School Texts Research Articles

Reading Longer Words: Insights Into Multisyllabic Word Reading

Students with persistent reading difficulties are often especially challenged by multisyllabic words; they tend to have neither a systematic approach for reading these words nor the confidence to persevere (Archer, Gleason, & Vachon, 2003; Carlisle & Katz, 2006; Moats, 1998). This challenge is magnified by the fact that the vast majority of English words are multisyllabic and constitute an increasingly large proportion of the words in elementary school texts beginning as early as grade 3 (Hiebert, Martin, & Menon, 2005; Kerns et al., 2016). Multisyllabic words are more difficult to read simply because they are long, posing challenges for working memory capacity. In addition, syllable boundaries, word stress, vowel pronunciation ambiguities, less predictable grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and morphological complexity all contribute to long words' difficulty. Research suggests that explicit instruction in both syllabification and morphological knowledge improve poor readers' multisyllabic word reading accuracy; several examples of instructional programs involving one or both of these elements are provided.

O ensino do léxico no livro didático

Este trabalho é resultante do encontro entre as reflexões e propostas de Irandé Antunes em Território das Palavras: o estudo do léxico em sala de aula (2012) e as minhas próprias concepções e crenças relativas ao ensino de língua portuguesa, oriundas da prática docente como professora de léxico e morfologia. Tal confluência de crenças concretizou-se em um projeto de pesquisa, intitulado O léxico no livro didático, desenvolvido desde 2013, com o apoio de cinco bolsistas de iniciação científica. Um dos objetivos do projeto é revisitar os estudos lexicais, desenvolvidos nas três últimas décadas, principalmente aqueles de Irandé Antunes (2012), Carlos Alexandre Gonçalves (2007); Margarida Basílio (1998; 2006), Luiz C. de A. Rocha (1998), entre outros, buscando aporte teórico relevante para repensar procedimentos didáticos voltados para o ensino do léxico e para a ampliação do vocabulário. Outro objetivo é analisar um corpus constituído de dicionários escolares e livros didáticos de língua portuguesa de ensino fundamental e médio, com o intuito de compilar propostas pertinentes de ensino do léxico. Ambos os objetivos, de certa forma, querem verificar se é verdadeira a hipótese de Antunes de que, apesar de os estudos linguísticos terem implementado uma série de inovações no ensino de língua portuguesa, principalmente no que tange ao estudo do texto e do discurso, o tratamento do léxico permanece em segundo plano. A condução das reflexões terá como estudo de caso o tratamento dado ao processo de formação de substantivos com os sufixos -inho e -ão.

Alluded meaning of a legislative text (isharat al-nass) in the hanafi school of law

This paper examines the Hanafi scholars’ approach to the alluded meaning (isharat al-nass) of a legislative text, and the implications of such an approach for the legal norms the Hanafis derived through ijtihad. The first part of the paper discusses the issue of possible textual indications (al-dalalat) within a legislative text, and then the concept of allusion in the Hanafi School from the linguistic and terminological point of view. Providing the examples of alluded meaning we show the way in which the Hanafis used alluded meanings in their argumentation. We also elaborate on the status of isharat al-nass in the Hanafi Madhab, and the way of giving preference in case of contradiction between isharat al-nass and ibarat al-nass. At the end of the paper we provide the conclusions derived from the study.

Navigating between disorder and control: Challenges and choices when teaching reading strategies in the L1 classroom

Conversations about texts are often presented in research as particularly beneficial to students' reading development, based on the argument that the opportunity to confront, discuss and negotiate different readings in the classroom enhances students' skills in engaging with texts. In this article we examine in detail the interplay between a teacher and her students when they talk about argumentative texts in a Swedish ninth grade classroom setting. In the analysis we combine a Conversational Analysis approach with reading theories that emphasize the he dialogical encounter between reader and text. Our result indicates the dual nature of the teaching perspective which sometimes involves conflicting aims. The teacher has to choose between intervening in response to student reactions that reflect emotional and stereotypical attitudes that may hinder a critical reading, or intervening to make use of and stimulate reactions that may lead to more critical readings. Thus, our study emphasizes that it is crucial that teachers are able to both manage the leadership in the complex classroom interaction, and to apply knowledge about reading processes and strategies that students get involved in when they discuss engaging texts in school.

Analysis of morphophonemic patterns of <i>Gujii</i> dialect: an insight from optimality theory, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics in the determination of peculiarities of the dialect

The Gujii dialect which is one of southern dialects of Afaan Oromoo is highly characterized by assimilation patterns. This assimilation is dictated by some linguistic and non-linguistic factors and it has impact on the communication held between Gujii dialect speakers and school text version speakers. Therefore, this paper presents the analysis of Gujii morphophonemic patterns in comparison to school version of Afaan Oromoo using some insights from Optimality Theory, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. Besides, it explores psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic constraints that possibly caused peculiar morphophonemic assimilations in Gujii dialect. From the analysis, it is found out that assimilation pattern in Gujii dialect is highly observed in inflection morphemes of verbs as well as of some nouns and adverbs. Similarly, patterns such as using ‘hudhaa’/ stop velar sound / at the end of plural compound nouns, negative markers/ using [hin-] as a prefix together with [–u]as a suffix/, and some greeting phrases are other peculiar patterns observed in Gujii dialect. The peculiarity of these morphophonemic patterns is determined by psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic factors. Moreover, this peculiarity is linguistically justifiable by Optimality Theory and they are made primarily for ease of communication. Because of these peculiarities, the Gujii dialect speakers face several problems when they are required to speak or read the school version of Afaan Oromoo. Key Words: Gujii, morphophonemic patterns, dialect, assimilation, Afaan Oromoo

An easy to compare tool for more readable (physics) textbooks

In this article, we show the easy way to compare the readability of two physics school texts written in the same language. We show that the readability of scholar texts depends on the frequency of terms. We compare the readability of texts from two physics textbooks written in Slovak. In these comparisons, we used the frequency of words and terms with a given length (probability distribution) instead of using a readability formula. The concept of analysing the frequency of words in a text agrees with our observations made by eye tracking systems. We verified our results by cloze tests. The method comparing the probability distribution of words and terms of two texts (written in the same language) is very simple, intuitive as well as language independent (in contrary to readability formulae).

Reading for meaning: the effects of Developmental Education on motivation and achievement in reading informative texts in primary school

Content-oriented reading interventions that focus on the integration of motivational enhancement and strategy instruction have been found to have positive effects. Developmental education (DE) in the Netherlands is an innovative content-oriented approach in which reading is an integral part of an inquiry-oriented curriculum. Reading for meaning is a central pursuit, and strategy instruction is functionally integrated. This study differs from previous studies in three aspects. Firstly, instead of interventions, two types of existing practices were compared: the DE approach and a textbook-driven programmatic instruction approach (PI). Secondly, this study accounted for classroom influences by conducting multilevel analyses. Thirdly, control variables, i.e. ethnic background, home language, SES, non-verbal IQ, gender, vocabulary and decoding skills, were taken into account. The effects of both approaches were investigated in terms of reading comprehension, knowledge of reading strategies and reading motivation. In a pretest–posttest natural two-group design, tests and questionnaires were administered to 570 grade 4 students in 24 schools. The outcomes that resulted from the DE approach were as good as those from the PI approach. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies that have reported better outcomes of content-oriented reading approaches than traditional and strategy reading approaches.

Student engagement and the development of (inter)cultural skills: some issues and methods involved in the appropriation of literary texts in primary school

La recherche presentee s’inscrit dans le cadre de la formation initiale des enseignants du premier degre (master 1 et 2), et s’appuie sur deux ateliers de recherche/action menes a l’ESPE de Caen. Le champ disciplinaire est celui du francais, et plus particulierement de la litterature. S’agissant de repondre a la question de l’engagement scolaire de l’eleve et de la mise en œuvre d’une didactique de l’implication dans et par les textes litteraires, la recherche mobilise les concepts d’identite et d’alterite, de reliance, d’interculturation, de mobilite symbolique. Le postulat du developpement de l’engagement de l’eleve par l’appropriation des problematiques culturelles et identitaires se trouvera exemplifie par l’examen des projets mis en œuvre, ainsi que par l’analyse des ecrits reflexifs des futurs enseignants.

‘The First Shots of the First World War’: The Sarajevo Assassination in History and Memory

We all know the image. Many of us first saw it in our school texts or local newspaper whenever the First World War was on the lesson plan or another anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination rolled...

Wege und Abwege. Zu den Metaphern in der ramessidischen Weisheitsliteratur

Summary: This study analyses a series of New Kingdom wisdom texts in order to outline the rhetorical power of spatial metaphors, particularly metaphors of path. Firstly we differentiate those metaphors that explicitly mention a path from those that refer in a more implicit manner to some kind of path and its concomitant features. What we find is that path-based metaphors (particularly implicit ones) become more numerous as the rhetorical weight of the text increases – when, in other words, the more enumerative wisdom text genre takes on characteristics of the exhortations of scribal school texts. Additionally, the multidimensional methodology allows one to note connections between metaphors that occur within a single text, as well as to trace similar features in texts of the same genre and of different genres.

The Mediaeval Question-and-Answer Collection Sententiae de floratibus diuersis : Standard and Non-Standard Versions

The mediaeval question-and-answer collection Sententiae de floratibus diuersis (SFD) is presented as an elementary school text. It consists of a sequence of 46 gradually arranged items which initiate the student into basic knowledge of the human body, the Christian faith, simple theological principles, and biblical history. In spite of its concision and modest pretentions, it is backed by an important manuscript tradition (of at least 23 witnesses). This tradition is divided in two slightly different versions, here presented under the name of standard and non-standard. However, some of these MSS offer no more than a single excerpt of the entire work as printed here: in some cases, as an independent entry in a miscellaneous codex; in other cases, integrated into more significant works. Due to its compilation nature, the text basically draws from the most common patristic sources, with a clear preference for Isidore of Seville and his Liber Differentiarum II. Nevertheless, these excerpts are usually copied in reworked mediaeval forms, which knew a noteworthy success among compilation works and florilegia. The SFD also include some excerpts which are only paralleled (according to the examined references) in anonymous mediaeval works. This article addresses the MS tradition of the aforementioned versions (printed in the appendix) by means of a critical study of their texts. The study of the sources and parallel texts intends to identify the underlying patristic patterns and to create a provisional record of the anonymous mediaeval works and MSS in which the reworked forms are paralleled. The wide MS tradition of the SFD makes it an appropriate reference point to trace contemporary anonymous works. The detailed study, critical edition and philological contextualization of these works and their MSS constitute the aim of my PhD project, currently in process.

Depiction of the community living, religion, art and culture of the Malaysians in the Tamil School text books

The Tamil Language is given national security and instructional qualification in the Primary Schools by the constitution of Malaysia. This paves the way to the teaching of Tamil from the first to the sixth standards in Malaysian Schools. The Development of Arts, Tamil Section under the Ministry of Education, Malaysia has designed the Tamil Language syllabus for Primary Schools and Tamil Schools. Based on this syllabus, the Text Book Department Prepared Tamil Language Text Books from the first standard to fifth standard. Since Malaysia in a multi-racial country, the Tamil language text books have been prepared to bring out the pieces of information about the community living, religion, art and culture of the Malaysians. This article studies how these aspects are covered in the text books prescribed in the middle schools and Tamil schools. Key words: Tamil Language, Community living, Religion, Art, Culture, Text book. ஆயவுச சுருககம: மலேசிய அரசியல சடடததில தமிழ மொழிககுத தேசியப பாதுகாபபும தொடககப பளளிகளில பயிறறுமொழித தகுதியும வழஙகபபடடுளளது. இசசடடததின வழி, மலேசியப பளளிகளில முதலாம ஆணடு தொடஙகி ஆறாம படிவம வறை தமிழமொழி கறபிககபபடுகிறது. மலேசியக கலவி அமைசசில இடமபெறறுளள கலைததிடட மேமபாடடுப பிரிவின தமிழப பகுதி தமிழபபளளிகளுககும இடைநிலைப பளளிகளுககும பாடததிடடததை வகுததுளளனர. இபபாடததிடடததை அடிபபடையாகக கொணடு மலேசியப பாடபபுததகப பிரிவு ஆணடு ஒனறு முதல படிவம ஐநது வரை தமிழமொழிப பாடபபுததகததைத தயாரிததுளளனர. மலேசியா பலலின மககள வாழும நாடாக இருபபதால தாயமொழிப பாடபபுததகஙகள பலலின மககளின குமுகாயம, சமயம, கலை, பணபாடு, ஆகியத தகவலகளைத தாஙகி தயாரிககபபடுகினறன. இவவாறு உருவாககபபடட தமிழபபளளிகளிலும இடைநிலைப பளளிகளிலும பயனபடுததபபடும தமிழமொழிப பாடபபுததகததில காணபபடும பலலின மககளின குமுகாயம, சமயம, கலை, பணபாடடுத தாககம எவவாறு உளளது எனபதை ஆராயவதே இவவாயவுக கடடுரையின நோககம. குறிபபுச சொறகள: தமிழ மொழி, சமுதாயம, சமயம, கலை, பணபாடு, பாடபபுததகம

Digital Literacy in Upper Secondary School – What Do Students Use Their Laptops for During Teacher Instruction?

The present study uses video recordings and qualitative interviews to examine the digital literacy practices of Norwegianstudents who have a personal laptop for school use. It uses the dichotomy between dominant school texts and vernacularout-of-school texts to examine the new school literacy practices. Findings indicate that the teachers’ use of visualtechnologies such as Power Point presentations in whole-class settings generates a variety of individual digital literacypractices among the students.Keywords: Digital literacy, student literacy practices, Internet in school._______________________________________________________________________________________

Resistance to Secularism: The Reproduction of Privilege and Dominance in Fundamentalist School Texts

ABSTRACTThis study is an analysis of A Beka textbooks, a leading fundamentalist Christian curriculum in the United States and the ways that it reproduces the concept of Christian privilege and dominance in its discourse. Data is presented that illustrate underlying themes and the implications of the findings are discussed for their contribution to diversity tensions among conservative Christians and liberals. Using a critical lens, the study unveils significant themes in the textbooks that serve to marginalize those living outside its dominant parameters and reinforce preconceived notions of privilege and dominance. Finally, in countering the reproductive process, a reflective approach to the curriculum is urged which facilitates educational critique and a dialogue of inquiry.

Las comunidades de aprendizaje en la enseñanza de las habilidades de lectura crítica de textos hipermediales

Objetivo: contribuir a la didáctica de la lectura crítica en la educación media utilizando algunos medios y tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC). Metodología: investigación cualitativa y enfoque de teoría fundamentada. Se realizó un proceso de intervención con un docente y 24 estudiantes de grado once. Como instrumentos de recolección de información se tuvieron entrevistas, grupos focales y un registro mediante una matriz de observación en cada sesión de trabajo. Resultados: con la implementación de una estrategia didáctica para apoyar la enseñanza de la lectura crítica de textos hipermediales en el contexto de una comunidad virtual de aprendizaje, se lograron identificar los factores que intervienen en el desarrollo de dicha propuesta y determinar el potencial didáctico de la plataforma educativa de medio social Edmodo, como mediadora de la comunidad virtual. Conclusiones: es necesario desarrollar procesos investigativos que aprovechen el valor didáctico de las TIC y el carácter social del aprendizaje que promueven, en el fortalecimiento de una alfabetización digital crítica de los ciudadanos mediante modelos y estrategias innovadoras.

Externalizing behaviors and learning from text in primary school students: The moderating role of mood

Previous research indicates that externalizing problems and negative mood can impair learning. However, the interaction between these variables in predicting learning from text is not well understood. This study examined the moderating role of negative mood in the association between externalizing behaviors and learning from text in primary school children.Fifth graders (N=160) were randomly assigned to either a negative or a neutral mood condition. Students were mood-induced by watching a video-clip. Subsequently, they read a text, answered a post-reading knowledge question, and reported on their externalizing behaviors.Ordinal logistic regression and simple slope analysis revealed that more externalizing behaviors were related to poorer learning gain in students in the negative mood condition, but not in those in the neutral mood condition. These results show that negative mood moderates the effect of externalizing behaviors on learning from text, thus giving important hints for practice in educational settings.

Entre la ruptura y la continuidad de esquemas socioemocionales en los libros de lectura de la escuela primaria en el tardofranquismo (1959-1975)

Reading books were one of the favorite textual genres of the Franco Regime, used as a privileged vehicle for the transmission of knowledge, values and emotions. This article explores the evolution of their characteristics and contents during the late Franco dictatorship (tardofranquismo). During the first and second phases of Franco Regime, textbooks contained heavy doses of ideological indoctrination, both political and religious. The inculcation of emotions and sentiments in school texts has been demonstrated; in the early decades of the regime, the language employed in the writing of textbooks had the specific objective of manipulating and persuading as a means to control and shape the emotional structure of childhood. There is debate as to what extent and in what manner the nature of the texts (the kinds of readings and their underlying messages) were modified under the new economic policy and technocracy. The study examines ruptures and continuities that appear in reading books and in their texts, focusing on publishers and authors on the one hand – the messages and their written and iconic languages – and on the emotions that are transmitted through both routes on the other. The economic opening and political turn of the regime’s later years did lead to certain aesthetic and didactic facelifts in the manuals. However, reading books not only changed their appearance; this study brings to light the changes in socio-emotional schemes, changes that took place slowly and gradually. The projected and stimulated emotions began to be directed more at the world of the children and towards a more constructive way reading, moving away from socio-political objectives

Readability of primary school 3rd grade Turkish and Social Studies text-books

Textbooks are among the most commonly used educational tools. Therefore, texts in textbooks should ease learning, be readable and comprehensible. Readability can be simply defined as the level of a text’s easiness/difficulty for its reader. Some significant studies on the readability of Turkish textbooks are Zorbaz (2007), Okur and Ari (2013), Bagci and Unal (2013) and Bas and Inan-Yildiz (2015). Studies on other textbooks include Kurnaz and Erdem (2012) (a study on language and expression textbooks), Kose (2009) (on biology textbooks) and Gecit (2010) (on social studies textbooks). The results of them reveal that some texts are not appropriate for students’ educational levels and the level of difficulty varies according to text type. The aim of this study is to determine the readability levels of texts in primary school 3 rd grade Turkish and Social Studies textbooks that are accepted to be used in 2015-2016 school year. The formula adapted to Turkish by Atesman (1997) is used in this study. Only prose is analyzed and poetry is left out of the scope. The results show that the readability levels of both textbooks that are analyzed are easy. However, texts are not given in an order from easy to difficult.

Font legibility in first year primary students / Legibilidad de distintos tipos de letra en alumnos de primero de primaria

The typeface used when students learn to read is largely ignored in educational practice and research. In this study, the reading of 115 Spanish first graders was assessed using texts written with six different typefaces, including a cursive script font. Significant differences were found in the number of decoding errors across the different typefaces, but not in fluency problems or number of words correctly read per minute. Our main conclusion is that the use of typefaces similar to handwriting in school texts for primary students who have already started to read is not justified.

A Study on the Analysis of Elementary School Texts for Elementary Soil Environmental Education

A Study on the Analysis of Elementary School Texts for Elementary Soil Environmental Education