its nature. One view holds that sensitivity to various linguistic units reflects independent abilities, whereas another holds sensitivity to these units reflects one ability. We examined relations among sensitivity to words, syllables, rhymes, and phonemes in 149 older preschool children (4- and 5-year-olds) and 109 younger preschool children (2- and 3-year-olds) who completed eight measures of phonological sensitivity and measures of print knowledge. Confirmatory factor analyses of all combinations of word, syllable, rhyme, and phoneme factors found that a one-factor model best explained the data from both groups of children (CFIs >.98). Only variance common to all phonological sensitivity skills was related to print knowledge and rudimentary decoding. Findings support a developmental conceptualization of phonological sensitivity.     

Linking sight and sound: fMRI evidence of primary auditory cortex activation during visual word recognition

We describe two studies that used repetition priming paradigms to investigate brain activity during the reading of single words. Functional magnetic resonance images were collected during a visual lexical decision task in which nonword stimuli were manipulated with regard to phonological properties and compared to genuine English words. We observed a region in left-hemisphere primary auditory cortex linked to a repetition priming effect. The priming effect activity was observed only for stimuli that sound like known words; moreover, this region was sensitive to strategic task differences. Thus, a brain region involved in the most basic aspects of auditory processing appears to be engaged in reading even when there is no environmental oral or auditory component.     

Competition Between Primary and Non-Primary Relations During Sentence Comprehension

The four eye-tracking experiments reported examined the way in which Adjunct Predicates (APs) located at the beginning of French sentences of the type Tired (feminine/masculine) of calling the woman (s/he) left the room are interpreted and interact with syntactic parsing strategies. The results suggest that the first NP (the woman) was initially interpreted as the potential AP gender controller. Moreover, in the case of gender agreement (the woman is the one who is tired) the syntactic status of the first NP (either the object of the preceding verb or the subject of the main verb) apparently remained ambiguous until the main verb was reached. The implications of these results for Frazier and Clifton's (1996) Construal Theory are discussed.     

Equivalence-based instruction to teaching reading by families and teachers students with autism and/or intellectual disabilities

The study evaluated the learning of computerized equivalence-based reading instruction in students with intellectual disability and/or autism who attend regular school when exposed to a teaching practices package (teaching practices programmed) conducted by different educational agents (parents, regular classroom teachers, and special education teachers) in school settings and at home. The students were exposed to teaching packages that were applied by educational agents. The study has two hypotheses. First, the involvement of teachers and families in implementing interventions, in the presence of the researcher, may contribute to their learning to read in inclusive classrooms and at home. Secondly, the teaching of reading in Portuguese language may be favored by the direct teaching of syllables. A multiple baseline procedure was used to evaluate the teaching of three sets of words. Students improved from zero reading skills in the pretest to an average of 80% correct responses out of 21 taught words.