Comprehension Difficulties Research Articles

Scribal interpretation of problematic passages in Old English poetry: Insights from theories of textual difficulty

ABSTRACT This essay examines how early scribes understood and interpreted Old English poetic texts, which often contain passages that are challenging for modern readers. Focusing especially on cases where Old English poetic texts exist in multiple copies, it explores the differences between versions and what they reveal about the ease or difficulty of comprehension among early scribes and audiences. The essay analyzes examples of difficult passages from Beowulf, several Exeter Book riddles, and Cædmon’s Hymn, and how they were copied and modified over time. It considers what the different versions of these texts might suggest about the varying degrees of understanding among these scribes and readers. The essay suggests that early audiences faced difficulties not unlike those faced by modern readers, especially relating to the interpretation of structure, redundancy, and cohesion. The essay aims to enhance our empathy for original audiences and for our students as we teach and study Old English texts.

Adapting to Online Education: A Case Study of Resilience and Innovation in Private Tutoring During the Pandemic

During the pandemic, online-based learning faced numerous challenges, such as internet connectivity issues, difficulties in comprehension, an increase in assignments, one-sided interactions, and reduced concentration. Nevertheless, private tutoring institutions emerged as invaluable resources, enabling students to revisit lesson materials, enhance their understanding, and complete assignments effectively. This study aimed to investigate the digital transformation at Prima Utama Private Tutoring Institution in Surakarta, Indonesia, focusing on the factors that support and hinder the institution's operations, and proposing solutions to overcome these obstacles during the pandemic. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, the research involved institutional leaders, tutors, and students as key informants. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and documentation, followed by data condensation, presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings demonstrated the institution’s resilience through the implementation of both online and offline tutoring programs, incorporating diverse learning strategies such as lectures, interactive teaching methods, and the use of various applications. Despite technical challenges like network issues and limited technological proficiency, the interaction between tutors and students remained strong. Challenges included physical distance constraints, module availability, and promotional barriers. Proposed solutions included enhancing the Wi-Fi network, providing training on learning platforms, accessing e-modules, and developing practice questions. Additionally, the study recommended using social media, parent testimonials, and discount offers to overcome promotional challenges. Ultimately, this research offers valuable insights into the adaptation of educational institutions during the pandemic and provides recommendations for improving learning quality in an all-digital private tutoring environment.

Critical Thinking Skills and Reading Proficiency among the English Language Students of Public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Sulu

The sobering realization of the critical thinking and the difficulty in the language comprehension, specifically in English language piques the researcher's interest in learning more about the experiences of tertiary students majoring in English language studies at other public HEIs in Sulu. This study sought to investigate the significant difference in the extent of critical thinking skills and reading proficiency among the English language students. This study employed a variety of statistical techniques, including the adopted weighted mean, standard deviation, t-Test for independent samples, One-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s r test of correlation to analyze the reading comprehension and critical thinking skills among English language learners in Sulu's public HEIs throughout the 2023–2024 academic year. A surveyed has been conducted on 200 female students aged 20-21 from public Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Sulu, revealing high critical thinking abilities and average reading proficiency ratings. Students' demographic profiles did not significantly influence their assessment of critical thinking or perceived reading proficiency. The study supports Anderson's Theory of Schema, which suggests that comprehension is an interactive process involving the reader's background knowledge and the text, requiring the ability to relate the material to one's own knowledge. The school administration will partner with language teachers to provide reading materials that enhance students' critical thinking skills and reading proficiency. Teachers must guide students to comprehend texts thoroughly, while parents play a crucial role in their children's future. Students will develop the ability to comprehend texts thorough through books and other reading materials provided by teachers. The objective of this study is to offer a foundation for upcoming researchers to enhance their own investigations on critical thinking abilities and reading competence within their field of study. The study will be conducted during the Academic Year 2023-2024 in Sulu province.

Russian Children and Their Relatives: What Can a Free Word Order Language Reveal About the Subject/Object Asymmetry?

ABSTRACT The present study revisits the well-attested phenomenon of Subject/Object Asymmetry in relative clause comprehension by monolingual Russian pre-school children. Additionally, it examines the NP-V and the V-NP word order types when the embedded NP precedes or follows the verb. Both the word orders are grammatical for Russian subject and object relative clauses alike. Object relative clause comprehension difficulty was evidenced across all the age groups. Word order alternation (V-NP vs NP-V) did not significantly affect the accuracy rates. Besides the efficacy of the agent-first strategy, growing morphological knowledge compels children to update their ongoing structural analysis, which results in embedded NP errors. Yet, even at 6 years of age, children do not display word order preferences to go with a particular relative clause type that are found in Russian-speaking adults. Restricted exposure to written texts at pre-school age as well as low validity of word order as a cue to thematic role assignment are discussed as possible reasons for children’s insensitivity to word order manipulation in Russian relative clauses.

Remote Learning in Military Higher Education During Covid-19: Challenges and Strategies for Student Officers in Sri Lanka

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a global shift in higher education toward remote learning, prompting diverse adaptations to ensure continuity in student education. This transition was particularly impactful in Sri Lanka, where the tri-forces' student officers, crucial for national defense, underwent remote postgraduate studies. This study investigates the challenges, perceptions, and proposed strategies of these officers pursuing the PSC (Master’s degree at Defence Services Command and Staff College) during the pandemic. Grounded in Anderson's Theory and Practice of Online Learning, the research employed a descriptive cross-sectional design, surveying 30 male student officers via an online questionnaire. Results indicate a generally positive reception of remote learning, with 61.9% expressing satisfaction, despite encountering technical barriers, limited peer interaction, motivation issues, and content comprehension difficulties. While 52.4% reported moderate engagement levels, 66.7% acknowledged satisfactory lecturer support. The study suggests enhancing infrastructure, fostering interactive learning environments, and improving teacher-student interaction to mitigate challenges and bolster remote learning effectiveness. Notably, 85.7% of respondents advocate for hybrid learning, blending online and traditional methods. However, limitations include a small, male-only sample, limiting generalizability, and neglecting perspectives of officers with lower IT and English proficiency. Recommendations include policy interventions to enhance teacher-student interaction, promote engagement, and optimize remote learning quality, recognizing its pivotal role in future higher education. This study contributes insights into the challenges and prospects of remote learning in a unique military educational context, informing strategies for its effective implementation amidst crises and beyond.

The Cognitive Representation of Information and its Relationship to Cognitive Style (Verbal - Conceptual) Among a Sample of Fifth Year Primary Students –A Field Comparative Study Between Typical Students and Students with Reading Comprehension Difficulties in the City of Laghouat –

The current study aimed to identify the level of cognitive representation of information and verbal and conceptual cognitive styles among a sample of fifth year primary students with reading comprehension difficulties and their typical peers. To fulfill these objectives, the scale of cognitive representation of information and the scale of verbal and conceptual cognitive style were adopted after verifying their psychometric features.

Text-Based Inference Instruction for Elementary Grade Children with Reading Comprehension Difficulties: An Intervention Research

"The current study investigated the effects of inference instruction on text-based inferences by third graders who are below average in reading comprehension but average in reading fluency and cognitive abilities. Text-based inferences occur when the preceding text has an identifiable causal antecedent. Participants were randomly assigned and attended twelve 30-minute sessions of the inferences training intervention. We have included strategies for integrating information from the text to improve reading comprehension skills. We provide an overview of how specific text-based instruction influences reading comprehension processes and outcomes and can lead to increased reading comprehension. The comparison of pretest and posttest results in the experimental group showed a significant gain in the following variables: generating inferences and providing arguments for using rules and constraints. Finally, we discuss how consideration of these potential sources of instruction has practical implications for designing and selecting instructional materials. Key-words: reading comprehension, text-based inferences, reading comprehension instruction, inferences, inference instruction, reading comprehension difficulties"

Reading Comprehension and Comprehension Monitoring in First-grade Children with Vocabulary Delay

Objectives: This study investigated reading comprehension and reading comprehension monitoring abilities of children with vocabulary delay at the end of the first grade. Specifically, the study examined whether children with vocabulary delays could detect internal inconsistency errors, which are contradictory pieces of information in a short story, and whether they could correct those errors to make appropriate changes to the story at the beginning stage of reading. Methods: Fourteen children with vocabulary delay and 15 typically developing children participated in this study. Each child read 10 short stories without internal inconsistency errors and 10 stories with internal inconsistency errors. After reading the text, children were asked to find any inconsistent parts of the story and correct them. Results: The results showed that children with vocabulary delay performed worse on reading comprehension than their peers. They also scored statistically lower on both the error detection and error correction tasks in stories with internal inconsistency errors compared to typically developing children. For typically developing children only, there were significant correlations between reading comprehension and reading comprehension monitoring. Conclusion: Children with vocabulary delay exhibited difficulties in both reading comprehension and comprehension monitoring. Poor vocabulary knowledge can hinder their ability to recognize when a text is misunderstood or to apply effective strategies for resolving problems, ultimately leading to reading comprehension failure. This suggests that children with language disorders, including those with vocabulary delays, need to be assessed and provided with interventions for both reading comprehension and comprehension monitoring.

Investigating Senior High School Students’ Metacognition in Indonesian Learning Reading Comprehension: Does it Have a Positive Impact?

Metacognition and reading comprehension skills are believed to influence students' academic success. However, many studies report that students' understanding of texts is still low even though they have been able to read fluently. This study aims to investigate and describe students' metacognitive awareness in reading comprehension learning activities and the effect of metacognition on reading comprehension skills. The research method used is a mixed-method by utilizing the descriptive and quantitative correlational analysis results. The research subjects involved were 280 students and eight Indonesian language teachers from eight senior high schools. The research data was obtained from the observations of reading learning activities, interviews, distributing questionnaires, and reading skills tests. The results showed that most students did not know the right reading strategy for themselves. Overall, students have not been able to conclude the goals and benefits of learning to read comprehension for their lives, behave passively in learning, and have not been able to identify solutions to face reading comprehension difficulties according to their characteristics. Based on the results of correlational calculations, metacognition was positively correlated with students' reading comprehension skills. This study recommends that teachers and curriculum designers emphasize the components of metacognitive awareness activity for improving students' reading comprehension skills.

Automatic metaphor processing in developmental dyslexia

IntroductionPrevious research found metaphor impairments with dyslexia; however, it is unclear if difficulties are due to initial activation of the metaphorical meaning or to subsequent discourse integration processes. The study examines the presence of early automatic processing of metaphors in adults with developmental dyslexia, considering the role of executive functions and metaphor familiarity. MethodsUsing a sentence recall task and a semantic judgment task from the Metaphor Interference Effect (MIE) paradigm, we evaluated two early stages of metaphor comprehension, namely the generation of the figurative meaning and the suppression of the literal meaning. High and low familiar metaphors, and their scrambled counterparts, were aurally presented to participants, who were asked to judge whether sentences were literally true or literally false. Afterwards, they were provided ten minutes to recall the sentences they heard to verify the depth of processing for each type of stimulus. A total of 26 participants with dyslexia were included in the experimental group, and 31 in the control group. ResultsIndividuals with dyslexia showed a MIE and an accuracy rate that are similar to participants without dyslexia. Inhibition correlated with the MIE size only for high familiar metaphors, and working memory seemed to play no role in the process. In the recall task, both groups demonstrated a better encoding of the metaphorical sentences compared to scrambled metaphors, but participants with dyslexia recalled less metaphors than did the control group, showing that metaphors are no exception to the limitations in sentence retrieval typically found in dyslexia. ConclusionsOur findings suggest that individuals with dyslexia are comparable to participants without dyslexia in their ability to automatically compute metaphorical meanings. Thus, difficulties in metaphor comprehension in people with dyslexia that have been detected in previous studies might depend on meaning construction in context rather than online semantic processing.

INTENTIONALITY OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ON READING COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES AMONG GRADE NINE LEARNERS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY

The ability to read was an important skill in today’s modern world where so much information is transmitted in written form. It is important that people have reading skills whether they are in school or not. This is a challenge to teachers in the junior high school level on how they nurture grade 9 learners to learn proper reading in their respective grade level. The purpose of this research topic emanated from an observation from past research that, levels of reading difficulties among junior high school are still very high in the Philippines and is not an exception (Kelly, 2019). Philippines could possibly be having thousands of learners who have severe reading problems which have not been detected. Therefore, there is a need to identify and understand these reading comprehension difficulties early in life and the challenges they bring about so that the situation could possibly be changed for the better. This study involved teachers in grade 9 in selected public schools in Davao City. This group was chosen because, the following year, they are supposed to be in grade 10 to write their examinations which are to be read and answered in English without anybody’s help. These examinations are very critical as they determine whether the students will proceed to college education or not. Therefore, it is expected that by the time a student reaches grade 10, they must be competent in reading as preparation for their college life. KEYWORDS: intentionality, junior high school, teachers, reading comprehension, difficulties, grade nine, learners

ENHANCING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION AND LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH INTEGRATING AUTHENTIC LEARNING MATERIALS

Authentic learning materials (ALM) are recognized for providing meaningful and engaging educational experiences. However, there is a lack of extensive research examining the relationship between authentic learning materials, students’ intrinsic motivation, and their listening skills. This study addresses this gap by employing a quantitative method through the distribution of a 35-item Likert scale questionnaire to junior high school students in Batam. The questionnaire aimed to assess students’ attitudes and perceptions regarding the use of authentic materials in their English classes. The results from 30 students indicated that authentic learning materials positively influence student engagement, intrinsic motivation, and cultural awareness. These materials were found to enhance students' interest and participation in learning activities by making the content more relatable and applicable to real-life situations. The study also highlighted some challenges, such as difficulties in comprehension and issues with classroom dynamics, which could impact the overall effectiveness of these materials. Despite these challenges, the data suggest that authentic learning materials effectively bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world language use. This connection fosters a sense of achievement and satisfaction among students, as they can see the practical application of their language skills. Thus, incorporating authentic materials into the curriculum can provide significant benefits, enhancing the overall learning experience and motivation of students in the English classroom.

Dynamically predicting comprehension difficulties through physiological data and intelligent wearables

Comprehending digital content written in natural language online is vital for many aspects of life, including learning, professional tasks, and decision-making. However, facing comprehension difficulties can have negative consequences for learning outcomes, critical thinking skills, decision-making, error rate, and productivity. This paper introduces an innovative approach to predict comprehension difficulties at the local content level (e.g., paragraphs). Using affordable wearable devices, we acquire physiological responses non-intrusively from the autonomous nervous system, specifically pulse rate variability, and electrodermal activity. Additionally, we integrate data from a cost-effective eye-tracker. Our machine learning algorithms identify ’hotspots’ within the content and regions corresponding to a high cognitive load. These hotspots represent real-time predictors of comprehension difficulties. By integrating physiological data with contextual information (such as the levels of experience of individuals), our approach achieves an accuracy of 72.11% ± 2.21, a precision of 0.77, a recall of 0.70, and an f1 score of 0.73. This study opens possibilities for developing intelligent, cognitive-aware interfaces. Such interfaces can provide immediate contextual support, mitigating comprehension challenges within content. Whether through translation, content generation, or content summarization using available Large Language Models, this approach has the potential to enhance language comprehension.

Reading Comprehension Difficulties on English Descriptive Text

Research aims were knowing about reading comprehending of reading difficulties on English text and the solutions. It was focus on five reading aspects in comprehending, they were main idea, topic sentence, vocabulary, inference, and referent. This research was a library approach with descriptive qualitative method. Research subject was relevant literatures sources and data on the same issue to reading comprehension difficulties on English text. the research show that learners have problematic in analyzing main point in every paragraph, confused in finding topic sentence, wrong words meaning matching, confused in making inference, could not finding inference in the reading text. From five aspects, the most difficult aspect was identifying main idea and vocabulary understanding because sometime it wrote implicitly. Solving this trouble, as the teachers, it was very important to teach the students using various reading strategies, and various types of reading text. for the students, they need to do more reading practice than before, as many as experiences and background knowledge in reading text, it was very useful to help them in comprehending English reading text. Students also must use reading strategy while reading the text, using dictionary or ask the teacher about unfamiliar words. Keywords: Difficulties; English Text; Reading Comprehension;.

Study on Overseas Readers' Evaluation and Dissemination Effect of the English Translation of Romance of the Three Kingdoms

In evaluating the translation quality and translation value of literary works, one of the most important assessment links is to focus on the degree of acceptance of translations by readers. Through the study of overseas readers' evaluations and dissemination effects of English translations, we can comprehensively and accurately assess the impact of different translations on readers, provide more scientific guidance and decision-making basis for the translations of classical literature, and promote the dissemination of Chinese literature overseas, thereby contributing to the enhancement of China's cultural soft power. It can provide more scientific guidance and decision-making basis for the translation of classical literature, promote the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature, and boost the enhancement of the soft power of Chinese culture. This study collects readers' evaluations of <em>Martin Palmer</em>'s English translation of<em> Romance of the Three Kingdoms</em>, which is ranked first in the review data on <em>Amazon </em>and the official website of <em>Goodreads</em>, through the <em>Octopus data collector</em>, and conducts text data mining on it, utilizing the <em>KHCoder</em> text analyzing tool and adopting a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, to analyze the readers' reviews of the high-frequency words and semantic mapping were analyzed. It was found that the factors affecting overseas readers' evaluation of the English translation of <em>Romance of the Three Kingdoms</em> include: the length of the full translation, the confusion and difficulty in memorization and phonetic comprehension of Chinese character names due to the names and words in the English translation, and the completeness of the translation in retaining the essence of the original work. Therefore, the subsequent translation of <em>Romance of the Three Kingdoms</em> not only needs to grasp the two perspectives of linguistic accuracy and cultural adaptation, but also should take more account of the preferences and needs of overseas readers, and optimize and adjust these aspects in a targeted manner.

Fostering Inference-Making Through Video-Based Technology in Young Children With Early Reading Difficulties

Successful comprehension is only possible when children draw inferences about ideas implicit or missing in discourse. Supporting inference-making with explicit instruction must start early given its importance in comprehension and knowledge development. However, students who experience difficulties with early reading skills often do not receive adequate instructional support for inference-making because oftentimes inference-making is taught in the context of written texts. In this article, we describe the potential of using video-based technology in teaching inference-making in young students who experience difficulties in early reading skills. First, we discuss why inference-making is crucial for comprehension and elaborate on a theoretical framework that addresses how video-based technology can support inference-making independent of basic reading skills. Next, we share our experiences designing web-based software featuring interactive videos. Finally, we describe how teachers can design their own inference instruction using video-based technology to support young students with difficulties in comprehension and basic reading skills.

Free and Suitable? Readability Analysis of Ghana’s Senior High School Core Science Textbooks

This descriptive study assessed the linguistic complexity of the three Ghana Senior High School Integrated Science textbooks, using readability index analyses. Simple random sampling was used to select five units from each textbook for testing. Criterion-based sampling was used to select, from each sampled unit, a block of texts of no less than 300 words for analyses. Readability score for each sampled text was generated by feeding the sample into the online readability calculator. Simple descriptive statistics were run in order to organize and summarize characteristics of the sampled text. Then, Analysis of Variance procedures, both parametric and non-parametric, were run to test the statistical significance of differences, if any, among the readability scores of the textbooks. The study established that while science textbooks for SHS 2 and 3 and were suitable for their intended audiences, the readability of Book 1 placed it at the level of university students, and therefore, too difficult for its intended audience. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean readability levels of the textbooks at 0.05 alpha level, suggesting that there is no progression in reading and comprehension difficulty among the three textbooks. A recommendation is made for further evaluation of all the textbooks and particularly of Book 1 for possible revision, which may help students to achieve the intended meaningful learning.

아동양육시설 초등학생들의 기초문해력 실태 조사

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of basic literacy skills among elementary school students in residential child care institution based on their reading development. A total of 118 students participated in the reading screening test. According to the results of the screening test, students with severe reading difficulties were classified as ‘at risk’, students with reading difficulties were classified as ‘some risk’, and students with average and above average reading levels were classified as ‘typical’. The ‘at risk’ students were administered the Korean language acquisition and word recognition tests, while students in the ‘some risk’, and ‘typical’, were administered the reading fluency and comprehension tests. The main research findings are as follows. First, elementary school students in residential child care institution generally showed low levels of basic literacy skills. Second, almost students in the ‘at risk’ group were found to have difficulty in word recognition. Third, students in the ‘some risk’ and ‘typical’ groups were found to have greater difficulty in reading comprehension than reading fluency. Based on these research results, implications for enhancing basic literacy skills of elementary school students in residential child care institution were proposed.

A Need Analysis on English Teaching Materials for Midwifery Department Students at the Muslim University of Indonesia (UMI)

There are two research objectives in this research, they are to find out the target needs of the Midwifery department at the Muslim University of Indonesia (UMI); and to find out the obstacles faced by the students of midwifery department of Muslim University of Indonesia (UMI) in learning English. The research design is mixed-method research. There was 1 lecturer and 27 students at the Muslim University of Indonesia (UMI) that was taken as the subject of the research. The researcher used a questionnaire as the research instrument. The result of the research revealed that emphasizing midwifery terminology, effective communication skills, and written proficiency, the findings underscore the necessity of adjusted English language education for this group. Challenges identified include difficulties in vocabulary acquisition, comprehension, pronunciation, and confidence in speaking and writing. Addressing these obstacles requires targeted interventions such as refined instructional methods, confidence-building measures, vocabulary-focused interventions, and effective reading strategies. These findings align with the theory's emphasis on understanding learners' needs and implementing tailored solutions to facilitate language acquisition.

A health indicator enabling both first predicting time detection and remaining useful life prediction: Application to rotating machinery

Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction is vital for system functionality. Non-end-to-end approaches is an important type of RUL prediction approaches for their important application in industrial scenarios. In non-end-to-end approaches, Health Indicator (HI) construction is a critical aspect. However, existing HI construction approaches ignore First Predicting Time (FPT) detection, leading to increased domain knowledge demand and system health comprehension difficulty. To address this issue, this paper proposes a multi-objective-optimization-based HI construction approach enabling both FPT detection and RUL prediction. A novel metric called the monotonicity strength index is proposed to address the limitation of the conventional monotonicity. The constructed HI possesses the ability to indicate FPT by taking the detectability metric as an optimization objective. The optimization problem is solved by the combination of the multi-objective ant lion optimizer and the entropy weight method. The superiority of this HI is demonstrated through experiments on the widely used IMS bearing dataset and a gearbox dataset.