No description available.

Research has shown that cultural differences and the lack of experiences in the lives of young children can affect the rate of vocabulary development. In particular, children from different ability, socioeconomic status, and culturally and linguistically diverse groups are considered at risk for later academic achievement because their home experiences and word usage may be incongruent with that of the mainstream school cultural environment. Therefore, it has been suggested that to decrease the gap between children in need of vocabulary development and their typically achieving peers, instruction in vocabulary should systematically provide information about words and their uses. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a systematic vocabulary instructional technique in children with clinically depressed vocabulary skills. An additional goal was to examine the role of book type in the retention of novel vocabulary words among young African American children. Using an Adapted Alternating Treatments Design, five children were read two storybooks in the context of robust vocabulary training. Storybooks were used as a source for contextualizing novel vocabulary words. One book depicted an African American theme and images and the other depicted a Caucasian theme and images. Robust vocabulary instruction consisted of frequent and varied opportunities for word usage in meaningful contexts that stressed the relations between target words and previously acquired vocabulary. Childrens productive definitions were used to assess developing word knowledge at 4 periodic probes. Definitions were scored using a 4-stage continuum ranging from no knowledge to full concept knowledge. Results showed significant gains in word learning for novel words two weeks following conclusion of the study. The difference in scores between the instructional and control word sets resulted in a large effect size attributable to robust vocabulary instruction. African American children appeared to learn words at a deeper level from a storybook that displayed sociocultural images and experiences different from their own.

Children with lower language abilities, including children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) are at risk for persistent reading difficulties. Previous studies have demonstrated that children with lower language abilities display eye movements different from their typically developing peers while hearing nouns in a naturalistic storybook reading context. This study examined how language ability and various lexical characteristics interact with 4- and 5-year- olds' eye movements during a naturalistic storybook reading task. We used eye-tracking technology to measure eye movements of 49 preschoolers with variable language skill. The children looked at storybook pictures on an eye tracking computer while they listened to a narration of the story. Target areas of each illustration corresponded to verbs in the text (i.e., images of the subjects and objects referred to by the verb). Results revealed that all children, regardless of language ability, were more likely to be looking at the target images while a target verb was being spoken than when a different word was being spoken. This relationship grew stronger as language ability increased. Additionally, lexical variables (age of acquisition, number of syllables, concreteness, frequency, and occurrences in the story) also impacted the likelihood that children were looking at the target images. Because the interaction of each lexical variable, language ability, and time was different, clinical implications suggest that speech-language pathologists, early childhood educators, and parents should be aware of these interactions in selecting storybooks with specific word stimuli. Such careful consideration of word stimuli may help children identify what illustrations are important during shared storybook reading.

abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the EMBRACE Spanish support intervention for at-risk dual language learners and to determine which verbal and nonverbal characteristics of students were related to benefit from the intervention. The first study examined oral language and reading characteristics and the second study examined motor characteristics in predicting the children's outcomes on a reading comprehension intervention. Method: Fifty-six participants in 2nd-5th grade were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Spanish-support intervention, or 2) Spanish-support control. Outcome measures included performance on comprehension questions related to intervention texts, questions on the final narrative and expository text without strategy instruction, and difference scores on alternate forms of the Gates-MacGinitie (GMRT-4, MacGinitie, MacGinitie, Maria, & Dreyer, 2002) reading comprehension subtest administered pre- post-intervention. Multi-level hierarchical linear models were used to account for nesting of question within child within classroom. Regression models were used to examine the power of motor predictors in predicting Spanish and English language performance. Results: Results from study 1 indicated that the intervention was most effective for narrative (vs. expository) texts and easy (vs. more difficult) texts. Dual language learners (DLLs) with lower initial English reading comprehension abilities benefitted more from the intervention than those with stronger reading skills. Results from Study 2 indicated that oral fine motor abilities predicted Spanish (but not English) oral language abilities in the expected direction (i.e. faster performance associated with higher language scores). The speed of /pata/ productions predicted reading comprehension during the intervention, but not in the expected direction (i.e. slower speeds associated with higher accuracy). Manual fine motor performance on tapping tasks was not related to language or reading. Conclusions: The EMBRACE intervention has promise for use with at-risk DLLs. Future research should take care to match text difficulty with child skills so as to maximize benefit from the intervention. Oral fine motor abilities were related to language abilities in DLLs, but only for the native language. Slower oral fine motor performance predicted higher accuracy on intervention questions, suggesting that EMBRACE may be particularly effective for children with weak fine motor skills. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Speech and Hearing Science 2017

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The present study is inserted in the Research Line of Curriculum, Teaching and Practices Scholars, in the Post Graduation Program in Education at UFSM (Federal University of Santa Maria RS Brazil). As objective of this work we look for to answer to the following questionings: Which the obstacles to a curricular effective practical to interdisciplinary? How to breach with the conception of the teachers crystallized in one practical pedagogical traditional one? We understand that the entire curricular structure must be continuously engaged in the task of configuring a curriculum as a process, with a special attention drawn to learning in a perspective of change, trying to understand the student as a part of the process, which means to give the right of expression to him/her, to observe his/her previous knowledge, his/her cultural background. Willing to assist in the design of a new curriculum we proposed to search for differentiated methodological possibilities, in which all areas of knowledge were considered important, willing to develop an interdisciplinary work based on the articulation of the mathematics with children s storybooks. For so, Interdisciplinary Didactical Units (IDU) were elaborated in two educational institutions, pre-school and 1st to 4th year classes, intending to provide students conditions for understanding/contextualizing the mathematics, provoking a re-dimensional act of the already known concepts and making possible the searching for comprehension of new ideas and values through the children s storybooks as an axis of balance and integration of interdisciplinary activities. The work involved six children s stories with an amount of 20 provided activities developed with regent teacher s attendance; actually they were invited to remain in the classroom while we were developing the activities. At the end, we perceived the complexity of the classroom environment, because of the variation of results which came according to the team of teachers which were responsible for the organization and implementation of the IDU, the particular features of the teaching team and of the students and the scholar structure. As obstacles one practical to interdisciplinary we detach: the great number of pupils for classroom and in such a way necessity to develop activities with the accompaniment of a team; the concern on the part of the teachers in inside pointing out the pertaining to school activities of a perspective of right or wrong, for to value ends, many times disrespecting the previous knowledge of the pupils, what in it took them to think about the necessity to invest in the formation of the teachers; the adequacy of the activities to the times of the school, what in it took them to consider the requirement of a proper time to develop them and in lesser activities, which can better be developed; finally, the lack of a physical space adjusted to keep to the materials produced during the activities and the concern in conceiving the classroom of form traditional, made use in rows, centered in the presence of the teacher, the blackboard and the didactic book. / O presente estudo está inserido na Linha de Pesquisa: Currículo, Ensino e Práticas Escolares do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da UFSM. Como objetivo desse trabalho procuramos responder aos seguintes questionamentos: Quais os obstáculos a uma efetiva prática curricular interdisciplinar? Como romper com a concepção dos professores cristalizada numa prática pedagógica tradicional? Numa perspectiva de mudança, procurando entender o aluno como parte do processo e isso significa dar voz a esse aluno, observando os seus conhecimentos prévios, a sua bagagem cultural, entendemos que toda a estrutura curricular deve estar continuamente engajada em configurar um currículo como processo, com uma especial atenção no que diz respeito a aprendizagem. Na proposta de auxiliarmos no desenho de um novo currículo, propusemo-nos a buscar possibilidades metodológicas diferenciadas, em que todas as áreas do conhecimento fossem consideradas importantes, procurando desenvolver assim, um trabalho interdisciplinar a partir da articulação da literatura infantil e da matemática. Para tanto, foram elaboradas e implementadas Unidades Didáticas Interdisciplinares (UDI) em dois estabelecimentos de ensino, turmas de pré-escola e turmas de 1ª à 4ª séries, buscando propiciar aos alunos condições para entender/contextualizar a matemática, provocando um redimensionamento dos conceitos já conhecidos e possibilitando a busca da compreensão de novas idéias e valores através da literatura infantil como eixo organizador e integrador de atividades interdisciplinares.O trabalho envolveu seis histórias infantis num total de 20 implementações, perfazendo cerca de 60 horas de atividades em sala de aula. As atividades propostas foram desenvolvidas com o acompanhamento das professoras regentes, sendo que as mesmas eram convidadas a permanecer em sala de aula enquanto desenvolvíamos as atividades. Ao final percebemos a complexidade da sala de aula, pois os resultados variaram em função da equipe, responsável pela organização e implementação das UDI, das particularidades do corpo docente e discente e da estrutura escolar. Como obstáculos para uma prática interdisciplinar destacamos: o grande número de alunos por sala de aula e para tanto a necessidade de desenvolvermos atividades com o acompanhamento de uma equipe; a preocupação por parte dos professores em situar as atividades escolares dentro de uma perspectiva de certo ou errado, para fins avaliativos, muitas vezes desconsiderando os conhecimentos prévios dos alunos, o que nos levou a pensar na necessidade de investir na formação dos professores; a adequação da atividades aos tempos da escola, o que nos levou a considerar a exigência de um tempo próprio para desenvolvê-las e em atividades menores, as quais possam ser melhor desenvolvidas; por fim, a falta de um espaço físico adequado para guardar os materiais produzidos durante as atividades e a preocupação em conceber a sala de aula de forma tradicional, disposta em fileiras, centrada na presença do professor, do quadro-negro e do livro didático.

The usage of children’s books is a fundamental aspect within a preschool environment. Even though the content in such books are childlike, they are always written by adult authors who appropriates a child-perspective. This sparked an interest in creating a children’s book with the cooperation of a group of children and producing a story from a children’s perspective. The overall objective of the project was to improve children's participation in preschool and develop their understanding of democratic principles through the creation of their own story book. By using art based research as the method, creative workshops were carried out where the children created their own story through conversation and artwork. The collected data were in the form of transcriptions of films recorded during the workshops and the artwork done by the group of children which was analyzed using concepts such as democracy, participation, child-perspective and children’s perspective. The steps which involved the creative workshops together with the group of children were further examined by the usage of Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation.  The results of the project showed a high level of participation by the group of children due to possibilities provided for them to exercise democratic principles such as voting and decision making as a group while creating a story and all its essential contents from their perspective. In regards to the Ladder of Participation, genuin participation of different levels were observed from the group of children during the course of this project. The 2 highest levels of the ladder; where an activity is initiated and carried out by children, were unable to be reached since in practical sense, preschool aged children need adult assistance. The storybook created involved a fantasytale titled Superkatterna (The Supercats) which consists of cats, dinosaurs and unicorns in their rainbow world, conflict between the cats and dinosaurs and how the unicorns help them to resolve their issues. Regarding the composition of the 1st draft of the storybook, had there been a wider time frame for this project, the children could have had the opportunity to be further involved and their level of participation during this step would have been able to become higher than what it was during the project.

In a qualitative study, grade three students in an urban classroom were introduced to Aboriginal children's picture-storybooks followed by "menoh," which are literary response activities. "Menoh" is defined as aesthetics, although, in this study "menoh" activities stem from Anishnabe and Cree cultural ways such as in traditional singing, dance, drumming, art and cooking.<p> The researcher used a reframing as a decolonizing methodology in order to reclaim Aboriginal voice and perspective. Reframing is taking greater control over the way Aboriginal research is structured, analyzed and written. The research data was collected over a period of several months within the classroom where the researcher read aloud and drew Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal listeners into the multi-layers of the stories. Through dialogue and critique, the students discussed the stories in literary circles. They shared meanings about the stories and made connections to their own lives and the lives of others. The stories contained messages about loyalty, respect, responsibility, honesty, humility, trust, and sharing-all those qualities that helped Aboriginal people live the life they did and still do today. Discussion was followed by a variety of "menoh," activities that introduced aesthetic ways of knowing from an Aboriginal perspective.

In a qualitative study, grade three students in an urban classroom were introduced to Aboriginal children's picture-storybooks followed by "menoh," which are literary response activities. "Menoh" is defined as aesthetics, although, in this study "menoh" activities stem from Anishnabe and Cree cultural ways such as in traditional singing, dance, drumming, art and cooking.<p> The researcher used a reframing as a decolonizing methodology in order to reclaim Aboriginal voice and perspective. Reframing is taking greater control over the way Aboriginal research is structured, analyzed and written. The research data was collected over a period of several months within the classroom where the researcher read aloud and drew Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal listeners into the multi-layers of the stories. Through dialogue and critique, the students discussed the stories in literary circles. They shared meanings about the stories and made connections to their own lives and the lives of others. The stories contained messages about loyalty, respect, responsibility, honesty, humility, trust, and sharing-all those qualities that helped Aboriginal people live the life they did and still do today. Discussion was followed by a variety of "menoh," activities that introduced aesthetic ways of knowing from an Aboriginal perspective.

本研究在探討英語電子繪本教學對於國小學生在認字表現以及學習態度的影響。此研究以54位來自台中市四年級英語低成就的小學生為研究對象，他們分別來自7個不同的班級，這54位學生被分成實驗組跟對照組，兩組無論在數量、性別、背景以及認字表現上皆相似。實驗組實施電子繪本教學而對照組則實施紙本繪本教學，每週上課一次，經過16週的教學後，兩組皆進行認字表現測驗及施以英語學習態度問卷。蒐集測驗及問卷所得的資料以獨立樣本t檢定及相對樣本t檢定來進行統計分析，研究結果顯示實驗組及對照組在認字表現及學習態度皆有顯著差異，電子繪本組在認字表現測驗成績比紙本繪本組好，而且英語低成就學生在電子繪本教學後，學習態度有正向的改變。希望實驗的結果能幫助老師提升學生的認字能力並且廣泛推行英語電子繪本教學。最後，研究者根據實驗的結果，對未來研究方向提出一些建議。 / This study investigated the effects of the electronic storybook instruction on the word recognition performance of elementary school students. Additionally, the effects of the electronic storybook instruction on students’ English learning attitudes were explored. Fifty four fourth-grade underachievers selected from seven classes at an elementary school in Taichung City were the participants of this study. The participants were divided into two groups and they were matched based on the numbers, gender, background, and word recognition performance. The control group received picture book instruction, while the experimental group took electronic storybook instruction once a week. The Word Recognition Test and Learning Attitude Questionnaire were administered to both groups after the 16-week instruction. The data collected from pre-test, post-test, pre-questionnaire, and post-questionnaire were analyzed by an independent samples t test and a paired samples t test. The results showed there were significant differences between the two groups in their word recognition performance and English learning attitudes. The results presented that the underachievers receiving electronic storybook instruction performed significantly better than those who received picture book instruction on word recognition performance. Moreover, it was found that electronic storybook instruction positively changed the underachievers’ English learning attitudes. It is hoped that the findings will help teachers improve students’ word recognition ability and promote the widely adoption of electronic storybooks. Based on the findings of this study, some suggestions for the future research were offered at last.

本研究採實驗研究法，旨在探討電子童書中，動畫與文本一致性及年齡對幼兒閱讀理解的影響。實驗採用的研究工具為Living-books系列之「小馬斯特上學去」的電子童書，研究樣本以台北縣市四所公私立幼稚園中大班幼兒為實驗對象，中班受試樣本30人，隨機選取各班人數分派至實驗二中；大班受試樣本60人，隨機選取各班人數分派至實驗一與實驗二中，實驗一分為實驗組（30人）與對照組（30人），實驗組閱讀動畫與文本一致之電子童書，對照組閱讀動畫與文本較不一致之電子童書。 本研究之實驗研究分為實驗一與實驗二，實驗一旨在分析大班幼兒閱讀動畫與文本一致性與否對閱讀理解的影響；實驗二旨在探討中班與大班幼兒閱讀電子童書時，其閱讀理解的差異。 閱讀理解評量以個別施測方式進行故事回憶測驗及故事理解測驗，其中故事理解測驗分為文意理解測驗及推論理解測驗。將所得的資料以單因子變異數及二因子混合設計變異數進行統計分析，以了解研究之結果。 研究結果顯示： 一、在閱讀動畫與文本一致性高之電子童書時，對於故事回憶測驗的得分，實驗組得分顯著高於對照組得分。 二、在閱讀動畫與文本一致性高之電子童書時，對於故事理解測驗的得分，實驗組不論在文意理解或推論理解上，得分皆顯著高於對照組得分。 三、大班組幼兒在故事回憶測驗上的得分顯著高於中班組幼兒的得分。 四、大班組幼兒在故事理解測驗上的總分顯著高於中班組幼兒。在文意理解測驗中，大班組得分顯著高於中班組得分，而推論理解的得分則未達到顯著性的差異。 五、故事回憶與故事理解的相關，在實驗一與實驗二中，不論是文意理解或推論理解，與故事回憶皆呈現顯著正相關。換句話說，閱讀動畫與文本較不一致之電子童書時，故事回憶量低，故事理解得分亦較低；而閱讀動畫與文本一致之電子童書時，故事回憶高，故事理解得分則較高。 研究者根據研究結果與限制，提出對教師、父母、出版商及未來研究方面的建議。 關鍵字：閱讀理解、動畫與文本一致性、電子童書、幼兒 / This study has two parts: one is to research the impact of coherence between text and animation on children’s reading. The other is to analyze the effect of ages on children’s reading comprehention while they read electronic story books. The research adopted one of a series of Living-books, called Little Monster At School. 30 aged 4 and 60 aged 5 children from public and private kindergartens of Taipei city and County participated in the study. There were 2 tasks. Tesk one was coherent text for experimental group. Task 2 was incoherent text for control group. The content of the two tasks was the same. After reading the electronic book, all children took memory test and comprehension test which was devided into 2 sub-score: fact comprehension and inference comprehension. Results are: 1. Memory test’s scores of experimental group is obviously higher than that of control group. 2. Reading comprehension scores of experimental group is also higher than that of control group. 3. Memory test’s scores of age 5 children is higher than age 4 children. 4. Age 5 children get higher total reading comprehension scores than age 4 children. Furthermore, they get higher score on fact questions. Scores of inference questions however, do not show age difference. 5. Memory and story reading comprehension scores have positive correlation. It reveals that children reading coherent animation and text have higher memory scores and higher comprehension scores. On the other hand, children who had the incoherent text had poor scores of both. Based on the results, researcher provides suggestions for teachers, parents and book publisher. Key words: reading comprehension, animation of electronic storybooks, coherence of text, kindergarten children.