The Effect of Communication Style on Teaching Motivation, Work Ethics, Emotional Intelligence, Reading Proficiency and Knowledge Sharing

Introduction. The reading proficiency of students across countries varies. Better teaching motivation, workplace ethics, Emotional Intelligence promote one to share their knowledge with others. Therefore this study seeks to investigate the role of communication style, the effect of teaching motivation, workplace ethics, emotional intelligence on reading proficiency and knowledge sharing. Materials and Methods. This study engaged 448 teachers/serviced teachers from various levels of secondary schools. Structural Equation Modeling is utilized in this study to analyze the model. The model reached a satisfactory compliance. Results. The results showed that teaching motivation, workplace ethics, emotional intelligence bear on reading proficiency and knowledge sharing positively. The communication style of teachers mediates the model significantly. Discussion and Conclusion.Teachers with better motivation prepare their class better by increasing their knowledge and insight into their field by the intensity of their effort to increase their reading experience and proficiency. Those sticking to work ethic try to increase their integrity, honesty, discipline, fairness and respect, responsibility, and accountability at work to reach better proficiency of reading and behaviors of sharing activities. Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence boosts their quality in reading by reaching a better quality of their ability on their understanding of reading passages and vocabulary knowledge as well as the level of proficiency in reading. Teachers with better communication styles increase their motivation onto the level of reading proficiency. Communication style strengthens the influence of motivation on reading skills.

Can’t See the Words for the Letters: Whole Word Processing in Adolescents and a Novel “Visual” Intervention for Dyslexia

<p>Individuals with developmental dyslexia, considered as a group, perform poorly on tasks that involve phonological analysis, such as applying sight-sound rules to read new words, or analysing words into their component sounds (De Groot, Huettig, & Olivers, 2016; Temple & Marshall, 1983). However, dyslexia is also associated with other types of difficulties. For example, in some individuals, reading latencies increase disproportionately with the length of the word (De Luca, Barca, Burani, & Zoccolotti, 2008; Spinelli et al., 2005) suggesting they may have difficulties recognising familiar words as whole units (“whole word” processing). This thesis examined the relationship between the word length effect and overall reading proficiency in a diverse sample of 49 adolescents. We found that the length effect was a unique predictor of reading proficiency, even after factoring out variance in phonological skills (measured using a nonword reading task). We also tested the recent hypothesis that visual attention span - the number of letters a reader can capture in a single glance - is important for efficient whole word reading (Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois, 2007). Contrary to this hypothesis, we found no association between the word length effect and scores on a standard measure of visual attention span (a partial report task). We also explored whether reading-delayed adolescents could benefit from an intervention targeting their specific cognitive profile. Five cases demonstrating a selective difficulty with either “phonological” or “whole word” skills completed two interventions. One targeted phonological skills: participants were trained to recognise and apply common sight-sound correspondences. The other targeted whole word skills: we reasoned that training participants to recognise commonly-occurring letter redundancies (e.g. ogue: rogue, synagogue, dialogue) could reduce the load on parallel letter processing. Only one of the five cases showed greater improvement in (untrained) word reading accuracy following their “target” intervention. However, four of the five showed intervention-specific improvements in reading latency. These results suggest that it could be valuable to consider heterogeneity when treating reading delay.</p>

Can’t See the Words for the Letters: Whole Word Processing in Adolescents and a Novel “Visual” Intervention for Dyslexia

<p>Individuals with developmental dyslexia, considered as a group, perform poorly on tasks that involve phonological analysis, such as applying sight-sound rules to read new words, or analysing words into their component sounds (De Groot, Huettig, & Olivers, 2016; Temple & Marshall, 1983). However, dyslexia is also associated with other types of difficulties. For example, in some individuals, reading latencies increase disproportionately with the length of the word (De Luca, Barca, Burani, & Zoccolotti, 2008; Spinelli et al., 2005) suggesting they may have difficulties recognising familiar words as whole units (“whole word” processing). This thesis examined the relationship between the word length effect and overall reading proficiency in a diverse sample of 49 adolescents. We found that the length effect was a unique predictor of reading proficiency, even after factoring out variance in phonological skills (measured using a nonword reading task). We also tested the recent hypothesis that visual attention span - the number of letters a reader can capture in a single glance - is important for efficient whole word reading (Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois, 2007). Contrary to this hypothesis, we found no association between the word length effect and scores on a standard measure of visual attention span (a partial report task). We also explored whether reading-delayed adolescents could benefit from an intervention targeting their specific cognitive profile. Five cases demonstrating a selective difficulty with either “phonological” or “whole word” skills completed two interventions. One targeted phonological skills: participants were trained to recognise and apply common sight-sound correspondences. The other targeted whole word skills: we reasoned that training participants to recognise commonly-occurring letter redundancies (e.g. ogue: rogue, synagogue, dialogue) could reduce the load on parallel letter processing. Only one of the five cases showed greater improvement in (untrained) word reading accuracy following their “target” intervention. However, four of the five showed intervention-specific improvements in reading latency. These results suggest that it could be valuable to consider heterogeneity when treating reading delay.</p>

英語學習自我效能，閱讀焦慮，與閱讀能力：以非英語系主修的EFL學生為例

<p>這項研究主要調查台灣非英語系主修的大學生英語閱讀焦慮，英語自我效能以及閱讀能力等三者之間的關係。本研究對象為209名非英語系的大三學生。此次研究採用兩份問卷，外語閱讀焦慮問卷和英語學習自我效能問卷，以及多益閱讀測驗來了解這三項變數之間的關係。研究者在兩份問卷各加入開放式問題，以了解學習者對自身英語學習自我效能和英語閱讀焦慮的認知。結果顯示，學生英語學習自我效能與閱讀能力之間的關係呈正相關，但與英語閱讀焦慮之間則是負相關。另外，學生英語閱讀自我效能和英語學習自我效能呈現高度相關。然而，英語閱讀焦慮與不同程度的閱讀能力並無任何關聯。就閱讀焦慮的因素而言，大多數學生在閱讀陌生的詞彙和句子結構時都會經歷閱讀焦慮。學生英語學習自我效能越高者，在閱讀理解上的表現則愈佳。而閱讀能力在中間的學生，其英語學習自我效能和閱讀焦慮則呈現顯著差異的負相關。總而言之，這項研究增加對於非英語系主修學生在英語學習自我效能以及閱讀焦慮認知上的了解，以及這些因素在英語閱讀能力上產生的影響，同時提供語言教師非英語系主修學生的閱讀焦慮來源。教學建議則提供教師未來於課堂參考，以有效提升學生的英語學習自我效能及降低閱讀焦慮。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>EFL learners’ reading performances can be greatly influenced by affective factors, such as anxiety and self-efficacy. This study investigates the effects of non-English major EFL learners’ reading anxiety and overall-English-learning self-efficacy on their reading proficiency. 209 non-English majors participated in the study. Two questionnaires, the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale and the Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy, and a TOEIC reading subtest were utilized to examine the relationship between the three variables. Open-ended questions at the end of two questionnaires were added to obtain learners’ perceptions of overall-English-learning self-efficacy and reading anxiety. Results showed that the relationship between overall-English-learning self-efficacy, reading self-efficacy, and reading proficiency was positive respectively whereas that between overall-English-learning self-efficacy and anxiety was negative, particularly for the students in the middle group. Reading anxiety, however, was not correlated with reading proficiency at different levels. Students had the highest level of reading self-efficacy when comparing to the self-efficacy of other language skills. They mostly experienced reading anxiety when reading unfamiliar vocabulary and sentence structures. To conclude, this study can be of importance in understanding the relationship between the three factors and provide language teachers with non-English major students’ sources of reading anxiety. Pedagogical implications are provided for language teachers’ future references.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Setting a standard for low reading proficiency: A comparison of the bookmark procedure and constrained mixture Rasch model

In order to draw pertinent conclusions about persons with low reading skills, it is essential to use validated standard-setting procedures by which they can be assigned to their appropriate level of proficiency. Since there is no standard-setting procedure without weaknesses, external validity studies are essential. Traditionally, studies have assessed validity by comparing different judgement-based standard-setting procedures. Only a few studies have used model-based approaches for validating judgement-based procedures. The present study addressed this shortcoming and compared agreement of the cut score placement between a judgement-based approach (i.e., Bookmark procedure) and a model-based one (i.e., constrained mixture Rasch model). This was performed by differentiating between individuals with low reading proficiency and those with a functional level of reading proficiency in three independent samples of the German National Educational Panel Study that included students from the ninth grade (N = 13,897) as well as adults (Ns = 5,335 and 3,145). The analyses showed quite similar mean cut scores for the two standard-setting procedures in two of the samples, whereas the third sample showed more pronounced differences. Importantly, these findings demonstrate that model-based approaches provide a valid and resource-efficient alternative for external validation, although they can be sensitive to the ability distribution within a sample.

Reading across texts: perceptions and performance of early adolescent readers

<p>Learning Media have introduced an anthology series that draws on writing previously published in the School Journals with the addition, lately, of commissioned work. The series is designed to meet the new curriculum objectives for English, social studies and science with less practised readers. A title in the series will typically contain narratives as well as personal accounts by experts, loosely related to a theme in the social studies or science curriculum. A survey of how the titles were being used indicated that teachers were treating the contents of the anthologies as single texts and that the advantages of reading across texts related to a theme were not being realised. A study was therefore conducted with an intermediate school class in order to establish an activity cycle that would exploit the potential of anthologies as a resource for reading-to-write from multiple sources. The experience gained from the study suggests that the cycle should contain instruction on transforming sources and this skill needs to be practised within the framework of a discourse synthesis task. In the study, the task appeared to be the driving force that determined what was read, what information was selected, the student's stance towards the information, and what guided the monitoring process. Reading proficiency did not appear to make a substantial difference to the way the task was interpreted nor in the way the task was accomplished tactically, suggesting that discourse synthesis is an issue of experience with the component skills.</p>

Reading across texts: perceptions and performance of early adolescent readers

<p>Learning Media have introduced an anthology series that draws on writing previously published in the School Journals with the addition, lately, of commissioned work. The series is designed to meet the new curriculum objectives for English, social studies and science with less practised readers. A title in the series will typically contain narratives as well as personal accounts by experts, loosely related to a theme in the social studies or science curriculum. A survey of how the titles were being used indicated that teachers were treating the contents of the anthologies as single texts and that the advantages of reading across texts related to a theme were not being realised. A study was therefore conducted with an intermediate school class in order to establish an activity cycle that would exploit the potential of anthologies as a resource for reading-to-write from multiple sources. The experience gained from the study suggests that the cycle should contain instruction on transforming sources and this skill needs to be practised within the framework of a discourse synthesis task. In the study, the task appeared to be the driving force that determined what was read, what information was selected, the student's stance towards the information, and what guided the monitoring process. Reading proficiency did not appear to make a substantial difference to the way the task was interpreted nor in the way the task was accomplished tactically, suggesting that discourse synthesis is an issue of experience with the component skills.</p>

Personality Types and L2 Reading: correlation between University Students MBTI Profiles and Reading Proficiency

Personality types have a considerable impact on our understanding of the outer world, perception and energy. Personality influence on language learning and proficiency, however, is controversial. This study demonstrates the relationship between the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) profiles and L2 reading proficiency of L1 Arab undergraduates. First, learners' reading proficiency levels were associated with their Introversion/Extraversion preferences. Then, function pairs of both introverts and extraverts that contributes to the highest score of L2 reading proficiency were determined. As most reading tests are based on choice, it is very logical to consider the MBTI function pairs as they represent the mental functions used for decision-making and information gathering. Fifty (50) Arab male students from the College of Business Administration (Saudi Arabia) were randomly selected. Two instruments were used to collect data; MBTI as a personality instrument, and TOEIC Bridge as a reading test. Findings showed a lack of statistically significant relationship between Introversion/Extraversion and L2 reading proficiency. Yet, Intuitive personalities (NT/NF) preferences achieved higher scores in the TOEIC Bridge compared to their counterparts of the Sensing personalities (ST/SF). Personality types have undoubted influence on our lifestyle and attitudes. Yet, considering personality as a weighty factor in language learning and proficiency is still debatable.

Contextualized English Reading Proficiency Toolkit (CERPT): Enhance Learners’ English Reading Proficiency

The Department of Education has introduced numerous intervention and remediation programs to address the reading needs of learners. Despite these, data showed that majority of the learners still have reading problems when they reach higher grade levels. Henceforth, the study experimented on the innovation – Contextualized English Reading Proficiency Toolkit (CERPT) to help the learners of Kibacania Elementary School improved their reading ability level. All the pupils were exposed to CERPT. A pre-experimental research design was employed in this study. Findings revealed that the learners’ reading ability level enhanced from frustration to instructional. There was a significant difference in the learners’ reading ability levels before and after exposure to CERPT. Thus, the study commends the use of CERPT to help in the improvement of the learners’ reading ability level.