The effect of modifying the cognitive tempo of reading disabled children on reading comprehension

The present investigation was concerned with teaching poor readers to use a reflective cognitive style. It was hypothesized that such a strategy would facilitate the reading ability of poor readers. To test this hypothesis, approximately half the poor readers and half the average readers were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group of children was taught to delay their responses and to use more efficient search and scanning techniques. All groups were tested before and after training on the Matching Familiar Figures test and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Poor readers' vocabulary and comprehension scores and level of reflectivity improved following training. It was concluded that imposing slow reading strategies on impulsive children is an important factor in developing educational programs for children with reading disabilities and that teaching poor readers a reflective cognitive strategy may have important consequences on the child's reading performance.     

Teachers’ expectations about students’ use of reading strategies,knowledge and behaviour in Grades 3, 5 and 7

Although extensive basic research has been carried out on children’s metacognition, little is known about teachers’ views of their students’ cognitive and metacognitive skills in reading. The ways in which teachers expected their children to use, or to know how to use, certain reading skills are examined in this study. A questionnaire on reading components (strategies, knowledge and behaviour) was completed by 45 teachers in Grades 3, 5 and 7. In this questionnaire teachers were asked to make judgements about whether or not students of high, average and low ability levels in their classes would be likely to show these skills. An analysis of variance (grade×ability×component) revealed a significant interaction between ability and component. There was much greater variability in the three components for the low and average levels of ability. The main effect for ability was significant. The highest expectations of teachers were for high‐ability students in all the three groups of items, followed by average and low‐ability students. The main effect for component was also significant for knowledge. There was no significant difference between the grades. However, teachers hold equivalent performance expectations for high‐ability students in each of the three components, but for average and low‐ability groups, expectations were higher for knowledge than strategy and behaviour.     

An evaluation of two approaches for teaching reading comprehension strategies in the primary years using science information texts

There are few research studies on the effects of teaching comprehension strategies to young children in the primary grades. Using a Dominant–Less Dominant Mixed Model design employing both qualitative and quantitative data collection, we evaluated two approaches for teaching comprehension strategies to 7- and 8-year-old children in four second-grade classrooms using science information texts. The first approach focused upon explicitly teaching a series of single comprehension strategies, one-at-a-time (SSI). The second approach focused on teaching a “set” or “family” of transacted comprehension strategies within a collaborative, interactive and engaging routine (TSI). Results showed no difference between teaching young children a “set” of comprehension strategies and teaching comprehension strategies explicitly, one-at-a-time on their reading comprehension performance as measured by a standardized test of reading comprehension, recall of main ideas from reading two 200 word passages from information texts, a reading motivation survey and a strategy use survey. Results showed significant differences between students taught a set of comprehension strategies on measures of elaborated knowledge acquisition from reading science books (detail idea units recalled), retention of science content knowledge, and significantly improved criterion or curriculum-based reading comprehension test scores. These benefits favoring TSI over SSI are important because the learning curve is relatively steep for teachers to develop the ability to teach and for young children to develop the ability to coordinate a “set” of transacted comprehension strategies.     

Developing higher-order reading skills in mainstream primary schools: A metacognitive and self-regulatory approach

The ability to read relies upon not just decoding, but also comprehending text. Being a good comprehender requires strategic reading and implies the use of comprehension strategies. Research indicates that readers who are taught several reading comprehension strategies have better reading skills than those only taught a single strategy. One multiple strategy reading comprehension intervention was evaluated using a mixed-model quasi-experimental design. Intervention and control conditions groups were assessed at pre- and post-test points with standardised reading comprehension abilities, measured as the primary outcome measure. Implementation science principles were observed and evaluated. The schools all served areas of low socio-economic status. 74 pupils (aged 9–10) in five classes in four primary-level mainstream schools in a Scottish local authority were recruited as participants. Training was provided to participating schools by the first author and the programme was delivered in four sessions of 45 minutes per week for 8 weeks. An ANCOVA revealed a statistically significant effect of condition. Statistically significant scores were also evident in the secondary outcome measures of decoding of target word skills, children’s self-reports of their reading strategy use and recreational reading frequency. Implementation tools indicated that the intervention was acceptable and feasible to implement. Implications of introducing this multiple strategy reading comprehension programme and of the evaluation of implementation are discussed.     

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.     

Rhyme Awareness,Orthographic Analogy Use,Phonemic Awareness and Reading: An examination of relationships

It is suggested that children learning to read require phonemic awareness before being able to make orthographic analogies during reading (Ehri & Robbins, 1992) and that phonemic awareness is a better discriminator of children who will benefit from orthographic analogies than rhyme awareness (Walton, 1995). It has also been found that orthographic analogy use does not make an independent contribution to early reading ability (Wood, 1999). The present study investigates which skills are best able to account for orthographic analogy use during early reading and tests the finding that there is no independent association between reading ability and orthographic analogy use. Results suggest that phonemic awareness and reading experience are best able to account for analogy use, and that orthographic analogy use does directly contribute to early reading ability. Rhyme awareness was also associated with orthographic analogy use, but this contribution was less than that of phonemic awareness, and was not significant after the contribution of phonemic awareness was taken into account.     

犬辅助干预对儿童阅读的影响

阅读能力不足是困扰学龄儿童发展的一大问题,然而仅从阅读本身来寻找解决该问题的方法并不是唯一的突破点。基于动物辅助干预的基本思路,犬辅助阅读以“给犬朗读”和“对话式阅读”的方式对以往阅读课程学习模式进行扩展,更加关注犬与儿童的互动和情感联系,能够帮助儿童(尤其是特殊儿童)形成独特的阅读环境,减轻阅读压力,提升对阅读任务的兴趣价值、能力信念和阅读技能。鉴于此,基于以往犬辅助阅读的研究成果,本文将从阅读动机、阅读技能和阅读环境三方面来探讨犬辅助干预对儿童阅读的影响,以期展现犬辅助阅读研究的基本脉络。     

When diglossia meets dyslexia: The effect of diglossia on voweled and unvoweled word reading among native Arabic-speaking dyslexic children

Native Arabic speakers read in a language variety that is different from the one they use for everyday speech. The aim of the present study was: (1) to examine Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA) voweled and unvoweled word reading among native-speaking sixth graders with developmental dyslexia; and (2) to determine whether SpA reading ability among children with dyslexia predicts StA reading fluency in the two orthographies: voweled and unvoweled. A comparison was made to three age groups of typically developing children: a group matched by chronological age, a group of children who are two years younger, and a group of children who are 4 years younger. Findings show that diglossia has a strong impact on reading ability in dyslexic children. Moreover, vowelization plays a pivotal role in the reading ability of Arabic-speaking children with dyslexia in both SpA and StA. This role is evident in the different performance patterns of dyslexic participants as compared with controls on word-reading accuracy and fluency for SpA versus StA. Finally, StA word-reading fluency appears to depend on and to be reliably and powerfully predicted by SpA word-level reading ability. These results underscore the role of diglossia and vowelization in the manifestation of dyslexia in Arabic-speaking children.     

浅谈幼儿的早期阅读

在学前儿童各项能力培养中,阅读能力及幼儿的早期阅读成为国内外学者日益关注的一个焦点。但在实践中,人们对它还存在一些错误的认识和做法。针对这一现状,本文从早期阅读的内涵、早期阅读的价值、早期阅读教育的指导策略几个方面对此加以阐释,以此构建现实中的早期阅读教育的理性行为。     

The relationship between phonological codes on memory and spelling tasks for students with and without learning disabilities.

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which 31 (23 boys and 8 girls) 13-year-old children with learning disabilities from Grades 7, 8, and 9 were comparable to younger (9-year-old) reading- and spelling-matched controls in (a) phonological similarity effects, (b) phonetically based misspellings, and (c) relationships between memory and spelling performance. Children with reading disabilities and reading-recognition-matched controls, subgrouped by spelling ability, were compared on their memory for phonetically similar and dissimilar word lists and types of spelling errors. The results indicate that children with reading disabilities who are matched to younger children on both reading recognition and spelling ability exhibit normal phonological effects on memory and spelling measures. Within each reading group, low spellers produced more semiphonetic errors than high spellers, and high spellers produced more phonetic errors than low spellers. Significant correlations between memory and spelling error measures were more frequent for children with reading disabilities when compared to controls matched on reading and spelling ability. It was concluded that the phonological performance of reading/spelling-matched children with reading disabilities is characterized by an overreliance on phonological codes, whereas their counterparts' performance reflects independent and less generalizable use of phonological substrates across tasks.     

Does strategy knowledge influence working memory in children with mathematical disabilities?

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), declarative strategy knowledge, and math achievement in children with and without mathematical disabilities (MD). Experiment 1 examined the relationship between strategy knowledge, verbal WM, and visual-spatial WM in children with MD as a function of initial, gain, and maintenance conditions. The results showed that after partialing the influence of reading, stable strategy choices rather than specific strategy knowledge was related to verbal and visual-spatial WM span in high demand (maintenance) conditions. Experiment 2 compared children with MD to a group of chronological age-matched children and a group of math ability-matched children on the same conditions as Experiment 1. Age-matched children's verbal and visual-spatial WM performance was superior to that of children with MD, whereas WM performance was statistically comparable between children with MD and younger children matched on math ability. The selection of expert strategies was related to high WM span scores in the initial conditions. After controlling for reading achievement in a regression analysis, verbal and visual-spatial WM, stable verbal strategy choices, and expert strategy choices related to visual-spatial processing all contributed independent variance to math achievement. Overall, these results suggest that WM and math achievement are related to strategy knowledge.     

The development of orthographic and phonological strategies for the decoding of words in children

This study examined the use of orthographic and phonological deletion strategies by children in the 6–16‐year age range. Children from Grades 1 to 10 (n=191) were presented either visually or orally isolated words and were asked to pronounce these words using either an orthographic (spelling) strategy following mental deletion of one letter, or a phonological (sounding) strategy following mental deletion of one sound. All children performed additional reading and spelling tasks in which they read and spelt all the words and derivatives from the deletion tasks. Analysis of variance revealed that younger readers were more accurate when using phonological strategies than when using orthographic strategies, whereas older readers showed superior orthographic and phonological processing abilities. Generally the results supported the suggestion that phonological and orthographic processing ability increase with age, and that the increase in these abilities with age is not solely dependent on reading and spelling ability.     

书香幼儿园的环境管理实践研究

《3—6岁儿童学习和发展指南》中提出:“为幼儿提供良好的阅读环境和条件,鼓励幼儿自主阅读,并与他人讨论自己在阅读中的发现、体会和想法,在阅读中发展幼儿的想象力和创造力。”幼儿期是发展阅读能力的关键期,环境作为教育的第一要素,如何通过创设书香环境,让幼儿与阅读环境积极互动,从爱阅读到会阅读,这一直是书香幼儿园管理者努力思考和追求的。因此,我园以优化书香幼儿园的环境管理为目标,通过管理的“三化”策略,创设浓浓的书香氛围和宽松适宜的阅读大环境,引导幼儿与图画书积极互动。在丰富多彩的阅读活动和阅读拓展活动中引发幼儿对阅读的兴趣,感受阅读的快乐,提高自主阅读的能力。     

幼儿园绘本教学组织策略探究

绘本教学对开发幼儿智力、培养幼儿逻辑思维、提高幼儿阅读兴趣、发展幼儿语言能力具有至关重要的作用。探究有效的绘本教学组织策略,能激发幼儿兴趣,调动幼儿学习的积极性,提高绘本教学效率和教学质量,提升幼儿阅读能力。文章从怎样选择绘本、怎样开展绘本教学、怎样进行绘本阅读等方面进行探究。     

Decoding and sight-word naming: Are they independent components of word recognition skill?

Word recognition skill is the foundation of the reading process. Word recognition could be accomplished by two major strategies: phonological decoding and sight-word reading, the latter being a marker for proficient reading. There is, however, a controversy regarding the relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, whether the two are independent or the latter is built on the foundations of the former. A related controversy about instructional strategy could be whether to use whole-word method to improve word recognition skills, or to first build decoding skills and then introduce sight words. Five goals were set up to address these issues: (a) developing a criterion that can be used easily by classroom teachers to assess sight-word reading ability, (b) examining this relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, (c) identifying the mechanism that can explain the relationship, (d) examining factors that facilitate sight-word reading, and (e) discussing potential instructional implications of these findings. In order to accomplish these goals, naming time and word-naming accuracy of three groups of subjects (elementary school children, children identified as having reading disability, and college students) were studied by using a variety of verbal materials. The over-all conclusions are that the difference in naming time of letters and words can be used as a metric for assessing sight-word reading skill. Sight-word reading appears to be intimately related to decoding. Sight-word reading is accomplished by parallel processing of constituent letters of words and is influenced also by the semantic nature of words. It is conjectured that sight-word reading instruction is likely to be successful if decoding skills are firmly established first.     

Reading strategy use and motivation among Chinese good and poor readers in Hong Kong

Eighty‐three good readers and 76 poor readers were compared on their ability to use reading strategies in Chinese reading comprehension and on various reading motivation variables. Poor readers scored lower than good readers in using all reading strategies, and especially in using sophisticated cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Poor readers also had lower intrinsic motivation in reading than had good readers. While the ability to use reading strategies had the strongest relation with reading comprehension, intrinsic motivation and strategy attribution might facilitate reading development through their positive relations with strategy use. Implications of these findings for implementing effective reading instruction in Hong Kong Chinese language teaching are discussed.     

Beginning Reading by Teaching in Rime Analogy: Effects on Phonological Skills,Letter-Sound Knowledge,Working Memory,and Word-Reading Strategies

Prereading kindergartners were assigned to groups that varied experience with (a) the rime analogy reading strategy; (b) the implicated prereading skills of rhyming, initial phoneme identity, and letter-sounds; or (c) a control group. Teaching in the rime analogy strategy and the prereading skills resulted in more reading than teaching in the rime analogy strategy or prereading skills alone. Many children developed the untaught abilities of medial and final phoneme identity and the letter recoding reading strategy. Children with high prereading skill levels read the most words, and the use of specific prereading skills varied across different reading word types. Working memory was unrelated to increases in prereading skills or reading. Children were able to generalize the rime analogy strategy to read words with unfamiliar rime spellings.     

The Contribution of Analogical Problem Solving and Phonemic Awareness to Children's Ability to Make Orthographic Analogies when Reading

ABSTRACT A review of current literature into children's use of orthographic analogies during reading results in an apparent contradiction: that normal readers’ ability to draw such analogies is not predicted by their prior phonological awareness (Muteret al., 1994), rather by their reading experience and proficiency (Bowey and Underwood, 1996), but that dyslexic children are less able to draw these analogies because of theirlack of phonological awareness (Hanleyet al., 1997). It is suggested that in the absence of extensive reading experience, a combination of analogous problem‐solving ability and phonological awareness may be necessary for the successful use of orthographic analogies during reading. To assess this possibility, 70 children of limited reading experience and ability were assessed on phonemic awareness, their ability to make visual analogies and use orthographic analogies when reading. Phonemic awareness was able to account for 14% of the variance in reading ability. Phonemic awareness also accounted for 40% of the variance in children's orthographic analogy scores, and the ability to make visual analogies accounted for another 5%. It was also found that the ability to make orthographic analogies does not account for variance in reading ability scores once phonemic awareness has been taken into account.     

Using a Think-Aloud with Diverse Students: Three Primary Grade Students Experience Chrysanthemum

Many struggling readers, students with English as a second language, and children with disabilities do not engage in the strategies that good readers use when reading for understanding. Reading comprehension depends upon the students’ ability to successfully use strategies to monitor and control their own comprehension. Teachers need to help students develop skills that will aid in reading comprehension. The think-aloud is one strategy that can help struggling readers improve fluency and comprehension. One of the most important components to determine the success of the think-aloud is the teacher’s ability to model and facilitate the think-aloud procedure. The teacher needs to have a basic understanding of what is meant to be accomplished using this method. This article profiles how three teachers model and facilitate a think-aloud with three struggling readers.     

阅读策略对大学生英语阅读能力影响的实证研究

研究各阅读策略与英语阅读能力之间的相关性以及不同英语阅读水平组在使用阅读策略上的差异性,结果表明：三种策略中认知策略对英语阅读成绩的影响力最大,元认知策略其次,而社交／情感策略对英语阅读成绩的影响力最小。阅读成绩高分组的学生在阅读时更多地使用元认知策略进行调控,而低水平组的学生则更多地使用认知策略;两组学生在认知策略的使用上表现出显著差异;但两组学生在社交／情感策略的使用上差异不大,比较趋向一致。