Specific Reading Research Articles

Neuroimaging genetic associations between SEMA6D, brain structure, and reading skills

ABSTRACT Specific reading disability (SRD) is defined by genetic and neural risk factors that are not fully understood. The current study used imaging genetics methodology to investigate relationships between SEMA6D, brain structure, and reading. SEMA6D, located on SRD risk locus DYX1, is involved in axon guidance, synapse formation, and dendrite development. SEMA6D’s associations with brain structure in reading-related regions of interest (ROIs) were investigated in a sample of children with a range of reading performance, from sites in Connecticut, CT (n = 67, 6–13 years, mean age = 9.07) and San Francisco, SF (n = 28, 5–8 years, mean age = 6.5). Multiple regression analyses revealed significant associations between SEMA6D’s rs16959669 and cortical thickness in the fusiform gyrus and rs4270119 and gyrification in the supramarginal gyrus in the CT sample, but this was not replicated in the SF sample. Significant clusters were not associated with reading. For white matter volume, combined analyses across both samples revealed associations between reading and the left transverse temporal gyrus, left pars triangularis, left cerebellum, and right cerebellum. White matter volume in the left transverse temporal gyrus was nominally related to rs1817178, rs12050859, and rs1898110 in SEMA6D, and rs1817178 was significantly related to reading. Haplotype analyses revealed significant associations between the whole gene and brain phenotypes. Results suggest SEMA6D likely has an impact on multiple reading-related neural structures, but only white matter volume in the transverse temporal gyrus was significantly related to reading in the current sample. As the sample was young, the transverse temporal gyrus, involved in auditory perception, may be more strongly involved in reading because phonological processing is still being learned. The relationship between SEMA6D and reading may change as different brain regions are involved during reading development. Future research should examine mediating effects, use additional brain measures, and use an older sample to better understand effects.

The need for integration of reading, critical thinking and academic reading skills: a quantitative analysis of Slovak undergraduates’ reading performance

AbstractBased on recent research (Alderson, 2005; Khalifa and Weir, 2009), this study focuses on three areas of reading comprehension necessary for a successful academic career: general L2 EFL reading skills, more specific academic reading skills and critical thinking and reading. The study presents an analysis of quantitative research conducted in 2020, based on a sample of Slovak undergraduate students reading an academic text in English as L2 in EFL CLIL-formatted classes in humanities.The respondents’ general reading skills were analysed in the context of their critical reading skills and academic preparedness. When tested for general reading skills, respondents were asked to identify implicit and explicit information and the gist of the text. Academic abilities were tested via the ability to identify the attributes of an academic text, such as the system of references, rational and logical language and causeeffect type of argumentation, which indicated the author and genre of the text. In order to evaluate participants’ critical skills with a focus on the social aspects of the text, respondents were asked to identify the importance of the text for themselves and for their community and life. The participants’ mean scores and differences in their performances on each task type were compared using descriptive statistics, and multiple analysis of variance. The results suggest that the general reading skills of university undergraduates in Slovakia are adequate, however, more difficulty was encountered with implicit, rather than explicit, tasks. Students also need to improve their critical reading skills and reading for academic purposes. The research outcomes highlight the need to hone the education of future linguists to the new needs of a more text-based society.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Mediates the Relation Between "Specific Math Anxiety" and Arithmetic Speed.

There is a growing consensus that math anxiety highly correlates with trait anxiety and that the emotional component elicited by math anxiety affects math performance. Yet few studies have examined the impact of “specific math anxiety” (high math anxiety and low other kinds of anxiety) on math performance and the underlying physiological and affective mechanism. The present study examines the mediation effect of heart rate variability—an affective measurement indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)—in the relationship between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. A total of 386 junior high school students completed a self-reported questionnaire to measure their anxiety level. Among this sample, 29 individuals with specific math anxiety (high math anxiety and low reading and trait anxiety), 29 with specific reading anxiety (high reading anxiety and low math and trait anxiety), 24 with specific trait anxiety (high trait anxiety and low math and reading anxiety), and 22 controls (low math, trait and reading anxiety) were selected to participate in an arithmetic task and a reading task while RSA was recorded when they performed the tasks. Results revealed that individuals with specific math anxiety showed lower RSA and longer reaction time than the other three groups in the arithmetic task. Regression and mediation analyses further revealed that RSA mediated the relation between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. The present study provides the first account of evidence for the affective hypothesis of specific math anxiety and suggests that affective responses may be an important mechanism underlying the detrimental effect of specific math anxiety on math performance.

Document Analysis of State Dyslexia Legislation Suggests Likely Heterogeneous Effects on Student and School Outcomes

Previous studies of K–12 dyslexia legislation have described broad trends in legislative content, such as the presence or absence of screening and intervention requirements. This study uses document analysis to provide a finer-grained description of the laws to highlight critical variation in policy that will directly affect (a) the number and type of students identified as having or being at risk for specific reading disabilities, including dyslexia, (b) the types of supports they receive, and (c) the implementation of the laws. Results of the study indicate that differences in legislative content across states, and ambiguity within states, may lead to heterogeneous effects on student and school outcomes. Areas needing special analytic attention by researchers and policy implementers are discussed.

The assessment of Indonesian EFL students' reading comprehension ability using Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS)

This study focused on reading comprehension ability of the English Department students in answering READS, MCQ questions. READS is an alternative standardized assessment system that is capable of measuring reading comprehension ability. This is a descriptive study based on Barrett's Taxonomy levels, such as literal comprehension, reorganization, and inferential comprehension. This study consisted of 122 students of the English Department academic year 2015 through 2018 at one of the private universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This study analysis utilized the three Barrett's taxonomy scales to identify whether the students were at meet the standard, below standard, above standard or at academic warning. Finding of the research indicated that 27.8 % students categorized into academic warning (Band 2 and 3), 46.7% students categorized into below standard (Band 4) and 25.5% students categorized into meet standard (Band 5). Consequently, READS as an alternative assessment will guide the teachers to design specific reading material based on students' needs.

Literacy-supporting skills in college students with specific reading comprehension deficit and developmental language disorder.

Specific reading comprehension deficit (S-RCD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) are both commonly occurring developmental disorders of language. The ways in which these disorders do and do not overlap during childhood are a matter of debate (Nation & Norbury, 2005). Moreover, in both populations, the challenges faced by individuals in adulthood are understudied. Here, we combined data across cohorts of college students, and classified individuals with only S-RCD (n = 20), only DLD (n = 55), and co-occurring S-RCD and DLD (n = 13). Individuals with good language and reading skills, who matched those with S-RCD on decoding, comprised our typical language and reading group (TD; n = 20). Beyond the measures used for classification, group-level differences were identified in sentence-level reading fluency, phonological processing, verbal working memory, and rapid automatized naming. We found that skill profiles differed across groups; however, we found no evidence of weaknesses beyond the core deficit in reading comprehension observed in those with only S-RCD. In contrast, when S-RCD co-occurs with DLD, weaknesses are observed in phonological processing, as well as reading fluency and verbal working memory. These findings suggest that some adults with S-RCD have co-occurring DLD as a core weakness. These findings, as well as differences between individuals with S-RCD and DLD, are further discussed.

Chicago Area Study 2012 Research Brief #5 Curricular approaches among child care center directors in Chicago west and north side ZIP codes

Introduction The 2012 Chicago Area Study surveyed 229 center directors in 33 ZIP Courricular Approaches among Child Care Center Directors in Chicago West and North Side ZIP The 2012 Chicago Area Study surveyed 229 center directors in 33 ZIP Codes on the West and North sides of Chicago. All centers and preschools that served three and four year olds in these ZIP Codes were eligible, except those located in the public schools. Eligible settings included preschools in churches, private schools, and community organizations as well as preschool programs and full-day care in standalone childcare centers. Fully 70% of eligible directors participated in the study. For simplicity, we refer to all participants as “centers.” We prepared a set of initial research briefs to disseminate basic study findings. Each of these briefs describes a set of data collected in the survey for the sample as a whole and across five types of ZIP Codes. The five ZIP Code types allow us to provide a basic portrait of differences in center characteristics depending on the race-ethnicity and income of the community. The five types of ZIP Codes are: (1) mixed race, low income, (2) majority non-Hispanic Black, low income, (3) majority Hispanic, low income, (4) majority non-Hispanic White, middle-income, and (5) majority non-Hispanic White, high income. The cutoffs between low/middle and between middle/high incomes are $48,500 and $70,000 respectively (about two and three times the federal poverty line for a family of four in 2011). We define a location as being a majority of one race-ethnicity if the ZIP Code is comprised of at least 50% of that racial/ethnic group (see CAS 2012 Research Brief #1 for additional details). This CAS 2012 Research Brief #5 summarizes directors’ responses to questions about their use of child-centered and teacher-directed approaches to learning, their engagement in specific reading and math activities, and their use of particular curricula.

INVESTIGATING READING COMPREHENSION PROCESSES IN ESP EDUCATION

Reading is regarded as a cognitive process of meaning construction, or an interactive process that comprises low-level processes of word recognition and high-level processing of ideas. Schema theory implies the meaning of а text is not embedded in the text itself; it is actually created in an active manner through interaction between the reader and the text, in which readers use their world knowledge to decode text meaning. Accordingly, readers bring their ideas, experience and previously gained knowledge into reading comprehension processes. The attainment of specific reading goals, including main idea comprehension and extracting specific information from the text, requires the employment of various reading strategies. In that sense, strategic behavior is deployed by proficient readers; it enables them to facilitate and improve text comprehension, which is the ultimate aim of the reading skill. 10 ESP students of the College of Applied Professional Studies in Vranje took part in this research as respondents. After completing their reading comprehension assignments, students reported on those tasks by virtue of think-aloud protocols. This type of research may provide an insight into specific problems students encounter during text processing activities, as well as strategies they employ to resolve them, which would facilitate the evaluation of reading performance and progress monitoring. The results imply that strategic training would enable ESP students to efficiently attain both general and specific reading goals.

The Impact of CALL Software on the Performance of EFL Students in the Saudi University Context

This paper investigates the extent to which Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) contributes academically and pedagogically to the performance of students majoring English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The paper’s main objective is to explore the extent to which CALL is effective in developing the linguistic and communicative competence of EFL students in the skill of reading. This paper uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches in the process of data collection. As an empirical study, the sample in this study was 47 students studying English at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University. The participants were classified into two groups: experimental and control; each of which has been assigned specific reading activities. The experimental group has been allocated technological learning, by means of using the computer programs of SnagitTM, Screencast; whereas the control group has been assigned traditional learning, i.e. without using computer. Results revealed that the use of CALL has more positive effects on the learning outcomes of the experimental group than those pertaining to the control group. This, in turn, accentuates the fact that the use and application of CALL into EFL contexts improves the students’ learning outcomes concerning the skill of reading. The study recommends further integration of computer software into the designation of the different EFL courses.

“Un livre scandaleux et diffamatoire”: Militant Translations of the Discours de la servitude volontaire

The Discours de la servitude volontaire boasts a long tradition of militant translations. We argue that these translations—whose introductions and paratextual materials often aim to enlist La Boétie to a specific political cause or ideology—must be taken into account when analyzing the Discours’ political content. As Miguel Abensour (2006) pointed out, the Discours’ elusive complexity fulfills a performative function, whose goal is to reveal the reader’s conception of freedom. It can be compared to a gamebook, in which most translators, editors and/or commentators get involved when publishing the text: they make particular interpretative choices and offer their specific reading of La Boétie’s thesis. In order to illustrate this peculiar interpretative dynamic, we briefly examine three case studies: an Italian (1944), an American (1942) and a Soviet (1952) translation. All three contain a strong political message and, we suggest, each of these messages brings to light a new path through La Boétie’s gamebook, developing a new vision of his intentionally paradoxical political theory.

LncRNA SNHG1 promotes the development of oral cavity cancer via regulating the miR-421/HMGB2 axis

Oral cancer (OC) is a common malignant tumor in oral surgery, which is prone to metastasis and the prognosis is not optimistic. Long-non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is a kind of endogenous transcripts with more than 200bp in length, lack of specific and complete open reading frame, and does not have the function of protein-coding. Studies have found that it can regulate gene expression at many levels, such as epigenetic level, transcriptional level and post-transcriptional level, thus affecting the occurrence and development of diseases. Recent studies have shown that the occurrence, development, of oral cancer, are associated with lncRNA. In this research, we found that lncRNA SNHG1 was up-regulated in oral cancer. Knockdown of lncRNA SNHG1 would inhibit the proliferation of oral cancer cells. Then we revealed a new mechanism that lncRNA SNHG1 regulated the growth of oral cancer via controlling the miR-421/HMGB2 axis, which provided new therapy for patients with oral cancer.

Emergent Bilinguals With Specific Reading Comprehension Deficits: A Comparative and Longitudinal Analysis

This study centered on emergent bilingual (EB) students with specific reading comprehension deficits (S-RCD), that is, with poor reading comprehension despite solid word identification skills. The participants were 209 students in Grades 2 to 4, including both EBs and English monolinguals (EMs) with and without S-RCD. Mean comparisons indicated that EBs and EMs with S-RCD showed weaknesses relative to typically developing (TD) readers in oral language, word identification, inference making, and reading engagement, but not in executive functioning. Longitudinal analyses indicated that across two academic years S-RCD persisted for 41% of EBs and EMs alike. Altogether, the study extends research on EBs with S-RCD by identifying variables beyond oral language that may account for their reading comprehension difficulties and providing insight into the extent to which their reading comprehension and word identification performance levels evolve during elementary school. Furthermore, the findings point to the importance of early identification and intervention for weaknesses in reading comprehension and its component elements in both EBs and EMS.

Audiovisual processing and selective attention in adult dyslexic readers: Anevent‐related potential study

Developmental dyslexia is a specific reading disability characterized by decoding and spelling deficits that continue into adulthood. Because reading involves both attentional functions and audiovisual (AV) processing, the aim of this study was to explore the associations between the two factors in adult dyslexic readers. Adult non‐impaired and dyslexic readers undertook alphabetic and non‐alphabetic tasks, each composed of three experimental blocks. Two experimental blocks contained left and right spatial selective attention manipulations, and another block included central presentations of the stimuli. Event‐related potential (ERP) and behavioural parameters were collected and analysed, particularly with respect to the N1‐P2 ERP complex. The dyslexic readers showed deviant patterns of amplitudes when it came to alphabetic stimuli processing. However, there was no difference between the two groups with regard to the non‐alphabetic stimuli. These results imply that adult dyslexic readers allocate altered attentional resources when it comes to the processing of AV alphabetic stimuli.

Specific EF-Related Tasks and Reading in Adolescents With Typical Hearing or a Cochlear Implant

The acquisition of effective reading comprehension for adolescents with a cochlear implant (CI) in inclusive settings is crucial for ensuring the benefit of current traditional reading curricula and instructional practices. Executive functions (EF) are recognized as important cognitive processes during reading by students with typical hearing (TH). This study compared the relationship between EF and reading comprehension in adolescents with TH and a CI. Three tests sessions were performed on two groups of adolescents between 12 and 16 years old (36 with CI and 54 with TH). Reading comprehension was assessed by a standardized reading battery and EF by computerized tests. The results indicated that adolescents with CI perform EF tasks with a similar efficiency as the TH group, but the performance of CI group on expository texts was lower than in TH students. Reading comprehension of expository texts was related to inhibition and shifting in adolescents with CI.

Theorizing Style (In Three Sketches)

Style is often saddled to a process of attribution and authorship, where it is deployed to qualify and distinguish between particular genres. Within art and design, these tend to be institutionally coded, such as “Bauhaus” style, or chronologically restricted, as with “Art Deco.” In this paper, I sketch out three ways in which style can be theorized as a transformative force, and not simply a referential schema. The three sketches introduce an understanding of style developed in the philosophical writings of Gilles Deleuze and Anne Sauvagnargues and the design practice of the Russian-French Avant Garde artist Sonia Delaunay. Through them, I develop a specific reading of style as a practice rather than as a genre that characterizes a brand or individual. By understanding style as practice, I seek to foreground an expressive capacity of style that is altogether asignifying, impersonal and transversal, as an injunction for rethinking the style of social-scientific research practice.

Branje mladih leta 2009 in leta 2018 ter razlike v branju glede na spol in izobraževalni program

Reading of the youth in 2009 and 2018: differences according to gender and national study programme The article presents reading characteristics of 15-year olds, as assessed in the OECD PISA study. Since reading was the major domain of assessment in PISA 2009 and 2018 cycles, we investigated differences in the results in the following areas: reading motivation, frequency of reading specific reading materials, reading activities on-line, and the assessment of the usefulness of metacognitive reading strategies. The analysis was carried out on a PISA sample of Slovenian 15-year olds (n = 6073 in 2009; n = 6401 in 2018). Besides the differences in reading motivation and other reading factors between the two PISA cycles, we were also interested in if these factors differ according to gender and national study programme. The results of the present study show that in PISA 2018, compared to PISA 2009, Slovenian 15-year olds reported less enjoyment in reading, less time spent reading for enjoyment, they assessed the metacognitive reading strategies to summarize information as less useful, and they also reported significantly lower levels of reading newspapers, magazines and comic books. On the other hand, they reported more frequent searches for particular information on-line. Compared to boys, girls from all national education programmes reported higher levels of enjoyment in reading, they more often perceived reading as an important hobby and reported more frequent reading of fiction books. On the other hand, boys reported more frequent reading of non-fiction books. The results of the present study also showed no significant differences between boys and girls within a particular study programme in reading activities on-line. Furthermore, the majority of these activities were associated with above-average results in both PISA cycles. We see a challenge for the teaching profession in Slovenia in strengthening the interest for reading in youth, encouraging the social context of reading, empowering them with knowledge of the efficient use of different reading strategies and creating quality on-line learning materials with applicable content. Key words: PISA study, reading characteristics of youth, reading motivation, gender differences, differences in national study programmes

Reconstructive Archaeology: In Situ Visualisation of Previously Excavated Finds and Features through an Ongoing Mixed Reality Process

Archaeological excavation is a demolishing process. Rather few elements outlast extractive operations. Therefore, it is hard to visualise the precise location of unearthed finds at a previously excavated research area. Here, we present a mixed reality environment that displays in situ 3D models of features that were formerly extracted and recorded with 3D coordinates during unearthing operations. We created a tablet application that allows the user to view the position, orientation and dimensions of every recorded find while freely moving around the archaeological site with the device. To anchor the model, we used physical landmarks left at the excavation. A series of customised forms were created to show (onscreen) the different types of features by superimposing them over the terrain as perceived by the tablet camera. The application permits zooming-in, zooming-out, querying for specific artefacts and reading metadata associated with the archaeological elements. When at the office, our environment enables accurate visualisations of the 3D geometry concerning previously unearthed features and their spatial relationships. The application operates using the Swift programming language, Python scripts and ARKit technology. We present here an example of its use at Les Cottés, France, a palaeolithic site where thousands of artefacts are excavated out of six superimposed layers with a complex conformation.

Reading skills deficits in people with mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Good reading skills are important for appropriate functioning in everyday life, scholastic performance, and acquiring a higher socioeconomic status. We conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify possible deficits in specific reading skills in people with a variety of mental illnesses, including personality disorders (PDs). We performed a systematic search of multiple databases from inception until February 2020 and conducted random-effects meta-analyses. The search yielded 34 studies with standardized assessments of reading skills in people with one or more mental illnesses. Of these, 19 studies provided data for the meta-analysis. Most studies (k=27; meta-analysis, k=17) were in people with schizophrenia and revealed large deficits in phonological processing (Hedge's g=-0.88, p<0.00001), comprehension (Hedge's g=-0.96, p <0.00001) and reading rate (Hedge's g=-1.22, p=0.002), relative to healthy controls; the single-word reading was less affected (Hedge's g=-0.70, p <0.00001). A few studies in affective disorders and nonforensic PDs suggested weaker deficits (for all, Hedge's g <-0.60). In forensic populations with PDs, there was evidence of marked phonological processing (Hedge's g=-0.85, p<0.0001) and comprehension deficits (Hedge's g=-0.95, p=0.0003). People with schizophrenia, and possibly forensic PD populations, demonstrate a range of reading skills deficits. Future studies are needed to establish how these deficits directly compare to those seen in developmental or acquired dyslexia and to explore the potential of dyslexia interventions to improve reading skills in these populations.

Disrupting the 'boys don't read' discourse: Primary school boys wholovereading fiction

This article disrupts dominant discourses around boys and reading that often homogenise young males as reluctant, disengaged and, at times, adversarial readers. Rather than essentialising boys, we argue there is a need for a more sophisticated knowledge base about the influences, constraints and diverse experiences of boys as readers in society today. Drawing on interviews (n = 30) with Year 4 (8 to 9‐year‐old) boys at six schools, we consider their personal recounts of their enjoyment in reading, their preferred reading choices and narratives related to their experiences as readers at school. Analysis highlights boys' emerging reading interests, sophisticated and specific reading preferences, and changes in reading identities over time. Boys' preferences for particular fiction authors, novel series and genres dispute the common assumption in educational contexts that boys prefer to engage with non‐fiction books. This finding is significant, as negative gendered stereotypes can impact on boys' reading self‐concepts. It is also critical given Jerrim and Moss's recent research highlighting the importance of fiction in the development of reading skills. We consider implications for pedagogical practices that broaden reading experiences for the diversity of emerging masculine reading identities in nations such as Australia, where there is an absence of reading for pleasure in education policies.

A Novel Locus and Candidate Gene for Familial Developmental Dyslexia on Chromosome 4q.

Objective: Developmental dyslexia is a highly heritable specific reading and writing disability. To identify a possible new locus and candidate gene for this disability, we investigated a four-generation pedigree where transmission of dyslexia is consistent with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern. Methods: We performed genome wide array-based SNP genotyping and parametric linkage analysis and sequencing analysis of protein-coding exons, exon-intron boundaries and conserved extragenic regions within the haplotype cosegregating with dyslexia in DNA from one affected and one unaffected family member. Cosegregation was confirmed by sequencing all available family members. Additionally, we analyzed 96 dyslexic individuals who had previously shown positive LOD scores on chromosome 4q28 as well as an even larger sample (n = 2591). Results: We found a single prominent linkage interval on chromosome 4q, where sequence analysis revealed a nucleotide variant in the 3' UTR of brain expressed SPRY1 in the dyslexic family member that cosegregated with dyslexia. This sequence alteration might affect the binding efficiency of the IGF2BP1 RNA-binding protein and thus influence the expression level of the SPRY1 gene product. An analysis of 96 individuals from a cohort of dyslexic individuals revealed a second heterozygous variant in this gene, which was absent in the unaffected sister of the proband. An investigation of the region in a much larger sample further found a nominal p-value of 0.0016 for verbal short-term memory (digit span) in 2,591 individuals for a neighboring SNV. After correcting for the local number of analyzed SNVs, and after taking into account linkage disequilibrium, we found this corresponds to a p-value of 0.0678 for this phenotype. Conclusions: We describe a new locus for familial dyslexia and discuss the possibility that SPRY1 might play a role in the etiology of a monogenic form of dyslexia.