Reading Situation Research Articles

The Myth of Normal Reading

We argue that the educational and psychological sciences must embrace the diversity of reading rather than chase the phantom of normal reading behavior. We critically discuss the research practice of asking participants in experiments to read “normally.” We then draw attention to the large cross-cultural and linguistic diversity around the world and consider the enormous diversity of reading situations and goals. Finally, we observe that people bring a huge diversity of brains and experiences to the reading task. This leads to four implications: First, there are important lessons for how to conduct psycholinguistic experiments; second, we need to move beyond Anglocentric reading research and produce models of reading that reflect the large cross-cultural diversity of languages and types of writing systems; third, we must acknowledge that there are multiple ways of reading and reasons for reading, and none of them is normal or better or a “gold standard”; and fourth, we must stop stigmatizing individuals who read differently and for different reasons, and there should be increased focus on teaching the ability to extract information relevant to the person’s goals. What is important is not how well people decode written language and how fast people read but what people comprehend given their own stated goals.

The Current Situation and Countermeasures of Marxism-Leninist Classic Reading in the Internet Era

With the development of China's economy, social progress, the popularization of the Internet has been an unstoppable trend in the current era. From the original ARPANET to the current World Wide Web, the Internet is moving forward at an unprecedented speed. However, in the complex world of the Internet, we also receive a variety of knowledge, and the quality level of knowledge is also uneven. The Internet not only brings us convenience, but also brings some problems. In the context of online fast food culture, college students' interest in reading paper books is greatly reduced, and they are not very optimistic about the reading status of Marxist-Leninist classics. It is an urgent practical problem worthy of thinking and paying attention to to propose the problems existing in the Internet era, analyze the reading current situation and its influencing factors, and think about the relevant countermeasures. To call on college students to carefully read and study the classics of Marxist-Leninist works, we need to give full play to the joint role of college students themselves, the Internet and universities, and jointly promote the classic reading of Marxist-Leninist works to achieve practical results.

Book readers in the digital age: Reading practices and media technologies

With the rising popularity of digital reading media, leisure reading is undergoing a transformation process. However, the reasons for readers to adopt e-book reading or to stick to traditional printed books are mainly unknown. Therefore, we explored demographic and motivational differences between print readers, digital readers, and readers using both reading media. We further studied their book-reading practices, like the amount of reading, the preferred genres, the different reading situations, and if there are dedicated reading media for specific genres or situations. Additionally, we explored if digital reading media have changed the reading process or just appeal to a certain type of reader. Therefore, we conducted a survey ( n = 779) of adult book readers about their leisure reading behavior. The results show that print readers, digital readers, and readers using both media differ in age, gender, amount of reading, genre preference, and the situations in which they read. Furthermore, digital reading media especially foster reading on the move.

Research on Automatic Reading Recognition of Wheel Mechanical Water Meter Based on Improved U-Net and VGG16

This paper proposes a deep learning scheme to automatically carry out reading recognition in wheel mechanical water meter images. Aiming at these early water meters deployed in old residential compounds, this method based on deep neural networks employs a coarse-to-fine reading recognition strategy, firstly, by means of an improved U-Net to locate the reading area of the dial on a large scale, and then the single character segmentation is performed according to the structural features of the dial, and finally carry out reading recognition through the improved VGG16. Experimental result shows that the proposed scheme can reduce the information interference of non-interested regions, effectively extract and identify reading results, and the recognition accuracy of 95.6% is achieved on the dataset in this paper. This paper proposes a new solution for the current situation of manual meter reading, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, errors occur frequently; and the transformation cost is high and difficult to implement. It provides technical support for automatic reading recognition of wheel mechanical water meters.

Extracurricular Reading of Business English Majors in South China University of Technology: A Survey-Based Comparative Analysis

The extracurricular reading situation of Chinese college students has always been unsatisfactory. However, extracurricular reading is one of the important ways to improve the quality of talent cultivation, especially conducive to the implementation of "whole-person" education in Chinese colleges and universities. Therefore, extracurricular reading situation of college students deserves attention. However, no relevant research has been carried out in the past two years, and up to now, there is not yet any research on the extracurricular reading status of business English majors. Through offline questionnaire survey and interview, one third (i.e.72) of students majoring in business English in South China University of Technology were surveyed, and 20 students were interviewed. At the same time, 836 undergraduates of all majors in South China University of Technology were surveyed and 120 were interviewed. By comparing the status of extracurricular reading of business English majors and all majors in South China University of Technology, it is found that business English majors and all majors in the university face the same problem and thus with similar characteristics in extracurricular reading, that is, they both bear heavy academic burdens, most of their extracurricular time is taken up by their professional study, and much of their remaining spare time is also used to surf internet for news or for entertainment. As a result, although they have extracurricular reading enthusiasm and ability, they have less extracurricular reading time, small amount of reading, and fragmented reading. Most students are dissatisfied with their extracurricular reading, but are unable to change. This reveals that for students in South China University of Technology, whether they are liberal arts students such as business English majors or students of other majors, same measures should be taken to improve extracurricular reading of all undergraduate students of the university. This research is the first study conducted by Chinese scholar on the extracurricular reading of business English majors, and it is also the first time to compare the extracurricular reading of business English majors and all majors in the university. The findings may have implications for other science and technology research universities in China in improving extracurricular reading of business English majors and all other majors.

Seeing Through the Character’s Eyes: Examining Phenomenological Experiences of Perspective-Taking During Reading

ABSTRACT Despite substantive work on the cognitive processes underlying comprehension, little research has examined the “phenomenological” nature of reading. We investigated how readers’ experiences of visual and verbal thought related to their transportation into the narrative text and whether these were influenced by perspective-taking. Specifically, readers reported the nature of their thoughts while reading and then completed a transportation assessment. Study 1 (n = 147) manipulated perspective-taking via explicit instructions, whereas Study 2 (n = 200) varied point of view within the text. Additionally, Study 2 examined whether reports varied across descriptive and dialogue text segments. Results suggested that visual and verbal reports were consistently negatively correlated. Further, transportation was positively associated with visual reports and negatively associated with verbal reports. We found no differences in thought reports for dialogue and descriptive text segments or across the perspective-taking manipulations. These findings suggest that phenomenological reading experiences are stable across a variety of reading situations.

Kiprah Perempuan di Masa Kesultanan Banjar: Sebagai Aktor Intelektual Hingga Memimpin Rakyat

Gender discrimination has been around for a long time. Interestingly in Banjar, at the elite level, women are actually entrusted to play an active role in the public sphere. Such as an intellectual actor in the development of Islamic knowledge and as a leader. This role was played by Fatimah, Putri Mayang Sari, Nyai Kumala Sari, and Ratu Zaleha. Everyone has their own role in their era. The writing of this article uses the library method, by applying 4 steps, that are heuristics, verification or source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The results of the study indicate that historically Banjar women, at the elite level, have had opportunities and open roles to be able to contribute to the public sphere. The implementation of this role relies on clarity of thought, flexibility of knowledge, courage to take risks, and the ability to read situations and understand social conditions. Thus, the role and contribution of women in various fields cannot be denied and underestimated. The role and contribution of Banjar women needs to be disclosed more broadly, because studies related to this matter are still limited.

College Students' Extracurricular Reading and Talents Cultivation in China: Based on a Survey in South China University of Technology


 College students' extracurricular reading is conducive to all-round development of talents, therefore, current extracurricular reading situation of college students is worth studying. A survey on college students’ extracurricular reading is conducted with 938 questionnaires distributed to randomly chosen year 1-5 college students from every colleges in South China University of Technology(SCUT). Based on survey results drawn by data statistics from 836 valid questionnaires, this paper sums up characteristics and existing problems of college students' extracurricular reading, and puts forward some suggestions. The survey finds that, although current college students are willing to do extracurricular reading, and have also strong self-learning ability, they, affected by heavy academic burdens and temptation of network, are forced to do extracurricular reading mainly in dormitory or bathroom in the evening, at night or at weekend, and their time in reading non profession-related books are less, their reading quantities are small and without a reading plan, with which students are dissatisfactory. Therefore, measures should be taken as follows in universities and colleges: further promote an awareness of the relationship between extracurricular reading and talents all-round development, timely adjust curriculum to allow students more extracurricular self-study time, appropriately guide students in making extracurricular reading plan, so as to enhance college student’s extracurricular reading time, quantity and efficiency, to make extracurricular reading in better service for talents cultivation.

Recommendation of English Reading in Vocational Colleges Using Linear Regression Training Model

High-quality vocational education is a vital basis for China’s efforts to develop high-quality teachers and technical and skilled workers. The increasing development of contemporary vocational education is given higher importance in the new era. We proposed the stick to moral education while carefully integrating it with the requirements of changes in technology and modernization, continuous improvements in the quality of college vocational education, and the development of more conceptual and skilled talented individuals with both political integrity and the capacity to build modernization. Using artificial intelligence technology to challenge these difficulties in the context of social informatization can play important role in enhancing the teaching quality of high vocational education. With the advent of the Internet era, students and parents have an increasingly strong demand for online independent vocational English reading materials, although there is some English learning software that provides online vocational English reading materials in the education market. However, most of this software only changes the reading form of paper vocational English reading materials but fails to completely meet the real demand of students for vocational English reading materials, so how to carry out personalized recommendation reading according to the real reading situation and reading preferences of students is a vital problem to be resolved. In this background, this paper studies the personalized recommendation technology, in the use of recommendation algorithms on the based association rules to obtain higher vocational English reading content recommended the strongest association rules, on the based combination of user-based collaborative clarifying recommendation algorithm. The linear regression model combined with the users reading interest and personalized recommendation of higher vocational English reading process is optimized, improving the accuracy of English reading recommendation in vocational colleges.

Using an eye tracker to examine the effect of prior knowledge on reading processes while reading a printed scientific text with multiple representations

ABSTRACT Readers' prior knowledge is an important factor for comprehending scientific texts. The study used an eye tracker to examine the reading processes of the undergraduates with high (HPK) and low prior knowledge (LPK) while reading a long printed scientific article. The results of measuring the eye movements offered some interesting findings. First, HPK readers are more capable of using multiple representations and know the importance of scientific diagrams for reading comprehension; the results revealed that HPK readers spent significantly longer fixation durations on representational and statistical diagrams and had higher percentages of transitional fixations between text and diagrams than did LPK readers. Second, LPK readers were much more text-driven; the total fixation durations on text was significantly higher for the LPK readers than for the HPK readers, and they also exhibited a tendency to read the diagram captions rather than the diagrams after reading the text. Third, mature readers in both groups would engage in self-regulating their reading strategy to slow down their reading speed for processing more important information. This study overcame technical limitations and recorded readers' eye movements in a real print reading situation which may open the path to assess broader issues in future reading research.

The Effort of Parent-Child Reading Activity in Chinese Traditional Family Education

China is a country with traditional family education. Parents greatly influence their children, especially under the one-child policy and urbanization background. Chinese teaching requires context and training. Reading and communication are important ways to improve Chinese. Parent-child reading can better help students in grades 1-3 to read. This article aims to compare students' performance and interview results of parents in an elementary school in the immigrant city, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, to explore the supporting role of parents in this family education. Previously, similar language research work has examined the students' language development in Shenzhen Pontus' families for further research. This study used mixed methods to analyze the parent-child reading situation in a school in Shenzhen. This article also compared the students' Chinese performance to judge the impact of parent-child reading on students. The results show that the influence of parent-child reading in family education has an obvious positive effect. The specific auxiliary role is reflected in children's reading ability, Mandarin level, and literary knowledge. Therefore, this study suggests that teachers and parents promote parent-child reading work. Parent-child reading is not only conducive to the psychological growth of students but also conducive to the cultivation of students' language ability, especially for the cultivation of students' Mandarin and literary ability.

Selfgerigte tekskeuse vir Afrikaans Huistaal in die intermediêre fase met behulp van ʼn leesbaarheidsindeks [English translation: Self-directed text selection for Afrikaans Home Language in the intermediate phase using a readability index

Well-developed reading comprehension skills are emphasized across the National Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) of South Africa (DBE, 2011) as sufficient reading comprehension skills are central to successful learning in all subjects. Despite the high importance of effective reading and comprehension skills, the reading standard of intermediate phase learners remains alarmingly low when considering the results of international reading assessments. From these results, it becomes clear that learners do not have adequate reading comprehension when they are assessed on the content of a reading text. Although clear criteria for text selection do exist, the cause of poor reading comprehension can possibly be attributed to inappropriate text selection. For this article, the readability level of prescribed texts as a possible obstacle was examined. Various readability indices were investigated, specifically, those that can be used for Afrikaans Home Language to measure textual complexity. The readability of texts in home language textbooks (intermediate phase) was calculated. The investigation was approached from interpretivism and is qualitative in nature. Firstly, an extensive literature review was launched into the reading situation regarding intermediate phase learners, texts, criteria for text selection, text readability, and readability indices. Secondly, the CAPS (Afrikaans Home Language, intermediate phase) was analysed to determine what the guidelines for texts, text selection and readability entail. Finally, CAPS-accredited textbooks were analysed to determine the readability levels of some texts in them. The overarching themes that arose from the research data were used to make possible suggestions for Afrikaans Home Language teachers and textbook compilers regarding self-directed text selection for intermediate phase learners by using a readability index. Keywords: intermediêre fase, KABV, leesassesserings, leesbaarheid, leesbaarheidsindekse, leesprobleme, skoolhandboeke, tekskeuse, Afrikaans Home Language, Afrikaans Huistaal, reading problems, text selection, readability, readability indices, Misindeks

Reading fiction with an e-book or in print

Abstract Empirical research on the differences between digital and print reading has recently increased, mainly concentrating on informational texts while disregarding literary texts. Concerning narrative fiction, the existing quantitative studies have found no or very few differences between reading printed books and e-books. In our focus group study, we amplify the perspective on digital and print book reading through a largely explorative approach. The results gained by interviewing 34 habitual readers of e-books in six groups show that e-books complement rather than replace printed books. Crucial differences can be found in the dimensions of the reading situation, genre selection, purpose of reading, as well as literary quality and status of the text. Furthermore, our results shed new light on the importance of the printed book as an individual material object, with its own specific iconicity and with notable consequences for intellectual possession, memory, and remembrance of read books and lived reading experiences.

Semantic parafoveal processing in natural reading: Insight from fixation-related potentials & eye movements.

Prior research suggests that we may access the meaning of parafoveal words during reading. We explored how semantic-plausibility parafoveal processing takes place in natural reading through the co-registration of eye movements (EM) and fixation-related potentials (FRPs), using the boundary paradigm. We replicated previous evidence of semantic parafoveal processing from highly controlled reading situations, extending their findings to more ecologically valid reading scenarios. Additionally, and exploring the time-course of plausibility preview effects, we found distinct but complementary evidence from EM and FRPs measures. FRPs measures, showing a different trend than EM evidence, revealed that plausibility preview effects may be long-lasting. We highlight the importance of a co-registration set-up in ecologically valid scenarios to disentangle the mechanisms related to semantic-plausibility parafoveal processing.

Why subtitle speed matters: Evidence from word skipping and rereading

AbstractHigh subtitle speed undoubtedly impacts the viewer experience. However, little is known about how fast subtitles might impact the reading of individual words. This article presents new findings on the effect of subtitle speed on viewers’ reading behavior using word-based eye-tracking measures with specific attention to word skipping and rereading. In multimodal reading situations such as reading subtitles in video, rereading allows people to correct for oculomotor error or comprehension failure during linguistic processing or integrate words with elements of the image to build a situation model of the video. However, the opportunity to reread words, to read the majority of the words in the subtitle and to read subtitles to completion, is likely to be compromised when subtitles are too fast. Participants watched videos with subtitles at 12, 20, and 28 characters per second (cps) while their eye movements were recorded. It was found that comprehension declined as speed increased. Eye movement records also showed that faster subtitles resulted in more incomplete reading of subtitles. Furthermore, increased speed also caused fewer words to be reread following both horizontal eye movements (likely resulting in reduced lexical processing) and vertical eye movements (which would likely reduce higher-level comprehension and integration).

The impact of audio on the reading of intralingual versus interlingual subtitles: Evidence from eye movements

AbstractThis study investigated how semantically relevant auditory information might affect the reading of subtitles, and if such effects might be modulated by the concurrent video content. Thirty-four native Chinese speakers with English as their second language watched video with English subtitles in six conditions defined by manipulating the nature of the audio (Chinese/L1 audio vs. English/L2 audio vs. no audio) and the presence versus absence of video content. Global eye-movement analyses showed that participants tended to rely less on subtitles with Chinese or English audio than without audio, and the effects of audio were more pronounced in the presence of video presentation. Lexical processing of subtitles was not modulated by the audio. However, Chinese audio, which presumably obviated the need to read the subtitles, resulted in more superficial post-lexical processing of the subtitles relative to either the English or no audio. On the contrary, English audio accentuated post-lexical processing of the subtitles compared with Chinese audio or no audio, indicating that participants might use English audio to support subtitle reading (or vice versa) and thus engaged in deeper processing of the subtitles. These findings suggest that, in multimodal reading situations, eye movements are not only controlled by processing difficulties associated with properties of words (e.g., their frequency and length) but also guided by metacognitive strategies involved in monitoring comprehension and its online modulation by different information sources.

Detection of developmental dyslexia with machine learning using eye movement data

Dyslexia is a common neurocognitive learning disorder that can seriously hinder individuals’ aspirations if not detected and treated early. Instead of costly diagnostic assessment made by experts, in the near future dyslexia might be identified with ease by automated analysis of eye movements during reading provided by embedded eye tracking technology. However, the diagnostic machine learning methods need to be optimized first. Previous studies with machine learning have been quite successful in identifying dyslexic readers, however, using contrasting groups with large performance differences between diagnosed and good readers. A practical challenge is to identify also individuals with borderline skills. Here, machine learning methods were used to identify individuals with low performance of reading fluency (below 10 percentile from a normal distribution) using their eye movement recordings of reading. Random Forest was used to select most important eye movement features to be used as input to a Support Vector Machine classifier. This hybrid method was capable of reliably identifying dysfluent readers and it also provided insight into the data used. Our best model achieved accuracy of 89.7% with recall of 84.8%. Our results thus establish groundwork for automatic detection of dyslexia in a natural reading situation.

Christina Lupton. Reading and the Making of Time in the Eighteenth Century.

Christina Lupton. <i>Reading and the Making of Time in the Eighteenth Century</i>.

”och mymlan flög / och mjölken for”

The Child Readers and Poetry in Tove Jansson’s Picturebook The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My&#x0D; Abstract: Tove Jansson’s picturebook Hur gick det sen? Boken om Mymlan, Mumintrollet och lilla My (The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My) from 1952 is a book which makes use of its material aspects in many regards, employing the interactivity of the picturebook format to its maximum. Given the fact that it is written in verse, and is considered a classic by all means, it is surprising to find that the function that poetry plays within the book has been scarcely explored in prior research. By examining how the format of this particular picturebook guides the manner in which the child reader experiences it, and by studying the function of poetry within that framework, the article shows that poetry potentially plays a vital role in how child readers make sense of it. In particular, the role of poetry manifests itself as an opportunity for child readers to – at their own pace, and in their own manner – deal with the delicate balance between the attachmentseeking struggles of the anxious character of Moomin, on the one hand, and the exploratory individuation of the adventurous character of Little My, on the other. Through these examinations, the article demonstrates how the use of poetry can facilitate an emancipatory opportunity for child readers within picturebooks – and how this potential is ever-present within the format and the reading situation of picturebooks for children in general.

Preschool-aged children's agency in shared book reading: the relation to the literacy environment in Czech families

ABSTRACT This study explores children's agency in shared book reading sessions with parents and its relation to family literacy characteristics, parents' literacy practices with children and children's print knowledge. Research participants were 142 Czech children, ages 3–6, and their parents. Parents rated their children's agency and the attributes of the home literacy environment in a questionnaire. The data shows that children in the sample exerted agency in shared book reading situations, some of them extensively. Out of the four components of agency, children's manifestations of volition in shared book reading appeared to be the most extensive, followed by asking questions, imitating reading and monitoring parents when they were reading to them. Overall, the results indicate that literacy-aimed activities, which the parents carry out with their children, relate to children's agency more than literacy qualities of the home, like the number of children's books, children's exposure to literacy, or parental education.