The role of stress processing abilities in the development of bilingual reading

French and Dutch differ regarding the manifestations and lexical functions of the stress pattern of words. The present study examined group differences in stress processing abilities between French‐native and Dutch‐native listeners, thus extending previous cross‐linguistic comparisons involving Spanish‐native and French‐native adults. The results show that Dutch‐native first‐graders significantly outperformed French monolinguals, and that French‐native listeners schooled in Dutch produced intermediary performances, suggesting that stress‐processing abilities are a learnable set of skills. The present study also examined the contribution of stress processing abilities to reading development in Dutch, a stress‐based language, compared to that in French, a syllable‐based language. Although the expected correlation between stress processing abilities and reading was not observed in the Dutch monolinguals, such correlation was observed in the French‐native bilinguals schooled in Dutch and not in the Dutch‐native bilinguals schooled in French. This suggests that stress processing abilities influence reading development in a second, stress‐based, language. Moreover, the monolinguals and bilinguals schooled in Dutch showed significant associations between lexical development and stress processing abilities. Ways in which prosody might be involved in lexical and reading development are explored and discussed.     

The role of phonology in reading Japanese: Or why I don't hear myself when reading Japanese

Based on the phenomenal experience that when I read Japanese I don't hear inner speech, I suggest that the role of phonology may be more limited when reading text in Japanese than in English. Although this possibility has been suggested by others, I argue for somewhat different sources of this reduced role. Specifically, I propose that the greater visual discriminability of kanji words under degraded conditions, and the less important role of word order as a syntactic cue are likely to be the key factors. Relevant literature is reviewed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

The simple view of reading

A simple view of reading was outlined that consisted of two components, decoding and linguistic comprehension, both held to be necessary for skilled reading. Three predictions drawn from the simple view were assessed in a longitudinal sample of English-Spanish bilingual children in first through fourth grade. The results supported each prediction: (a) The linear combination of decoding and listening comprehension made substantial contributions toward explaining variation in reading comprehension, but the estimates were significantly improved by inclusion of the product of the two components; (b) the correlations between decoding and listening comprehension tended to become negative as samples were successively restricted to less skilled readers; and (c) the pattern of linear relationships between listening and reading comprehension for increasing levels of decoding skill revealed constant intercept values of zero and positive slope values increasing in magnitude. These results support the view that skill in reading can be simply characterized as the product of skill in decoding and linguistic comprehension. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the simple view for the practice of reading instruction, the definition of reading disability, and the notion of literacy.     

教师在英语阅读课教学中的导向角色

本文从英语阅读课的目的出发，指出传统英语阅读教学中存在的缺陷，试图从英语教师在阅读课教学中的角色转变这一角度来探讨阅读教学的新思路。提倡教师在阅读课教学中应充当一个导向角色，培养学生良好的阅读习惯。让学生掌握好一套阅读的方法、技巧，有效地指导阅读，从而提高阅读速度、阅读理解能力，提高阅读能力。     

Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading

Prosodic awareness (the rhythmic patterning of speech) accounts for unique variance in reading development. However, studies have thus far focused on early readers and utilised literacy measures which fail to distinguish between monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. The current study investigated the factors that are specifically associated with multisyllabic word reading in a sample of 50 children aged between 7 and 8 years. Prosodic awareness was the strongest predictor of multisyllabic word reading accuracy, after controlling for phoneme awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary and short-term memory. Children also made surprisingly few phonemic errors while, in contrast, errors of stress assignment were commonplace. Prosodic awareness was also the strongest predictor of stress placement errors, although this finding was not significant. Prosodic skills may play an increasingly important role in literacy performance as children encounter more complex reading materials. Once phoneme-level skills are mastered, prosodic awareness is arguably the strongest predictor of single word reading.     

英语阅读中的默读与朗读

阅读是一种技巧,掌握了这种技巧,学生们就会如虎添翼,阅读能力大大提高。阅读有多种方法,本文主要谈论默读和朗读两种阅读技巧。通过默读和朗读,可提高学生阅读理解力和阅读速度,锻炼学生英语表达能力,并帮助学生在听、说、写等方面得到进一步提高。     

A case study of questioning for reading comprehension during guided reading

This case study explored how a teacher's questioning during guided reading scaffolded six children's understanding of reading. Observations and interview data conveyed that questioning statements and the teacher's involvement as a respondent prompted children's engagement and understanding of the text. Insufficient wait time and open questions with a closed intent seemed to stifle children's understanding of reading. Conclusions suggest teachers' relaxation of questioning to a conversational manner may enable guided reading to be an opportunity to develop children's comprehension on all levels.     

阅读课教学与跨文化交际

外语阅读课中的跨化交际是为了跨越不同民族、不同国家的语言及其化的差异，更好地进行思想交流。学习、了解不同化背景及其异同，是避免语用失误、提高化素养的关键。在阅读课教学中，进行化异同的比较研究是加强阅读教学、提高语言运用能力的重要方面。     

英语逻辑连接词在阅读理解中的作用

逻辑连接词是衔接的一种主要方式,能实现语篇的连贯。本文分析了逻辑连接词作为一种语篇衔接手段在阅读理解中的作用。文章首先解释了逻辑连接词的定义及分类,接着论述其在阅读理解两个方面的作用即对阅读策略的影响和阅读速度、效果的影响。文章最后进一步强调逻辑连接词在阅读理解及其主要问题中的极强解释力。     

A Study on How to Enhance Students’ English Reading Proficiency

The major problems affecting students in reading are lacking time, vocabulary, background knowledge and reading skills. Among them, lacking vocabulary is the utmost problem, therefore, special attention still need to be paid on vocabulary teaching. To solve the above mentioned problems, countermeasures such as enlarging vocabulary, building background information and reading skills as well as reading extensively are put forward.     

元认知理论与外语阅读理解监控能力的培养

阅读理解监控能力的培养对于大学生英语阅读理解能力的提高和阅读理解教学的改革具有重要意义.在教学中培养学生阅读理解监控能力应从以下几方面努力:培养学生的目标意识;指导学生根据不同的任务变量选择并调整阅读策略;将阅读理解监控训练融入语言教学中去,从而提高英语阅读教学效果和学生的自主学习能力.     

Language and reading development in children learning English as an additional language in primary school in England

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) are a growing population of learners in English primary schools. These children begin school with differing levels of English language proficiency and tend to underperform in relation to their non-EAL peers on measures of English oral language and reading. However, little work has examined the developmental trajectories of these skills in EAL learners in England. EAL learners and 33 non-EAL peers in Year 4 (age 8–9 years) were assessed at three time points over 18 months on measures of oral language (vocabulary, grammar and listening comprehension), phonological processing (spoonerisms and rapid automatised naming) and reading skills (single-word decoding and passage reading). At t1, EAL learners scored significantly lower than non-EAL peers in receptive and expressive vocabulary (breadth but not depth), spoonerisms and passage reading accuracy. Contrary to previous research, no significant group differences were found in listening or reading comprehension skills. With the exception of passage reading accuracy, there was no evidence for convergence or divergence between the groups in rate of progress over time. After three years of English-medium classroom instruction, EAL learners continue to underperform relative to their non-EAL peers in breadth of English vocabulary knowledge. This discrepancy in vocabulary knowledge does not appear to narrow as a result of regular classroom instruction in the run up to the final stages of primary school, pinpointing vocabulary as a key target for intervention.     

A tale of two tests: The role of topic and general academic knowledge in traditional versus contemporary scenario-based reading

We compared high school students’ performance in a traditional comprehension assessment requiring them to identify key information and draw inferences from single texts, and a scenario-based assessment (SBA) requiring them to integrate, evaluate and apply information across multiple sources. Both assessments focused on a non-academic topic. Performance on the two assessments were moderately correlated (r = 0.57), but the SBA was more difficult (Study 1; n = 342). The two assessments similarly depended on basic reading skills but diverged in the relation to academic knowledge and (non-academic) topic knowledge (Study 2; n = 1107). Academic knowledge was highly predictive of traditional comprehension, but less so for SBA. Topic knowledge was more predictive of SBA than traditional comprehension. Thus, the two assessments tap into similar constructs related to comprehension; however, the level of topic knowledge is more important for performance on scenario-based, multiple-source reading tasks, whereas academic knowledge is more important for traditional reading comprehension tasks.     

Using performance methods to enhance students' reading fluency

The quasi-experimental study examined the effects of pairing Rock and Read with Readers Theater and only Rock and Read on second grade students' reading fluency scores. The 51 subjects were pre- and post-tested on five different reading fluency measures. A series of 3 × 2 repeated measures ANOVAs revealed statistically significant interaction effects on three of the five outcome measures: expression and volume, phrasing, and pace. The analysis of simple effects showed large mean difference effect sizes in both treatments.     

浅析大学英语阅读理解解答过程中存在的问题及其对策

阅读理解是一门综合考查学生英语词汇、语法、速度和准确度同时兼顾学生对于英式思维和文化的理解和掌握度的语言考试。学生面对平时的英语考试及大学教育所要求的全国英语四六级考试,必须加强自身英语阅读理解的能力。     

The relationship between reading comprehension strategies and reading attitudes

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between levels of reading comprehension strategy use, reading attitudes, and the amount of reading per year among elementary school students. The study was conducted with 1316 students (649 girls and 667 boys) attending the fourth and fifth grades of 15 elementary schools in Denizli, Turkey. Stratified Sampling Method was employed to obtain data using Reading Attitude Scale (RAS) and Reading Comprehension Strategies Scale (RCSS). The analyses indicate that reading attitude is a significant predictor of the level of reading comprehension strategies used by students (R² = 0.44). The findings show that there is a negative and low-level relationship (r = ?0.054) between daily time spent reading and the level of strategy used, and a positive and low-level relationship (r = 0.01) between the level of strategy used and the number of books that a child reads per year.