Showing papers on "Written language published in 1995"

Joint Book Reading Makes for Success in Learning to Read: A Meta-Analysis on Intergenerational Transmission of Literacy

Abstract: The current review is a quantitative meta-analysis of the available empirical evidence related to parent-preschooler reading and several outcome measures. In selecting the studies to be included in this meta-analysis, we focused on studies examining the frequency of book reading to preschoolers. The results support the hypothesis that parent-preschooler reading is related to outcome measures such as language growth, emergent literacy, and reading achievement. The overall effect size of d = .59 indicates that book reading explains about 8% of the variance in the outcome measures. The results support the hypothesis that book reading, in particular, affects acquisition of the written language register. The effect of parent-preschooler reading is not dependent on the socioeconomic status of the families or on several methodological differences between the studies. However, the effect seems to become smaller as soon as children become conventional readers and are able to read on their own.

Vocabulary size and use: lexical richness in L2 written production

Abstract: This article shows that if there is some control over genre then there will be a close correspondence between the vocabulary size of intermediate learners as reflected in their writing and a more direct measure of vocabulary size The study proposes a new measure of lexical richness, the Lexical Frequency Profile, which looks at the proportion of high frequency general service and academic words in learners' writing The study shows that it is possible to obtain a reliable measure of lexical richness which is stable across two pieces of writing by the same learners It also discriminates between learners of different proficiency levels For learners of English as a second language, the Lexical Frequency Profile is seen as being a measure of how vocabulary size is reflected in use In this study, it was found that the Lexical Frequency Profile correlates well with an independent measure of vocabulary size This reliable and valid measure of lexical richness in writing will be useful for determining the factors that affect judgements of quality in writing and will be useful for examining how vocabulary growth is related to vocabulary use. © 1995 Oxford University Press.

Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen

Abstract: Chapter 1 From Atlas and Audiolingualism to Acquisition Chapter 2 Working with Input Chapter 3 Communicating in the Classroom Chapter 4 Building Toward a Proficiency Goal Chapter 5 Suggestions for Using Information-Exchange Tasks for Oral Testing Chapter 6 Issues in Learning and Teaching Grammar Chapter 7 Processing Instruction and Structured Input Chapter 8 Structured Output: A Focus on Form in Language Production Chapter 9 Suggestions for Testing Grammar Chapter 10 Listening Comprehension Chapter 11 Comprehending Written Language Chapter 12 Writing and Composing in a Second Language Chapter 13 Issues in Testing Comprehension and in Evaluating Writing

Literacy Practices: Investigating Literacy in Social Contexts

Abstract: Defining literacy: models, myths and metaphors investigating literacy practices in context educational contexts for literacy development spoken and written language reading as situated social practice writing as situated social practice researching literacy as social practice.

Language Minority Students in the Mainstream Classroom

Abstract: Limited-English-proficient students in the mainstream classroom limited-English-proficient students/ English language learners - who are they? cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom alternatives to mainstreaming the integrated development or oral and written language instructional strategies for LEP/ELL student's oral and written English language development integrating language and social studies learning integrating language and science learning integrating language and mathematics learning the role of teachers in the development of linguistic, cognitive, and academic skills of LEP/ELL students.

Spoken grammar: what is it and how can we teach it?

Abstract: The teaching of grammar is regularly based on written examples and on a proscriptive approach to ‘correct’ English. This article argues that consideration by teachers of spoken English shows that learners need to be given choices between written and spoken grammars, that the interpersonal implications of spoken grammars are important, and that methodologically inductive learning may be more appropriate than the 3Ps (Presentation–Practice–Production) approaches adopted in traditional grammar books.

L1 and L2 Writers' Strategic and Linguistic Knowledge: A Model of Multiple‐Level Discourse Processing

Abstract: This study compared the cognitive processing of 12 anglophone second-year French undergraduate students who were prompted to write an argumentative text in both L1 (English) and L2 (French). The students' speaking aloud protocols and textual drafts provided the basis of collected data. In the first part of the study, the writers' planning, evaluation, and revision strategies were (a) analyzed in terms of the pragmatic., textual, and linguistic manifestations of these processes and (b) compared for differences in processing behaviors between their L1 and L2 writing. In the second part, we measured linguistic processing occurrences to analyze their effect on more global processing behaviors at the pragmatic and textual levels. The linguistic constraints imposed by the writers' knowledge of the second language (French) point toward some significant differences in discourse level processing between L1 and L2 writing behaviors. However, the results reveal that the state of the writers' strategic knowledge and capacity for meaningful multiple-level discourse processing explains the constraining effects of linguistic processing on L2 written discourse production.

Global Interface Design

Abstract: Some rules to design by design rule 1 - provide correct written language design rule 2 - look at visual components of a language design rule 3 - take formats into account mega rule 4 - understand the culture and work styles.

Visually Cued Instruction for Children with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Abstract: Visually cued instruction involves the use of pictographic and written language as instructional supports in both structured and natural learning contexts. This article discusses the theoretical ra...

A Narrative Perspective on the Development of the Tense/Aspect System in Second Language Acquisition.

Abstract: A number of studies on the acquisition of tense and aspect by learners of a second language point to the hypothesis that narrative structure influences the distribution of tense/aspect forms in interlanguage. However, the studies have reported conflicting profiles of tense/aspect use. This study suggests that much of the variation that has been previously reported stems from the level of proficiency of the learners. This crosssectional study examines 37 written and oral narrative pairs produced in a film retell task by adult learners of English as a second language. The analysis approaches the texts from two perspectives, from the perspective of acquisition, taking narrative structure (specifically grounding) as an environment for acquisition of tense/aspect, and from the perspective of the narrative itself, characterizing the foreground and background by the tense/aspect forms used. The study finds a developmental pattern in the distribution of tense/aspect morphology with respect to narrative structure. These results permit the assimilation of earlier findings into a developmental sequence in the acquisition of the tense/aspect system.

Rating Nonnative Writing: The Trouble with Holistic Scoring.

Abstract: The TESOL Quarterly publishes brief commentaries on aspects of qualitative and quantitative research. For this issue, we asked two researchers to discuss methodological challenges in the rating of compositions.

Effects of Speech Synthesis on the Proofreading Efficiency of Postsecondary Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract: This study investigated the effects of speech synthesis on the proofreading efficiency of postsecondary students with learning disabilities. Subjects proofread self-generated written language sampl...

Learning Written Storybook Language in School: A Comparison of Low-SES Children in Skills-Based and Whole Language Classrooms

Abstract: This study examined three data sets from previous studies to determine if children who begin kindergarten with significantly less implicit linguistic knowledge of books, as compared to well-read-to kindergartners, acquire this knowledge through experience with books in kindergarten and first grade. Further, the impact of instructional method on acquisition of this linguistic knowledge was examined by comparing children who experienced skills-based beginning literacy instruction to those who participated in whole language classrooms. Results show that all of the children who began school with low levels of knowledge of written syntax and vocabulary catch up to the well-read-to children’s baseline kindergarten scores on this dimension by the end of first grade. In addition, those children in whole language classes with increased levels of storybook readings, book discussions, and opportunities to explore books and to write, as compared to the skill-based curriculums, showed significantly greater growth in t...

The Cambridge Australian English style guide

Abstract: Australian English is unique; having absorbed elements of British and American English, it has developed its own distinctive style. The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide is both an assessment of the current state of Australian English and a guide to its style and usage. It is full of interesting information about why certain preferences are coming into use and, without being prescriptive, will give users all the information they need to make an appropriate choice. With more than 2500 alphabetical entries and a range of diagrams, this book will make life easier for anyone who deals with written language.

Script Directionality Affects Nonlinguistic Performance: Evidence From Hindi and Urdu

Abstract: All writing systems are written in a specific linear order; some are written from top to bottom, others from left to right, and still others are written from right to left. Because of this fact about written language, users of scripts with different directionalities acquire differential directional scanning biases arising from their reading/writing experience (van Sommers, 1991). The influence of directional scanning tendencies has been amply documented in studies of verbal memory and perception comparing readers of left-toright versus right-to-left scripts (Nachshon, 1985 for a review).

Effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System used in Public School Training

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether special education pull-out programs with teachers trained in the multisensory instruction of phonological awareness and English word structure yield significant growth in reading and spelling skills. The present study examined the effectiveness of multisensory structured language teaching in public school settings using the Wilson Reading System. Data from pre and post tests of 220 language learning disabled students in grades 3-12 were analyzed. The results demonstrate significant student gains in word attack, reading comprehension, total reading, and spelling. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System with learning disabled students in public schools. Two concerns need to be addressed in a school system’s approach to Special Education: First, learning disabled students’ low reading abilities; and, second, their teachers’ lack of knowledge of multisensory structured language teaching. Most children identified as learning disabled lack basic reading skills (Forness and Kavale 1985) and thus have trouble in most subject areas. Their inclusion in regular classroom settings requires specific accommodations. Unfortunately, inclusion does not solve the learning disabled student(s)’ primary problem, an inability to read commensurate with their cognitive ability. Placing learning disabled students in total inclusion programs without teaching them to read, does not work. Most learning disabled students have an underlying deficit in phonological processing (Adams 1990; Stahl, Osborn & Lehr 1990; Stanovich 1982). Several studies have show learning disabled students are able to make significant gains in their basic reading and spelling skills when phonological awareness and total word structure are taught directly and systematically (Bradley & Bryant 1991; Felton 1993; Williams 1987). Reading and special education teachers working with LD students need to know the phonological structure of the English language and must be given specialized training to teach this structure in a direct, systematic, multisensory way. This brings us to our second concern, teacher training. According to Dr. Louisa Cook Moats, “the kind of expertise in language structure that is required of teachers for remediating and preventing reading problems” is lacking (Moats, 1994). Teachers have an insufficient grasp of spoken and written language structure (including phonological awareness and morphology) and do not know how to teach reading disabled students (Moats, 1994). The Wilson Reading System addresses both of these concerns by directly teaching phonological processing and the structure of the English Language to both

Discourse and Dominion in the Fourteenth Century: Oral Contexts of Writing in Philosophy, Politics, and Poetry

Abstract: This wide-ranging study of language and cultural change in fourteenth-century England argues that the influence of oral tradition is much more important to the advance of literary than scholarship has previously recognized. In contrast to the view of orality and literacy as contending forces of opposition, the book maintains that the power of language consists in displacement, the capacity of one channel of language to take the place of the other, to make the source disappear into the copy. Appreciating the interplay between oral and written language makes possible for the first time a way of understanding the high literate achievements of this century in relation to momentous developments in social and political life.

Ability of Subjects With Aphasia to Visually Analyze Written Language, Pantomime, and Iconographic Symbols

Abstract: Considerable debate exists regarding aphasia and its relationship to deficits observed in the ability to analyze visual stimuli. In this investigation, the ability of patients with aphasia to compr...

The Continuum of Literacy in American Indian Communities.

Abstract: Based on research among the Tohono O’odham of southern Arizona, this paper first describes spoken O’odham and oral narrative, relating this to the development of O’odham children’s English literacy. Oral tradition constitutes one aspect of a “literacy continuum” grounded in familial and community relationships. “School literacy” often constitutes an opposite end of that continuum; historically this form of literacy has remained isolated from and in conflict with literacy rooted in the family/community context. The discussion here shows how the two types of literacy are connected in children’s writing, and provides recommendations for educators to tap indigenous students’ linguistic and cultural resources to promote literacy in a second language.

The Relationship between Wide Reading and Listening Comprehension of Written Language

Abstract: This study was the first to examine the relationship between wide reading and listening comprehension in the first language. It answered two questions concerning this relationship. First, higher le...

Intervention Using Talking Word Processing Software: An Aphasia Case Study

Abstract: An adult with mild aphasia (Mr. C) participated in an 8-week intervention program addressing written language. This case study reports the impact of using a talking word processing program on the frequency of errors in written language. The examiner tallied word-level substitution, addition, omission, and spelling errors for preintervention, intervention, and postintervention written language samples. An immediate decrease in overall error rate occurred when Mr. C used the talking output feature to edit his written language. The frequency of errors also decreased from preintervention to postintervention samples written without the assistance of computerized spoken feedback. Subjective ratings by 20 adults revealed a significant change in overall writing quality.

Deep dyslexia and the right hemisphere hypothesis: Spoken and written language after extensive left hemisphere lesion in a 12-year-old boy

Abstract: The subject of this study was a right-handed Italian boy who sustained extensive left hemisphere damage after a massive subarachnoid haemorrhage at age 12 years; the right hemisphere was fully intact. Two years later, he had a residual anomic aphasia with good sentence construction and comprehension of speech. His reading aloud showed all the characteristics of deep dyslexia, although some minimal ability to read pseudowords remained. Writing and spelling were severely impaired, but without clear qualitative signs of deep dysgraphia. The overall pattern of performance is discussed with regard to the written language capacity of the nondominant right hemisphere and its contribution to normal reading. We conclude that in this case (and perhaps some other cases of acquired deep dyslexia), reading and writing may be mediated by a combination of left and right hemisphere sites.