Children's Difficulties in Text Comprehension: Assessing Causal Issues

In this article we consider the difficulties of children who have a specific reading comprehension problem. Our earlier work has shown that good and poor comprehenders differ, in particular, in their ability to make inferences, integrate information in text, understand story structure, and monitor their understanding. We outline some studies that illustrate the poor comprehenders' problems and present two studies that use a comprehension-age match design to explore the direction of causality between comprehension skill and other abilities. We also present data from the first and second stages of a longitudinal study, when the children were 7 to 8 and 8 to 9 years old. Multiple regression analyses show that a number of factors predict significant variance in comprehension skill even after "general ability" factors such as IQ and vocabulary have been taken into account. These findings suggest that, not only can children have comprehension problems in the absence of word recognition problems, but that distinctly different skills predict variance in word recognition and variance in comprehension. The data support the view that single-word reading skills and the ability to build integrated text representations make independent contributions to overall reading ability. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of children's problems in text comprehension, for deaf readers, and for remediation.     

听力理解过程中的语篇信息加工

听作为言语活动的一种形式,在人类交际活动中所占的比例为45％,列听、说、读、写各言语活动之首。在外语教学中,听力教学同样占有举足轻重的地位,其中,语篇知识在听力教学中的重要性不容忽视。     

从听力障碍看高中英语听力教学

高中生在英语听力学习中,存在语言障碍、心理素质欠佳、考试技巧缺乏等困难。因此为了提高学生听力水平,教学中应做到:听力训练为主,听力测试为辅;精听与泛听相结合;科学设计听力训练;培养健康的听力心理。     

问题预览方式和篇章类型对英语听力理解的影响

文章以某师范大学非英语专业二年级4个班205名学生为研究对象,从问题预览方式和篇章类型两个维度,探讨问题预览对英语听力理解的影响。实验结果表明：（1）听力理解分别受问题预览方式和篇章类型的影响,但两个因素不存在显著交互作用;（2）就总体而言,完全预览比题干预览与无预览更显著有利于听力理解,选项预览比无预览更显著有利于听力理解;（3）会话篇章采用不同的预览方式,答题的正确率不存在显著差异,但在讲座篇章中却存在非常显著差异。     

语篇理解与外语阅读

在外语教学领域,阅读理解能力长期以来被证明是听、说、读、写、译五种能力中最重要的。因此,对外语学生而言,外语阅读理解能力的提高会有效地推动其他语言技能的提高。本文从形式和功能两个方面论述语篇理解技巧,以及对外语阅读教学的启示。     

Context Effects on Children's Use of Language

The sweeping changes in Swedish society in the 1990s, with extensive decentralisation, privatisation and cutbacks in the public sector, implied quite new conditions for the realisation of the aim of pre-school and school as a meeting place for children from different backgrounds. This article discusses some of these changes and their implications, through a study of parent's choice of pre-school care facility in the city of Uppsala. The main data source is a survey study among 1584 mothers of children born in 1995. The results show that parents' use of the right to choose pre-school facility is economically, socially and culturally segregated; the patterns of choice are construed in relation to residential areas but are not a simple effect of housing segregation. The choice of pre-school facility in Uppsala is thus a practice that creates specific conditions--socially and culturally homogenous private pre-school facilities--that make it virtually impossible for them to achieve the goal of being meeting places.     

Text Comprehension and Oral Language as Predictors of Word-Problem Solving: Insights into Word-Problem Solving as a Form of Text Comprehension

This study was designed to deepen insights on whether word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension (TC) and on the role of language in WPs. A sample of 325 second graders, representing high, average, and low reading and math performance, was assessed on (a) start-of-year TC, WP skill, language, nonlinguistic reasoning, working memory, and foundational skill (word identification, arithmetic) and (b) year-end WP solving, WP-language processing (understanding WP statements, without calculation demands), and calculations. Multivariate, multilevel path analysis, accounting for classroom and school effects, indicated that TC was a significant and comparably strong predictor of all outcomes. Start-of-year language was a significantly stronger predictor of both year-end WP outcomes than of calculations, whereas start-of-year arithmetic was a significantly stronger predictor of calculations than of either WP measure. Implications are discussed in terms of WP solving as a form of TC and a theoretically coordinated approach, focused on language, for addressing TC and WP-solving instruction.     

篇章结构在阅读理解中的作用

缺乏对篇章结构的认识是目前大学英语阅读教学的一个主要问题。由于传统教学偏重对词和句法的讲解,阅读教学缺乏对篇章的宏观处理,因而制约了学生阅读理解水平的提高。篇章结构作为文本重要的内在特征对提高阅读理解的正确性和效率有着积极作用,采用正确的阅读教学策略,传授篇章结构知识,从长远来看可以大幅提高阅读教学的效率。     

英语阅读理解中的文体识别与信息详述

阅读在我国大学英语教学中占有十分重要的地位。大学英语教学大纲将培养阅读能力作为一个主要的教学目标。本文以文体学相关理论和系统功能语法中的信息详述为理论基础,根据测试学中的难度和区分度指数对四篇阅读理解语篇进行数据统计和分析,对大学英语阅读教学提出一些建议。     

谈英语听力课的兴趣教学

兴趣是学习的动力，英语听力教学只有激发学生的学习兴趣，充分调动其主观能动性才能取得良好的教学效果。本文将结合自己的裁学实践谈谈笔者在这方面的一些做法。     

The Longitudinal Effects of Early Language Intervention on Children's Problem Behaviors

Researchers examined whether a parent-implemented language intervention improved problem behaviors 1 year after intervention. Ninety-seven children with language delays (mean age at 12-month follow-up = 48.22 months) were randomized to receive Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) language intervention or business as usual treatment. Twelve months after the intervention ended, children in the EMT intervention condition displayed lower rates of parent-reported externalizing, internalizing, and total problem behaviors. A mediation analysis revealed that the relation between EMT and problem behaviors was partially mediated by child rate of communication for both internalizing and total problem behaviors. A developmental framework is proposed to explain the impact of EMT on problem behaviors, and future lines of research are discussed.     

The Effects of Retelling Upon Reading Comprehension and Recall of Text Information

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of retelling (free recall) upon the comprehension and recall of text information for 93 fourth-grade students. Subjects were assigned randomly to one of two generative learning strategy treatment conditions: retelling or illustrating. Subjects participated in four training sessions and one test session. For each of the four training sessions subjects silently read a passage and then, according to treatment condition, either retold the important parts of the passage or illustrated the important parts of the passage. For the test passage all subjects silently read the passage, and then rendered a free recall. Two days later all subjects rendered a delayed free recall and answered 10 literal and 10 inferential questions about the test passage. Statistically significant differences were found on all measures of reading comprehension and recall (immediate free recall, two-day delayed free recall, and responses to literal and inferential questions) in favor of the subjects who received practice in retelling. The results suggest that retelling is a highly potent generative learning strategy and that retelling has direct, beneficial consequences for children's processing of subsequent text.     

Language and Cognitive Predictors of Text Comprehension: Evidence From Multivariate Analysis

Using data from children in South Korea (N = 145, M_age = 6.08), it was determined how low‐level language and cognitive skills (vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and working memory) and high‐level cognitive skills (comprehension monitoring and theory of mind [ToM]) are related to listening comprehension and whether listening comprehension and word reading mediate the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension. Low‐level skills predicted comprehension monitoring and ToM, which in turn predicted listening comprehension. Vocabulary and syntactic knowledge were also directly related to listening comprehension, whereas working memory was indirectly related via comprehension monitoring and ToM. Listening comprehension and word reading completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension.     

Effects of Argument Scaffolding and Source Credibility on Science Text Comprehension

This study investigated the effects of argument scaffolding and source credibility on science text comprehension. Eighty-seven college students were randomly assigned to an argument scaffolding activity, or no scaffolding, and read 2 science texts, attributed to a high- or a low-credibility source. The argument-scaffolding group recalled less text-based information but generated more knowledge-based inferences than did the no-scaffolding group. High source credibility enhanced readers’ text-based recall but had little effect on knowledge-based inferences or situation models. Overall, results suggest that argumentation facilitates deeper text comprehension and better argument understanding, while at the same time reducing the effect of source credibility on text processing.     

高师生听知训练刍议

抓好高师生听知能力训练，首先，要明确训练的意义：听是人类社会重要的言语活动；听力是一种基本的学习能力；听力是教师重要的教育、教学能力。其次，要遵循训练的原则和要求并掌握训练的内容和方法：从总体上遵循循序渐进的原则；采用以听为主，听说结合，兼顾读写的综合训练方法；培养学生具有良好的听话习惯；呈系统径的训练。教师要指导学生注意听；理解听；记忆听；辨析听；想象听；快速听；观察听；听语感。再次，要注重实施训练的效果。     

基于网络的大学英语听力自主学习生态化研究

本研究以建构主义和自主学习理论为指导,以网络环境下的大学英语教学改革为背景,通过教学实验来比较基于网络的大学英语听力自主学习模式和传统的听力学习模式的教学效果.研究结果表明,基于网络的大学英语听力自主学习模式不仅有助于提高学生的听力水平和自主学习能力,也助于听力自主学习生态系统的构建和良性运转.     

Peer Effects on Children's Language Achievement During Pre-Kindergarten

This study examined associations between peers' expressive language abilities and children's development of receptive and expressive language among 1,812 four-year olds enrolled in 453 classrooms in 11 states that provide large-scale public pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs. Higher peer expressive language abilities were positively associated with children's development of receptive and expressive language during pre-k. The positive association between peers' expressive language abilities and children's receptive language development was stronger for children who began pre-k with higher receptive language skills and within classrooms characterized by better classroom management. Implications of these findings for understanding ecological inputs to children's language development and for designing effective pre-k programs are discussed.     

从结构建立框架理论的角度探析英语篇章理解

结构建立框架理论(Gernsbacher,1990)认为,篇章理解的过程是心理认知和加工的过程。理解的过程就是对篇章内容进行心理结构构建的过程。这一过程包括三个步骤：理解者为心理结构的建立或表征奠定基础;绘制心理结构;心理结构转变。心理结构构建的过程表明：加强学习者的篇章记忆能力是提高英语篇章理解能力的关键所在。