The subject of this dissertation is the comprehension of written texts among teachers of elementary school. It is known that school teachers must have a reasonable proficiency not only in reading in its various social functions, but also they must know how to monitor their own comprehension process in different kinds of text. In this perspective, the objective of the present research is to investigate the comprehension of written texts among teachers of the first grades of public elementary schools who participated in the continuous teacher training courses at the Portuguese Language Pedagogic Laboratory sponsored by the State Bureau of Education of Alagoas, in Maceió, Brazil. The research is characterized as being interpretative, but at the same time it is experimental and quantitative. There is also an ethnographical aspect involved in the work, in a form of case study. The research was carried out in 2007. Two types of test were used by the author in order to collect data about teachers-collaborators comprehension: cloze tests and multiple choice tests. The author also used written questionnaires and verbal protocols so as to analyze the easiness and difficulties in the collaborators reading. The theoretical foundation is based in three axes: the first deals with teacher formation; the second concerns about the treatment given to reading at schools, and the third cares for text comprehension related to cognitive and metacognitive aspects. The results of the research demonstrated that the collaborators presented difficulty in comprehension of argumentative texts. This evidence leads to a reflection about reading practices in the elementary education and also in teacher formation courses in the sense of emphasizing the contact and the study of genres which have argumentative structure during the years of basic and superior education. / Esta dissertação tem como tema a compreensão de textos escritos entre professoras do Ensino Fundamental. Sabe-se que os professores precisam ter não só uma proficiência razoável em leitura em suas diversas funções, mas, principalmente, precisam saber monitorar o processo de compreensão em textos de diferentes tipos e gêneros, já que são formadores de neoleitores. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar a compreensão de textos escritos entre professoras dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental da rede estadual de ensino, que participaram da formação continuada no Laboratório Pedagógico de Língua Portuguesa da Secretaria de Estado da Educação e do Esporte de Alagoas, no Centro de Estudos e Pesquisas Aplicadas, em Maceió, durante o ano de 2007. A pesquisa é caracterizada como sendo interpretativa e experimental, de caráter quantiqualitativo. O estudo é revestido de um cunho etnográfico, sendo mais especificamente, de um estudo de caso. A pesquisa foi realizada através de uma coleta de dados para a verificação da compreensão leitora das colaboradoras por meio da aplicação de testes cloze (também conhecido como texto lacunado) e de testes de compreensão de texto com questões de múltipla escolha. A autora também utilizou outros instrumentos de pesquisa, tais como: a aplicação de questionários escritos e protocolos verbais para análise e consequente reflexão sobre as facilidades e dificuldades de leitura das colaboradoras. A fundamentação teórica é baseada em três eixos. O primeiro trata sobre a formação do professor; o segundo versa sobre o tratamento dado à leitura na escola e o terceiro aborda a compreensão de texto nos aspectos cognitivos e metacognitivos. A pesquisa demonstrou que as colaboradoras apresentaram facilidade de compreensão em textos narrativos e expositivos e dificuldade de compreensão em textos argumentativos, o que leva a uma reflexão sobre a prática da leitura na educação básica e também nos cursos de formação de professores e, consequentemente, na necessidade de enfatizar mais o contato e o estudo dos gêneros de estrutura argumentativa ao longo do ensino básico e superior.

The present research was developed with the purpose of studying the habit and level of reading comprehension that the administrator professional postgraduated in courses of specialization in Administration present, considering the variants that influence the learning and teaching process. The reading is a complex activity, plural, which is developed in a lot of directions. Ruled by the constructivism learning orientation related to the process of learning manifest in adults, with the worry of studying the habits and the reading comprehension, while a phenomenon inherent in the human condition in the current situation, the study is justified by the moment which is marked by paradigmatic changes in science, in the values, in the organizations. It requires, by one hand, a wider comprehension of the environment, which is in constant transformation and, by the other hand, a permanent individual, collective and organizational learning, trying to search for the human being s self achievement. 12 subjects postgraduated in Administration took part in this study, 6 of them graduated in Administration and the 6 of them graduated in the most different areas of knowledge. The university environment of the postgraduate course lato sensu is taken as a space for the research, it is studied with the qualitative method of analysis and the technique of analysis of the content for the data treatment; the model proposed by Witter (1997) for the validation of the results related to the reading habits and Cloze s technique for the analysis of the level of reading comprehension. The results point out that the model proposed by Witter (1997) does not fit the reality of the students postgraduated in Administration, the ones who have a universe as readers constituted by the life history as readers, familiar contingences, academic contingences, personal characteristics and future perspectives of the clinic form, differently from the model proposed, the one which highlights the availability of material as one of the influencing variants in the process of learning through the reading. The evaluation of the level of text comprehension revealed that the most significant part of the responding subjects (41,67%) possess an instructional reading level, that is, they present difficulties of comprehension in some parts of the text, but they are able to understand the thematic. Compared to other professionals, the administrators are not in the same level of text comprehension. It is suggested that other works, aiming to identify the specific difficulties that are present in the text comprehension, can be carried out with a wider sample than the one used in this study, involving the teachers too / A presente pesquisa foi desenvolvida com o propósito de estudar o hábito e o nível de compreensão de leitura que o profissional administrador pós-graduado em cursos de especialização em administração apresenta, considerando as variáveis que o influenciam no processo ensino-aprendizagem. A leitura é uma atividade complexa, plural, que se desenvolve em várias direções. Pautado na orientação construtivista da aprendizagem em relação ao processo de aprendizagem manifestada em adultos, na preocupação em estudar os hábitos e a compreensão da leitura, enquanto fenômeno inerente à condição humana na situação atual, o estudo justifica-se pelo momento marcado por mudanças paradigmáticas na ciência, nos valores, nas organizações. Isso requer, por um lado, uma maior compreensão do ambiente, que está em constante transformação, e, por outro, um aprendizado permanente em nível individual, grupal e organizacional, como meio de buscar a auto-realização do ser humano. Participaram do estudo doze sujeitos pós-graduados em Administração, sendo seis formados em Administração e seis nas mais diversas áreas do conhecimento. Toma-se como espaço da pesquisa o ambiente universitário em nível de pós-graduação lato sensu, estudado com o método qualitativo de análise e a técnica análise de conteúdo para tratamento dos dados; o modelo proposto por Witter (1997) para validação dos resultados relativos aos hábitos de leitura e a técnica de Cloze para análise do nível de compreensão de leitura. Os resultados apontam que o modelo proposto por Witter (1997) não se identifica com a realidade dos pós-graduados em Administração, os quais possuem um universo como leitor constituído pela história de vida como leitor, contingências familiares, contingências acadêmicas, características pessoais e perspectivas futuras de forma cíclica, diferentemente do modelo proposto, o qual destaca a disponibilidade de material como uma das variáveis influenciadoras do processo de aprendizagem pela leitura. A avaliação do nível de compreensão de leitura revelou que a maior (42%) parte dos sujeitos respondentes possui nível instrucional em relação à leitura, ou seja, apresentam dificuldades de compreensão em alguns trechos do texto, mas conseguem abordar a temática. Comparativamente a outros profissionais, os administradores não se apresentam no mesmo nível de compreensão de textos. Sugere-se que sejam desenvolvidos outros trabalhos com uma amostra maior que a utilizada neste estudo com o objetivo de identificar as dificuldades específicas que se apresentam na compreensão de textos

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002-08-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:34:31Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 souza_vra_me_mar.pdf: 400189 bytes, checksum: 45010e6ba518e2a26b0ee3e83b6bec1e (MD5) / A leitura em inglês para o fim de elaboração de resumos documentários pode ser facilitada mediante a utilização da abordagem do inglês instrumental. O aluno aprende estratégias de leitura que o ajudam na compreensão dos textos sem precisar ter o total domínio do inglês. A proposta desta pesquisa consiste na investigação do processo de leitura de um texto em inglês após os conhecimentos adquiridos nas disciplinas de Inglês Instrumental e Indexação e Resumos no curso de Biblioteconomia. Propomos uma interface entre as duas disciplinas com a finalidade de compreensão de textos em inglês para realização da tarefa de elaboração de resumos. Os objetivos são: trazer contribuição para as disciplinas afins no que concerne à orientação de leitura para elaboração de resumos, fazer levantamento de indicadores de leitura para elaboração de metodologias com a sugestão da utilização do Inglês Instrumental. Tal investigação foi realizada por meio de levantamento bibliográfico sobre resumo, leitura e por meio de observação do processo de leitura. A técnica da coleta de dados foi a denominada Protocolo Verbal. Os processos de leitura observados foram realizados por dois alunos do quarto ano do curso de Biblioteconomia do campus da UNESP de Marília. Receberam instruções quanto ao uso do Inglês Instrumental, para superação dos problemas oriundos da deficiência de conhecimento da língua e, instruções quanto às técnicas de síntese, análise e representação do documento para a elaboração do resumo documentário. Verificamos como procedem à compreensão do texto na tarefa de leitura para elaboração do resumo documentário e observamos que utilizam as estratégias de leitura aprendidas nas aulas de Inglês Instrumental, bem como utilizam o conhecimento adquirido sobre a elaboração do resumo. Os resultados obtidos... / Reading in English with the purpose of writing abstracts can be facilitated through ESP (English for specific purposes) approach. The student learns reading strategies that help him in text comprehension without the necessity of having great knowledge in English. This research proposal is to investigate the reading process of a written English text after the students had been acquainted with the two disciplines (ESP and 'Indexing and Abstract') in the Library Science course. We propose an 'interface' between both subjects in order to comprehend English written texts to the task of writing abstracts. The objectives are to contribute to these subjects related to the reading orientation to the abstract writing task and to point out some reading indicators to methodologies suggesting ESP approach. This research was carried out by the analysis of abstract and reading bibliographies and observation of the reading process. The technique of the data collecting was the one denominated Thinking Aloud. The reading process observed was carried out by two students from the fourth grade of Library Science at UNESP in Marília. Both of them had taken the two subjects above mentioned during the course. They received instructions about the use of ESP to overcome problems of the weak language knowledge and also about the synthesis, analysis and representation of the document. We verified how they read a text in order to write an abstract and observed that they used the reading strategies learned in the ESP classes as well as the knowledge about abstract writing. The obtained results indicate that the instrumental approach may be useful to the abstract writing task by means of appropriate reading strategies, such as, vocabulary strategies, language structure, paragraph structure, textual markers, selectivity, metacognitive monitoring, prediction, nominal... (Complete abstract, click electronic address below)

Submitted by Izabel Franco (izabel-franco@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-04T12:26:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMASA.pdf: 1384203 bytes, checksum: 284fd98a572f573badf38969fb62e1d2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-20T18:31:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMASA.pdf: 1384203 bytes, checksum: 284fd98a572f573badf38969fb62e1d2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-20T18:32:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMASA.pdf: 1384203 bytes, checksum: 284fd98a572f573badf38969fb62e1d2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-20T18:32:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMASA.pdf: 1384203 bytes, checksum: 284fd98a572f573badf38969fb62e1d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / The ultimate goal of learning how to read is to understand the information present in a text and variables involved in reading with understanding have been widely studied. This paper aims to investigate whether teaching synonyms of words that make up the main structure of texts contributes to an increase in text comprehension. These words are also part of stories utilized in standardized teaching procedures. The participants in this study were 20 typically developing children, aged from 8 to 10 years old, pupils from first to fifth grade of a primary public school in the State of São Paulo. They showed high scores when reading single words, but a poor performance in understanding texts. The control group underwent a procedure for learning text comprehension. The experimental group underwent the same procedure as the control group but it was also taught synonyms. Performance in text comprehension was evaluated both before and after the interventions for both groups. The analysis of baseline and post intervention data for all participants was done through the T test of matched samples and the Mann-Whittman test was used for comparing data between groups. Posttest results don’t show any statistically significant difference between the performances of the experimental and control groups, which suggests that teaching synonyms had no effect on text comprehension. Considering the performance of all participants in the pre and posttests, regardless of which intervention the participant received, there is a significant difference between them, which points out the effectiveness of the teaching procedure to increase text comprehension. / O objetivo final de aprender a ler é compreender a informação presente em um texto, portanto, as variáveis envolvidas na leitura com compreensão necessitam ser amplamente estudadas. O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar se o ensino de sinônimos de palavras que compõem a estrutura principal de histórias utilizadas em um procedimento informatizado de ensino contribui para o aumento da compreensão textual. Participaram do estudo 20 crianças com idades entre 8 a 10 anos, desenvolvimento típico, cursando o primeiro ciclo do Ensino Fundamental em uma escola pública do estado de São Paulo. Elas apresentavam alto desempenho em leitura de palavras isoladas e baixo desempenho em compreensão de textos. As crianças foram divididas em dois grupos, sendo que ambos participaram de um programa informatizado de ensino de compreensão de textos. O grupo experimental, além do ensino de compreensão de textos, participou também de um ensino de sinônimos. Foi utilizado um delineamento de grupo com pré e pós-teste. Para análise dos resultados foram utilizados o teste t de amostras emparelhadas e o Mann-Whittman. O resultado do Pós-teste não mostrou uma diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os desempenhos do Grupo Experimental e Grupo Controle em compreensão de textos após a intervenção. Houve uma diferença estatisticamente significativa entre os desempenhos no pré-teste e no pós-teste para todos os participantes.

Submitted by Liliane Ferreira (ljuvencia30@gmail.com) on 2018-07-17T12:10:43Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Wesley Luis Carvalhaes - 2016.pdf: 1328462 bytes, checksum: 34287576b2b5109fd534c36aab8b7708 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-07-17T13:40:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Wesley Luis Carvalhaes - 2016.pdf: 1328462 bytes, checksum: 34287576b2b5109fd534c36aab8b7708 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-17T13:40:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Wesley Luis Carvalhaes - 2016.pdf: 1328462 bytes, checksum: 34287576b2b5109fd534c36aab8b7708 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-08 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás - FAPEG / The doctoral dissertation O livro didático de português: abordagem discursiva de exercícios de compreensão de texto (The Portuguese textbook: a discourse approach to text comprehension exercises) aims to analyze, under the lights of theoretical contributions from text and discourse studies, the operations proposed by text comprehension questions in the Portuguese textbook (Livro Didático de Português, or LDP), investigating in what manner these questions bring to life the conceptions of language, teaching and reading presented by the authors in the teacher’s book that comes along with the LDP. The research takes as its analytical corpus the text interpretation questions from two high school ninth grade LDPs. Both books were amongst the most adopted in state public schools of the city of Goiânia (Goiás State, Brazil), under the sponsorship of the textbook national program (Plano Nacional do Livro Didático, or PNLD) for the triennium 2011-2013. They are: Cereja and Magalhães (2010), and Beltrão and Gordilho (2010). The study adopts the concept of language as verbal interaction (BAKHTIN; VOLOCHÍNOV, 2006), and perceives the text as a social and historical process, characterized by the dialogism. Reading is faced as a social activity, through which the meaning is built in the course of social interaction situations. The investigation seizes its north from the notion of discourse as a meaning effect (PÊCHEUX, 1990, 1997), and treats reading in this perspective, since what someone enunciates is connected to the social and historical moment in which he or she is inserted, as well as to other factors that influence the speech and the meanings that can be built from it. In order to observe the historical conditions for producing and distributing didactic materials in Brazil, this study takes a historiographical and linguistic path of the LDP, showing that the government controls the didactic production through mechanisms such as the above-mentioned PNLD. Regarding the text comprehension questions, the documental research methodology has been applied to the study, with a qualitative approach. The analytical categories chosen are the typologies of Marcuschi (1996). The analysis shows that the two LDPs’ teacher’s books in perspective present, as theoretical support for their elaboration, notions of language, text, and reading, rooted on Bakhtin’s concept of language as verbal interaction. However, these notions do not come to reality in the majority of the exercises proposed for working with the texts. As for the LDPs’ text comprehension questions analyzed, they are centered mainly on elements objectively found in the text or on operations of metalinguistic nature. Therefore, they do not take into consideration the extra-textual elements to be discussed in activities that comprehend reading as a social practice. In this sense, there is a mismatch between the theoretical aspects indicated in the LDPs’ teacher’s books analyzed and the proposed questions for approaching the text. Consequently, the LDPs’ text interpretation exercises analyzed do not materialize the language, teaching, reading, and meaning notions displayed in the corresponding teacher’s textbook. / O trabalho O livro didático de português: abordagem discursiva de exercícios de compreensão de texto objetiva analisar, à luz das contribuições teóricas dos estudos do texto e do discurso, as operações propostas por questões de compreensão de texto no livro didático de português (LDP), verificando como essas questões concretizam as concepções de língua, texto, ensino e leitura que os autores do livro apresentam no manual do professor que acompanha o LDP. A pesquisa toma como corpus de análise as questões de interpretação de texto de dois dos LDP de 9º ano do ensino fundamental mais adotados nas escolas públicas estaduais de Goiânia por meio do Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) no triênio 2011-2013: Cereja e Magalhães (2010) e Beltrão e Gordilho (2010). O estudo apoia-se sobre a concepção de língua como interação verbal (BAKHTIN; VOLOCHÍNOV, 2006) e entende o texto como processo social e histórico marcado pelo dialogismo. A leitura é tomada como uma atividade social por meio da qual o sentido é construído no curso das situações de interação social. A pesquisa apropria-se da noção de discurso como efeito de sentido (PÊCHEUX, 1990, 1997) e trata a leitura nessa perspectiva, pois o que alguém enuncia está ligado ao momento social e histórico em que se insere e a outros fatores que condicionam o dizer, bem como os sentidos que podem ser a partir dele construídos. Com a intenção de observar as condições históricas de produção e circulação do material didático no Brasil, o estudo realiza um percurso historiográfico-linguístico do LDP e mostra que o governo exerce um controle da produção didática por meio de dispositivos como o PNLD. Para o tratamento das questões de compreensão, é utilizada a metodologia da pesquisa documental com abordagem qualitativa e são aproveitadas como categorias de análise as tipologias de Marcuschi (1996). As análises identificam que os manuais do professor dos LDP selecionados apresentam, como suporte teórico para a elaboração dos livros, noções de língua, texto e leitura fundamentadas sobre a concepção bakhtiniana de língua como interação verbal. Mas essas noções não se concretizam na maioria dos exercícios propostos para o trabalho com o texto. As questões de compreensão de texto dos LDP analisados são constituídas majoritariamente por perguntas sobre elementos objetivamente situados no texto ou sobre operações de caráter metalinguístico e, portanto, desconsideram os elementos extratextuais a serem discutidos nas atividades que entendem a leitura como prática social. Nesse sentido, há um descompasso entre os aspectos teóricos apontados no manual do professor dos LDP analisados e as questões propostas para a abordagem do texto. Desse modo, os exercícios de interpretação dos LDP analisados não materializam a noção de língua, de ensino, de leitura e de sentido explícita no manual do professor que acompanha esses mesmos LDP.

The overall purpose of this licentiate thesis is to shed light on how reading is constructed in different year 1 school subjects. The focus of the study is reading and how teachers create conditions for students to understand text via text conversations and via textbook texts used in Mathematics, Swedish and Technology. The study aims to shed light on reading from a disciplinary literacy perspective.  The study is conducted in two sub-studies. In the first sub-study three lessons in year 1 are analyzed in terms of how reading is constructed via the following research questions: 1) How are the students invited into the text and text conversations through the teacher’s questions? 2) What everyday language, school language and subject-specific words and concepts do the students encounter in the text conversations? The second sub-study analyzes text sections from ten textbook texts with associated written questions: 1) What ways of using texts are encouraged by the questions in the text-book texts? 2) What everyday language, school language and subject-specific words and concepts can be identified in the textbook texts? The analyzes are based on an adapted text mobility model (Folkeryd et al., 2006; Liberg et al., 2010; Liberg et al., 2012), adaptations of PIRLS processes of comprehension (PIRLS 2016; Mullis & Martin, 2017) and adaptations of Lindberg’s (2007) categorization of words and concepts in everyday, school language and subject-specific vocabulary.  The results show that the teachers create conditions for text comprehension by initiating text conversations in whole groups and in pairs where information in texts is identified, words and concepts are defined, the texts are interpreted and more information is added to the texts. Based on the textbook texts, conditions for reading are created via the texts’ everyday language use and when subject-specific words and concepts occur, via the teacher’s alternating use of everyday and subject-specific words and concepts and through repetitions of the subject-specific ones. The teachers and the textbooks create different conditions for text comprehension in different subjects. In Mathematics the text is read carefully and repeatedly to identify information before calculation and finding the correct solution. In Swedish the text is read to be interpreted. In Technology the purpose of reading is to convey facts and innovative technology.

Research over the past several decades suggests there are persistent political knowledge gaps among electoral cohorts in the United States. Of particular concern to many scholars is a generational gap in political knowledge that appears to be widening. The current generation of young voters has lower levels of political knowledge than any of its cohorts of past generations despite having higher levels of formal education. Although formal education is a significant predictor of political knowledge, the strength of this relationship has declined in recent years. Since the 1950s, overall levels of formal education in the United States have significantly increased, yet there has not been a proportionate increase in overall levels of political knowledge. Some scholars attribute this decline in the relationship between formal education and political knowledge to a preceding decline in the quality of civic education in our primary and secondary schools. Quality civic education is important because it provides young people with civic knowledge—knowledge of how their system of government functions and how they can become effective participants within that system. Civic knowledge is important because it also provides a context for a deep understanding of information disseminated in the media about current political issues. Although voters can learn about political issues by encountering information in various types of media, there is a strong correlation between consumption of text-based news media and levels of political knowledge. Newspaper readership has declined, however, especially for traditional print newspapers, which is at its lowest level since 1945. Digital readership is difficult to assess, but there is some evidence that digital newspaper readership is not nearly enough to account for the decline in readership for traditional print newspapers. Civic background knowledge and interest in reading about political issues can enhance deep-level comprehension of text-based political information. Finding ways to make civic background information interesting for young voters could stimulate their interest in reading about political issues and result in increasing their levels of political knowledge. If the Millennial generation continues to be less knowledgeable than their predecessors, it could erode this cohorts’ ability to effectively represent its interests and could eventually result in a polity in which the “vox populi” is reduced to a mere whisper. This study examined text comprehension and interest within the context of an embodied cognition perspective in which the abstract symbols of language are viewed as fundamentally grounded in our bodily responses to our environment. Emerging media, such as interactive computer simulations and virtual environments, provide a way to ground unfamiliar and complex political text-based information in embodied, experiential contexts that could increase comprehension of abstract concepts. These media often evoke the perception of “being there,” in a virtual space. The sense of “being there,” or virtual spatial presence, creates a degree of spatial uncertainty that can result in an increase in arousal that stimulates interest in the information encountered in the virtual space. A within-subjects experiment was conducted to determine whether providing civic background information in a more embodied media format (i.e., an interactive desktop computer simulation) versus a less embodied format (i.e., an onscreen document) for newspaper articles about Obamacare increased interest in and comprehension of the articles. The data were analyzed with paired t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA. Other statistical tests were also performed to determine relationships among the variables of text comprehension, virtual spatial presence, situational interest, self-reported core affect, and physiological arousal. The findings indicate that surface-level text comprehension of a newspaper article about Obamacare was significantly higher when civic background information for the article was presented in the more embodied format; however, format did not have a significant effect on deep-level comprehension. The findings also indicate that levels of virtual spatial presence and self-reported core affect were significantly higher when participants read information in the more embodied format. Although the results did not reveal a significant effect of format on situational interest in the information, there was a significant order effect of format on situational interest. This was likely the result of a novelty effect and not specifically a result of the level of embodiment the format provided. Within the more embodied format, significant positive correlations emerged between virtual spatial presence and situational interest and between virtual spatial presence and self-reported core affect (i.e., subjective feelings of arousal and enjoyment); however, a negative correlation emerged between virtual spatial presence and skin conductance level. Significant positive correlations also emerged across format conditions between situational interest and self-reported core affect and between situational interest in civic background information for a newspaper article and situational interest in the article itself. The main predictors of overall text comprehension of the newspaper articles about Obamacare were posttest civic knowledge and situational interest. / Media & Communication

Die Studie verfolgte das Ziel, die Zusammenhänge zwischen einer unzureichenden grammatischen Entwicklung und den Fähigkeiten Texte zu verstehen, aufzudecken. Hierfür wurden in 3 Experimenten zum Verstehen und Verwenden von satzübergreifenden pronominalen Bezügen und Konnektoren (Konjunktionen & Adverbien) querschnittliche und längsschnittliche Daten von Kindern mit eine spezifischen Sprachentwicklungsstörung (SSES), von typisch entwickelten Kindern des gleichen chronologischen Alters und von Kindern des gleichen Sprachentwicklungsalters erhoben. Insgesamt wurden 120 Kinder mit einer Altersspanne von 3;0 – 10;11 Jahren getestet. Es wurde untersucht, ob Kinder mit einer SSES die grammatischen Voraussetzungen mitbringen, Kohäsionsmittel zu verstehen oder einzubinden. Die wesentliche Grundlage bot die Minimal Default Grammar – Annahme (Penner & Roeper, 1998), die besagt, dass Kinder mit einer SSES in einem Zwischenstadium der grammatischen Entwicklung stagnieren. Diese konnte in der vorliegenden Studie bestätigt werden. In Experiment 1 wurde das Verständnis intersententialer Pronomen in nichtkanonischen Sätzen untersucht. Diese Leistung wurde zum einen mit kanonischen Sätzen mit Pronomen im Nominativ im Vorfeld und zum anderen mit adverbinitialen Sätzen mit Pronomen sowohl im Nominativ als auch im Akkusativ im Vor-und Mittelfeld verglichen. In Experiment 2 wurde das Verständnis der Konjunktionen weil und aber untersucht, welche die die grammatischen Positionen Vorvor- und Vorfeld besetzen. Schließlich wurde in Experiment 3 die Produktion von referentiellen und relationalen Kohäsionsmitteln in Erzählungen untersucht. Hierfür wurden von jedem Kind vier Geschichten hinsichtlich der Verwendung von Pronomen und Konnektoren in sämtlichen grammatischen Positionen analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigten hochsignifikante Gruppenunterschiede zwischen Kindern der SSES-Gruppe und beiden Kontrollgruppen (SSES < EA p < .001; SSES < CA p < .001). Die Leistungen unterschieden sich qualitativ und quantitativ. Kohäsionsmittel konnten von Kindern mit SSES weder verstanden noch aktiv verwendet werden. Dabei konnte ein enger Zusammenhang zwischen der grammatischen Entwicklung und der Verfügbarkeit von Kohäsionsmitteln nachgewiesen werden. / The availability of cohesive means in children with developmental language disorder. The aim of the study was to disentangle the interrelation between deficits in the grammatical development and the ability to understand texts. In 3 experiments the comprehension and production of intersentential pronoun resolution as well as connectives were assessed. A large cohort of n= 120 with n= 40 children with specific language impairment (SLI/DLD) (age of 3;0 to 10;11 years) was compared to control groups with chronological age matched and language age matched children. There were cross-sectional and longitudinal data collected. The main question was: Do children with DLD have the preconditions to understand intersentential pronoun resolution and connectives in discourse? Most of the theoretical background was provided by the Minimal Default Grammar – Hypothesis (Penner & Roeper, 1998). The framework postulates that children with DLD adhere to an interim grammar without CP- shell. So the account predicts a considerable deficit at the level or the syntax-discourse interface. In experiment 1 the comprehension of intersentential pronoun resolution in noncanonical clauses was tested and compared with the performance in canonical and adverb initial clauses. In experiment 2 the children had to judge the truth of the sentences with weil and aber. The connective weil is syntactically embedded within the matrix clause. The connectiv aber however is syntactically nonembedded within the sentences, it introduces a co-ordinate clause. Finally in experiment 3 the children tell stories. The focus of the analyses was on the production of referential and relational devices in all syntactical positions. The results show highly significant differences between the performance of the DLD group as compared to the control groups (SSES < EA p < .001; SSES < CA p < .001). Grammatically impaired children neither understand nor use referential and relational cohesive devices within the CP-position. Strong correlations were found between the grammatical development of the children and the availability of cohesive means.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:34:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marilisa Cardoso Bernardi.pdf: 994799 bytes, checksum: 789ef148b5da5183c1229753318142f4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-10-21 / Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo / This dissertation follows the line of research in Portuguese Teaching, Reading, and Writing, and aims at contributing to studies in development of reading competencies of students at Fundamental Education. In Brazil, official rates of students performance in reading competencies show that reading ability is far below the ideal, and that actions to improve teaching quality are required. According to the most recent reports from Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Básica (Saeb) [National System of Fundamental Education Evaluation], as few as ten percent of the students evaluated achieved adequate level of reading. This research was conducted to verify, specifically, the performance of students at 8th grade of Fundamental Education in reading competency of theme identification, and to identify strategies for teaching reading that help to seek a global text comprehension. The corpus analysed consists of reading activities included in two textbooks used in the public education system. The results show that reading activities in one of the books analysed were consistent with theorical principles studied, and, thus, were considered activities that allow identify the text theme. The activities analysed in the other textbook don t present a good interpretive clue due to the inadequacy of the comprehension questions for the subjectivity in the language and the complexity of the texts selected. Regarding text methodological approach, we hope this paper contribute to improve text global comprehension / Esta dissertação situa-se na linha de pesquisa sobre Leitura, Escrita e Ensino de Língua Portuguesa e tem o propósito de contribuir para os estudos acerca do desenvolvimento da competência leitora de estudantes no Ensino Fundamental. No Brasil, índices oficiais sobre o desempenho dos alunos na proficiência leitora demonstram que os níveis de leitura estão muito aquém do ideal e que são necessárias ações para melhoria da qualidade do ensino. Segundo os últimos relatórios do Sistema Nacional de Avaliação da Educação Básica (Saeb), apenas 10% dos alunos avaliados atingiram um nível adequado de leitura. Esta pesquisa realizada verifica, especificamente, qual o desempenho dos alunos da 8ª série do Ensino Fundamental na competência leitora de identificação do tema e quais estratégias de ensino da leitura auxiliam na busca pela compreensão global do texto. O corpus analisado é formado pelas atividades de leitura presentes em dois livros didáticos que circulam nas escolas da rede pública de ensino. Os resultados demonstram que em um dos livros analisados as atividades de leitura foram condizentes com os princípios teóricos pesquisados e, portanto, configuram-se como atividades que promovem a identificação do tema do texto. No outro livro didático, as atividades analisadas não apresentam um bom percurso interpretativo devido à falta de adequação das questões de compreensão à subjetividade da linguagem e complexidade dos textos selecionados. Tratando da abordagem metodológica textual, esperamos, com esse trabalho, contribuir para a melhoria da compreensão global do texto

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edilson Goncalves de Carvalho.pdf: 1963751 bytes, checksum: afeef298e9bf59993a61671d13c581f5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The origin of this research lies on the issues that came out through the observations of reading and text comprehension lessons in Science classes and it is based on the theoretical assumptions of the information processing approach in the perspective of Cognitive Psychology. It aims at using a training procedure, which consists of making inferences, in order to verify its effects on the ability of comprehending written texts in a group of students enrolled in the second stage of the Youth and Adult Education Program, which (corresponds to the 7th and 8th grades, in a municipal school in the city of São Paulo). To reach the objective, 40 participants were taught during twenty sessions with the purpose of searching for clues which could lead them to make inferences and comprehend texts. In the pre-test phase, the students were given one task of recognizing words and three tasks of text comprehension, two of which were done using the Cloze technique and one consisting of questions to be answered after the students had finished reading the texts. As soon as the intervention session was completed, the same three tasks were applied in the post-test phase. Following, the tasks were corrected, the scores were computed and they were submitted to statistical tests. The results indicated that the students improved significantly their performance in the comprehension tasks from the pre-test to the post-test phase. The results still showed that comprehensive reading can be taught, in the formal context of the classroom, mediated by a teacher with knowledge of the cognitive processes involved in the reading and comprehension processing / A pesquisa tem sua origem em questões provindas de observações feitas em sala de aula sobre a leitura e compreensão de textos escritos nas aulas de Ciências. Possui como referencial teórico o enfoque de processamento da informação na perspectiva da Psicologia Cognitiva. Teve como objetivo utilizar um procedimento de treino em fazer inferências, para verificar seus efeitos sobre a habilidade de compreensão de textos escritos em um grupo de alunos matriculados na Educação de Jovens e Adultos Fase II da segunda etapa (equivalente a 7ª e 8ª séries de uma escola municipal de São Paulo). Para isso, os 40 participantes foram ensinados, durante vinte sessões, a procurar pistas que os levassem a fazer inferências e compreender textos. No pré-teste, uma tarefa de reconhecimento de palavras e três tarefas de compreensão textual foram aplicadas, sendo duas pela técnica de Cloze e uma por questões para serem respondidas depois da leitura. Após as sessões de intervenção, aplicaram-se no pós-teste as mesmas três tarefas de compreensão textual. Em seguida as tarefas foram corrigidas, pontuadas e submetidas a testes estatísticos. Os resultados indicaram que os alunos melhoraram significativamente seu desempenho nas tarefas de compreensão do pré-teste para o pós-teste. Os resultados mostraram ainda que, no contexto formal de sala de aula, é possível ensinara leitura compreensiva mediada por um professor com conhecimentos dos processos cognitivos envolvidos no processamento da leitura e da compreensãoiva.