Adapting and testing a brief intervention to reduce maternal anxiety during pregnancy (ACORN): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: National guidelines in the UK, United States of America, Canada, and Australia have recently stressed the importance of identifying and treating antenatal anxiety and depression. However, there is little research into the most effective and acceptable ways of helping women manage their symptoms of anxiety and stress during pregnancy. Research indicates the necessity to consider the unique needs and concerns of perinatal populations to ensure treatment engagement, highlighting the need to develop specialised treatments which could be integrated within routine antenatal healthcare services. This trial aims to develop a brief intervention for antenatal anxiety, with a focus on embedding the delivery of the treatment within routine antenatal care. METHODS/DESIGN: This study is a two-phase feasibility trial. In phase 1 we will develop and pilot a brief intervention for antenatal anxiety, blended with group support, to be led by midwives. This intervention will draw on cognitive behavioural principles and wider learning from existing interventions that have been used to reduce anxiety in expectant mothers. The intervention will then be tested in a pilot randomised controlled trial in phase 2. The following outcomes will be assessed: (1) number of participants meeting eligibility criteria, (2) number of participants consenting to the study, (3) number of participants randomised, (4) number of sessions completed by those in the intervention arm, and (5) number of participants completing the post-intervention outcome measures. Secondary outcomes comprise: detailed feedback on acceptability, which will guide further development of the intervention; and outcome data on symptoms of maternal and paternal anxiety and depression, maternal quality of life, quality of couple relationship, mother-child bonding, infant temperament and infant sleep. DISCUSSION: The study will provide important data to inform the design of a future full-scale randomised controlled trial of a brief intervention for anxiety during pregnancy. This will include information on its acceptability and feasibility regarding implementation within current antenatal services, which will inform whether ultimately this provision could be rolled out widely in healthcare settings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN95282830 . Registered on 29 October 2014

Rethinking First Language–Second Language Similarities and Differences in English Proficiency: Insights From the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) Project

This article presents the ENglish Reading Online (ENRO) project that offers data on English reading and listening comprehension from 7,338 university-level advanced learners and native speakers of English representing 19 countries. The database also includes estimates of reading rate and seven component skills of English, including vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, as well as rich demographic and language background data. We first demonstrate high reliability for ENRO tests and their convergent validity with existing meta-analyses.We then provide a bird’s-eye view of first (L1) and second (L2) language comparisons and examine the relative role of various predictors of reading and listening comprehension and reading speed. Across analyses, we found substantially more overlap than differences between L1 and L2 speakers, suggesting that English reading proficiency is best considered across a continuum of skill, ability, and experiences spanning L1 and L2 speakers alike. We end by providing pointers for how researchers can mine ENRO data for future studies

Facilitating reading comprehension through flowcharting

Includes bibliographies92 leaves ; 28 cm.Supported in part by the National Institute of Education under contract no. HEW-NIE-C-400-76-0ll

Reading Comprehension in a Second Language: The Role of Conjunctions

The purpose of this study was to examine whether and at what level of proficiency the meaning of conjunctions is comprehended by adult L2 learners, and whether and at what level of proficiency conjunctions facilitate integration of information in text. Subjects were sixty immigrant or foreign ESL students and thirty-six students whose first language was English. Subjects completed a series of tasks focussing on intrasentential, intersentential and discourse level comprehension of conjunctions. They also read three college level one-page texts, which could appear in one of three versions: normal-intact, implicit-all conjunctions omitted, and highlighted-all conjunctions printed in bold typeface. Each text was followed by a set of high-level comprehension questions focussing on logical relationships in these texts. Analyses have shown that a discourselevel measure of knowledge of conjunctions was more closely related to how L2 learners comprehend logical relationships in written discourse than were discrete, sentence level items. In addition, the more advanced ESL students were more capable of inferencing or using available logical relationships under the three text versions than were the intermediate ESL students. Finally, highlighting. conjunctions had an adverse effect on intermediate level students and a facilitating effect on the advanced level students. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed

Mejora de la comprensión lectora mediante diagramas de flujo

El conocimiento de la estructura del texto discrimina a los buenos lectores de los peores. Una instrucción centrada en la estructura del texto debería facilitar la comprensión de la lectura. Se plantea una investigación cuyo objeto es ver los resultados de entrenar a los lectores menos diestros en fijar su atención en la estructura de los textos. El entrenamiento se centró en la enseñanza de la realización de diagramas de flujo utilizando las partículas como marcadores lógicos y estructurales del texto. Se demuestra que el empleo de diagramas de flujo como herramienta para buscar la estructura del texto y reconocer sus indicadores es útil y mejora las estrategias de lectura.Knowledge of text structure discriminates between good and poor readers. Therefore, an instruction programme focused on text structure should facilitate reading comprehension. The aim of the study is to train less skilled readers to focus their attention on the text�s structure. The approach adopted was to teach students how to elaborate flow diagrams using particles as logic and structural markers of the text. The use of flow-charts as a tool to learn about the text structure and recognize indicators is proved useful and shown to improve reading strategies