英语听力自我训练方法与解题技巧

听力课是学生普遍感到学习困难的一门课,因为听力不只是单纯“听”的过程,而是一个综合运用语言技能的过程。针对学习中常见的听力问题,结合教学实际,探讨听力的训练方法及考试中的解题技巧,对英语听力基础薄弱的学生将会有所帮助。     

A computer-based spatial learning strategy approach that improves reading comprehension and writing

This article explores the effectiveness of a computer-based spatial learning strategy approach for improving reading comprehension and writing. In reading comprehension, students received scaffolded practice in translating passages into graphic organizers. In writing, students received scaffolded practice in planning to write by filling in graphic organizers and in translating them into passages. Based on a cluster-randomized sampling process, 2,468 students distributed in 12 schools and 69 classrooms participated in the study. Schools were randomly assigned to the computer-based instruction (CBI) group or traditional instruction (TI) group. Teachers assigned to the CBI treatment integrated the applications into the language arts curriculum during one school semester. A standardized test was used to measure reading comprehension and writing. The data were analyzed through a statistical multilevel model. The findings showed that students in the CBI group improved their reading and writing skills significantly more than students under TI—yielding an effect size d = 0.30.     

听力理解及其在英语教学中的地位和作用

听力理解先于说、读和写等其它技能,是学习一门新语言时首先获得的技能;听力理解为未来习得"说"打下了基础;注重听力理解训练、在最初教学阶段适当放松口头产出要求有助于培养学习者的语言能力,其比集中口头练习有更好的产出效果。本文通过援引二语习得方面重大和权威的研究成果,回顾了听力理解和语言学习的密切关系,探讨了听力理解及其在英语教学中的地位和作用,认为"听力优先说"优于传统的"语法翻译法"和"听说法"。     

Experimental Effects of Word Generation on Vocabulary,Academic Language,Perspective Taking,and Reading Comprehension in High-Poverty Schools

Abstract

With a sample of 7,752 fourth- to seventh-grade students in 25 schools which were randomized at the school level to condition, this article reports experimental impacts of an enhanced version of Word Generation on student outcomes at the end of Year 1 and of Year 2. Word Generation employs analysis, synthesis, critique, and problem-solving activities to build students’ academic language, perspective taking, and ultimately their reading comprehension. Results indicate that the program improves the proximate outcome of academic vocabulary included in the curriculum after the first and second year of implementation for all students (Y1 effect size (ES)?=?.22, Y2?=?.28 for fourth and fifth graders; Y1 ES?=?.13, Y2?=?.16 for sixth and seventh graders). For those in the fourth and fifth grades, their perspective positioning skills also improved at the end of the first year (ES?=?.14), and their academic language skills (ES?=?.06), perspective articulation and positioning skills (ES?=?.12, .19), and reading comprehension (ES?=?.15) improved at the end of the second year. Among sixth and seventh graders, there were improvements in perspective positioning skills (ES?=?.19) and reading comprehension (ES?=?.10) at the end of Year 2. Effects after both Years 1 and 2 were stronger in high-exposure classrooms.     

A Randomized Trial Study of a Preschool Literacy Curriculum: The Importance of Implementation

Abstract

In this 1-year experimental study of 254 students across 27 high-poverty preschool classrooms in an urban setting in the northeast, use of a technology-based prekindergarten literacy curriculum in addition to the district curriculum was compared with the use of the district curriculum alone. Results indicated no main effects for the experimental curriculum. Following the initial analyses, fidelity of implementation in the experimental classrooms was examined and results indicated that children in classrooms rated as having high fidelity of implementation significantly outperformed low-implementing classrooms on two important phonological awareness measures. This trend favoring high-implementing classrooms was also evident on measures of letter-name knowledge, and beginning sounds. These findings suggest that program implementation may be a significant variable when examining the potential effects of literacy curricula on learning outcomes for young at-risk children.     

Turkish‐speaking First Graders in Norway Acquiring Second Language Vocabulary,Listening Comprehension and Literacy Skills

This study explored relationships between characteristics of classroom talk exposure and immigrant first graders' acquisition of second language oral skills (vocabulary and listening comprehension) and literacy skills. Twenty‐six children (mean age = 6.10 years) with Turkish as their first language and Norwegian as their second, attending various multilingual and ethnically diverse classrooms in Norway, were videotaped during classroom conversations. Classroom talk was coded for vocabulary richness, discursive complexity and emergent phonics talk and the children's oral language and literacy skills were assessed. Classroom vocabulary richness and discursive complexity predicted the children's second language vocabulary skills and listening comprehension after controlling for maternal education, but did not predict their literacy skills. The density of emergent phonics talk did not predict target children's code‐related skills in this sample. Applied perspectives related to second language learning in multiparty settings are discussed.     

Model-based teaching and learning about inheritance in third-grade science

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that it is challenging for elementary students to develop conceptual understanding of trait variation, inheritance of traits, and life cycles. In this study, we report on an effort to promote elementary students’ learning of hereditary-related concepts through scientific modelling, which affords opportunities for elementary students to generate visual representations of structure and function associated with heredity. This study is part of a four-year design-based research project aimed at supporting students’ learning about life science concepts using corn as a model organism. Study data were collected during the implementation of a project-developed, multi-week, model-based curriculum module in eight third-grade classrooms located in the Midwestern United States. Through mixed methods research, we analysed video recorded observations of curriculum implementation, student artefacts, and student interviews. Results illustrate epistemic dimensions of model-based explanations (MBEs) for heredity that students prioritised, as well as significant variation in students’ MBEs in 2 of the 8 classrooms. While findings show neither students’ content knowledge nor model-based instruction associated with their MBEs, qualitative differences in teachers’ curriculum enactment, and more general approaches to science instruction, may help explain observed differences. Implications are discussed for curriculum and instruction in support of students’ MBE for heredity-related concepts.     

Advising parents on time telling for children who have learning difficulties

Abstract

Parents of children, who have learning problems often seek advice from teachers about time telling. There is only limited consensus on how to instruct this skill and with what sort of timepieces. This paper reviews the literature and current classroom practice to consider what goals are functionally appropriate, what typical learning difficulties affect time comprehension, presenting time language, mapping time with timetables and the complex choice between analogue and digital timepieces. For each type a consensus is presented on optimal sequencing, possible simplifications and effective strategies. Digital time, increasingly more prevalent and faster to read may be the better first option for teaching such children functional time telling skills. Analogue may better represent the passage of time but this is not essential for students who exhibit significant learning problems. Children need exposure to both types and classrooms should display both types in adjacent positions.     

Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Intelligent Tutoring of Structure Strategy for Fifth-Grade Readers

Abstract

This article reports on a large scale randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy of a web-based intelligent tutoring system for the structure strategy designed to improve content area reading comprehension. The research was conducted with 128 fifth-grade classrooms within 12 school districts in rural and suburban settings. Classrooms within each school were randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The intervention group used the intelligent web-based tutoring system for the structure strategy (ITSS) for 30 to 45 min each week as a partial substitute for the language arts curriculum for the entire school year. The structure strategy teaches students how to read and comprehend expository texts by identifying the text structure and creating strategic mental representations of the text. The web-based tutoring system delivered the structure strategy training with modeling, practice tasks, assessment, and feedback. The control classrooms used the school's language arts curriculum for the full language-arts time. Results show that the ITSS delivered structure strategy training improved reading comprehension measured by a standardized test and researcher designed measures.     

浅谈如何进行英语听力技能训练

通过科学的听力训练,使学生提高了对听力材料的推断、概括能力,掌握了听力理解技巧和听力解题技能,使其在各类英语考试中取得较好的成绩,提高了学生学好英语的信心和兴趣.     

Foreign language learning, hyperlexia, and early word recognition

Children with hyperlexia read words spontaneously before the age of five, have impaired comprehension on both listening and reading tasks, and have word recognition skill above expectations based on cognitive and linguistic abilities. One student with hyperlexia and another student with higher word recognition than comprehension skills who started to read words at a very early age were followed over several years from the primary grades through high school when both were completing a second-year Spanish course. The purpose of the present study was to examine the foreign language (FL) word recognition, spelling, reading comprehension, writing, speaking, and listening skills of the two students and another high school student without hyperlexia. Results showed that the student without hyperlexia achieved higher scores than the hyperlexic student and the student with above average word recognition skills on most FL proficiency measures. The student with hyperlexia and the student with above average word recognition skills achieved higher scores on the Spanish proficiency tasks that required the exclusive use of phonological (pronunciation) and phonological/orthographic (word recognition, spelling) skills than on Spanish proficiency tasks that required the use of listening comprehension and speaking and writing skills. The findings provide support for the notion that word recognition and spelling in a FL may be modular processes and exist independently of general cognitive and linguistic skills. Results also suggest that students may have stronger FL learning skills in one language component than in other components of language, and that there may be a weak relationship between FL word recognition and oral proficiency in the FL.     

浅析英语听力障碍及化解策略

听力是语言学习过程中一个重要的基础语言技能,提高英语听力是英语学习者必须面对的一个问题,它是发展其他语言技能的一个重要前提。而学习者在接受听力技能培训过程中,会不可避免地遇到很多障碍。排除各种听力障碍的能力对于综合提高语言学习效果至关重要。本文以英语听力的有关研究成果为基础,主要对英语听力提高过程中遇到的语音障碍进行了初步分析,并提出一些解决措施,相信对提高英语听力有一定的借鉴意义。     

Sometimes more is better: Agent gestures,procedural knowledge and the foreign language learner

Pedagogical agents in multimedia learning environments have frequently been designed to produce pointing gestures (deictic) to direct spatial awareness. Although this might be beneficial for native English-speaking students who possess high levels of comprehension, only using pointing gestures with foreign language students learning English is problematic because these students need more assistance with language comprehension than just directing spatial awareness. The purpose of this study was to explore how gesture type and gesture frequency help foreign language students perceive the agent’s persona and the ability to recall procedural information. The results found one significant interaction between average gestures and no gesture in terms of facilitation, but all other conditions and persona subscales were not significant. For learning outcomes, the enhanced gesture condition significantly recalled more information than the no gesture condition (p = 0.017), and was approaching significance with the conversational gesture condition (p = 0.059). The findings suggest that when the learning population consists of foreign language students, pedagogical agents should use representational and beat gestures to help students comprehend more of the language, and the gesture frequency needs to be increased to account for the lack of verbal listening skills with this population.     

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF DATE OF BIRTH ON SUBSEQUENT SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

Eleven basic skills involved in effective listening and reading were isolated for study. These skills were believed to underlie an effective understanding of oral and written communications. It was hypothesized that training could improve the learning of these basic listening skills. After controlling for socio‐economic status and sex differences, pupils in grades 2 and 5 were randomly assigned to a training and a non‐training condition. The training consisted of a number of sessions whereby the student listened to pre‐recorded tapes composed around the 11 basic listening skills. Following training, all students were administered a 33‐item test consisting of questions measuring comprehension of the basic skills. Using analysis of variance techniques, the effectiveness of training in listening was analysed. Whereas the training was found to be highly effective at grade 2, it was only moderately effective at grade 5.

     

认知与元认知策略在对外汉语听力教学中的应用

对外汉语听力课是为以汉语作为第二语言学习的学生开设的听力理解训练课。听力理解是一个复杂的心理活动的过程,因此对外汉语听力教学的重点就应该针对在学习过程中容易碰到的障碍,有意识地培养学生的认知与元认知能力,通过对学生进行多种形式的微技能训练,提高其听力理解能力,从而提高对语言实际运用的能力。     

Success,Personality, and Intelligence

Abstract

Sixty students were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups or to a control group. Both experimental groups were instructed with learning activity packages in French culture. These packages were designed to enhance listening comprehension, speaking proficiency, reading comprehension, and writing proficiency and to stimulate positive attitudes toward the French people, the language, and the course. The control group was instructed in a more traditional grammar-oriented program utilizing audiolingual learning activity packages. These packages stressed language skill proficiencies similar to those of the two experimental groups and, more importantly, emphasized mastery of designated principles of French grammar and structure. Students were pre- and posttested on their four language skill proficiencies and their attitudes. When compared with the control group, both experimental groups demonstrated greater growth in three of their language skills and in their development of positive attitudes toward French.     

Reading comprehension difficulties experienced by students with learning disabilities

Abstract

Students with learning disabilities often experience poor comprehension due to their failure to read strategically and to spontaneously monitor their understanding while reading. This paper discusses in relation to current literature, the various problems with reading comprehension commonly experienced by students with learning disabilities. Specifically, these students may encounter problems in: (A) using background knowledge appropriately; (B) decoding and word recognition; (C) vocabulary knowledge; (D) fluency; (E) strategy use and metacognitive skills; and (F) differentiating between common text structures.     

The impact of a National Curriculum development on teaching and learning behaviours

A study of science classroom behaviours reported by Eggleston et al. (1976) was replicated in 60 secondary school classrooms where the National Curriculum was being followed. Key teacher and pupil characteristics were matched across the two samples, and it was suggested that curriculum change was the most likely factor influencing changes in the teaching and learning processes which were observed. It was found that there was more emphasis upon lower‐order intellectual skills in classrooms where the National Curriculum was being studied. There were also fewer speculative behaviours and fewer behaviours concerned with experimentation. It was shown that a less effective informational instructional strategy was more popular with teachers implementing the National Curriculum, and that instructional strategies which involved practical work were less frequently employed. Participating teachers were asked to give possible reasons for these changes, and it was suggested by many of them that an overburdened curriculum may be a significant factor influencing their choice of teaching and learning strategies. It was suggested that this problem would only be resolved if the informational content of the National Curriculum was reduced, perhaps by focusing upon those key concepts which Bruner (1961) has described as constituting the structureof the discipline.     

The Growth and Nature of Research Interest in Arithmetic and Reading

ABSTRACT

The author examined whether mathematics instruction provided by kindergarten teachers is related to children's mathematics learning during the kindergarten year based on the children's socioeconomic status and race. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed using a large sample of kindergarten students to estimate relationships between the teacher's instructional approach (e.g., concrete-spatial, interpersonal, linguistic) and children's mathematics skills. Results showed that the teacher's instructional approach was selectively related to children's mathematics learning. Students in classrooms where teachers frequently employed a concrete-spatial instructional approach learned more during the kindergarten year. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds benefitted more from teachers who often employed an interpersonal approach, and Black/African American students benefitted less from classrooms where teachers relied more on a linguistic approach. The findings suggest that kindergarten teachers’ instruction needs to employ varied methods that take into account students’ mathematics skills and background characteristics.     

Promoting foundational linguistic skills for reading development in young Chinese language learners: A 1-year intervention study

Background

Using a 1-year longitudinal design, we evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention programme to improve reading attainments among Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) learners. Using the simple view of reading as a theoretical framework, the intervention focused on students' orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension to facilitate reading comprehension.

Method

A total of 186 Grade 4 CSL students (mean age = 9.22, SD = 0.56) participated in the study and were grouped into the treatment (N = 96) and control (N = 90) groups. A range of Chinese language and literacy skills were assessed before and after the intervention.

Results

The path analysis showed that the intervention significantly affected orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension directly and reading comprehension indirectly through the three componential skills after controlling for nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary and autoregressors.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that orthographic knowledge, word reading and listening comprehension may be promising targets for instructing young CSL learners.