Levels of Language Competence and Reading Ability: an Exploratory Investigation

Associations have been found between reading ability around the age of seven to eight years and communicative competence, indicating a stage corresponding to the Piagetian concrete operations stage. It was not known, however, whether children who lagged at that stage in learning to read and in acquiring communicative competence would eventually‘catch up’with their peers in both these areas. This paper reports an exploratory study of this issue with adults who had not learnt to read as children although they were of average intelligence, and had no obvious physical defect. The objectives were: (a) to investigate whether these adults would perform on the same level as normal reading peers on language tasks requiring communicative and analytic competence; (b) to investigate whether performance on these tasks would be related to level of vocabulary comprehension and intelligence. No significant differences were found between the groups in their performance on the tasks involving communicative competence. However, normal readers scored significantly higher in tasks requiring analytic competence or the ability to retrieve and transform verbal material. In addition, the pattern of correlations was different for the two groups, suggesting that they had undergone different courses of cognitive development. The results cannot tell us whether the ability to read, or lack of it, influenced the development of these functions or vice versa. It seems from this investigation, however, that not all functions of oral language develop to the same extent in readers and in non-readers, and that this is not related solely to IQ.     

The Home Literacy Environment and Preschool Children's Reading Skills and Interest

Research Findings: This study explored the association between the home literacy environment (HLE), conceptualized as comprising parents’ reading beliefs and home literacy practices, and preschoolers’ reading skills and reading interest. It also identified factors in the HLE that predict emerging reading competence and motivation to read. A total of 193 children age 6 years from 14 preschools across Singapore and their parents participated in the study. The parents completed a reading belief inventory, a family literacy activity inventory, and a demographic questionnaire that surveyed the child's reading interest. The children were administered a battery of standardized literacy tests. The study found a moderate relationship between the HLE and children's reading competencies and a strong relationship between the HLE and children's reading interest. When parents’ education level and children's age were controlled, hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that family literacy activities contributed more unique variance to children's reading outcomes and reading interest than did parents’ reading beliefs. Active parental involvement was the strongest component of the HLE, with parent–child engagement in reading and writing emerging as the best predictor of both the child's emerging reading skills and reading interest. With respect to reading beliefs, parents’ efficacy in supporting literacy development before their child attended school positively predicted reading competence, as did parents’ affect and verbal participation in fostering reading interest. However, verbal participation negatively predicted Singapore children's reading competence. Practice or Policy: The implications of the results were discussed.     

多媒体辅助英语阅读教学的语言输入优势

培养学生交际能力是大学英语专业阅读教学的目标，为了实现此目标，学生需要大量语言和非语言材料的输入，而传统阅读教学中存在着语言、特别是非语言输入量不足的问题。结合多媒体辅助阅读教学的经验，分析了这种教学在语言输入方面优于传统教学的一些特点，从中得出结论：多媒体辅助阅读教学、能提高语言和非语言材料输入的质和量、更好地帮助学生英语交际能力的发展。     

Developing Reading Partnerships Between Parents and Children: A Reflection on the Reading Together Program

Early reading exposure is important in setting a foundation for students to acquire the basic literacy skills that set them up for school and life success. More importantly, parent involvement at an early age is a critical component of reading skills development. This report presents an overview of the Reading Together Program that introduced families of young children ages 6–36 months in a community-based setting to the necessary skills, techniques, and resources to enhance their knowledge of how to effectively develop a reading partnership with their children. Additionally, this free reading program that was sponsored by a faculty development grant invited parents to play an active role in their children’s reading journey. Results indicated that parents understood and appreciated the value of early reading habits, and would continue to nurture the reading relationship with their children. This article also presents responses of the initial and final reading perception surveys as well as implications for future research and practice.     

Reading Into the Future: Competence for the 21st Century

In this theoretical contribution, our purpose is to examine the nature of reading competence as it unfolds at the present and to project that nature into the future. More specifically, we ask what it will mean to be a competent reader for the 21st century and what combination of knowledge, beliefs, abilities, and processes that competence will require. To address this question, we begin by presenting our view of reading as essentially multidimensional, developmental, and goal directed, and of the development of reading competence as framed by research on expertise development and on the role of epistemic beliefs. With that view in mind, we then identify salient features of the current context and how they might present challenges that will make the development of competent readers even more vital as we move into the future. Finally, we forward three suggestions for supporting readers in their growth toward competence for this century.     

加强群文阅读教学 培养学生核心素养

群文阅读是常见的阅读学习方式,运用语文群文阅读培养学生语文学科核心素养已经成为语文学科教学发展的新方向。文章简述语文群文阅读教学存在的问题,并从围绕语文学科核心素养选择议题、结合语文学科核心素养丰富文本两个方面对运用语文群文阅读培养学生核心素养的途径进行探讨。     

教授阅读策略,提高阅读能力

在大学英语教学中，阅读教学一直使用英汉翻译法讲授。而阅读策略，在某种程度上对很多人来说是一个新概念。章提倡在泛读教学中教授并应用阅读策略，从而提高学生的阅读能力与学习效率。     

Reading Ages and NFER Reading Tests

The article outlines some practical and theoretical weaknesses of the concept of ‘reading age’. It considers ambiguity in the computational methods for determining the ‘average’ reading age and the tendency for a reading age to become a fixed property of a pupil rather than an estimate of his standing, relative to time of testing and choice of test. A theoretical standpoint is taken that insufficient is known about the way a reader develops for his attainment to be given a developmental or age‐based score. It is further suggested that in any case the relationship between age and reading development is imperfect. This point is developed further when the assumption of a linear pattern in reading development is criticized. It is further suggested that insofar as reading does follow chronological age an age‐adjustment in the scale used to express attainment is highly desirable. Practical considerations such as selection of reading material, comparison with other educational tests and the assessment of reading progress, are mentioned. The article concludes with a brief resume of the problems associated with reading ‘quotients’ and designating children as ‘under‐achievers’.     

农村初中学生英语阅读策略训练与阅读能力发展相关性的实证研究

通过测试、问卷调查和访谈等方法对农村初中学生英语阅读策略训练和阅读能力发展的相关关系进行了实证研究。结果表明：阅读策略训练与阅读能力发展显著正相关;情感策略能显著促进阅读能力发展、而元认知和认知策略则不能,这几者之间存在一定关系模式;策略水平、性别和阅读题型都显著影响阅读能力发展;教师可通过培养自主阅读、提高英语水平和进行显性策略教学等方式促进学生的阅读能力发展。     

Self-Regulating Informational Text Reading Comprehension: Perceptions of Low-Achieving Students

Students who struggle with learning may not have the metacognition needed to support the multiple processes required to understand what is read in informational text. Instruction for these students, therefore, should include methodologies that promote self-regulation of critical thinking processes. Fifty-eight low-achieving students were provided Self-Regulated Strategy Development instruction for the TWA (Think before reading, think While reading, think After reading) strategy approach. Students were explicitly taught to establish goals, self-monitor performance, use positive self-instructions, and self-reinforce. We examined these students' perceptions in regard to application of the self-regulation procedures. Students' worksheets and comments as well as perceptions documented in post-instruction interviews were used to gain insight into students' metacognitive awareness of the self-regulation procedures taught and learned.     

必读、选读、定题读泛读课外阅读学习模式

作为泛读课堂教学不可缺少的重要补充,泛读课外阅读学习需要关注个体学生的不同阅读兴趣与需求,帮助学生成长为具有自主阅读能力的人。必读、选读、定题读三合一泛读课外学习模式旨在改革传统大学泛读课外阅读现状,将传统的“完全教师控制”模式、“完全放任”模式转化为教师与学生商讨式的“必读、选读、定题读综合学习”模式。模式的核心在于激励学生进行主动的、自主的、有目标的课外阅读。它鼓励学生在课外阅读中的合作学习、师生之间的沟通交流。通过阅读开发学生高级思雏,并提高他们开展延展性活动的能力。其最终目标是培养学生的自主阅读意识和能力,使学生逐步掌握自主阅读所需的语言学习认知策略和自我管理元认知策略。     

The impact of kindergarten learning-related skills on academic trajectories at the end of elementary school

Recent research indicates that children's learning-related skills (including self-regulation and social competence) contribute to early school success. The present study investigated the relation of kindergarten learning-related skills to reading and math trajectories in 538 children between kindergarten and sixth grade, and examined how children with poor learning-related skills fared throughout elementary school on reading and math. Latent growth curves indicated that learning-related skills had a unique effect on children's reading and math scores between kindergarten and sixth grade and predicted growth in reading and math between kindergarten and second grade. In addition, children with poor learning-related skills performed lower than their higher-rated peers on measures of reading and mathematics between kindergarten and sixth grade, with the gap widening between kindergarten and second grade. Between third and sixth grade, this gap persisted but did not widen. Discussion focuses on the importance of early learning-related skills as a component in children's academic trajectories throughout elementary school and the need for early intervention focusing on children's self-regulation and social competence.     

英语泛读教学与大学生的阅读能力培养

阅读能力的培养在大学英语教学中占有极其重要的地位，本文阐述了在大学泛读教学中，教师应传授阅读策略，使学生掌握预测、推断、跳读、略读、猜词等阅读技能，培养学生良好的阅读习惯，从而提高大学生的阅读能力和阅读水平。     

Professional Competence of Prospective Teachers in Business and Economics Education: Evaluation of a Competence Model Using Structural Equation Modeling

Teacher competence is crucial for quality of teaching and learner achievement. Competency models and competence measurement are prevalent in domains such as the natural sciences and lacking in others. We conducted our research in the field of business and economics education by focusing on the accounting domain because it is key to a deep understanding of the economic context and the development of economics competence. To teach well, teachers require professional knowledge, which is mainly composed of content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and pedagogical knowledge (PK). Our competence model comprises the cognitive component of professional knowledge and the noncognitive components of beliefs, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. To measure competence in competence of prospective teachers, we employed novel instruments to test for professional knowledge and beliefs as well as established ones to test for self-regulation and self-efficacy. The sample consists of 1,152 students at 24 German universities. The structure of the competence model was tested. Results suggest that professional competence in accounting has at least four distinct dimensions (CK, PCK, beliefs, and self-regulation aspects).     

Self-Regulation Mediates the Relationship between Learner Typology and Achievement in At - Risk Children

A person-centered approach was used to explore the mediating role of self-regulation between learner typology at age 8 and academic achievement at age 14while controlling for domain-specific achievement in a longitudinal sample of 113 children born to adolescent mothers. Children were classified into one of 5 learner typologies at age 8based on interactive patterns of intellectual, achievement, and adaptive abilities. Typology classification explained significant variance in both reading and mathematics achievement at age 14. A bootstrapping approach confirmed that self-regulation mediated the relationship between typology and reading and mathematical achievement for children from all typologies except those classified as Cognitively and Adaptively Challenged. Implications of person-centered approaches for understanding processes involved with achievement are discussed.     

利用阅读层次理论提升国民阅读素养

随着九年义务教育的普及和大学扩招政策的实施,我国国民的文化素质得到了很大的提高,但是网络时代“知识碎片化”和“信息超载”导致的“阅读综合症”是我国建构学习型社会的重大障碍。如何有效提升国民阅读素养成为广大普通读者面临的巨大挑战,极大地制约着我国建构学习型社会进程,也成为我国广大教育工作者必须解决的重大教育问题。文章试图从艾德勒的阅读层次理论角度以不同读者群体阅读童话故事《小马过河》为例探索现阶段国民阅读素养提高的有效途径。     

大学英语教学中“以读促听”的应用论析

阅读和听力是两项重要的英语技能,也是大学英语教学的重点,是培养学生语言综合能力的重要组成部分。文章在对英语听力和阅读能力进行相关性分析的基础上,结合实际教学经验,提出如何在培养学生阅读能力的同时提升其听力理解能力,以实现"以读促听"。     

Long-Term Relations Between Children’s Language,the Home Literacy Environment,and Socioemotional Development From Ages 3 to 8

Research Findings: This study investigated the long-term interrelations among children’s language competencies, their home literacy environment (HLE), and 3 aspects of socioemotional development from ages 3 to 8, controlling for characteristics of the child and family. For this sample of 547 typically developing German children, parents and teachers reported on cooperative behavior, physical aggression, and emotional self-regulation. Language was assessed using established test instruments. HLE was operationalized by the number of books in the household, the frequency of shared book reading, and an observation during shared book reading. Path analyses supported effects of language and HLE at age 3 on all 3 indicators of socioemotional development over the 5-year period. An additional mediational analysis revealed different patterns of results depending on the aspect of socioemotional competency under study. Although the effect of early language and HLE at age 3 on cooperative and (low) aggressive behavior at age 8 was partially mediated by language at age 5, children’s early language at age 3 was the best predictor of the development of emotional self-regulation. Practice or Policy: Findings identify a rich HLE and proper language skills as protective factors for socioemotional development in not-at-risk children; these factors should be further established in social skills training.     

二语习得视角的非英语专业大学生课外阅读

非英语专业大学生在课堂之外的学习中,阅读应占有相当的比例。本文分析了当今课外阅读的现状,有针对性地提出学习课外阅读的学习策略。该策略是指学习者对信息加工活动进行控制影响的过程。自我调控是学习策略的重要组成部分,对学生语言自主学习能力的形成具有显著作用。以自我调控为主要方式的英语课外阅读指导模式能培养大学生策略意识,形成自主学习,大大提高英语学习效率和成果。     

朗读在高职英语教学中的作用

朗读是英语学习中不可忽视的重要方法,是提高学生实际运用语言能力的有效途径。针对目前高职英语学习中忽视朗读的现状,从而导致学生实际运用语言能力滞后的倾向,强调朗读在英语学习中的作用,以及探讨朗读过程中应注意的问题等。