Exploring the Growth of Text-Reading Fluency in Upper-Elementary English Language Learners during Instruction based on Repeated Reading

For the large population of school-age English language learners in California and the United States, the challenge of learning a second language while learning academic content is formidable. Learning to read English skillfully is key to their success. Reading instruction focused on development of oral text-reading fluency has shown strong potential for accelerating the general reading achievement of native-English-speaking children, but there is a lack of concomitant research on English language learners. This dissertation describes a formative experiment with the goal to improve, in 9 weeks, the general reading achievement of 17 English language learners in Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. These students were are at the Intermediate level of English development and lagged behind their native-English-speaking peers in reading. A formative experiment is basically descriptive in nature and utilizes both quantitative and qualitative study methods. The instructional intervention for this study was based on theories of language acquisition, reading development, and automatic processes of reading that underlie fluent reading. The intervention combined two types of repeated reading instruction: (a) silent repeated reading of controlled-vocabulary texts, with comprehension checks, and (b) repeated oral reading for performance, with explicit instruction about oral text-reading fluency. Instruction was altered as necessary, based on formative data, to meet the pedagogical goal. The students\u27 pre- and postintervention performances on reading-fluency indicators, including standardized measures, are compared and a detailed narrative of the experiment reported. The pedagogical goal, improved reading fluency with comprehension, was realized for most of the students on at least one instrument. On the standardized reading-fluency measures, increases in reading accuracy offset decreases in reading rate for many students, an unexpected finding, while comprehension of unfamiliar passages improved. Most students improved on at least two of four measures of prosodic reading, with the exception of third graders

Exploring the Growth of Text-Reading Fluency in Upper-Elementary English Language Learners during Instruction based on Repeated Reading

For the large population of school-age English language learners in California and the United States, the challenge of learning a second language while learning academic content is formidable. Learning to read English skillfully is key to their success. Reading instruction focused on development of oral text-reading fluency has shown strong potential for accelerating the general reading achievement of native-English-speaking children, but there is a lack of concomitant research on English language learners. This dissertation describes a formative experiment with the goal to improve, in 9 weeks, the general reading achievement of 17 English language learners in Grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. These students were are at the Intermediate level of English development and lagged behind their native-English-speaking peers in reading. A formative experiment is basically descriptive in nature and utilizes both quantitative and qualitative study methods. The instructional intervention for this study was based on theories of language acquisition, reading development, and automatic processes of reading that underlie fluent reading. The intervention combined two types of repeated reading instruction: (a) silent repeated reading of controlled-vocabulary texts, with comprehension checks, and (b) repeated oral reading for performance, with explicit instruction about oral text-reading fluency. Instruction was altered as necessary, based on formative data, to meet the pedagogical goal. The students\u27 pre- and postintervention performances on reading-fluency indicators, including standardized measures, are compared and a detailed narrative of the experiment reported. The pedagogical goal, improved reading fluency with comprehension, was realized for most of the students on at least one instrument. On the standardized reading-fluency measures, increases in reading accuracy offset decreases in reading rate for many students, an unexpected finding, while comprehension of unfamiliar passages improved. Most students improved on at least two of four measures of prosodic reading, with the exception of third graders

Optimality theory and Spanish phonology

This article surveys research in Spanish phonology from the perspective of Optimality Theory, a formal linguistic framework based on ranked and violable constraints. Theoretical insights from OT enrich our understanding of Spanish phonology, and Spanish data also figure prominently in the latest theoretical developments within OT. The article concludes with areas for ongoing research and suggestions for further reading on OT in Spanish phonology. © 2014 The Author. Language and Linguistics Compass © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

On marked declaratives, exclamatives, and discourse particles in Castilian Spanish

This book provides a new perspective on prosodically marked declaratives, wh-exclamatives, and discourse particles in the Madrid variety of Spanish. It argues that some marked forms differ from unmarked forms in that they encode modal evaluations of the at-issue meaning. Two epistemic evaluations that can be shown to be encoded by intonation in Spanish are linguistically encoded surprise, or mirativity, and obviousness. An empirical investigation via an audio-enhanced production experiment finds that mirativity and obviousness are associated with distinct intonational features under constant focus scope, with stances of (dis)agreement showing an impact on obvious declaratives. Wh-exclamatives are found not to differ significantly in intonational marking from neutral declaratives, showing that they need not be miratives. Moreover, we find that intonational marking on different discourse particles in natural dialogue correlates with their meaning contribution without being fully determined by it. In part, these findings quantitatively confirm previous qualitative findings on the meaning of intonational configurations in Madrid Spanish. But they also add new insights on the role intonation plays in the negotiation of commitments and expectations between interlocutors

Usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition

It was long considered to be impossible to learn grammar based on linguistic experience alone. In the past decade, however, advances in usage-based linguistic theory, computational linguistics, and developmental psychology changed the view on this matter. So-called usage-based and emergentist approaches to language acquisition state that language can be learned from language use itself, by means of social skills like joint attention, and by means of powerful generalization mechanisms. This paper first summarizes the assumptions regarding the nature of linguistic representations and processing. Usage-based theories are nonmodular and nonreductionist, i.e., they emphasize the form-function relationships, and deal with all of language, not just selected levels of representations. Furthermore, storage and processing is considered to be analytic as well as holistic, such that there is a continuum between children's unanalyzed chunks and abstract units found in adult language. In the second part, the empirical evidence is reviewed. Children's linguistic competence is shown to be limited initially, and it is demonstrated how children can generalize knowledge based on direct and indirect positive evidence. It is argued that with these general learning mechanisms, the usage-based paradigm can be extended to multilingual language situations and to language acquisition under special circumstances

The effect of a music intervention on the temporal organisation of reading skills

This study investigated the reading behaviour of school children following participation\ud in a rhythm-based music intervention. The investigation was inspired by pupils' progress\ud in music lessons after using the rhythm-based music intervention. Little empirical work\ud has been done on metre and learning. This project has focused upon 'temporal regulation'\ud and 'temporal integration' as a possible learning pathway linking the music intervention,\ud as an entrainment activity to reading behaviour. The theoretical framework draws upon\ud multi-disciplinary areas of literature to converge on metre as an organisational feature\ud common to music and language.\ud The methodology of this small scale research project involved three stages. First, three\ud empirical explorations of the music intervention used a mixed experimental design. The\ud randomly selected participants were school children, 8-10 years of age. Secondly, a\ud small, randomly selected sample of school children with below average capability in\ud reading comprehension or reading fluency, took part in a two-treatment experimental\ud design comparing the music intervention and a phonics intervention. The third stage, a\ud trial in two schools, investigated whether the effects of the rhythm-based music\ud intervention were sustained when the music intervention was directed by school staff.\ud Although only small samples were involved, a consistent effect was found in gains in\ud reading comprehension for below average capability readers, following participation in\ud the music intervention. In the two-treatment design, positive effects were found for rate\ud of reading, reading comprehension and phonological discrimination but not for reading\ud accuracy. In the trial in two schools, effects were found for reading comprehension,\ud reading accuracy in both schools and rate of reading in one school suggesting that the\ud music intervention may be suitable for use as part of the music or the literacy programme\ud in schools. Overall the data suggested that the rhythm-based music intervention had a\ud positive effect on children's reading behaviour