GraphoGame

This chapter investigates the effectiveness of a digital reading tool, called GraphoGame, that could be employed as one of the solutions to the poor reading results of learners that have been revealed in both national and international assessments in Namibia, specifically, and Sub-Saharan Africa in general. Following a research study, this chapter sets out to demonstrate that, through pre-and post-tests, GraphoGame Afrikaans improved the initial reading skills of Grade 1 learners. The results have implications for the utilization of computer-assisted tools to support reading acquisition in the lower grades. As GraphoGame employs a scaffolded approach by presenting learners with letters and words, it can be utilized to support learners individually in classes with large numbers, as is typical in Africa.

Socioeconomic Status, Culture, and Reading Comprehension in Immigrant Students

Research on reading comprehension in immigrant students is heterogeneous and conflicting. Differences in socioeconomic status and cultural origins are very likely confounds in determining whether differences to native pupils can be attributed to immigrant status. We collected data on 312 Spanish students of Native, of Hispanic origin–therefore with the same family language as native students- and Non-Hispanic origin, while controlling for socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning and school membership. We measured reading comprehension, knowledge of syntax, sentence comprehension monitoring, and vocabulary. Differences among groups appeared only in vocabulary and syntax (with poorer performance in the non-Hispanic group), with no differences in reading comprehension. However, regression analyses showed that most of the variability in reading comprehension was predicted by age, socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning, and comprehension monitoring. Group membership did not significantly contribute to explain reading comprehension variability. The present study supports the idea that socioeconomically disadvantaged students, both native and immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds, irrespective of the language of origin, are probably equally at risk of poor reading comprehension.

Strategies for Promoting a Reading Culture Among Secondary School Students in Kiambu County, Kenya

This research looked at reading culture within secondary school students in Kiambu County. It discussed the role that teachers, parents, school librarians and school culture play in the promotion of a reading culture or lack thereof. The specific objectives were; to determine the status of reading culture being promoted by secondary schools and to determine the level of usage of school libraries and their resources to support the development and cultivation of culture of reading among high school learners among secondary school students. This research was based on Lee Vygotsky’s cultural historical theory of cognitive development. The study employed descriptive survey design. The target population was 240 students, 24 teachers and 12 librarians from 12 secondary schools within Kiambu County. This research used stratified random sampling. The data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. Through pretest of the questionnaires and subsequent re-modelling, validity of the findings was enhanced. The data collected was analyzed through the aid of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). The analyzed data is displayed using charts, graphs, diagrams, tables, frequency tables, matrices, drawings or block diagrams. A significant portion of students loved reading very much at 31%. The hours spent on reading also varied with students (34%) 3-4 hours a day reading, with 30% others spending more than 4 hours a day. All the institutions featured have libraries. Out of the 208 students, 44% use the library hour to read either in class or the library. 20% of others use the allocated hour for private studies. Most of the students (78%) stated being part of a book club or study group. For instance, the study found that out of the 187 students (78%), a significant proportion (49%) used the groups for academic performance. Others benefited through fluency in language, increased vocabulary, better writing, and reading skills, among other reasons. The study proves the popular notion that Kenya's schools and the country have a poor reading culture. Students are forced into reading either by teachers and parents or pressured by the need to pass exams. As such, the most read materials are school textbooks and novels, which also happen to be the most stocked materials in school libraries. Reading should be a personal initiative as opposed to being forced into it. That being the case, students' opinions matter more on making reading more fun and appealing. Therefore, in addition to the importance of school libraries and reading clubs, schools need to encourage peer motivation to read in an effort to improve reading culture. Some of the study recommendations are that there is a need to include an opinion on academic experts on reading culture, government, and parents who play a significant role in the education sector.

Language as contextual factor of an education system: Reading development as a necessity

Language is a contextual factor of an education system as it determines the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT). In order to provide for diversity in South Africa, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, makes provision for 11 official languages and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) promotes respect for not only these official languages, but languages in general as well as the preservation of cultural diversity by means of multilingualism. Having measures like these in place creates the assumption that different languages are used as LOLT. However, mother tongue education is not fully realised in South Africa. A large percentage of learners’ LOLT is not their home language. This lack of mother tongue education may cause poor reading ability. South Africa’s government and Department of Education (DoE) has certain strategies available to promote reading, however, the feasibility of these strategies is questionable when the poor reading performance of South African learners is taken into account. To find a solution for the above-stated problem, due to the fact that reading plays an important role within an education system, and the integral part it forms in nation-building, we conducted a literature study to identify current national and international reading strategies. In this article we present a synthesis of these strategies, which we refer to as a reading motivation framework, outlining the responsibilities of various social role players.

Proposed Perceptions to address reading impairment of Middle School Students from the point of view of their Teachers in Government Schools in the State of Kuwait: التصورات المقترحة لمعالجة ضعف القراءة عند طلاب وطالبات المرحلة المتوسطة من وجهة نظر معلميهم ومعلماتهن في المدارس الحكومية بدولة الكويت

The aim of the research is to identify the proposed perceptions to address poor reading among middle school students from the point of view of their teachers and teachers in public schools in Kuwait, and the research sample consisted of (350) teachers, selected in the random class way from middle school teachers in The 2, 512 public education schools in Mubarak al- Kabir governorate (Kuwait) were adopted, and the analytical descriptive curriculum was adopted, and the questionnaire was adopted as a data collection tool consisting of (32) paragraphs spread over three integrated fields as follows: Proposed perceptions to address poor reading related to the role )family and teacher, technical guidance and school curriculum, school and major educational institution). The research resulted in a series of results, the most important of which is that the degree of appreciation of middle school teachers for the proposed perceptions to address poor reading among middle school students in all its integrated areas came to a large extent, the most important of which is the provision of a scientific and cultural stock among the teacher qualifies him to address the reading weakness of students, take into account the family's various problems and stand with him to overcome them, provide modern educational and technological means in the school, provide the major educational institution for all ways to address the problems of students, especially reading weakness, monitor guidance Technical commitment of teachers to the treatment plans provided to students, in addition to the existence of statistically significant differences between the responses of the members of the study sample towards the proposed perceptions to address poor reading in middle school students from the point of view of their teachers and teachers in public schools in Kuwait at all fields and the tool as a whole due to the sex change and the differences came in favor of male teachers. In the light of the results the research made a number of recommendations, the most important of which Taking into account the importance of the diagnostic calendar for students at the beginning of the year and semester, and educating teachers and following them up by their supervisors through regular visits to them during the academic year to identify the weaknesses and strengths of each student, and qualify and prepare Arabic teachers through training courses on addressing poor reading among students .

ERP Correlates of Altered Orthographic-Phonological Processing in Dyslexia

Automatic visual word recognition requires not only well-established phonological and orthographic representations but also efficient audio-visual integration of these representations. One possibility is that in developmental dyslexia, inefficient orthographic processing might underlie poor reading. Alternatively, reading deficit could be due to inefficient phonological processing or inefficient integration of orthographic and phonological information. In this event-related potential study, participants with dyslexia (N = 25) and control readers (N = 27) were presented with pairs of words and pseudowords in an implicit same-different task. The reference-target pairs could be identical, or different in the identity or the position of the letters. To test the orthographic-phonological processing, target stimuli were presented in visual-only and audiovisual conditions. Participants with and without dyslexia processed the reference stimuli similarly; however, group differences emerged in the processing of target stimuli, especially in the audiovisual condition where control readers showed greater N1 responses for words than for pseudowords, but readers with dyslexia did not show such difference. Moreover, after 300 ms lexicality effect exhibited a more focused frontal topographic distribution in readers with dyslexia. Our results suggest that in developmental dyslexia, phonological processing and audiovisual processing deficits are more pronounced than orthographic processing deficits.

Using Machine Learning Approaches to Explore Non-Cognitive Variables Influencing Reading Proficiency in English among Filipino Learners

Filipino students ranked last in reading proficiency among all countries/territories in the PISA 2018, with only 19% meeting the minimum (Level 2) standard. It is imperative to understand the range of factors that contribute to low reading proficiency, specifically variables that can be the target of interventions to help students with poor reading proficiency. We used machine learning approaches, specifically binary classification methods, to identify the variables that best predict low (Level 1b and lower) vs. higher (Level 1a or better) reading proficiency using the Philippine PISA data from a nationally representative sample of 15-year-old students. Several binary classification methods were applied, and the best classification model was derived using support vector machines (SVM), with 81.2% average test accuracy. The 20 variables with the highest impact in the model were identified and interpreted using a socioecological perspective of development and learning. These variables included students’ home-related resources and socioeconomic constraints, learning motivation and mindsets, classroom reading experiences with teachers, reading self-beliefs, attitudes, and experiences, and social experiences in the school environment. The results were discussed with reference to the need for a systems perspective to addresses poor proficiency, requiring interconnected interventions that go beyond students’ classroom reading.

Technical Writing Difficulties Faced by High School Students in Dzongkha Subject

This study explores the technical difficulties and the causes of writing difficulties school students face in writing in Dzongkha. Using social constructivism, 16 participants (ten students and six teachers) were involved. In addition to document analysis, the participants were also interviewed to find the problems of writing in Dzongkha. The findings suggest that application of Dzongkha in its written form was one of the most difficult tasks among the four language skills. The writing difficulties faced by the students were the usage of correct spelling, grammar, vocabulary, word structure, sentence structure, paragraph structure, expression and handwriting. Among these, spelling was one of the most difficult parts while writing in Dzongkha. The causes of writing difficulties in Dzongkha were the poor foundation of Dzongkha writing and reading skills, low prestige of Dzongkha language/subject, time constraint, pronunciation related problems, limited resource/facility and professional support for the Dzongkha teachers, less career scope for Dzongkha background students and poor reading habit. It was also due to lack of additional Dzongkha medium based subject, inadequate modern ways of teaching learning strategies, and also because of minimal parents’ support, less personal interest and perseverance to learn and write in Dzongkha. The solutions to the writing problems were to give adequate time for Dzongkha subject, maintain reading and writing portfolios to enhance genres writing, teaching the clear meaning and concept of different words and terminologies having same pronunciation, and adequate teacher written response needs to be emphasized and implemented. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations to different stakeholders are also provided.

Learning by Doing Intervention: Addressing Phonological Difficulties of Children through Audiolingual Method and Total Physical Response

Phonological awareness is a critical skill that children must master during the early foundations of literacy. It is considered a highly accurate predictor of a child’s success in learning to read. However, at the expected age, there are cases in which children have not developed phonological awareness that consequently result in poor reading skills. This case study sought to determine the alphabet knowledge of two seven-year-old children and address their difficulties in phonological awareness through the alphabetic code. The researchers conducted ten sessions of phonological interventions to children with identified language learning difficulties in reading. The data analysis and collection process included curriculum document reviews, diagnostic assessments, phonological interventions, and evaluation. Diagnostic results indicated that the children have difficulties in letter recognition of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) patterns, blending, and segmentation of phonemes. However, anchoring on the principles of learning-by-doing delivered through oral-situational as a core language approach, the interventions in this case study were found effective for phonics instruction. The audio-lingual method and the total physical response in learning phonics, or letter sounds, activated children’s basic phonological skills. Repetition, drilling, memorisation and performing language or vocabulary concepts using physical movement to react to verbal input can lessen the phonological difficulties of children. In light of the current global situation, no previous studies have applied a case study utilizing both audiolingualism and total physical response to address the phonological issues of non-readers. Hence, this study offers scientific and pedagogical implications.

Clinical profile of reading ability and reading and writing achievement of children with borderline full-scale intellectual quotient: a prospective study

Background Poor reading ability is one of the common causes of low academic performance. In previous studies, children with dyslexia were found to demonstrate poor academic achievement due to poor reading ability. However, the relationship between academic achievement and reading ability in children with a borderline full-scale intellectual quotient (FSIQ) is unknown. This study aimed to clarify the clinical characteristics of children with borderline FSIQ and poor reading ability, and differentiate these characteristics from those of children with higher FSIQ and poor reading ability. Methods A total of 126 children (aged 6–15 years) identified as having low academic performance were enrolled. The reading ability of children was assessed through their performance on the hiragana (Japanese syllabary) reading task, while their reading and writing achievement was assessed through their reading and writing score on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition. Children were categorized into two groups based on their FSIQ score (FSIQ > 85 and 85 ≥ FSIQ ≥ 70). Reading ability in children was evaluated by referring to the linear relationship between FSIQ and the standard deviation value of reading tasks in typically developing children. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to examine clinical characteristics between higher and lower FSIQ groups. Associations between reading and writing achievement, reading ability, and ages of children were assessed using Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients for the higher and lower FSIQ groups. Results Poorer reading and writing achievement was associated with poorer reading ability in the higher FSIQ group. Conversely, poorer reading and writing achievement and poor reading ability were associated with older age in the lower FSIQ group. Conclusions Poor reading and writing achievement were associated with older age, not with poor reading ability in the lower FSIQ group. Children with lower FSIQ need appropriate educational interventions based on independent assessments to further their academic achievement and reading ability. Moreover, they need more frequent evaluations of their academic achievement than do children with higher FSIQ and poor reading ability since they are more likely to be at a lower academic achievement level at an older age.