Level Of Language Skills Research Articles

Venturing Beyond the Sentence Level: Narrative Skills in Children with Hearing Loss

This study explores the differences in oral narrative skills between school-age children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (HL) and children who have typical hearing and language development. Narrative samples were collected following a picture-elicited storytelling task. Language samples were transcribed and coded for a number of measures, including narrative content, syntax, and grammar as well as amount of relevant information shared with the listener. Results indicated that the most vulnerable aspect of narration in children with HL is sharing information that is relevant for the task and context. Children with a sensorineural HL diagnosed during their preschool years are at risk for poorer development of higher level language skills, such as narrative production, compared with same-age peers. (Less)

Individual differences in the neural basis of causal inferencing

This study used fMRI to examine individual differences in the neural basis of causal inferencing. Participants with varying language skill levels, as indexed by scores on the vocabulary portion of the Nelson–Denny Reading Test, read four types of two-sentence passages in which causal relatedness (moderate and distant) and presence or absence of explicit clause connectives were orthogonally varied to manipulate coherence and cohesion during inference generation. Skilled readers showed better neural efficiency (less activation) during all context sentences and during all inference conditions. Increased activation in less-skilled readers was most extensively distributed in the right hemisphere (RH) homologues of left hemisphere (LH) language areas, especially in the most difficult passage types. Skilled readers also showed greater sensitivity to coherence (greater activation and synchronization in moderately related than distantly related passages) whereas less-skilled readers showed sensitivity to cohesion (greater activation and synchronization when clause connectives were present than when they were not). These finding support the hypothesis that skilled reading comprehension requires recruitment of the RH on an “as needed” basis. We describe the dynamic spillover hypothesis, a new theoretical framework that outlines the conditions under which RH language contributions are most likely evoked.

Expressive prosody in children with autism spectrum conditions

The expressive prosodic abilities of two groups of school-age children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC), Asperger’s syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA), were compared with those of typically-developing controls. The HFA group showed impairment relative to age-matched controls on all the prosody tasks assessed (affect, sentence-type, contrastive stress, phrasing and imitation) while the AS showed impairment only on phrasing and imitation. Compared with lexically-matched controls, impairment on several tasks (affect, contrastive stress and imitation) was found in the HFA group but little in the AS group (phrasing and imitation). Comparisons between the ASC groups showed considerable differences on prosody skills. Impairment in prosodic skills may therefore be a reliable indicator of autism spectrum subgroups, at least as far as communicative functioning is concerned. There were also significant differences between ASC groups and lexically-matched typically-developing children on expressive language skills, but the incomplete correlation of the prosody results with scores on language tasks suggests that the prosodic differences between the two groups may not all be attributable to the level of language skills. Suggested further research is to investigate the relationship of prosody and language skills in this population more closely, and to develop a prosody test as part of the diagnostic criteria of ASC.

Long-Term Evaluation of Prelingually Deaf Subjects Implanted During Adolescence and Adulthood

Cochlear Implantation (CI) can be considered the elective choice for the treatment of severe and profound hearing loss. Its benefits are already well documented in children and in postlingually deafened adults (Bond et al., 2009; Manrique et al., 1998), whilst there is still some controversy concerning prelingually deafened adolescents and adults. Initial studies on the last two populations showed only limited improvement post-implant for closed-set speech perception tasks and for the recognition of envi-ronmental sounds, with no open-set recognition in most patients. Furthermore, the authors concluded that only a few patients with long-term prelingual deafness could be considered good candidates for CI. This can be attributed to the fact that, if implanted during this phase, prelingually deafened adolescents and adults have passed the ‘sensitive period’ for language development and the ability of the central nervous system to reorganize itself is more limited. Moreover, adolescents and adults with prelingual deafness represent a very heterogeneous group of patients, owing to age at implantation, duration of auditory deprivation, residual hearing, level of language skills, communication modes, and educational experience, all of which can affect post-implant outcomes and this makes it more difficult to decide which option to take. Finally, in adolescents further difficulties are linked to the critical period that they have to face in terms of physical, mental, emotional, and social developments and changes. During the last years, authors have widened prospects in this field via the evalua-tion of further important parameters such as quality of life, personal satisfaction, well-being, schooling, and employment. Thus, despite the limited improvement in speech perception, they were able to show positive effects resulting from cochlear implantation on the quality of life (Zwolan et al., 1996; Klop et al., 2007). However, there are still only a few papers to be found in literature on this topic. Published by Maney Publishing (c) W. S. Maney & Son Limited

Language Outcomes Following Treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia with CNS Chemotherapy: A Two-Year Follow-Up Study

Using cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, the current research investigated the language skills of two boys following CNS-targeted chemotherapy-only treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. A single case-multiple comparison study of each boy's general language skills, as assessed by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Fourth Edition, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition Form A, and the Hundred Pictures Naming Test, and each boy's high level language skills as assessed by the Test of Language Competence-Expanded Edition, and the Test of Problem Solving-Elementary, Revised or the Test of Problem Solving-3 was undertaken. Additionally, using test norms only for comparison, the boys' language skills were assessed three times over a two-year period. The findings suggest that the language skills of both boys were generally within one standard deviation of their respective control group's mean, although one boy was experiencing moderate difficulty with high-level language tasks. Between assessment 2 and 3, the receptive language skills of both boys declined, and competence with high level language tasks declined considerably for one boy and slightly for the other. The results suggest that language skills require monitoring following CNS chemotherapy.

Metacognitive awareness of grades 6, 7 and 8 students in reading process

Metacognitive awareness shows diversity from person to person according to their features, such as their language skill levels and age groups. The purpose of the study was to investigate the differences among 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in respect to their metacognitive awareness in the field of reading. The research was conducted using a correlational method. The study group consisted of 101 students from a public school in Kutahya province of Turkey. The result of the study revealed that there was a positive correlation between grade level and metacognitive awareness in reading, but the difference was not statistically significant.

Früherkennung von Sprachentwicklungsstörungen - ein Methodenvergleich

In recent years, several language tests and parent questionnaires targeting the early identification of language delay have been developed. The present study compares the results from two such language tests administered to two-year-old children and those from a parent report measure. Thirty-one normally developing or late-talking toddlers (aged 24 to 28 months) were included in the study. Their language skills were assessed by means of a parent report (ELFRA-2, a German version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories--CDI, Toddler Form) and two language tests (SETK-2, RDLS III). The concordance regarding the level of language skills was high for all three measures. The correlations between subtest measures that assess similar language dimensions varied between rSp = 0.7 and 0.9. Most children who were classified as late talkers based on the parent report measure were also classified as having a language delay on the basis of both language tests. However, the language delay on the part of the late-talking children usually was not recognized during the routine pediatric examination at the age of 24 months. Parent reports and language tests identify late talkers almost equally well. Hence, the parent questionnaire ELFRA-2 is recommended as the primary instrument for the early identification of late talkers at age two. If the results on the parent report are below normal, further assessment of the child's language abilities by means of the SETK-2 is advisable. In contrast to language assessment on the basis of the parent report, assessment based on the SETK-2 provides information on language comprehension and thus enables a more sophisticated assessment of the child's language skills. The SETK-2 consists mainly of pictures, however. For those children who show little interest in the pictures in a clinical setting, use of the RDLS III should be considered.

An evaluation of the language skills in Scottish hotels

This paper discusses the results of research that sought to assess the quality of service encounter when front-desk staff in Scottish hotels handled telephone enquiries by callers using a language other than English. The level of language skills possessed by Scottish hotel operatives was found to be low. The results provide an insight into the “moment of truth” allowing conclusions to be drawn on: (1) the service quality as part of the early stages of sales efforts to attract a potential customer and (2) strategies for service recovery. The case is made for learning from other industries, and moving customer skills and language interface up the agenda of both politicians and private sector operators to fit with Scottish tourism aspirations of growing European tourism receipts.

Discourse Macrolevel Processing After Severe Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

The purpose of this study was to determine if discourse macrolevel processing abilities differed between children with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) at least 2 years postinjury and typically developing children. Twenty-three children had sustained a severe TBI either before the age of 8 (n = 10) or after the age of 8 (n = 13). The remaining 32 children composed a control group of typically developing peers. The groups' summaries and interpretive lesson statements were analyzed according to reduction and transformation of narrative text information. Compared to the control group, the TBI group condensed the original text information to a similar extent. However, the TBI group produced significantly less transformed information during their summaries, especially those children who sustained early injuries. The TBI and control groups did not significantly differ in their production of interpretive lesson statements. In terms of related skills, discourse macrolevel summarization ability was significantly related to problem solving but not to lexical or sentence level language skills or memory. Children who sustain a severe TBI early in childhood are at an increased risk for persisting deficits in higher level discourse abilities, results that have implications for academic success and therapeutic practices.

Doing Business in Russia. Let's Speak in Russian by Galina s> Timofeeva (review)

io6 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 The absence of vocabulary lists is not the only unconventional feature of LearnRussian.When it comes to the alphabet, for example, Press presents it first side by side with the Greek alphabet and then with equivalent sounds written in the English alphabet. Unfortunately the printed presentation, in a long line of repeated characters alternating between Greek and Cyrillic or English and Cyrillic, is not easy on the eye and is initially quite bewildering. (Generally,the dense, unfriendlyprintof the text is the book'smost significant weakness.) In addition, Press introduces verbs in groups of patterns, with exercises in completing the conjugation to help the reader get the feel for consonant changes and the like. This approach does away with the need to mark many verbs as irregular or semi-irregular,but it may also result in informationoverloadfor the less grammaticallyastutelearner. One might say that LearnRussianprovokes a reaction similar to a stereotypical appraisal of Russia itself: it intrigues, it delights, it will undoubtedly baffle and frustrateat times, but equally undoubtedly one will findoneself coming backto it again and again. Department ofRussian andSlavonic Studies S. F. HUDSPITH University ofLeeds Timofeeva, Galina. DoingBusinessin Russia.Let'sSpeakin Russian.University Press of America, Lanham, MD, New Yorkand Oxford, I999. 28I pp. Notes. Bibliography.$31.50. THERE is a shortage of good Russian teaching materials;when a new book comes out one hopes that it would plug at least one of the holes in the subject area. Demand for Business Russian varies. Some people want to acquire basic knowledgeof businessvocabularyalongsideelementarycommunicationskills, others are alreadyfluent speakersof Russian but lack the knowledge of what relates specificallyto their area of business. Those who teach rely mostly on theirown resourcesand a few farfromperfectbooksthat have appearedover the last few years. Most of the existing materialsare aimed at post-beginner / intermediate level and contain reasonably good texts and dialogues with a mixture of everyday spoken language and some business vocabulary. All of them, however, offer only basic exercises mostly aimed at testing reading comprehension. Materials should be targeted at specific needs and levels, where texts are followed by a wide range of exercises testing a variety of linguistic skillsand teaching people how to conduct variousnegotiations, such as writingbusiness letters or e-mails, making business-relatedtelephone calls or bookings and reservations. When I saw GalinaTimofeeva'sDoingBusiness inRussiamy hopes rose, even though I was slightlyperplexed by the phrasingof the subtitle 'Let's Speak in Russian'. The book consists of ten lessons each dealing with a specificaspect ofbusinessrelatedlanguage,e.g. 'commercialadvertising';'banking','international financial institutions', etc. Each lesson contains texts for reading and translating,post-readingactivities,communication activities,vocabularyand REVIEWS I07 keys to exercises. According to Timofeeva the textbook is aimed at students with intermediate level language skills and 'assumes that students have possessedthe essentialsof Russiangrammaraswell as a basicvocabularyfrom two full years of college / universitystudy or at least one year of on-the-job trainingin Russian'. (Timofeeva claimsthe Englishhas been checkedby a Dr Williamsbut the poor use of Englishis consistentthroughout.) If the book is aimed at intermediate studentswhy include a whole section on graphic, phonetic and orthographic Russian-Englishequivalents?Surely at thislevel studentsare familiarwith something as elementaryas that. In fact it is very hard to determinewho the book could reallybe used by successfully because it constantlyveersfromthe elementaryto the advanced.The textsfor reading and translatingare quite challenging but the post-reading activities are mainly testing some elementary vocabulary. Should studentsat this level be asked to translate 'KaK 4eAa?' and then paraphrase certain expressions which can be hard even for a native speaker let alone for an intermediate student?It is very useful for the student to know that you can say 'HoyT 6yK' aswell as 'nopTaTHBHbIH KoMHbloTep' in Russian,but allthe materialsshould be pitched at the same level while getting progressivelyand consistentlymore challenging. Some taskshave nothing to do withbusiness,liketranslating'usefulRussian idioms' or answering questions like 'KaKBbI e344Te Ha pa60Ty?'. Instead after giving on page 20I examples of answerphone messages, the author shouldhave followed them up with an exercise askingstudentsto put together and recordtheirown formaland informalmessages. Even the author'sRussian is questionable. She uses 'Aa'in the sense other than 'yes', yet every time it is followed by a comma, which makes nonsense...

Updating the Foreign Language Agenda

At the founding of the National Foreign Language Center in 1987, several major structural problems facing the field of foreign language (FL) instruction were identified in an editorial in The Modern Language Journal. These broad architectural issues are part of a national agenda for change, both here and abroad, and have been the focus of the NFLC’s activities since its establishment. The agenda issues identified in the article are: evaluating language competency; articulating instruction across educational levels and the different contexts in which FLs are taught; increasing the range of languages taught and studied; achieving higher levels of language skills; promoting language competency and use among adults; expanding research and maximizing its impact on FL teaching and learning; and assessing and diffusing new technologies in instructional practice, with particular attention to Internet communication, machine translation, and distance education. The article briefly indicates the nature of these challenges and notes the progress that has been made.

Cracking monopoly: immigrants and employment in Finland

This paper examines unemployment among immigrants in Finland, and their difficulties in accessing the labour market. The study is based on qualitative data from interviews with immigrant jobseekers, and the findings of an exploratory questionnaire that was addressed to representatives of labour unions, employers, and employers' associations. Findings show that immigrant jobseekers consistently encounter blockage at the outer periphery of the labour market at the stage of first enquiries. Immigrant unemployment can be understood as an outcome of 'monopoly'-like mechanisms of exclusion, which are at present being formally articulated in the categorical distinction between jobseekers with an acceptable level of language skill and all those assumed to be deficient in this respect. While social citizenship brings immigrants fully into the citizenry, as members with developed monopoly rights to welfare, their relations to the labour market are precarious. Recent insertion into the secondary labour market carries the risk of segmentation in the future.

Cracking monopoly: Immigrants and employment in Finland

This paper examines unemployment among immigrants in Finland, and their difficulties in accessing the labour market. The study is based on qualitative data from interviews with immigrant jobseekers, and the findings of an exploratory questionnaire that was addressed to representatives of labour unions, employers, and employers' associations. Findings show that immigrant jobseekers consistently encounter blockage at the outer periphery of the labour market at the stage of first enquiries. Immigrant unemployment can be understood as an outcome of 'monopoly'-like mechanisms of exclusion, which are at present being formally articulated in the categorical distinction between jobseekers with an acceptable level of language skill and all those assumed to be deficient in this respect. While social citizenship brings immigrants fully into the citizenry, as members with developed monopoly rights to welfare, their relations to the labour market are precarious. Recent insertion into the secondary labour market carries the risk of segmentation in the future.

Gender Differences in the Relationship of Language Development to Disruptive Behavior and Peer Relationships in Preschoolers

The present study examined whether there are gender differences among preschoolers in how language development is related to disruptive behavior and peer relationships. Participants were 185 largely minority, preschool children from low income families and their 16 teachers. Videotaped observations were coded to assess disruptive and off-task behavior in group learning situations. Teachers rated disruptive behavior and the quality of peer relationships and they provided information about service referrals. Language skills were assessed with standardized tests. Lower levels of language skills were more strongly associated with disruptive behavior and poor peer relationships for boys than for girls. Disruptive behavior was related to the probability that a child would be referred for services. Language development difficulties tended to be seen by teachers only when paired with behavior problems.

Parent-reported language and communication skills at one and two years of age in relation to otitis media in the first two years of life.

As part of a study of possible effects of early life otitis media on children's development, we attempted to determine whether levels of language and communication skills at 1 and 2 years of age are associated with the cumulative duration of middle ear effusion (MEE) in the first 2 years of life. Subjects (N = 2156) were followed at one of eight study sites in the Pittsburgh area. Middle ear status was monitored closely throughout the first 2 years of life. For each child, the cumulative percentage of days with MEE was estimated based on diagnoses at visits and interpolations for intervals between visits. For each child also, 1 or both parents completed the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Words and Gestures (CDI-WG) when the child was 1 year of age and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Words and Sentences (CDI-WS) when the child was 2 years of age. Unadjusted correlations between scores on the CDI-WG and percentage of days with MEE in the first year of life were close to zero, and there were no statistically significant negative correlations. Unadjusted correlations between scores on the CDI-WS and the cumulative percentage of days with MEE in year 2 and in years 1 and 2 combined were generally negative and statistically significant, but the magnitudes of those correlations were no higher than 0.09. After adjustment for sociodemographic variables, only the Vocabulary Production Scale of the CDI-WS remained correlated significantly with the percentage of days with MEE, and the percentage of days with MEE accounted for only a negligible percentage of the variance in scores on this scale. In this diverse sample of children, parent-reported levels of language skills at 1 and 2 years of age were correlated negligibly with the cumulative percentage of days with MEE in the children's first and second years of life. otitis media, otitis media with effusion, language, communication.

Cognitive functioning in children with typical cri du chat (5p–) syndrome

This study is the first attempt to assess systematically the cognitive functioning in children diagnosed with typical cri du chat syndrome (CDCS) using neuropsychological test measures. Twenty‐six children aged between 6 years 4 months and 15 years 5 months (mean 8 years 3 months) completed a battery of tasks measuring IQ level, receptive and expressive language skills, and articulation. Twenty‐four children were in the severe learning‐disability range with no specific verbal or performance profile. Using more finely tuned measures of cognition, however, a clear discrepancy in the pattern of language functioning was found with better receptive than expressive language skills. One implication of these findings is that parents and professionals should be more optimistic about the capacities of children with CDCS to understand more complex verbal commands than their expressive language skills would suggest.

Cognitive functioning in children with typical cri du chat (5p-) syndrome.

This study is the first attempt to assess systematically the cognitive functioning in children diagnosed with typical cri du chat syndrome (CDCS) using neuropsychological test measures. Twenty-six children aged between 6 years 4 months and 15 years 5 months (mean 8 years 3 months) completed a battery of tasks measuring IQ level, receptive and expressive language skills, and articulation. Twenty-four children were in the severe learning-disability range with no specific verbal or performance profile. Using more finely tuned measures of cognition, however, a clear discrepancy in the pattern of language functioning was found with better receptive than expressive language skills. One implication of these findings is that parents and professionals should be more optimistic about the capacities of children with CDCS to understand more complex verbal commands than their expressive language skills would suggest.

Language Skill Levels, Textual Modes, and the Rating Process

ABSTRACT This paper first considers the organization of the wording of the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) descriptions of four language skills across five levels, principally as they relate to second‐language learners. It then summarizes another paper by the author in which he posits four textual levels that may be reasonably assumed to cover the communicative needs of speakers of most, if not all, languages. Finally, it suggests an approach to rating whereby texts typical of each level can serve as models in assigning skill levels.

Can young people with autism refer to knowledge states? Evidence from their understanding of "know" and "guess".

A number of studies have reported that most individuals with autism have difficulty in attributing mental states. The primary aim of the present study was to compare the ability of children with autism to refer to knowledge states with that of mainstream school children and children with Down's syndrome. The second aim was to investigate the role of verbal mental age in referring to knowledge states. The third aim was to compare the ease with which the children referred to their own mental state and to that of others. The results suggest that some individuals with autism are able to attribute knowledge to themselves and others but that they need to have higher verbal skills than is necessary in normal individuals. The level of language skill predicted the performance of the individuals with autism, but not that of the children in the other groups. There was no good evidence that referring to one's own mental states was easier than referring to another person's, a finding which supports representational theory rather than the simulationist position.

Process Versus Product Writing with Limited English Proficient Students

Abstract This study examined the effectiveness of free writing versus structured writing instruction with a group of 48 low-achieving limited English proficient (LEP) Hispanic students in an intensive 6-week summer program. Stratified random sampling ensured equivalent language skill levels in eight classrooms. Three classrooms were exposed to free writing, and five to structured writing. Weekly standardized writing samples were collected, and received nine scores of five types: (a) countable micro-indicators, (b) analytic ratings, (c) holistic scores, and (d) a productivity index. Structured Writing samples showed significant growth in five of nine scores, and Free Writing only one. Tests between treatments showed significant differences on just one score, in favor of Structured Writing. The authors emphasize the need for more empirical research.