Contextual Reading Research Articles

Music Educational Resources Integration, Teaching Strategies, and Innovative Approaches in Chinese Art Colleges and Universities

This study assessed the level of tolerance of ambiguity of non-English majors to cope with complex, incomplete, uncertain, and unknown context in English reading, which significantly influenced their reading strategies and ability. The study employed a quantitative research method, and three survey questionnaires were used to identify tolerance of ambiguity, reading strategies and ability of 400 non-English major students from HUAT majoring in automotive engineering and in economics and management. The findings revealed a significant correlation between high tolerance of ambiguity and the use of effective reading strategies, such as prediction, inference, and summarization. Students with higher tolerance levels were found to be more adept at navigating ambiguous texts and extracting meaning from complex English materials. Moreover, these students demonstrated superior reading comprehension skills compared to their peers with lower tolerance levels. The study concluded that fostering tolerance of ambiguity should be an integral part of English language teaching for non-English majors. Teachers were encouraged to incorporate activities that enhanced students’ ability to handle ambiguity, thereby improving their reading strategies and overall English reading ability. This research contributed to the field of second language acquisition by providing empirical evidence of the role of tolerance of ambiguity in English reading ability among non-English major students in Chinese colleges. Based on the findings, an enhancement program was proposed to help Chinese non-English majors deal with reading ambiguity, help them better use in reading strategies and promote their reading ability in EFL reading learning.

Tolerance of Ambiguity, Reading Strategies and Ability of Chinese College Non-English Majors

This study assessed the level of tolerance of ambiguity of non-English majors to cope with complex, incomplete, uncertain, and unknown context in English reading, which significantly influenced their reading strategies and ability. The study employed a quantitative research method, and three survey questionnaires were used to identify tolerance of ambiguity, reading strategies and ability of 400 non-English major students from HUAT majoring in automotive engineering and in economics and management. The findings revealed a significant correlation between high tolerance of ambiguity and the use of effective reading strategies, such as prediction, inference, and summarization. Students with higher tolerance levels were found to be more adept at navigating ambiguous texts and extracting meaning from complex English materials. Moreover, these students demonstrated superior reading comprehension skills compared to their peers with lower tolerance levels. The study concluded that fostering tolerance of ambiguity should be an integral part of English language teaching for non-English majors. Teachers were encouraged to incorporate activities that enhanced students’ ability to handle ambiguity, thereby improving their reading strategies and overall English reading ability. This research contributed to the field of second language acquisition by providing empirical evidence of the role of tolerance of ambiguity in English reading ability among non-English major students in Chinese colleges. Based on the findings, an enhancement program was proposed to help Chinese non-English majors deal with reading ambiguity, help them better use in reading strategies and promote their reading ability in EFL reading learning.

“She feels and thinks”: Mother's emotion and mental state talk on book reading activities

Mother's emotion and mental state talk (EMST) in storybook reading context has been reported to be positively correlated with children's social understanding. Previous findings postulate that cultural context and book formats could affect the emergence of EMST. On the contrary, research about the EMST in the Indonesian cultural context and in various book formats is limited. Hence, further research needs to be conducted to explore the characteristics of EMST in Indonesian families. The current study aims to analyze which type of EMST is preferred by mothers in Indonesia, the frequency of EMST usage across various levels of reading difficulty, and the functions of EMST among Indonesian mothers. Secondary data were analyzed qualitatively from parents' video recordings of reading book activities. The main findings of this research suggest that, while most participants reported utilizing desire talk as a means of EMST, they were more likely to emphasize character descriptions, storylines, or general knowledge compared to EMST in shared book reading sessions. The lack of spontaneous EMST in Indonesian mothers may reflect the cultural influence on the expression of emotions and mental states in everyday life.

Oral reading promotes predictive processing in Chinese sentence reading: eye movement evidence.

Fluent sentence reading is widely acknowledged to depend on top-down contextual prediction, wherein sentential and contextual cues guide the pre-activation of linguistic representations before encountering stimuli, facilitating subsequent comprehension. The Prediction-by-Production hypothesis posits an explanation for predictive processes in language comprehension, suggesting that prediction during comprehension involves processes associated with language production. However, there is a lack of eye movement evidence supporting this hypothesis within sentence reading contexts. Thus, we manipulated reading mode and word predictability to examine the influence of language production on predictive processing. Participants engaged in silent or oral reading of sentences containing either high or low-predictable target words. Eye movements were recorded using the Eyelink1000 eye tracker. The findings revealed a higher skipping rate and shorter fixation times for high-predictable words compared to low-predictable ones, and for silent compared to oral reading. Notably, interactive effects were observed in the time measures (FFD, SFD, GD) during first-pass reading, indicating that word predictability effects were more pronounced during oral reading than silent reading. The observed pattern of results suggests that the activation of the production system enhances predictive processing during the early lexical access, providing empirical support for the Prediction-by-Production hypothesis in eye movement sentence reading situations, extending the current understanding of the timing and nature of predictions in reading comprehension.

Legalizing Bequests to Heirs in Egypt as a Legislative Application of Talfīq: towards a Purposive Interpretation of Article 37 of Law No. 71/1946

Abstract This paper tackles one example of interaction between state laws and social norms. It investigates the rationale behind the unprecedented legalization of bequeathing to heirs in Egypt that happened by the virtue of article 37 of law no. 71/1946. This article represents a legal rule that renegotiates a well settled matter in the Sunni jurisprudence based on an undefined common need that was alleged in the explanatory memorandum of this law. The paper investigates that common need through an originalist approach into the mentioned article then validates the output of that investigation by a review of relevant judicial rulings. As part of this originalist approach, the paper engages with the available data pertaining to the drafting process of law no. 71/1946, the key members in the drafting committee, and the parliamentary discussion on article 37 of the law. It also attempts a contextual reading for article 37 to understand its legal rationale and propose criteria for judicial enforcement that would maintain this rationale.

Pronunciation of Vowel Digraphs in Nonwords: A Replication and Extension.

In English, the pronunciation of a vowel digraph can vary; for example, ea is pronounced /ɛ/ in bread but /i/ in beach and /eɪ/ in break. We investigated participant-level effects on the pronunciation of ambiguous vowel digraphs in nonwords (e.g., yeath) using standardized test measures of six reading-related skills in 80 young adults. We employed both an established written task and set of nonword stimuli and a spoken version of the task with the same stimuli. We largely replicated the previously reported pattern of preferred nonword pronunciations in both the written and spoken versions of the task. Generalized linear mixed-effects model analyses revealed that individual differences in phonological memory, spelling knowledge, and word reading efficiency contributed to pronunciation choice beyond item-level effects. Overall, taken together with the results of item-level analyses, our findings are consistent with models and theories in which specific reading-related skills, intralexical context, and interlexical pronunciation knowledge influence ambiguous vowel digraph pronunciation in nonword reading in fluently reading young adults.

The aftermath and afterlives of the Napier Fizzle across the British empire, 1834–42; or, how did Lord Napier die?

Abstract In the fall of 1834 Lord William Napier died shortly after retreating from a tense stand-off with local authorities in Canton. While Napier’s retreat and conduct during the stand-off might easily have been construed as unbecoming of a Briton in China, his death marked the beginning of his afterlife as a martyr and hero across the British empire. This article asks how and why this happened. It argues that Napier enjoyed this afterlife because his death was placed within the context of a certain reading of Britain’s relationship with China to become a stand-in for all Britons. This assessment of the aftermath and afterlives of the ‘Napier Fizzle’ ultimately suggests a longer history that prevailing understandings of these events as a ‘fizzle’ do not fully encapsulate.

Imagined Readers: Contrasting Professional and Reader Reviews of Chinese Book Design

Abstract: The “Beauty of Books in China” is an annual book design competition that represents the highest standard of book design in China. Despite being regarded as successful within the professional sphere, the award-winning books receive varying evaluations from general readers. In the online community “Douban Reading” which boasts a large gathering of Chinese readers, individuals express their opinions through book reviews, often diverging from the intentions of judges and designers. This article centralizes the concept of the “imagined reader” to delineate the aesthetic divergence between professional and general readers in evaluating the material features of award-winning Chinese books. Using the TF-IDF algorithm, this article conducts text analysis on the original judge comments and reader comments, identifies characteristic terms within each group, and shows different reading preference. This research finds that there are gaps between imagined readers and real readers in terms of aesthetic foundation, attitudes towards supplementary design elements, practical skills, and reading contexts. Readers’ comments reflect a distinct contrast to the design-centric view of judges.

Reconsidering the Task, Methods, and Aims of Reading the Gospels in the Present Myanmar Context

The confessional doctrine of the exalted post-Easter Jesus, divine saviour, planted by nineteenth-century missionaries, has a long tradition in Myanmar churches. In order to equip these churches for the current Myanmar context, it is time to decolonize the Western heritage of confessional reading of the New Testament. It is essential to reread the Jesus tradition recorded in the Gospels in the specific contexts of then and now. Thus, this paper argues that in the current context of the critical situation in Myanmar, the exalted Christian saviour does not save the suffering citizens from life-threatening war or injustice, nor churches from being destroyed by abusive authority. This exalted heavenly Christ does not liberate the suffering people from the physical, spiritual, and mental sufferings inflicted on them. Nor does he liberate them from the homelessness or IDP camps or from their status as outcasts. What is needed instead is a contextual reading of the life of Jesus, within the Jewish context of second temple Judaism. This theopolitical Jesus encourages Myanmar Christians and the citizens of Myanmar; he becomes a sympathetic figure sharing comparable troubles and an example of how to stand up for the people who suffer injustice and to engage in the work of restoration.

“Coca says that the hill fell out of jealousy”: testimonies about a threatened practice and episteme in Ancash, Peru

PurposeThis study aims to promote the preservation of endangered traditional knowledge and practices in the Andes of Peru by documenting, publishing and disseminating them.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review of coca and coca divination, the author will describe these types of divination practices. Subsequently, the author will address the context and characteristics of a coca reading conducted in October 2022. Afterwards, the threats and prejudices faced by this type of indigenous knowledge and practice are discussed.FindingsCoca divination in the Andean region of Ancash differs from the most common form of divination with coca leaves performed in northern Argentina, Bolivia, northern Chile, Colombia and southern Peru. The results of the coca reading conducted in October 2022 align with Andean worldviews. These practices and the associated episteme face various threats from academic, social and political actors and their discourses.Practical implicationsScientific and academic researchers should be aware that their work can foster and maintain epistemic colonialism in Latin American territories. Archaeological excavations and interpretations should respect ancestral and traditional worldviews and practices.Originality/valueThis study advances the understanding of coca divination in the Andes of Ancash, Peru, by providing nuanced insights into this cultural practice in relation to a landslide event that occurred near a 3,000-year-old temple. The implications extend beyond academic discourse, offering valuable perspectives for conducting archaeological excavation activities that respect ancestral and traditional local beliefs. Future research should build on these findings to deepen comprehension of threats to traditional beliefs and practices.

The Transformation of Senkatana

The research question in this article is to trace how the legend of Senkatana was transformed first into a drama and then into a tragedy. The methodology that is applied is to compare the salient features of the legend, the drama, and then the tragedy. An overarching finding is that the playwright developed a number of transformational processes in order to transform the essence of the plot, the number and line-up of characters as well as the drama’s structure. A second overarching finding concerns the medium of delivery where an originally orally narrated legend is transformed into a drama text written for performance on a stage before an audience. The third finding applies to the transformation of the character of Senkatana. This happens on a transcendental level when the legendary hero and king dies and becomes a deity after death—an instance of transformation that leads to transfiguration. A concluding finding is that several contemporary contextual readings of Mofokeng’s classic are possible.

A Holy Land Perspective on the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together

This article proposes a contextual reading of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together from the Israel/Palestine context. What are the elements in this document that are most meaningful within the context of the decades’ longconflict between Israelis and Palestinians? In the development of Zionism, PalestineArab nationalism and the promotion of British interests in Palestine, religion was mobilized as a legitimation for ideology and a justification of violence in the bloody conflict that followed as these ideologies clashed. Aspects of Judaism, Islam and Christianity became inseparable in the weave of these ideologies, drafting God to the side of those engaged in the struggle. The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together seeks to modify this role of religion. What are the perspectives that it opens up? What can be the role of religious leaders if the reflect on the principles in this document?

“Everyone is Furthest from Himself”: An Interpretation of Nietzsche’s Recovery and Inversion of Terence’s Formula “I Am the Closest to Myself”

Abstract This essay examines Nietzsche’s inversion of Terence’s formula “I am the closest to myself” into “Everyone is furthest from himself [Jeder ist sich selbst der Fernste]” (GM, Preface 1). In a contextual reading, I am going to ask how Nietzsche relates this formula to the difficulty of acquiring self-knowledge, as emphasized at the beginning of On the Genealogy of Morality. First, I argue that Nietzsche does not prohibit self-knowledge, but instead invites us to think about it differently; and second, I will show that the formula according to which “everyone is furthest from himself” can also be understood as an injunction to keep the self always at a distance. I will link these two aspects by arguing that Nietzsche replaces self-knowledge in the classical sense by an interpretation of the self, and that this interpretation must never be thought of as an undertaking that seeks to reify their self. Nietzsche urges us to make ourselves into creative projects, even this will entail fiction and illusion.

Intelligent Chinese Typesetting Model Based on Information Importance Can Enhance Text Readability

In today’s era of information overload, efficiently extracting valuable information from a large volume of textual data has become a crucial challenge in reading. This study aimed to explore the enhancement of Chinese readability in the digital domain through intelligent typesetting method. This study involved two experiments. The purpose of the first experiment was to achieve the machine learning-based assessment of the importance of individual words in Chinese articles and to automate typesetting based on the importance of words. For the second experiment, readability tests and eye-tracking reading tests were performed and the reading performance and reading attention between intelligent typesetting and general typesetting style was compared. This work proposed three Chinese typesetting methods that distinguished the importance of Chinese text information, based on font size and color. The results showed that first, when reading Chinese text, visual attention was more likely to be drawn to larger font sizes, darker brightness, or warmer-colored characters. Second, intelligent Chinese typography that distinguishes information importance through font size, color brightness, and color hue can enhance Chinese reading comprehension accuracy and subjective evaluation. It was concluded that using the TextRank model to distinguish importance of Chinese vocabulary and intelligent typesetting methods based on visual features of font could obviously improve text readability. Specifically, readability achieved through intelligent typesetting method distinguishing information importance through font color brightness surpasses that of general typesetting significantly. These intelligent typesetting methods can be widely applied in Chinese reading scenarios, such as web pages, e-books, information visualization, and other Chinese reading contexts.

Unpacking EFL learners’ emotions and emotion-regulation strategies in digital collaborative academic reading projects: An integrated approach of vignette methodology and interview analysis

This study explored the manifestation of multifaceted emotions, sources of emotions, and emotion regulation strategies of college EFL learners participating in digital collaborative academic reading projects. Data were collected through a vignette-based survey that was comprised of 19 episodes of authentic emotion-inducing scenarios among 72 Chinese EFL learners, supplemented by semi-structured interviews with 16 participants. While the results showed a relatively balanced distribution of positive and negative emotions, anxiety, nervousness, and happiness were found to be the top three most commonly experienced emotions. The study identified three sources of positive emotions including topic interest, experiencing mastery and achievement, and recognition from other groups. The findings also revealed factors inducing negative emotions in digital collaborative academic reading: reading difficulties, challenges in interacting with group members, low-quality feedback from external groups, online learning environment and technology issues, and time pressure. Furthermore, the study extended the literature on emotion regulation by developing a comprehensive taxonomy of six categories of strategies (i.e., co-regulation, cognitive change, response regulation, attention deployment, task-related regulation, and situation modification) tailored to the context of digital collaborative academic reading. These findings can offer practical guidance for enhancing social-emotional interactions in technology-enhanced collaborative academic reading.

Bringing out Abdellah Taïa: sexuality, social mobility, and the discursive contexts of reading

The ideas and discourse associated with homosexuality and queerness provide a useful and relevant critical framework for understanding Moroccan writer Abdellah Taïa’s works. My essay expands this existing frame of reference by discussing the portrayal of poverty and social mobility, which I argue is an equally meaningful yet neglected aspect of Taïa’s writings. I develop this argument by showing that shame is linked not only to sexuality but also to social class. For a comparative perspective, I examine texts by Didier Éribon and Édouard Louis, who, like Taïa, are queer writers from a working-class background. Despite these shared characteristics, there is a significant difference in the framing and critical reception of Taïa’s writings, on the one hand, and those of Éribon and Louis, on the other. This essay investigates the reasons for this difference by exploring the phenomenon of the transfuge de classe and the crucial role played by the absent dimensions of race and coloniality. Situating narratives of queerness and poverty in relation to each other suggests a dialectical mode of reading attentive to different discursive contexts.

Literature Review on Psycholinguistic Processes in Reading Comprehension Mechanisms in Individuals with Language Disorders

This literature review investigates the psycholinguistic processes in reading comprehensionmechanisms in individuals with language impairment. Reading comprehension is an important aspect oflanguage development, yet individuals with language impairment often experience difficulties in understandingwritten text. Reading comprehension involves various psycholinguistic processes, including phonological,syntactic, semantic and pragmatic processing. Language impairment conditions such as dyslexia, languagedevelopment disorders and reading comprehension disorders often affect these mechanisms. Phonologicalprocessing is key in reading comprehension mechanisms, and individuals with language impairments often havedifficulty in recognising and decoding words. In addition, syntactic aspects play an important role inunderstanding sentence structure and the relationship between sentence elements. Reading comprehensiondisorders are often associated with difficulties in understanding semantic relationships, recognising wordmeanings and applying semantic knowledge in reading contexts. In addition, pragmatic factors are alsoimportant in comprehending text, including understanding context and communicative purpose. Individuals withlanguage impairment may have difficulty in picking up pragmatic nuances and applying them in readingcomprehension. This literature review presents an in-depth understanding of the relationship betweenpsycholinguistic processes and reading comprehension mechanisms in individuals with language impairment.The clinical implications of this study may aid the development of more effective intervention strategies toimprove reading comprehension in this population. With a better understanding of the factors that influencereading comprehension, health and education practitioners can design specific and targeted interventionprogrammes to improve reading ability in individuals with language impairment.

Collaborative Research on the Educational Outcomes of Classical Reading Education : Focused on Diagnosing the Educational Performance of four Korean Universities

The new rise of classical reading education is one of the important features of liberal arts education in recent years. This study aims to diagnose the performance of classical reading education through pre- and post-surveys of students taking classical reading courses at four universities in Korea, and analyze the results to determine what specific outcomes classical reading education can achieve. Based on a total of 339 students who took a classical reading course in the second semester of the 2023 academic year at four universities, two in the Seoul metropolitan area and one each in the Chungcheongbuk-do and Daegu/Gyeongbuk regions, the results showed that classical reading education promotes not only reading comprehension but also communication, creativity, and problem-solving efficacy, despite the characteristics and differences in the course operation of each university. In particular, classical reading education was found to foster contextual reading, the three-dimensional reading of texts, and inferential reading. Through discussions and debates with classmates, reflective writing, and reflection, the classical reading experience allows students to grow and mature by developing a precise and in-depth understanding of the text, as well as through the discovery of new content and meanings that they hadn't noticed before. These experiences, coupled with the results of fostering students' creativity and increasing their problem-solving efficacy, support the benefits of classical reading. Classical reading has also been shown to positively change students' personal and contextual interest in academics. This change in students' willingness and attitude toward academics is very important because it is closely linked to the development of an active learning approach. This study confirms that classical reading education has the effect of broadening and deepening thinking, stimulating and satisfying intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge, and renewing students' commitment and attitudes toward their lives and their studies. In particular, the fact that these outcomes were not identified at the level of individual universities, but were common to four universities in different regions, serving students at different levels, and operating in different ways, proves this study to be an objective confirmation of the universal outcomes of classical reading education. A more politicized analysis of the specific factors that drive these outcomes and the search for effective teaching methods is a future task.

Academic and recreational reading attitudes among primary students in a rural Malaysian village

Reading is crucial for development and educational outcomes, yet access to literacy resources and supportive environments is uneven, particularly in rural and low-income areas. Positive reading attitudes are linked to better reading achievement, but research on these attitudes among ESL speakers in non-Western, rural contexts remains limited. This study explores the attitudes of 4th and 5th graders towards recreational and academic reading in a rural Malaysian village, assessing students who participated in a reading program. Utilizing the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey, data were gathered from 74 of the 120 participants, achieving a 62% response rate. Analysis through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed a nuanced relationship between children’s reading attitudes and their engagement with various reading contexts and activities. Findings underscore a pronounced preference for recreational over academic reading, with both types of reading attitudes significantly interrelated. This suggests the program’s environment and involvement of reading partners may significantly shape children’s reading perceptions. Moreover, the study highlights the pivotal role of the reading context, indicating a direct correlation between children’s positive perception of their reading environment and their engagement levels. While the study did not delve into the impact of socio-economic status on program effectiveness, it signals the need for further research across diverse cultural settings to fully understand the efficacy of reading programs. The research concludes that after-school reading initiatives are instrumental in enhancing children’s academic and recreational reading attitudes, providing valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and researchers focused on literacy development.

Professional context of teaching reading to foreign economics students

The article continues a series of studies dedicated to teaching Ukrainian-language reading skills to foreign students specializing in economics. It underscores the significance of achieving communicative objectives in education to ensure that foreign students in higher education comprehend their specialty and various forms of Ukrainian-language communication. However, the initial level of text comprehension among students at the onset of the main stage of learning is insufficient to effectively support the educational process in Ukrainian higher education institutions within their chosen specialties. The article emphasizes the pivotal role of reading in fostering foreign language communicative competence. Reading, as a fundamental educational skill, serves as the cornerstone for the development of all other language skills. The training in reading for economics students necessitates specification, systematization, and the exploration of novel methodological approaches, which should subsequently be incorporated into reading materials tailored to the professional orientation of higher education students. The authors propose fundamental approaches to organizing educational content and various strategies for working with professionally oriented texts. They identify and analyse the primary challenges encountered by foreign students when reading Ukrainian-language texts related to their profession and suggest strategies for overcoming these obstacles. One of their recommendations is the utilization of specialized vocabulary and economic terminology during the instruction of foreign students in reading professionally oriented texts. The article substantiates that the optimization of reading education hinges on the careful selection of educational texts relevant to the students’ specialties, which constitute the primary educational unit. Additionally, it stresses the importance of employing a structured system of language and speech exercises developed based on professionally oriented economics texts, encompassing pre-text, text, and post-text tasks. Moreover, the article underscores the significance of professional orientation, informativeness, and relevance as the main criteria for selecting educational materials and determining their content. It also emphasizes the linguistic appropriateness of educational texts. The authors propose a systematic approach to working with professionally oriented texts in reading classes for first-year foreign students majoring in Economics (specialty 051).