Effects of psycholinguistic instruction on spelling performance

Two studies were conducted in which phonology‐based instructional strategies designed for improving spelling skills of elementary school children were compared against instruction strategies that relied only on visual exposure of words. The first study involved a total of 93 children. Of these, 46 were instructed by drawing their attention to the psycholinguistic nature of their spelling errors. The remaining 47 children in the comparison group were shown the correct version of all the words. In study II 15 children were placed in a treatment group and were taught phoneme awareness, and 15 children were placed in a comparison group and were exposed to printed words only. In both studies, posttests showed that children taught through psycholinguistic and phoneme awareness methods significantly outperformed the visual training groups. Further, these gains were retained after a period of 2 weeks. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Implicit and explicit instruction of spelling rules

The study aimed to compare the differential effectiveness of explicit and implicit instruction of two Dutch spelling rules. Students with and without spelling disabilities were instructed a spelling rule either implicitly or explicitly in two experiments. Effects were tested in a pretest-intervention-posttest control group design. Experiment 1 suggested that explicit instruction of a morphological spelling rule led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities and to rule-based knowledge in students without. Implicit instruction led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities, and in the group without spelling disabilities no learning at all occurred. Experiment 2 revealed that explicit and implicit instruction of an orthographical spelling rule were equally effective in both groups and that the spelling knowledge they had acquired was instance-based. Findings suggest that explicit instruction is more effective than implicit instruction for the teaching of spelling rules when generalization is aimed at.     

Artificial intelligence tools for grammar and spelling instruction

In The Netherlands, grammar teaching is an especially important subject in the curriculum of children aged 10–15 for several reasons. However, in spite of all attention and time invested, the results are poor. This article describes the problems and our attempt to overcome them by developing an intelligent computational instructional environment consisting of: a linsuistic expert system, containing a module representing grammar and spelling rules and a number of modules to manipulate these rules; a didactic module; and a student interface with special facilities for grammar and spelling. Three prototypes of the functionality are discussed: BOUWSTEEN and COGO, which are programs for constructing and analyzing Dutch sentences; and TDTDT, a program for the conjugation of Dutch verbs.     

The relative effectiveness of learning options in multimedia computer-based fifth-grade spelling instruction

The study examined the effectiveness of learning options in two researcher-designed interactive multimedia instructional spelling programs, one offering predominantly behaviorist-visual learning options of the type employed by many current commercial spelling instructional programs and one offering predominantly cognitivist-phonological learning options of the type recommended by spelling research. The pretest-posttest control group study lasted one school month with students working each day for 10 minutes with their assigned computer program. Although both treatment groups demonstrated significant increases in spelling ability, there was no significant difference in adjusted posttest performance between the two groups. Examination of the influence of individual learning options in the two programs demonstrated that Spot It, a behaviorist-visual option, and Word Crunch, a cognitivist-phonological option, appear to account for most of the power in their treatments. The authors discuss how clusters of learning options affect performance and consider possible explanations for differences in relative effectiveness among learning options.This article reports Dr. Susan C. Goodling's dissertation work under him.     

The effect of self-regulated learning strategies on performance in learner controlled computer-based instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of self-regulated learning strategies (SRLS) on performance in a learner-controlled and a program-controlled computer-based instruction (CBI). SRLS was measured using a self-regulated learning strategies questionnaire. Seventh-grade subjects were divided into high and low levels of SRLS and then randomly assigned to one of two versions of a CBI lesson: one allowing learner control over the sequence and content of the instruction and the other having the learners follow a linear instructional sequence. Results revealed that the performance differences between learners with high SRLS and those with low SRLS were greater under learner control than under program control (p<.05). Poor performance by subjects with low SRLS under learner control indicates a strong need for learners to possess self-regulatory learning strategies to achieve success under learner control. Program control, however, seems to minimize the performance differences between low and high levels of SRLS.     

Acquiring reading and vocabulary in Dutch and English: the effect of concurrent instruction

To investigate the effect of concurrent instruction in Dutch and English on reading acquisition in both languages, 23 pupils were selected from a school with bilingual education, and 23 from a school with education in Dutch only. The pupils had a Dutch majority language background and were comparable with regard to social-economic status (SES). Reading and vocabulary were measured twice within an interval of 1 year in Grade 2 and 3. The bilingual group performed better on most English and some of the Dutch tests. Controlling for general variables and related skills, instruction in English contributed significantly to the prediction of L2 vocabulary and orthographic awareness at the second measurement. As expected, word reading fluency was easier to acquire in Dutch with its relatively transparent orthography in comparison to English with its deep orthography, but the skills intercorrelated highly. With regard to cross-linguistic transfer, orthographic knowledge and reading comprehension in Dutch were positively influenced by bilingual instruction, but there was no indication of generalization to orthographic awareness or knowledge of a language in which no instruction had been given (German). The results of the present study support the assumption that concurrent instruction in Dutch and English has positive effects on the acquisition of L2 English and L1 Dutch.     

The influences of language of literacy instruction and vocabulary on the spelling of Spanish–English bilinguals

The relation of language of instruction and vocabulary to the English spelling of bilingual first graders receiving either English or Spanish literacy instruction and of monolinguals in English literacy instruction was explored. Only bilingual students in Spanish literacy instruction (SLI) exhibited Spanish-influenced spelling, indicating a powerful effect of language of literacy instruction. SLI without English literacy instruction (ELI) may be a prerequisite for the appearance of Spanish influences in English spelling. Spanish-influenced spelling appears to be a normal developmental phenomenon only for those bilingual first graders who have received no ELI. The students in ELI, on average, wrote more orthographically plausible English pseudowords than students in SLI, indicating that the students in SLI simply had not yet learned conventional spelling patterns in English. In addition, children with good Spanish vocabulary showed more Spanish-influenced spelling, while English vocabulary predicted more orthographically plausible English spellings. The relationship between English vocabulary and English spelling was similar for children instructed in Spanish and English. English vocabulary and literacy instruction both made unique, positive contributions to English pseudoword␣spelling, while Spanish literacy instruction played a more important role than Spanish vocabulary in the production of Spanish-influenced spelling in English.     

The impact of multisensory instruction on learning letter names and sounds,word reading,and spelling

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of simultaneous multisensory structured language instruction promoted better letter name and sound production, word reading, and word spelling for second grade children with typical development (N = 6) or with dyslexia (N = 5) than structured language instruction alone. The use of non-English graphemes (letters) to represent two pretend languages was used to control for children’s lexical knowledge. A multiple baseline, multiple probe across subjects single-case design, with an embedded alternating treatments design, was used to compare the efficacy of multisensory and structured language interventions. Both interventions provided explicit systematic phonics instruction; however, the multisensory intervention also utilized simultaneous engagement of at least two sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile). Participant’s graphed data was visually analyzed, and individual Tau-U and weighted Tau-U effect sizes were calculated for the outcome variables of letter name production, letter sound production, word reading, and word spelling. The multisensory intervention did not provide an advantage over the structured intervention for participants with typical development or dyslexia. However, both interventions had an overall treatment effect for participants with typical development and dyslexia, although intervention effects varied by outcome variable.     

声旁线索对听写困难儿童认读和听写的不同影响

听写困难是指儿童阅读正常而听写落后的现象,是一种常见的儿童学习障碍类型.研究对比了声旁线索对听写困难被试听写和认读成绩的促进效应,结果发现:(1)增加1个声旁线索,听写困难组被试的认读成绩显著提高,而听写成绩没有变化;增加2个声旁线索,听写困难组被试的认读成绩和听写成绩都显著提高.(2)增加1个(或2个)声旁线索,正常组被试的认读成绩和听写成绩都显著提高.(3)与正常被试相比,声旁线索对听写困难被试听写成绩的促进程度相对较低.     

Children's word structure knowledge: Implications for decoding and spelling instruction

Research has shown that not all children internalize the structure of English orthography as they learn to decode and spell. In fact, many children have difficulty mastering these two skills. In this paper, the relevance of word structure knowledge to decoding and spelling instruction and performance is discussed. It was anticipated that explicit, discussion oriented, and direct decoding instruction based on word origin and structure would result in improved reading and spelling performance. During the instruction, students compared and contrasted letter-sound correspondences, syllable patterns, and morpheme patterns in English words of Anglo-Saxon, Romance, and Greek origin. Upper elementary grade students receiving the decoding instruction made significant gains in word structure knowledge and in decoding and spelling achievement.     

Beyond phonics: Integrated decoding and spelling instruction based on word origin and structure

In this paper, the relevance of word structure knowledge to decoding and spelling instruction is discussed. An explicit, discussion oriented, direct approach to teaching decoding and spelling based on word origin and structure results in improved reading and spelling. This instruction leads students to a comparison and contrast of letter-sound correspondences, syllable patterns, and morpheme patterns in English words of Anglo-Saxon, Romance, and Greek origin.     

Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch

This study investigated the relations of three aspects of morphological awareness to word recognition and spelling skills of Dutch speaking children. Tasks of inflectional and derivational morphology and lexical compounding, as well as measures of phonological awareness, vocabulary and mathematics were administered to 104 first graders (mean age 6 years, 11 months) and 112 sixth graders (mean age 12 years, 1 month). For the first grade children, awareness of noun morphology uniquely contributed to word reading, and none of the morphological tasks were uniquely associated with spelling. In grade 6, derivational morphology contributed both to reading and spelling achievement, whereas awareness of verb inflection uniquely explained spelling only. Lexical compounding did not uniquely contribute to literacy skills in either grade. These findings suggest that awareness of both inflectional and derivational morphology may be independently useful for learning to read and spell Dutch.     

职业教育的教学方法论

伴随着职业教育教学方法论研究的日益深入,职业教育教学实践的重心也出现了两大变化:一是教学目标重心的迁移,即从理论知识的存储转向职业能力的培养,导致教学方法逐渐从"教"法向"学"法转移,实现基于"学"的"教";二是教学活动重心的迁移,即从师生间的单向行为转向师生、生生间的双向行动,导致教学方法逐渐从"传授"法向"互动"法转移,实现基于"互动"的"传授"。与之相应,职业教育教学方法的范畴也扩展至教学方法和协调方法两大领域。     

The effect of blended instruction on accelerated learning

While online instructional technologies are becoming more popular in higher education, educators’ opinions about online learning tend to be generally negative. Furthermore, many studies have failed to systematically examine the features that distinguish one instructional mode from another, which weakens possible explanations for why online instructional technology can be beneficial. The current study isolates three benefits of the authors’ particular online instructional technology: (1) providing flexibility in how students learn, (2) offering immediate and targeted feedback and (3) increasing student participation and engagement with instructional material. Maximum benefits were observed when students used the online instructional technology to prepare for their face-to-face class – that is, students with this blended instruction learned twice as much content in the same amount of time in comparison to students with face-to-face instruction alone, without creating an atypically high workload.     

The consistency effect in word problem solving is effectively reduced through verbal instruction

In mathematical word problem solving, a relatively well-established finding is that more errors are made on word problems in which the relational keyword is inconsistent instead of consistent with the required arithmetic operation. This study aimed at reducing this consistency effect. Children solved a set of compare word problems before and after receiving a verbal instruction focusing on the consistency effect (or a control verbal instruction). Additionally, we explored potential transfer of the verbal instruction to word problems containing other relational keywords (e.g., larger/smaller than) than those in the verbal instruction (e.g., more/less than). Results showed a significant pretest-to posttest reduction of the consistency effect (but also an unexpected decrement on marked consistent problems) after the experimental verbal instruction but not after the control verbal instruction. No significant effects were found regarding transfer. It is concluded that our verbal instruction was useful for reducing the consistency effect, but future research should address how this benefit can be maintained without hampering performance on marked consistent problems.     

Identifying and predicting classes of response to explicit phonological spelling instruction during independent composing

After explicit spelling instruction, low achieving second grade spellers increased the number of correctly spelled words during composing but differed in response trajectories. Class 1 (low initial and slow growth) had the lowest initial performance and improved at a relatively slow rate. Class 2 (high initial and fast growth) started higher than Class 1 but below Class 3 and improved at the fastest rate. Class 3 (highest initial but slow growth) had the highest initial performance but improved at a rate similar to Class 1. Class 3 differed from Classes 1 and 2 on orthographic coding. Classes 1, 2, and 3 differed on rapid automatic naming (RAN letters). Spelling instruction plus supplementary activities to improve orthographic coding in working memory and rapid, automatic coordination of phonological and orthographic codes may facilitate transfer of spelling learned during instruction to applying that spelling knowledge during independent composing.     

The effect of instruction on early nonword reading strategies

This paper reports the results of a study examining the role of early reading instruction on the nonword reading strategies employed by beginning readers. Three groups of children given different styles of reading instruction were asked to read a list of nonwords presented (a) in isolation and (b) using the clue word technique (Goswami, 1986, 1988). The three groups of children were following either (i) the Early Reading Research project (small units instruction), (ii) the National Literacy Project (instruction emphasising onset‐rime and rhyme awareness), or (iii) usual classroom practice (combined large and small units instruction). Children given small units instruction (Early Reading Research) were found to make significant use of grapheme‐phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and were more accurate than the other two groups of children at reading the nonword items. The National Literacy Project children demonstrated a preference for a rime‐based strategy, once familiarity with the analogous words was controlled, and made significantly more use of this strategy than the Early Reading Research children. The results suggest that early reading instruction does have a significant impact on early reading strategies and should be taken into account in future studies of this type.     

任务驱动主体参与教学法探讨

本文认为，任务驱动主体参与教学法的核心思想是强调在教学中不仅要重视教师的主导作用，更要发挥学生的主体作用，要求在教师的引导下，调动学生作为学习主体的积极性、主动性与创造性，让学生参与教学的全过程，使学生成为学习的主人。