Children’s concepts of language in learning to read

Conclusion To summarize, acceptance of reading as secondary to, and dependent on, the primary activities of speaking and listening does not mean that reading is simply speech in print, albeit reading is a language-based activity. Listening and speaking seem to proceed from the meaning of the discourse to analysis; whereas written language comprehension proceeds from analysis to meaning, at least for some beginning readers and some poor readers. Analysis of speech takes place at the unconscious or tacit level; conscious analysis of segments of print (sentences, phrases, words, syllables and phonemes) is often required in reading, especially at the initial stage. Good readers pass this decoding stage relatively effortlessly; poor readers may still need to deal with the mechanics of reading before these become automatic. Thus, while children should be introduced to reading through a variety of rich language experiences, there should be a parallel process of the development of subskills. This paper was presented at the 29th Annual Conference of The Orton Society in Minneapolis, November 1978.     

Gender differences in reading achievement and enjoyment of reading: The role of perceived teaching quality

The authors examined the extent to which classroom-specific relationships between students’ gender and their reading achievement and enjoyment of reading are associated with student-perceived teaching quality. Based on a sample of 10,543 ninth-grade students from 427 classrooms, multilevel analyses revealed that effective classroom management, adequate pacing, and a strong focus on language competencies were related to a less pronounced increase of girls’ advantage in reading achievement during Grade 9. High levels of teacher support and focus on language competencies were related to smaller gender differences in enjoyment of reading at the beginning of Grade 9, though not associated with change of these differences over the school year. Our findings suggest that high teaching quality is not only related to higher reading achievement and reading enjoyment in classrooms as a whole, but may also help to mitigate the increase of gender gaps in reading achievement and motivation commonly observed in secondary school.     

The role of vowel signs in Hebrew: Beyond word recognition

After third grade of elementary school, native Hebrew speakers in Israel gradually become expert in reading two kinds of writing systems: the one they start with that contains signs for every phoneme of the spoken language, and another, to which they are steadily introduced, beginning with the second grade, which omits most vowels, together with few consonantal distinctions. Earlier studies indicate that single voweled words are read faster than unvoweled words, particularly in a naming task. This study examined another possible contribution of vowel signs in reading Hebrew: Its effect on memory and comprehension. It was assumed that if subvocalization facilitates memory of words while reading, and if vowel signs facilitate phonological processing, as is perhaps the case in naming tasks, then vowelization may intensify the processing of the articulatory loop and this should improve memory and comprehension. Our first two experiments assessed the contribution of vowel signs to the memory of word lists in either recognition memory or word recall tasks. The third experiment examined the contribution of vowel signs to the reading of connected texts. We found that vowel signs speeded up recognition memory of words in third graders, and improved the recall of words printed in the context of mixed lists in sixth graders. We also found that vowelization improved memory and comprehension of some prose texts.     

论英语解读中的文化现象

语言是文化的载体，文化使语言更充实丰富；民族文化的特征在语言中直接或间接地被反映出来。文章通过讨论词语的文化含义，并结合图式理论，说明对词语深层文化涵义的理解，是英语学习及阅读理解中不可或缺的内容。     

Australian pre-service teachers' knowledge of phonemic awareness and phonics in the process of learning to read

Recent Australian and international government reports refer to the importance of teacher knowledge in the sound structure of language and its relationship to beginning reading. In this study, a group of 162 pre-service teachers responded to a questionnaire including questions related to their attitudes towards using phonics instruction in the teaching of reading, their knowledge of phonemic awareness and how well prepared they felt to teach beginning reading. Results indicated that most pre-service teachers agreed that phonics was important in teaching reading. However, even though most teachers were able to correctly identify the concept of a phoneme, most could not transfer this knowledge to the counting of phonemes in words. Results also indicated that most pre-service teachers did not feel well prepared to teach beginning readers. It is suggested that these teachers need explicit training in understanding the sound structure of language in order to become effective teachers of reading.     

Digi-teens: Media Literacies and Digital Technologies in the Secondary Classroom

This article explores the impact on learning of digital technologies and media practices across the secondary curriculum, with a particular emphasis on non-linear video editing in a specialist media technology school. It observes the making of a trailer for Psycho by a group of Year 11 girls, asking how the advent of this very new technology enables new kinds of reading of visual texts, as well as new kinds of textual production dependent upon new IT-based literacies. It suggests that we need to find an adequate language of the visual, and to understand how this relates to other ‘grammars’ and semiotic systems; to understand how these competencies are rooted in wide-ranging cultural allegiances and pleasures, embracing popular as well as ‘classic’ texts; and to understand the classroom as a site both of encounter with popular culture, and of increasingly professional audiovisual production.     

Pathways to reading,mathematics, and science: Examining domain-general correlates in young Chinese children

Early competencies in reading, mathematics, and science are associated with later school achievement and adulthood socioeconomic status. This cross-sectional study examined how fundamental domain-general capacities, including language, spatial, and self-regulatory skills, together relate to competencies in reading, mathematics, and science in young Chinese children. A total of 584 Chinese children aged approximately six years were tested individually on their language (receptive vocabulary), spatial (spatial perception, spatial visualization, and mental rotation), and self-regulation (behavioral regulation and working memory) skills, as well as their academic competencies in reading, mathematics, and science. The results showed that vocabulary, spatial, and self-regulatory skills were all associated with Chinese reading, mathematics, and life sciences, whereas only vocabulary was related to earth and physical sciences. The relation between vocabulary and formal mathematics and that between mental rotation and life sciences were found to be stronger in boys than in girls. The findings suggest that foundational domain-general skills may provide the building blocks for children’s academic competencies.     

谈音译词(字)在词典中的立目问题--兼谈分立单字条目与多字条目的排列问题

音译词（字）在《现代汉语词典》中的条目编排上有五类情况，虽然它在现代汉语词汇里所占的比重不大，但是，它是现代汉语词汇系统中的一个有机组成部分，因此，在编纂词典时如何为其立目，就成为不容忽视的问题。本文针对音译词（字）的这五类编排方式，进行了适当的调整，使它们按照同音词分立条目的原则由原来的五类编排方式调整为统一的编排方式。文章还就分立单字条目和多字条目在排列次序上存在的混乱现象，进行了一些调整，使每个分立条目分别领属属于自己意义范围的多字条目，从而使它们之间的领属关系更加清晰。     

Cognitive and Linguistic Precursors to Early Literacy Achievement in Children With Specific Language Impairment

This study investigated the role of cognitive and language skills as predictors of early literacy skills in children with Specific Language Impairment. A range of cognitive and linguistic skills were assessed in a sample of 137 eight-year-old children with SLI at the beginning of the school year, and 6 months later on word decoding and reading comprehension. The cognitive and linguistic measures revealed four factors that were called language, speech, short-term memory, and phonological awareness. Structural equation modeling showed word decoding to be predicted by speech, short-term memory, and phonological awareness, whereas reading comprehension was predicted by word decoding skills and short-term memory. It can be concluded that in children with SLI variations in early word decoding are mostly determined by speech abilities and short-term memory, and to a lesser extent by phonological awareness. Moreover, reading comprehension turns out to be highly dependent on word decoding and short-term memory.     

An Examination of the LVA Approach to Teaching Reading

The Language Vocabulary Acquisition (LVA) Approach is a revolutionary method of reading instruction for emergent and developing readers. It is an intense reading program with high levels of student participation, engagement, and interaction with print text, that yields high outcomes in phonological awareness, reading and writing fluency, and comprehension. The LVA Approach quickly immerses young African-American children into print text, bombarding them with a preponderance of new words, ideas, and general understandings about their surroundings and the world in general. This approach enables them to develop expansive word knowledge, resulting in reading, writing, and thinking competencies at or above their grade level and national norms. This approach focuses on the printed text—words, words, and more words—rather than visual images, picture clues, and illustrations.

Research studies on literacy development supported the use of printed text in children's initial efforts in reading (Gough and Hillinger 1980). Words, word constructions, and vocabulary development are the beginning steps to the LVA Approach. Children are able to take the skills learned in the LVA Approach and apply them to children's literature and standard basal reading texts. The LVA Approach was developed by Angela L. Davis who successfully introduced it to her first-grade class during the 2000–2001 school year. This article describes a three-year pilot effort to improve the reading competencies of primary-age children at Bouchet Academy, a Chicago Public School (CPS) located on the southeast side of the city.     

Computer-based reading and spelling practice for children with learning disabilities.

To examine the effects of computer-based reading and spelling practice on the development of reading and spelling skills, a pretest-training-posttest experiment was conducted in The Netherlands. Eleven girls and 17 boys with written language disorders (on the average, 9 years, 7 months old and performing 2 grades below age expectancy) practiced hard-to-read words under three conditions: reading from the computer screen, copying from the screen, and writing from memory after presentation on the screen. For all words, whole-word sound was available on call during practice. To assess learning effects, both a dictation and a read-aloud task were administered in which nonpracticed control words were also presented. During training, the computer kept record of several aspects of the pupils' learning behavior. It was found that copying words from the screen resulted in significantly fewer spelling errors on the posttest than writing words from memory, and that both forms of spelling practice led to fewer spelling errors than only reading words during practice. All three forms of practice improved to the same degree both the accuracy and fluency of reading the practiced words aloud. The way in which spelling and reading practice, in combination with speech feedback, support the development of phonological skills in children with written language disorders is highlighted in the discussion.     

The Kindergarten Child: What Teachers and Administrators Need to Know to Promote Academic Success in all Children

This article describes kindergarten from the perspective of the whole child. Specifically, it reviews current research on best practices to improve children’s math and language arts competencies, memory skills, and the role of kindergarten in beginning science. It also describes the social experiences children have in kindergarten with respect to their academic success. Similarly, it reviews the impact of emotional competence on school success. This article then reviews research describing three major influences on children’s kindergarten adaptation and success (i.e., transition, parental involvement, retention). The article concludes with a discussion of full-day kindergarten programs and their potential for improving the chances of all kindergarten children, especially low-income and ethnic minority children, for success in school.     

The building blocks of writing: Learning to write letters and spell words

This study examined the development of beginning writing skills in kindergarten and the relationship between early writing skills and early reading skills. Sixty children were assessed on beginning writing skills (including letter writing, individual sound spelling, and real and nonsense word spelling) and beginning reading skills (including letter name and letter sound knowledge, global early reading ability, phonological awareness, and word reading). Children’s beginning writing abilities are described, and they exhibited a range of proficiency in their ability to write letters, spell sounds, and spell real and nonsense words. Global early reading proficiency, phonological awareness, and/or letter sound fluency predicted letter writing, sound spelling, and spelling of real and nonsense words. Appreciation is expressed to the participating students and teachers at Dwight D. Eisenhower School and to Margaret Boudreau and Joan Foley for assistance in scoring students’ responses.     

委婉语的语用理据分析

本文运用语用学的知识和基本原理,以委婉语这一辞格的生成和接受为出发点,即演讲者/写作者和受众,研究与委婉语现象相关的语用因素,探求其中的语用理据,分别考察其使用过程中的发话者、语境以及受众这三个主要的语用因素。     

Subtypes of developmental dyslexia: The influence of definitional variables

The purpose of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that the manner in which a reading disability is defined will influence the conclusions that are made about the characteristics of the disability. To test this hypothesis, learning disabled and normally achieving children, aged 6 to 14, were administered tasks measuring grammatical, shortterm memory, phonological, reading, and visual-spatial skills. The poor readers were divided into groups of poor readers with

Phonological processing, language comprehension, and reading ability

Previous research has indicated a relationship between reading ability and the integrity of certain phonological processing skills--skills that operate on the sound structure of language. This study shows how the deficient phonological processing skills of poor beginning readers can impair their comprehension of spoken phrases and sentences that are disambiguated by prosodic cues (i.e., pitch, stress, and pause). Following a brief summary of the available research literature, two new experiments are reported to illustrate that poor readers do not interpret certain sentences as accurately as good readers do, because they are less able to hold phonological material temporarily in working memory. Further insight into the basis of these differences between good and poor readers is provided by two additional pieces of evidence: The differences between good and poor readers are analogous to those between older and younger children readers, and the performance of poor readers tends to resemble that of younger children reading at their same level (i.e., reading-ability-matched controls). Apparently, good and poor readers tend to differ in the rate at which they develop phonological processing skills.     

英汉广告中双关的使用特色

为了增强表达效果,实现劝说功能并达到促销目的,广告撰写人非常注重修辞手段的运用。本文基于对大量英汉商业广告实例的观察,着重分析双关这一修辞格在广告中的使用类型和修辞功能。双关主要分两大类:语音双关和语义双关。语音双关包括同音双关和近音双关,而语义双关又可细分为一词多义双关和同形异义双关。双关的大量运用使广告语言新奇、幽默、简洁并且更具鼓动性。     

论新词新语的熟悉度和显著度

文章在前人新词新语研究成果的基础上,从认知语言学观点出发,提出了新词新语的熟悉度和显著度两个概念,并认为熟悉度和显著度决定了该新词新语在语言中存在的久暂。     

2006年以来的汉语新词语面面观——族群

及时总结和规范新词新语是当下语言文字工作的重要任务,它关系到汉语词汇系统的健全发展及社会价值观的导向。文章把2006年以来的185个新词语分成族群和非族群两部分,探讨了新词语的生成类型、语用来源、基本特点,以及滋生流行的语言理据、心理因素和社会原因,并从语言规范的角度预测了它们的存在和消隐的趋势。