Statistical Learning,Letter Reversals,and Reading

Reversal errors play a prominent role in theories of reading disability. We examined reversal errors in the writing of letters by 5- to 6-year-old children. Of the 130 children, 92 had a history of difficulty in producing speech sounds, a risk factor for reading problems. Children were more likely to reverse letter forms that face left, such as <d> and <J>, than forms that face right, such as <b> and <C>. We propose that this asymmetry reflects statistical learning: Children implicitly learn that the right-facing pattern is more typical of Latin letters. The degree of asymmetry that a child showed was not related to the child’s reading skill at Time 2, 2¾ years later. Although children who went on to become poorer readers made more errors in the letter writing task than children who went on to become better readers, they were no more likely to make reversal errors.     

Statistical and Cooperative Learning in Reading: An Artificial Orthography Learning Study

This article reports two experiments in which the artificial orthography paradigm was used to investigate the mechanisms underlying learning to read. In each experiment, participants were taught the meanings and pronunications of words written in an unfamiliar orthography, and the statistical structure of the mapping between written and spoken forms (O-P) was manipulated independently of the mapping between written forms and their meanings (O-S). Our results support three main conclusions. First, the statistical structure of O-P and O-S mappings determined how easily each of those mappings was learned, suggesting that the learning of both mappings engages a common statistical learning mechanism. Second, learning to read is a cooperative process, in that learning in any particular component of the reading system is influenced by knowledge stored in the rest of the system. Finally, knowledge of sublexical regularities can be acquired as the result of exposure to words embodying those regularities.     

Statistical Learning of Speech Sounds in Dyslexic and Typical Reading Children

ABSTRACT

Statistical learning has been proposed to underlie the developmental transition during infancy from allophonic to phonemic speech sound perception. Based on this, it can be hypothesized that in dyslexic individuals, core phonemic representation deficits arise from reduced sensitivity to the statistical distribution of sounds. This study aims to investigate (a) whether statistical learning contributes to the construction of phonemic representations in typical readers, and (b) whether deficits in statistical learning underlie dyslexia. Fifty-eight children performed an identification task of a non-native phonetic contrast, before and after exposure to the sounds of the continuum. Our results suggest that the statistical distribution of the presented sounds implicitly enhanced the formation of phonemic representations and that dyslexic readers make less use of the statistical cues embedded in oral language, resulting in less distinct phonemic categories and thus a higher risk for failing to establish robust connections between these and written language.     

Neuropsychological Bases of Motor Learning

This paper argues that examining the symbolic dimensions or meanings of spectator sport is a useful approach to understanding its powerful appeal. Spectator sport is analyzed through six categories of symbolicity: recurring life issues, transcendence of human limitations, rebellion against industrialized society, aesthetic unity and completion, religious overtones, and political dimensions. Beyond demonstrating the usefulness of these categories, this theoretical introduction should inspire researchers to look for other meanings which spectator sport carries.     

Hearing Matters More Than Seeing: A Cross-Modality Study of Statistical Learning and Reading Ability

ABSTRACT

There is growing interest in the link between implicit statistical learning (SL) and reading ability. Although learning to read involves both auditory and visual modalities, it is not known whether reading skills might be more strongly associated with auditory SL or visual SL. Here we assessed SL across both modalities in 36 typically developing children and 36 healthy adults using the classic triplet-learning paradigm. Auditory SL was significantly associated with sentence reading fluency (Woodcock Johnson III Test of Achievement) in the combined sample of children and adults after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. In further analysis of the child data, auditory SL was significantly associated with nonword reading accuracy (Woodcock Reading Mastery Test), a relationship which appeared to be mediated by phonological processing abilities (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing). These findings suggest that auditory SL might contribute more strongly to certain aspects of reading development compared to visual SL.     

Is Statistical Learning Ability Related to Reading Ability,and If So,Why?

ABSTRACT

Previous studies found a relationship between performance on statistical learning (SL) tasks and reading ability and developmental dyslexia. Thus, it has been suggested that the ability to implicitly learn patterns may be important for reading acquisition. Causal mechanisms behind this relationship are unclear: Although orthographic sensitivity to letter bigrams may emerge through SL and facilitate reading, there is no empirical support for this link. We test 84 adults on two SL tasks, reading tests, and a bigram sensitivity task. We test for correlations using Bayes factors. This serves to test the prediction that SL and reading ability are correlated and to explore sensitivity to bigram legality as a potential mediator. We find no correlations between SL tasks and reading ability, SL and bigram sensitivity, or between the SL tasks. We conclude that correlating SL with reading ability may not yield replicable results, partly due to low correlations between SL tasks.     

The Role of Statistical Learning in Word Reading and Spelling Development: More Questions Than Answers

ABSTRACT

This special issue bundles a set of eight empirical studies and one review article that explore the role of statistical learning (SL) mechanisms (both domain-specific and domain-general) in supporting word reading and spelling development, and vice versa. In this introduction to the special issue, we worked to summarize the extent to which studies support our hypotheses relating SL to reading and spelling development while pointing out inconsistencies across studies that require us to refine and rethink our hypotheses.     

课外阅读与物理学习

在人们的心目中,课外阅读早已是文字学科的专利,特别是语言学科的专利.但我认为课外阅读不能只是文字学科需要,物理教学或学习中也需要大量的课外阅读,现薄议于下.     

学无止境 书香绵长 ——给毕业研究生的三点建议

从三个方面对即将离开校园的毕业研究生提出了读书和学习的建议：一是要持之以恒地读书和学习,不断充实和提高自己;二是面对网络信息要慎思明辨,抵御庸俗信息,通过重读经典来不断提高自己的思想境界;三是读书方法上要庞而不杂,博约结合,同时注重理论与实践相结合,学以致用,知行合一。     

Learning to Read and Learning to Teach Reading

The National Curriculum for Initial Teacher Education in English is specific and detailed about the knowledge expected of primary teachers. Shulman (1987) argued that teachers transform this sort of subject content knowledge into something accessible and meaningful to their pupils and this knowledge is described as ‘pedagogic content knowledge’. Medwell et al. (1998) found that effective literacy teachers only knew literacy in the way that they taught it. The research project underpinning this article aimed to explore student teachers' conceptions of the teaching of reading in order to find out what they thought they were teaching when they taught reading. It was thought that the personal reading histories of the students would impact on their developing conceptions of teaching reading. This article traces one student, Gordon, through the year of his PGCE course. In the form of dialogue between Gordon and the researcher developing understanding is articulated. Three different types of reading are described: decoding, making meaning and engaging. Reading is seen as a transformative process, where the reader is both within and outside the text. This has implications both for the conception of reading contained within the curriculum and the way it is implemented within the classroom. A teacher can only introduce children to experiences and ways of reading that are known to herself. It is argued, therefore, that student teachers need to extend the boundaries of their own reading and so appreciate the wide range of ways in which meaning is constructed and readers are created.     

小说文本阅读与外语学习

小说阅读是英语专业学生提高语言感知、综合理解和应用能力的必要途径,也是传统课堂外语教学的必要延伸和补充。本文借助认知发展、二语习得、互动信息加工模式等理论以及我国外语界老前辈的经验之谈,对小说文本阅读与外语学习的关系展开深入探讨,试图为开展以小说文本阅读为主的"读书工程"寻求理论依据。     

文学作品阅读与英语学习

文学是语言的艺术，学习英语语言而不接触文学，不免令人诧异。然而近年来对英语文学作品阅读的忽视已成为普遍现象，笔者从这个渐被忽视的方面，谈及了文学作品阅读在英语学习中所起的作用，提醒英语学习者不要丢弃这一虽旧犹新的掌握英语的有效途径。     

自主学习与自主阅读

在高中阶段必须切实贯彻落实语文新课程标准的精神,发展学生的自主学习能力,要对学生自主学习能力的获得规律以及阅读的心理过程进行研究,从阅读兴趣、阅读技能、时间计划安排三个方面入手,培养学生的自主阅读能力。     

语境与精读教学

文章综述了几位语言学家对语境构成因素的研究,分析了精读课的特点,指出了在精读教学中,教师应该将语境因素与课文的讲解有机地结合起来,同时建议教师应该学习更多有关目的语国家的知识,以满足课堂教学的需要。     

阅读理解精练精讲(英文)

Food Fear Are you noticing fewer snacks in your cupboards? Smaller portions on your dinner plates? Are your lunch boxes missing an extra treat or two? If so,you aren’t the only one.According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture     

择“善”而读：大学生专业与兴趣阅读探微

“阅读”是世纪之交西方图书馆学的主流研究领域,在我国却一直处于边缘化。高校图书馆通过开展阅读辅导服务,推广专业与经典阅读的方法和具体措施,促使其形成主动发展的智力背景和情感商数,并在“大阅读观”的指导下,逐渐感悟读书与人生相关联的意义,具备成年后参与社会的能力。     

英语报刊阅读 实践学习中的升华

英语报刊的阅读材料来源丰富,语言通俗、鲜活,内容真实有趣,有助于学生英语学习。英语报刊的标题是"文眼",它用最凝练的语言高度概括了一篇文章的内容,学生了解了英语新闻标题的特点,就会在阅读英语新闻报道的第一时间,排除阅读标题的语法障碍,很快从标题中抓住文章的主要信息。英语报刊的新闻导语按内容展开的方式分为直接式导语和延缓式导语,学生注重导语行文语言并熟悉要点,有利于概括能力的提高。英语报刊新闻篇章的结构主要有倒金字塔结构和解释性报道,只要学生熟悉篇章结构,就能迅速抓住重要信息。英语报刊中表达新事物、新概念的新词不断涌现,然后流行于世,学生经常阅读,能扩大词汇量,增强语感,领会词汇的内涵。     

统计学习理论

通过统计学习理论主要内容的介绍,阐述了VC维(Vapnik-Chervonenkis Dimension)、推广性的界、结构风险最小化(Structural Risk Minimazation)等基本理论。讨论了ERM原则成立的条件及有限样本情况下经验风险与期望风险的关系。     

谈工学结合模式下高职校生产性实习基地建设

工学结合是新时期高职院校人才培养的一种主要模式,它从建设理念、管理机制、训练模式、硬件环境、师资队伍建设等方面对高职实习基地建设提出了许多明确要求,九江职业技术学院在生产性实习基地的建设中进行了大量的探索与实践.