Open Access

This quantitative study investigated the comprehension of Farsi idioms with a developmental view and explored at what age, these idiomatic expressions are acquired. We also examined different categories of idiomatic expressions, embracing biological and cultural idioms to see whether they are acquired differently. To this end, three target age groups, including 6-year-olds (n = 20), 10-year-olds (n=20), and adults (n=20) were selected. To collect data, 40 most frequent Farsi idioms were selected as the material of the study and the participants were asked to orally provide a free explanation of the meaning of these idioms in their own words. To analyze data, descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and paired samples t-test were calculated. The findings indicated that around age 6 is almost the beginning of the idiom acquisition process and around age 10 children's idiomatic comprehension starts approximating that of adults. It was also found that primarily, children exhibit knowledge of transparent biological idioms rather than idiosyncratic cultural idioms. The conclusions and implications of the study are discussed.

Background: In the semi-transparent Polish orthography, children develop their reading skills from sound blending, through syllable and morpheme blending, to word and phrase recognition strategies (Awramiuk & Krasowicz-Kupis, 2015). Aim: The aim of the study was to examine reading proficiency and reading strategies of year 4, 11-year-old primary school students, and to investigate the relationship between the selected aspects of phonological processing and literacy skills. We aimed to confront the newly collected empirical data with the already developed model of reading acquisition to confirm the developmental path of reading strategies. Methods: We used a set of tests measuring phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), working memory, short story reading, nonword reading, and reading comprehension. Results: Most children achieved a global stage in reading, as the most frequent mistake was an entire word repetition, followed by a syllable blending, and a syllable and sound blending combined among word reading errors. Phonological awareness predicted the number of errors, and RAN - the accuracy and fluency of the short story reading. Conclusions: Our results confirm the development of reading strategies from phonological-analytical to global in Polish. This model is consistent with other alphabetical orthographies.

The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the reading process and working memory as factor that affects this process at early stages of its development. The basic assumption of the psycholinguistic view is that reading is a linguistic, metalinguistic and metacognitive activity that requires conscious control of cognitive processes involved. The study covered 1138 children from reception class as well as the 1st grade. The subjects were examined using the Reading Tests Battery that offers a comprehensive evaluation of various aspects of reading: letter recognition and naming, isolated words decoding and pseudowords decoding. Executive functions were measured with the use of the Working Memory Test. Each task of the test corresponds to one of the working memory functions highlighted by Klaus Oberauer: simultaneous storage and processing, supervision and coordination. The main results confirm a significant relationship between general indicators of working memory and the results of reading tests. The highest correlations were obtained for the Letter Naming and Letter Recognition tests as well as all three working memory test measures. Monitoring function did not correlate with the reading measures, and the function of coordination featured a very low level of covariance.

From the perspective of Lev S. Vygotsky's theory, literacy develops as a tool for executing the task of communicating with the use of script and this, in consequence, results in the development of a new higher mental function – written speech (WS). Both components of this function improve in parallel with acquisition of reading and writing: the impressive component (comprehending the meaning of a written text) and the expressive component (conveying meaning in a written form). These components reflect two directions of one process of communication and are like 'two sides of the same coin'. Reading and writing demand not only written speech activity but also activity of other mental functions, especially those necessary for planning and controlling behavior which are known as executive functions (EF). Little is found about how EF and two components of WS interact between the age of 3 and 11 when they develop quickly. The main research hypotheses are that (1) the relative dominance of the impressive and the expressive component of written speech is different across age groups and that (2) the level of EF development is connected to patterns of dominance between the impressive and the expressive component of WS. A database from a previous cross-sectional study of 1103 healthy, Polish speaking children between the age of 3 and 11 was used for exploratory analysis of the EF-WS relationship. The subjects were examined with the use of the Literacy Assessment Battery, designed for assessing the development of WS. Also, the paradigm of dimensional change card sort was applied for the measurement of two EF: inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. The conducted analyses of the results confirmed both research hypotheses. Differences in the relative dominance of either the impressive or the expressive component of WS suggest that advances in the reading ability and in the writing ability cannot have the same dynamics. In turn, the level of EF development seems to predict the relation between both WS components most strongly in the age periods where the most dynamic progress in inhibitory control or cognitive flexibility takes place. Further longitudinal studies with a wider range of EF measures, which would give an opportunity to explore causal relations between EF and WS, could be promising, especially in view of identification of literacy development factors.

The aim of this study is to find design criteria for a writing pedagogy for Dutch universities of applied sciences (also: HBO schools). We analyzed policy and educational documents and interviewed lecturers of three writing courses in three HBO schools. This enabled us to characterize their writing approach and the problems and aspirations of the lecturers. We discovered two issues: one is a conflict between the competence-based learning approach advocated in HBO policy documents and the actual writing approach, used by lecturers and in educational documents, reflecting a transfer of knowledge model. A second issue is an imbalance in the two key characteristics of HBO schools: the first characteristic, an orientation towards professional practice, is evident, but no attention is paid to the second one, that of vertical mobility and emancipation of HBO-students. Lecturers would like a more motivating and activating writing approach. They are cautiously experimenting with creative writing techniques, but they lack professional self-confidence and support by their study programmes. Design criteria for an HBO writing pedagogy should guarantee the significance of writing for student's professional future and for their current lives. It also should provide lecturers with consistent, justified principles and exercises. Thus, personal interests can function as incentive for professional writing.