Poor Reading Skills Research Articles

Students’ reading self-concepts at an institution of higher learning in South Africa

Background: South Africa’s reading problems are evident in tertiary education, particularly among students studying in a foreign language. Therefore, many reading researchers in South Africa have argued that poor reading skills among tertiary students are a direct result of poor reading skills at school. Some research has found that psychological factors such as test anxiety, self-concept, and attitude have a negative and significant impact on student academic performance.Objectives: Therefore, the current study focuses on self-concept as it specifically explores university students’ self-perceptions as readers.Method: The study followed a qualitative research approach, and a case study design was deemed relevant for the study. A targeted sample of 65 respondents was selected to answer the open-ended questionnaire. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data.Results: The findings showed that university students defined themselves as readers in different ways and their reading self-concepts were based on their reading behaviour. The students specifically described themselves as readers who enjoy reading, analytic readers, or reluctant readers with poor and slow reading abilities displaying inconsistent reading habits; they admitted that they only read for academic purposes including tests and exams.Conclusion: Students’ reading self-concept has implications for reading instruction, student support, choice of reading material, reading motivation, and syllabus design.Contribution: The findings of the study provide data that could create English lecturers’ awareness of their students’ reading self-concepts so that they could change their students’ reading culture.

Chaining Strategy and Word Recognition Development among Deaf Pupils in Tanzania

Despite chaining strategy being used in teaching deaf pupils in Tanzania, still deaf graduate with poor reading skills. Thus, there was the need of finding out the reasons for this stressing situation in the country. Basing on the theory of simple view of reading which highlights that reading comprehension is determined by word recognition ability and language comprehension ability, this study explored the contribution of chaining strategy in developing word recognition ability among deaf pupils in selected special primary schools in Tanzania. The study employed mixed research approach with a convergent research design, whereby, in-depth interview, observation, questionnaire and test were employed to collect data from teachers and deaf pupils respectively. A sample of 182 respondents that included 20 teachers and 162 deaf pupils was used. Data obtained were analysed through descriptive, simple linear regression and content analysis. The study revealed that the use of chaining strategy has significant contribution in developing word recognition ability among deaf pupils in Tanzania. This is because the strategy contributed much in building up major word recognition sub-skills among deaf such as, fingerspelling ability, ability to select specific word from the group of written words, abilities to match words with their corresponding signs, and ability to identify misspelled words. In-turn the subskills contributed to word recognition ability among deaf pupils. The study recommends the government to strengthen on in-service training among teachers for deaf as it will keep teachers updated as far as sign language is concern and on how to effectively apply chaining strategy

초등 읽기부진 아동의 음운인식과 인지기능 요인 간의 관계 분석

The purpose of this study is to provide basic data for acquiring phonological awareness of children with poor reading by grasping the relationship between phonological perception and cognitive function factors of children with poor reading skills in elementary school. The subjects of this study were analyzed with 95 students enrolled in the 1st to 6th grades of elementary school commissioned by four regional education support offices in Jeollanam-do for poor reading. The analysis results are as follows. First, as a result of conducting an independent sample t-test to verify the difference between the measurement variables through intelligence tests, attention tests, and phonological awareness tests of children with poor reading in elementary school, there was a significant difference between grades(low grades, upper grades) in attention and phonological awareness. Second, as a result of conducting correlation analysis to find out the relationship between phonological awareness and measurement factors of children with poor reading in elementary school, attention, language understanding, and working memory had a significant positive correlation. Third, as a result of conducting hierarchical multiple regression analysis to find out the relative influence of the measurement variables on the phonological awareness of children with poor reading in elementary school, it was found that selective attention and working memory abilities had the greatest influence on phonological awareness.

Oculomotor Patterns in Children with Poor Reading Abilities Measured Using the Development Eye Movement Test.

Objectives: The main purpose of this work was to clinically assess the oculomotricity of one hundred Mexican children with poor reading skills but without any specific learning disorder. Methods: The D.E.M. psychometric test was used. Sex and age analyses of the ratio, type, horizontal and vertical performance, and errors were carried out. Results: Our data suggest that 84% of poor readers exhibit oculomotor difficulties. Sex did not significantly influence the results (p > 0.05), whereas age was associated with the horizontal (p = 0.04) and vertical (p = 0.29) performance, as well as the number of errors (p = 0.001). Omissions were the most prevalent error type. Conclusions: This research gives insights into the role of oculomotricity in children with poor reading skills. Our results suggest that oculomotor performance should be included in the evaluation protocol to assess poor readers to identify any influence of the visual system.

The Effects of Phonics Training based on Phonological and Morphological Awareness on Reading and Writing Abilities in Children with Reading Difficulties

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find more efficient intervention methods for children with poor reading by comparing phonics intervention based on phonological awareness and with integrated phonics group including morphological awareness. Methods: 18 children with poor reading skills in elementary school were selected and classified into two experimental groups and a control group. Decoding, paragraph reading fluency, reading comprehension, dictation, and sentence reading and writing tests were administered as assessment tool. Additionally Jung (2014)’s morphological awareness ability task was utilized. Results: First, both experimental groups showed a significant increase in decoding skills. However, in terms of reading comprehension and fluency, there was a significant increase in the integrated phonics training group including morphological awareness, but there was no significant difference in the phonics training group based solely on phonological awareness. The control group did not show a significant increase in all areas. Second, both groups showed a significant improvement in the dictation skills, while the control group did not showed significant difference. Third, both experimental groups significantly increased their scores in phonological awareness tasks and morphological awareness ability tasks. Conversely, there was no significant increase observed in the control group. Conclusion: It is significant that the phonics intervention program, which integrates phonological and morphological awareness for children with poor reading skills, has an effect not only on reading and writing, but also on meta-recognition ability. This indicates that interventions, including morphological awareness training, have a broad impact on the realm of reading.

The Effect of PA Intervention through Remote Collaboration for CCK

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effects of a phonological awareness and phonics intervention through remote collaboration between SLPs and teachers on the decoding skills of children from multicultural families with poor reading in the lower grades of elementary school. Methods: In this study, a multi-probe design was used to verify the effect of the intervention. The subjects were 3 multicultural children with poor reading skills (grades 1-2) and 3 teachers for each child. Their reading skills were examined through tests of phonological awareness and decoding (word level) in the baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. Additionally, tests of decoding (sentence level) were conducted in the generalization phase to examine generalization at the sentence level. In this study, SLPs provided instruction to each child twice a week and also provided guide videos to each teacher once a week for 2 months. Results: All children were found to have high improvements in decoding skills (word level) and phonological awareness skills. Additionally, as a result of standardized reading and writing test (QRW), all children’s post-intervention raw scores were improved in all areas. In the generalization phase, all children showed improvements in decoding skills (sentence level). In the maintenance phase, all children were found to have a large effect size. Conclusion: The results show that phonological awareness and phonics intervention through remote collaboration between two experts had positive effects on the decoding skills of multicultural children with poor reading. Also, this intervention improved teachers’ teaching efficacy. Thus, the implementation of studies for collaboration between experts is suggested.

Peningkatan Keterampilan Membaca Pemahaman Peserta Didik Menggunakan Model Cooperative Learning Tipe Jigsaw di Kelas V SD Negeri 03 Pakan Kurai Kota Bukittinggi

Cooperative Learning Model type Jigsaw is a learning model that can be used in the learning process to improve the reading skills of the student's understanding. The background of this study is poor reading skills, learning processes that are still centered on the teacher, students who have difficulty understanding the reading text and identifying the key ideas or basic ideas as well as important details contained in the text they read. The study aims to describe improved reading skills and understanding of the student using the Cooperative Learning model of the Jigsaw type. The research was carried out at the SDN 03 Pakan Kurai City of Bukittinggi. This type of research is class action research that consists of four stages of planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. This research uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The research was carried out in two cycles, Cycle I consisting of two meetings and Cycle II consisted of one meeting. Subject of the research is the student of V SD State 03 Pakan Kurai City Bukittinggi. This study showed that there was an improvement in the reading skills of learners using the Cooperative Learning model of Jigsaw. Thus, the cooperative learning model of jigsaw can be an effective option for enhancing the learning skills of students.

A Picture May Be Worth 1,000 Words, but Is It Worth a Letter? Examining Whether the Choice of Label Affects the Perception of Speech Sounds.

Researchers often use identification or goodness rating tasks to assess speech perception for different populations. These tasks provide useful information about a listener's willingness to accept a range of acoustically variable stimuli as belonging to the same category and also about assessing how stimuli that are labeled the same may not be perceived as equally good versions of a particular speech sound. Many methodological aspects of these simple tasks have been tested, but one aspect that has not is the choice of label. In this study, we examine response patterns to images versus letters, as studies with different populations (children vs. adults) or different methods (typical behavioral study vs. visual world paradigm) may vary in the type of label used. Eighty-one adult listeners completed phoneme identification and goodness ratings tasks with either images of response options (a picture of a bear and a picture of a pear) or with letter labels (a capital B and P). The results suggest that choice of label does not alter performance within the tasks studied here. In addition, the results did show the expected finding that the slope of the response curve is steeper in an identification task than in a goodness rating task. These results suggest that it is possible to compare across studies that use different response options, a benefit to research and practice because letter labels can be used for nonimageable words and nonwords, whereas images may be best used for participants who are younger or have poorer reading skills.

The Essence of Giving Feedback on the Saudi Students' Reading Performance at Taibah University

The key characteristics of how to raise first-year university students' reading performance comprise basic pedagogical knowledge and understanding, awareness of expressive classroom practices, and linguistic and communicative competence. Nurturing these traits amongst learners is a challenging issue, specifically when they have a prior lack of English language proficiency. One way of improving learners' poor reading skills is the effective feedback given to them. This study investigates the efficiency of giving feedback to students to increase their reading abilities at the Foundation Institute in Taibah University. 15 EFL instructors who teach these students participated in the study. The descriptive method was applied and questionnaires were given to instructors to collect their views about the effects of feedback on students' reading skills. The data was analysed via content analysis. The findings revealed that constructive feedback had made remarkable progress in students' reading performance.

The odd one out – Orthographic oddball processing in children with poor versus typical reading skills in a fast periodic visual stimulation EEG paradigm

The specialization of left ventral occipitotemporal brain regions to automatically process word forms develops with reading acquisition and is diminished in children with poor reading skills (PR). Using a fast periodic visual oddball stimulation (FPVS) design during electroencephalography (EEG), we examined the level of sensitivity and familiarity to word form processing in ninety-two children in 2nd and 3rd grade with varying reading skills (n = 35 for PR, n = 40 for typical reading skills; TR).To test children's level of “sensitivity”, false font (FF) and consonant string (CS) oddballs were embedded in base presentations of word (W) stimuli. “Familiarity” was examined by presenting letter string oddballs with increasing familiarity (CS, pseudoword – PW, W) in FF base stimuli.Overall, our results revealed stronger left-hemispheric coarse sensitivity effects (“FF in W” > “CS in W”) in TR than in PR in both topographic and oddball frequency analyses. Further, children distinguished between orthographically legal and illegal (“W/PW in FF” > “CS in FF”) but not yet between lexical and non-lexical (“W in FF” vs “PW in FF”) word forms. Although both TR and PR exhibit visual sensitivity and can distinguish between orthographically legal and illegal letter strings, they still struggle with nuanced lexical distinctions. Moreover, the strength of sensitivity is linked to reading proficiency. Our work adds to established knowledge in the field to characterize the relationship between print tuning and reading skills and suggests differences in the developmental progress to automatically process word forms.

Will an app-based reading intervention change how teachers rate their teaching self-efficacy beliefs? A test of social cognitive theory in Swedish special educational settings

Educational researchers have challenged Bandura’s prediction that self-efficacy beliefs tend to be established early in learning and that once set, self-efficacy beliefs persist unless a critical event causes them to be reevaluated. However, the results have been mixed in previous research, including being positive, negative, and unchanged. In response, we evaluated how 75 teachers (i.e., special educators) rate their teaching self-efficacy beliefs in motivating student reading and adapting reading instruction at two time points. All teachers taught students with an intellectual disability, communication difficulties, and poor reading skills. The teachers participated in a workshop to learn teaching reading strategies with apps under various conditions (comprehension strategies, phonemic strategies, or both comprehension and phonemic strategies). We analyzed teacher self-efficacy beliefs at two time points with a 12-week span (pre-and postintervention). First, we developed measures of teacher self-efficacy through confirmatory factor analyses. Next, we analyzed the data with multiple imputation and mixed linear regression with difference-in-differences (DiD). The results indicated no statistically significant treatment effect on teachers’ rating of their teaching self-efficacy beliefs. We conclude that our results agree with Bandura’s original prediction and thus, his social cognitive theory.

Dynamic networks differentiate the language ability of children with cochlear implants.

Cochlear implantation (CI) in prelingually deafened children has been shown to be an effective intervention for developing language and reading skill. However, there is a substantial proportion of the children receiving CI who struggle with language and reading. The current study-one of the first to implement electrical source imaging in CI population was designed to identify the neural underpinnings in two groups of CI children with good and poor language and reading skill. Data using high density electroencephalography (EEG) under a resting state condition was obtained from 75 children, 50 with CIs having good (HL) or poor language skills (LL) and 25 normal hearing (NH) children. We identified coherent sources using dynamic imaging of coherent sources (DICS) and their effective connectivity computing time-frequency causality estimation based on temporal partial directed coherence (TPDC) in the two CI groups compared to a cohort of age and gender matched NH children. Sources with higher coherence amplitude were observed in three frequency bands (alpha, beta and gamma) for the CI groups when compared to normal hearing children. The two groups of CI children with good (HL) and poor (LL) language ability exhibited not only different cortical and subcortical source profiles but also distinct effective connectivity between them. Additionally, a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm using these sources and their connectivity patterns for each CI group across the three frequency bands was able to predict the language and reading scores with high accuracy. Increased coherence in the CI groups suggest overall that the oscillatory activity in some brain areas become more strongly coupled compared to the NH group. Moreover, the different sources and their connectivity patterns and their association to language and reading skill in both groups, suggest a compensatory adaptation that either facilitated or impeded language and reading development. The neural differences in the two groups of CI children may reflect potential biomarkers for predicting outcome success in CI children.

The impact of poor reading skills on Grade 12 isiXhosa Home Language exam results

IsiXhosa is one of the 11 official languages offered as a subject in the South African school curriculum at Home Language (HL) level. The examination of this subject in grade 12 (the school-exit year) consists of three papers: Paper 1 (P1), which focuses on reading for understanding and language usage; Paper 2 (P2), which focuses on reading for analysis using prescribed genres; and Paper 3 (P3), which focuses on writing. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) publishes a diagnostic report after every examination session, following the completion of marking of the final examinations, detailing the performance of the grade 12 learners in each subject written. The 2018 and 2019 reports show that the performance of candidates in isiXhosa HL is poor and suggests that they cannot read for understanding. This study sought to analyse the impact of poor literacy skills on grade 12 candidates’ performance in the isiXhosa HL final examinations. This was done by analysing the DBE’s 2018 and 2019 isiXhosa HL Diagnostic Reports for P1 and determining how a lack of reading skills affects learners’ comprehension and analysis skills. The South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) emphasise the importance of reading for different purposes. The findings of this study suggest that learners do not have a solid foundation in reading and textual analysis and that reading is not given priority in the classroom, which ultimately leads to poor performance. The article concludes that reading and academic performance go hand in hand and that learners should be exposed to different texts; this can be achieved when teachers prepare well for their reading lessons and use not only the prescribed works. Furthermore, every learner should be given a chance to read, as no learner will ever perform well in their academics if their reading skills are poor.

Implementasi Desain Pembelajaran Kreatif untuk Siswa Kelas Rendah di SDN Pondok Jagung Timur Kota Tangerang Selatan

The problem in this study is that Indonesian students in the second grade at SDN Pondok Jagung Timur have poor reading skills and poor learning outcomes. This is because teachers haven't used fun learning models, students are passive learners when teacher-centered learning is used, and students don't understand what they are learning because they don't have enough reading skills or don't want to learn to read. The Papan cerita Media, Scramble, and Picture and Picture learning models are utilized in the effort. The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of teacher and student activities in order to improve student learning outcomes in beginning reading skills. By describing school data in sentences, this study employs a qualitative research methodology. According to the study, using the Picture, Scramble, and Papan cerita Media learning models can help students in class II increase both their activity and their learning outcomes.

FAKTOR KECICIRAN MURID-MURID PROGRAM PEMULIHAN KHAS SEKOLAH RENDAH DI MALAYSIA

The Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) has discovered that pupils were falling behind in Malay language literacy and sought to remedy the situation through the implementation of specific measures. This concept paper aims to identify factors that can contribute to that phenomenon among pupils under the “Program Pemulihan Khas” (Special Recovery Programme). Some factors were the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, poor reading skills and the lack of appropriate usage of “Bahan Bantu Mengajar” (BBM) (teaching aids). Subsequently, the paper elucidates measures executed by various parties, like teachers, schools, MOE and the authorities, to overcome the phenomenon. For instance, the provision of guidance by teachers, the introduction of remedial education programmes and the utilisation of BBMs were employed to sustain the pupils. In conclusion, continuous effort and commitment from all parties are required to propel the education sector in line with globalisation. This study is expected to catalyse deeper research to bridge the educational gap in Malaysia. An examination of the implications of poor literacy on society and the country can be conducted for further research.

Extensive Reading and its Impact on Malaysian Undergraduate ESL/EFL Learners’ Reading Proficiency and Reading Motivation

English language reading skills are important for tertiary students. In Malaysia, tertiary students are required to master the English academic reading for their tertiary studies. However, Malaysian tertiary students’ reading proficiency in English is often found below par, which is attributed to poor reading skills and habits, as well as a lack of motivation to read. The authors believe that extensive reading (ER) should be used to complement intensive reading practiced in tertiary education reading. It is important to learn from past studies the potentials as well as problems with ER, so that teachers and researchers alike can better approach the use of ER in the teaching of English as a second language (ESL) reading. This article reports on the systematic literature review of 32 studies on ER programmes, particularly on its impact on ESL students’ reading proficiency and reading motivation, that were published between 2003 and 2019 and obtained through established research databases. The results of the review found that there are positive impacts of ER on ESL reading, particularly on reading rate and reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and reading motivation, as well as the importance of goal setting and monitoring to ensure the success of ER in ESL reading. The authors suggest implications for teacher practitioners, future researchers and course developers to plan how ER would be a valuable addition to their respective programmes and also provide them with ideas in designing their own unique ER programmes to cater to their students’ needs.

초등학교 저학년 읽기부진 아동의 낱말학습 및 수정 가능성 특성

Dynamic assessment is the process of identifying qualitative characteristics such as children’s learning capabilities and potentials, focusing on the process rather than the quantitative outcome of learning. It is also differentiated from static evaluation in that it proceeds in multiple stages to observe learning process and strategies. This study provides a short-term word definition learning experience as a mediated learning intervention in the dynamic assessment process of test-teach-retest to identify differences and characteristics between normal children and children with poor reading skills. A total of 20 first and second graders participated in this study: 10 typically developing children and 10 poor readers. Children took part in a dynamic assessment task of word definition learning that consisted of a test-mediated learning experience-retest task. Results indicated that poor readers made significantly lower scores in retest and modifiability scales. Dynamic assessment and modifiability scales showed potential as tools that inform the qualitative information. Then, the limitations of the study and suggestions for follow-up studies were discussed.

Improving mathematics assessment readability: Do large language models help?

AbstractBackgroundReadability metrics provide us with an objective and efficient way to assess the quality of educational texts. We can use the readability measures for finding assessment items that are difficult to read for a given grade level. Hard‐to‐read math word problems can put some students at a disadvantage if they are behind in their literacy learning. Despite their math abilities, these students can perform poorly on difficult‐to‐read word problems because of their poor reading skills. Less readable math tests can create equity issues for students who are relatively new to the language of assessment. Less readable test items can also affect the assessment's construct validity by partially measuring reading comprehension.ObjectivesThis study shows how large language models help us improve the readability of math assessment items.MethodsWe analysed 250 test items from grades 3 to 5 of EngageNY, an open‐source curriculum. We used the GPT‐3 AI system to simplify the text of these math word problems. We used text prompts and the few‐shot learning method for the simplification task.Results and ConclusionsOn average, GPT‐3 AI produced output passages that showed improvements in readability metrics, but the outputs had a large amount of noise and were often unrelated to the input. We used thresholds over text similarity metrics and changes in readability measures to filter out the noise. We found meaningful simplifications that can be given to item authors as suggestions for improvement.TakeawaysGPT‐3 AI is capable of simplifying hard‐to‐read math word problems. The model generates noisy simplifications using text prompts or few‐shot learning methods. The noise can be filtered using text similarity and readability measures. The meaningful simplifications AI produces are sound but not ready to be used as a direct replacement for the original items. To improve test quality, simplifications can be suggested to item authors at the time of digital question authoring.

Improving the reading skills of struggling secondary students in a real-world setting: issues of implementation and sustainability

ABSTRACT Reading difficulties have been associated with limited academic success and related social-emotional outcomes including anxiety and low motivation. Recent research on the educational impact of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that children with poor reading skills were disproportionally disadvantaged. This growing number of students experiencing reading difficulties will require effective implementation of strategies to prevent long-term disadvantage, including in the challenging context of secondary schools where teachers are unfamiliar with reading instruction and constrained by timetabling of subjects and teachers. This research examined whether a Direct Instruction programme could be implemented with fidelity in the real world of a secondary school over a sustained period. Reading progress was monitored using a standardised assessment. Programme implementation was monitored via interviews with staff, classroom observations, and field notes. These data revealed that, whilst fidelity of programme implementation was challenging, programme delivery and student ability and confidence in reading improved over the three years.

A Systems Approach to Improving Foundational Reading Skills at a Preschool in India

Holistic Education School located in Mumbai, India, created a strategic improvement plan to address the poor foundational reading skills of its kindergarten students. Curriculum Based Measure (CBM) assessment data showed a rise in reading performance during the implementation of the plan, from 87% of the students scoring below grade level in 2016 to 89% achieving grade level benchmarks in 2021. An instrumental case study qualitative research design was employed to describe the nature of changes made in relation to the increase in performance. Data were collected from a variety of sources and coded through inductive and deductive processes that achieved intercoder agreement of 97.87% and 0.73 Kappa coefficient for reliability. Triangulation, member checking, and clarifying researcher bias, were employed to maximize validity. The findings describe the nature of transformation undertaken by the strategic improvement plan on key systems-level elements like curriculum, professional development, student engagement, parent engagement, and school leadership.