Strategy instruction in writing for adult literacy learners

This study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive strategy instruction in writing with adult literacy learners. Three middle-aged African-American adults participating in adult education with the goal of passing the GED received tutoring in a strategy for planning, writing, and revising persuasive essays along with self-regulation strategies. The study used a multiple-baseline design across participants with multiple probes. All the adults made consistent gains from baseline to posttest in the quality and organization of their essays. Mean gains in overall quality from baseline to posttest for the three students were 2.7, 1.9, and 1.7 on a 7-point scale. Percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) was 100% for text structure organization and 89% for quality. The results demonstrate that strategy instruction, which has had positive effects with school-age students, has potential for adult literacy learners as well.     

Predictors of reading literacy for first and second language learners

In this study an attempt was made to construct a multi-factor model predicting the development of reading literacy in the upper grades of primary school in the Netherlands for subgroups of 729 first language (L1) learners and 93 second language (L2) learners. Following a longitudinal design, it was explored to what extent the variation in reading literacy development in L1 and L2 from grade 4 to grade 6 can be explained from children’s word decoding, language, mathematics and nonverbal reasoning skills, reading motivation and self confidence as well as their home reading resources. The results showed that L1 and L2 learners differed in reading literacy skills, language, mathematics, and reasoning skills. Structural equation modelling showed that the reading literacy development in both L1 and L2 learners could be explained from decoding, language, mathematics and reasoning skills, as well as their motivation and self-confidence. A striking difference was the fact that home reading resources had an impact on reading literacy in L1 learners but not in L2 learners.     

Kenyan women adult literacy learners: Why their motivation is difficult to sustain

Women comprise more than seventy per cent of those enrolled in the Kenya literacy programme. The reasons for this include: the limited formal educational opportunities available to females; the demands of a changing economy which have forced women to acquire extra responsibilities outside the home; the socializing opportunity made possible by literacy class attendance; flexible work schedules; and cultural beliefs which in some Kenyan communities discourage men from enrolling in the same literacy classes as women.Women literacy learners may find it difficult to sustain their interest in literacy learning because of: their multiple responsibilities; having to operate in environments not particularly conducive to learning; having to contend with professionally unqualified teachers; their limited exposure to reading materials and other learning aids; their very limited mastery of the two languages of official communication in Kenya; as well as the fact that the literacy programme is mainly administered by men.Although changes at the wider societal level still will, to the most part, determine the extent of women's participation in the Kenyan literacy programme, much could be accomplished through involving more of them in the programme's administration and by improving the quality of literacy instruction.

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Zusammenfassung Mehr als siebzig Prozent der Teilnehmer(innen) des Kenya-Alphabetisierungsprogramms sind Frauen. Die Gründe sind: die begrenzten Möglichkeiten einer formalen Bildung für Frauen die Anforderungen eines sich verändernden Wirtschaftssystems, das Frauen dazu zwingt, zusätzliche Verantwortlichkeiten außerhalb des Hauses auf sich zu nehmen; die durch Alphabetisierungsklassen ermöglichte Sozialisierung; flexible Arbeitszeiten; kulturbezogene Glaubensrichtungen, die in einigen kenyanischen Gemeinden Männer davon abhalten, gemeinsam mit Frauen an Alphabetisierungsklassen teilzunehmen.Frauen, die lesen und schreiben lernen, können es auf Grund folgender Faktoren Schwierig keiten haben, ihr Interesse an Alphabetisierung aufrechtzuerhalten: die mehrfachen Verantwortlichkeiten; der Zwang, unter lernfremden Bedingungen tätig zu sein; die Betreuung durch beruflich unqualifizierte Lehrkräfte; der beschränkte Umgang mit Lese- und sonstigen Lernmaterialien; die sehr begrenzte Beherrschung der beiden amtlichen Kommunikationssprachen Kenyas; die Tatsache, daß das Alphabetisierungsprogramm vorwiegend von Männern geleitet wird.Obwohl Veränderungen auf dem Niveau der weiteren Gesellschaft die weibliche Teilnahme am kenyanischen Alphabetisierungsprogramm weiterhin zum größten Teil bestimmen wird, könnte vieles dadurch erreicht werden, daß mehr Frauen in die Leitung des Programms einbezogen werden und daß die Qualität des Unterrichts verbessert wird.

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Résumé Au Kenya, les femmes représentent plus de soixante-dix pour cent des personnes inscrites au programme d'alphabétisation. Les raisons en sont très variées: les possibilités d'éducation formelle proposées aux filles sont très restreintes, les exigences d'une économie en mutation ont contraint les femmes à assumer des responsabilités à l'extérieur du foyer, la socialisation rendue possible par la fréquentation des cours d'alphabétisation, les emplois du temps flexibles, les croyances culturelles qui dans certaines communautés kenyanes découragent les hommes de s'inscrire dans les mêmes classes d'alphabétisation que les femmes.Les femmes inscrites aux cours d'alphabétisation peuvent éprouver certaines difficultés à maintenir leur intérêt pour l'alphabétisation du fait de leurs multiples responsabilités, qu'elles vivent dans des environnements non particulièrement favorables à l'apprentissage, qu'elles doivent se contenter d'enseignants sans grande qualification professionnelle, de leur expérience insuffisante avec les matériels de lecture et autres supports pédagogiques, de leur maîtrise très insuffisante des deux langues de communication officielle au Kenya, ainsi que du fait que le programme d'alphabétisation est essentiellement administré par des hommes.Bien que ce soient les changements au niveau global de la société qui détermineront encore, en grande partie, l'importance de la participation des femmes au programme d'alphabétisation kenyan, on pourrait faire beaucoup plus en les faisant participer à son administration et en améliorant la qualité de l'enseignement de l'alphabétisation.

     

Subgroups of adult basic education learners with different profiles of reading skills

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adult basic education (ABE) learners with different profiles of skills in the core reading components of decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. The analysis uses factor scores of those 5 reading components from on a prior investigation of the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills (MacArthur, Konold, Glutting, & Alamprese, 2010). In that investigation, confirmatory factor analysis found that a model with those 5 factors fit the data best and fit equally well for native and non-native English speakers. The study included 486 students, 334 born or educated in the United States (native) and 152 not born nor educated in the US (non-native) but who spoke English well enough to participate in English reading classes. The cluster analysis found an 8-cluster solution with good internal cohesion, external isolation, and replicability across subsamples. Of the 8 subgroups, 4 had relatively flat profiles (range of mean scores across factors <0.5 SD), 2 had higher comprehension than decoding, and 2 had higher decoding than comprehension. Profiles were consistent with expectations regarding demographic factors. Non-native speakers were overrepresented in subgroups with relatively higher decoding and underrepresented in subgroups with relatively higher comprehension. Adults with self-reported learning disabilities were overrepresented in the lowest performing subgroup. Older adults and men were overrepresented in subgroups with lower performance. The study adds to the limited research on the reading skills of ABE learners and, from the perspective of practice, supports the importance of assessing component skills to plan instruction.     

Explaining phonology and reading in adult learners: Introducing prosodic awareness and executive functions to reading ability

Background

This study was designed to extend our understanding of phonology and reading to include suprasegmental awareness using measures of prosodic awareness, which are complex tasks that tap into the rhythmic aspects of phonology. By requiring participants to access, reflect on and manipulate word stress, the prosodic awareness measures used here necessarily impose demands on the executive system. Prosodic awareness was evaluated as a phonological predictor of reading in older readers while controlling for executive functions (EF) in order to ascertain whether observed predictive relationships could be confidently attributed to suprasegmental awareness.

Methods

103 adults between 18 and 55 years of age completed tasks on prosodic awareness, EF, vocabulary, nonverbal abilities, naming speed and short‐term memory.

Results

Independent contributions of prosodic awareness added to models of word reading, whereas EF processes did not uniquely contribute to adult reading outcomes.

Conclusions

Suprasegmental phonology explains individual differences in word reading among experienced readers. Theoretical implications of findings are discussed.

Implications for Practice

What is already known about this topic

• Phonological awareness (PA) becomes less predictive of reading in older readers. PA is typically assessed at the level of the segment (e.g., phonemes, syllables and onset‐rimes), with less focus on suprasegmental processes (e.g., rhythm, stress and intonation).
• Suprasegmental phonological processing includes measures of prosodic ability (e.g., awareness and manipulation of suprasegmental features of oral language). Studies on prosodic awareness and reading have independent contributions beyond segmental PA in early readers. Less work has been investigated among adult readers.
• Executive functions (EF) including inhibitory control, working memory, switching and updating and monitoring of goal directed behaviour, predict overall academic achievement. Limited studies have controlled for EF demands in phonological tasks.

What this paper adds

• Tasks of prosodic awareness necessarily impose demands on the executive system when manipulating components of oral language. After controlling for EF and controls, prosodic awareness explained individual differences in adult word reading.
• Tasks of suprasegmental phonological processes explain the association between phonology and reading in older and more experienced readers. Researchers who explore phonology and reading development should begin to include tasks of prosodic awareness to examine the dual role of segmental and suprasegmental PA as it is implicated across development.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• Theoretical models of phonology and reading can be extended to include suprasegmental processes.
• For educational practitioners involved in reading assessment of older readers, tasks of prosodic awareness are a more age‐appropriate measure of phonology.
• Tasks of phonology and reading with increasing complexity impose greater demands on the executive system. The relationship between cognitive flexibility and reading needs to be considered in theoretical models of reading.

     

Predictors of reading literacy

Two reading literacy/text comprehension tests with different demands (on-line comprehension vs. memory-based comprehension) were administered to 6,104 15-year-old students from all German states and school types. The combined and specific effects of proximal and distal variables from small-scale psychological research as well as from large-scale educational studies on each text comprehension measure were investigated. Metacognitive knowledge, decoding speed, and the number of books at home (as an indicator for family background) were found to have specific and large effects on on-line comprehension and accounted for 46 percent of the variance with the highest effects for metacognition. Metacognitive knowledge was also highly predictive when the effects of specific prior knowledge and thematic interest on memory-based text comprehension were estimated simultaneously. In addition, students who showed relative strength in building up a coherent representation of specific texts (memory-based text comprehension) were characterised by high amounts of prior knowledge and thematic interest thereby underlining the importance of these student characteristics for learning.     

Improving reading achievements of struggling learners

This article questions whether culture and climate can be considered interchangeable concepts in school effectiveness research. Hereto both are compared by describing them thoroughly and reviewing their main advantages and disadvantages. It is argued that the two are different. Preference is given to culture as more suitable and more accurate for examining a school's cognitive structures. Climate, encompassing culture, should be reserved for picturing the school in its entirety.     

Toward modeling reading comprehension and reading fluency in English language learners

This study investigated the adequacy of an expanded simple view of reading (SVR) framework for English language learners (ELLs), using mediation modeling approach. The proposed expanded SVR included reading fluency as an outcome and phonological awareness and naming speed as predictors. To test the fit of the proposed mediation model, longitudinal data from 308 ELLs from different linguistic backgrounds were analyzed using structural equation modeling. We examined the mediating role of Grade 2 word-level reading skills in the association between Grade 1 phonological awareness, naming speed, and listening comprehension and Grade 3 reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results indicated that word-level reading skills fully mediated the association between phonological awareness, reading comprehension and reading fluency. Word-level reading skills partially mediated the association between naming speed and reading fluency. Listening comprehension contributed directly to reading comprehension and reading fluency. It appears that reading development in ELLs is better understood when reading fluency is added to the SVR framework as an outcome and naming speed as a building block of SVR. Theoretical aspects of the mediation model in relation to ELL reading development are also addressed.     

Towards understanding adult distance learners

We are all aware that adults who return to study at a distance may approach their studies in very different ways. The reasons for such differences, and their relation to students' personal contexts, are not well understood. In this paper, Mavis Kelly of the School of External Studies and Continuing Education, University of Queensland, and Margaret Shapcott of the Distance Education Unit, Deakin University, present some of their findings from research into this area. Analysing interviews with external students of the University of Queensland, at two distinct levels, has enabled them to identify both attitudes to study common to all those interviewed and two basic kinds of study orientation. These differences are closely related to the students' personal background and experiences.     

Factors behind low reading literacy achievement

The initial results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicated that Finnish and Swedish students' are among the best readers in all OECD countries. However, the literacy performance of 7% of Finnish and 12% of Swedish students' remains at a level which is not sufficient for further studies or active citizenship. This article reports a further comparative study which explores, compares and contrasts, by means of two‐level logistic regression models, students' personal, socio‐economic and cultural factors and their effects on low as opposed to average reading literacy achievement in Finland and Sweden. The results indicate that the risk of being a low achiever is strongly determined by gender and by several sociocultural factors as well as by students' personal characteristics, attitudes and activities both at and outside school. The constructed model was relatively similar and predicted with approximately equal degrees of probability membership in the risk group in both countries. This lays a solid foundation for joint pedagogic developmental efforts.     

Teachers fostering the co-development of science literacy and language literacy with English language learners

Thirty-five elementary teachers participated in a yearlong professional development (PD) program that was designed to foster a culture of on-going teacher learning to promote the co-development of science and language literacy for English language learners (ELL). An explanatory design methodology was used to determine the degree to which science and language literacy co-developed. The research question guiding this study was: In what ways did the yearlong PD science program support teachers at 10 elementary schools to become more knowledgeable about fostering science literacy and its role in co-developing language literacy (e.g. reading, writing, listening, and speaking) for ELL? The measurable and significant gains on the quantitative mandated state science and reading tests and the analysis of qualitative teaching episodes led to the conclusion that demonstrated the synergy between science learning and language learning – as one increased, so did the other.     

Oral reading fluency of Chinese second language learners

Reading and Writing - The present study examined the components of oral reading fluency (ORF) via various indices and their relationships with comprehension and learner-perceived difficulty of oral...     

集中识字是弥补随文识字不足的必要措施

“随文识字”的效率极大地阻碍了小学生阅读能力的提高、自主性探究性学习的施行以及少年儿童早期的智力开发。推广“集中识字”,是弥补“随文识字”不足的必要措施。推行“集中识字”的根本目的是及早增强阅读能力。实施集中识字能够极大地促进少年儿童的大脑发育和极大地发展少年儿童的大脑思维能力。推广集中识字,必须采用科学的识字教学方法,要立足于汉字学和现代脑科学的理论基础,要立足于充分发挥汉字象形性和表意性的独特优势。     

Examining the relations between reading fluency and reading comprehension for english language learners

This study examined the relations between reading fluency and comprehension among elementary school students (N = 171) in Grades 2, 3, and 5, all of whom were designated as English language learners (ELL) at some point in their educational careers. Although the overall relation between reading fluency and comprehension (r = .56) was consistent with previous research using non‐ELL student samples, results also revealed a substantial number of students (55.5%) who exhibited a significant gap (SD, 0.67 ) between their scores on reading fluency and comprehension assessments. In addition, the prevalence of students with fluency/comprehension gaps varied significantly across grade and English language proficiency levels. The results suggested that, although reading fluency and comprehension are significantly related for ELL students, practitioners should be cautious when making identification and instructional decisions for ELL students based solely on oral reading fluency data. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Profiles of cognitive precursors to reading acquisition. Contributions to a developmental perspective of adult literacy

This article discusses conceptual and empirical elements concerning the development of cognitive processes that function as precursors of reading, and their association with the acquisition of reading skills in an adult population participating in literacy courses. It connects emergent literacy research with historical–cultural and bioecological concepts. Subsequently, it focuses on the problem of the development of profiles of cognitive reading precursors. A sample of 63 Chilean adults was studied through a growth/learning curves approach. The study replicated previous results indicating the existence of three major profiles of these cognitive precursors. Together, these precursors are associated with significantly different learning curves beyond the effect of each precursor considered separately. In addition, it established a negative association between initial phonological awareness and the rate of reading acquisition during the course. It has been claimed that an individual's participation in specific cultural activities throughout his/her life influences the development of the precursors of reading. Based on a complementary biographical study of a subsample of participants, preliminary evidence is presented that supports this link.     

Preschool literacy experience and later reading achievement

During their children's preschool years, parents were asked about the frequencies of adult reading, parent-child reading, and children's solitary book activities in the home. Parental responses were compared for three groups of children defined according to the parents' reading skills and the children's reading achievement in Grade 2. The results indicated that the 22 preschoolers who became poorer readers had less frequent early literacy-related experiences than the 34 children who became better readers.     

The developmental relationship between bilingual morphological awareness and reading for Chinese EFL adult learners: a longitudinal study

The present research aimed to explore the developmental relationship between bilingual morphological awareness and reading for Chinese natives learning English as a foreign language (EFL learners). Pre- and post-tests were conducted with in an interval of 9 months. Morphological and reading measures in Chinese and English were administered to 139 participants. The results confirmed the intra-language correlations between morphological awareness and reading. The study also demonstrated that the contribution of English derivational awareness to English reading was higher than that of English compound awareness. Chinese compound morphology was found to explain a greater amount of variance of English reading in posttest than pretest. The results indicate the relationship between bilingual reading and morphological awareness was subjected to the similarities between the two languages in terms of morphological features as well as language proficiency.     

Cross-linguistic transfer in literacy development and implications for language learners

One of the challenges for educators working in multilingual settings has been to identify the causes of reading difficulties of language learners (LLs). It is difficult to distinguish between reading problems stemming from low levels of linguistic proficiency versus more general reading/learning difficulties. There is now growing research evidence of cross-language transfer in different literacy processes. Literacy components that reflect language-independent, metacognitive/metalinguistic processes show similarities across the two languages of students. Some examples are phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, knowledge of genres and meaning-making strategies. A possible way to use cross-language transfer as a diagnostic tool is proposed. If children have had enough exposure to and possibly instruction in their first language (L1), we can assess their skills and insights in L1. For LLs who have these skills and insights in their strong L1, we can expect transfer to their second language (L2). If they do not have these skills and insights in their L2 yet, it indicates a delay due to limited language proficiency, and not because of a disability. This way LLs who just need more L2 practice and exposure can be distinguished from those LLs who truly have special needs.