The purpose of this study was to examine the use of general impression scoring by teachers and students, and to compare the criteria used in evaluating student writings. Subjects for the study were 40 eighth grade and tenth grade students of varying reading ability in regular English classes in a suburban school district. Teachers and students evaluated two sets of writings in the narrative, classificatory and descriptive modes, generated by ninth grade students in regular English classes in the same school district. In addition, a comment, citing criteria upon which evaluation was based, was made on each writing. The design for this study was an extended factorial analysis. A three way analysis of variance was computed for ability and grade for each level of quality of writing in each mode of discourse. Six hypotheses were tested. Hypotheses one and two dealt with comparison of ratings by students who differed by ability and grade. No significant differences were found. Hypotheses three and four dealt with interaction between grade, ability and mode of discourse. No significant interaction was found. Hypotheses five and six dealt with differences in evaluations between teachers and students of varying ability. A significant difference was found in how teachers and students evaluate writing (p .01). Examination of criteria used in evaluating writings indicated that teachers consistently referred to elements of the text. Students also made text-based comments. In addition, students responded subjectively, referring to common experience, interest, and memories cued by the text.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

Though research has been conducted on many issues since Namibia's independence in 1990, none of these studies has investigated how English Second Language (ESL) teachers teach and support struggling adolescent readers (SARs) to read. Utilising qualitative research techniques such as classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this case study looked at strategies, methods, and resources used by five ESL secondary school teachers to teach SARs to read in two regions in Namibia, Caprivi and Otjozondjupa regions. Two of the five participants were male teachers. The presence of SARs in the classes observed was established by using informal methods such as the ESL teachers' experience (Caprivi region), while a sample of questions from PIRLS 2001 (Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, & Kennedy (2003) was compiled to form a test used in the Otjozondjupa region. The findings show that despite undergoing initial teacher training and majoring in English, the five ESL secondary school teachers were not trained to teach SARs either how to read or how to support them. In addition, the study found that there was a shortage of reading materials in all five selected schools.

M.Ed. (Educational Linguistics) / This study focuses on the reading proficiency in English of black students who are attending an academic support school. From observations made on the difficulties experienced by many students in successfully completing reading tasks in the classroom., it appeared that many of these students were not proficient readers. As reading is a multi-dimensional research phenomenon, various dimensions of reading, which include bottom-up proficiency, top-down proficiency, metacognition, and affective and socio-cultural factors, have been investigated. While reading proficiency is the focus of the study, the relationship between reading and language proficiency as well as the influence of the sociocultural and educational background of the student on his reading have also been investigated. The research design for investigating the problem included a review of literature on the various reading models and on reading pedagogy, as well as on the relationship between language proficiency and reading proficiency. Literature on the influence of a disadvantaged sociocultural and educational background on reading proficiency was also reviewed. From these readings it was evident that reading is a complex process, the nature of which is still being investigated by reading theorists. Furthermore, the literature reviewed seemed to indicate that there is a relationship between language proficiency and reading proficiency, as well as a relationship between the sociocultural and educational background of the student and reading proficiency. The literature review was followed by a micro-genetic investigation of the research problem by a full participant researcher. Data were collected from nine students and processed. The findings indicate that most of the students are not proficient readers even though their bottom-up proficiency is adequate. Furthermore, it was found that a relationship between language proficiency and between sociocultural status and educational disadvantage and reading proficiency, does appear to exist. To conclude the investigation, suggestions for teacher training in reading pedagogy and for the teaching of reading in secondary schools to English Second Language readers were made. Finally, a model for reading pedagogy, which includes various aspects of the reading process, was devised.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The main purpose of this study was to determine challenges that are faced by Grade 8 learners when reading short stories with understanding using EFAL. The study made use of a research approach which is qualitative in nature to explore the reading challenges. It also used an interpretive paradigm. Schema Reading Theory was employed as the guide to which the study followed. This theory advocates that learners read a text having prior knowledge, which assists them to interpret it better. This chosen theory is relevant to the study as the study seeks to understand why learners cannot read. Therefore the theory assisted in determining whether learners have the necessary prior knowledge of the text they read in the classroom. The main findings of the study has indicated that learners have challenges to reading. There are recommendations addressed to learners, parents, teachers and department of education. In conclusion, teachers assured to initiate reading programmes such as focused, independent and guided reading, with the hope to curb challenges towards reading.

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the language experience approach (LEA) for teaching reading and writing skills to functionally illiterate high school students who were identified as learning disabled. Twenty-one 9th-grade students ages fifteen to sixteen participated. The students were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The control group was instructed through the use of a commercial reading kit, Reader's Workshop I (1974). The experimental group received instruction using the LEA which uses student written material to generate reading skill activities. To verify effectiveness of the LEA, pre- and posttests of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (1976), or SDRT, brown level, forms A and B and the Sentence Writing Strategy Pretest (1985), or SWSP, were administered to both the control and experimental groups. The results on the subtests of the SDRT indicated no significant gains or losses of reading skill ability for either group. The SWSP though, indicated a significant gain in sentence writing ability of 29 percentage points for the experimental group while the control group lost 11 percentage points. It is therefore evident that the language experience approach can be successful for teaching reading and writing skills to functionally illiterate high school students because it integrates reading and writing rather than providing detached skill instruction.

周富鴻. / "2013年8月". / "2013 nian 8 yue". / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-338). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in Chinese and English. / Zhou Fuhong.

This investigation was designed to determine if teaching vocabulary through integrating English and Social Studies curricula would provide tenth grade students who are poor readers with strategies to improve their reading comprehension. The strategies used were designed to support struggling readers and English language development students to connect denotative and connotative meanings of words found in the novel Animal Farm to their social studies class' content.