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26 research outputs found

Factors influencing reading difficulties of advanced learners of English as a Foreign Language when reading authentic texts

Author: Masuhara Hitomi
Publication venue: University of Bedfordshire
Publication date: 01/01/1998
Field of study

A thesis submitted to the University of Luton in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis thesis investigates factors influencing the reading difficulties of advanced learners of English as a foreign language. It proposes a new approach to reading research and pedagogy in which neuroscientific insights on human verbal and non-verbal cognition are incorporated into the theoretical conceptualisation. This thesis explores the neurosdentific literature for the purpose of identifying basic principles governing human perception, emotion and cognition. The mechanisms of learning and memory are also studied. It examines how the verbal systems of the brain interact with the non-verbal systems. Making use of neural perspectives, a critical review of historical and of current reading models is conducted. Attempts are made to provide alternative interpretations for the phenomena recognised in empirical studies based on observations of reading behaviours, on computer-based studies and on the introspective data of experts and of learners. This thesis reports two experiments which were designed to investigate the Ll and L2 reading processes through Think Aloud, Immediate Retrospection, Questionnaires and Interviews. The results indicate that advanced learners, despite their established reading ability in their native languages, often rely heavily on cognitive and studial styles of L2 reading which inhibit fluent and effective reading. Neural accounts are offered which suggest that the ineffective reading styles are due to weakness in the degree of neural developments. This thesis evaluates the reading sections of current and typical coursebooks according to neural-based criteria and concludes that learners are not being given the opportunities to develop the neural networks required in fluent and enjoyable reading. Finally suggestions are made for future reading research and pedagogy

OpenGrey Repository

University of Bedfordshire Repository

Retrieval-, Distributed-, and Interleaved Practice in the Classroom:A Systematic Review

Author: Camp G.
Jarodzka H.M.
Kirschner P.A.
Ruitenburg S.K.
Publication venue
Publication date: 23/08/2021
Field of study

Three of the most effective learning strategies identified are retrieval practice, distributed practice, and interleaved practice, also referred to as desirable difficulties. However, it is yet unknown to what extent these three practices foster learning in primary and secondary education classrooms (as opposed to the laboratory and/or tertiary education classrooms, where most research is conducted) and whether these strategies affect different students differently. To address these gaps, we conducted a systematic review. Initial and detailed screening of 869 documents found in a threefold search resulted in a pool of 29 journal articles published from 2006 through June 2020. Seventy-five effect sizes nested in 47 experiments nested in 29 documents were included in the review. Retrieval- and interleaved practice appeared to benefit students’ learning outcomes quite consistently; distributed practice less so. Furthermore, only cognitive Student*Task characteristics (i.e., features of the student’s cognition regarding the task, such as initial success) appeared to be significant moderators. We conclude that future research further conceptualising and operationalising initial effort is required, as is a differentiated approach to implementing desirable difficulties

Open University of the Netherlands Research Portal

COMMUNICATION NEUTROSOPHIC ROUTES

Author: Smarandache Florentin
VLĂDUŢESCU ŞTEFAN
Publication venue: UNM Digital Repository
Publication date: 01/01/2014
Field of study

Any manifestation of life is a component of communication, it is crossed by a communication passage. People irrepressibly generate meanings. As structuring domain of meanings, communication is a place where meanings burst out volcanically. Manifestations of life are surrounded by a halo of communicational meanings. Human material and ideatic existence includes a great potential of communication in continuous extension. The human being crosses the path of or is at the intersection of different communicational thoroughfares. The life of human beings is a place of communication. Consequently, any cognitive or cogitative manifestation presents a route of communication. People consume their lives relating by communicationally. Some communicational relationships are contradictory, others are neutral, since within the manifestations of life there are found conflicting meanings and/or neutral meanings. Communicational relations always comprise a set of neutral, neutrosophic meanings. Communication in general is a human manifestation of life with recognizable profile. Particularly, we talk about scientific communication, literary communication, pictorial communication, sculptural communication, esthetic communication and so on, as specific manifestations of life. All these include coherent, cohesive and structurable series of existential meanings which are contradictory and/or neutral, neutrosophic. It can be asserted that in any communication there are routes of access and neutrosophic routes. Any communication is traversed by neutrosophic routes of communication