Search results for: reading abilities

Authors: Evgeniya V. Gavrilova, Sofya S. Belova

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The present study was aimed at clarifying the relationship between general intellectual abilities and efficiency in free recall and rhymed words generation task after incidental exposure to linguistic stimuli. The theoretical frameworks stress that general intellectual abilities are based on intentional mental strategies. In this context, it seems to be crucial to examine the efficiency of incidentally presented information processing in cognitive task and its relation to general intellectual abilities. The sample consisted of 32 Russian students. Participants were exposed to pairs of words. Each pair consisted of two common nouns or two city names. Participants had to decide whether a city name was presented in each pair. Thus words’ semantics was processed intentionally. The city names were considered to be focal stimuli, whereas common nouns were considered to be peripheral stimuli. Along with that each pair of words could be rhymed or not be rhymed, but this phonemic aspect of stimuli’s characteristic (rhymed and non-rhymed words) was processed incidentally. Then participants were asked to produce as many rhymes as they could to new words. The stimuli presented earlier could be used as well. After that, participants had to retrieve all words presented earlier. In the end, verbal and non-verbal abilities were measured with number of special psychometric tests. As for free recall task intentionally processed focal stimuli had an advantage in recall compared to peripheral stimuli. In addition all the rhymed stimuli were recalled more effectively than non-rhymed ones. The inverse effect was found in words generation task where participants tended to use mainly peripheral stimuli compared to focal ones. Furthermore peripheral rhymed stimuli were most popular target category of stimuli that was used in this task. Thus the information that was processed incidentally had a supplemental influence on efficiency of stimuli processing as well in free recall as in word generation task. Different patterns of correlations between intellectual abilities and efficiency in different stimuli processing in both tasks were revealed. Non-verbal reasoning ability correlated positively with free recall of peripheral rhymed stimuli, but it was not related to performance on rhymed words’ generation task. Verbal reasoning ability correlated positively with free recall of focal stimuli. As for rhymed words generation task, verbal intelligence correlated negatively with generation of focal stimuli and correlated positively with generation of all peripheral stimuli. The present findings lead to two key conclusions. First, incidentally processed stimuli had an advantage in free recall and word generation task. Thus incidental information processing appeared to be crucial for subsequent cognitive performance. Secondly, it was demonstrated that incidentally processed stimuli were recalled more frequently by participants with high nonverbal reasoning ability and were more effectively used by participants with high verbal reasoning ability in subsequent cognitive tasks. That implies that general intellectual abilities could benefit from operating by different levels of information processing while cognitive problem solving. This research was supported by the “Grant of President of RF for young PhD scientists” (contract № is 14.Z56.17.2980- MK) and the Grant № 15-36-01348a2 of Russian Foundation for Humanities.

Keywords: focal and peripheral stimuli, general intellectual abilities, incidental information processing

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Authors: Diane Prorak, Perri Moreno

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University students may have been born in the digital age, but they need to be taught the critical thinking skills to detect misinformation and social media manipulation online. In recent years, librarians have been active in designing instructional methods to help students learn information evaluation skills. At the University of Idaho Library (USA), librarians have developed new teaching methods for these skills. Last academic year, when classes were taught via Zoom, librarians taught these skills to an online session of each first-year rhetoric and composition course. In the Zoom sessions, students were placed in breakout groups where they practiced using an evaluation method known as lateral reading. Online collaborative software was used to give each group an evaluative task and break the task into steps. Groups reported back to the full class. Students learned to look at an information source, then search outside the source to find information about the organization, publisher or author, before evaluating the source itself. Class level pre-and post-test comparison results showed students learned better techniques for evaluation than they knew before instruction.

Keywords: critical thinking, information evaluation, information literacy instruction, lateral reading.

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Authors: Siew Ming Thang, Wong Hoo Keat, Chee Hao Sue, Fung Lan Loo, Ahju Rosalind

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There are numerous studies that explored young learners’ literacy skills in Malaysia but none that uses the eye-tracking device to track their cognitive processes when reading picture storybooks. This study used this method to investigate two groups of prereaders’ cognitive processes in four conditions. (1) A congruent picture was presented, and a matching narration was read aloud by a recorder; (2) Children heard a narration telling about the same characters in the picture but involves a different scene; (3) Only a picture with matching text was present; (4) Students only heard the reading aloud of the text on the screen. The two main objectives of this project are to test which content of pictures helps the prereaders (i.e., young children who have not received any formal reading instruction) understand the narration and whether children try to create a coherent mental representation from the oral narration and the pictures. The study compares two groups of children from two different kindergartens. Group1: 15 Chinese children; Group2: 17 Malay children. The medium of instruction was English. An eye-tracker were used to identify Areas of Interest (AOI) of each picture and the five target elements and calculate number of fixations and total time spent on fixation of pictures and written texts. Two mixed factorial ANOVAs with the storytelling performance (good, average, or weak) and vocabulary level (low, medium, high) as between-subject variables, and the Areas of Interests (AOIs) and display conditions as the within-subject variables were performedon the variables.

Keywords: eye-tracking, cognitive processes, literacy skills, prereaders, visual attention

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Authors: Thuy Hanh Nguyen Thi

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By the method of deep reading and text analysis, this article will analyze the use and creation of dialects as a way of demonstrating Yan Lianke's creative stance. This article indicates that this is the writer’s narrative strategy in a fight against aphasia, a language disorder of Chinese people and culture, demonstrating a sense of return to folklore and marks his own linguistic style. In terms of verbal text, the dialect in the Yan Lianke’s novels manifested through the use of words, sentences and dialects. There are two types of dialects that exist in Yan Lianke’s novels: the current dialect system and the particular dialect system of Pa Lau world created by the writer himself in order to enrich the vocabulary of Han Chinese.

Keywords: Yan Lianke , aphasia, dialect, Pa Lou world

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Authors: Rangika Perera, Shyamani Hettiarachchi, Fran Hagstrom

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Dyslexia is the most common reading reading-related difficulty among the school school-aged population and currently, 5-10% are showing the features of dyslexia in Sri Lanka. As there is an insufficient number of speech and language pathologists in the country and few speech and language pathologists working in government mainstream school settings, these children who are at risk of dyslexia are not receiving enough quality early intervention services to develop their reading skills. As teachers are the key professionals who are directly working with these children, using them as the primary facilitators to improve their reading skills will be the most effective approach. This study aimed to identify the efficacy of a two and half a day of intensive training provided to fifteen mainstream government school teachers of grade two classes. The goal of the training was to enhance their knowledge of dyslexia and provide full classroom skills training that could be used to support the development of the students’ reading competencies. A closed closed-ended multiple choice questionnaire was given to these teachers pre and -post-training to measure teachers’ knowledge of dyslexia, the areas in which these children needed additional support, and the best strategies to facilitate reading competencies. The data revealed that the teachers’ knowledge in all areas was significantly poorer prior to the training and that there was a clear improvement in all areas after the training. The gain in target areas of teaching skills selected to improve the reading skills of children was evaluated through peer feedback. Teachers were assigned to three groups and expected to model how they were going to introduce the skills in recommended areas using researcher developed, validated and reliability reliability-tested materials and the strategies which were introduced during the training within the given tasks. Peers and the primary investigator rated teachers’ performances and gave feedback on organizational skills, presentation skills of materials, clarity of instruction, and appropriateness of vocabulary. After modifying their skills according to the feedback the teachers received, they were expected to modify and represent the same tasks to the group the following day. Their skills were re-evaluated by the peers and primary investigator using the same rubrics to measure the improvement. The findings revealed a significant improvement in their teaching skills development. The data analysis of both knowledge and skills gains of the teachers was carried out using quantitative descriptive data analysis. The overall findings of the study yielded promising results that support intensive training as a method for improving teachers’ knowledge and teaching skill development for use with children in a whole class intervention setting who are at risk of dyslexia.

Keywords: Dyslexia, knowledge, teaching skills, training program

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Authors: Emilie Zimet

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During our department meetings for teachers of children with learning disabilities and difficulties, we often discuss the best practices for supporting students who come to school with literacy difficulties. After completing Sounds Write and Writing Revolution courses, it seems there is a possibility to link approaches and still maintain fidelity to a program and provide individualised instruction to support students with such difficulties and disabilities. In this case study, the researcher has been focussing on how best to use the knowledge acquired to provide quality intervention that targets the varied areas of challenge that students require support in. Students present to school with a variety of co-occurring reading and writing deficits and with complementary approaches, such as The Writing Revolution and Sounds Write, it is possible to support students to improve their fundamental skills in these key areas. Over the next twelve weeks, the researcher will collect data on current students with whom this approach will be trialled and then compare growth with students from last year who received support using Sounds-Write only. Maintaining fidelity may be a potential challenge as each approach has been tested in a specific format for best results. The aim of this study is to determine if approaches can be combined, so the implementation will need to incorporate elements of both reading (from Sounds Write) and writing (from The Writing Revolution). A further challenge is the time length of each session (25 minutes), so the researcher will need to be creative in the use of time to ensure both writing and reading are targeted while ensuring the programs are implemented. The implementation will be documented using student work samples and planning documents. This work will include a display of findings using student learning samples to demonstrate the importance of co-targeting the reading and writing challenges students come to school with.

Keywords: literacy difficulties, intervention, individual differences, methods of provision

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Authors: Yuxuan Tang

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Cognitive diagnostic assessment has received much attention in second language education, and assessment for it can provide pedagogically useful feedback for language learners. However, there is a lack of research on how students interpret and use cognitive diagnostic feedback. Thus the present study aims to adopt a mixed-method approach mainly to explore the relationship between the goal-orientation and students' response to cognitive diagnostic feedback. Almost 200 Chinese undergraduates from two universities in Xi'an, China, will be invited to do a cognitive diagnostic reading test, and each student will receive specialized cognitive diagnostic feedback, comprising of students' reading attributes mastery level generated by applying a well-selected cognitive diagnostic model, students' perceived reading ability assessed by a self-assessing questionnaire and students’ level position in the whole class. And a goal-orientation questionnaire and a self-generated questionnaire on the perception of feedback will be given to students the moment they receive feedback. In addition, interviews of students will be conducted on their future plans to see whether they have awareness of carrying out studying plans. The study aims to find a new perspective towards how students use and interpret cognitive diagnostic feedback in terms of their different goal-orientation (self-based, task-based, and other-based goals) by applying the newest goal orientation model, which is an important construct of motivation in psychology, seldom researched under language learning area. And the study is expected to provide evidence on how diagnostic feedback promotes students' learning under the educational belief of assessment for learning. Practically speaking, according to the personalized diagnostic feedback, students can take remedial self-learning more purposefully, and teachers can target students' weaknesses to adjust teaching methods and carry out tailored teaching.

Keywords: assessment for learning, cognitive diagnostic assessment, goal-orientation, personalized feedback

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Authors: Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi, Mairas Abd Rahman

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Traditionally, literacy has been commonly defined as the ability to read and write at an adequate level of proficiency that is necessary for communication. However, as time goes by, literacy has started to refer to reading and writing at a level adequate for communication, or at a level that lets one understand and communicate ideas in a literate society, so as to take part in that society. Meanwhile, visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. This study aims to investigate the collaboration between visual literacy and literature, eventually to determine how visual literacy can enhance learner’s ability to comprehend literary texts such as poems and short stories and develop his intellectuality, especially critical and creative thinking skills, and also to find out the different impacts of literature in visual literacy at four levels of education: pre-school, primary and secondary schools and university. This study is based on Malaysian environment and involves a qualitative method consisting of observation and interviews. The initial findings show that people with different levels of education grasp visual literacy differently but all levels show outstanding impacts of using literature.

Keywords: visual literacy, literature, language studies, higher education

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari

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Objective: The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between visual agnosia and learning delay in Yemeni children. Method: A total of 80 subjects (experimental group= 60, 30 males and 30 females and control group= 20, 10 males and 10 females) in two institutions (old and new). The age of all subjects at hand ranges between 6- and 12 years old. Pre and post-tests were administered. Results: Outline results show severe effects on the performance of the children due to visual agnosia this effect was benign in the group that received the treatment, and this can be clearly seen in their results in the post-test compared to the other group that did not receive the treatment and outcomes in general can be better understood in light of the control group.

Keywords: visual, agnosia, linguistics, abilities, effects, psychoneurolinguistics

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Authors: Sara Zadunaisky Ehrlich, Batia Seroussi, Anat Stavans

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Text structure is a parameter of text quality. This study investigated the structure of written argumentative texts produced by elementary school age children. We set two objectives: to identify and trace the structural components of the argumentative texts and to investigate whether reading comprehension skills were correlated with text structure. 293 school children from 2nd to 5th grades were asked to write two argumentative texts about informal or everyday life controversial topics and completed two reading tasks that targeted different levels of text comprehension. The findings indicated, on the one hand, significant developmental differences between mature and more novice writers in terms of text length and mean proportion of clauses produced for a better elaboration of the different text components. On the other hand, with certain fluctuations, no meaningful differences were found in terms of presence of text structure: at all grade levels, elementary school children produced the basic and minimal structure that included the writer's argument and reasons or arguments' supports. Counter-arguments were scarce even in the upper grades. While the children captured that essentially an argument must be justified, the more the number of supports produced, the fewer the clauses the children produced. Last, weak to mild relations were found between reading comprehension and argumentative text structure. Nevertheless, children who scored higher on sophisticated questions that require inferential or world knowledge displayed more elaborated structures in terms of text length and size of supports to the writer's argument. These findings indicate how school-age children perceive the basic template of an argument with future implications regarding how to elaborate written arguments.

Keywords: argumentative text, text structure, elementary school children, written argumentations

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Authors: Maria Venus G. Solares

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The ancient Filipinos had their own spelling or alphabet that differed from the modern Roman alphabet brought by the Spaniards. It consists of seventeen letters, three vowels, and fourteen consonants and is called Baybayin. The word Baybayin is a Tagalog word that refers to all the letters used in writing a language, an alphabet; however, it is also a syllable. The House Bill 4395, first proposed by Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil of the second district of Pangasinan in 2011, which later became House Bill 1022 of what he called The Declaration of the Baybayin as the National Writing System of the Philippines, prompted the researcher to conduct a study on the topic. The main objective of this study was to develop and assess the proposed module for enhancing the reading and writing skills in Baybayin of the students. The researchers wanted to ensure the acceptability of the Baybayin using the proposed module and meet the needs of students in developing their ability to read and write Baybayin through the module. The researchers used quasi-experimental research in this study. The data was collected through the initial and final analysis of the students of Adamson University's ABM 1102 using convenient sampling techniques. Based on statistical analysis of data using weighted mean, standard deviation, and paired t-tests, the proposed module helped improve the students' literacy skills, and the response exercises in the proposed module changed the acceptability of the Baybayin in their minds. The study showed that there was an important difference in the scores of students before and after the use of the module. The student's response to the assessment of their reading and writing skills on Baybayin was highly acceptable. This study will help develop the reading and writing skills of the students in Baybayin and teach Baybayin in response to the revival of a part of Philippine culture that has been long forgotten.

Keywords: Baybayin, proposed module, skill, acceptability

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Authors: May George

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Inference plays an important role in the learning process and it can lead to a rapid acquisition of a second language. When learning a non-native language, i.e., a critical language like Arabic, the students depend on the teacher’s support most of the time to learn new concepts. The students focus on memorizing the new vocabulary and stress on learning all the grammatical rules. Hence, the students became mechanical and cannot produce the language easily. As a result, they are unable to predict the meaning of words in the context by relying heavily on the teacher, in that they cannot link their prior knowledge or even identify the meaning of the words without the support of the teacher. This study explores how the teacher guides students learning during the inference process and what are the processes of learning that can direct student’s inference.

Keywords: inference, reading, Arabic, language acquisition

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Authors: M. Boukhrouk, R. Ed-Dali

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Outbound tourism in Morocco, as in the majority of developing countries, reveals some of the aspects of inequality between the north and the south. Considered by some researchers as one of the facets of the development crisis, access to tourism and especially international tourism is a chance for a small minority with financial means, while the vast portions of the population dream rather of immigrating to a developed country for the sake of improving their standard of living. The right to travel is also limited by visa requirements, procedures in host countries, security and technical measures and creates discrimination in the practice of tourism. These conditions do not seem to be favorable to the democratization of the practice of international tourism for the populations of the southern countries. This paper is a contribution to the reading of the trends of outbound tourism in developing countries through the example of Morocco. It highlights the different aspects of Moroccan outbound tourism, destinations and the behavior of tourists through an analysis of the offer of a sample of 50 travel agencies. In the same vein, it offers a reading grid of the possibilities offered for the development of outbound tourism and the various existing obstacles to the democratization of international outbound tourism in the southern countries. This reading reveals the transformation in the behavior of Moroccan international tourists as well as the profound changes in Moroccan society, through a model of statistical analysis.

Keywords: demand, Hajj, Morocco, outbound tourism, tendency, Umrah

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Authors: Tanzeela Anbreen, Ammara Maqsood

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Reading into writing is one of university students' most required academic skills. The current study explored postgraduate university students’ writing quality using a corpus-based approach. Twelve postgraduate students’ literature review essays were chosen for the corpus-based analysis. These essays were chosen because students had to incorporate multiple reading sources in these essays, which was a new writing exercise for them. The students were provided feedback at least two times which comprised of the written comments by the tutor highlighting the areas of improvement and also by using the ‘track changes’ function. This exercise was repeated two times, and students submitted two drafts. This investigation included only the finally submitted work of the students. A corpus-based approach was adopted to analyse the essays because it promotes autonomous discovery and personalised learning. The aim of this analysis was to understand the existing level of students’ writing before the start of their postgraduate thesis. Text Inspector was used to analyse the quality of essays. With the help of the Text Inspector tool, the vocabulary used in the essays was compared to the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP), which describes what learners know and can do at each Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) level. Writing quality was also measured for the Flesch reading ease score, which is a standard to describe the ease of understanding the writing content. The results reflected that students found writing essays using multiple sources challenging. In most essays, the vocabulary level achieved was between B1-B2 of the CEFL level. The study recommends that students need extensive training in developing academic writing skills, particularly in writing the literature review type assignment, which requires multiple sources citations.

Keywords: literature review essays, postgraduate students, corpus-based analysis, vocabulary proficiency

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Authors: Constant Akama, Frank Kulor, Frederick Agyemang

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All over the world, due to increasing population, electric power distribution companies are looking for more efficient ways of reading electricity meters. In Ghana, the prepaid metering system was introduced in 2007 to replace the manual system of reading which was fraught with inefficiencies. However, the prepaid system in Ghana is not capable of integration with online systems such as e-commerce platforms and remote monitoring systems. In this paper, we present a design framework for an automatic metering system that can be integrated with e-commerce platforms and remote monitoring systems. The meter was designed using ADE 7755 which reads the energy consumption and the reading is processed by a microcontroller connected to Sim900 General Packet Radio Service module containing a GSM chip provisioned with an Access Point Name. The system also has a billing server and a management server located at the premises of the utility company which communicate with the meter over a Virtual Private Network and GPRS. With this system, customers can buy credit online and the credit will be transferred securely to the meter. Also, when a fault is reported, the utility company can log into the meter remotely through the management server to troubleshoot the problem.

Keywords: access point name, general packet radio service, GSM, virtual private network

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Authors: Sinem O. Aktan, Musa Y. Akkurt

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Experimental pressure calibration methods can be classified into three areas: (1) measurements in liquid or gas systems, (2) measurements in static-solid media systems, and (3) measurements in dynamic shock systems. Fluid (liquid and gas) systems high accuracies can be obtainable and commonly used for the calibration method of a pressure sensor. Pressure calibrations can be performed for metrological traceability in two ways, which are on-site (field) and in the laboratory. Laboratory and on-site calibration procedures and the requirements of the DKD-R-6-1 and Euramet cg-17 guidelines will also be addressed. In this study, calibration methods of direct and indirect reading pressure sensor and measurement uncertainty contributions will be explained.

Keywords: pressure metrology, pressure calibration, dead-weight tester, pressure uncertainty

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Authors: Simon Mauma Efange

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The main aims of this research were to describe, in co-relational terms, the relationship, if any, between reading comprehension and academic achievement in science studied at the secondary level and, secondly, to find out possible trends in gender differences, such as whether boys would perform better than girls or vice versa. This research employed a quantitative design. Two kinds of instruments were employed: the Oxford Online Placement Test and the Local Assessment System Test. The Oxford Online Placement Test assesses students' English level quickly and easily. The results of these tests were subjected to statistical analysis using a special statistical software called SPSS. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, percentages, frequencies, t-tests, and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation were used for the analysis of the results. Results of the t-test showed that the means are significantly different. Calculating the p-value revealed that the results were extremely statistically significant at p <.05. The value of r (Pearson correlation coefficient) was 0.2868. Although technically there is a positive correlation, the relationship between the variables is only weak (the closer the value is to zero, the weaker the relationship). However, in conclusion, calculations from the t-test using SPSS revealed that the results were statistically significant at p <.05, confirming a relationship between the two variables, and high scores in reading will give rise to slightly high scores in science. The research also revealed that having a high score in reading comprehension doesn’t necessarily mean having a high score in science or vice versa. Female subjects performed much better than male subjects in both tests, which is in line with the literature reviewed for this research.

Keywords: achievement in science, achievement in English, and bilingual students, relationship

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Authors: Zoe Lynch, Kirsty Zieschank

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There are several factors that compromise the utility and wide-spread use of existing emotional and behavioural distress screening instruments. Some of these factors include lengthy administration times, high costs, feasibility issues, and a lack of self-report options for children under 12 years of age. This animation-based resource was developed to overcome as many of these factors as possible. Developed for educators and medical and mental health professionals, this resource offers children a self-guided mechanism for reporting any current emotional and behavioural distress. An avatar assistant, selected by the child, accompanies them through each stage of the screening process, offering further instruction if prompted. Children enter their age and gender before viewing comparative animations conveying common childhood emotional and behavioural difficulties. The child then selects the most relatable animations, along with the frequency with which they experience the depicted emotions. From a perspective of intellectual development, an engaging, animated format means that outcomes will not be constrained by children’s reading, writing, cognitive, or verbal expression abilities. Having been user-tested with children aged 6 to 12, this resource shows promising results as a self-guided screening instrument.

Keywords: animation-based screening instrument, mental health, primary-aged children, self-guided

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Authors: Abbas Ghahremani

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One of the most fundamental management issues in organizations and companies is the recruiting of efficient staff and compiling exact and perfect criteria for testing the applicants,which is guided and practiced by the manager of human resources of the organization. Obviously, each part of the organization seeks special features and abilities in the people apart from common features among all the staff in all units,which are called principal duties and abilities,and we will study them more. This article is trying to find out how we can identify the most efficient people among the applicants of employment by using proper methods of testing appropriate for the needs of different of employment by using proper methods of testing appropriate for the needs of different units of the organization and recruit efficient staff. Acceptable method for recruiting is to closely identify their characters from various aspects such as ability to communicate, flexibility, stress management, risk acceptance, tolerance, vision to future, familiarity with the art, amount of creativity and different thinking and by raising proper questions related with the above named features and presenting a questionnaire, evaluate them from various aspect in order to gain the proper result. According to the above explanations, it can be concluded which aspects of abilities and characteristics of a person must be evaluated in order to reduce any mistake in recruitment and approach an ideal result and ultimately gain an organized system according to the standards and avoid waste of energy for unprofessional personnel which is a marginal issue in the organizations.

Keywords: human resources management, staff recuiting, employment factors, efficient staff

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Authors: Tahira Zaman

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The paper intends to discover the utility of hybrid teaching methods to aid undergraduate students to improve their English academic writing skills. A total of 45 undergraduate students were selected randomly from three classes from varying language abilities, with the research design of monitoring and rubrics evaluation as a means of measure. Language skills of the students were upgraded with the help of experiential learning methods using reflective writing technique, guided method in which students were merely directed to correct form of writing techniques along with self-guided method for the students to produce a library research-based article measured through a standardized rubrics provided. The progress of the students was monitored and checked through rubrics and self-evaluation and concluded that a change was observed in the students’ writing abilities.

Keywords: self evaluation, hybrid, self evaluation, reflective writing

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Authors: Sakshi Kaul, Sundeep Verma

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The focus of the current paper is to evaluate the therapeutic power of words. This will be done by critically evaluating the impact reading, writing and storytelling have on individuals. When we read, tell or listen to a story we are exercising our imagination. Imagination becomes the source of activation of thoughts and actions. This enables and helps the reader, writer or the listener to express the suppressed emotions or desires. The stories told, untold may bring various human emotions and attributes to forth such as hope, optimism, fear, happiness. Each story narrated evokes different emotions, at times they help us unravel ourselves in the world of the teller thereby bringing solace. Stories heard or told add to individual’s life by creating a community around, giving wings of thoughts that enable individual to be more imaginative and creative thereby fostering positively and happiness. Reading if looked at from the reader’s point of view can broaden the horizon of information and ideas about facts and life laws giving more meaning to life. From ‘once upon a time’ to ‘to happily ever after’, all that stories talk about is life’s learning. The power of words sometimes may be negated, this paper would reiterate the power of words by critically evaluating how words can become powerful and therapeutic in various structures and forms in the society. There is a story behind every situation, action and reaction. Hence it is of prime importance to understand each story, to enable a person to deal with whatever he or she may be going through. For example, if a client is going through some trauma in his or her life, the counsellor needs to know exactly what is the turmoil that is being faced so that the client can be assisted accordingly. Counselling is considered a process of healing through words or as Talk therapy, where merely through words we try to heal the client. In a counselling session, the counsellor focuses on working with the clients to bring a positive change. The counsellor allows the client to express themselves which is referred to as catharsis. The words spoken, written or heard transcend to heal and can be therapeutic. The therapeutic power of words has been seen in various cultural practices and belief systems. The underlining belief that words have the power to heal, save and bring change has existed from ages. Many religious and spiritual practices also acclaim the power of the words. Through this empirical paper, we have tried to bring to light how reading, writing, and storytelling have been used as mediums of healing and have been therapeutic in nature.

Keywords: reading, storytelling, therapeutic, words

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Authors: Xingyu Pan, Laure Tougne

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For recognizing coins, the graved release date is important information to identify precisely its monetary type. However, reading characters in coins meets much more obstacles than traditional character recognition tasks in the other fields, such as reading scanned documents or license plates. To address this challenging issue in a numismatic context, we propose a training-free approach dedicated to detection and recognition of the release date of the coin. In the first step, the date zone is detected by comparing histogram features; in the second step, a topology-based algorithm is introduced to recognize coin numbers with various font types represented by binary gradient map. Our method obtained a recognition rate of 92% on synthetic data and of 44% on real noised data.

Keywords: coin, detection, character recognition, topology

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Authors: Chathurika Sewwandi Kannangara, Jerome Carson

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The objective of this research is to identify strengths among the individuals with dyslexia and design a positive psychology intervention to support such individuals. Dyslexia is a combination of abilities and difficulties that affect the learning process in areas as such reading, spelling and writing. It is a persistent condition. The research aims to adapt positive psychology techniques to support individuals with dyslexia. Population of the research will be undergraduate and college level students with dyslexia. First phase of the study will be conducted on a sample of undergraduate and college level students with dyslexia in Bolton, UK. The concept of treatment in positive psychology is not only to fix the component just what is wrong, instead it is also to develop and construct on what is right in the individual. The first phase of the research aims to identify the signature strengths among the individuals with dyslexia using Interviews, Descriptions on personal experiences on ‘My life with Dyslexia’, and Values in Action (VIA) strength survey. In order to conduct the survey for individuals with dyslexia, the VIA survey has been hosted in a website which is solely developed in the form of dyslexia friendly context. Dyslexia friendly website for surveys had designed and developed following the British Dyslexia Association guidelines. The findings of the first phase would be utilized for the second phase of the research to develop the positive psychology intervention.

Keywords: dyslexia, signature strengths, positive psychology, qualitative study, learning difficulties

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Authors: John Acire, Wilfred Lajul, Ogwang Tom

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Using a qualitative research technique, this study investigates the influence of Early Childhood Education (ECE) on learning outcomes in lower primary schools in Gulu City, Uganda. The study, which is based on Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of human learning, fills gaps in the current literature on the influence of ECE on learning outcomes. The aims of the study include analyzing the state of learning outcomes, investigating ECE practices, and determining the influence of these practices on learning outcomes in lower primary schools. The findings highlight the critical significance of ECE in promoting children's overall development. Nursery education helps children improve their handwriting, reading abilities, and general cognitive development. Children who have received nursery education have improved their abilities to handle pencils, form letters, and engage in social interactions, highlighting the significance of fine motor skills and socializing. Despite the good elements, difficulties in implementing ECE practices were found, such as differences in teaching styles, financial limits, and potential weariness due to prolonged school hours. The study suggests focused interventions to improve the effectiveness of ECE practices, ensure their connection with educational goals and maximize their influence on children's development. The study's findings show that respondents agree on the importance of nursery education in supporting holistic development, socialization, language competency, and conceptual comprehension. Challenges in nursery education, such as differences in teaching techniques and insufficient resources, highlight the need for comprehensive measures to address these challenges. Furthermore, parental engagement in home learning activities was revealed as an important factor affecting early education outcomes. Children who were engaged at home performed better in lower primary, emphasizing the value of a supportive family environment. Finally, the report suggests measures to enhance parental participation, changes in teaching methods through retraining, and age-appropriate enrolment. Future studies might concentrate on the involvement of parents, ECE policy practice, and the influence of ECE teachers on lower primary school learning results. These ideas are intended to help create a more favorable learning environment by encouraging holistic development and preparing children for success in succeeding academic levels.

Keywords: early childhood education, learning outcomes in lower primary schools, early childhood education practices, how ECE practices influence learning outcomes in lower primary schools

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Authors: Rahimah Saimin

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Previous research has shown that young children can learn from educational television programmes, videos or other technological media. However, the blending of any of these with traditional printed-based text appears to be omitted. Repeated viewing is an important factor in children's ability to comprehend the content or plot. The present study combined videos with traditional printed-based text and required repeated viewing and is original and distinctive. The first study was a pilot study to explore whether the intervention is implementable in ordinary classrooms. The second study explored whether the curricular embedding is important or whether the video with curricular embedding is effective. The third study explored the effect of “dosage”, i.e. whether a longer/ more intense intervention has a proportionately greater effect on outcomes. Both measured outcomes (comprehension, word sounds, and early word recognition) and unmeasured outcomes (engagement to reading traditional printed-based texts or/and multimodal texts) were obtained from this study. Observation indicated degree of engagement in reading. The theoretical framework was multimodality theory combined with Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s learning theories. An experimental design was used with 4-5-year-old children in nursery schools and primary schools. Six links to video clips exploring non-fiction science content were provided to teachers. The first session is whole-class and subsequent sessions small-group. The teacher then engaged the children in dialogue using supplementary materials. About half of each class was selected randomly for pre-post assessments. Two assessments were used the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVSIII) and the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC): Early Reading. Different programme fidelity means were deployed- observations, teacher self-reports attendance logs and post-delivery interviews. Data collection is in progress and results will be available shortly. If this multiphase study show effectiveness in one or other application, then teachers will have other tools which they can use to enhance vocabulary, letter knowledge and word reading. This would be a valuable addition to their repertoire.

Keywords: language skills, literacy skills, multimodality, video

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Authors: Hevriani Sevrika Mayuasti

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This research deals in improving college students’ critical thinking at English for Specific Purposes Subject. The strategy that is applied is Bloom’s Critical Thinking Questioning Strategy. The positive side of this strategy is that the given questions are developed based on Bloom’s taxonomy level. It is an action research because the researcher uses own class in doing this research. The processes of this research have been done from April to Mei 2014. There are two cycles and each cycle consists of two meetings. After doing the research, it is gotten that Bloom’s Critical Thinking Questioning Strategy improves college students’ critical thinking. It helps the students to build and elaborate their ideas. Hence, it increases students’ reading comprehension.

Keywords: critical thinking, blooms’ critical thinking, questioning, strategy

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Authors: Adriana Salgado, Sandra Castaneda, Ivan Perez

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Learning to read and write is a complex process involving several cognitive skills, contextual, and cultural environments. The basis of this development is linguistic skills, such as the ability to name and understand vocabulary, retell a story, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, among others. In children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), one of the main concerns is related to language disorders. Nevertheless, most of the children with ASD are able to decode written information but have difficulties in reading comprehension. The research of these processes in the Spanish-speaking population is limited. However, the increasing prevalence of this diagnosis (1 in 115 children) in Mexico has implications at different levels. Educational research is an important area of interest in ASD children, such as emergent literacy. Reading and writing expand the possibilities of academic, cultural, and social information access. Taking this information into account, the objective of this research was to identify the relationship between language skills, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and early reading and writing in ASD Spanish-speaking children. The method used for this research was based on tasks that were selected, adapted and in some cases designed to measure initial reading and writing, as well as language skills (naming, receptive vocabulary, and narrative skills), phonological awareness (similar phonological word pairs, beginning sound awareness and spelling) and letter knowledge, in a sample of 45 children (38 boys and 7 girls) with prior diagnosis of ASD. Descriptive analyses, as well as bivariate correlations, cluster analysis, and canonical correspondence, were obtained for the data results. Results showed that variability was large; however, it was possible to characterize the sample in low, medium, and high score groups regarding children performance. The low score group (46.7% of the sample), had a null or deficient performance in language skills and phonological awareness, some could identify up to five letters of the alphabet, showed no early reading skills but they could scribble. The middle score group was characterized by a highly variable performance in different tasks, with better language skills in receptive and naming vocabulary, some narrative, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness (beginning sound awareness) skills. The high score group, (24.4% of the sample) had the best performance in language skills in relation to the sample data, as well as in the rest of the measured skills. Finally, scores were canonically correlated between naming, receptive vocabulary, narrative, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and initial learning of reading and writing skills for the high score group and letter knowledge, naming and receptive vocabulary for the lower score group, which is consistent with previous research in typical and ASD children. In conclusion, the obtained data is consistent with previous studies. Despite large variability, it was possible to identify performance profiles and relations based on linguistic, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge skills. These skills were predictor variables of the initial development of reading and writing. The above has implications for a future program and strategies development that may benefit the acquisition of reading and writing in ASD children.

Keywords: autism, autism spectrum disorders, early literacy, emergent literacy

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Authors: S. C. Lin, W. W. Cheng, M. S. Wu

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This study attempted to investigate the connection between teacher professional development program and students’ Learning. This study took Readers’ Theater Teaching Program (RTTP) for professional development as an example to inquiry how participants apply their new knowledge and skills learned from RTTP to their teaching practice and how the impact influence students learning. The goals of the RTTP included: 1) to enhance teachers RT content knowledge; 2) to implement RT instruction in teachers’ classrooms in response to their professional development. 2) to improve students’ ability of reading fluency in professional development teachers’ classrooms. This study was a two-year project. The researchers applied mixed methods to conduct this study including qualitative inquiry and one-group pretest-posttest experimental design. In the first year, this study focused on designing and implementing RTTP and evaluating participants’ satisfaction of RTTP, what they learned and how they applied it to design their English reading curriculum. In the second year, the study adopted quasi-experimental design approach and evaluated how participants RT instruction influenced their students’ learning, including English knowledge, skill, and attitudes. The participants in this study composed two junior high school English teachers and their students. Data were collected from a number of different sources including teaching observation, semi-structured interviews, teaching diary, teachers’ professional development portfolio, Pre/post RT content knowledge tests, teacher survey, and students’ reading fluency tests. To analyze the data, both qualitative and quantitative data analysis were used. Qualitative data analysis included three stages: organizing data, coding data, and analyzing and interpreting data. Quantitative data analysis included descriptive analysis. The results indicated that average percentage of correct on pre-tests in RT content knowledge assessment was 40.75% with two teachers ranging in prior knowledge from 35% to 46% in specific RT content. Post-test RT content scores ranged from 70% to 82% correct with an average score of 76.50%. That gives teachers an average gain of 35.75% in overall content knowledge as measured by these pre/post exams. Teachers’ pre-test scores were lowest in script writing and highest in performing. Script writing was also the content area that showed the highest gains in content knowledge. Moreover, participants hold a positive attitude toward RTTP. They recommended that the approach of professional learning community, which was applied in RTTP was benefit to their professional development. Participants also applied the new skills and knowledge which they learned from RTTP to their practices. The evidences from this study indicated that RT English instruction significantly influenced students’ reading fluency and classroom climate. The result indicated that all of the experimental group students had a big progress in reading fluency after RT instruction. The study also found out several obstacles. Suggestions were also made.

Keywords: teacher’s professional development, program evaluation, readers’ theater, english reading instruction, english reading fluency

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Authors: Chaiwat Tantarangsee

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The purposes of this study are 1) to study the frequent English writing errors of students registering the course: Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and 2) to find out the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and writing error treatments. Samples include 28 2nd year English Major students, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Tool for experimental study includes the lesson plan of the course; Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and tool for data collection includes 4 writing tests of short texts. The research findings disclose that frequent English writing errors found in this course comprise 7 types of grammatical errors, namely Fragment sentence, Subject-verb agreement, Wrong form of verb tense, Singular or plural noun endings, Run-ons sentence, Wrong form of verb pattern and Lack of parallel structure. Moreover, it is found that the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and error treatment reveal the overall reduction of the frequent English writing errors and the increase of students’ achievement in the writing of short texts with the significance at .05.

Keywords: coded indirect corrective feedback, error correction, error treatment, English writing

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Authors: Vera Jancurova

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People are, in general, exposed to behavioral biases, however, the degree and impact are affected by experience, knowledge, and other characteristics. The purpose of this article is to study two of defined behavioral biases, the overconfidence and self-attribution bias, and its impact on economic and non-economic students at different stage of the study. The research method used for the purpose of this study is a controlled field study that contains questions on perception of own confidence and self-attribution and estimation of limits to analyse actual abilities. The results of the research show that economic students seem to be more overconfident than their non–economic colleagues, which seems to be caused by the fact the questionnaire was asking for predicting economic indexes and own knowledge and abilities in financial environment. Surprisingly, the most overconfidence was detected by the students at the beginning of their study (1st-semester students). However, the estimations of real numbers do not point out, that economic students have better results by the prediction itself. The study confirmed the presence of self-attribution bias at all of the respondents.

Keywords: behavioral finance, overconfidence, self-attribution, heuristics and biases

Procedia PDF Downloads 255