This dissertation consists of two studies, a middle school study and a follow-up study. In the middle school study, the reading ability of a group of middle school students, of which some have reading difficulties, is described and analyzed along with the classroom conditions the students are given for the development of their reading abilities. The overall aim of the follow-up study is to describe and analyze the reading ability development in the same group of students from the beginning of middle school to the end of lower secondary school, as well as examine the students’ use of strategies in grade 9. In lower secondary school decoding, vocabulary and reading comprehension were tested like in middle school. Students’ reading comprehension was tested on both stages based on a reading comprehension test and a national test. Since the use of strategies seems to be important for students’ reading comprehension, even the use of learning strategies were examined by including a question from the PISA (2009) student questionnaire. Furthermore, six students who in the beginning of middle school had shown poor results in one or more of the reading aspects were, referred to as the small sample group and, were interviewed in grade 9 regarding their use of comprehension strategies when reading an age-appropriate historical factual text in a textbook. Analyses show that there is a small development in reading comprehension from the beginning of middle school to the end of lower secondary school. Even the development of correct reading and vocabulary is relatively small. The largest development is shown for the reading rate, but analyses show that the reason for that is not merely a more automated process of decoding. A comparison between the results in the reading comprehension tests and the national tests at both stages show higher results for the national tests, which can depend on the different aims of the two tests. Regarding learning strategies, the entire study group stated in the questionnaire that they mostly use the deeper monitoring strategies, while the students in the small sample group reported that they tended to use the more superficial memory strategies. The results of the interviews show that the small sample group as a group found it more convenient to use comprehension strategies for superficial rather than for deeper comprehension.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-09-21T12:29:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Márcia Rosana da Silva.pdf: 1212716 bytes, checksum: c5b906d4fadfa952c3fb9692a05fb94d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-21T12:29:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Márcia Rosana da Silva.pdf: 1212716 bytes, checksum: c5b906d4fadfa952c3fb9692a05fb94d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-13 / Fundação São Paulo - FUNDASP / This dissertation is situated in the line of research Reading, Writing and Teaching of Portuguese Language and its theme is the teaching of reading through strategies which aim to develop the reading competence of students in the 9th grade, secondary school. The low level of proficiency displayed by students in Portuguese Language classes and, more specifically, in text reading classes, demonstrated that they are unable to attribute meaning to what they read; this makes it an activity of low significance, unfit for preparing them for the future exercise of full citizenship. In light of this observation, we have raised a few questions: how was reading taught in Brazilian schools throughout the 20th century? How should reading be taught at schools currently? Which were the models and paradigms that guided the conception of reading through time? What resources must students possess to become proficient readers? How must the teacher perform in order to develop students into proficient readers? These questions have guided our research, leading to the following objectives: to focalize reading and its teaching-learning process, measuring and pinpointing their importance in the social and educational context; and to contribute to the development of the reading competence of students in the 9th grade of secondary school, by the means of acquiring different reading strategies. Our theoretical framework is based on the main socio-interactional research lines which currently guide the teaching of reading in Brazil, with references to authors whose contributions are extremely relevant in this field, such as Smith (1999), Koch & Elias (2006), Solé (2007) and Kleiman (2004, 2013, 2016). For the application of the strategies selected, we propose a didactic sequence for the reading of the fable genre, elaborated upon the model of Dolz, Noverraz and Schnewly (2004), which is a methodology that we consider to be adequate for students’ active learning of reading strategies. The answers to the questions that were raised initially permit us to affirm that the objectives of the research were reached / Esta dissertação insere-se na linha de pesquisa Leitura, Escrita e Ensino de Língua Portuguesa e o seu tema é o ensino de leitura, por meio de estratégias, com vistas ao desenvolvimento da competência leitora de estudantes do 9º ano do ensino fundamental. O baixo grau de proficiência revelado pelos alunos nas aulas Língua Portuguesa e, mais especificamente, nas de leitura de textos, demonstra que eles não conseguem atribuir sentido ao que leem; o que torna essa atividade pouco significativa e incapaz de prepará-los para o futuro exercício da cidadania plena. Diante dessa observação, levantamos algumas questões: como foi ensinada a leitura na escola brasileira ao longo do século XX? Como a leitura deve ser ensinada hoje na escola? Quais foram os modelos e paradigmas que orientaram a concepção de leitura ao longo do tempo? Que recursos o estudante deve dominar para tornar-se um leitor proficiente? Como o professor deve atuar para formar um leitor proficiente? Essas perguntas nortearam nossa pesquisa e conduziram-nos aos seguintes objetivos: focalizar a leitura e o seu ensino-aprendizagem, dimensionando e pontuando a sua importância no contexto social e educacional; e contribuir com o desenvolvimento da competência leitora de estudantes do 9º ano do ensino fundamental II, por meio da aquisição de diferentes estratégias de leitura. Nossa fundamentação teórica apoia-se nas principais correntes sociointeracionais, que, atualmente, norteiam o ensino de leitura no Brasil, tendo como referência autores cujas contribuições são extremamente relevantes nesse campo, tais como Smith (1999), Koch e Elias (2006), Solé (2007) e Kleiman (2004, 2013, 2016). Para aplicar as estratégias selecionadas, propomos uma sequência didática para leitura do gênero fábula, elaborada com base no modelo de Dolz, Noverraz e Schneuwly (2004), metodologia que consideramos adequada para uma aprendizagem ativa das estratégias de leitura por parte dos estudantes. As respostas dadas às questões levantadas inicialmente permitem-nos afirmar que os objetivos da investigação foram atingidos

Historically, Hispanic English language learners (ELLs) in the United States have had low reading achievement and low high school graduation and college entry rates, which has limited their employment opportunities. Although research indicates parental involvement is important to reading success, little is known about Hispanic ELL parents' perspectives on their children's reading development. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand how parental involvement in 3rd grade Hispanic ELLs' reading development, as perceived by their families, may contribute to these students' reading proficiency. The framework for this study was Hedegaard's model of children's learning and development. The participants were 5 mothers of 3rd grade Hispanic ELLs at an urban public school in a large city in the Northeastern United States. Interviews with participants were analyzed for open and axial codes using NVivo software to identify themes and patterns. Study results revealed that mothers of Hispanic ELL students were involved in and had a positive view of their children's reading development. However, participants perceived their lack of English language skills as a barrier to their parental involvement in their children's reading development; they also viewed siblings, teachers, libraries, and technology as major resources to help their children develop their reading aptitude. This study supports social change by providing information to schools and administrators, the latter of whom may be able to improve reading programs in ways that can help Hispanic ELL families to promote their children's reading development.

This thesis examined the role of metalinguistic skills in concurrent and subsequent word-level reading and oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. While previous studies on biliteracy development among this group of children have mostly focused on one of the two languages, this thesis gave equal emphasis to both languages. The research had two general purposes: 1) to investigate the role of phonological awareness, morphological awareness and orthographic processing in predicting word-level reading and oral vocabulary in Chinese and English concurrently and longitudinally; and 2) to examine the cross-linguistic role of phonological and morphological awareness to word-level reading and vocabulary, concurrently and longitudinally, between Chinese and English. These goals were explored through two interrelated studies, using path analyses. The participants included 91 Chinese-English bilingual children, recruited from kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese heritage language classes in Canada. They were tested twice, one year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in Chinese and English. Findings of Study 1 on within-language relationships indicated that, for word-level reading, all three metalinguistic skills were independent concurrent predictors in English, whereas only morphological awareness was predictive in Chinese. For oral vocabulary, morphological awareness was the only concurrent predictor in both languages. The longitudinal contributions of these metalinguistic skills were mostly mediated through the auto-regressors of the literacy outcomes. Findings of Study 2 on between-language relationships demonstrated that Chinese phonological awareness directly contributed to concurrent and subsequent English word reading beyond the effect of concurrent English phonological awareness. Yet, Chinese morphological awareness indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent English oral vocabulary through concurrent English morphological awareness. Similarly, English morphological awareness only indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent Chinese oral vocabulary. These findings suggest that different metalinguistic skills are required for literacy development in Chinese and English. Moreover, metalinguistic skills transfer to literacy, even across two typologically distant languages, but the transfer patterns of phonological and morphological awareness to different literacy skills vary considerably. These results are discussed in light of current reading and transfer models as well as linguistic contexts of biliteracy acquisition.

This thesis examined the role of metalinguistic skills in concurrent and subsequent word-level reading and oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. While previous studies on biliteracy development among this group of children have mostly focused on one of the two languages, this thesis gave equal emphasis to both languages. The research had two general purposes: 1) to investigate the role of phonological awareness, morphological awareness and orthographic processing in predicting word-level reading and oral vocabulary in Chinese and English concurrently and longitudinally; and 2) to examine the cross-linguistic role of phonological and morphological awareness to word-level reading and vocabulary, concurrently and longitudinally, between Chinese and English. These goals were explored through two interrelated studies, using path analyses. The participants included 91 Chinese-English bilingual children, recruited from kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese heritage language classes in Canada. They were tested twice, one year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in Chinese and English. Findings of Study 1 on within-language relationships indicated that, for word-level reading, all three metalinguistic skills were independent concurrent predictors in English, whereas only morphological awareness was predictive in Chinese. For oral vocabulary, morphological awareness was the only concurrent predictor in both languages. The longitudinal contributions of these metalinguistic skills were mostly mediated through the auto-regressors of the literacy outcomes. Findings of Study 2 on between-language relationships demonstrated that Chinese phonological awareness directly contributed to concurrent and subsequent English word reading beyond the effect of concurrent English phonological awareness. Yet, Chinese morphological awareness indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent English oral vocabulary through concurrent English morphological awareness. Similarly, English morphological awareness only indirectly predicted concurrent and subsequent Chinese oral vocabulary. These findings suggest that different metalinguistic skills are required for literacy development in Chinese and English. Moreover, metalinguistic skills transfer to literacy, even across two typologically distant languages, but the transfer patterns of phonological and morphological awareness to different literacy skills vary considerably. These results are discussed in light of current reading and transfer models as well as linguistic contexts of biliteracy acquisition.

Submitted by Celso Magalhaes (celsomagalhaes@ufrrj.br) on 2017-07-20T11:34:03Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - Janne Faria Torres Braga.pdf: 1337555 bytes, checksum: 87664911deb5577d5ad055a22ce6f7c9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-20T11:34:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015 - Janne Faria Torres Braga.pdf: 1337555 bytes, checksum: 87664911deb5577d5ad055a22ce6f7c9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-03 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico - CNPq / This work aims , through meta-cognitive theory developed by some theorists as Langacker , Vanin , Gombert and Leffa , to examine how the descriptors related to the topic of reading Procedure curriculum SAEB ( System of Basic Education Evaluation ) deal with reading and how this is done by the students, with regard to their understanding . It is intended in this case to draw a profile of the types of statements used in questions and categorize them , and on issues related to reading procedure descriptors, use some cognitive strategies such as monitoring,selfexplanation and justification in order to assist students during the reading process so that, throughout his schooling , perform this task autonomously / O presente trabalho se prop?e, por meio da teoria metacognitiva desenvolvida por alguns te?ricos como Langacker, Vanin, Gombert e Leffa, a analisar o modo como os descritores referentes ao t?pico de Procedimento da Leitura da matriz curricular do SAEB (Sistema de Avalia??o da Educa??o B?sica) tratam da leitura e como essa ? feita pelos alunos, no que tange ? sua compreens?o. Pretende-se, nesse caso, tra?ar um perfil dos tipos de enunciados usados nas quest?es e categoriz?-los e, nas quest?es relacionadas aos descritores do Procedimento de Leitura, usar algumas estrat?gias cognitivas como monitoramento, autoexplica??o e justificativa a fim de auxiliar os alunos durante o processo da leitura para que possam, ao longo de sua escolariza??o, realizar tal tarefa autonomamente.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-03-24T18:01:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-03-27T17:42:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-27T17:42:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / Estudos realizados ao longo dos anos evidenciam a superioridade da abordagem preventiva, comparada à abordagem remediativa, para a promoção do desenvolvimento da leitura. Dentro desse cenário, o rastreamento da presença de risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura assume um papel preponderante. O presente estudo teve como objetivos principais avaliar a fidedignidade e a precisão de classificação do risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura de medidas que, consistentemente, se destacam como preditoras do desenvolvimento dessa habilidade: conhecimento do nome das letras (CNL) e nomeação seriada rápida (NSR). Foi objetivo do presente estudo, também, verificar se uma versão reduzida da tarefa de CNL teria uma precisão de classificação do risco de dificuldade de leitura similar à da versão completa. Para tanto, o estudo foi realizado com 213 crianças. As crianças realizaram as tarefas de NSR e de CNL quando se encontravam no último ano da educação infantil e a de leitura quando se encontravam no 1º ano do ensino fundamental. De uma forma geral, os resultados atestaram a boa fidedignidade das medidas (CNL 26 = 0,95; CNL 15 = 0,93; NSR de objetos: r = 0,71, p < 0,001; NSR de cores: r = 0,88, p < 0,001; NSR de números: r = 0,89, p < 0,001; NSR de letras: r = 0,82, p < 0,001), bem como evidenciaram que as mesmas podem ser usadas para rastrear a presença de risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura. / Studies conducted over the years have shown the superiority of the preventive approach, compared to the remediative approach, for the promotion of reading development. In this scenario, screening at risk / no risk reading difficulty assumes a leading role. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and the classification accuracy of the risk / no risk for reading measures that consistently stand out as predictors of the development of this ability: letter name knowledge (LNK) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Another aim of this study was to check whether a reduced version of the LNK measure could have a similar accuracy rather than a full version in a classification of reading difficulty risk. Therefore, this study tested 213 children. They performed the RAN and LNK measures during the last year of kindergarten and the reading task in the first grade of elementary school. In general, the results confirmed a good reliability of the measures (LNK 26 = 0,95; LNK 15 = 0,93; RAN objects: r = 0,71, p < 0,001; RAN colors: r = 0,88, p < 0,001; RAN numbers: r = 0,89, p < 0,001; RAN letters: r = 0,82, p < 0,001) and showed that they can be used for screening at risk / no risk reading difficulty.

LUS is short for reading development schedule, which is a concept that schools in a municipality or parts of a municipality uses, to get an overview at the pupils’ reading capacity. The purpose with this C-paper is to analyse if LUS is a relevant and useful instrument in the upper level of compulsory school of today, concerning the work with pupils’ reading development. My research contains a theoretical section and a practical section witch is based on qualitative interviews with three teachers. The result of my research shows that LUS is built on sociocultural thoughts, where – despite a competence theoretical structure – the individual reading experience is in focus and the optimal reading is considered the reading which lies within the readers’ closest zone of development. The relevance of LUS in the upper level of compulsory school is mostly justified as a clarifying model of reader competences that can be used as a help when putting together small goals to those pupils that doesn’t reach the goal of the syllabus. For those pupils that, considering age, follow that development which the reading development schedule explains, LUS feels some what unnecessary in the upper level of compulsory school. / LUS är en förkortning för läsutvecklingsschema, vilket är ett koncept som skolor i hela eller delar av kommuner använder sig av, för att få en överblick på elevernas läsförmåga. Syftet med denna C-uppsats är att analysera huruvida LUS är ett relevant och användbart instrument i dagens högstadieskola, vad gäller arbetet med elevers läsutveckling. Min undersökning innehåller dels en teoretisk del som bygger på LUS egen forskning, dels en praktisk del som grundar sig på tre kvalitativa lärarintervjuer. Resultatet av min undersökning visar att LUS bygger på sociokulturella tankegångar, där – trots en kompetensteoretisk uppbyggnad – den individuella läsupplevelsen står i fokus och den optimala läsningen anses vara den som ligger inom läsarens närmaste utvecklingszon. LUS relevans på högstadiet är dock mest befogat som en tydliggörande mall av läskompetenser, för uppsättande av delmål i åtgärdsprogram för de elever som inte når upp till kursplanens mål. För de elever som åldersmässigt följer den utveckling läsutvecklingsschemat målar upp, känns LUS överflödigt på högstadiet.

Syftet med den här studien är att redogöra för olika läsinlärningsmetoder samt att undersöka hur verksamma pedagoger resonerar kring de metoder de anser sig använda. För att ta reda på detta används kvalitativa intervjuer med pedagoger verksamma i årskurs 1–3. Studien redogör för en litteraturgenomgång vad gäller läsning och läsinlärningsmetoder. Min teoretiska utgångspunkt har varit ett sociokulturellt perspektiv då intentionen är att dels belysa pedagogernas arbete men också sätta det i ett sammanhang och öka kunskapen kring just metoderna som pedagogerna menar att de använder. Resultatet redovisas utifrån fyra kategorier som framkommit genom meningskoncentrering av intervjuerna. Här sammanfattas pedagogernas svar utifrån, Inledande läsinlärningsarbete, Läsinlärningsmetoder, Bedömning och Stöd och utmaningar. I mina slutsatser framkommer att de metoder jag redogör för i avsnittet Forsknings- och litteraturgenomgång i stort sett överensstämmer med de som pedagogerna uppger sig använda. Pedagogerna berättar om sin beredskap för hur de bemöter sina elever och utifrån det drar jag slutsatsen att pedagoger behöver stor kunskap och erfarenhet för att lyckas i sitt uppdrag att utveckla läsande elever. / The purpose of this study is to describe different reading learning methods as well as study how active educators reason about the methods they consider using. To find out, qualitative interviews are used with educators working in grades 1-3. The study describes a literature review regarding reading and reading methods. My theoretical point of departure has been a socio-cultural perspective, as the intention is to illuminate the work of the educators, but also to put it in context and to increase the knowledge about the methods the educators believe they use. The results are reported on the basis of four categories that have been identified by the focus of the interviews. Here, the teachers' answers are summarized, Initial Reading Learning, Reading Learning Methods, Assessment and Support and Challenges. In my conclusions it appears that the methods I describe in the section Research and Literature review are broadly consistent with those used by the educators. The educators tell us about their readiness for responding to their students, and on this basis, I conclude that educators need great knowledge and experience to succeed in their task of developing reading students.

This research investigates the effects of a planned program of computer assisted instruction on reading and language development of fourth grade students. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of microcomputer usage in supplemental reading and language instruction. Fifty-one matched pairs of fourth graders completed the one school year study. A t test for related samples was used to analyze the data. Multiple linear regression was used to allow a more detailed review of the basic data, including gender and entering ability. The findings include the following. 1. Post test scores for total reading or total language on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills of the experimental group did not differ significantly from the scores of the control group. 2. The incremental differences in the post test scores for the boys or the girls in the experimental group did not differ significantly from those of the boys or the girls in the control group in either reading or language. 3. For students starting lower, toward the middle or higher on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills total reading or total language, the relative progress of the experimental group of any of the three groups did not differ significantly from those of the control groups. The general conclusion to be drawn from this study is that using prescribed software for thirty minutes a week did not significantly improve total reading or total language scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. This study also indicates no significant differential effects on entering ability or gender. These recommendations were made. 1. More weekly computer time be utilized in further research. 2. Further evaluation of software as it relates to basic classroom curriculum for all levels of achievement should be studied. 3. Further study should be conducted on gender as it relates to C.A.I. in learning, including the possibility of using different software programs to reinforce the same skills for boys and girls.