Reading fluency instruction in upper elementary international school classrooms

This project focuses on the importance of reading fluency, emphasizing its role in the construction of meaning and aiding in the overall comprehension process. Its components: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody are examined in relation to various activities that enhance each component. A sample curriculum is discussed

Öğrencilerin Akıcı Okumalarına Göre Okuma-Anlama Stratejilerini Kullanma Düzeyleri

Fluent reading is a skill in which an individual increases his/her information process speed through the use of elements related to reading. He/she also can use reading-comprehension strategies more effectively while increasing the speed of information process. In this study, the reading-comprehension levels of the students in terms of the fluent reading abilities of the students were analyzed. To do that, 131 primary school 6th grade students formed the study sample. The reading levels of the students were determined by a multi-dimensional fluent reading scale followed by tests on reading-comprehension strategies. Data were represented through percentages, averages, berivate correlations, one-way variant analysis, t-test and LSD techniques. Finally, the readingcomprehension strategies usage levels of the students were determined in relation to their sex and fluent reading levels. Within the frame of the findings, some suggestions were made on learners’ reading-comprehension processes.Akıcı okuma, bireyin okuma ile ilgili öğeleri kullanarak bilgi işleme hızını artırdığı bir beceridir. Bilgi işleme hızını artırırken okuma-anlama stratejilerini daha etkin kullanabileceği konuma gelmektedir. Bu çalışmada, öğrencilerin akıcı okuma yeterliklerine göre okuma-anlama stratejilerini kullanma düzeyleri incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla ilköğretim altıncı sınıfa devam eden 131 öğrenci çalışma evrenini oluşturmuştur. Çok boyutlu akıcı okuma ölçeği ile öğrencilerin akıcı okuma düzeyleri belirlenmiş, daha sonra okuma-anlama stratejileri kullanımıyla ilgili testler verilmiştir. Ölçme araçlarından elde edilen veriler, yüzdelik, aritmetik ortalama, berivate korelasyon tekniği, tek yönlü varyans analizi, t-test, LSD tekniğiyle analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucu, öğrencilerin cinsiyetlerine, akıcı okuma düzeylerine göre okuma-anlama stratejilerini kullanma düzeyleri belirlenmiştir. Elde edilen bulgular çerçevesinde, akıcı okuma sürecine yönelik bazı öneriler dile getirilmiştir

Humour and (im)politeness in Chinese sitcom discourse : a case study of Ipartment

The interaction between humour and (im)politeness in Chinese sitcom discourse is an important yet underexplored research field in current humour, (im)politeness and sitcom studies. This study draws on Brock’s (2015) participation framework in sitcom theory, the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) (Attardo, 1994) and (im)politeness theories (Bousfield, 2008; Brown & Levinson, 1987; Culpeper, 2011) as a combined theoretical framework to address the major research concern. This study explores humour and (im)politeness in Chinese sitcoms by decoding the characteristics of aggressive humour and non-aggressive humour in one of the most representative of all Chinese sitcoms: Ipartment. The current study investigates four essential aspects of conversational humour. These aspects are (1) the semantic and pragmatic aspects of humour; (2) the production and reception of humour among characters; (3) the functions of humour across the two communicative levels (i.e. the communicative level between the collective sender and TV viewers, and the communicative level among characters) in sitcom discourse and (4) the social and cultural aspects of humour in Chinese. The first season (twenty episodes in total) of the Chinese sitcom, Ipartment, constitutes the main corpus of the current study. A new analytical framework of conversational humour in sitcom discourse is proposed, and this framework explicates detailed ways to identify, classify and interpret conversational humour in the Chinese sitcom, Ipartment. With the aid of the proposed framework, the study identifies a total of 2,861 lines of conversational humour in Ipartment. Based on the criteria that are adapted from Dynel (2016a), 1,526 lines of humour are classified as aggressive humour and 1,335 lines as non-aggressive humour. Lastly, humour is interpreted from the abovementioned four essential aspects. To be more specific, the current study utilises the six Knowledge Resources in GTVH (Attardo, 1994) to analyse how humour arises from characters’ (im)polite remarks. Then, the communicative effects of humour among characters are examined from the perspectives of the speaker’s intention and the hearers’ responses. Subsequently, humour is analysed by exploring how humour serves different functions, including solidarity-based, power-based and psychological functions (Hay, 1995), at two communicative levels. Lastly, the discussion is concluded with the analysis of the social and cultural aspects of humour in contemporary Chinese discourse. The results show that characters in Ipartment show a marked propensity to aggressive humour rather than non-aggressive humour. Aggressive humour usually incurs different communicative effects and different functions across the two communicative levels. In most cases, aggressive humour in Ipartment are intentionally exploited by the collective sender to amuse TV viewers only; with no humour perceived by any characters and usually generating instances of genuine aggression between characters. These overtly aggressive remarks largely serve a power enhancement role among characters. However, no matter how aggressive the remarks are perceived by characters, the collective sender always aims to enhance affiliation with TV viewers through these impolite yet humorous remarks. Regarding non-aggressive humour, the number of failed humour largely surpasses the amount of successful humour. This is to say, although the speaking characters’ humour conveys no intentional aggression, humour may still be rejected by the hearing characters for reasons such as inappropriateness and miscommunication. Non-aggressive humour usually performs a solidarity-oriented role at both communicative levels. The significance of this study is summarised as follows: (1) this study proposes working definitions of conversational humour, aggressive humour and non-aggressive humour in sitcom discourse. It provides new perspectives to the current conceptual debates of non-aggressive humour; (2) this study proposes a new analytical framework to address conversational humour in sitcom discourse. Furthermore, a set of criteria are summarised to distinguish aggressive and non-aggressive humour. It is the first study that provides a systematic approach to conversational humour and the first one to provide detailed criteria to distinguish aggressive and non-aggressive humour in sitcom discourse; (3) this study identifies some Chinese-specific characteristics of aggression and humour in contemporary Chinese conversational discourse, and it contributes to the underexplored field of humour and (im)politeness in Chinese discourse

Strategies for Representing Tone in African Writing Systems

Tone languages provide some interesting challenges for the designers of new orthographies. One approach is to omit tone marks, just as stress is not marked in English (zero marking). Another approach is to do phonemic tone analysis and then make heavy use of diacritic symbols to distinguish the `tonemes' (exhaustive marking). While orthographies based on either system have been successful, this may be thanks to our ability to manage inadequate orthographies rather than to any intrinsic advantage which is afforded by one or the other approach. In many cases, practical experience with both kinds of orthography in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that people have not been able to attain the level of reading and writing fluency that we know to be possible for the orthographies of non-tonal languages. In some cases this can be attributed to a sociolinguistic setting which does not favour vernacular literacy. In other cases, the orthography itself might be to blame. If the orthography of a tone language is difficult to user or to learn, then a good part of the reason, I believe, is that the designer either has not paid enough attention to the function of tone in the language, or has not ensured that the information encoded in the orthography is accessible to the ordinary (non-linguist) user of the language. If the writing of tone is not going to continue to be a stumbling block to literacy efforts, then a fresh approach to tone orthography is required, one which assigns high priority to these two factors. This article describes the problems with orthographies that use too few or too many tone marks, and critically evaluates a wide range of creative intermediate solutions. I review the contributions made by phonology and reading theory, and provide some broad methodological principles to guide someone who is seeking to represent tone in a writing system. The tone orthographies of several languages from sub-Saharan Africa are presented throughout the article, with particular emphasis on some tone languages of Cameroon

Emphatic accent used by individuals with and without voice and speech training

PURPOSE: To investigate how individuals with and without voice training use emphatic accent in two previously selected words during a reading. METHODS:Seventy seven individuals with ages between 19 and 57 years were distributed into two groups: 51 students from a radio training course - TG (trained group); and 26 subjects with no voice and speech training - UnTG (untrained group). Individuals read a radio report twice, emphasizing two different words in each reading: negotiates and reforms. The readings were recorded with an interval of two months between them, which corresponded to the beginning and end of the radio training course attended by the TG. Voice samples were submitted to: auditory-perceptual analysis of the occurrence, evaluation and use of emphasis; visual analysis of the spectrographic trace for delimitation of the pauses; acoustic analysis of the duration and fundamental frequency of the emphases. Results were submitted to statistical analysis. RESULTS: The TG had higher grades than the UnTG regarding the quality of emphasis use, and there was no difference in its occurrence and use. The word reforms had higher occurrence of emphasis and was better evaluated than the word negotiates. The TG used less pauses than the UnTG. Acoustic analysis showed that the word reforms was longer than negotiates in the UnTG. The mean fundamental frequency was higher for negotiates. CONCLUSION: Both groups demonstrated that the use of emphasis accompanies the individuality of speakers. The TG had better ability in the distribution of pauses. The words were distinctly emphasized due to syntactic and semantic aspects.OBJETIVO: Investigar como indivíduos com e sem treinamento vocal utilizam recursos de ênfase em duas palavras previamente selecionadas na leitura de texto. MÉTODOS: Setenta e sete indivíduos de 19 a 57 anos de idade formaram dois grupos: 51 alunos de curso de radialista denominados grupo treinado - GT e 26 indivíduos sem experiência em locução, denominados grupo não-treinado - GNT. Eles leram uma notícia duas vezes enfatizando, a cada leitura, uma palavra: negocia e reformas. As leituras foram gravadas em dois momentos com intervalo de dois meses entre elas, correspondentes ao início e ao final do curso de radialista do GT. O material foi submetido à avaliação perceptivo-auditiva da ocorrência, avaliação e forma de utilização da ênfase; identificação visual da espectrografia para delimitação das pausas junto às palavras estudadas; análise acústica da duração e frequência fundamental das ênfases. Testes estatísticos foram aplicados. RESULTADOS: GT foi melhor avaliado quanto à qualidade da utilização da ênfase que GNT, não havendo diferença na sua ocorrência e forma de utilização. Reformas teve maior ocorrência de ênfase e foi melhor avaliada que negocia. GT usou menos pausas que GNT. Na análise acústica, reformas durou mais que negocia no GNT. A média da frequência fundamental de negocia foi maior que reformas. CONCLUSÃO: Os grupos comportaram-se de forma semelhante, demonstrando que enfatizar obedece a individualidade dos falantes. GT apresentou mais habilidade na distribuição das pausas. As ênfases ocorreram diferentemente entre as palavras respeitando aspectos sintático-semânticos.Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)UNIFESPSciEL

Prosodic contrast in non-scripted humorous communication

En el presente artículo se recogen los resultados de un análisis prosódico de enunciados humorísticos semiespontáneos, extraídos de una muestra de 14 entrevistas del programa The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. También se seleccionaron enunciados no humorísticos con fines comparativos y de control (Bryant, 2010). Los archivos de audio se importaron a Praat para obtener los valores de F0 e intensidad de cada enunciado y analizar posteriormente su desviación estándar de la mediana. No se ha detectado contraste prosódico en estos valores entre los enunciados humorísticos y no humorísticos de la muestra.This article presents the results of a prosodic analysis of non-scripted humorous utterances. Humorous utterances have been extracted from a sample of 14 interviews in The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Non-humorous utterances were also selected in order to compare humorous and non-humorous utterances, as well as to conduct a control study on contrast between non-humorous utterances (Bryant, 2010). The sound files were imported to Praat, where mean pitch and mean intensity values were obtained for every utterance to later analyse standard deviation. No prosodic contrast has been found between humorous and non-humorous utterances in the sample with regards to intensity and pitch (F0)

The Unsupervised Acquisition of a Lexicon from Continuous Speech

We present an unsupervised learning algorithm that acquires a natural-language lexicon from raw speech. The algorithm is based on the optimal encoding of symbol sequences in an MDL framework, and uses a hierarchical representation of language that overcomes many of the problems that have stymied previous grammar-induction procedures. The forward mapping from symbol sequences to the speech stream is modeled using features based on articulatory gestures. We present results on the acquisition of lexicons and language models from raw speech, text, and phonetic transcripts, and demonstrate that our algorithm compares very favorably to other reported results with respect to segmentation performance and statistical efficiency.Comment: 27 page technical repor