Syntactic Awareness Research Articles

Implicit knowledge in unawareness structures

Awareness structures by Fagin, Halpern (Artif Intell 34:39–76, 1988) (FH) feature a syntactic awareness correspondence and accessibility relations modeling implicit knowledge. They are a flexible model of unawareness, and best interpreted from an outside modeler’s perspective. Unawareness structures by Heifetz et al. (J Econ Theory, 130:78–94, 2006, Games Econ Behav 62:305–324, 2008) (HMS) model awareness by a lattice of state spaces and explicit knowledge via possibility correspondences. Sublattices thereof can be interpreted as subjective views of agents. Open questions include (1) how implicit knowledge can be defined in HMS structures, and (2) in which way FH structures can be extended to model the agents’ subjective views. In this paper, we address (1) by defining implicit knowledge such that it is consistent with explicit knowledge in HMS models. We also introduce a variant of HMS models that instead of explicit knowledge, takes implicit knowledge and awareness as primitives. Further, we address (2) by introducing a category of FH models that are modally equivalent relative to sublanguages and can be interpreted as agents’ subjective views depending on their awareness. These constructions allow us to show an equivalence between HMS and FH models. As a corollary, we obtain soundness and completeness of HMS models with respect to the Logic of Propositional Awareness, based on a language featuring both implicit and explicit knowledge.

How parenting styles affect the development of language skills and reading comprehension in primary school students.

This study examined how parenting styles influence children's language skills and reading comprehension. Six hundred and eighty-five Chinese-speaking third graders (Mage = 9.23 years, SD = .66; 341 girls) were randomly recruited from eight primary schools. We measured students' primary caregivers' parenting styles, parental education, family income, migration status, number of children's extracurricular books in the home and family cohesion at Wave 1 (i.e. grade 3). We also assessed students' reading motivation, language skills (i.e. vocabulary knowledge and syntactic awareness) and reading comprehension at Wave 2 (i.e. grade 4). The structural equation model analysis revealed that parenting styles indirectly affect language and reading comprehension development, with authoritative and authoritarian parenting exerting different influences on the two outcomes. Specifically, authoritative parenting was positively related to the number of children's books, which in turn was directly, or indirectly through reading motivation, associated with children's language skills and reading comprehension. In contrast, authoritarian parenting was negatively related to family cohesion, which was associated with children's reading motivation, and consequently, their language skills and reading comprehension. The multigroup analysis showed that the indirect pathways varied slightly across parental migration statuses. These findings enhance the global understanding of the pathways linking parenting styles to children's language skills and reading comprehension, suggesting that educators and researchers should not overly emphasize the direct role of parenting styles in children's academic performance.

Syntactic awareness and argumentative features in student texts: a longitudinal study

O presente artigo relaciona estruturas sintáticas escritas por estudantes em transição para o Ensino Médio e o potencial argumentativo de seus textos. Adota-se a ideia de Consciência Sintática (Vieira;Faraco, 2020), discutida no âmbito do texto dissertativo-argumentativo, aos moldes do que se solicita no Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM). Com atividades planejadas, observou-se a trajetória dos estudantes na escrita desses textos, com foco na gradativa presença e diversidade de articuladores textuais e, conjuntamente, de adequadas relações lógico-semânticas, recursos que promovem textos mais organizados e consistentes. Foi aplicada uma Sequência Didática (SD) (Dolz; Noverraz; Schneuwly, 2004), alinhada a um ensino funcionalmente planejado, considerando o uso linguístico. Durante o desenvolvimento da SD, as produções dos mesmos alunos foram observadas em três momentos distintos (final do 9º ano e em dois momentos no 1º ano do Ensino Médio). Como resultado, o que se observou foi a presença de poucos articuladores nos textos iniciais, diferentemente das versões finais, nas quais houve expansão de emprego e diversificação do uso de articuladores textuais e, consequentemente, mais relações lógico-semânticas estabelecidas.

Do children with developmental dyslexia have syntactic awareness problems once phonological processing and memory are controlled?

IntroductionSyntactic awareness is the ability to monitor and manipulate word order within sentences. It is unclear whether children with dyslexia have syntactic awareness problems, as there are mixed results in the literature. Dyslexia is typically classified with very poor word and nonword reading and phonological processing problems are often observed in this population. It is conceivable that a phonological deficit could strain memory when performing oral syntactic awareness tasks. Here we examine if syntactic awareness problems are observed in children with dyslexia once phonological processing and memory skills are controlled.MethodsReal and nonword reading efficiency tests determined reading level. Children with dyslexia (n = 25) were compared to typically developing children (n = 24) matched for age (M = 8;8) and nonverbal abilities. Syntactic awareness was measured with an oral word order correction task (e.g., Is baking Lisa and her son in his room sleeps). Tests of phonological awareness, phonological memory, and verbal working memory were also administered and served as controls.ResultsThe dyslexic group performed worse than typically developing readers on syntactic awareness and this group difference persisted once phonological memory and verbal working memory were controlled. However, after controlling for phonological awareness skills, there were no group differences on the syntactic awareness test.Discussion:The results suggest that phonological awareness problems in particular might be responsible for syntactic awareness difficulties in dyslexia and future studies should control for this. The results are discussed within theoretical frameworks on the nature of oral language deficits in dyslexia.

The Relationships of Oral Reading Fluency at Word, Sentence, and Passage Levels and Reading Comprehension in Chinese.

This study aims to expand our understanding of the relations of oral reading fluency at word, sentence, and passage levels to reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking secondary school-aged students. In total, 80 participants (46 males and 34 females) ranging from 13 to 15 years old joined this study and were tested on tasks of oral reading fluency at three levels, reading comprehension, and nonverbal IQ. Our results showed a clear relationship from fluency at the level of the word to the sentence and then the passage in oral reading fluency as well as both the direct and indirect importance of word-level oral reading fluency in reading comprehension. Only the indirect effect from word-level oral reading fluency to reading comprehension through passage-level oral reading fluency was significant. Our findings suggest that sentence-level oral reading fluency is the crucial component to reading comprehension in Chinese. Additionally, recognition of the potential value of unique features, such as syntactic awareness and word segment accuracy, that happen at the sentence level should be integrated into instructional activities for reading.

The development of reading comprehension ability of Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) learners in Indonesia

This study investigates the evolution of reading comprehension abilities in Indonesian learners of the Chinese Heritage Language (CHL), by comparing their scores on the Chinese Proficiency Test, a test specifically designed for CHL learners. A total of 275 candidates, divided into early adolescent (Mage = 13.56), late adolescent (Mage = 15.78), and adult (Mage = 22.83) groups, were evaluated on four dimensions of reading comprehension: orthographic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension. A detailed cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of these four dimensions was conducted across the three groups. The results indicate that horizontally, the order of the four dimensions is orthographic knowledge > vocabulary knowledge > syntactic awareness > discourse comprehension, with significant differences observed in all dimensions. During adolescence, orthographic knowledge is significantly higher than vocabulary knowledge, while in adulthood, vocabulary knowledge is significantly higher than syntactic awareness, and syntactic awareness is significantly higher than discourse comprehension. Longitudinally, reading comprehension abilities appear to stall across adolescence in three dimensions (vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension), with a decline in one dimension (orthographic knowledge) occurring in late adolescence. However, the adult group shows improvement in all four dimensions compared to the late adolescence group. Considering both longitudinal and cross-sectional results, the developmental order of reading skills in Indonesian CHL learners is orthographic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension. The main developmental peak for orthographic knowledge to vocabulary knowledge occurs in adolescence, while the major developmental peak for vocabulary knowledge to syntactic awareness and for syntactic awareness to discourse comprehension occurs in adulthood. The results suggest that reading comprehension improves significantly upon reaching adulthood in Indonesian. By understanding the trajectory of reading comprehension abilities in Indonesian CHL learners, this study can provide effective suggestions for Indonesian CHL learners and educators, and may also serve as a reference for other heritage languages.

The Correlation between Syntactic Awareness of EFL University Teachers and Students' Writing Performance

The current study is aimed at finding out the correlation between syntactic awareness level of EFL university teachers and students' writing performance. The problem of this study is most of teachers as language teachers do not recognize the importance of syntax in teaching their students . Accordingly, students' problems in writing lie in their lack of understanding the nature , process, and requirements of academic writing . The problems of the current study are best identified by answering the following research question : To what extent can an efficient writing of college students be affected by the level of syntactic awareness of EFL university teachers? The sample of the study consists of (30) teachers from different specializations , and (100) students from fourth year at University of Tikrit , College of Education for Women , English Department. The current study includes three instruments after being validated and approved by a jury of experts. These are: 1) a questionnaire and a diagnostic test are applied to measure teachers' syntactic awareness , and 2) a diagnostic test is used to measure the performance of students in writing. The obtained results have shown that there is a positive correlation between teachers' syntactic awareness and the performance of students in writing . In the light of the obtained results , some conclusions are drawn .

Plano de intervenção em vocabulário, memória de trabalho e consciência sintática para adolescentes e jovens adultos com trissomia do 21: desenvolvimento e validação do conteúdo

ABSTRACT Purpose: to develop and validate the content of an intervention plan for adolescents and young adults with Trisomy 21, focusing on vocabulary, working memory, and syntactic awareness. Methods: a methodological study with validation stages for the proposed intervention, which was assessed by ten judges. The content validity index was used to evaluate the content, quantitatively. Results: most judges had a doctoral degree. All propositions reached the minimum score. The oral language intervention plan focusing on vocabulary, working memory, and syntactic awareness was designed for adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 25 years and 11 months. The proposal included fifteen 40-minute weekly sessions. Conclusion: the study presented the process of developing and validating the Oral Language Therapy Plan, focusing on vocabulary, working memory, and syntactic awareness for people presented with trisomy 21, with the judges’ agreement.

Intervention plan in vocabulary, working memory, and syntactic awareness for adolescents and young adults with trisomy 21: Content development and validation

RESUMO Objetivo: elaborar e validar o conteúdo de um plano de intervenção para adolescentes e jovens adultos com Trissomia do 21 focado em vocabulário, memória de trabalho e consciência sintática. Métodos: estudo metodológico, com etapas de validação de proposta de intervenção. Foi realizada avaliação com um grupo de dez juízes. Para avaliação do conteúdo de forma quantitativa, foi utilizado o Índice de Validade de Conteúdo. Resultados: a maior parte dos juízes apresenta doutorado. Em todas as proposições, o escore mínimo foi atingido. O plano de intervenção em linguagem oral com foco em vocabulário, memória de trabalho e consciência sintática foi elaborado para adolescentes e jovens adultos entre 13 e 25 anos e 11 meses. A proposta contempla 15 sessões de 40 minutos, semanalmente. Conclusão: foi possível apresentar o processo de desenvolvimento e validação do Plano Terapêutico em Linguagem Oral com foco em Vocabulário, Memória de Trabalho e Consciência Sintática para pessoas com Trissomia do 21 com a concordância dos juízes.

Morphological awareness predicts reading comprehension in first grade students

Research examining a role for morphological awareness in first grade students’ reading comprehension is scarce, although it is a well-established predictor for students in mid-to-late elementary school. One question that remains is whether morphological awareness explains unique variance in these young readers’ comprehension after accounting for other oral language skills. In this longitudinal study, we assessed Grade 1 students’ inflectional morphological awareness as a predictor of their concurrent (n = 58) and Grade 2 (n = 55) reading comprehension. When controlling for decoding and vocabulary, Grade 1 morphological awareness explained unique variance in concurrent and subsequent reading comprehension (4% and 5%, respectively). In novel analyses that controlled for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness, morphological awareness explained unique variance in Grade 2 reading comprehension (5%), but not in concurrent reading comprehension. This unique contribution only in second grade may be because decoding skills accounted for less of the overall variance in second than in first grade comprehension or due to the expectation that polymorphemic words are more frequent in second grade texts. Overall, morphological awareness emerged as the strongest oral language predictor in all models. These results support morphological awareness’ relevance to reading comprehension from early in children’s reading development and highlight the need for research to further explore the effects of targeting English morphological awareness with young students.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ МЕТАКОГНІТИВНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ У НАВЧАЛЬНІЙ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ СТУДЕНТІВ

A theoretical analysis of various aspects of metacognitivism is carried out, special attention is paid to the problem of studying metacognitive strategies, which are a set of certain actions aimed at planning, controlling cognitive processes, as well as the ratio of their activity results and their role in the educational activities of students. The features of metalinguistic knowledge and metalinguistic abilities are considered. Different educational concepts were analyzed for successful learning of the material. Special attention is paid to metalinguistic awareness, which is the awareness of language, its structures and functions, which allows speakers of this language to think about language and use it consciously. Metacognitive awareness is one of the types of metacognition, it can be defined as the ability of an individual to focus on language as an object in itself, to reflect on language and evaluate it. The types of metalinguistic abilities are: phonological awareness, word awareness, syntactic awareness, and pragmatic awareness, or, in other words, knowledge analysis and control of cognitive operations involving language processing. As a result, teachers should use a range of methods to increase metalinguistic awareness, such as word recognition, syntactic comprehension, and vocabulary recognition exercises. Numerous studies have shown that successful students independently regulate their learning processes. using metacognition – information Metacognitive strategies, possessing meta- narrative awareness.

Speech Prosody and Reading Comprehension in Chinese-English Bilingual Children: The Mediating Role of Syntactic Awareness.

Although children's prosodic sensitivity links with their reading comprehension, the factors affecting this link remain unclear. By simultaneously measuring first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English prosodic sensitivity and reading comprehension, this study examined the mediating role of syntactic awareness on prosody-reading comprehension among Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. A group of 227 Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual fourth graders completed L1 and L2 prosodic sensitivity (Cantonese lexical tone awareness and English prosodic sensitivity), syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension and control measures of cognitive (nonverbal IQ, short-term memory, and working memory), metalinguistic (phonological awareness and morphological awareness), linguistic (vocabulary knowledge), and word reading skills. The within-language analyses showed a partial mediation effect of Chinese syntactic awareness on the relation between Cantonese lexical tone awareness and Chinese reading comprehension, but a full mediation effect of English syntactic awareness on the relation between English prosodic sensitivity and English reading comprehension. The cross-language analyses revealed a significant direct effect of Cantonese lexical tone awareness on English reading comprehension and a significant indirect effect of English prosodic sensitivity on Chinese reading comprehension via Chinese syntactic awareness. These findings suggest that, despite the language-independent mediating role of syntactic awareness in bridging prosody and reading comprehension, the degree of this mediation is shaped by language-specific prosody and its relations with other linguistic structures, including semantics.

Syntactic Awareness and Reading Comprehension in Emergent Bilingual Children

The present study investigated the role of syntactic awareness in reading comprehension among English–French bilinguals learning French as an additional language in Canadian French immersion programs. We examined the direct effect of French syntactic awareness on French reading comprehension as well as the indirect effects mediated through French word reading and French vocabulary. We further examined the extent to which English syntactic awareness contributed to French reading comprehension through cross-language transfer, again considering both the direct effect and the indirect effects through French word reading and French vocabulary. Mediation analyses indicated that, within French, the relationship between French syntactic awareness and French reading comprehension was fully mediated by both French word reading and French vocabulary. In contrast, English syntactic awareness contributed directly to French reading comprehension. Finally, French word reading partially mediated the relationship between English syntactic awareness and French reading comprehension. Our study suggests that children who learn French as an additional language rely on word reading and vocabulary, in addition to French syntactic awareness, to comprehend French texts. Given that English is French immersion children’s stronger language, they use English syntactic awareness to support French reading comprehension both directly and indirectly through French word reading.

Specifying the contributions of morphological awareness to decoding, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension in Chinese children learning English as a second language

Specifying the contributions of morphological awareness to decoding, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension in Chinese children learning English as a second language

Predicting Reading Fluency in Chinese Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students: Contributions of Character Recognition, Expressive Vocabulary, and Syntactic Awareness.

To explore the roles of character recognition, expressive vocabulary, and syntactic awareness in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students' reading fluency, 52 Chinese DHH students (mean age = 13.29 years) in elementary school participated in the present study. The results showed that character recognition, expressive vocabulary, and syntactic awareness significantly predicted DHH students' reading fluency after age and nonverbal reasoning ability were controlled for. Specifically, character recognition and syntactic awareness uniquely and significantly accounted for the variance in reading fluency beyond the effect of the other two predictors in children in lower grades (grades 1-3), whereas the unique effects of expressive vocabulary and syntactic awareness were significant in children in higher grades (grades 4-6). These findings suggested that these three factors are important to Chinese DHH students' reading fluency, but that their relative contributions vary across different stages in elementary school.

A pontuação como janela para a consciência sintática

More than developing a study on punctuation, this paper intends to explore the uses of punctuation as a window to syntactic awareness or metasyntactic abilities. Different theoretical models identify several degrees of conscious access to linguistic knowledge and types of metalinguistic verbalizations. The analysis of canonical and deviant punctuation in adult academic writing contributes to the characterization of different degrees of syntactic awareness, corroborating some theoretical hypotheses under discussion in section 2. A case study is the methodological approach adopted to study undergraduate students’ punctuation. The analysis included four tasks: (i) written production, (ii) error correction task, (iii) metalinguistic explanation, and (iv) verbalized conceptions in a focus group. Results, presented in section 4, show a general dissociation between explicit knowledge of the punctuation rules and general success in its uses. Conclusions point to some clues for an academic writing pedagogy and a more complex concept of “syntactic awareness”, in which different degrees of controlled access and verbalization abilities must be considered.

Oral Language Abilities in Children with Dyslexia and Poor Comprehension in Grades 3–6

Objectives: This study investigated receptive vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills of children with dyslexia, poor comprehension, and typically developing children in grade 3 to 6. Methods: A total of 45 children with dyslexia, poor comprehension, and typically developing children participated. In order to qualify for each group, children with dyslexia scored below 85 on the word decoding test, and poor comprehenders scored below 85 on the reading comprehension, but scored above 90 on decoding test. Typically developing children scored a standard score of 90 on both decoding and reading comprehension. All children were administered a receptive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, sentence repetition, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness tasks. Results: The results showed that there were significant differences in all language tasks. Poor comprehenders scored the lowest on all tasks, followed by children with dyslexia. In the results receptive vocabulary task, there were differences between all three groups; and poor comprehenders performed lower than children with dyslexia and typically developing children on sentence comprehension. In the sentence repetition task, children with poor reading comprehension and dyslexia showed lower performance than typically developing children. Additionally, there were only differences between poor comprehenders and typically developing children in the morphological and syntactic awareness tasks. Conclusion: Poor comprehenders showed difficulties in vocabulary and morphosyntax, and children with dyslexia exhibited weakness of vocabulary and sentence repetitions that require linguistic knowledge and phonological memory. Their weakness of oral language may negatively influence reading development.

Do vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension in second language facilitate the development of each other in young children?

This study explored whether children's second language (L2) vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and reading comprehension contributed to the growth of each other. A total of 184 Chinese primary school children (91 girls) aged 8–10 years old in Hong Kong participated in the pre-test of this study. Among them, 88 were in Grade 3 and 96 were in Grade 4. One year later, 178 of these children also participated in the post-test. These children learned English as an L2 at school. They completed a series of English language tasks. The results from a cross-lagged panel model show that vocabulary predicted the growth of syntactic awareness and reading comprehension. Syntactic awareness predicted the growth of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Reading comprehension facilitated the growth of vocabulary, and it also predicted the growth of syntactic awareness in Grade 4 students but not in Grade 3 students. Implications for teaching children an L2 are discussed.

Reading Comprehension in French L2/L3 Learners: Does Syntactic Awareness Matter?

This study examines the contributions of syntactic awareness to reading comprehension, both within and across languages, in third-grade children learning French as a second (L2) or third language (L3). Participants were 72 non-francophone children enrolled in a Canadian French immersion program in which all academic instruction is in French. Children completed measures of reading comprehension, syntactic awareness, word reading, vocabulary, and reading-related control variables in both English and French. Regression analyses examining within-language relations revealed that French syntactic awareness made a significant unique contribution to French reading comprehension after controlling for nonverbal reasoning, language status (French as either L2 or L3), word reading, and vocabulary. Furthermore, French syntactic awareness contributed across languages to English reading comprehension, after accounting for English controls (word reading, vocabulary, syntactic awareness) in addition to nonverbal reasoning and language status. In sharp contrast, measures of English syntactic awareness made no unique contribution to reading comprehension in either English or French after the aforementioned controls. These findings add to theoretical models of reading comprehension by highlighting the importance of syntactic awareness in the language of instruction in supporting bilingual children’s reading comprehension.

Syntactic awareness matters: uncovering reading comprehension difficulties in Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children.

This study examined whether syntactic awareness was related to reading comprehension difficulties in either first language (L1) Chinese or second language (L2) English, or both, among Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual children. Parallel L1 and L2 metalinguistic and reading measures, including syntactic word-order, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, vocabulary, word reading, reading comprehension, and cognitive measures of nonverbal intelligence and working memory, were administered to 224 fourth-graders. Five groups of comprehenders were identified using a regression approach: (1) 12 poor in Chinese-only (PC), (2) 18 poor in English-only (PE), (3) six poor in both Chinese and English (PB), (4) 14 average in both Chinese and English (AB), and (5) seven good in both (GB). The results of multivariate analyses of covariance showed that (1) the PB group performed worse than the AB and GB groups in both L1 Chinese and L2 English syntactic awareness; (2) the PC and PE groups performed worse than the AB and GB groups in Chinese syntactic awareness; (3) the PE group had lower performance than the PC, AB, and GB groups in English syntactic awareness; and (4) no significant group difference was found in L2 morphological awareness or vocabulary across both languages. By suggesting that weakness insyntactic awareness can serve asa universal indicator for identifying poor comprehenders in either or both L1Chinese and L2English among Hong Kong Chinese-Englishbilingual children, these findings demonstrate the fundamental role of syntacticawareness in bilingual reading comprehension.