Reading Continuous Text Research Articles

WARTOŚCI NORMATYWNE REZONANSU NOSOWEGO DOROSŁYCH POLAKÓW W WIEKU PRODUKCYJNYM – DANE WSTĘPNE

IntroductionEvaluation of nasal resonance is an important part of everyday otolaryngological, phoniatric, and speech therapy practice. It allows the detection and monitoring of anatomical and functional abnormalities in the nasal and oropharyngeal cavities. Nasal resonance can be objectively measured by assessing acoustic energy emitted by each of the subject’s nose and mouth. The ratio is called nasalance. The aim of this study was to develop normative values of nasal resonance on a digital device while adults were reading aloud Polish-language material.Material and methodsThe study included 51 patients. Patients were tested with three language tests developed by Gąsiorek in 1996. Nasal resonance was measured using a Nasometer II (Model 6450) from Pentax Medical.ResultsThe mean nasalance in the vowel test was 18.8% (SD = 7.8%). The mean nasalance during the test based on sentences was 14.3% (SD = 4.0%), and for reading continuous text it was 11.7% (SD = 3.7%). Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between men and women on each test. The limiting normative value for nasalance was determined to be 20% in the sentence test (test III of Gąsiorek 1996).Conclusions1. Preliminary normative values of nasal resonance for Polish adults have been established based on current methodology. 2. Language tests developed and already in use can be applied to modern digital devices.

Reading Performance and Self-regulated Learning of Hong Kong Students: What We Learnt from PISA 2009

The outperformance of Chinese students in large-scale international assessments has increasingly attracted the attention of researchers. This study explored the relationship between an important student factor, self-regulated learning (SRL), and Hong Kong students’ reading performance on Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA). Using data from PISA 2009, this study found that Hong Kong students obtained an overall strong performance on the PISA 2009 reading assessment. They were relatively good at reflecting and evaluating and reading continuous texts. Compared with the OECD average, Hong Kong students showed better reading engagement and perceived a more positive classroom disciplinary climate in their reading lessons, but they used fewer control strategies, had poorer awareness of effective reading strategies, and perceived a lower degree of teacher stimulation and scaffolding. Reading enjoyment and control strategies were the most important SRL components facilitating Hong Kong students’ reading performance, after controlling for other background variables in multilevel analysis. Possible cultural and contextual factors affecting Hong Kong students’ SRL and reading performance, and their relationship are discussed to shed light for understanding the paradox of Chinese learners and improving the instructional practices in Chinese classes.

Reading subskill differences between students in Shanghai-China and the US: evidence from PISA 2009

Based on different language systems and educational practices of their respective countries, hypotheses were made regarding how 15-year-old students from Shanghai-China and the US might differ in the 5 reading subskills designated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) when they have the same overall reading ability (i.e., when their overall reading ability is controlled for). A multilevel analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses using the PISA 2009 reading dataset. When we controlled for students' overall reading ability, individual socioeconomic status (SES), and school mean SES, Shanghai-Chinese students performed significantly better in integrating and interpreting than US students. Further, when we controlled for students' overall reading ability and school mean SES, US students showed significantly higher performance in reading non-continuous texts than Shanghai-Chinese students, whereas US students showed significantly lower performance in reading continuous texts. The results of this study can inform reading instruction and learning in the 2 countries.

The dimensional structure of reading assessment tasks in the IEA reading literacy study 1991 and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2001

The study investigates measurement properties of the reading assessment tasks used in the IEA 1991 Reading Literacy (RL) study and the Progress in International Readings Study (PIRLS) 2001 study. The analysis is based on data from the Swedish PIRLS study, comprising 16,676 students in grades 3 and 4. As an extension to the basic design, not only the PIRLS tasks were administered, but each student also completed 1 of the 2 booklets from the 1991 study. Using missing-data modeling techniques, confirmatory factor analysis models were estimated and tested for the complete set of reading tasks. Results show that both sets of tasks measure comprehension of reading continuous text, but that each of them also represents unique sources of variance. In the RL instrument, reading speed is one such component, and performance on tasks from the documents domain is another. The PIRLS tasks are influenced by the requirement to produce constructed responses. It is also demonstrated that the shared context among items referring to a particular text is a source of systematic variance.

The influence of word function in the missing-letter effect: Further evidence from French

When asked to detect target letters while reading continuous text, subjects miss more letters in highly common function words than in less common content words. This is known as the missing-letter effect. According to the structural account, the higher omission rates for frequent function words are attributable to their role in supporting the extraction of phrase structure, after which they become lost in the transition from structure to meaning. This implies that word function in and of itself should affect letter detection accuracy. This issue was examined in four experiments while controlling for a number of confounded factors associated with another influential model: the unitization account. The first experiment extended the missing-letter effect to the French language. The second showed that letter detection is influenced by slight variations in the function assumed by the same word, such as when it is used as a definite article as opposed to a pronoun. This effect was observed even when the frequency of the orthographic pattern and the syllable stress patterns were controlled. In the last two experiments, a control was added for another factor: frequency of word meaning. The results indicate that word function contributes to the missing-letter effect over and above what is contributed by frequency of word meaning.

Incomplete neutralization and pragmatics in German

Earlier studies suggest that the neutralization of the voicing contrast in word pairs like Bund and Bunt is incomplete, but further research is required to evaluate the competing interpretations. Subjects here were given a range of different speaking tasks: reading continuous text, repeating spoken sentences (in circumstances where the concern of the experiment was carefully hidden), dictating the potential homophones to a German-speaking writer and, finally, reading from a word list. Discriminant analysis was used to combine the five spectro-temporal variables measured from sound spectrograms of these productions to categorize the tokens as voiced or voiceless in each condition. Correct categorization for discriminant analysis varied between 55% and 78% depending on the communicative task but was significant in all conditions. The data show that speakers can control the degree of neutralization depending on pragmatics and that information about the underlying contrast is distributed over much of the word. In Experiment 2, recorded productions from some conditions of Experiment 1 were played for a group of listeners. Through use of signal detection theory (and the statistic d ′), it is shown that listeners discriminated the intended word with accuracy very similar to that of discriminant analysis. They even tended to make errors on the same tokens. Apparently, the variables we measured capture information that is roughly equivalent to that employed by native listeners. The absence of complete neutralization implies that the German syllable-final devoicing rule cannot be stated in terms of the same [− voice] feature that is employed in the lexical specification of words. Instead, syllable-final devoicing is an effect that resembles implementation rules (since it is graded) and operates directly upon a syllable-like representation.

Reading From Paper versus Reading From Screen

This paper reviews the literature on reading continuous text from VDUs. The focus is on the reported nature, and potential causes, of reading differences between paper and screens. The first section outlines the scope of the present review. Section 2 discusses the nature of the reported differences between reading from either presentation medium. Five broad differences have been identified suggesting that reading from VDUs is slower, less accurate, more fatiguing, decreases comprehension and is rated inferior by readers. Evidence for the existence of each of these differences is reviewed and conclusions are drawn. In Section 3, ten variables which have been proposed as potential causes of reading differences between paper and screen are reviewed. These include screen dynamics, display polarity, orientation, viewing angle and user characteristics. Recent evidence by Gould et al.11 is presented which suggests that the image quality of the screen display is the crucial factor and indicate that positive presentation, high resolution and anti-aliasing interactively affect performance by enhancing the quality of the displayed image. The implications of this work for screen presentation of text are presented.

Reading continuous text from a one-line visual display

Continuous text may be presented via a one-line visual display by dividing it into “frames”, each of which is displayed for some specified time. Two different approaches to determine the contents of these frames can be distinguished: character-stepped display and word-stepped display. In the former the start of each frame is “stepped” some number of characters through the text for each frame presented. Viewed in this way the text appears to be moving jerkily behind a slot. In a word-stepped display the contents of each frame depend on word boundaries (e.g. having a separate word in each frame). Experiments are described which compare different ways of displaying text. Readers can cope with character- and word-stepped displays at high rates of presentation. The parameter which was identified as having most influence on performance was the expected proportion of words occurring whole on some frame.

Semantic context effects in visual word recognition, sentence processing, and reading: evidence for semantic strategies.

Earlier research studying the effects of semantic context on single words suggested that subjects may have two strategies for using a context (Becker, 1980). The present research finds that the semantic context strategies may be used in reading short sentences. Further, individual differences in context effects both in a word-level task and in a sentence-level task are related to individual differences in reading continuous text. These results are presented within the framework of the verification model (Becker, 1976, 1980), and the implications for two-process theory (Stanovich & West, 1979, 1981) are discussed.

Voice pitch as an aid to lipreading.

The totally deafened adult, unable to make use of a hearing aid, has no alternative to lipreading for everyday communication. Lipreading, however, is no substitute for hearing speech. Many lipreaders have great difficulty in ideal conditions and even the best lipreaders find the task demanding and tiring. Prosthetic attempts to substitute for lost hearing have centred on three distinct types of intervention, visual, tactile, and electrocochlear. As none of these is likely to yield a good understanding of a speech independent of lipreading in the near future, we have attempted to isolate relatively simple patterns of stimulation that, although not intelligible in themselves, well aid lipreading. From this point of view, the fundamental frequency or 'pitch' of the voice is the most important pattern element because if provides both segmental and suprasegmental information and is practically invisible. It thus complements the visual information already available on the face. As we show here, with the voice pitch presented acoustically, normal listeners can lipread a speaker reading continuous text at up to two and a half times the rate possible on the basis of lipreading alone. The pitch signal by itself, of course, is completely unintelligible. Although our work is primarily concerned with methods of electrical stimulation of the cochlea, it has implications for other sensory substitution techniques, the design of special purpose hearing aids and current theories of speech perception.

EFFECTS OF ILLUSTRATIONS ON EARLY ORAL READING ACCURACY, STRATEGIES AND COMPREHENSION

Summary. Previous conclusions regarding the negative effects of illustration on learning to read are challenged. The view that reading is a linguistically and contextually constrained process demands that the effects of illustration be evaluated in this context and not only on isolated word recognition. Clarity is also sought on the issue of comprehension. For 20 average, second‐year readers, reading continuous text with and without illustration, it was found that illustration: (a) facilitated contextual word recognition accuracy, strategies reflecting use of contextual cues, the self‐monitoring strategy of self‐correction, and comprehension at the level of literal idea recall; (b) interfered with the use of graphic cues; and (c) had no effect on comprehension at the level of inference beyond literal content.