Repositioning of special schools within a specialist, personalised educational marketplace - the need for a representative principle

This paper considers how notions of inclusive education as defined in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Salamanca Agreement (1994) have become dissipated, and can be developed and reframed to encourage their progress. It analyses the discourse within a range of academic, legal and media texts, exploring how this dissipation has taken place within the UK. Using data from 78 specialist school websites it contextualises this change in the use of the terms and ideas of inclusion with the rise of two other constructs, the 'specialist school' and 'personalisation'. It identifies the need for a precisely defined representative principle to theorise the type of school which inclusion aims to achieve, which cannot be subsumed by segregated providers. It suggests that this principle should not focus on the individual, but draw upon a liberal/democratic view of social justice, underlining inclusive education's role in removing social barriers that prevent equity, access and participation for all

What's so simple about simplified texts? A computational and psycholinguistic investigation of text comprehension and text processing

This study uses a moving windows self-paced reading task to assess both text comprehension and processing time of authentic texts and these same texts simplified to beginning and intermediate levels. Forty-eight second language learners each read 9 texts (3 different authentic, beginning, and intermediate level texts). Repeated measures ANOVAs reported linear effects of text type on reading time (normalized for text length) and true/false comprehension scores indicating that beginning level texts were processed faster and were more comprehensible than intermediate level and authentic texts. The linear effect of text type on comprehension remained significant within an ANCOVA controlling for language proficiency (i.e., TOEFL scores), reading proficiency (i.e., Gates-MacGinitie scores), and background knowledge, but not for reading time. Implications of these findings for materials design, reading pedagogy, and text processing and comprehension are discussed

Generating readable texts for readers with low basic skills

Most NLG systems generate texts for readers with good reading ability, but SkillSum adapts its output for readers with poor literacy. Evaluation with lowskilled readers confirms that SkillSum's knowledge-based microplanning choices enhance readability. We also discuss future readability improvements

Intralingual translation and cascading crises: evaluating the impact of semi-automation on the readability and comprehensibility of health content

During crises, intralingual translation (or simplification) of medical content can facilitate comprehension among lay readers and foster their compliance with instructions aimed to avoid or mitigate the cascading effects of crises. The onus of simplifying health-related texts often falls on medical experts, and the task of intralingual translation tends to be nonautomated. Medical authors are asked to check and remember different sets of plain language guidelines, while also relying on their interpretation of how and when to implement these guidelines. Accordingly, even simplified health-related texts present characteristics that make them difficult to read and comprehend, particularly for an audience with low (health) literacy. Against this background, this chapter describes an experimental study aimed at testing the impact that using a controlled language (CL) checker to semi-automate intralingual translation has on the readability and comprehensibility of medical content. The study focused on the plain language summaries and abstracts produced by the non-profit organisation Cochrane. Using Coh-Metrix and recall, this investigation found that the introduction of a CL checker influenced some readability features, but not lay readers’ comprehension, regardless of their native language. Finally, strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of health content and reduce the vulnerability of readers in crises are discussed

Action! suspense! culture! insight! : reading stories in the classroom

Running title: Reading stories in the classroomAt head of title: Center for the Study of Reading.Bibliography: leaves 32-39Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. US-HEW-C-400-81-003