Comprehension Difficulties Research Articles

Cancer Information Seekers' Comprehension Level and the Association With Preventable Cancer Risk Factors: A Cross-Sectional Analysis From a Nationally Representative U.S. Adult Survey.

To examine the association between U.S. adult cancer information seekers' comprehension level and preventable cancer risk factors. Cross-sectional analysis. Health Information National Trends Survey-6, 2022. 2,453 cancer information seekers. Four cancer risk factors were dichotomized: cigarette smoking (have smoked ≥100 cigarettes and currently smoke every day/some days); experiencing sunburn (≥1 times/past 12 months); being overweight/obese (≥25 body mass index [kg/m2]); and binge drinking (≥5 [male] or ≥4 [female] alcoholic drinks on one occasion/past 30 days). Individuals who reported that cancer information was hard to understand were considered having comprehension difficulties. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association of cancer information comprehension level with individual and cumulative cancer risk factors, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, age, annual household income, education level, metropolitan status, depressed mood, and cancer diagnosis history. Cancer information seekers with comprehension difficulties had higher odds of binge drinking (aOR: 1.66, 95% CI: 1.12, 2.46), being overweight/obese (aOR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.96), and experiencing sunburn (aOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.23, 2.11), as well as having ≥3 (aOR: 3.38, 95% CI: 1.87, 6.09) cancer risk factors concurrently than cancer information seekers without comprehension difficulties. Dissemination of easy-to-understand cancer information would help better prevent cancer risk factors for cancer information seekers with comprehension difficulties.

Foreign Language Anxiety Phenomenon and Coping Strategies among Students in Business English Audio-Visual and Speaking Courses

As a course that emphasizes practical international business communication skills, Business English Audiovisual Speaking requires students not only to master language skills, but also to be able to apply them flexibly in a real business environment. However, this highly practical and professional requirement often causes students to encounter difficulties in language comprehension, expression and failure to keep up with the progress in the learning process, thus triggering foreign language anxiety. Such anxiety not only affects students' learning efficiency, but also may lead them to fear negative evaluations and even refuse to communicate in a second language when necessary. Based on the theory of foreign language anxiety, this study takes students majoring in Business English in College G as the research object and analyzes in depth the phenomenon of students' foreign language anxiety in Business English Audiovisual Speaking course. It is found that students generally have moderate to severe foreign language and listening anxiety in this course. To this end, targeted coping strategies were proposed, including students' self-regulation strategies and teachers' effective teaching methods. These strategies aim to help students alleviate their foreign language anxiety, thereby improving their language learning, and ultimately cultivating high-quality talents who are competent in the international business environment. Through this study, we hope to provide an empirical basis for the field of business English education and contribute to the reduction of students' foreign language anxiety and the improvement of teaching quality.

Designing a Measure of Body Image: Cognitive Interview Findings from an Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Sample.

Purpose: A cancer diagnosis in adolescence and young adulthood significantly impacts a person's quality of life, particularly concerning identity, self-esteem, and subsequently, body image. This study aims to develop a psychometrically-sound patient-reported outcome measure of body image for adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology patients that was guided by the National Institutes of Health's Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System® (PROMIS) Scientific Standards and our past concept elicitation interviews with AYAs. Methods: We conducted a multi-step approach involving item identification, refinement, generation; translatability and reading level review; and cognitive interviews. A purposive sample of 25 AYA patients participated, ensuring representation across educational levels, gender, treatment status, and cancer type. Results: Translatability and reading level reviews facilitated language adjustments. Cognitive interviews revealed that 76% of AYAs found the 50 candidate items assessing body image concerns to be easy to answer. AYAs reported that the body image items captured their lived experiences. Three items were excluded due to comprehension difficulties. Conclusion: This study addresses the critical gap in validated measures for assessing body image in AYA oncology patients. Interview findings provided evidence for the content validity and comprehensibility for 47 items assessing body image. The next steps involve large-scale psychometric testing to evaluate the reliability and validity of the body image items to form an item bank allowing the design of short forms or use of computerized-adaptive testing. Ultimately, this work lays the foundation for developing interventions to mitigate the impact of cancer on AYAs' body image during diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF FACTUAL REPORT TEXT AT THE ELEVENT GRADE OF SMK NEGERI 2 TOMA

This research was carried out to investigate students’ difficulties in reading comprehension of factual report text at the eleventh grade students of SMK Negeri 2 Toma. The objectives of this research were to find out what difficulties are faced by class XI students at SMK Negeri 2 Toma in reading comprehension of factual report text and to explain the factors that contribute to students’ difficulties in reading comprehension of factual report texts in class at SMK Negeri 2 Toma. This research was qualitative research design and data were obtained through reading tests and interviews. Data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman's theory such as data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing and verification. The results of this research were eleventh grade students at SMK Negeri 2 Toma experience difficulties in reading comprehension. It was found that five difficulties experienced by students in reading comprehension they are finding factual information, finding the main idea, finding the meaning of vocabulary, identifying references and making inferences. Factors that contribute to students’ difficulties in reading comprehension of factual report texts include limited vocabulary knowledge, inadequate use of effective reading strategies, and problems with processing information. This research shows that students experience difficulties in reading comprehension. It is suggested that students eleventh grade of SMK Negeri 2 Toma should study more the component of reading comprehension.

Executive Functioning in Different Types of Reading Disabilities.

Students with reading disabilities form a heterogeneous group: some struggle with accurate and fast reading (dysfluent readers), others with comprehension (poor comprehenders), and some face challenges in both areas (poor readers). Research has indicated a link between executive functioning skills and reading performance; yet, further studies are necessary to fully understand the executive profiles in various types of reading disabilities. The goal of this study was to examine differences in executive functioning among three types of reading disabilities, comparing their performance with that of children without difficulties in either skill (typical readers). Ninety-one students from schools in Portugal participated in the study. The results reveal specific deficits in naming speed and cognitive flexibility in poor readers and dysfluent readers compared to the other groups. Additionally, poor readers exhibited significantly slower processing speed and lower working memory. However, no significant differences were observed in planning. Discriminant function analysis results indicated that the examined executive functions are better at discriminating groups with fluency deficits than those with comprehension difficulties. In conclusion, these results suggest distinct deficit patterns in executive functioning skills across different types of reading disabilities. Taking into account these findings is crucial for effective assessment and intervention with these children.

Reading Difficulties of Grade 4 Learners in the Post-Pandemic

The post-pandemic era exacerbated the reading difficulties of learners due to disrupted learning, limited access to resources, and potential gaps in foundational skills. Along this premise, this study analyzed the level of reading difficulties of Grade 4 learners in the post-pandemic. Data needed for the descriptive study was collected from 155 respondents using a self–made 40–item questionnaire that passed the rigorous tests of validity and reliability. Across areas of concern, the level of reading difficulties of Grade 4 learners was found to be moderate. Further, a significant difference was found in respondents’ reading difficulties in word decoding, fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary when grouped according to parents’ educational attainment, family income, and number of siblings. However, no significant difference was found in groupings by fluency and sex. These findings call for technical assistance and workshops for teachers to equip them with techniques and strategies in teaching reading and creating a sustainable reading program that will capacitate and strengthen learners’ motivation towards reading, aiming to improve their skills in word decoding, fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Keywords: Language education, reading difficulties, word decoding and fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary, Negros Occidental, Philippines

Improving the Accuracy of Patient Self-Care After Joint Replacement Surgery

Joint replacement wound stitches are typically not removed until two weeks after the operation. Therefore, patients with joint replacement must be able to execute proper wound care after discharge from the hospital to reduce the risk of wound infection. Prior data from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital's orthopedics ward indicate only 69% of joint-replacement patients are able to perform wound care properly at home. Potential causes for this noted by patients include age-related forgetfulness, being unable to discern redness or swelling in the wound, and language comprehension difficulties (i.e., Taiwanese vs. Mandarin). Poor rates of wound care may also be attributable to incomplete wound care education by nursing staff and wound care education being provided without adequate practice on the day of patient discharge. This project was implemented to improve the accuracy of wound self-care performed by patients after joint replacement surgery and to enhance their related knowledge and wound-care technical correctness. A wound care education checklist, wound care cue cards, wound care video clips, wound condition red flag cue cards, and customized wound care pack were proposed and implemented. The rate of accuracy of wound self-care performance increased from 69% pretest to 98% posttest, showing the intervention to have effectively improved post-discharge wound care quality. To effectively improve the post-discharge accuracy of wound self-care in patients with joint replacement, the consistency of post-surgery wound care education given by nursing staff to patients should be improved, patients should be reminded of wound assessment and care steps, and patients should be aware that wound abnormalities require an immediate return to the hospital for follow-up treatment.

Cultural adaptation and validation of the French version of the Antwerp pelvic floor knowledge questionnaire

AimsThe Antwerp Pelvic Floor Knowledge Questionnaire (APFK-Q) is a self-administered tool used for assessing women’s knowledge of the pelvic floor, an essential element of pelvic health education initiatives. The aim of this study was to validate the French version of the APFK-Q and to assess its psychometric properties. MethodsAcceptability of the cultural adaptation of APFK-Q in French (translation/back-translation) was assessed in two groups of women: one group not working in the healthcare sector (non-healthworkers, n = 112), and another of student midwives (n = 29). Twenty-three of the non-healthworkers agreed to take part in a test–retest step to assess reproducibility. Agreement of responses was measured for each question using Cohen’s kappa coefficient. Sensitivity to change was assessed before and after a pelvic-floor health education workshop. The proportion of correct answers was compared before and after the workshop using McNemar’s Chi2 test. Readability and the reading level required for optimal comprehension were assessed using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level test, respectively. ResultsSeventy percent (n = 72) of the non-healthworkers and 72 % (n = 21) of the students reported no comprehension difficulties. Agreement was very good (k > 0.8) for 46 % of the items and good (0.6–0.8) for 25 %. The proportion of correct answers was significantly higher for 72 % of the items after the pelvic-floor health education workshop. The French version of the APFK-Q was judged to be easy to understand according to the FRES test, with a score of 60.6. The school level required for optimal comprehension was estimated at 8th grade. ConclusionThe French version of the APFK-Q is an acceptable, reproducible, and easily understandable questionnaire that provides a broad description of women’s knowledge of the pelvic-floor sphere. Sensitivity to change was confirmed for most items, making it a useful tool for assessing the impact of pelvic-floor health education initiatives.

Detection of Vocabulary Delay through Syntactic Complexity in Sentence Comprehension

Objectives: This study investigated the best condition for capturing signs of vocabulary delay in children using the sentence comprehension task (SCT), which consists of active and passive sentence structures with canonical and non-canonical word order conditions; and to determine whether working memory has significant explanatory power for SCT in children with vocabulary delay. Methods: Thirty-two children participated in this study, 16 vocabulary delayed (VD) children and 16 typically developing (TD) children aged 4 to 6 years. Participants completed the SCT, which is designed to focus only on syntactic features by minimizing top-down semantic processing in sentence processing. Four working memory (WM) tasks (Non-word repetition, NWR; Sentence repetition, SR; Digit-forward span, DF; and Digit-backward span, DB) were also administered. Results: The VD group showed greater difficulties in sentence comprehension, especially in the passive-canonical (P-C) condition. However, discriminant analysis results showed that the sum of all conditions in the SCT robustly discriminated these groups. In the VD group, sentence-level WM tasks predicted the passive-canonical (P-C) complex condition in the SCT. Conclusion: The current findings suggest that the VD group had greater difficulty processing more complex sentences, and WM has significant explanatory power for understanding complex syntactic structures in the VD group.

Implementation Takes Time: Reduction of Literacy Problems in Schools Implementing an Early-Literacy Intervention

Early-literacy interventions might prevent reading problems in the long term, but effects are rarely examined at scale. In this study, we examined whether the large-scale implementation of the Dutch early-literacy intervention Build! reduced the percentage of readers with difficulties and improved mean reading skills at the school level. Transfer effects to spelling and reading comprehension were also examined. Over the course of 6 years, schools not implementing Build! (61–126 schools, depending on the outcome measure) were compared to 72 to 145 schools that introduced Build! during the project. Per year, intervention schools were modeled as using or not using the intervention. Using difference-in-difference models, we examined changes in literacy skills from the moment the intervention was introduced. Findings indicated that there was no immediate effect of the intervention. However, after the intervention had been used for 2 years, the percentage of children with difficulties in reading, spelling, and reading comprehension started to decrease and the mean reading and spelling ability increased. Results suggest that large-scale evaluations of interventions should be continued for several years, as effects might show several years after the implementation of the intervention.

TED Talks and the Textbook: An In-Depth Lexical Analysis

The development of TED Talks textbooks has been a welcoming addition to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pedagogy. The textbooks offer educators and learners a suitable framework for practicing all four of the language skills (i.e., listening, reading, speaking, and writing). However, the use of TED Talk resources could create specific vocabulary challenges for learners as they progress through each unit in the textbook. Research suggests that although textbook frameworks encompassing listening resources benefit learners with a familiar lesson approach, the varying vocabulary load and the presence of academic vocabulary and multiword units (MWUs) presented between the chosen resources and the textbook itself could lead to comprehension difficulties for learners. This study investigates the vocabulary of 12 TED Talks included in the commercial textbook Keynote 2 to understand the lexical profile, vocabulary load, and the academic and multiword unit coverage for each of the chosen listening texts. The results showed that the TED Talks selections and the textbook provided inadequate vocabulary practice, limited academic vocabulary exposure, and a lack of item repetition for learners. The study suggests the inclusion of ideal supplementary materials and appropriate TED Talk selections to help provide educators with suitable guidance to support their learners’ varying vocabulary knowledge.

Inductive reasoning: Problems, methods of justification and interaction between mathematics and computer science.

Our paper reports on the the fondations of inductive reasoning, more precisely, the reasons for the conflicts betwen several scientists around the place, the notion of induction and its role in differents sciences, in particular mathematics. We start from an epistemological and didactic reflection of this reasoning to understand this concept. First, we present the epistemological problem of induction in relation to its meaning and validity. These problems highlight the complexity of induction.This leads us,in a second step, to set up a typology of the notion of induction developed by philosophers,linguists,empiricists and mathematicians. Finally ,we present a didactic analysis of mathematical induction which highlights the specific comprehension difficulties of learners and emphasizes the interaction between mathematics and computer science , in particular the relationship between mathematical induction and recursion.

Research on Strategies for Improving English-Chinese Bilingual Reading Ability of College English Majors

The bilingual reading ability of College English majors is an important indicator to measure their English proficiency, which is of great significance for improving their cross-cultural communication skills and international competitiveness. However, in the actual teaching process, many students often have difficulties in reading comprehension, which affects their reading efficiency and comprehension quality. Therefore, understanding the factors that affect the bilingual reading ability of English majors in universities is of great significance for developing effective teaching strategies and improving students' reading ability. This study has identified strategies for improving the bilingual reading ability of English major students in universities through investigation and analysis, in order to serve English major teaching in universities.

English Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Listening Comprehension Difficulties

This study examines the perceptions of listening comprehension difficulties among English preservice teachers at a university in Thailand. Survey-based research was conducted using a questionnaire designed by Ahkam Hasan Assaf. The questionnaire consisted of 45 close-ended questions on a five-point Likert scale. Out of 98 English preservice teachers selected through simple random sampling, 63 respondents completed an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the greatest difficulties were associated with the physical setting (M=3.84) as the most challenging, followed by content of spoken text (M=3.77), the speaker (M=3.72), failure to concentrate (M=3.51), difficulties related to the listener (M=3.49), and linguistic features (M=3.45). Rated as moderate, the importance of listening skill (M=3.05) was rated the least. The study reveals how individual learner differences impact listening comprehension and trigger the need for effective educational approaches, such as diagnostic assessments to identify specific listening challenges faced by students, allowing for customized listening exercises. Additionally, curriculum designers can incorporate diverse and comprehensive listening components to directly target these difficulties. This also emphasizes the need for enhanced teacher training programs that focus on pedagogical strategies, including adaptive teaching methods and effective use of technology, to improve the engagement and effectiveness of listening lessons.

Analysis of Comprehension Difficulties in Chemistry and Their Impact on Student Interest in Learning

Chemistry is often considered a difficult subject for learners due to its abstract concepts and complex terminology. This can lead to difficulties in understanding the material and a decrease in students' interest in studying chemistry. The aim of this research is to describe and explain the factors of difficulty understanding in solving chemistry material experienced by students. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The results show that 62.3% of students experience slight difficulty and 37.7% experience moderate difficulty in understanding chemistry material. The interest in learning chemistry of class XII MIA students is categorized as sufficient with a percentage of 46.68%. Factors causing difficulties in understanding chemistry material include a lack of understanding of mathematical concepts, the predominance of lecture methods, limited learning media, and the suboptimal use of chemistry laboratories. The conclusion of this research provides an overview that the factors causing difficulties in understanding chemistry material affect students' interest in learning. Therefore, these findings can be used as evaluation material to improve the quality of chemistry education in schools.

An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension of Descriptive Text

An Analysis of Students’ Difficulties in Reading Comprehension of Descriptive Text

Young bilingual students' use of metacognitive strategies to overcome comprehension difficulties when reading in the foreign language

AbstractThis study investigates the use of metacognitive strategies by young emergent multilingual students in a translanguaging pedagogy scenario. From a multilingual perspective, we understand metacognition as a broader concept that refers to the learning or thinking processes that encapsulate metalinguistic and crosslinguistic awareness. We focus on the performance phase of the reading process where students deploy strategies and monitor the progress and quality of the activity. The participants were 48 bilingual fifth graders in a multilingual school in the Basque Autonomous Community in the north of Spain; 39.5% of the students had Basque as their first language, while 60.5% had Spanish, similar to the sociolinguistic context of the school, and all were learning English as a foreign language. Data for this study were collected in the English class while the students were set in pairs to complete a reading comprehension task. Their performance was audio‐recorded, and language‐related episodes were analysed to explore the strategic behaviour of the students. This analysis identified episodes where students talked about either their language production or language use. The findings show that although pedagogical translanguaging focuses mainly on raising crosslinguistic awareness, it can also develop a broader metalinguistic awareness and facilitate metacognitive reflection. The study highlights the link between enhancing metalinguistic awareness and the development of multilingual students' metacognitive knowledge for effective self‐regulated strategic behaviour when reading in a foreign language.

Reading metacomprehension of Spanish deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Difficulties in monitoring reading comprehension result in poor comprehension. One key aspect of monitoring is metacomprehension, which refers to one's awareness of one's own reading comprehension. Previous studies have observed difficulties in metacomprehension among the deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) population. This study aims to determine whether the metacomprehension of DHH students corresponds to their reading score and whether they are truly capable of adjusting their metacomprehension to the difficulty of the text. We evaluated 25 Spanish-speaking DHH students with reading scores approximately equivalent to Grades 5 or 6 of Primary School. Participants were asked to read a text and answer questions. The texts corresponded to three levels of difficulty (explicit, inferable, and noninferable). The results revealed that the metacomprehension of DHH students corresponded to their reading score. The DHH population may have better reading metacomprehension than is typically assumed, although the manifestation of this skill may depend on the type of task demanded of them (comprehension judgment or knowledge judgment).

The Effectiveness of Utilizing of the Interactive Reading Approach in Teaching English Language to Grade-7 Learners

Reading is the most challenging macro skill that almost every individual encounters. Hence, the process of learning to read is intricate and multidimensional, requiring the use of multiple subskills connected to speech. Thus, a quantitative quasi experimental method was conducted that aimed to help grade 7 students in Depot Ancestral Domain National High School by conducting a pre-test through Phil-IRI questionnaires mandated by DepEd. Based from the data gathered, it revealed the reading difficulties of grade-7 learners which means these students really need assistance in the field of reading fluency and comprehension. Consequently, utilizing of interactive reading approach in teaching English has a big impact to provide appropriate reading intervention for grade-7 learners in Depot Ancestral Domain National High School. Such as spelling, story-telling, pair reading, chorale reading, writing new vocabulary, solo reading, chain story, reading aloud, making sentences, and role playing. Furthermore, based from their mean post-test result, it showed that their scores reached the standard of Phil- IRI implemented by DepEd. Therefore, such interactive reading approach interventions can quite annihilate reading fluency and comprehension difficulties of grade-7 learners.

Analyzing Lexical Density and Readability in IELTS Band 4 Students’ Writing Test

This study explores the lexical density and readability levels of writing produced by IELTS Band 4 students. The main objectives are to assess the lexical density and readability of their writing across ten writing tests. The study employs a descriptive qualitative research method, using data collected from 10 writing tests conducted by IELTS Band 4 students. Lexical density is determined using the "Analyze My Writing" website, while readability is assessed using the Flesch Reading Ease formula and scale. The findings reveal a wide range of lexical density, ranging from 46.98% to 63.93%, indicating varying levels of content richness and complexity in the students' writing. Similarly, readability scores vary significantly, with scores ranging from 34.21 to 66.32, reflecting differences in text difficulty and ease of comprehension. These findings underscore the diverse linguistic proficiency and accessibility of writing among IELTS Band 4 students.