Word Boxes Research Articles

Word Box Intervention Revolutionizes Early Literacy Potential in Education

his study investigates the efficacy of utilizing the "Word Box" media to enhance beginning reading skills among 5-6-year-old children in a preschool setting. Through a classroom action research (PTK) approach involving 12 participants, the study demonstrates a significant improvement in beginning reading proficiency from 17% in the pre-cycle to 83% in cycle II. The findings underscore the effectiveness of the intervention in improving early literacy skills and highlight its implications for teacher pedagogy and classroom management in preschool education. Highlight: Notable improvement: "Word Box" enhances beginning reading in preschoolers. Effective method: Innovative teaching fosters early literacy development. Pedagogical impact: Improves teacher skills and classroom management in preschool education. Keyword: Beginning reading, Preschool education, Classroom action research, Word Box media, Literacy development

Educational Word Box Game Tool To Enhance Cognitive Development In Early Childhood

This study aims to investigate the improvement of cognitive abilities in early childhood by utilizing the educational game "Word Box." The research employs a qualitative descriptive approach, with data collection methods including Documentation, Interviews, and Observations. Data analysis follows the Miles and Huberman model. The results indicate that the utilization of the educational game "Word Box" has a positive impact on the cognitive development of children through their interaction with the game. There is a significant improvement in cognitive aspects, such as memory skills, understanding, and language usage in children.

TextStyleBrush: Transfer of Text Aesthetics From a Single Example.

We present a novel approach for disentangling the content of a text image from all aspects of its appearance. The appearance representation we derive can then be applied to new content, for one-shot transfer of the source style to new content. We learn this disentanglement in a self-supervised manner. Our method processes entire word boxes, without requiring segmentation of text from background, per-character processing, or making assumptions on string lengths. We show results in different text domains which were previously handled by specialized methods, e.g., scene text, handwritten text. To these ends, we make a number of technical contributions: (1) We disentangle the style and content of a textual image into a non-parametric, fixed-dimensional vector. (2) We propose a novel approach inspired by StyleGAN but conditioned over the example style at different resolution and content. (3) We present novel self-supervised training criteria which preserve both source style and target content using a pre-trained font classifier and text recognizer. Finally, (4) we also introduce Imgur5K, a new challenging dataset for handwritten word images. We offer numerous qualitative photo-realistic results of our method. We further show that our method surpasses previous work in quantitative tests on scene text and handwriting datasets, as well as in a user study.

Alleviating reading difficulty in elementary students based on learning styles

This study focuses on the effects of learning styles on correcting the reading errors and improving the reading comprehension skills of elementary school 4th and 5th grade students. The study was conducted over eight weeks with a total of 128 hours, 32 hours each with a total of four students from two elementary schools in the Western Black Sea region, who has reading difficulties without mental, auditory, or visual problems. Ministry of National Education’s Turkish textbooks for grades 1-5 were used in the study. The Marmara Learning Styles Scale showed the learning style preferences of three students as auditory and that of the remaining student as visual. For students with a auditory learning style, the researcher created audio recordings with appropriate stress and speed. Before the students read the text, audio recordings were played through headphones. After listening, the students were asked to read aloud. For students with visual learning style, illustrated texts; texts with underlined words; texts with words, syllables and sentences highlighted in colored letters were used. The students' reading errors were corrected by using the word box strategy. The findings showed that, at the final reading that took place at the end of the study, student A was at the frustration level (90%), while students B and C were at the instructional level and student D had progressed to the independent reading level. Consequently, it was concluded that reading and comprehension activities based on learning styles are effective in diagnosing reading difficulties in elementary school students.

Effects of a Word Boxes Electronic App on Improving Letter-Sound Correspondences of Learners of English as an Additional Language

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Build a Word-Easy Spelling with Phonics, an electronic application of the word box intervention, on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of letter-sound correspondences for Learners of English as an Additional Language (LEALs). A single-subject multiple probe experimental design across five kindergarten LEALs. Students’ acquisition and maintenance of letter-sound correspondences were measured by the number of correct letter-sound correspondences identified in trained words and the number of trained words read correctly. Generalization measures involved identifying letter-sound correspondences in untrained real and nonsense words and a spelling task. Visual analysis and TAU-U calculations were used to examine intervention effects. Results demonstrate that the intervention Build a Word-Easy Spelling with Phonics substantially improved the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of letter-sound correspondences for the five LEALs. This study extends research on the effects of systematic phonics interventions for LEALs. Implications for practice are discussed.

Compact and Accurate Scene Text Detector

Scene text detection is the task of detecting word boxes in given images. The accuracy of text detection has been greatly elevated using deep learning models, especially convolutional neural networks. Previous studies commonly aimed at developing more accurate models, but their models became computationally heavy and worse in efficiency. In this paper, we propose a new efficient model for text detection. The proposed model, namely Compact and Accurate Scene Text detector (CAST), consists of MobileNetV2 as a backbone and balanced decoder. Unlike previous studies that used standard convolutional layers as a decoder, we carefully design a balanced decoder. Through experiments with three well-known datasets, we then demonstrated that the balanced decoder and the proposed CAST are efficient and effective. The CAST was about 1.1x worse in terms of the F1 score, but 30∼115x better in terms of floating-point operations per second (FLOPS).

THE EFFECT OF WORD BOX GAME ON THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY

Vocabulary is first thing to do and one micro skill that must be raise to help the students mastering four language skills. If the students have a lack of vocabulary, they will find some difficulties in expressing ideas in oral or written. In addition, if the students have less vocabulary, they also cannot access the information or knowledge. Moreover, without the words the students cannot really understand facts or ideas that the students have met. Therefore, the students should have to obtain vocabulary mastery to communicate effectively or express his ideas in both oral and written form and also used as basic foundation to construct a word into a good sequence of sentence. Due to the statement, this study is aimed to find out the effect of word box game on the eighth grade students’ vocabulary mastery at Mts Mathla’ul Anwar. The research method is using quasi experimental design and analyze the data by using statitistical hypothesis. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the data was normally distributed and homogeneous. Then, the researchers used t-test formula to analyze the hypotheses. From hypothesis test using t-test, obtained tcount was smaller than ttable or 1.54 < 1.67 on pre-test and on post-test that tcount was higher than ttable or 8.92 > 1.67 with the degree of significant α = 0.05 and df = 35 + 35 - 2 = 68. Thus, it can be concluded that there is difference of students’ vocabulary mastery between using word box game and without word box game in experiment and control class.

Effects of word boxes on improving students’ basic literacy skills: A literature review

Word boxes (also referred to as Elkonin or sound boxes) are used to teach basic literacy skills to children. However, there has not been a review of studies reporting on the effects of word boxes on students’ reading achievement. The purpose of this review was to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the effects of word boxes on students’ reading performance. Several experimental studies reporting on the effects of word boxes were identified through database searches followed by an ancestral search. Findings from this review revealed that there was evidence to support the use of word boxes for helping preschool to elementary students acquire phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondences, and spelling. Limitations and directions for future research are presented.

Effects of word boxes on phoneme segmentation, word identification, and spelling for a sample of children with autism

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of word boxes on the phoneme segmentation, word identification, and spelling performance of a sample of children with autism. Three children with autism were selected on the basis of similar performance on early literacy skills as measured by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) screening instrument. The word boxes is a method that involves students placing plastic letters into respective divided sections of a drawn rectangle (i.e., boxes) as each sound in a word is articulated. This method is designed to help children acquire phonological decoding skills. A multiple baseline design across literacy skills was employed to study the effects of word boxes on phoneme segmentation, word identification, and spelling. This study is important, as it was the first to examine the effects of this method with students with autism. Results suggested that all students showed increases in phoneme segmentation and word identification, with two of the students showing some improvement in spelling. Limitations and implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Words Matter: Scene Text for Image Classification and Retrieval

Text in natural images typically adds meaning to an object or scene. In particular, text specifies which business places serve drinks (e.g., cafe, teahouse) or food (e.g., restaurant, pizzeria), and what kind of service is provided (e.g., massage, repair). The mere presence of text, its words, and meaning are closely related to the semantics of the object or scene. This paper exploits textual contents in images for fine-grained business place classification and logo retrieval. There are four main contributions. First, we show that the textual cues extracted by the proposed method are effective for the two tasks. Combining the proposed textual and visual cues outperforms visual only classification and retrieval by a large margin. Second, to extract the textual cues, a generic and fully unsupervised word box proposal method is introduced. The method reaches state-of-the-art word detection recall with a limited number of proposals. Third, contrary to what is widely acknowledged in text detection literature, we demonstrate that high recall in word detection is more important than high f-score at least for both tasks considered in this work. Last, this paper provides a large annotated text detection dataset with 10 K images and 27 601 word boxes.

An investigation on the effects of music training on attention and working memory in adults

Objective: Determining the effects of music training on attention and working memory in adult music trainees using neuropsychological tests. Methods: The study was conducted within January-June 2014 at the Music Department of Inonu University. Twenty-two students of age 18-26 were matched one to one in terms of age, gender, level of academic education and dominant hand. Participants with substance abuse, psychiatric and neurological disease were excluded from study. ASRS, Stroop and WMS-R were applied on first and fourth year students. Results: The sample consisted of 24 women and 20 men. The mean age was 22±1.5 years and the mean academic level of education was 15±1.5 years. There was no significant difference between first and fourth year students in terms of ASRS-A, ASRS-B and ASRS total scores. There was no significant difference between groups in pre-university music experience. Fourth year students were better at greyscale word reading, color word reading and box color statement in Stroop. There was no significant difference in word color statement. Fourth year students were better in reverse month counting and counting by sevens in WMS-R. No significant difference was found in countdown range, short and long-term verbal and visual recognition, memory, mental control and concentration. Conclusion: Long-term and regular music training did not affect attention shifting in adults significantly, but caused improvement in some tests requiring working memory activity. Irregular music experience did not have significant contribution. Regular and intensive music practice may have functional effects on cognition in adults.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PHONICS INSTRUCTION AND STORYBOOKS IN ENGLISH READING CLASSES TO IMPROVE STUDENT PARTICIPATION

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instructional methods based on phonics instruction in reading classes to improve students participation therefore they can develop to their maximum potential. Using qualitative tools of observation, documentation and interview, this research was focusing the inquiry on investigating students’ reception to the phonics instruction model, observing their participation in the classroom activities, also investigating instructional methods which attract students to more actively contribute in learning activities. The finding shows that the reception of students to the model was good and they showed much eagerness in following the program. Further investigation revealed that students keen to participate more in the classroom activities especially in certain activities with the use of sound sheets, sound book, flash card sheets, word box sheets, songs, games and storybooks. However, there were two challenges identified during 16 weeks running the study; the lack of teachers’ skill in delivering this method efficiently also the limited collection of English story books in school. Hence, to improve the effectiveness of the use of phonics instruction in reading classroom, firstly, training for teachers would be needed to deliver the method effectively, secondly, considering the fact that school still have limited collection of English story books or any English books, the collaboration with government agencies or other promising bodies could be done to help in providing more collection of storybooks in school.

Effects of an iPad-Supported Phonics Intervention on Decoding Performance and Time On-Task

Despite their recent popularity in schools, there is minimal consensus in the educational literature regarding the use of mobile devices for reading intervention. The word box intervention (Joseph Read Teach 52:348–356, 1998) has been consistently associated with improvements in student decoding performance. This early efficacy study examined an iPad-supported approach to the word box intervention. The participants were three students from the same first grade classroom, all of whom lacked basic decoding skills and two of which were English language learners. The research question was evaluated with a multielement single-case experimental design that compared the standard materials to an equivalent iPad application. Results did not reveal a clear pattern on measures of decoding across the participants. Time on-task was high for both conditions for all three participants. Results indicated a need for future study of mobile-supported reading interventions in similar contexts.

Word Boxes Improve Phonemic Awareness, Letter–Sound Correspondences, and Spelling Skills of At-Risk Kindergartners

Early literacy skills are critical for success in school, yet many children fail to obtain these skills in a timely manner leaving them unable to perform at minimal academic expectations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of word box instruction, a research-based intervention designed to promote phonemic awareness, on the phonological, reading, and spelling skills of three kindergartners. A multiple probe design across the three skills was sequentially replicated across students to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Results demonstrated a functional relation between the word box instruction and increases in all three students’ segmenting skills and letter–sound correspondences, along with demonstrated improvements in spelling and reading.

Oxford American dictionary and thesaurus

For anyone who has ever spent time going back and forth from the thesaurus to the dictionary, in search of just the right word, the Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus is the perfect tool-an all-in-one desk reference offering the range and depth of a full dictionary, with a wide selection of synonyms and antonyms, plus valuable writing tips and information-all combined in one convenient, integrated volume. The Second Edition contains more than 150,000 words, phrases and definitions - twice as many as the competition - plus approximately 184,000 synonyms and antonyms. More important, the new edition now completely integrates the dictionary and thesaurus text, with the synonyms and antonyms directly following the dictionary definitions of their related part of speech. The new edition also boasts a fresh redesign of the interior, featuring an open, well-spaced layout and a more readable type, with the thesaurus sections clearly differentiated from the dictionary text for optimal clarity and usability. To accompany this fresh design, the book includes more than seventy pages of entirely revised supplementary material, including Usage Notes, Word Links, Choose the Right Word boxes, Word Toolkits, thematic lists, US/British equivalents, and a grammar guide - seamlessly blended into the principle text. And finally, many new headwords and example sentences have been added and the text has been revised throughout. With definitions and synonyms grouped together, writers can now know instantly if a particular word is the one that best captures what they want to say. Authoritative, up to date, and attractively redesigned, the second edition of the Oxford American Dictionary & Thesaurus is an essential resource for students, writers, and anyone else who wants to write clearly, precisely, and with power.

Comparison of phonic analysis and whole word‐reading on first graders' cumulative words read and cumulative reading rate: An extension in examining instructional effectiveness and efficiency

AbstractThis study compared the instructional effectiveness and efficiency of three word‐reading interventions on cumulative number of words read accurately and cumulative learning rate. Participants were six first graders who needed intensive intervention services. Alternating treatment designs were used to compare the effects of interspersal drill, a phonic analysis method consisting of word boxes (WB), and traditional drill and practice procedure on word‐reading performance. The current study extended this line of inquiry by including a phonic analysis condition and a measure of generalization. Results revealed that four students' cumulative word‐reading performances were greater under the phonic analysis condition. However, all students' cumulative rate of reading words was greater under the traditional drill and practice condition. As a group, there were no significant differences across conditions on maintaining and generalizing words. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 319–332, 2007.

Document retrieval from compressed images

With the emergence of digital libraries, more and more documents are stored and transmitted through the Internet in the format of compressed images. It is of significant meaning to develop a system which is capable of retrieving documents from these compressed document images. Aiming at the popular compression standard-CCITT Group 4 which is widely used for compressing document images, we present an approach to retrieve the documents from CCITT Group 4 compressed document images in this paper. The black and white changing elements are extracted directly from the compressed document images to act as the feature pixels, and the connected components are detected simultaneously. Then the word boxes are bounded based on the merging of the connected components. Weighted Hausdorff distance is proposed to assign all of the word objects from both the query document and the document from database to corresponding classes by an unsupervised classifier, whereas the possible stop words are excluded. Document vectors are built by the occurrence frequency of the word object classes, and the pair-wise similarity of two document images is represented by the scalar product of the document vectors. Nine groups of articles pertaining to different domains are used to test the validity of the presented approach. Preliminary experimental results with the document images captured from students’ theses show that the proposed approach has achieved a promising performance.

Facilitating Word Recognition and Spelling Using Word Boxes and Word Sort Phonic Procedures

Word boxes and word sorts are two word study phonics approaches that involve teaching phonemic awareness, making letter-sound associations, and teaching spelling through the use of well-established behavioral principles. In the current study, the effectiveness of word boxes and word sorts was examined through the use of a multiple baseline design across students. Participants had mild mental retardation and ranged in age from 9 years, 5 months to 10 years, 6 months. Findings revealed that word boxes and word sort phonic procedures increased students' word identification and spelling skills. The results are discussed in terms of how the format for these two instructional procedures facilitates opportunities to respond for teaching consonant-vowel-consonant patterned words.

Helping Children Link Sound to Print

Word boxes and word sorts are two phonic approaches that help children make connections between sound and print by gaining an awareness of the phonological and orthographic features of words. Word boxes and word sort lessons are engaging because students are asked to manipulate materials and make frequent responses rather than completing paper and pencil workbook exercises. These approaches have been typically used in one-to-one instructional situations. This article provides step-by-step procedures, showing how variations of these approaches can also be used in small-group and whole-class settings.

Developing first graders' phonemic awareness, word identification and spelling: A comparison of two contemporary phonic instructional approaches

This exploratory study compared the effectiveness of two contemporary phonic approaches (word box instruction and word sort instruction) on children's phonemic awareness, word identification, and spelling performance. Forty‐two first‐grade children who were randomly selected to participate in three conditions: word box instruction, word sort instruction, and traditional instruction. The experimental conditions lasted approximately three months and consisted of daily 20 minute phonics instruction sessions. Children were administered five posttest measures: phonemic blending, phonemic segmentation, pseudo‐word naming, word identification, and spelling. MANO VA and univariate analyses revealed that type of phonic instruction significantly discriminated among the groups on posttest measures. Post hoc analyses indicated that there were significant differences favoring (1) word box instruction group over the traditional group on performance on all posttest measures except spelling, and (2) word sort group over control on phonemic segmentation, word identification and spelling performance. No significant differences existed between the two experimental conditions on any measure.