Reading Comprehension in Both Spanish and English as a Foreign Language by High School Spanish Students

Several studies have highlighted that reading comprehension is determined by different linguistic skills: semantics, syntax, and morphology, in addition to one’s own competence in reading fluency (accuracy, speed, and prosody). On the other hand, according to the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, linguistic skills developed in one’s own native language (L1) facilitate the development of these skills in a second one (L2). In this study, we wanted to explore the linguistic abilities that determine reading comprehension in Spanish (L1) and in English (L2) in Secondary Education students. To do this, 73 Secondary Education Students (1st and 3rd year) participated in this study. The students carried out a battery of tasks in English and Spanish, all of them related to reading comprehension (expository text) and different linguistic skills, which included syntactic awareness tasks, synonymy judgment tasks (vocabulary), and morphological awareness tasks. The results indicated a positive correlation between linguistic competencies in both languages (indicating a transfer effect between languages), which were determined by school year, with a lower performance in the 1st year than in the 3rd year. Moreover, we found more skills with correlations in English reading comprehension than in Spanish. Finally, reading comprehension in L1 was mainly explained English reading comprehension, while English reading comprehension was predicted by grade, and syntactic awareness, as well as Spanish reading comprehension. This could be explained by the different levels of exposure to L1 and L2 of sample subjects, as the linguistic variables have different influences on the reading comprehension of both languages.

Acquisition of Mathematical and Linguistic Skills in Children With Learning Difficulties

Comorbid learning difficulties in linguistic and mathematical skills often emerge in primary school age. The cause of coinciding of both learning difficulties during children’s development spanning pre- and primary-school age is not yet well understood. To address this research gap, we used data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; n = 301) of four groups of children which were categorized according to their skill levels in pre-school age: children with learning difficulties isolated in linguistic skills (LD), children with learning difficulties isolated in mathematical skills (MD), children with learning difficulties combined in linguistic and mathematical skills (MD/LD), and children with typical development in both skills (TA). Computing univariate and repeated measures ANCOVAs we compared the mathematical and linguistic development of the four groups of children (LD, MD, LD/MD, and TA) spanning age four to ten. Results reveal a partial catch-up in linguistic skills (lexical, grammatical) for children with LD. In contrast, children with MD did not overcome their mathematical competence gap in comparison with TA and LD. Moreover, children with MD showed a decrease in grammatical skills during transition in primary school. Further, children with MD/LD displayed the weakest performance in linguistic and mathematical skills during pre- and primary-school age in general. However, after controlling for working memory, initial performance differences between the groups decreased in favor of MD/LD. The relation between linguistic skills and mathematical skills in persisting learning difficulties as well as the specific role of working memory are discussed.

Promoting Metacognitive and Linguistic Skills: Digital Learning Logs in Pre-Service Teacher Training

This paper reports on the implementation of digital learning logs in the context of pre-service teacher training in a distance university in Madrid. The learning log, which had been previously implemented in the subject as a learning tool, has proven to be especially useful in Covid-19 times since the students had to work more independently and could use it to reflect upon their learning without the conventional teaching they were used to. The paper has a two-fold aim: first, to analyze whether the learning logs helped in promoting students’ autonomy and self-reflection, and second, to observe whether they contribute to the development of their linguistic competence in English as a foreign language. Participants of the study (n= 47) are students of the Primary and Infant Education degrees, specializing in English teaching, whose L2 level ranges between B1 and C2. At the end of half term, they were given the possibility of completing a learning log to record their learning process, review concepts and be aware of potential learning gaps and needs, and act accordingly. For this purpose, and to encourage participation, L1 or L2 could be chosen as vehicular languages. Participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire on their experience using the logs, answering questions regarding the suitability of this tool to enhance their language skills and promote effective strategies to become independent learners. The data drawn from the questionnaires submitted (n=29) were later analyzed through SPSS. In addition, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect information on those participants who had not completed the learning log (n=11). The findings of the study show that the vast majority of participants agree on the potential of learning logs as a useful tool to keep track of their learning process and to develop metacognitive awareness and linguistic skills.

Performance of early literacy students in cognitive-linguistic skills during the pandemic

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic made discrepancies between the different educational realities more evident for schoolchildren in the beginning of literacy. Objective: to characterize the performance of cognitive-linguistic skills of students in early literacy phases during the pandemic. Methods: Twenty-two elementary school students participated in this study, distributed in GI 1st year students and 2nd year GII students, submitted to the application of the Cognitive-Linguistic Skills Assessment Protocol for students in the initial stage of literacy. Results: Students from GI and GII showed average performance for writing the name and writing the alphabet in sequence. The GI presented a refusal response for the subtests of word dictation, pseudoword dictation and picture dictation, word repetition and visual sequential memory of shapes and poor performance for alphabet recognition in random order and average performance for alphabet recognition in sequence. GII showed lower performance for the subtests of word dictation, pseudoword dictation, picture dictation and superior performance for alphabet recognition in random order, alphabet in sequence and visual sequential memory of shapes. Discussion: The appropriation of the letter-sound relationship mechanism raises questions, since it evidenced the difficulty of all students in cognitive-linguistic skills necessary for the full development of reading and writing in an alphabetic writing system such as Brazilian Portuguese . Conclusion: Students in the 1st and 2nd years showed lower performance in cognitive-linguistic skills important for learning reading and writing.

The Effects of Orthographic Neighborhood Size and the Influence of Individual Differences in Linguistic Skills During the Recognition of Chinese Words

There are still inconsistencies as to whether frequency and orthographic neighborhood size affect the reading and recognition of Chinese words. In addition, research on Chinese reading still adheres to the view that “all skilled readers read in the same way” and pays little attention to the influence of individual differences in linguistic skills on word recognition. In this research, we studied the recognition of Chinese two-character words in a lexical decision task (LDT) by manipulating neighborhood size and word frequency and controlling the frequency of the initial constituent character. Individual differences in linguistic skills were assessed through tests of spelling and reading comprehension. The results showed that: (1) A larger orthographic neighborhood size of the initial character had a facilitative effect on Chinese word recognition. The orthographic neighborhood size effect is modulated by word frequency, but this modulation effect was not stable. (2) Spelling and reading comprehension skills are good indicators to assess individual differences in Chinese linguistic skills, and they are significantly correlated. (3) Individual differences in linguistic skills influence the neighborhood size effect, which is moderated by word frequency.

La reformulation élémentaire comme pratique d'écriture de recherche étudiante

In this article, we have chosen to study the issue of reformulation in master dissertations, and more precisely within the literature review, a compulsory chapter in any research work. We have noticed that students very often use elementary reformulation, ie reformulation very close to the source text to reformulate the discourse of other authors. From a corpus made up of extracts from master dissertations written in French as a foreign language and in Romanian as a mother tongue, we will examine the practice of elementary reformulation implemented by the students during the development of the literature review. When students write in French, in addition to the standards to be respected as well as the mastery of scientific knowledge of which they are not yet experts, they must handle one more knowledge : French as a foreign language. In this perspective, the comparative approach will allow us to see if the practice of elementary reformulation is linked to the mastery of scientific discourse or to the linguistic skills of young writers.

Differences in adverse drug events and medication errors among pediatric inpatients aged <3 and ≥3 years: The JADE study

Background Adverse drug events (ADEs) are defined as any injuries due to medication use. We hypothesized that the incidences of ADEs and medication errors (MEs) could be associated with linguistic skills of pediatric patients. Methods We analyzed data from the Japan Adverse Drug Events study on pediatric inpatients. This study included inpatients aged one months and older and less than seven years old. We compared the primary outcome of ADEs and MEs between patients aged under three years and three years and older as children typically do not acquire sufficient linguistic skills until around three years of age. Results This study included 639 patients; 412 (64%) patients aged under three years and 227 (36%) patients aged three years and older. We identified 241 ADEs in 639 patients; 152 ADEs among patients aged under three years (37 ADEs per 100 patients) and 89 ADEs among those aged three years and older (39 ADEs per 100 patients). ADEs among patients aged under three years were less likely to be found (49 ADEs) during their hospital stay than those aged three years and older (20 ADEs) ( P = 0.02). Among 172 MEs identified in 639 patients, 25 MEs (15%) resulted in ADEs; 23 (92%) occurred to those aged under three years and two (8%) occurred to those aged three years and older ( P = 0.0008). Conclusion ADEs were less likely to be found and MEs resulted in ADEs more frequently in patients under three years old, and these differences could be explained by differences in their linguistic skill levels.

Which Factors Modulate Letter Position Coding in Pre-literate Children?

One of the central landmarks of learning to read is the emergence of orthographic processing (i.e., the encoding of letter identity and letter order): it constitutes the necessary link between the low-level stages of visual processing and the higher-level processing of words. Regarding the processing of letter position, many experiments have shown worse performance in various tasks for the transposed-letter pair judge-JUDGE than for the orthographic control jupte-JUDGE. Importantly, 4-y.o. pre-literate children also show letter transposition effects in a same-different task: TZ-ZT is more error-prone than TZ-PH. Here, we examined whether this effect with pre-literate children is related to the cognitive and linguistic skills required to learn to read. Specifically, we examined the relation of the transposed-letter in a same-different task with the scores of these children in phonological, alphabetic and metalinguistic awareness, linguistic skills, and basic cognitive processes. To that end, we used a standardized battery to assess the abilities related with early reading acquisition. Results showed that the size of the transposed-letter effect in pre-literate children was strongly associated with the sub-test on basic cognitive processes (i.e., memory and perception) but not with the other sub-tests. Importantly, identifying children who may need a pre-literacy intervention is crucial to minimize eventual reading difficulties. We discuss how this marker can be used as a tool to anticipate reading difficulties in beginning readers.