The significance of text in the teaching of reading in the early years

The goal of this study was (1) to investigate the development of decoding (efficiency), reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling during the elementary school years and (2) to determine the differences between poor, average and good performers with regard to the development of these skills. Twice each year two standardized tests for each skill were administered. For two successive periods, one of the tests for each skill was the same. To describe the development in terms of a latent variable evolving across grades, the structured-means version of the structural equation model was used. The growth was expressed in terms of effect size. With respect to the first question, clear seasonal effects were found for reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling, while the seasonal effect for decoding efficiency was restricted to the early grades. Progress tended to be greater from fall to spring than from spring to fall. For decoding efficiency, and to a lesser degree for vocabulary and spelling, growth showed a declining trend across grades. For reading comprehension, the progress in grade 2 was lower than the progress in grade 3, but progress was declining across higher grades. With respect to the second question, it appeared that initially low performers on reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling tended to show a greater progress, especially in periods where the largest amount of instruction was given. Although it was found that the low, medium and high ability groups remain in the same order, as far as their means are concerned, these findings do not confirm the existence of a Matthew effect for reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling. For decoding efficiency no clear differential effect could be found: the gap between the poor and good performers did not widen over time for this skill

Prediction of word recognition in the first half of grade 1

Item does not contain fulltextEarly detection of reading problems is important to prevent an enduring lag in reading skills. We studied the relationship between speed of word recognition (after six months of grade 1 education) and four kindergarten pre-literacy skills: letter knowledge, phonological awareness and naming speed for both digits and letters. Our sample consisted of 178 pupils divided over seven classes. In agreement with the literature, we found that all four kindergarten tests were related to speed of word recognition in grade 1. We also performed a multiple regression analysis with a set of background variables and the four kindergarten tests. The model explained 53% of the variance in speed of word recognition. However, only letter knowledge and naming speed for digits had a significant direct effect. Our conclusion is, nevertheless, that all four kindergarten tests should be used to identify children at risk for reading problems.10 p

Spatial Reference in Momu

Spatial reference - how we communicate notions such as location, motion and direction - is an important area of current research. Recent studies involving detailed analysis of geographically and typologically diverse languages have uncovered extensive and unexpected variation in the means languages utilise to encode spatial relations. This thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge about the cross-linguistic representation of the spatial domain. It is an analysis of fieldwork data which was collected for a preliminary investigation into the spatial reference system of Momu (also known as Fas), a Kwomtari language spoken in the West Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. The analysis focuses on descriptions of static location, motion and the use of frames of reference. In Momu, all basic locative, directional and motion verbs are deictically anchored, such that there are few expressions of spatial reference that do not obligatorily require deictic specification. This thesis demonstrates the particular attention Momu pays to the specification of deixis across all major sub-areas of the spatial domain.Australian Research Council [William Foley, Chief Investigator

The 4^4He(e,e′p)(e,e'p) Cross Section at Large Missing Energy

The $(e,e'p)$ reaction on $^{4}{He}$ nuclei was studied in kinematics designed to emphasize effects of nuclear short-range correlations. The measured cross sections display a peak in the kinematical regions where two-nucleon processes are expected to dominate. Theoretical models incorporating short-range correlation effects agree reasonably with the data.Comment: 4 pages LaTeX, using espcrc1.sty and wrapfig.sty (included), two figures. Talk presented by J. Templon at the 15th Int. Conf. on Few-Body Problems in Physics, Groningen, The Netherlands, 22-26 July, 199

Begrijpend lezen: de simpele structuur van een complexe vaardigheid

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Probabilistic conjunctive models: contributions to multidimensional analysis of binary test data

Contains fulltext : mmubn000001_11467891x.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Promotor : E. Roskam207 p

Letterkennis en fonemisch bewustzijn als voorspellers van decodeervaardigheid

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The concept of well-being in health education

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Assessing phonemic awareness in kindergarten: The case for the phoneme recognition task

Contains fulltext : 63073.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)The validity of phoneme recognition as an indicator of phonemic awareness at kindergarten age is investigated. Six paper and pencil phonemic awareness (PA) tests, phoneme recognition among them, are administered groupwise to Dutch children a few months before the beginning of formal literacy education. Additional phonological tests and an early reading test are administered individually. Ten months later, children are tested again with PA and literacy tests. Structural equation modeling shows the relations among tests to correspond broadly with findings reported in the literature. The PA test scores are determined by one common factor, and the early PA factor influences later literacy through its influence on later PA skill. Phoneme segmentation has the highest loading on the PA factor, but phoneme recognition is its best paper and pencil representative. Unlike phoneme segmentation, phoneme recognition competence can develop in the absence of literacy skills. Phoneme recognition equals phoneme segmentation in sensitivity and specificity when predicting later literacy failure