This diploma thesis deals with the international project Bookstart and its potential for further development in the Czech Republic. The first part is devoted to terminology and definitions of pre-reading literacy, reading literacy and functional literacy. In addition, selected Czech and foreign projects promoting reading literacy are presented. At the end of the theoretical part of the thesis, attention is paid to the introduction of the project Bookstart, the experience with its course abroad, and mapping the pilot year of the project in the Czech Republic. The practical part of the thesis presents qualitative research in the form of two semi-structured interviews, and quantitative research conducted using an online questionnaire. Keywords Bookstart, children's reading, reading literacy, pre-reading literacy, literacy development, libraries

This thesis evaluated a new speech rhythm measure, the Lexical Judgement Task (LJT), by conducting a series of cross-sectional studies. It was examined whether the LJT could be used with children from different age groups, whether associations between speech rhythm sensitivity, phonological awareness and reading skills could be observed and whether speech rhythm sensitivity could predict reading skills cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Study 1 piloted the LJT with 5- to 9-year-old children and assessed the relationship between poor and good readers‟ speech rhythm sensitivity and their reading skills. Analyses showed that poor readers performed lower on the task compared to good readers, indicating that reduced stress sensitivity was related to lower reading proficiency. Examination of the task indicated potential fatigue effects, thus the task was shortened, which resulted in a 12-item tasks that was used through the remainder of the studies. Children between 4- and 11-years old were assessed in three following studies and results showed differential associations between stress sensitivity and reading (related) skills; indicating an involvement of maturation in stress sensitivity‟s development but also highlighting that stress sensitivity is involved in reading skills differently across varying ages. The final study in this thesis examined the longitudinal effect of stress sensitivity on reading skills and it was found that stress sensitivity was not able to account for growth in reading skills, independently from vocabulary or phonological processing skills; although concurrently unique variance in reading skills was accountable to stress sensitivity. Overall, this thesis highlights the importance of stress sensitivity in children‟s reading development, offers supporting evidence for previously found associations between this skills and reading abilities and demonstrates the need to incorporate speech rhythm sensitivity in theoretical reading development models.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-201). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, page: 2512. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-248).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Curriculum and Instruction. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "December 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 32-35). Also available online.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 19, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In this article we will discuss the genre meme as a proposal to a reflection about reading comprehension in its various modalities, attending to a pedagogical practice of language teaching more inclusive and more focused on literacy and citizenship of basic education students. We define meme as a genre that lies at the interface and dialogism with other more traditional comic material, such as cartoon, charge, and comic strips, but with a freer structure. It consists of verbal and nonverbal texts, very meaningful, usually dealing on social issues of a more polemic nature about everyday life, politics, sports and alike. The objective of the research aims to study and make a more detailed discussion about meme with students from public schools of Sergipe, which are coming out of elementary school (ninth grade and fourth EJAEF stage), as well as a description of how the said genre was analyzed and discussed by them. The theoretical and methodological assumptions are based on studies of Kleiman (1989; 2005) about reading, literacy and citizenship; of Leffa (1996) about a more cognitive perspective reading, and Perrenoud (2000), about new technologies, among other authors. The results highlight the inclusion of memes in language teaching is promising, especially to promote identity in the group with issues beyond the school walls. / Neste trabalho, abordamos o gênero textual meme como proposta de reflexão sobre compreensão da leitura em suas multimodalidades, atendendo a uma estratégia de aula mais voltada para a oralidade, na tentativa de tornarmos o ensino de língua mais inclusivo (de maior escuta), bem como firmarmos a formação dos alunos da Educação Básica para o letramento e para a cidadania. Definimos meme como gênero textual que se situa na interface e dialogismo com outros gêneros em quadrinhos mais tradicionais, como o cartum, a charge e as tirinhas, porém, com estrutura mais livre: além de permitir mesclar imagens reais e fictícias (caricaturadas ou não), não controla também a acomodação de textos verbais e não verbais, no todo significativo. Constitui-se, então, de textos verbais e não verbais, plurissignificativos, versando geralmente sobre questões sociais de natureza mais polêmica sobre o cotidiano, a política, o esporte e afins.O objetivo da pesquisa visa ao estudo e à discussão mais pormenorizados do meme com estudantes da rede pública estadual de Sergipe que estão saindo do Ensino Fundamental (nono ano e quarta etapa de EJAEF), bem como à descrição do modo como o referido gênero foi por eles analisado e discutido em avaliação de escrita e avaliação de escuta (oral). Os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos baseiam-se nos estudos de Kleiman (1989; 2005) sobre leitura, letramento e cidadania; de Leffa (1996), sobre a perspectiva mais cognitiva da leitura; e de Perrenoud (2000), sobre as novas tecnologias, dentre outros autores. Os resultados evidenciam que a inclusão de memes no ensino de língua é promissora, especialmente por promover identidade no grupo com questões além dos muros da escola.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-93)