The Effectiveness of Visual Mind Mapping Strategy for Improving English Language Learners' Critical Thinking Skills and Reading Ability

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study investigated the effectiveness of visual mind mapping as a reading strategy for improving English language learners' critical thinking skills. Students from two general English courses were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. California Critical Thinking Test was used to assess participants' critical thinking skills. The findings revealed a statistically significant difference at (p < .005) in the mean scores of the experiment and control groups in the post-test due to visual mind mapping strategy in favor of the experimental group with a positive and significant impact on participants' critical thinking skills. The findings also showed that the experimental group’s scores were significantly improved in all indicators of critical thinking. The study results showed that visual mind mapping strategy affected the increased of critical thinking skills and reading comprehension ability. The study's findings revealed that using a visual mind mapping strategy had a significant improvement impact on English language learners critical thinking skills and reading ability.</p>

Cognitive Sequelae of Silent Ischemic Lesions Following Carotid Artery Stenting: Possible Role of Age-Related Moderation

Background: The occurrence of ischemic lesions is common in patients receiving carotid artery stenting (CAS), and most of them are clinically silent. However, few studies have directly addressed the cognitive sequelae of these procedure-related silent ischemic lesions (SILs).Objective: In this study, we attempted to investigate the effects of SILs on cognition using a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests.Method: Eighty-five patients with unilateral carotid stenosis and 25 age-matched healthy volunteers participated in this study. Brain MRI was performed within 1 week before and 1 week after CAS to monitor the occurrence of post-CAS SILs. A comprehensive battery tapping reading ability, verbal and non-verbal memory, visuospatial function, manual dexterity, executive function, and processing speed was administered 1 week before and 6 months after CAS. To control for practice effects on repeated cognitive testing, the reliable change index (RCI) derived from the healthy volunteers was used to determine the cognitive changes in patients with carotid stenosis.Results: Among the 85 patients with carotid stenosis, 21 patients received medical treatment (MED group), and procedure-related SILs were noted in 17 patients (SIL+ group) but not observed in 47 patients (SIL– group) after undergoing CAS. Two-way (group × phase) ANOVA revealed that the volunteer group showed improved scores in most cognitive tests while only limited improvement was noted in the SIL– group. The MED and control groups tended to show improvement in the follow-up cognitive testing than the SIL+ group. However, most of the cognitive changes for each patient group did not exceed the upper or lower limits (z = ±1.0) of the RCI.Conclusions: Although the occurrence of procedure-related SILs is common in patients undergoing CAS, their impacts on cognitive changes after CAS may be limited. The practice effect should be taken into consideration when interpreting cognitive changes following CAS.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PREVIEW, ASK QUESTIONS, READ, AND SUMMARIZE STRATEGY IN READING CLASS: AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY

This research aimed to improve students' reading ability using the PAQRS strategy. This research applied a classroom action research (CAR) design conducted in two cycles consisting of four stages: planning, action, observation, and reflection. Each cycle consists of four meetings. The researcher conducted tests, interviews, and observations in collecting the data. The data is presented quantitatively as the primary and supporting data. The study's findings showed that 18.91% of students achieved the minimum completeness criteria, and the average score was 67.35 in the first cycle test. While 81.08% of students achieved the minimum completeness criteria, the average score was 76.72 in the second cycle test. The result of the research indicated that students' achievement is an increase from cycle 1 to cycle 2. This study concludes that the PAQRS strategy can successfully improve students' reading skills.

What Is Going on with Visual Attention in Reading and Dyslexia? A Critical Review of Recent Studies

This critical review examined current issues to do with the role of visual attention in reading. To do this, we searched for and reviewed 18 recent articles, including all that were found after 2019 and used a Latin alphabet. Inspection of these articles showed that the Visual Attention Span task was run a number of times in well-controlled studies and was typically a small but significant predictor of reading ability, even after potential covariation with phonological effects were accounted for. A number of other types of tasks were used to examine different aspects of visual attention, with differences between dyslexic readers and controls typically found. However, most of these studies did not adequately control for phonological effects, and of those that did, only very weak and non-significant results were found. Furthermore, in the smaller studies, separate within-group correlations between the tasks and reading performance were generally not provided, making causal effects of the manipulations difficult to ascertain. Overall, it seems reasonable to suggest that understanding how and why different types of visual tasks affect particular aspects of reading performance is an important area for future research.

Reading Difficulties in English as a Second Language in Grade Five at a Saint Patrick’s High School for Boys, Hyderabad- India

Reading is one of the essential components of the English language. Countries that use English as a second language (ESL) sometimes have difficulties in reading and comprehension. According to many researches, mother tongue has proved some interferences with learning a second language. This study investigated the results of reading difficulties of young second language learners in terms of accuracy, comprehension, and rate using the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability test. The study was carried out in one of the High Schools for Boys in Hyderabad, India and included Grade five, aged 10-12 years. In order to understand the reading difficulties of English as a second language, a qualitative approach was employed. Interview, reading tests, and observation were conducted as a data collection tool. The findings showed that these subjects had no specific language impairments but they had different degrees of language exposure and usage that led to poor accuracy, comprehension, and reading rate during reading English language texts. Five students (50%) were classified at a low level of readers, three (30%) at a high level, and two (20%) at a mild level after evaluation of their compatibility between their chronological and reading age. It is suggested that the teachers should first assess students who struggle in reading accuracy and comprehension and then assist them with their language learning and acquisition that take place at school and home.

Evidence from ERP and Eye Movements as Markers of Language Dysfunction in Dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is a complex reading disorder involving genetic and environmental factors. After more than a century of research, its etiology remains debated. Two hypotheses are often put forward by scholars to account for the causes of dyslexia. The most common one, the linguistic hypothesis, postulates that dyslexia is due to poor phonological awareness. The alternative hypothesis considers that dyslexia is caused by visual-attentional deficits and abnormal eye movement patterns. This article reviews a series of selected event-related brain potential (ERP) and eye movement studies on the reading ability of dyslexic individuals to provide an informed state of knowledge on the etiology of dyslexia. Our purpose is to show that the two abovementioned hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and that dyslexia should rather be considered as a multifactorial deficit.

Game-Based Learning to Enhance the Reading Ability of Children With Autism or Other Learning Difficulties

The paper presents the design of a highly customizable game for children with autism spectrum disorder facing learning difficulties. The same solution can be used for children with or without other developmental disorders facing learning difficulties. The scope of the research was to create a generic solution to facilitate the learning process of reading in the targeted population. The latest pedagogical approaches (TEACCH, PECS, ABA, Makaton, etc.) are combined with appropriate gamification techniques to produce the desired outcome. The game has been developed with the unity game engine in order to run in any device. The final solution has been pilot tested in a small group of highly-functioning children with autism. The results of the design process and the early findings from the pilot testing are presented in the current paper.

Addressing Word Recognition Difficulties of Adolescents With Dyslexia

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of evidence-based word analysis approaches for promoting accurate and fluent reading of complex words by adolescents with a specific reading disability (i.e., dyslexia). First, research has been reviewed to pinpoint the characteristics and causes of dyslexia as a specific learning disability. Specifically, two theories of dyslexia, the phonological theory of dyslexia and the magnocellular theory of dyslexia, have been discussed to ascertain the causal attributes of phonological awareness deficits and auditory and visual sequencing deficits to word recognition difficulties of adolescents with dyslexia. Next, two theories of word recognition, particularly the dual-route model of word recognition and connectionist model of word recognition, have been discussed to clarify the mechanism underlying the manifestation of dyslexia and resultant difficulties with word recognition. Finally, evidence-based word analysis programs have been described as approaches for improving word reading ability of adolescents with dyslexia.

Implementasi Gerakan Literasi Sekolah Untuk Meningkatkan Minat dan Kemampuan Membaca Melalui Program Jam Baca Model Teras Pustaka Bagi Warga Sekolah SD 8 Kandangmas

The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of the school literacy movement to increase interest and reading skills through the library terrace model reading hour program for school residents of SD 8 Kandangmas. This type of research is School Action Research (PTS). This research was conducted at SD 8 Kandangmas. Data collection techniques are interviews, observation and documentation. The results of this study in Cycle I obtained an observation of interest for teachers with an average score of 71. While for education staff from 5 education personnel the average value was 68, while interest in students obtained an average value of 75. In cycle II, for teachers the average value was 85. Interest scores for education staff the average is 84. For students the average value is 89. Judging from the average value in interest in literacy in cycle II, there is an increase of 20% from the average in cycle I. Meanwhile, literacy skills, especially the ability to read non-textbooks, are obtained from the average literacy reading ability in the second cycle was found to be an increase of 12% from the first cycle.Tujuan Penelitian ini yaitu untuk mendeskripsikan implementasi gerakan literasi sekolah untuk meningkatkan minat dan kemampuan membaca melalui program jam baca model teras pustaka bagi warga sekolah SD 8 Kandangmas. Jenis penelitian ini yaitu Penelitian Tindakan Sekolah (PTS). Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di SD 8 Kandangmas. Teknik pengumpulan data adalah wawancara, observasi dan dokumentasi. Hasil penelitian ini pada Siklus I didapat nilai pengamatan minat untuk guru nilai rerata 71. Sedangkan pada tenaga kependidikan dari 5 tenaga kependidikan nilai rerata 68, sedangkan minat pada siswa diperoleh nilai rerata 75. Pada siklus II, untuk guru nilai nilai rata-rata 85. Nilai minat untuk tenaga kependidikan rata-rata 84. Untuk siswa nilai rata-rata 89. Dilihat dari nilai rata-rata pada minat berliterasi siklus II ada kenaikan sebesar 20% dari rata-rata siklus I. Sedangkan kemampuan berliterasi khususnya kemampuann membaca non buku teks didapat dari rata-rata pada kemampuan membaca literasi siklus II didapat kenaikan 12% dari siklus I.