Orthographic skills important to Chinese literacy development: the role of radical representation and orthographic memory of radicals

A 3-year longitudinal study among 239 Chinese students in Grades 2–4 was conducted to investigate the relationships between orthographic skills (including positional and functional knowledge of semantic radicals and phonetic radicals, and orthographic memory of radicals) and Chinese literacy skills (word reading, word spelling, reading comprehension and written composition). Phonetic radical knowledge was the only significant longitudinal predictor of word reading, whereas all orthographic skills examined were significant longitudinal predictors of word spelling. Reading comprehension was uniquely predicted by semantic radical knowledge. A model showing the relationships between orthographic skills and literacy skills was postulated.     

Training in Place-Value Concepts Improves Children''s Addition Skills

The present study examined whether children's variation in arithmetic performance was related to differences in their understanding of place-value. Training in place-value concepts was provided to a group of Chinese children who were poor in arithmetic. Their performance before and after the training was compared to that of the children in two control groups. The results showed that there were reliable connections between place-value understanding and addition and subtraction skills. Furthermore, training in place-value concepts was found to be effective in enhancing the children's place-value understanding and addition skills. Implications for instructions in arithmetic were discussed.     

The school-to-community transition of hearing-impaired persons with developmental disabilities. A review of the empirical literature.

This article summarizes empirical studies of the school-to-community transition of hearing-impaired persons with developmental disabilities that have been published since 1975. Forty-three sources were located. In addition to summarizing each source, this article discusses the issues related to data collection and interpretation and makes recommendations for future research, development, and evaluation. Analysis of the sources revealed gaps in both the type and focus of the research. Recommendations include conducting more research on this population and publishing more of the results in deafness-related journals, attending to the different needs of mildly versus severely impaired persons, identifying the adult population in need of services, clarifying the terms used to describe the population, scrutinizing assessment data, and developing curriculum materials on transition specifically for this population.     

The role of segmental and tonal information in visual word recognition with learners of Chinese

The present study investigated the representation and processing of segmental and tonal information in visual Chinese word recognition in native and non‐native Chinese readers. Two experiments using homophone judgement paradigm were conducted. When judging two Chinese characters (Experiment 1), both groups showed difficulties when the segmental but not tonal information was shared (i.e., S+T? condition), with stronger interference for non‐native readers. When judging a Pinyin and a Chinese character (Experiment 2), non‐native readers' S+T? disadvantage was significantly reduced. Finally, when their L1s share the Latin alphabets with Pinyin, the participants showed stronger segmental reliance compared with the native readers. These findings suggest that while both native and non‐native readers rely more on segmental information in Chinese visual word recognition, this reliance is stronger among non‐native readers. Furthermore, the alphabetic nature of the Pinyin orthography may help non‐native readers' phonological representation and processing in a nonalphabetic writing system.     

需求驱动采购的标准:美国NISO DDA的发展和作用

[目的/意义]探讨美国图书馆需求驱动采购（DDA）的标准化发展,介绍美国国家信息标准协会（NISO）出版的《图书的需求驱动采购推荐实施规范》（NISO DDA）,为中国图书馆DDA标准化建设提供参考。[方法/过程]通过文献考察,介绍NISO DDA产生的背景、规范的制定过程、规范的要素、作用以及NISO DDA应用中面临的挑战。[结果/结论]NISO DDA为DDA走向标准化和可持续发展奠定了基础。它对保护图书馆、出版商、经销商、电子图书数据库集成商等各利益相关者的利益,以及对各方在合作共赢的基础上规范化采纳推广DDA提供指南并起到积极的作用。同时,DDA的可持续发展继续面临着挑战。图书出版链中的各利益相关者仍然为DDA的可持续发展及标准化建设积极探索。     

Reading comprehension,working memory and higher-level language skills in children with SLI and/or dyslexia

This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills—inferencing and comprehension monitoring—accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) or dyslexia showed deficits in these skills. Eighty-two Cantonese Chinese-speaking children between the age of 7; 8–9; 5 were assessed. Regression analyses on the full sample offered support for the first question. The children were also classified into four groups: Typically-developing (TD; N = 34), specific language impairment-only (SLI-only; N = 18), SLI-dyslexia comorbid (SLI-D; N = 22) and dyslexia-only (D-only; N = 8). Pair-wise comparisons focusing on the second question revealed that both the SLI-only and the D-only group performed worse than the TD group in reading comprehension after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. The SLI-only and the D-only group showed a different profile of deficits: only the SLI-only group performed worse than the TD group in working memory, comprehension monitoring, and inferencing. The SLI-D comorbid group did worse than the SLI-only, but not the D-only group, in reading comprehension. The SLI-D comorbid group did not do worse than either single diagnosis group in the higher-level language skills associated with reading comprehension. These findings suggested adopting different intervention approaches for reading comprehension difficulties in children with SLI versus children with dyslexia.     

Student discourse on physical activity and sport among Irish young people

This article explores accounts of student discourse related to the role of physical activity and sport in the lives of Irish children and youth. The data source is a purposeful sample of student narratives based upon age of student, type of school and gender, and sought representation from both rural and urban settings. Data were derived from an original, random sample of approximately 4,100 texts written by Irish young people (ages 10–12 and 14–17). Data suggest sport plays a pervasive role in the lives of Irish primary children as they enjoy and participate in a variety of sports and physical activities. Gendered and age-related patterns emerged in their preferences of activities and in the way in which they represented their sporting selves. These findings have implications for the value of student voice in the delivery and design of models of participation that expand opportunities for physical activity within schools and beyond.     

Are poor Chinese text comprehenders also poor in written composition?

We studied the performance in three genres of Chinese written composition (narration, exposition, and argumentation) of 158 grade 4, 5, and 6 poor Chinese text comprehenders compared with 156 good Chinese text comprehenders. We examined text comprehension and written composition relationship. Verbal working memory (verbal span working memory and operation span working memory) and different levels of linguistic tasks—morphological sensitivity (morphological compounding and morphological chain), sentence processing (syntax construction and syntax integrity), and text comprehension (narrative and expository texts)—were used to predict separately narrative, expository, and argumentation written compositions in these students. Grade for grade, the good text comprehenders outperformed the poor text comprehenders in all tasks, except for morphological chain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed differential contribution of the tasks to different genres of writing. In particular, text comprehension made unique contribution to argumentation writing in the poor text comprehenders. Future studies should ask students to read and write parallel passages in the same genre for better comparison and incorporate both instructional and motivational variables.     

Program exclusivity and competition in the cable television industry

The authors argue that program exclusivity will be an important factor in the future of the cable television industry. They assert that prohibiting cable program exclusivity may limit the First Amendment rights of cable programmers and operators. The authors conclude that the best chance for increasing competition if program exclusivity continues is to increase the number of market participants.