Knowledge Comprehension Research Articles

Open Science and the Science-Society Relationship

Nowadays, the prevailing trend in the science-society relationship is to engage with the broader public, which is beneficial for the public, scientific institutes, scientific findings, and the legitimacy of science as a whole. This article provides a broad review of the rapidly growing research on Open Science and identifies the gaps in the current knowledge for future research. The review focuses on the science-society relationship, such that knowledge from this field is summarised and systematised. Insight into the most salient topics, including science communication, public engagement with science, public cognition of science, and challenges and potential unintended consequences connected to interactions with the public are examined. The first section of the paper focuses on science communication which involves efforts and approaches to inform the public about science by the most effective means. The section on public engagement reviews how scientists and scientific institutions are increasingly involved in direct interactions with the public and different groups of stakeholders to make science more open. The section focusing on public cognition of science provides information about public knowledge, perception, and trust regarding science, which both determines and is formed by public engagement. Last, risks, ethical issues, and data issues connected to the implementation of Open Science principles are reviewed, as there are many unintended consequences of Open Science which are examined by this current research. In conclusion, research covering the science-society relationship is rapidly growing. However, it brings multiple challenges as well as opportunities which are captured and discussed in a variety of existing studies. This article provides a coherent overview of this field in order to bring more comprehensible knowledge to scientists, scientific institutions, and outreach professionals.

Going beyond children's single-text comprehension: The role of fundamental and higher-level skills in 4th graders' multiple-document comprehension.

Children's comprehension of single texts relies on both foundational and higher-level skills. These are also assumed to support multiple-document comprehension, but their relative importance has not been examined, to date. Multiple-document comprehension additionally requires the identification and use of information about each document's source. This study examined multiple-document comprehension in primary school-aged children. It sought to determine the relative importance of skills proposed to be common to both single-text and multiple-document comprehension (word reading fluency, verbal working memory, comprehension monitoring) and specific to the latter (source use). Single-text comprehension and prior topic knowledge were considered as moderator and control. Participants were 94 children in the fourth year (mean age=9; 7years; 52% females). Children read three documents on each of two topics (chocolate and video games). Multiple-document comprehension and source use were assessed through short essays. Independent measures of the fundamentaland higher-level skills were used. There was a significant direct and indirect influence of word reading fluency on comprehension of multiple documents on videogames and also an indirect influence of comprehension monitoring. Indirect influences of word reading fluency and comprehension monitoring on multiple-document comprehension for both topics were also apparent. Verbal working memory was not a unique predictor. When source information was identified, it was included to support the argument in the composition. Efficient word reading, comprehension monitoring, and single-text comprehension are important for multiple-document comprehension in young readers. Implications of these findings and differences between the two document sets are discussed.

Does Reading and Vocabulary Knowledge of Advanced Korean EFL Learners Facilitate Their Writing Performance?

Although numerous studies have identified the potential relations reading comprehension abilities, vocabulary knowledge, and different language constructs may have with one’s writing competence, not much research exists on the specific roles played by these language- and literacy-related constructs in explaining one’s writing performance in an integrative manner, especially in the cases of second and foreign language learners. This study therefore aims to investigate the relative predictability of reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge for advanced Korean EFL learner’s writing performance measured both for its form and content qualities, while their English proficiency was taken into consideration. The findings indicate that reading comprehension abilities, vocabulary knowledge, and general English proficiency all had a significant relationship with advanced Korean EFL learners’ structural and linguistic aspects of writing performances. Between reading comprehension abilities and vocabulary knowledge, reading comprehension had a relatively stronger predictability for their writing performance, while vocabulary knowledge only demonstrated indirect effects on writing performances through reading comprehension. The findings from this study have pivotal pedagogical implications for language and literacy instruction in Korean EFL contexts.

The Role of Vocabulary vs. Syntactic Knowledge in L2 Reading Comprehension

Research in literature reports the importance of L2 vocabulary and syntactic knowledge on the learners’ reading comprehension. In this regard, the current study investigated the role of vocabulary knowledge that is disunited into depth and breadth dimensions and syntactic knowledge in the reading comprehension scores of an advanced cohort of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. In particular, this study examined the relationship of vocabulary knowledge (with its two dimensions) and syntactic knowledge with reading comprehension scores of 30 Turkish EFL learners and the extent to which these knowledge types explain the variance in reading comprehension scores. Measures of vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, syntactic knowledge and reading comprehension were used. The data analysis procedure included the descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that the depth of vocabulary knowledge predicts the L2 reading comprehension the best when the effect of vocabulary size and syntactic knowledge is controlled. These findings are discussed at the end of the study with future research suggestions and limitations.

Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Reading Comprehension Ability and Vocabulary Knowledge of Iranian EFL Learners in Tehran Azad Universities

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether EQ, as an interpersonal skill and innate potential, had any relationship between reading comprehension and Vocabulary Knowledge of learners. To this end, 150 Iranian EFL learners studying at Islamic Azad University (IAU) took an Oxford Placement Test (OPT); 150 candidates (95 males and 55 females) who were at the intermediate level were selected as the participants of the study and hence took the self-report measure Emotional Intelligence Quotient Quiz. The validity and reliability of EQi were measured and the instrument was found to be valid and highly internally consistent. Correlation and regression analysis were performed to test the hypotheses. Results revealed that there was not a strong relationship between Emotional Intelligence and EFL learners’ reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.

The Study of the Effectiveness of Textual Cohesion of Teaching Materials on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

The present investigation was an attempt to study the effect of difference in textual cohesion of different teaching materials on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension. To that end, a QPT test was administered to 105 EFL students learning English language in institutes. Based on QPT test direction individuals who get 31+ in grammar and vocabulary, 8+ in reading section, and 8+ in writing are considered to be at intermediate level of foreign language proficiency. So 45 learners were selected for this study and they were divided into three groups, two experimental groups and one control group, the first experimental group, studying Topnotch, the second experimental group studying Touchstone and the control group studying high school English book. All groups contained 15 participants. Then a reading test was administered to all groups as a pre-test to take their initial knowledge of reading comprehension. The experimental groups received treatment in using the above mentioned books containing more cohesive elements in ten sessions. The control group was taught the high school English book reading passages. Finally all experimental and control groups sat for the posttest for reading comprehension test. ANOVA was conducted to see if there was a significant difference between groups or not. The results were computed and analyzed through SPSS and it was explored that difference in textual cohesion in different teaching materials, namely texts containing more cohesive elements, had a positive effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners' reading comprehension ability. Keywords: cohesion, cohesive devices, reading comprehension, learning. DOI : 10.7176/JLLL/52-03

The Effect of Activating Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension at the Second Semester Students of University of HKBP Nommensen Pematangsiantar

The Effect of Activating Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension at the Second Semester Students of University of HKBP Nommensen Pematangsiantar

The Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Knowledge of Children with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: Evidence from a Regression-Based Matching Approach.

The present study examined the reading comprehension and receptive vocabulary skills of children with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding using a regression-based matching technique. Participants included five cohorts of children who were identified as typical readers (N = 70,493 - 75,553) or as children with specific reading comprehension difficulties (N = 480 - 8,717). Across cohorts, children with specific reading comprehension difficulties exhibited oral language difficulties based on a measure of vocabulary; however, the observed weakness in vocabulary was not as severe as their reading comprehension difficulties. Results from the regression-based matching technique suggested that the vocabulary weakness for these children is better characterized as a developmental delay rather than a developmental deficit. This outcome also emerged when more stringent criteria were used to identify subgroups of readers. Although children with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have a weakness in at least one aspect of oral language, their oral language weakness does not account for the severity of their reading comprehension difficulties. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Acquisition of Prepositions by ESL Learners through Dictation Tasks

The study examines the acquisition of English prepositions by Sinhala speaking learners of English with respect to four fine-grained categories of prepositions found by Littlefield (2006) using first language acquisition of English speaking children. The acquisition order of these four categories found by Littlefield: adverbial prepositions [+Lexical, -Functional], particles [-Lexical, -Functional], semi-lexical prepositions [+Lexical, +Functional], and functional prepositions [- Lexical, +Functional], showed an advantage of [-Functional] features over the [+ Functional] features. One of the aims of the study was to find out whether this ranking was good for learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in tasks that tap comprehension knowledge (dictation task). The second aim was to see whether at initial stages of learning, there was an advantage of either [+Lexical] features or [-Functional] features, which disappeared at later stages of learning. 316 Sinhala speaking learners of English studying in Grades 4, 6, 8 and 10 answered a dictation task with 40 sentences, 10 each with adverbial prepositions, semi-lexical prepositions, particles and functional prepositions. Sentence length and structure was controlled and sentences differed only in the category of preposition used in them. The main findings of this task were as follows: (1) ESL learners imitated the four categories of prepositions differently in the dictation task. (2) [+Lexial] prepositions were better imitated than [-Lexical] prepositions initially, and this ‘lexical’ advantage disappeared in Grade 10 with all categories being used with comparable accuracy. These findings are recommended to be used in the ESL classroom to facilitate teaching prepositions.

Engaging Adolescent Struggling Readers ThroughDecision-Making Role-Play Simulation: Using Primary Source Documents

For adolescents who struggle with reading, a lack of confidence and reluctance to read in content areas such as history/social science presents challenges to learning. More specifically, difficulties with text comprehension and analysis limit content knowledge acquisition and self-expression, which can impact academic success. Therefore, it is incumbent on teachers to create a sense of community that supports students’ risk taking, communication of thoughts, and opportunities for inquiry related to text. To extend this point, literacy scholars have identified engagement through collaborative activities as critical support to the development of content knowledge and literacy. Therefore, I discuss the role of engagement and its benefits for struggling readers through a presentation of the Situation Room experience. Anecdotal quotes obtained from classroom teachers align with the literature and reinforce the important role of social engagement as instrumental literacy support for adolescents who struggle with reading and learning in general.

Eve's Ekg and Echocardiogram by W.J. Hall

Hall, Wendy J. Eve's Ekg and Echocardiogram. Mediwonderland, 2018.
 Another installment in her Mediwonderland series of children’s books intended to provide accessible and comprehensible knowledge of medical afflictions and tests, Wendy J. Hall’s Eve’s EKG and Echocardiogram focuses on the world of cardiovascular health-related tests. Beginning the story with the protagonist, Eve, suffering chest pains, readers see Eve being rushed to the hospital and undergoing several tests. Ending with the doctor’s prognosis that Eve’s chest pains are likely caused by overuse, the reader is left better informed and comforted. Although Eve was initially scared to do the tests, she is comforted by the doctor’s excellent bedside manner, and inevitably enjoys the process and the exciting experiences such as getting to see her heart beating in an echocardiogram. 
 Written mostly as a dialogue between Eve, her mom, and the various doctors and nurses, the text flows believably and is very easy to read. Hall uses emotion to engage with the reader. The font is large, clear, and well-spaced so that many young readers will be able to read it independently, or with moderate assistance. Although the medical terminology included is complex, all the tests mentioned are explained simply enough for a child to understand. Colour images accompany each page of text, and represent an overview of what happens on each page of the story to increase comprehension. Overall, Hall’s Eve’s EKG and Echocardiogram is an entertaining, educational must read! 
 Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Madeline C. Crichton
 Madeline Crichton is a University of Alberta undergraduate student with a lifelong passion for reading. When she is not preoccupied with her studies, Madeline is busy volunteering in a variety of roles in her community.

The Interplay Between Working Memory and Background Knowledge in L2 Reading Comprehension

Despite the known roles of working memory and background knowledge in the process of reading comprehension, few attempts have been made to elucidate the interaction between these two individual difference factors in second language (L2) reading comprehension. The current study investigated whether and how working memory and background knowledge combine to facilitate L2 reading comprehension in a context where L2 students encounter texts with and without relevant background knowledge. Seventy‐nine adult Korean learners of English as a foreign language participated and completed tasks for working memory, L2 knowledge, and L2 reading comprehension. The results revealed that L2 readers with higher working memory capacity benefitted more from the provision of background knowledge, which led to achieving better reading comprehension than readers with low working memory. This finding highlights the role of working memory in L2 reading in terms of using existing resources to one's advantage particularly because no significant difference on L2 measure scores was found between the high– and low–working memory groups. Pedagogical implications are discussed regarding the importance of not only providing background knowledge when it is not already present but also following up with explicit instructional support to help all readers utilize what is available to them.

PENERAPAN ASAS PEMBALIKAN BEBAN PEMBUKTIAN DALAM PENYELESAIAN SENGKETA KONSUMEN

Consumer dispute related to violation of the consumer rights by businessman. Article 45 of Consumer Protection Law provides that the dispute may be settled by out of court dispute settlement or through litigation. In Indonesia, out of court dispute settlement of consumer disputes is conducted under the authority of Consumer Disputes Settlement Body (BPSK), while in litigation mechanism exercised with submission by the consumer personally, class action, or NGO claim. Consumer dispute settlement is part of civil litigation. According to Article 163 HIR/ 283 RBg, the party who alleges that he has a right shall proof his allegation. While, according to Article 19(5) of Consumer Protection Law, the businessman may be exempted from its duty, if it can proof that the damages suffered by the consumer is because of the consumer fault itself. Therefore, the businessman must prove that it did not commit any fault (shifting the burden of proof). The principle of shifting the burden of proof has adopted by Consumer Protection Law because the consumer has no suffi cient knowledge of materials, production process, and distribution process which done by the businessman regularly. The Consumer Protection Law has no clear provision on the implementation of shifting the burden of proof, while the same situation is also found in Supreme Court Regulation No. 1 of 2006 concerning Appeal on the Judgment of BPSK. Thus, there are inconsistency implementations on the shifting of the burden of proof between on case by case. It depends on the comprehension knowledge of the judges. Such situation may lead to ineffective implementation of Consumer Protection Law.

Relations among language comprehension, oral counting, and numeral knowledge of ethnic and racial minority young children from low-income communities

This study examined the relationship between language comprehension (receptive, expressive) and numeracy skills (oral counting, number identification, number relations) in a longitudinal sample of ethnic and racial minority (Black=86%; Latino=14%) children from low-income communities. Participants were n=79 children between 1.42 to 3.42 years when early language skills were assessed, and between 4.5 to 6.33 years when school-age language and numeracy skills were assessed. Results indicated strong correlations between language and numeracy skills, independent of age and sex. Components of language comprehension were shown to positively predict numeracy outcomes. The results of subsequent mediation analyses revealed that language comprehension was indirectly related to number identification and number relations through oral counting. The findings are consistent with the perspective that linguistic skills serve as a pathway for the development of numeracy skills. This study adds to the literature by demonstrating the importance of general language comprehension measured in the first few years of life for school-age numeracy skills with a sample of children living in poverty. Implications for early childhood education and future research regarding cross-domain learning and development are discussed.

A randomized controlled trial of a supportive expressive group intervention for women with a family history of breast cancer

Women with a family history of breast cancer (BC) often overestimate their BC risk. Heightened psychological distress may interfere with risk comprehension and screening adherence. The primary purpose of this study was to test the efficacy of a 12-week manual-based supportive-expressive (SE) group intervention for this population. Using a randomized control trial design, this study compared two interventions: a standard risk-counseling arm (RC) compared with that plus SE group intervention. The primary study outcome was BC anxiety. Secondary outcomes included psychosocial functioning, risk comprehension, BC knowledge, and screening behaviors. A total of 161 women with a family history of BC were randomized into SE (N=108) or RC (N=53). Participants in both study arms significantly improved on measures of BC anxiety, psychosocial functioning, risk comprehension, and BC knowledge, with no statistical difference between study arms. Benefits were sustained at 1year. BC screening rates were high in both arms at baseline and follow-up. SE group therapy as an added intervention to the risk counseling was well-received, however, did not demonstrate superiority to RC alone. Future studies on treatment matching are needed to further our understanding of interventions that can support women with a family history of BC to work through residual issues, including loss and grief.

What is Interdisciplinary ? How is it Different from Multidisciplinary ?

Discipline based approach to knowledge and specialization goes back to the classical Graeco-Roman times. It was Isaac Newton’s Principia, which represented academic perfection of Renaissance inquiry, criticism, creativity and theorization. Principia set the epochal model of knowledge and led to the making of the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Reason. August Comte heralded an era of Positivism in academic research and prepared the ground for the making of disciplines. As new knowledge accrued over centuries, specialization got diversified at the expense of holistic understanding. Academics of disciplinary specialization sought to resolve the problem through multidisciplinary research. Inherently discipline centric, it got further distanced from social reality. Interdisciplinary approach began as a movement through convergence research aiming to restore holistic comprehension and draw knowledge closer to social reality. It is production of knowledge beyond disciplines and across their interfaces enabling research output to be regenerative, non-conventional and resolution oriented.

Developmental relationship between declarative metacognitive knowledge and reading comprehension during secondary school

Knowledge about one’s own cognitive processes is the basis for the monitoring and regulation of learning processes for effective reading comprehension. Taking verbal cognitive ability into account, the present study aimed to examine the developmental trajectories of reading comprehension and declarative metacognitive knowledge and their interrelationship from grade 5 to grade 8. A multivariate latent growth curve analysis was conducted using longitudinal data collected from secondary school students in Germany at four time points (grades 5, 6, 7, and 8). The participants showed developmental gains in both reading comprehension and declarative metacognitive knowledge during this time period. While a widening of gap was observed for reading comprehension between high- and low-achieving students from grades 5 to 8, there was no evidence of an increase or a decrease in the gap in declarative metacognitive knowledge during the study period. The initial level of reading comprehension and the later developmental gain were significantly predicted by early verbal cognitive ability. Verbal cognitive ability had a significant effect on initial declarative metacognitive knowledge but not on later developmental gains. Developmental changes in reading comprehension and declarative metacognition were significant and appeared to be parallel in slope. While early declarative metacognitive knowledge was significantly related to later developmental gains in reading comprehension, early reading comprehension was not significantly related to later developmental gains in declarative metacognition. This study’s findings are discussed with respect to the impact of strategies (declarative metacognitive knowledge) on reading comprehension and on the developmental interplay between both constructs.

The relative role of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge in L2 reading comprehension: a systematic review of literature

AbstractThe purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize the findings in the literature on the relative contribution of two types of linguistic knowledge (i. e., vocabulary and grammatical knowledge) to L2 reading comprehension; and to discuss the possible factors that might have led to the complexity and incongruity of the research findings. Nineteen studies were identified for this review through a systematic process of selection, and were analyzed in terms of the relationship of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge with L2 reading comprehension and their relative significance. The result of this review showed that there was no clear evidence supporting which type of linguistic knowledge is more contributive than the other; and the inconclusive findings might be attributed to the variations in the design of the studies. Two factors emerged, including participants’ language proficiency and construct definition, operationalization, and measurement. Some considerations for future research are suggested.

Class Percentage of Students With Reading Difficulties on Content Knowledge and Comprehension

We examined the efficacy of a content acquisition and reading comprehension intervention implemented in eighth-grade social studies classrooms. Using a within-teacher randomized control design, 18 eighth-grade teachers’ social studies classes were randomly assigned to a treatment or comparison condition. Teachers taught all their classes (treatment and comparison) using the same content; however, in the treatment classes, teachers used instructional practices that included comprehension canopy, essential words, knowledge acquisition, and team-based learning. Students with reading comprehension difficulties in the treatment classes (n = 359) outperformed students with reading comprehension difficulties in the comparison classes (n = 331) on measures of content knowledge acquisition and content reading comprehension but not general reading comprehension. In addition, the proportion of students with reading comprehension difficulties in classes moderated outcomes for content knowledge acquisition and content reading comprehension.

Academic vocabulary and reading comprehension: exploring the relationships across measures of vocabulary knowledge

This study examined the relationship between knowledge of academic vocabulary and reading comprehension in data contributed by 5855 middle school students. Each student completed an academic vocabulary assessment, a standardized reading comprehension test, and one of four types of novel vocabulary-depth measures. Multiword expressions examined students’ abilities to complete formulaic phrases. Topical associates items required students to identify a target word that was topically related to three others. The hypernyms task required students to identify the superordinate for each target word. The definitions task asked students to choose the definition of the target word. We modeled the relationship between performance on the reading comprehension task and each of the four types of assessments using a residual factors approach (Bentler & Satorra, 2000) with latent variables. Even though each depth measure tested exactly the same sets of words, we found that these measures had a differential impact on reading comprehension, with the definitions task explaining the largest portion of variance in reading comprehension beyond overall academic vocabulary. The knowledge of multiword expressions and topical associates—but not of hypernyms—also explained unique variance in reading comprehension even when controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge.