Language Variation in the Writing of African American Students: Factors Predicting Reading Achievement

Purpose This study aims to examine the predictive relation between measures obtained from African American students' written narrative language samples and reading achievement, as measured by standardized academic assessments. Method Written language samples were elicited from 207 African American students in Grades 1–8. The samples were examined for morphosyntactic variations from standardized written Generalized American English (GAE). These variations were categorized as either (a) specific to African American English (AAE) or (b) neutral across AAE and standardized written GAE (i.e., considered ungrammatical both in AAE and in standardized written GAE). Structural equation modeling was employed to then examine the predictive relation between the density of AAE-specific forms in students' writing and their performance on standardized assessments of literacy and reading vocabulary. This relation was examined while accounting for the density of dialect-neutral morphosyntactic forms, reported family income, age, and written sample length. Results The written samples were highly variable in terms of morphosyntax. Younger students and those from lower income homes tended to use AAE-specific forms at higher rates. However, the density of AAE-specific forms did not significantly predict standardized literacy scores or reading vocabulary after accounting for dialect-neutral variations, income, and sample length. Conclusions These results support the ongoing need to better understand the language, literacy, and overall academic development of students from all backgrounds. It may be essential to focus on dialect-neutral language forms (i.e., morphosyntactic forms that are consistent across both AAE and standardized written GAE) in written samples to maximize assessment validity across students who speak varying dialects of English. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16879558

The Use of Content Analysis to Assess Letterland Book for Kindergarten Students

Most of previous researches investigated the use of Letterland method in teaching English. However, only few researches concern with the Letterland book that have many differences with local story books in Indonesia. This research was aimed to find out how the quality of Letterland book refers to listening, reading, and vocabulary skills, language content (topic, subject content and social and culture values) and the effectiveness of Letterland book. Content analysis method was applied in this research. There were two instruments which are used in this reseach, they are : document and interview that involved teachers in Star Kiddy Preschool and Learning Center. This research used Cunningsworth theory as guidance to analyse the quality of Letterland book. The findings showed that listening, reading, vocabulary skills in Letterland book are categorized as good book. The language contents of Letterland book is qualified as good EFL book criteria. Teachers in Star Kiddy Preschool Star Kiddy Preschool and Learning Center stated that Letterland book is effective to learn English for children. However, there were problems in the implementation of Letterland book such as: limited time, new teachers that had not expert on Letterland book. Therefore, this research was expected to be the an overview of teachers that learnt English by using Letterland book for children.

THINKING DEVELOPMENT AND CULTURAL AWARENESS OF STUDENTS THROUGH LITERATURE

The purpose of present research is to emphasize the way in which literature contributes to the needs of new students in their social interaction. The key factors that we focused on span the entire scope of studying a foreign language through literature. Thus, the methods we suggest for this refer to: motivating students to read, using poems, creating a play in class, using dramatic texts and narratives. It has been constantly recognized that the new European context influences the new generation of students in their way of perceiving the world with everything this implies. Spanish classes are essential in the process of shaping the character of a young person as a social person. The development of thinking and cultural awareness can be achieved through the use of an appropriate methodology, in addition to addressing all fields of a foreign language: pronunciation, literature, speaking, listening, reading, vocabulary, written comprehension and a variety of means.

School Outcomes of Students with and At Risk for Disabilities in Poverty: An Evaluation of School-Based Interventions in the U.S.

Poverty as a cultural factor affects students' school success and outcomes. In the current literature review, we aimed at providing a comprehensive analysis of intervention research designed to support school outcomes of students aged 3 to 21 years with disabilities or at risk for developing disabilities in high-poverty contexts. Eighteen studies were included in this review (16 group designs, 1 single case design, and 1 group design with embedded single case), with a total of 1782 student participants. Results indicated that most of the research studies designed for students in poverty focused on their language skills (e.g., reading, vocabulary, literacy) with various interventions. Most of the group design studies met the quality indicators (Gersten et al., 2009) with a low standard, although all single case studies met the quality indicators by higher than 80% (Kratochwill et al., 2013). As for the analysis of cultural responsiveness, we found that most studies provided limited information reflecting culturally responsive research (Trainor & Bal, 2014). Discussion and implication for practice and research are provided.

PENGEMBANGAN KAMUS SAKU ARAB-INDONESIA UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KETRAMPILAN MEMBACA SISWA KELAS VIII DI PESANTREN ROUDHOTUL QUR’AN AN-NOER

The purpose of this study is to develop an Arabic-Indonesian pocket dictionary to improve reading vocabulary and to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of learning media in the form of a pocket dictionary. This research is an R&D research that adopts the development of ADDIE. The subjects in this study were class VIII students of the Roudhotul Qur'an An-noer Islamic Boarding School, totaling 15 students and data collection used in the form of media expert questionnaires, material expert questionnaires, student response questionnaires, pre-test, and post-test. The types of data analyzed produce qualitative and quantitative data with assessment categories to determine product feasibility. The results of this study are: 1) a learning media in the form of an Arabic-Indonesian pocket dictionary has been developed. 2) the feasibility of the pocket dictionary learning media that has been developed is very feasible with an almost comprehensive score reaching a value of 4 (quite valid) based on the assessment of material experts and a very decent score almost completely reaching a value of 4 (quite valid) based on the assessment of media experts. 3) the effectiveness of learning media in the form of pocket dictionaries is very effective, seen from the average pre-test score obtained by students compared to the post-test score, with an average pre-test score of 49 and an average post-test score of 80.

Enhancing EFL Learners’ Reading Vocabulary Acquisition through Task-Based Instruction

This study is intended to enhance students’ reading vocabulary through task-based instruction. It was also devised not only to answer how the strategy can enhance students’ reading vocabulary but also to get data about students’ vocabulary retention two weeks after the implementation and students’ responses towards the strategy. The participantS of this study were 30 ninth graders in SMPN 11 Malang in the second semester of 2019/2020 academic year. Classroom Action Research (CAR) was used as the research design. Vocabulary test, questionnaire, observation sheet, and interview session were the instruments of this study. There were three vocabulary tests, namely vocabulary test one, vocabulary test two, and delayed test. The result showed that there was an improvement in students' scores. 90% of students achieved at least 25 improvement points for the vocabulary test two, 61% of students passed the delayed vocabulary test, and 97.5% of students responded positively toward the strategy. TBI could enhance vocabulary acquisition from the context and task’s characteristics. The context of the text helped students to give a clue about some forgotten vocabularies, so they felt less burdened to remember the vocabulary in the whole text because they generally understand the context of the text. Keywords: task-based instruction, reading vocabulary, vocabulary retention Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kosakata membaca siswa melalui instruksi berbasis tugas. Penelitian ini juga dirancang tidak hanya untuk menjawab bagaimana strategi yang diterapkan dapat meningkatkan kosakata membaca siswa tetapi juga untuk mendapatkan data tentang retensi kosakata siswa dua minggu setelah penerapan dan tanggapan siswa terhadap strategi yang diberikan. Partisipan penelitian ini adalah 30 siswa kelas 9B di SMPN 11 Malang semester genap tahun ajaran 2019/2020. Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK) digunakan sebagai desain penelitian. Tes kosakata, angket, lembar observasi, dan sesi wawancara menjadi instrumen dalam penelitian ini. Ada tiga tes kosakata yang diberikan, yaitu tes kosakata satu, tes kosakata dua, dan tes tertunda. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada peningkatan pada nilai siswa: 90% dari keseluruhan siswa mencapai setidaknya 25 peningkatan poin untuk tes kosakata dua, 61% dari keseluruhan siswa mampu melalui tes kosakata tertunda, dan 97.5% dari keseluruhan siswa menanggapi strategi secara positif. TBI dapat meningkatkan penguasaan kosakata dari suatu konteks dan karakteristik tugas. Konteks dari suatu teks membantu siswa mendapatkan petunjuk tentang beberapa kosakata yang telah terlupakan, sehingga mereka merasa tidak terlalu terbebani untuk mengingat kembali kosakata keseluruhan teks karena mereka pada umumnya memahami konteks teks tersebut. Kata kunci: instruksi berbasis tugas, kosakata bacaan, retensi kosakata

Ta’līm al-Lugah al-‘Arabiyyah bimajāl Mahārah al-Qirā’ah wa al-Kitābah

In studying language, vocabulary is the key to understand language lesson. It is similar in learning Arabic. The vocabulary is important. In learning Arabic, there four skills. They are listening, writing, reading, and speaking. All students should have a lot of vocabulary. The main purpose of this research are: (1) to describe the intensity of reading vocabulary of the second grade students at Arrisalah Islamic Boarding School, (2) to describe the writing skills of the second grade students at Arrisalah Islamic Boarding School, (3) to understand the effect of vocabulary reading intensity to improve the students’ writing skills. The quantitative research was used. The data were collected from the students and the boarding school’s information by using observation, questionnaires, test, and documentation. Meanwhile, to determine the relationship and the effect of vocabulary reading intensity on the students’ writing skills product moment correlation was used. From this research, it is known that the reading vocabulary intensity is at a moderate level with a percentage result 64.70% and the writing skills are also at a moderate level with a percentage result 52.94%. By calculating the product moment correlation between reading vocabulary intensity and writing skills, it was found that the correlation number was 0.784 and the coefficient of determination in variable of the vocabulary reading intensity affects the students’ writing skills was 63%.

THE STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING READING

Based on the occurrences in the field that reading has main role as one of the skill in English. The students must fluent in reading skill because it can help them to referring meaning on their read.This research aimed to find out causes of the difficulties that faced by the students in learning reading and look for answering the problem during learning process. The research using descriptive qualitative to get the problem solving of the research. The data collection of the research are test use to analyse the problem of the students during the reading test and questionnaire use to discover the main reason of their difficulties in reading. By the result of the test, the author can get some point which the number of the question that difficult for the students to answer it. The results is found the reason of their confusion while reading in English. Some aspects influence their motivation to learning hard in reading, the lack of the students knowledge in English vocabulary give the effect they are difficult to arrange the word meaningfor their understanding. Thus, the teacher can be aware to quest the appropriate media to increase their motivation in reading English.Keywords: reading, vocabulary, students difficulties.