EXPRESS: Lexicality Effects on Orthographic Learning in Beginning and Advanced Readers of Dutch: An Eye-tracking Study

Orthographic learning is the topic of many recent studies about reading, but much is still unknown about conditions that affect orthographic learning and their influence on reading fluency development over time. This study investigated lexicality effects on orthographic learning in beginning and relatively advanced readers of Dutch. Eye movements of 131 children in Grades 2 and 5 were monitored during an orthographic learning task. Children read sentences containing pseudowords or low-frequency real words that varied in number of exposures. We examined both offline learning outcomes (i.e., orthographic choice and spelling dictation) of target items and online gaze durations on target words. The results showed general effects of exposure, lexicality, and reading-skill level. Also, a two-way interaction was found between the number of exposures and lexicality when detailed orthographic representations were required, consistent with a larger overall effect of exposure on learning the spellings of pseudowords. Moreover, lexicality and reading-skill level were found to affect the learning rate across exposures based on a decrease in gaze durations, indicating a larger learning effect for pseudowords in Grade 5 children. Yet, further interactions between exposure and reading-skill level were not present, indicating largely similar learning curves for beginning and advanced readers. We concluded that the reading system of more advanced readers may cope somewhat better with words varying in lexicality, but is not more efficient than that of beginning readers in building up orthographic knowledge of specific words across repeated exposures. Keywords: Eye tracking, lexicality, literacy development, orthographic learning, reading fluency.

Predicate-Argument Structure in a Valence Dictionary (on the Example of the Verb Reward)

Valence dictionaries are very often specialized works for advanced readers which present how particular linguistic units combine with its subordinates. The article is a critical analysis of a dictionary entry for the lexical unit of reward contained in A Valency Dictionary of English, a Corpus-Based Analysis of the Complementation Patterns of English Verbs, Nouns and Adjectives [2004]. A complementary proposal regarding the predicate-argument structure and its annotation system will be provided based on the theoretical model proposed by S. Karolak [1984; 2002] called Semantic Syntax (SS) and more specifically its extended model called explicative syntax [Kiklewicz et al. 2010; 2019]. The research findings demonstrate the need for coordinated international projects that should integrate both the syntactic as well as the semantic levels in order to gradually meet the objective of an integrated language description encompassing both the grammar and the lexicon.

Preadolescent Advanced Readers: Exploring Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors

Despite dedication of tremendous resources to developing literary proficiencies, advanced readers may remain an underserved and understudied population. This qualitative study included nine preadolescent participants aged 10–12 years who demonstrated reading comprehension abilities within the top 10% on a national normed achievement battery. The researchers gathered interview data from participants with corroborating evidence from their parents and their book club teacher. The grounded theory analyses found advanced readers to demonstrate superior reading comprehension and the ability to read entire books quickly. Participants reported positive attitudes toward reading in general and preferred out of school reading over the limiting structures of school reading. Some evidence supported a connection between reading and identity exploration through narrative imagination and empathetic relations to characters and narratives. Advanced readers may present cognitive characteristics, as well as behaviors and motivations that require differentiated learning designs.

Evolution of reading and face circuits during the first three years of reading acquisition

Although words and faces activate neighboring regions in the fusiform gyrus, we lack an understanding of how this category selectivity emerges during development. To investigate the organization of reading and face circuits at the earliest stage of reading acquisition, we measured the fMRI responses to words, faces, houses, and checkerboards in three groups of 60 children: 6-year-old pre-readers, 6-year-old beginning readers and 9-year-old advanced readers. The results showed that specific responses to written words were absent prior to reading, but emerged in beginning readers, irrespective of age. Likewise, specific responses to faces were weak or absent in pre-readers, but they emerged more slowly and continued to evolve in the 9-year-olds, primarily driven by age rather than by schooling. Crucially, the sectors of ventral visual cortex that become specialized words and faces harbored their own functional connectivity prior to reading acquisition: the VWFA with left-hemispheric spoken language areas, and the FFA with the contralateral region and the amygdalae. The results support the view that reading acquisition occurs through the recycling of a pre-existing but plastic circuit which, in pre-readers, already connects the VWFA site to other distant language areas. Furthermore, reading acquisition does not compete with the face system directly, through a pruning of preexisting face responses, but indirectly, by partially reorienting the slow growth of face responses to the right hemisphere.

Exploring the Moderation Effect of Educational Stage on Visual Magnocellular Functioning Linked to Reading: A Study in French Primary School Children

Many studies have investigated the visual magnocellular system functioning in dyslexia. However, very little is known on the relationship between the visual magnocellular system functioning and reading abilities in typical developing readers. In this study, we aimed at studying this relationship and more specifically the moderation effect of educational stage on this link. We thus tested 82 French typical developing readers (40 beginning readers—Grade 1 and 42 advanced readers—Grade 5) with reading tests and a coherent dot motion task measuring the visual magnocellular functioning. Results indicate positive correlations between visual magnocellular functioning and reading for beginning readers but not for advanced readers. Moreover, moderation analyses confirm that reading proficiency moderates the relationship between magnocellular system functioning and reading outcomes. We concluded that the relationship between visual magnocellular pathway functioning and reading abilities in typical developing readers could depend on reading proficiency.

The Game Music Handbook

Writing music for games is an art that requires conceptual forethought, specialized technical skill, and a deep understanding of how players interact with games and game audio. The Game Music Handbook embarks on a journey through numerous soundscapes throughout video game history, exploring a series of concepts and techniques that are key to being a successful game music composer. This book organizes key game music scoring concepts into an applicable methodology, describing them with memorable distinctions that leave readers with a clear picture of how to apply them to creating music and sound. Any music composer or musician who wishes to begin a career in game composition can pick up this text and quickly gain a solid understanding of the core techniques for composing video game music, as well as the conceptual differences that separate it from any other compositional field. Some of these topics include designing emotional arcs for nonlinear timelines, the relationship between music and sound design, discussion of the player’s interaction with audio, and more. There is also much to be gained by advanced readers or game audio professionals, who will find detailed discussion of game state and its effect on player interaction, a composer-centric lesson on programming, how to work with version control, information on visual programming languages, emergent audio, music for virtual reality (VR), procedural audio, and other indispensable knowledge about advanced reactive music concepts. The text often explores the effect that music has on a player’s interaction with a game. It discusses the practical application of this interaction through the examination of various techniques employed in games throughout video game history to enhance immersion, emphasize emotion, and create compelling interactive experiences.

Elevating Instruction: Enhancing Literacy Practices for Advanced Readers in Primary Grades

The tool, Elevating Instruction: A Planning Tool, was designed to aid teachers in improving literacy instruction to best meet the academic needs of all students, including advanced readers in the primary classroom. It is crucial for teachers to elevate reading practices for advanced readers during the time when young learners are developing skills to be lifelong readers. Teachers can do this by promoting authentic choice, encouraging student agency and ownership, supporting meaningful peer interactions, and collecting and using formative data. To this end, the authors address these four instructional components within the scope of a literacy block in an elementary classroom using an easy-to-access and easy-to-implement planning tool, which teachers can use to enhance instruction for all students. The use of this tool is depicted by a classroom teacher working with a gifted resource teacher (GRT), demonstrating how the tool can be used to support teachers as they work to improve and elevate literacy instruction.

A survey on semi-supervised learning

Semi-supervised learning is the branch of machine learning concerned with using labelled as well as unlabelled data to perform certain learning tasks. Conceptually situated between supervised and unsupervised learning, it permits harnessing the large amounts of unlabelled data available in many use cases in combination with typically smaller sets of labelled data. In recent years, research in this area has followed the general trends observed in machine learning, with much attention directed at neural network-based models and generative learning. The literature on the topic has also expanded in volume and scope, now encompassing a broad spectrum of theory, algorithms and applications. However, no recent surveys exist to collect and organize this knowledge, impeding the ability of researchers and engineers alike to utilize it. Filling this void, we present an up-to-date overview of semi-supervised learning methods, covering earlier work as well as more recent advances. We focus primarily on semi-supervised classification, where the large majority of semi-supervised learning research takes place. Our survey aims to provide researchers and practitioners new to the field as well as more advanced readers with a solid understanding of the main approaches and algorithms developed over the past two decades, with an emphasis on the most prominent and currently relevant work. Furthermore, we propose a new taxonomy of semi-supervised classification algorithms, which sheds light on the different conceptual and methodological approaches for incorporating unlabelled data into the training process. Lastly, we show how the fundamental assumptions underlying most semi-supervised learning algorithms are closely connected to each other, and how they relate to the well-known semi-supervised clustering assumption.

Implementasi Pendidikan Quran Tingkat Lanjut Bagi Santri Usia Dewasa

The researchers intends to find out how Al-Quran Education in the Yogyakarta AMM Tartil Team includes supporting and inhibiting factors as well as how the team overcomes the obstacles to Al-Quran Education in the AMM Tartil Team Yogyakarta. The learning patterns of adults and advanced readers of the Quran in this education are different from those of students of Quran who are younger than them at the beginning level or those studying in Islamic boarding schools. This qualitative case study research uses several instruments, observation, mandala interviews, and documentation. Observations were made by directly following the Syahadah One education process for the students of the AMM Yogyakarta tartil team. In-depth interviews were addressed to informants, namely the management of the Foundation, Ustaz, and students participating in the education who were the object of the research. For documentation, it is emphasized on the data of the Tartilil Qur'an curriculum text. All collected data were then analyzed in a cumulative manner with inductive-deductive thinking patterns. Advanced education to read the Koran does have complex problems in terms of time and age of the participants, although it must be commended for their intention and sincerity to be fluent in reading it.