Strategies for professional reading in L1 and L2

Reading strategies of future professionals, both in native language (L1) and in one or more foreign languages (L2), have been little explored. Findings from research concerning the transfer of L1 reading strategies to the L2 context are contradictory. Our hypothesis is that relative performance in L1 and L2 reading is associated with two key variables involved in successful L2 reading comprehension: L1 reading proficiency and L2 language competency, the latter being the stronger predictor. 39 students were divided into three groups by strength or weakness on each independent variable. Their reading strategies, explored by questionnaire, were compared within and between groups, both in L1 and L2, and were correlated to text recall comprehension scores. Readers strong on both key variables were equally effective in both languages. Strong L1 readers weak in L2 were poor L2 readers but fared better than readers weak on both variables. General reading strategies differentiated efficient readers from poor ones both in L1 and L2, but specific problem-solving strategies were the main obstacle in L2. Comprehending – the process, or strategic approach employed – correlated very strongly with comprehension – the product, or score – in L2 and fairly strongly in L1. Pedagogical implications suggest individualised reading training in the light of relative difficulties.     

Helping our students meet the standards through test preparation classes

Test preparation helps deaf students develop the skills they need to do well on standardized tests, particularly on a reading test format such as that used with the Stanford Achievement Test. The authors share information on how test preparation helps students to develop the skills required to do well on standardized reading tests by examining test-taking strategies and common language structures used in test items and how readers can learn to interpret them. The authors list the common errors made by their students and discuss remedial classes designed to address a range of test-taking and reading skills.     

An Experimental Evaluation of a Direct Instruction Programme (Corrective Reading) with Remedial Readers in a Comprehensive School

A Direct Instruction approach to remedial reading (Corrective Reading Programme) was evaluated in an urban Comprehensive school over two school years. First year remedial readers were randomly allocated to one experimental and two control groups. Groups were matched for sex. A similar procedure was followed in the second study carried out with the following group of first year remedial readers.

In the first three months of the first study all groups were monitored while receiving the school's usual remedial reading programme. They made comparable gains during this baseline period. Covariance analysis indicated that in the first study the experimental group and control group I (a ‘novelty’ programme) made significantly greater gains, in accuracy and comprehension, than control group 2 (the usual remedial reading programme). Findings from the second study confirmed the suggestion that gains for the experimental group in the first study were partly due to ‘novelty’ effects. Both experimental groups developed better strategies for tackling oral reading tasks (as assessed by miscue analysis) than control groups, however.     

诊断测试在语言教学中的回波效应研究

诊断测试是通过检查以往以图补救今后的测试方法，在我国日常教学中起着日益重要的作用。本文着重讨论诊断测试在语言教学中的回波效应，最后得出结论：语言测试要关注回波效应。好的测试方法对教学有正面的回波效应，方法或内容不当就会产生负面的回波效应。     

A better IDEA: best practice and outcomes‐oriented remedies in public impact litigation for students with disabilities

Class action lawsuits filed in violation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) raise questions for those concerned with improving the education system for students with disabilities. First, do the lawsuits result in changes that can be directly linked to improved student outcomes? Second, do these lawsuits and the ‘consent decrees’ that settle them refer to best practices in educating children with disabilities? To date, no study has examined the remedies ordered as a result of these lawsuits in the disability education context, or proven how different types of remedies can impede or facilitate progress for students with disabilities. Class action lawsuits under IDEA filed in large, urban school districts between 1990 and 2011 and the remedies ordered under the final agreement were reviewed. This review suggests that the lawsuits against large, urban school districts tend to result in remedial activities that focus more on planning, supporting and monitoring than on outcomes or evidence‐based practice.     

Teaching in the age of accountability: restrained by school culture?

In this paper, we explore how ‘teaching communication’ in the classroom is connected to school culture. In the age of accountability, the outcome focus force to the forefront, a ‘blame game’ which either blames students’ achievements on the teachers and teacher education, or the students and their socio-economic background. We argue that to succeed with teaching and learning is dependent on the school culture more than the single teacher or the students’ backgrounds. School culture is understood as attitudes, communication, student focus and engagement. Teaching communication in this paper is studied as teachers’ and students’ talk about subject matter in whole-class teaching. We explore how different school cultures give students different opportunities to experience meaning from teaching communication. The perspective on meaning is derived from Bildung-centred didactics. By using qualitative comparative case method in Norwegian Lower Secondary schools, we find three different types of ‘teaching communication’ typical for different school cultures: ‘Dialogic teaching communication’, ‘storytelling teaching communication’ and ‘reproducing teaching communication’. The school culture with the ‘dialogic’ variant is characterized by trust and reciprocity, making students’ experiencing meaning a possibility.     

基于认知诊断理论对高一新生化学用语辅导的研究

本研究是以认知诊断理论为指导,以化学用语内容为载体,在初-高中这一关键衔接期,以高一年级新生为研究对象开展的认知诊断研究。研究过程主要包含两个部分:第一,化学用语认知诊断的设计。编制两份平行的认知诊断测验,通过认知诊断测验一的诊断报告了解高一新生对化学用语的掌握情况。第二,化学用语补救教学的设计。根据认知诊断测验一的诊断报告设计并实施补救教学,并通过认知诊断测验二探讨补救教学方案的有效性。研究结果表明基于认知诊断理论的补救教学辅导可以有效提高化学用语能力。     

高中生作文的性灵与境界

目前高中生主要存在着缺乏观察能力、体验能力和创造能力三种问题。教师应在作文教学过程中引导学生做好“三重转化”,让高中生在作文中注入童心,使文章情境交融,并设有适当的留白,给读者留下思考的空间,以此整体提高高中生作文的水平与境界。     

The interaction with text of failing and normal readers (Ph.D thesis,School of Education,Open University, 1984)

The research reported in this thesis was designed to investigate the nature of reading comprehension failure with a view to improving remedial reading programmes for those children who, although resembling normal readers in other respects, enter secondary education with an inadequate level of reading ability. By the use of cloze tests, in which the reader is required to restore words deleted from a text, comparisons were made between failing readers at age twelve, normal readers of age twelve and normal readers of age nine who had reached the same level of reading comprehension as the failing twelve-year-olds. The three groups’ responses were classified by a system based on a view of the reading process as an interaction between the reader and the text. The effects of specific aspects of text on the three groups of readers were investigated. It was found that there were significant differences between the responses offered by the failing readers at age twelve and normal readers at age nine. Since the level of reading ability of the two groups was the same, this suggests that reading failure involves qualitative differences from normal reading development. The types of difficulty experienced by failing readers, as reflected in their cloze responses, include difficulties in visual scanning, in reconstruction of syntactic structures and in vocabulary. These components did not affect all failing readers equally. Failing readers appear to have greater difficulty than normal in relating their responses to the general theme of the text and tend to treat it as a series of isolated fragments. They make less use of the context following a deleted word than normal readers. Failing readers at age twelve appear to have greater difficulty than normal readers at age nine in recognizing which segments of a text contain important information. The whole population of a secondary school, 643 subjects, was tested and it was found that failing readers at age fifteen produced the same pattern of responses as those failing at age twelve. The only improvement appearing in their reading was in the processing of complete sentences. There were indications that remedial programmes designed on the diagnostic basis provided by the research results produced an increase in reading age in six months of a similar order to that produced by previous remedial programmes in a year. The increase was approximately twenty-four months on average for a group of failing readers whose mean reading age on entry was eight years six months. The programme caused them to alter their response patterns to resemble those of normal readers at age twelve.     

Lemons to Lemonade: How Five Challenges in Teaching Macro Practice Helped to Strengthen Our Course

Teaching macro practice can be challenging. While students have some concepts of what macro practice entails, their knowledge may be limited and sometimes inaccurate. Moreover, students may be reluctant to engage in macro change efforts. Given the scarcity of literature regarding teaching macro practice and the growing importance of it in social work, this article addresses major issues that we encountered in teaching macro practice at a large Midwestern school of social work. In our institution only 6% of students are enrolled in macro concentrations and we wish to encourage students to expand their interests in macro practice even if they do not wish to pursue a macro concentration. We describe a macro practice course we designed to meet the challenges of teaching community, organization, and policy practice skills to master's level and advanced undergraduate students. Our goal is to expand the macro practice pedagogy literature and encourage social work faculty to consider both established and innovative ways of introducing the planned change process in community, organization, and policy practice to their students.     

The Effects of a Fluency Intervention Program on the Fluency and Comprehension Outcomes of Middle‐School Students with Severe Reading Deficits

Despite advances in the science of teaching reading, there still exists a small percentage of students who fail to make the expected progress in reading‐related skills, notwithstanding attempts at intervention. Even if these struggling readers learn to decode adequately, fluency remains a problem for many, and little is known about the effectiveness of fluency interventions for older students with severe reading deficits. This study used a randomized experimental design to test the efficacy of a fluency intervention program on the word‐identification and reading‐comprehension outcomes of 60 middle‐school students with severe reading delays. Results showed that students in the experimental group made more progress on standardized tests of reading fluency than students in the control group. No gains were seen in reading comprehension.     

Biased grades? Changes in grading after a blinding of examinations reform

Abstract

Group differences in average grades prior to and after a step-wise introduction of blinded examinations at Stockholm University are examined. Relative to students with ‘native’ names, students with ‘foreign’ names appear to experience weak positive bias in the grading of their examinations, but the estimated effect is sensitive to model specification. No substantial effects of blinding examinations with respect to male-female gaps are found. The results suggest that examiners – when the names of students are disclosed to them – if anything have a weak tendency to positively discriminate for students perceived to have an immigrant background, but they do not appear to discriminate on the basis of gender.     

Metacognitive online reading strategy use: Readers' perceptions in L1 and L2

This study aimed to explore whether first‐language (L1) readers of different language backgrounds would employ similar metacognitive online reading strategies and whether reading online in a second language (L2) could be influenced by L1 reading strategies. To this end, 52 Canadian college students as English L1 readers and 38 Iranian university students as both Farsi L1 and English L2 readers were selected. After completing three reading tasks on the Web, their perceptions about their use of strategies were assessed via a survey of reading strategies. Analyses of the data, using an analysis of variance and the Scheffé post hoc test, revealed certain differences. The Canadian readers perceived themselves to be high‐strategy users employing mostly a top‐down approach, whereas the Iranian readers in both Farsi and English appeared to be medium‐strategy users, favouring mostly a bottom‐up approach. Additionally, the correlation between readers' perceived use of strategies and their reading scores was statistically significant.     

远程英语写作书面反馈模式与生态链构建

写作反馈是读者向作者的输入,其目的是为作者修改文章提供信息,它具有评价、知识传递、促进学习的功能。写作反馈的理论基础主要包括语言输出假设、语言输入假设和二语习得整合理论。纵观国内近20年二语写作反馈研究成果,主要集中在书面反馈模式、反馈效果、影响反馈效果的因素三个方面。反馈模式主要有教师反馈、同伴反馈、教师与同伴反馈相结合模式、电子智能反馈模式四种。制约和影响反馈效果的因素主要有反馈接收者、反馈发出者和反馈方式三个方面。反馈效果是反馈研究最为关注的核心问题,反馈的最终目的在于使学生能够内化反馈的知识点。在远程教学中,由于教与学时空分离、学生基础薄弱、师生比例太大,这给远程写作教学带来新的挑战。构建一种"写作-反馈-内化"的写作反馈生态链是应对这一挑战的新思路。生态链中的"写作"不断输出学习者对语言知识的假设,"反馈"不断发现和修正学习者在语言学习过程中的错误假设,"内化"则不断地运用已有知识吸收语言知识的正确假设。通过不断循环,能够保证远程学习者语言学能和写作能力的不断提高。     

Log jammed by standard assessment tests: how feedback can help writers

Standard assessment tests have been part of the literacy practice in English primary schools for many years. While educators point to the dangers of ‘teaching to the test’, politicians continue to believe that the best way of achieving accountability is by retaining league tables of these test results. Currently the curriculum is too readily restricted by what can be tested with little time allowed to stimulate children's imaginative thinking. This article looks critically at practice in an English junior school that has been in the top 9 per cent of performing schools and the effect on two Level 5 writers. The author offers a more complex approach for consideration, with herself as the teacher assessor concentrating on what is good in the writing as well as what is weak and offering interactive, followed by remedial, feedback to the writer.     

‘Shit shows’ or ‘like-minded schools’: charter schools and the neoliberal logic of Teach For America

Over the past three decades, two neoliberal educational reform efforts have emerged in tandem – the charter school movement and Teach For America (TFA). This paper critically examines the relationship between these entities through the lens of TFA corps members placed in charter schools, and explores two types of schools described by interviewees, namely, ‘shit shows,’ and ‘like-minded schools.’ Grounded in corps members’ teaching experiences, this paper argues that even at its best, the close partnership between TFA and charters can create a mutually reinforcing educational subculture that is isolated from broader educational discourses and practices. At its worst, this partnership can result in the ill-advised ‘propping up’ of under-funded, mismanaged, ill-equipped charters that might otherwise struggle to find adequate staffing and, consequently, close. This paper suggests that these two tendencies – toward corps members’ insularity and poor placement – have the potential to conflict with the charter movement’s and TFA’s stated purposes of improving the quality of schooling for disadvantaged and marginalized students.     

To Math or Not to Math: The Algebra-Calculus Pipeline and Postsecondary Mathematics Remediation

This article reports on a study designed to estimate the effect of high school coursetaking in the algebra-calculus pipeline on the likelihood of placing out of postsecondary remedial mathematics. A nonparametric variant of propensity score analysis was used on a nationally representative data set to remove selection bias and test for an effect among all comparable students and among students least likely to enroll in precalculus, trigonometry, or calculus. The effect failed to reach practical significance among all comparable students and was particularly weak among students least likely to take precalculus, trigonometry, or calculus. These findings suggest that the regression-based results that factor strongly into discussions on high school graduation requirements for mathematics coursetaking contain substantial selection bias.     

PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSES AMONG STUDENTS CONCURRENTLY ENROLLED IN REMEDIAL COURSES: POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Community colleges utilize open-door admission policies to provide educational opportunities for all students, including those who are academically under-prepared in one or more areas. Current approaches to assisting under-prepared students include the targeted delivery of remedial courses in math, English, and reading. This approach typically relies on the use of standardized placement tests to determine whether students have remedial needs. Based on those placement test scores, students may have a remedial need in only one of the core academic areas (e.g., math, English, or reading). In such cases, students may concurrently enroll in required remedial courses and college-level courses unrelated to the area in which they are considered to be academically under-prepared. The research reported in this article evaluated the assumption that a student's under-preparedness is limited to a specific area by assessing the college-level performance of students concurrently enrolled in remedial and college-level courses. The results show that college-level pass rates are much lower among students concurrently enrolled in remedial courses who do not successfully complete one or more of these remedial courses. These students under-perform irrespective of the type of college-level course. In contrast, students who pass their remedial courses are generally successful in their college-level courses. Policy implications in regard to developmental education are discussed.     

A Macro–Micro–Symbolic Teaching to Promote Relational Understanding of Chemical Reactions

The purpose of this research is threefold: (1) to identify the difficulties that Grade 10 students in a Lebanese school have that hinder their conceptual understanding at the micro–macro–symbolic interface in chemistry, (2) to investigate the effect of a macro–micro–symbolic teaching approach on students’ relational understanding of chemical reactions, and (3) to characterize students’ conceptual profiles regarding their understanding of chemical reactions in terms of macro, micro, symbolic levels and the relations among them, at the end of the teaching sequence. Forty six 10th graders from two sections participated in the study. A student-centered approach was followed in both sections based on constructivist pedagogy. Hence the teacher played the role of a facilitator who guided students in a meaning making inductive learning process, through questioning, monitoring, validating, and clarifying ideas. Instruction in the experimental group was characterized by macro–micro–symbolic teaching that focuses on the interplay between the levels, integrates various representations, and engages students in an epistemic discourse about the nature of knowing in chemistry. Data sources for the study included a pre-test and two post-intervention tasks: a post-test and a concept map task, in addition to interviews with selected students from both sections. Findings indicated that macro–micro–symbolic teaching enhanced students’ conceptual understanding and relational learning of chemical reactions. Besides, four assertions related to students’ conceptual and epistemological thinking in response to the different teaching approaches are presented. Implications for instruction and for teacher education programs, as well as recommendations for further research, are discussed in light of these findings.