Reading Span Research Articles

Mujeres con voz propia. Antología guiada

Mujeres con voz propia. Antología guiada

The frequency of word gender as a variable for lexical access in Spanish

Abstract The endings of Spanish nouns reflect gender with varying degrees of frequency and regularity. The most common and regular endings are -o for masculine nouns and -a for feminine nouns, -o being more frequent and less closely associated with a specific gender category (masculine) than -a. Pairs of words occurring with both gender categories differ in the frequencies with which they are used as masculine or feminine forms: médic-o/médic-a ‘doctor’ (m.)/‘doctor’ (f.) is a clear example of a masculine-dominant pair, whereas enfermer-o/enfermer-a ‘nurse’ (m.)/ ‘nurse’ (f.) is a feminine-dominant pair. Adult readers of Spanish are faster in recognizing feminine forms of feminine-dominant pairs, and masculine forms of masculine-dominant pairs (Dominguez, Alberto, Fernando Cuetos & Juan Segui. 1999. The processing of grammatical gender and number in Spanish. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 28(5). 485–498). This study aims to test the dominant frequency effect in third and sixth grade children, as well as in adults. Children were faster in recognizing masculine forms in masculine-dominant pairs, but not feminine forms in feminine-dominant pairs. Adults, by contrast, tended to respond faster to higher frequency words, irrespective of gender, indicating that they have independent representations for both genders. The dominance of masculine forms in children could be a consequence of the statistical distribution of gender dominance and regularity in Spanish. The experience of skilled adult readers seems to make them less dependent on this statistical pattern.

동영상 매체 자막에 포함된 입력강화와 작업기억력이 주의집중 및 영어 연어습득에 미치는 영향: 시선 추적 연구

This study investigated the extent to which textual enhancement in captions can draw a learner’s attention to the target linguistic construction and promote subsequent development in L2 collocation knowledge. The study also explored the extent to which individual difference in working memory (WM) is related to learners’ attentional allocation and L2 collocation knowledge development. A total of 34 L2 English learners in Korea were assigned into an enhanced captions group (n =18) and a captions group (n = 16). For the enhanced captions group, the target L2 construction was typographically enhanced using a different color (i.e., red color). Learners’ allocation of attentional resources to the target collocations was measured with an eye-tracking method. To assess L2 collocation knowledge development, a meaning recall and meaning recognition test were used. In addition, learners’ working memory capacity was assessed using a nonword span task and a reading span task. The results of this study showed that textual enhancement succeeded in directing a learner’s attention to the target linguistic constructions; however, it did not lead to learning gains in collocation knowledge. In addition, working memory was found to have meaningful relationships with learners’ allocation of attentional resources when they were exposed to textually enhanced input.

The relationship of word processing with L2 reading comprehension and working memory: Insights from eye-tracking

The present study combines both online (eye-tracking) and offline (reading comprehension test) measures to investigate the relationships among word processing, working memory (WM) and second language (L2) reading comprehension performance. Forty-eight Chinese students read an English text with 17 unfamiliar words while their eye movements were recorded with two different settings (L1-glossed and non-glossed). A reading comprehension test and a reading span task were respectively used to evaluate participants' L2 reading comprehension performance and WM capacity. The results indicated that L2 reading comprehension performance was related to first fixation duration (FFD) on unfamiliar words, and the FFD on unfamiliar words was related to participants' WM capacity. Moreover, the effect of unfamiliar words' FFD on L2 reading comprehension performance can be moderated by participants' WM capacity. These relationships were not found when the unfamiliar words were glossed by L1. The results expand our understanding of the role of WM in unfamiliar word processing during L2 reading comprehension.

Contributions of bilingual home environment and language proficiency on children's Spanish-English reading outcomes.

This study examines the influence of language environment on language and reading skills and the cross-linguistic contributions to reading outcomes in 132 Spanish-English bilingual children ages 7-12 (52% female; 98% Hispanic). We present three major findings: children's language knowledge is separable into general (e.g., phonological awareness) and language-specific (e.g., meaning, grammar) skills; regular Spanish use positively relates to children's Spanish language and reading skills and does not limit English skills; and Spanish reading comprehension is positively associated with English reading comprehension. The model explains a significant percentage of the variance in English (R2 =.89) and Spanish (R2 =.87) reading comprehension outcomes. Findings shed light on the interdependence of Spanish and English as they relate to bilingual reading acquisition.

How to Translate a “Wild Tongue”: A New Perspective on Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) by Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, is a paradigmatic text when it comes to the representation of “mestiza” identities expressed through several tongues. The particular use of language in this book poses an interesting challenge in terms of translation. This article addresses the coexistence of languages for Spanish readers in three translations of the second chapter of Borderlands, entitled “Movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan”. I focus on a comparative textual analysis of a collective translation of the chapter by Maria Serrano Gimenez, Rocio Macho Ronco, Hugo Romero Fernández Sancho and Álvaro Salcedo Rufo (2004), and the translations by Norma Elia Cantú (2015) and Carmen Valle (2016). The different approaches to the translation of multilingualism in these versions of Anzaldúa’s text are examined.

PENAS IBÁÑEZ, Beatriz. (Universidad de Zaragoza) - El papel de la traducción indirecta en la ralentización de la modernización cultural: el papel intermedio de las primeras traducciones al español de Hemingway

Las traducciones españolas de la narrativa de Hemingway son traducciones de segunda mano, que no traducen directamente del texto en lengua inglesa del autor, sino que utilizan sus primeras traducciones al español como texto fuente. Los textos meta previamente elaborados han suplantado a los textos fuente en su función de referente de las nuevas traducciones. Dicha suplantación tiene efectos significativos, por una parte sobre la consideración que el lectorado español pueda tener acerca del rol del autor dentro de la literatura española y la universal. Por otra parte, la traducción indirecta, especialmente en el caso aquí estudiado, ha jugado un papel esencial en la ralentización del flujo intercultural, por ejemplo la resistencia a la adopción de ideologías de género modernas, en la etapa (post)franquista. La traducción indirecta parece haber sido una práctica cultural instrumental en la implantación de una forma aguada de (auto)censura tras la desaparición de la censura formal en España.

Reading Comprehension in Both Spanish and English as a Foreign Language by High School Spanish Students.

Several studies have highlighted that reading comprehension is determined by different linguistic skills: semantics, syntax, and morphology, in addition to one’s own competence in reading fluency (accuracy, speed, and prosody). On the other hand, according to the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, linguistic skills developed in one’s own native language (L1) facilitate the development of these skills in a second one (L2). In this study, we wanted to explore the linguistic abilities that determine reading comprehension in Spanish (L1) and in English (L2) in Secondary Education students. To do this, 73 Secondary Education Students (1st and 3rd year) participated in this study. The students carried out a battery of tasks in English and Spanish, all of them related to reading comprehension (expository text) and different linguistic skills, which included syntactic awareness tasks, synonymy judgment tasks (vocabulary), and morphological awareness tasks. The results indicated a positive correlation between linguistic competencies in both languages (indicating a transfer effect between languages), which were determined by school year, with a lower performance in the 1st year than in the 3rd year. Moreover, we found more skills with correlations in English reading comprehension than in Spanish. Finally, reading comprehension in L1 was mainly explained English reading comprehension, while English reading comprehension was predicted by grade, and syntactic awareness, as well as Spanish reading comprehension. This could be explained by the different levels of exposure to L1 and L2 of sample subjects, as the linguistic variables have different influences on the reading comprehension of both languages.

Subject–Verb Number Agreement in Bilingual Processing: (Lack of) Age of Acquisition and Proficiency Effects

Children acquire language more easily than adults, though it is controversial whether this faculty declines as a result of a critical period or something else. To address this question, we investigate the role of age of acquisition and proficiency on morphosyntactic processing in adult monolinguals and bilinguals. Spanish monolinguals and intermediate and advanced early and late bilinguals of Spanish read sentences with adjacent subject–verb number agreements and violations and chose one of four pictures. Eye-tracking data revealed that all groups were sensitive to the violations and attended more to more salient plural and preterit verbs than less obvious singular and present verbs, regardless of AoA and proficiency level. We conclude that the processing of adjacent SV agreement depends on perceptual salience and language use, rather than AoA or proficiency. These findings support usage-based theories of language acquisition.

Is Having Hearing Loss Fundamentally Different? Multigroup Structural Equation Modeling of the Effect of Cognitive Functioning on Speech Identification.

Previous research suggests that there is a robust relationship between cognitive functioning and speech-in-noise performance for older adults with age-related hearing loss. For normal-hearing adults, on the other hand, the research is not entirely clear. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive functioning, aging, and speech-in-noise, in a group of older normal-hearing persons and older persons with hearing loss who wear hearing aids. We analyzed data from 199 older normal-hearing individuals (mean age = 61.2) and 200 older individuals with hearing loss (mean age = 60.9) using multigroup structural equation modeling. Four cognitively related tasks were used to create a cognitive functioning construct: the reading span task, a visuospatial working memory task, the semantic word-pairs task, and Raven's progressive matrices. Speech-in-noise, on the other hand, was measured using Hagerman sentences. The Hagerman sentences were presented via an experimental hearing aid to both normal hearing and hearing-impaired groups. Furthermore, the sentences were presented with one of the two background noise conditions: the Hagerman original speech-shaped noise or four-talker babble. Each noise condition was also presented with three different hearing processing settings: linear processing, fast compression, and noise reduction. Cognitive functioning was significantly related to speech-in-noise identification. Moreover, aging had a significant effect on both speech-in-noise and cognitive functioning. With regression weights constrained to be equal for the two groups, the final model had the best fit to the data. Importantly, the results showed that the relationship between cognitive functioning and speech-in-noise was not different for the two groups. Furthermore, the same pattern was evident for aging: the effects of aging on cognitive functioning and aging on speech-in-noise were not different between groups. Our findings revealed similar cognitive functioning and aging effects on speech-in-noise performance in older normal-hearing and aided hearing-impaired listeners. In conclusion, the findings support the Ease of Language Understanding model as cognitive processes play a critical role in speech-in-noise independent from the hearing status of elderly individuals.

A Glimpse of Memory Through the Eyes: Pupillary Responses Measured During Encoding Reflect the Likelihood of Subsequent Memory Recall in an Auditory Free Recall Test.

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether task-evoked pupillary responses measured during encoding, individual working memory capacity and noise reduction in hearing aids were associated with the likelihood of subsequently recalling an item in an auditory free recall test combined with pupillometry. Participants with mild to moderately severe symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (n = 21) were included. The Sentence-final Word Identification and Recall (SWIR) test was administered in a background noise composed of sixteen talkers with noise reduction in hearing aids activated and deactivated. The task-evoked peak pupil dilation (PPD) was measured. The Reading Span (RS) test was used as a measure of individual working memory capacity. Larger PPD at a single trial level was significantly associated with higher likelihood of subsequently recalling a word, presumably reflecting the intensity of attention devoted during encoding. There was no clear evidence of a significant relationship between working memory capacity and subsequent memory recall, which may be attributed to the SWIR test and RS test being administered in different modalities, as well as differences in task characteristics. Noise reduction did not have a significant effect on subsequent memory recall. This may be due to the background noise not having a detrimental effect on attentional processing at the favorable signal-to-noise ratio levels at which the test was conducted.

A Study on the Japanese Working Memory Reading Span Test

工作记忆；工作记忆广度；日语阅读广度测量

An Ethiop's Aethiopica: Heliodorus and Juan Latino's Austriad

This essay addresses the question of how Juan Latino, an Afro-Hispanic author, self-fashioned or depicted himself as a figure worthy of admiration for his Spanish readers; and how he foregrounded his imitation of other Western classical texts so as to further authorize his writings. It proposes that Juan Latino alludes and utilizes Heliodorus's Aethiopica, a recently discovered and popular Greek/Byzantine novel, in order to cast himself as a wise, virtuous and eloquent Ethiop and as someone who is well suited to write an epic of the historic battle of Lepanto. He does so through contrastive oppositions. He also affirms Western values and Western art, evincing its presence in Ethiopia. He rejects the universality of the supremacy of one color of skin by underlining the opposing opinion: In the Aethiopica the people in this African kingdom despise white skin. Thus, Juan Latino's epic affirms the relativity of a scale in color by again pointing to the ways kings of Spain and Ethiopia judge whiteness and blackness.

The role of language comprehension skills and instructional practices in cross-language influence of Spanish-speaking dual language learners’ calculation skills

The purpose of this empirical study was 2-fold: (a) to investigate the relationships between Spanish-speaking dual language learners’ (DLLs, N = 223) Spanish language comprehension skills, Spanish calculation performance, English language comprehension skills, and English calculation performance; and (b) to explore the relationship between teachers’ (N = 20) instructional activities and DLLs’ calculation performance. Three important findings emerged. First, significant relationships occurred: (a) between DLLs’ Spanish vocabulary knowledge and Spanish reading comprehension (β = 0.59, p < 0.05, R2 = 0.37); and (b) between DLLs’ Spanish reading comprehension and Spanish calculation performance (β = 0.17, p < 0.05, R2 = 0.12). Second, a significant cross-linguistic relationship in Spanish and English calculation performance emerged (β = 0.41, p < 0.05, R2 = 0.29). Finally, teachers’ explicit teaching and guided practice significantly predicted DLLs’ Spanish calculation performance, but only teachers’ explicit teaching significantly moderated the impact of DLLs’ Spanish calculation performance on their English calculation performance. These findings support the notion that: (a) DLLs’ Spanish language comprehension skills predict their Spanish calculation performance, which subsequently impacts their English calculation performance; and (b) teachers’ explicit teaching and guided practice directly enhance DLLs’ Spanish calculation performance, which in turn later influences their English calculation performance.

“Ukraine and its last troubadour”. An unexpected story about Ukraine in the Spanish press of the XIX century

The article examines the perception of the Spanish reading public about Ukraine in the third quarter of the XIX century. For this, two groups of journalistic materials were analyzed - "Letters from Russia" (1856–1857) by Juan Valera and the article with a continuation "Ukraine and its last troubadour", published in the official publication "Gaceta de Madrid" in 1878, which was first introduced in scientific circulation. The content of these publications is defined as a turning point in the perception of Ukrainian lands. This was influenced by the spread of the ethnographic approach, which required the study of peoples instead of states and offered a systematic historical and cultural image of the population of the southwestern provinces of the Russian Empire. In the "Letters" of J. Valera, there is still an established until the beginning of the 19th century, the dichotomy of the negative and positive image of the Cossack; on the other hand, in the materials of "Gaceta de Madrid", the story about the Cossacks fits into the broader context of the past and present population of the modern Ukrainian lands, for which the author mainly uses the term "Ukraine" (Ukrania) and much less often "Little Russia" ( la pequeña Rusia). This allows us to state that thanks to the ethnographic approach, there was a transition from the idea of ​​the semi-wild lands of the Cossacks and Tatars, lost in the not-so-wide expanses of Eastern Europe, to a clearly defined ethnographic territory, which in the modern era took the name of Ukraine.

Dynamics of exposure to mercury in a population of the upper Madeira River, Rondônia – Brazil

This work evaluates the influence of cognitive and sociodemographic functions on the dynamics of human exposure to mercury in communities on the upper Madeira River in the state of Rondônia, Brazil. In this longitudinal epidemiological study of convenience sampling (2009 to 2019), semi-structured questionnaires on cognitive and sociodemographic aspects were applied to 1,089 participants (646 men and 443 women) divided into 6 groups with distinct geographic characteristics and lifestyles. Total mercury concentrations in hair samples were determined by direct analysis using atomic spectroscopy. In this population, cognitive (memory, attention span, concentration and difficulties in reading, writing and mathematical calculations) and sociodemographic (location, gender, age, education, alcohol consumption, smoking habits, time of residence in the region, occupation) grouping showed the differentiation between the groups with lifestyle directly related and dependent on extractivism/gold mining dispersed along the Madeira River (G1 and G2), and the groups that have urban dynamics on the margins of the federal highway BR-364 (G3, G4, G5 and G6). Sex, age and lifestyle (groups) were significant indicators of total mercury concentrations in hair. The organization of participants according to cognitive and sociodemographic profiles, regardless of geographic location, highlights the contribution of individualized social dynamics to mercury exposure in the Madeira River basin region. Despite socio-historical and socio-economic similarities, cognitive and sociodemographic functions show individualized social behaviors within communities, which may influence the process of exposure to THg.

The interaction of working memory capacity and engagement with recasts on different L2 outcome measures: A replication of Révész (2012)

AbstractWe report on a conceptual replication of Révész (2012) in order to investigate the idea whether learners provided with recasts do engage in different kinds of behavioral engagement as a function of their working memory and if/how this engagement comes to bear on performance on different measures. Engagement with recasts was measured through a coding method categorizing responses to the recasts running the gamut from: (1) no opportunity, (2) opportunity, but did not repeat, (3) repeated the recasted form, (4) negotiated the response, to (5) used the recasted form later in the discourse. Consistent with Révész (2012), though with lower effect sizes, the results showed that recasts were most conducive to gains on an oral task and less so on a written description task, but non-effective on a grammaticality judgment task. Furthermore, it was revealed that learners with a high phonological short-term memory were more prone to recast-induced engagement on an oral production task, whereas those enjoying a higher reading span were considerably less so. We propose that learner engagement be deemed more important in future interaction research.

Longitudinal Predictors of Bilingual Language Proficiency, Decoding, and Oral Reading Fluency on Reading Comprehension in Spanish and in English

This study examined the longitudinal prediction of decoding, oral reading fluency (ORF), and bilingual language proficiency (BLP) on student reading comprehension (RC) outcomes in Spanish and in English. Participants were first-grade Latinx students attending bilingual programs. Findings indicated that BLP initial status and gains were significant predictors of Spanish and English RC at the end of second grade. English and Spanish decoding in first grade, in addition to BLP, explained 27 percent of the variance in English reading comprehension. However, only Spanish decoding was a significant predictor of Spanish reading comprehension. Once English and Spanish second grade ORF scores were added to the model, decoding no longer explained any of the variance in RC. BLP, English ORF initial status and gains, and Spanish gains explained 47 percent of the variance in English reading comprehension. BLP and Spanish ORF initial status explained 46 percent of the variance in Spanish RC. IMPACT STATEMENT The findings from this study provide school psychologists and teachers relevant information on the importance of measuring bilingual student decoding and oral reading fluency in Spanish and in English as well as bilingual language proficiency to ensure students are comprehending what they read in both languages. There are differences between the predictive utility of these variables on Spanish and English reading comprehension that should be considered when making instructional decisions for bilingual students. For researchers, more measures are needed that can assess student bilingual language proficiency briefly, efficiently, and reliably, as well as additional studies examining how bilingualism can benefit and enrich bilingual student reading comprehension.

National Language Linguistic Personality and Semiotics of Target Text

This article is dedicated to Yuri Nikolaevich Karaulov, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founder of the scientific school Russian Language Personality. This article is about the complexities of language-based perception: the Spanish readers perception (Spanish linguistic personality) of the target text translated from Russian (The wind blowing from the candy factory by Vadim Mesiats). The author concludes that the original text-based factors, i.e. the Russian linguistic personality and cultural sphere, affect the readers interpretation of the target text informativity, situationality, intertextuality, and, to some extent, the intentionality of the source text.

Place-Names in Three Prophecies from the «Book of Taliesin»

The Book of Taliesin (now at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth) is a fourteenth-century manuscript of Welsh poetry, with some of its material going back to the late sixth century. But it includes poems of later date. Amongst them are three political prophecies: 'Taliesin's Verdant Song'; 'The Contention of Gwynedd and Deheubarth'; 'A Short Poem About Lludd's Discussion'. The first two are of the tenth century, the last of the eleventh. What follows deals with place-names in each. The first can be shown to allude to the English victory over Vikings and Scots at Brunanburh, near Durham, in 937. It is therefore somewhat later, of the period 940 to 987, and not of before 937, as has been thought. The second, dated to 942 x 960, is a polemic by a poet of Gwynedd or north-west Wales against the men of Deheubarth or southern Wales. Its author makes mocking reference to places which can be identified as in North Britain or on the Welsh border: even if Gwynedd's enemies flee there, they will not escape vengeance. Of most interest to Spanish readers is the third text. Its obscure references to enemies will be to Arab and Berber invaders of Andalusia in 1086, after which Alphonso vi appealed for international help. The poem can hence be dated to 1087 or 1088, and will be the earliest reference to Spain in Welsh poetry.