scholarly journals Does bilingualism correlate with or predict higher proficiency in L3 English? A contrastive study of monolingual and bilingual learners

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-217
Author(s):  
Eliane Lorenz ◽  
Sharareh Rahbari ◽  
Ulrike Schackow ◽  
Peter Siemund
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Predictor Variables ◽  
Control Group ◽  
School Type ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Heritage Speaker ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension

This study investigates whether English in instructed settings is more successfully acquired by learners who are already bilingual in comparison to those with a monolingual background. There remains substantial controversy regarding potential advantages of bilingual speakers in their acquisition of additional languages, especially in heritage speaker contexts. We here contribute to this discussion by analysing the English C-test results of 1,718 bilingual and monolingual students of grades 7 and 9, sampled in schools across Germany. The bilingual students speak either Russian or Turkish (heritage language) and German (majority language). The monolingual control group was raised in German only. The main predictor variables are reading fluency and comprehension in German and the heritage languages. Additional predictor variables include school type, school year, socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, amongst others. Using correlation and regression analyses we test if reading fluency and comprehension impact proficiency in English and if bilingual students enjoy advantages over their monolingual German peers. The results reveal no systematic advantage of bilingual students, although we find significant correlations between reading fluency and comprehension and C-test results. School type, cognitive skills, among others, are predictors for English performance, whereas socioeconomic status returns no significant effect. 

The Effect of In-School Saccadic Training on Reading Fluency and Comprehension in First and Second Grade Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Dodick ◽  
Amaal J. Starling ◽  
Jennifer Wethe ◽  
Yi Pang ◽  
Leonard V. Messner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Second Grade Students ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Physical Foundation ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
And Control

Efficient eye movements provide a physical foundation for proficient reading skills. We investigated the effect of in-school saccadic training on reading performance. In this cross-over design, study participants (n = 327, 165 males; mean age [SD]: 7 y 6 mo [1y 1 mo]) were randomized into treatment and control groups, who then underwent eighteen 20-minute training sessions over 5 weeks using King-Devick Reading Acceleration Program Software. Pre- and posttreatment reading assessments included fluency, comprehension, and rapid number naming performance. The treatment group had significantly greater improvement than the control group in fluency (6.2% vs 3.6%, P = .0277) and comprehension (7.5% vs 1.5%, P = .0002). The high-needs student group significantly improved in fluency ( P < .001) and comprehension ( P < .001). We hypothesize these improvements to be attributed to the repetitive practice of reading-related eye movements, shifting visuospatial attention, and visual processing. Consideration should be given to teaching the physical act of reading within the early education curriculum.

The Effect of the King-Devick Reading Acceleration Program on Reading Fluency and Comprehension: A Summary of Randomized Clinical Trials

2017 ◽  
pp. 217-228
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Additional Treatment ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension

Background: Reading performance is essential to a child’s academic success. Reading is a complex task involving the integration of language, attention and information processing including eye movements. Efficient eye movements provide a physical foundation for proficient reading and these skills can be improved as multiple studies have reported successful outcomes following training. Data from these studies are summarized and presented to examine the effect of the training program across a wide demographic and large student population. Subgroup analyses further lend insight to ideal timing and length of training. Methods: Data from five investigations of in-school training programs were combined and analyzed. Study participants were randomized into treatment or control groups. Students 1st through 4th grade (n=611, 7.0 ± 0.8 years) underwent eighteen, 20-minute sessions utilizing King-Devick (K-D) Reading Acceleration Program (RAP). Reading fluency and comprehension was assessed pre- and post-treatment. Results: The treatment group had significantly greater improvement compared to the control group in fluency (8.9% vs. 5.9%, p<0.001) and comprehension (9.1% vs. 3.1%, p<0.001). A separate group of high-needs students (n=111) also improved significantly in fluency (p<0.001) and comprehension (p<0.001). An extra-training group, who received an average of 11 additional treatment sessions, improved significantly in fluency and comprehension following extra-training (p=0.003, p=0.013). There was a greater improvement in reading comprehension for students receiving intervention in the fall as compared to the spring (10.9% vs 8.1%, p<0.001). Conclusions: Improving reading skills in youth is essential to building the foundations for future academic success. Efficient eye movements are one necessary component of proficient reading that integrate with visual processing, word decoding and attention span. K-D RAP improves aspects of reading that are not currently addressed in schools. Based on the positive reading outcomes there is increasing evidence to support the inclusion of teaching the physical act of reading in the early education curriculum nation-wide.

Repeated Reading versus Continuous Reading: Influences on Reading Fluency and Comprehension

2007 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rollanda E. O'Connor ◽  
Annika White ◽  
H. Lee Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Repeated Reading ◽  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Adult Listener ◽  
Treatment Conditions ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Practice Variations

In this research we evaluated two methods to improve the reading fluency of struggling readers. Poor readers in Grades 2 and 4 with ( n = 17) and without ( n = 20) learning disabilities were randomly assigned to one of two fluency practice variations or to a control group. Students in the treatments practiced reading aloud under repeated or continuous reading conditions with an adult listener in 15-min sessions, 3 days per week for 14 weeks. For students in the treatment conditions, growth curve analyses revealed significant differences in fluency and reading comprehension over students in the control. We found no significant differences between practice conditions.

scholarly journals Peer tutoring for improvement in rhythm reading fluency and comprehension

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-312
Author(s):  
David Duran ◽  
Jesús Ribosa ◽  
Giovanni Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Peer Tutoring ◽  
Cooperative Interaction ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Rhythm Reading ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Experimental Group

Peer tutoring in music education is an under-researched but burgeoning area of study. This study aims to assess the effects of the same-age peer tutoring project Ritmos en dos on rhythm reading fluency and comprehension. For this purpose, 24 students from the third grade of secondary education participated in the project. This research utilises a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, combining (a) a pretest-posttest control group design, with (b) a qualitative study to understand the possible quantitative changes using the interactivity analysis model. Results confirm our hypotheses that students’ participation in the project improved their proficiency across rhythm reading fluency and comprehension. Regarding fluency, quantitative results show a significant improvement for the experimental group, but not for the control group; in comprehension, both groups show gains, but statistically significant differences favour the experimental group in the final comprehension level. Findings reveal different actions that might explain these improvements identified in the interaction between students. Regarding fluency, these actions were mainly related to pulse constancy and reading accuracy while in reading comprehension, students were found to carry out syntactic analysis and metacognitive reflection. Implications suggested from this study point to initial training and cooperative interaction as key elements to be tackled.

USING CRYOPRESERVED SPERM FOR CREATING STERLET BROOD STOCK

2017 ◽  
pp. 118-127
Author(s):  
Elena Nikolaevna Ponomareva ◽  
Maria Mikhailovna Belaya ◽  
Alexandra Andrianovna Krasilnikova ◽  
Alexander Nickolaevich Nevalennyy
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Nitrogen ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Brood Stock ◽  
Active Response ◽  
Acipenser Ruthenus ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Cryopreserved Sperm ◽  
Sturgeon Fish

The research on the sterlet roe artificial insemination using cryopreserved sperm was carried out in the research base of the RAS Southern Scientific Centre (the Rostov region). Reproductive cells (including cryopreserved cells), larvae, sterlet fry ( Acipenser ruthenus Linnaeus, 1758) were taken as an object of research. A half of the roe (1.7 kg) taken from female starlet was inseminated by native sperm (control group); another half was inseminated by defrosted sperm of two males, which was stored in liquid nitrogen at -196ºC during 3 years (pilot group). Incubation lasted 5 days at water temperature 14.5-18.2ºC, with daily fluctuations of temperature 1.9ºC. Roe insemination in the control group made 90%, in the pilot group - 70%. Roe embryonic growth in the control group was faster, but embryogenesis duration in the pilot group met the standard time limits. Hatching prolarvae in the control group started one hour earlier, than in the pilot group; it made 75% and 60% of all incubated roe, correspondingly. Waste during the period of larvae maturing before they pass to mixed feeding was negligible - 2% in the control group and 3.4% in the pilot group. According to the test results, "open field" of reactivity of the central nervous system in the pilot group fry didn’t change from the control group fry, but more active response to stimuli was noted in the pilot group, which is very important for fry adaptation to the conditions in natural water basins. It was established that sterlet offspring obtained with use of defrosted sexual cells does not differ from the offspring obtained using native sperm and has higher morphometric characteristics. The test results prove the possibility and practicability of using sexual cells stored in liquid nitrogen for artificial restoration and formation of sturgeon fish broodstocks.

The Generalization of Instruction on Genitive Relative Clause in the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

2006 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Akihiro Ito
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Special Instruction ◽  
Japanese Learners

This study examines the generalization of instruction in foreign language learning. A group of Japanese learners of English served as participants and received special instruction in the structure of genitive relative clauses. The participants were given a pre-test on combining two sentences into one containing a genitive relative clause wherein the relativized noun phrase following the genitive marker "whose" is either the subject, direct object, or object of preposition. Based on the TOEFL and the pre-test results, four equal groups were formed; three of these served as experimental groups, and one as the control group. Each experimental group was given instruction on the formation of only one type of genitive relative clause. The participants were then given two post-tests. The results indicated that the generalization of learning begins from structures that are typologically more marked genitive relative clauses to those structures that are typologically less marked, and not vice versa.

scholarly journals Intratympanic steroid therapy for Bell’s palsy with poor prognostic results

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira Inagaki ◽  
Sachiyo Katsumi ◽  
Shinji Sekiya ◽  
Shingo Murakami
Keyword(s):  
Facial Nerve ◽  
Steroid Therapy ◽  
Standard Dose ◽  
Neuroprotective Effect ◽  
Bell’S Palsy ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Average Dose ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Bell's Palsy ◽  
Intratympanic Dexamethasone

AbstractIn Bell’s palsy, electrodiagnosis by electroneurography (ENoG) is widely used to predict a patient’s prognosis. The therapeutic options for patients with poor prognostic results remain controversial. Here, we investigated whether early intervention with intratympanic steroid therapy (ITST) is an effective treatment for Bell’s palsy patients with poor electrodiagnostic test results (≤ 10% electroneurography value). Patients in the concurrent ITST group (n = 8) received the standard systemic dose of prednisolone (410 mg total) and intratympanic dexamethasone (16.5 mg total) and those in the control group (n = 21) received systemic prednisolone at the standard dose or higher (average dose, 605 ± 27 mg). A year after onset, the recovery rate was higher in the ITST group than in the control group (88% vs 43%, P = 0.044). The average House-Brackmann grade was better in the concurrent ITST group (1.13 ± 0.13 vs 1.71 ± 0.16, P = 0.035). Concurrent ITST improves the facial nerve outcome in patients with poor electroneurography test results, regardless of whether equivalent or lower glucocorticoid doses were administered. This may be ascribed to a neuroprotective effect of ITST due to a higher dose of steroid reaching the lesion due to dexamethasone transfer in the facial nerve.

Computerized Cognitive Training with Learning Disabled Students: A Pilot Study

1992 ◽  
Vol 71 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1347-1356 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Talbot ◽  
M. Pépin ◽  
M. Loranger
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Mental Arithmetic ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Disabled Students ◽  
Computerized Cognitive Training

The effects of practicing computerized exercises in class by 59 learning disabled students who received an 8-hr. training program, 30 min. per week, were evaluated. Six exercises designed to facilitate basic cognitive skills development were used. Twelve subjects were assigned to a control group without any form of intervention. Covariance analysis (pretest scores used as covariates) showed a significant effect of training on mental arithmetic. These results suggest that practicing a computerized exercise of mental arithmetic can facilitate the automatization of basic arithmetic skills (addition, subtraction, and multiplication). The nature, progress, and evaluation of such types of intervention are discussed.

scholarly journals Smart Reading Aid for Detecting Problems With Reading Fluency and Comprehension

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Rusák ◽  
Niels van de Water ◽  
Bram de Smit ◽  
Imre Horváth ◽  
Wilhelm Frederik Van Der Vegte
Keyword(s):  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Brain Signals ◽  
Normal Reading ◽  
Fluency And Comprehension ◽  
Functional Prototype ◽  
Tracking Technology ◽  
Processing Difficulty

Brain signal and eye tracking technology have been intensively applied in cognitive science in order to study reading, listening and learning processes. Though promising results have been found in laboratory experiments, there are no smart reading aids that are capable to estimate difficulty during normal reading. This paper presents a new concept that aims to tackle this challenge. Based on a literature study and an experiment, we have identified several indicators for characterizing word processing difficulty by interpreting electroencelography (EEG) and electrooculography (EOG) signals. We have defined a computational model based on fuzzy set theory, which estimates the probability of word processing and comprehension difficulty during normal reading. The paper also presents a concept and functional prototype of a smart reading aid, which is used to demonstrate the feasibility of our solution. The results of our research proves that it is possible to implement a smart reading aid that is capable to detect reading difficulty in real time. We show that the most reliable indicators are related to eye movement (i.e. fixation and regression), while brain signals are less dependable sources for indicating word processing difficulty during continuous reading.

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