Meaningful reading gains by adult literacy learners

To obtain a fuller picture of the efficacy of reading instruction programs for adult literacy learners, gains by individual students were examined in a sample (n = 148) in which weak to moderate gains at the group level had been obtained in response to tutoring interventions that focused on strengthening basic decoding and fluency skills of low literate adults (Sabatini, Shore, Holtzman, & Scarborough, 2011). Learners were randomly assigned to receive one of three tutoring programs for an average of 44 h of instruction. We used within-individual gains replicated over tests (WIGROT) as the method for identifying gainers, who were defined as students whose reading levels increased from pretest to posttest by a half year or more on at least two of four measured aspects of reading proficiency. The 46 % of the sample who met the criterion had higher pretest scores than non-gainers on measures of reading (d = .42, p < .01) and phonological awareness (d = .47, p < .01), and included fewer adults with a history of special education (43 vs. 61 %, phi = .19, p < .05), regardless of which instructional condition had been received. The findings suggest that basic skills instruction can lead to a meaningful degree of benefit for many adult learners who persist in reading programs for several months. Supplementing group level results with analyses of individual growth, such as WIGROT, appears to be useful in evaluating the efficacy of literacy interventions.     

Building models of adult second-language writing instruction

This paper first reviews recent attempts to describe formal models of second-language writing; we then identify three major issues in need of clarification to advance model-building in this domain. We discuss these issues in respect to findings from a preliminary attempt to develop a process-product model of ESL writing instruction based on analyses of antecedent, process and outcome variables for 108 ESL learners from diverse cultural backgrounds in 6-week intensive courses at a Canadian university. Findings from multivariate, regression, correlation and exploratory factor analyses indicated that the tentative model had little explanatory power overall but pointed toward interesting interactions in achievement for (a) different aspects of L2 writing among (b) learners at different levels of L2 proficiency and with (c) differing orientations to learning L2 writing.     

Developing writing skills of learners with persistent literacy difficulties through explicit grammar teaching

The benefits of grammar instruction in the teaching of writing is contested in most English‐speaking countries (Jones et al., 2012). The majority of Anglophone countries abandoned the teaching of grammar in the 1950s based on the conclusions that it had no positive impact on learners’ development of reading, writing and language (Locke, 2005). Through an action research design, this study aims at gaining a further understanding of how the explicit teaching of grammar in context can benefit learners with persistent literacy difficulties by adapting the Grammar for Writing materials (Myhill, 2013). It intends to improve educational practice (Koshy, 2010) through action, analysis and reflection.     

Teacher change in beliefs and practices in science and literacy instruction with English language learners

This study examined patterns of change in beliefs and practices as elementary teachers learned to establish instructional congruence, a process of mediating academic disciplines with linguistic and cultural experiences of diverse student groups. The study focused on six bilingual Hispanic teachers working with fourth‐grade, mostly Hispanic students. The results indicated that teacher learning and change occurred in different ways in the areas of science instruction, students' language and culture, English language and literacy instruction, and integration of these areas in establishing instructional congruence. The results also indicated that establishing instructional congruence was a gradual and demanding process requiring teacher reflection and insight, formal training, and extensive support and sharing. Implications for further research in promoting achievement for all students are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 65–93, 2004     

Effective literacy instruction for adults with specific learning disabilities: implications for adult educators

Adults with learning disabilities (LD) attending adult basic education, GED programs, or community colleges are among the lowest performers on measures of literacy. For example, on multiple measures of reading comprehension, adults with LD had a mean reading score at the third grade level, whereas adults without LD read at the fifth grade level. In addition, large numbers of adults perform at the lowest skill levels on quantitative tasks. Clearly, significant instructional challenges exist for adults who struggle with literacy issues, and those challenges can be greater for adults with LD. In this article, the literature on adults with LD is reviewed, and evidenced-based instructional practices that significantly narrow the literacy achievement gap for this population are identified. Primary attention is given to instructional factors that have been shown to affect literacy outcomes for adults with LD. These factors include the use of explicit instruction, instructional technology, and intensive tutoring in skills and strategies embedded in authentic contexts.     

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.

     

The need for effective writing instruction

Many students with writing difficulties have negligible editing skills at best. Existing research supports that a strategy approach to teaching writing conventions to students with learning disabilities is effective, particularly when the strategies involve mnemonics. Recognizing that classroom teachers are increasingly overburdened, our study offers an alternative setting for academic intervention – the after-school program – and focuses on an intervention utilizing a mnemonic designed to increase the efficacy of the time spent on editing in the writing process. This study investigates the impact of two instructional conditions on participants' editing skills: (1) the effects of direct instruction regarding writing conventions to a combination of direct instruction and (2) a mnemonic writing strategy from Step up to writing. Both approaches produced significant gains (p < .05). However, the combined approach exhibited a larger effect size of d = .77-.84 at post-test, as measured by TOWL-3 Contrived Composite scores.     

应用写作的模拟教学刍议

对于在校学生而言,“模拟教学”是提高应用文写作水平的一种实际、有效的方法。所谓模拟教学是指模仿社会工作、生活中的某种情景或过程,然后要求学生运用所学过的知识去分析和解决其中的问题,并写成相应的文章。这种教学方法是由学生本身的主客观条件所决定的。...     

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.     

Content-area teachers and scaffolded instruction for English language learners

Scaffolding provides content-area teachers (CATs) with an effective means to integrate language instruction into content-area instruction for English language learners (ELLs). Data for this study were derived from 33 CAT discussions while they were pursuing professional development in an American university classroom over 32 weeks. The discussions yielded 408 scaffolding statements that were coded and analyzed. The findings identified linguistic, conceptual, social and cultural scaffolding as part of the CATs’ personal practical knowledge. Also, the findings demonstrated that CATs’ knowledge of cultural scaffolding is limited in comparison to other scaffolding strategies. The findings have an impact on the nature of ELL instruction and its effectiveness.     

Developing an automated writing placement system for ESL learners

ABSTRACT

There are quite a few challenges in the development of an automated writing placement model for non-native English learners, among them the fact that exams that encompass the full range of language proficiency exhibited at different stages of learning are hard to design. However, acquisition of appropriate training data that are relevant to the task at hand is essential in the development of the model. Using the Cambridge Learner Corpus writing scores, which have been subsequently benchmarked to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) levels, we conceptualize the task as a supervised machine learning problem, and primarily focus on developing a generic writing model. Such an approach facilitates the modeling of truly consistent, internal marking criteria regardless of the prompt delivered, which has the additional advantage of requiring smaller dataset sizes and not necessarily requiring re-training or tuning for new tasks. The system is developed to predict someone’s proficiency level on the CEFR scale, which allows learners to point to a specific standard of achievement. We furthermore integrate our model into Cambridge English Write & Improve^TM—a freely available, cloud-based tool that automatically provides diagnostic feedback to non-native English language learners at different levels of granularity—and examine its use.     

Journal writing and mathematics instruction

In this article we discuss the educational value of engaging mathematics students in a specific form of writing to learn—the keeping of a journal throughout a mathematics course. As the result of an analysis which comprises both conceptual and empirical components, we suggest that journals have the potential to contribute to mathematics instruction in several ways. As the students write the journals, they can be encouraged to express and reflect upon their feelings, knowledge, processes and beliefs about mathematics, and consequently grow along each of these dimensions. By reading their students' journals, teachers may receive a wealth of information about their students and the course, and consequently improve their teaching. Finally, journals can create a new form of dialogue between the teacher and each student, thus allowing for more individualized instruction and a supportive classroom atmosphere.     

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.     

Take-home video for adult literacy

In the past, it has not been possible to teach oneself to read at home, because learners could not read the books to teach them. Videos and interactive compact discs have changed that situation and challenge current assumptions of the pedagogy of literacy. This article describes an experimental adult literacy project using video technology. The language used is English, but the basic concepts apply to any alphabetic or syllabic writing system. A half-hour cartoon video can help adults and adolescents with learning difficulties. Computer-animated cartoon graphics are attractive to look at, and simplify complex material in a clear, lively way. This video technique is also proving useful for distance learners, children, and learners of English as a second language. Methods and principles are to be extended using interactive compact discs.

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Zusammenfassung In der Vergangenheit war es nicht möglich, sich selbst in Heimarbeit lesen beizubringen, da die Lernenden die Lehrbücher nicht lesen konnten. Videos und interaktive Compact discs haben diese Situation geändert und gegenwärtige Meinungen zur Pädagogik der Alphabetisierung herausgefordert. Dieser Artikel beschreibt ein experimentelles Erwachsenenalphabetisierungsprogramm, das Videotechnologie anwendet. Arbeitssprache ist Englisch, aber das Grundkonzept gilt für jedes alphabetische oder syllabische Schreibsystem. Ein halbstündiges Zeichentrickvideo soll Erwachsenen und Jugendlichen mit Lernschwierigkeiten helfen. Computeranimierte Zeichentrickgraphiken sind attraktive Lernmittel, die komplexes Material klar und lebendig vereinfachen. Diese Videotechnik dient auch Fernlerndenden, Kindern und Lernenden mit Englisch als Zweitsprache. Methoden und Prinzipien müssen durch den Gebrauch von interaktiven Compakt Discs erweitert werden.

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Resumen Durante el pasado, no ha sido posible el autoaprendizaje de la lectura en el hogar, ya que los lectores no estaban en condiciones de leer los libros de enseñanza. Ahora, los videos y los discos compactos interactivos cambiaron esta situación, creando un desafío para los conceptos corrientes de la pedagogía de alfabetización. Este artículo describe un proyecto experimental de alfabetización de adultos mediante el uso de tecnología de video. El lenguaje utilizado es el inglés, pero los conceptos básicos son aplicables para cualquier sistema de escritura alfabética o silábica. Un video de dibujos animados de media hora de duración puede ayudar a los adultos y adolescentes con dificultades de aprendizaje. Las gráficas animadas por computadora son atractivas para el espectador y simplifican materias complejas de un modo claro y ameno. Esta técnica de video también está mostrando su utilidad para el estudio a distancia, para la instrucción de niños y para el aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua. Los métodos y los principios también se pueden ampliar mediante la utilización de discos compactos interactivos.

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Résumé Jusqu'à présent, il n'était pas possible d'apprendre à lire seul chez soi, puisque les apprenants ne pouvaient pas lire les manuels d'enseignement. La vidéographie et le disque compact interactif ont modifié cette situation et remettent en cause les principes courants de la pédagogie de l'alphabétisation. L'article décrit un projet expérimental d'alphabétisation des adultes qui exploite la technologie vidéo. La langue utilisée est l'anglais, mais les concepts de base peuvent être appliqués à tout système d'écriture alphabétique ou syllabique. Un dessin animé sur vidéo d'une demi-heure se propose d'aider les adultes et adolescents éprouvant des difficultés. Les graphiques animés par électronique sont agréables à regarder et illustrent de façon claire et vivante les matières complexes. Cette technique vidéo se révèle également utile pour les apprenants à distance, les enfants et pour l'enseignement de l'anglais en seconde langue. Les méthodes et principes d'utilisation de disques compact interactifs restent à développer.

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Managing cognitive load in information literacy instruction

Educational technology research and development - This study examined how instructional librarians can incorporate principles from cognitive load theory to engage students in research and improve...     

浅论高中作文教学

随着社会的发展,作文教学面临着巨大的时代挑战。本文主要探讨新形势下高中作文教学存在的问题,并提出了相应的解决策略。