Influence of source credibility on students’ noticing and assessing comprehension obstacles in science texts

This study aims to analyse the effect of source credibility on students’ identification and assessment of comprehension obstacles in science texts. Source credibility was manipulated by providing 12th grade students with paragraphs supposedly taken from science textbooks or, alternatively, from students’ reports. The paragraphs contained information expected to be difficult to understand by the participating students. The students were instructed to report any comprehension obstacle they might find and to rate the comprehensibility of the paragraphs. There was no effect of source credibility on noticing and reporting comprehension obstacles in the conditions of our experiments. However, there was a significant finding regarding comprehensibility scores. The students rated the comprehensibility of the paragraphs supposedly taken from science textbooks higher than the comprehensibility of the same paragraphs supposedly taken from peer reports. The finding has implications on the way students approach the understanding of science texts. An enhancement of students’ feelings of competence in dealing with scientific subject matter would have a beneficial effect on students’ assessment and validation of information in science texts.     

Individual Differences in Fifth Graders’ Literacy and Academic Language Predict Comprehension Monitoring Development: An Eye-Movement Study

In this study, we investigated fifth graders’ (n = 52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children read two sentences; the second included either a plausible or implausible word in the context of the first sentence. Stronger readers had shorter reading times overall suggesting faster processing of text. Generally fifth graders reacted to the implausible word (i.e., longer gaze duration on the implausible vs. the plausible word, which reflects lexical access). Students with stronger academic language, compared to those with weaker academic language, generally spent more time rereading the implausible target compared to the plausible target. This difference increased from fall to spring. Results support the centrality of academic language for meaning integration, setting standards of coherence, and utilizing comprehension repair strategies.     

Comprehension monitoring and reading comprehension in bilingual students

This study explored comprehension monitoring, use of reading strategies and reading comprehension of bilingual students at different levels of perceived proficiency in Italian. The participants were bilingual fifth to eighth‐grade elementary school students from four Italian schools in Rijeka, Croatia. Students' reading comprehension was assessed. Their comprehension monitoring skill was measured on the Metacomprehension test and through use of a cloze task. The Strategic Reading Questionnaire (SRQ) was used as a self‐report measure of strategic reading. A questionnaire investigating Italian language use and perceived proficiency in the Italian language was also administered. Perceived proficiency in Italian was not clearly determined by early or late preschool age of second language acquisition. Bilingual students with high perceived proficiency in Italian (high PP group) had better meta‐cognitive reading skills than those with low perceived proficiency in Italian (low PP group). Comprehension monitoring was the most important predictor of reading comprehension in all students.     

Linguistic‐minority Students and Bilingual Mathematics Teaching

Mathematics teaching and subject‐matter acquisition of two groups of linguistic minority students were studied; one in a minolingual second‐language class and the other in a traditional bilingual‐education model in the city of Oslo, Norway. The background of attempts at bilingual education in the Norwegian context is presented, and some aspects of bilingual education, bilingual pedagogy and research‐based perspectives on the role of bilingual education in subject‐matter acquisition is discussed. On the basis of an empirical study of the teaching situation of linguistic‐minority students it is concluded that linguistic‐minority students profit from bilingual mathematics teaching. The empirical research results indicate that linguistic‐minority students (LMSs) with a bilingual‐education (BE) background can achieve as good or better results in mathematics as monolingual students. The strength of bilingual education can therefore be said to reside in the favourable conditions that it creates for the comprehension of linguistic‐minority students of the content taught. By creating favourable conditions bilingual subject‐matter teaching also fulfils minorities’ expectations of participating in content‐area instruction: to understand what is being communicated in subject‐matter teaching and to learn what is normally expected to be learned in subject‐matter teaching. It is therefore legitimate to argue for bilingual education on pedagogical grounds without the support of old‐fashioned anthropological or psychological arguments.     

DEVELOPING A TEST FOR ASSESSING ELEMENTARY STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION OF SCIENCE TEXTS

This study reports on the process of developing a test to assess students’ reading comprehension of scientific materials and on the statistical results of the verification study. A combination of classic test theory and item response theory approaches was used to analyze the assessment data from a verification study. Data analysis indicates the test has satisfactory validity and reliability. The Reading Comprehension of Science Test (RCST) components have a wide range of difficulty, which suggests that the RCST is appropriate for a relatively large percentage of students. Based on the accepted relationships among science, language, and literacy, integrated literacy–science instructions are highly recommended.     

Self-regulated learning microanalysis as a tool to inform professional development delivery in real-time

Elementary teachers in the United States are tasked with teaching all core subject matter and have training that involves many topics, which may limit the depth of their subject matter knowledge. Since they have low content knowledge, they often feel less confident about teaching technical subject matter, such as science (Bleicher Journal of Science Teacher Education 17:165–187, 2006). The problem of low confidence of elementary teachers for science instruction is exacerbated when they are expected to teach science using inquiry (Hanuscin et al. Science Education 95:145–167, 2010). Self-regulated learning microanalysis, which supports both instruction and assessment, can help teachers reflect on their learning processes. This technique may provide clues for teachers to improve strategies for learning and give information to professional development instructors to inform teacher professional development experiences. The purpose of this study was to examine self-regulatory learning cycles that fourteen elementary teachers experienced while engaged in learning about inquiry during a professional development. Results of this study showed that before the professional development, teachers reported low self-efficacy but high task value and perceived instrumentality for learning about inquiry. As the professional development progressed, teachers improved their goal setting skills, self-monitoring performance, and learning tactics. The self-regulated learning microanalysis revealed information not communicated in the professional development experience, which led to adaptation of the activities in real-time to meet the needs indicated on the self-regulated learning microanalysis reports. Measuring teacher learning processes allowed the professional development instructors to pinpoint difficulties and successes during the learning tasks, which aided in precise adaptation of experiences for teacher needs.     

Measures of reading comprehension: do they measure different skills for children learning English as a second language?

The validity of two measures of English reading comprehension was examined across three different groups of English language learners (ELLs; 64 Portuguese, 66 Spanish and 65 Cantonese). All three groups were achieving within the average range in second grade. An exploratory principal components analysis of reading skills was carried out to determine which skills were related to two commonly used tests of reading comprehension, the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery??s test of Passage Comprehension (WLPB-PC; Woodcock, 1991) and the Gray Oral Reading Test-4 (GORT-4; Wiederholt & Bryant, 2001). The factor solutions were different for the three language groups but showed many similarities in that the GORT-4 and WLPB-R tests of reading comprehension fell on the same factor within each group. Hierarchical regression analyses examining relationships among vocabulary, decoding and reading comprehension showed that language group membership did not significantly predict performance on either measure of reading comprehension. Differences that arose are likely due to issues with task validity and not ELL status. Limitations and future research are discussed.     

自然语言理解研究

自然语言理解是人工智能最活跃的研究领域之一,机器自然语言理解的本质是在形式化的自然语言基础上,用形式化的逻辑工具和形式化的知识去输入文本进行释义和推理。如何提高计算机对自然语言的理解对人工智能的发展有着非常重要的意义。     

Does Online Comprehension Monitoring Make a Unique Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers? Evidence from eye movements

The goal of this study was to investigate the nature of online comprehension monitoring, its predictors, and its relation to reading comprehension. Questions were concerned with (a) beginning readers’ sensitivity to inconsistencies, (b) predictors of online comprehension monitoring, and (c) the relation of online comprehension monitoring to reading comprehension over and above word reading and listening comprehension. Using eye tracking technology, online comprehension monitoring was measured as the amount of time spent rereading target implausible words and looking back at surrounding contexts. Results from 319 second graders revealed that children spent greater time fixating on inconsistent than consistent words and engaged in more frequent lookbacks. Comprehension monitoring was explained by both word reading and listening comprehension. However, comprehension monitoring did not uniquely predict reading comprehension after accounting for word reading and listening comprehension. These results provide insight into the nature of comprehension monitoring and its role in reading comprehension for beginning readers.     

Whose story is this? Discrepancy triggers readers’ attention to source information in short narratives

Three experiments investigated the role of source information (i.e., who said what) in readers’ comprehension of short informational texts. Based on the Discrepancy-Induced Source Comprehension assumption (Braasch, Rouet, Vibert, & Britt, 2012), we hypothesized that readers would be more likely to make use of source information when summarizing stories that included discrepant statements. Readers would also memorize source information more accurately. Experiments 1 and 2 found that American and French college students were more likely to refer to source information when they summarized news reports containing discrepant assertions. A detailed content analysis of the summaries also indicated that students use hedging and several other tactics to resolve contradictions. Experiment 3 replicated Braasch et al.’s finding that sources of discrepant stories were more likely to be recalled than sources of consistent stories. Experiment 3 also extended these findings using longer texts and a different reading task. Altogether the data support the Documents Model framework of multiple source 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.     

Mode of acquisition as a factor in deaf children's reading comprehension

This article examines the role of mode of acquisition (MoA) of word meanings in reading comprehension: children acquire word meanings using perceptual information (e.g., hearing, seeing, or smelling the referent) and/or linguistic information (e.g., verbal explanations). A total of 72 deaf and 99 hearing children between 7 and 15 years of age performed a self-paced reading task. Comprehension scores increased with age in both groups, but reading speed increased over age only for the hearing participants. For both groups, reading times on linguistically acquired words were longer than on perceptually acquired words. Although deaf children scored lower than hearing children in both conditions, comprehension scores for both groups were lower on linguistic items than on perceptual items. Thus, MoA influences reading comprehension, but the deaf show difficulty on both the perceptual and the linguistic items.     

Spatial metaphors and writing hypertexts: Study within schools

This article deals with the writing of hypertext during regular school lessons. We suppose that hypertext-environments can be used as “cognitive tools” to promote the comprehension of semantic relationships within a subject and the reflection about knowledge structures. From research on learning by writing traditional text (Bereiter &; Scardamalia 1987), it can be expected that the constitutive features of “hypertext” must be comprehensible for leaner. In this study, we focus in particular on the question: Which metaphors are helpful to introduce the main idea of “hypertext” as a cognitive tool? In an explorative field study, we examined two parallel classes constructing hypertexts during their regular school lessons. The teachers in both classes used completely different metaphors to introduce the concept of hypertext. The metaphor chosen influenced both the structures of the completed hypertext-documents and the discussion about the subject matter. The space-metaphor seems to be especially appropriate to introduce the concept of hypertext to the learner in such a way that a creative interaction between the structure of the hypertext and the semantic structure of the subject could result. Three tests were administered to measure the degree to which knowledge about semantic relations and structures was acquired. The class that had discussed hypertext with spatial metaphors showed significantly better results than the parallel class.     

口译的基础——从理解到记忆

口译的本质是从源语信息的解码到译语语言的输出,是一个大脑高速运转处理和加工信息的复杂过程。其中对源语的理解和记忆显然是整个口译活动的基础,起着至关重要的作用。阐述了口译中理解和记忆的内在联系,以及两者各自的内在过程,揭示出必须脱离原语语言外壳,抓住信息意义才能进行行之有效的理解和记忆,同时在此基础上对二者的训练策略进行了相应探讨。     

注重语言形式还是注重意义?——评第二语言习得中的理解策略和运用策略

第二语言习得研究中的很多假说都围绕着理解和运用这两个主题。在第二语言学习中，理解策略和运用策略将学习者中介语的发展看作是意义处理的结果，基于理解或运用的教学活动也是强调意义或交际对中介语发展的促进作用。然而，过分强调意义或交际策略的结果则是学习者往往忽视了语言形式。在教学中，注重语言形式还是注重意义？探讨这个问题不仅在第二语言习得研究中具有理论价值，也具有教育学意义。     

Development and validation of a reading-related assessment battery in Malay for the purpose of dyslexia assessment

Malay is an alphabetic language with transparent orthography. A Malay reading-related assessment battery which was conceptualised based on the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was developed and validated for the purpose of dyslexia assessment. The battery consisted of ten tests: Letter Naming, Word Reading, Non-word Reading, Spelling, Passage Reading, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, Elision, Rapid Letter Naming and Digit Span. Content validity was established by expert judgment. Concurrent validity was obtained using the schools' language tests as criterion. Evidence of predictive and construct validity was obtained through regression analyses and factor analyses. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor of word-level literacy skills in Malay, with rapid naming making independent secondary contributions. Decoding and listening comprehension made separate contributions to reading comprehension, with decoding as the more prominent predictor. Factor analysis revealed four factors: phonological decoding, phonological naming, comprehension and verbal short-term memory. In conclusion, despite differences in orthography, there are striking similarities in the theoretical constructs of reading-related tasks in Malay and in English.     

国外阅读理解监控教学模式述评

阅读理解监控作为阅读活动中一个重要的元认知加工过程,在近２０年内引起了心理、教育工作的极大兴趣,取得了一些令人鼓舞的研究成果,尤其对阅读理解监控教学模式的探讨,更具有直接的实际价值。阅读理解监控教学可帮助学生提高阅读理解能力,强化阅读教学效果。本试图通过国外三种阅读理解监控教学模式的评述,以期对探讨和发展我国阅读理解监控教学模式起抛砖引玉的作用。     

外语阅读焦虑和模糊容忍度对外语阅读理解的影响研究

利用两种测量手段,对学生的外语阅读焦虑、外语学习模糊容忍度和外语阅读理解成绩进行测试和相关分析。统计结果显示：学生的外语阅读焦虑和外语学习模糊容忍度均为中度;且阅读理解成绩与外语阅读焦虑呈负相关关系,与外语学习模糊容忍度呈正相关关系;外语阅读焦虑与外语学习模糊容忍度呈负相关关系。     

The simple view of reading redux: vocabulary knowledge and the independent components hypothesis

This study investigated the hypothesis that the contributions of oral language comprehension (C) and word recognition (D) to reading comprehension (R) in the simple view of reading (SVR) are not independent because a component of C (vocabulary knowledge) directly contributes to the variance in D. Three analysis procedures (hierarchical regression analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling) were used to analyze data obtained from a sample (N = 122) of 7-year-old students who were administered tests of vocabulary knowledge, nonword reading, word recognition (two standardized tests), and parallel forms of listening and reading comprehension. Results from the regression analysis indicated that vocabulary made a contribution to R beyond that made by word recognition and listening comprehension; results from the exploratory factor analysis showed that two factors (Decoding and Linguistic Comprehension) were extracted, with vocabulary and listening comprehension loading highly on the Linguistic Comprehension factor; and results from structural equation modeling revealed that the latent construct, C, influenced R not only directly but also indirectly through the latent construct, D.     

记忆理论在外语听力教学中的运用

在外语学习和教学中,了解并掌握有关的记忆理论,可以提高英语听力理解的学习效率.以记忆理论为指导,选择有效的学习策略,将是今后外语听力教学一个重要而又具有实际意义的努力方向.