Theories of reading have seldom been examined across orthographies. In the present study, Dual Coding Theory (DCT), a general theory of cognition applied to literacy, was applied to Chinese sentences to investigate the effects of language concreteness and abstractness on immediate recall. Forty Chinese-English bilinguals read and recalled five concrete sentences and five matched abstract sentences. Of the ten sentences, five were English, and five were Chinese. Due to the characteristics of Chinese orthography, Chinese script may have a direct and more efficient access to meaning; hence, it is possible that concrete sentences in Chinese would not have the typical advantage over abstract sentences in recall found in other languages. However, the results showed that concrete Chinese sentences were recalled better than abstract Chinese sentences. A 2 (languages: Chinese vs. English) x 2 (sentence concreteness: concrete vs. abstract) analysis of variance with proportion of recall as the dependent variable showed that significant main effects were found for languages, F (1, 76) =11.68, p = .001, n2 = .13, and for concreteness, F (1, 76) = 38.12, p < .001, n2 = 33. That is, Chinese was overall recalled significantly better than English, and concrete sentences were overall recalled significantly better than abstract sentences. There was no significant interaction. Concrete Chinese sentences were recalled 1.32 times as much as abstract Chinese sentences, thus confirming the concreteness effects in Chinese. The results of the study are consistent with those of previous studies on DCT in alphabetic languages, and they also provide evidence of concreteness effects across orthographies.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that there is a reciprocal relationship between comprehension and fluency during reading. The notion that oral reading fluency can facilitate reading comprehension is well established in the research literature on the development of reading comprehension. However, more recent models have questioned the unidirectionality of this relationship and have suggested that reading comprehension may increase fluency through reading rate. This hypothesis was examined via analyses of second grade students' oral reading of connected texts. Four previewing conditions which isolated lexical effects, comprehension effects, and prosody effects on oral reading fluency were manipulated in an experiment and the effects on students' passage reading times and prosody were evaluated. Students who were on-level readers were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions consisting of word preview (lexical factor), listening preview (prosody and comprehension factor), summary preview (comprehension factor) and no preview. Following the preview, students were asked to read passages aloud. Analyses of Covariance were performed to test the effects of lexical priming, comprehension priming and prosodic modeling on oral reading fluency as measured in correct words per minute (CWPM) and prosodic reading, while controlling for students overall achievement in reading as measured by the STAR-R score. The results showed significant differences in CWPM favouring the listening preview and summary preview over the no-preview condition for students at lower levels of fluency performance. The results are discussed in relation to theories of reading that highlight the role of comprehension and fluency in the integration of information during reading.

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Basé sur une étude empirique, la présente thèse apporte un éclairage sur les compétences de lecture, de décodage et de compréhension orale en allemand chez des élèves plurilingues immigrés et leurs homologues monolingues suisses allemands. Un échantillon d’environ 500 élèves plurilingues et de 160 élèves monolingues constitue la base empirique de ce travail qui nous a servi à examiner certains éléments de controverses ainsi que la capacité prédictive de la théorie de la «Simple View of Reading » ( Philipp B. Gough & Tunmer, 1986 p. 85; Hoover & Gough, 1990). Nous constatons que la compréhension orale et le décodage possèdent une forte valeur prédictive pour les compétences en lecture. Cette valeur prédictive dépend cependant fortement de la façon dont les compétences en lecture sont opérationnalisées et elle est plus élevée dans le groupe des lecteurs débutants (en CE1/CE2). La modélisation des compétences de lecture d’après la la « Simple View of Reading Theory » réussit mieux pour des tests de lecture courts, à choix multiples et sous contrainte de temps que pour des tests à base de textes plus longs et authentiques, qui proposent différents formats de réponses. L’intégration du facteur de l’intelligence dans le modèle de prédiction est plus bénéfique pour le groupe des lecteurs plus expérimentés (CM2/6ème). L’utilisation de la méthode des analyses de régressions multiples à plusieurs niveaux (MLwiN) a mis en évidence que l’apport du QI est plus important lorsqu’on examine les compétences au niveau des classes qu’au niveau des élèves pris individuellement. Nous écartons donc la proposition d’une substitution du facteur compréhension orale au profit du QI comme Tiu, Thompson et Lewis (2003) l’ont proposé. / This work aimed to examine controversial elements as well as the explanatory strength of the “Simple View of Reading Theory”. It has been based on empirical data analyses of language abilities of about 500 multilingual and 160 monolingual school graders in the German speaking part of Switzerland (Philipp B. Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990). We found evidence in both groups (monolingual and multilingual pupils) for a strong impact of listening comprehension and decoding in explaining reading comprehension abilities. The degree of the explained variance was determined by the test used to evaluate reading comprehension and by the age of pupils, showing a bigger effect with young readers (2nd/3rd graders) than with more experienced readers (5th / 6th graders). Modeling reading comprehension abilities based on the «Simple View of Reading Theory» proved to be more successful when using short, time limited, multiple choice reading tests than using a test with longer, authentic texts and offering a mixture of different response formats. The integration of the intelligence factor into our model improved the prediction of reading abilities in the group of the more experiences readers (5th / 6th graders). The improvement though was essentially situated at the level of school classes as unit of analyses. On the individual level only minor improvements were observed. Therefore we would reject the idea of eliminating the listening comprehension factor in favor of an integration of the IQ factor that has been suggested by Tiu, Thompson and Lewis (2003).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-18T21:48:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 11 Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini1.pdf: 2326352 bytes, checksum: 1c94f3ea777746d2375e30c658186db7 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini2.pdf: 1046153 bytes, checksum: 2a029d258af78ba3f5320dd4e926fa42 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini3.pdf: 2698798 bytes, checksum: bd9d651d972a5e8960feb0b3f272eabf (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini4.pdf: 3106261 bytes, checksum: 0722108ee653e50ac2c667aaa9aa6294 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini5.pdf: 3307694 bytes, checksum: 7e5157ccb9fe0e56d8c33693a5dcd747 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini6.pdf: 2548197 bytes, checksum: ed6cc004baff906f7898fda19877ac44 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini7.pdf: 3151910 bytes, checksum: 5d5353c25049b7b15cbb3c686e7209ce (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini8.pdf: 2692804 bytes, checksum: 4843de9754024c0e35aa44c8bb13773e (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini9.pdf: 2221519 bytes, checksum: 2ad256e7580c06ac60191ec12d9f6846 (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini10.pdf: 2059047 bytes, checksum: df39f98c510cc7d4c3e4d68fc662e68a (MD5) Thais Helena Affonso Verdolini11.pdf: 1353064 bytes, checksum: d4c12faab70d8224e6936108464e4367 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-12-12 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The present research is primarily about the intertextuality used in the Turma da Mônica comic books, by Mauricio de Sousa, focusing on a characterization of the main linguistic resources that have ensured a faithful audience for the comic books in the last forty years. The dissertation begins by introducing the concept of comic books, along with a brief history, illustrating the major events which led to their current market position. An account of Mauricio de Sousa's life and works provides an insight into the author's passion for art and his struggle to succeed. Concepts from Reading Theory are used to reflect upon the cognitive process of reading and to describe the comic book reader's profile. Textual Linguistics principles drive the remaining work, focusing on the concepts related to intertextuality. An analysis of four Turma da Mônica stories from the 70's, 80's, 90's and 2000's shows the methods of which the parody seems to be the most common used by Mauricio de Sousa and his team to create humor and keep the comic books up to date and give reading pleasure to kids and adults alike. The research proposes that comic books can be used as a rich resource for textual analysis, entertaining reading for adults and deserving of evidence in the literature studies. / O presente trabalho trata principalmente, da intertextualidade presente nas histórias em quadrinhos da Turma da Mônica, de Mauricio de Sousa, buscando tecer uma caracterização dos principais recursos lingüísticos utilizados para a manutenção dos seus leitores nos quarenta anos de existência da publicação. A conceituação de quadrinhos e um breve histórico iniciam o trabalho, retratando os principais acontecimentos que levaram ao perfil mercadológico dos quadrinhos na atualidade. Um relato da vida e obra de Mauricio de Sousa demonstra um pouco da paixão do autor pela arte e sua luta pelo sucesso. Conceitos de Teoria da Leitura buscam refletir sobre o processo cognitivo da leitura e traçar um perfil do leitor de quadrinhos, especialmente da Turma da Mônica. Princípios da Lingüística Textual norteiam o restante da pesquisa, enfocando-se os conceitos relacionados à intertextualidade. Uma análise composta por quatro histórias em quadrinhos da Turma da Mônica dos anos 70, 80, 90 e 2000 procura demonstrar os artifícios dentre os quais a paródia revelou-se como o mais freqüente que Mauricio de Sousa e sua equipe empregam para criar humor e manter a leitura atualizada e prazerosa para as mais diversas idades, inclusive os adultos. A atual pesquisa adventa a possibilidade de os quadrinhos serem vistos como rico recurso de análise textual, como literatura de entretenimento também para adultos e como merecedores de destaque no âmbito dos estudos literários.

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.

Studien undersöker den individuella läsningen som undervisningsmetod. Syftet är att åskådliggöra lärares och elevers upplevelser av individuell läsning, med fokus på utformning och kunskapsinhämtning, för att sedan jämföra och belysa relationen dem emellan. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter är konstruktivism och fenomenologi, vilka betonar vikten av elevernas intresse och motivation för att lärande ska uppstå, samt att individernas uttalanden om det studerade fenomenet är sanningsbärande fakta. Studiens material består av 15 ljudinspelningar, där två lärare och 13 elever intervjuats om deras upplevelser av individuell läsning. Materialet transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av en innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att upplevelserna av den individuella läsningens utformning i vissa avseenden skiljde sig åt mellan lärarna och eleverna. Eleverna upplevde att det inte läggs så stor vikt vid den individuella läsningen, en upplevelse som inte delades av lärarna. Litteraturen var en av de faktorer eleverna upplevde som avgörande för att den individuella läsningen skulle fungera som lärandeaktivitet. Eleverna upplevde att motivation var det viktigaste för att utveckla kunskaper och läsintresse genom individuell läsning. Lärarna upplevde att eleverna genom den individuella läsningen skulle få möjlighet att utveckla läsintresse, läsförmåga, läsförståelse samt språklig förmåga. Eleverna menade att de genom att läsa utvecklade språklig förmåga, läsförmåga, läsförståelse, föreställningsvärldar samt skaffade sig faktakunskaper genom litteraturen. Jämförelsen mellan lärarnas och elevernas upplevelser visar att de i många fall liknar varandra. Tankarna skiljde sig i att eleverna upplevde att de utvecklade faktakunskaper och sina föreställningsvärldar, vilket lärarna inte nämnde.

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