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Literary response and attitude toward reading fiction in secondary education: Trends and predictors
(2006)
The present article synthesizes the results of four studies that concern attitudes towards reading fiction and the literary response of students in secondary education. Both cross sectional and longitudinal data sets were created with the cross sectional data used for establishing 'model fit' of both the attitude model and the literary response model. Relations between different components of both models used are charted among reading behavior and relations between model components and student characteristics. The longitudinal data is used to establish trends in attitude and response. Also relations between student characteristics and characteristics of literary education lessons on the one hand and trends in attitude and literary response scores on the other are examined. Results indicate that both the attitude and the response instrument show adequate model fit. Of all attitude components, 'affect' appears to be the best predictor of reading behavior. Response factors appear to be structured in two secondary order factors: 'trance' and 'literary interpretation'. Attitude and response scores diminish with age. Literary education lessons appear to slow down the diminishing trends. The text experience method seems especially promising for stimulating literary response and attitude toward reading fiction.
In mainstream theory about written language skills there is a strong relation between the notion of 'lexicon' and 'phonology'. The work of both researchers and teachers is rooted in this theoretical relation between lexicon and spoken language, which originates from the linguistic tradition of the past century. The problem with this position is that it has never been treated as a real hypothesis, and we should therefore not base our professional work on it without moderation. In the present article my aim is to show how different combinations of psychological and linguistic theories have different options and limitations concerning the relation between lexicon and phonology. In doing so, I claim that the mainstream theory of written language skills—particularly its relation between lexicon and phonology—is not the most plausible and defensible solution. In the present article I claim that it is possible to investigate the relation of speech and writing on a stronger empirical basis, and that this can be done by first giving equal validity to spoken and written language, and second by giving preference to theory with a minimum of introspection. The paper addresses researchers working with written language skills, and teachers who want to reflect on basic assumptions related to their profession. First, some assumptions concerning the mental lexicon in mainstream theory of written language skills are questioned. These assumptions are here linked to cognitivism and linguistic formalism. Second, alternative assumptions are derived from a pairing of functional approaches to language and connectionism. These alternative assumptions may be seen as contributions to a revitalized understanding of the connection between phonology and lexicon when studying written language skills.
Written language skills are dynamic, they develop differently in individuals and are acquired in multiple ways and contexts. Paradoxically, mainstream research on and teaching of these skills is based on a linguistic philosophy that has always valued highly systematic—and static—descriptions. The problem of static perspectives is that they describe only a proficiency related to structures at a given point in time, without any flexible model of reading and writing behaviour. In the present article I claim the socalled 'alphabetical principle' to be an unfortunate product of static perspectives, and which has a very limited relevance when we want to seize the dynamics of written language acquisition. A consequence of my position is that it does not make sense to polemicize whether one should teach 'phonics' or 'whole language'. Before we search for a narrow perspective – a teaching method – we must assure that the basic assumptions we choose to lean on are the best possible. After doing so, we may end up with a narrow perspective that may involve some aspects of what we today know as both 'phonics' or 'whole language'. But the most important goal is that such perspective should make teachers and researchers capable of seizing the dynamics of written language acquisition. In the present article, an alternative approach is suggested in order to maintain dynamic perspectives on written-language acquisition. This approach degrades the role of traditional linguistic description, such as the 'phoneme', focusing instead on a psychological model of 'skill' in which linguistic structures in spoken language play a role as possible cues in the acquisition of written language. It is claimed that this model also carries greater potential for explanation than do static approaches.
Observational learning has proved to be effective with learners of various ages and in various school subjects, including writing. However, little is known about the actual behavior of learners while carrying out observation tasks. In this case study, students' learning activities when processing observation tasks are closely analyzed: six students thought aloud while observing sets of writers as peer models, and were interviewed afterwards. Results suggest that observers carried out many (meta)cognitive activities, especially activities based on the internalization and development of criteria for effective writing (observing, comparing, evaluating, and reflecting activities). These are precisely the activities assumed to play a central role in learning to write. Observational learning seems to stimulate these activities naturally, albeit they are not very evident in typical school writing tasks and exercises.
This paper discusses recent developments in policies and practices of immigrant minority language teaching in the Netherlands. It focuses on the realisation of this provision as 'language support'. Within this arrangement, an immigrant minority language is used as a medium of instruction for parts of the regular primary school curriculum. Following Goodlad et al. (1979), we identify different versions of the language support curriculum on the basis of in-depth analyses of policy documents from the national and local government (the formal curriculum), and the National Educational Innovation Centre for Primary Education and the Inspectorate of Education (the ideological curriculum). In addition, we analyse policies and practices with respect to language support at a multicultural primary school on the basis of observations, interviews, and school documents (the perceived, operational and experiential curriculum). The analyses reveal how policy makers, practitioners, and pupils differ in their understanding of the notion of language support. They also show how inaccurate assumptions with respect to the pupils' relative command in Dutch and the minority language impact on actual practices of language support.
Children in Greece are exposed to a unique literary situation as they live in a monolingual society which uses two different alphabetical systems: the Greek alphabet and the Roman alphabet. Since the school curriculum of preschool education does not include the teaching of Greek or non-Greek letters, environmental print is mainly responsible for primitive hypotheses about letters. In this research 504 preschoolers were tested regarding their ability to differentiate between the two alphabets which circulate widely in the Greek urban print environment. It was showed that preschoolers, although unable to read, were able to differentiate between texts written with Greek or Roman letters. This gives strong evidence for the conclusion that, apart from the major role that visual language plays in the reading of environmental print, information about actual letters is also absorbed by preschoolers.
The six articles presented in this issue of L1 – Educational Studies in Language and Literature represent both the language and literature domains of the title. More importantly, they represent the first issue as an exclusively online journal with free access to all readers and members of the International Association for the Improve-ment of Mother Tongue Education.
This review of research in college composition divides the field into research focused on the student writer, the teacher of college composition, and the contexts of writing. The period under review is characterized by the "social turn," an effort to situate the writer within social, political, and other contexts in which teaching and writing take place. The author finds that, early in the 21st century, the field of college composition lacks the sort of monolith—such as the "current rhetorical" tradition that has now been largely abandoned—that galvanized teachers and researchers of college composition in the past. As a consequence, the field presently lacks a clear focus or direction.
This review covers what is known in the U.S. as "secondary school," generally encompassing grades 7-12. The author frames the review by looking at the broader assessment context, particularly state-wide writing tests that often trivialize writing by requiring writing within severe time restraints on topics that may be of little interest to students and that may benefit students with from privileged social backgrounds. Further, these assessments reduce writing to limited forms such as the five-paragraph theme, even when the genre called for (e.g., narrative) may not be amenable to such forms. The review finds that assessment mandates in turn affect classroom writing instruction in what the author characterizes as negative ways, emphasizing the mastery of a generic form over the generation of ideas. The review concludes that, in spite all of the attention given to writing instruction, writing is not necessarily improving, in large part because of mandates for how writing is assessed.
The focus of this article is the research literature in written composition from early childhood through the elementary years, typically the end of sixth grade. Some research prior to 1984 is discussed, particularly in topics that were not included in Hillocks (1986), such as emergent writing. The definition of "composition" has expanded over the last decade; thus, while focusing primarily on writing, this article pays attention to other modalities (e.g., relations between drawing and writing) and includes not only writing but also other mediating tools (e.g., drawing, talking, computers) that are used in or for composition.
In 1963 the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) published Braddock, Lloyd-Jones, and Schoer's Research in Written Composition, a review of writing research covering the first writing studies in the early part of the century through 1962. In 1986 the National Conference on Research in English (NCRE) and the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) copublished George Hillocks's Research on Written Composition: New Directions for Teaching, a volume that reviewed writing research from 1963-1983. The articles included in this special theme issue of L1-Educational Studies of Language and Literature on Writing in School Contexts report the findings of Marilyn Chapman, George Hillocks, and Russel Durst on composition in school settings covering 1984-2003 (for an expanded review of composition studies during this period, see the contributions to Smagorinsky, 2006).
Storytelling and read-alouds have long been integral components of the preschool and kindergarten programs. Indeed, these practices are supposed 1) to demonstrate to children the value of literature and reading through enjoyable experiences; 2) to prepare children to learn to read through the development of linguistic and cognitive skills. These practices, however, have recently been the subject of controversies highlighting their limits. It has been argued, for instance, that storytime is not a « magical silver bullet »: simply immersing children in good literature will not turn them into readers. On the other hand, the use of literature as a teaching tool is often confined to the simplest aspects of narrative comprehension and seldom gives its due to its symbolic and aesthetic dimensions. It will be shown how these limits can be overcome within a literature-based framework where high-quality, demanding literary works provide the basis for an interactive storyreading program including different kinds of activities.
Reading at home in France: A psycho-sociological look at youth literature, youth and their families
(2006)
The reading and the readings of young people are at the crossroads of social and cultural mediations in which the school institution and the family share the first role. During decades, work on the reading of the young people distinguished the readings for leisure and the readings for school. Since about fifteen years, this cleavage does not correspond any more to reality. Well before the learning of the reading, the desire of reading takes its source in the exercise of the mother tongue and in the family uses of print. Reading skills come to reinforce it. The acquisition of a reading practice and the construction of a reader behaviour take place at home according to the choices of youth literature generally presented by the primary school and the beginning of secondary school. With the age of the secondary school, the reader builds two different universes of reading. One is composed of texts prescribed by the teachers and the other of readings called "for oneself". Whatever the age and skills, the dynamics of the activity of reading remains fragile. It rests on emotional investments.
Firstly, literacy practices are situated among the other cultural practices of teenagers, on a basis of research data in sociological, psychological and didactical fields. This enables an illustration of specific features of the relations this group have with literacy. Then research results are related concerning reading practices in general and reading literature in particular. Who proposes reading to which teenagers? Which texts are proposed? Through what medium? What kind of reading strategy is implemented? Moreover, who reads? What sort of literature? With what benefits? Finally, writing is treated. In this area little research data is available, therefore an attempt is made to summarise what is known about young peoples writing practices, using the few available surveys. It should be noted that a researcher who is interested in the literacy practices of today's young people has to take into account the fact that the internet and computers are new tools which aid and encourage reading and writing, and that they create new conditions of literacy practice.
The present report is an overview of six studies that share a common theme: What is the contribution of shared reading to child outcomes. The first three studies are experimental in nature and show that the number of times as well as the manner in which the adult reads to the child will affect children's acquisition of comprehension and spoken vocabulary. The fourth study is an intervention with children who have poor vocabulary skills. The findings revealed that care givers can enhance children's spoken vocabulary by reading books to them in an interactive manner, but that simply reading in their customary fashion may not promote vocabulary acquisition. Finally, the last two studies are correlational in nature. They provide converging evidence that shared reading predicts children's vocabulary, and that, children's vocabulary is a robust predictor of reading comprehension. These latter studies also show the limits of shared reading because parent reports of shared reading did not predict children's early literacy skills or word reading at the end of grade 1.
What characterises children's publishing in France at this time of a uniform worldwide culture imposed in a positive fashion by the 1989 Declaration of Children's Rights and, more dubiously, by globalization and electronic reproduction? Can we speak of the influence on it of a new multinational republic of children through the increasing number of translations from other countries or does French children's literature rest only on a few successful classics such as Jean de Brunhoff's Babar or Charles Perrault's tales, among which Little Red Riding Hood is a world's bestseller? The purpose of this paper is to point out the contemporary literary trends evincing a new awareness of our writers, artist creators and publishing houses expressing the sensibility of our reading public.
Collaboration between the International Association for the Improvement of Mother Tongue Education (IAIMTE) and the Education Department of the University of Toulouse II has existed for several years now. Such collaboration has resulted in a desire for face to face contact: the IAIMTE was intent on increasing its French audience,while the French team was able to grasp the opportunity to exchange their French-speaking studies in a broad international context. Thus, the IAIMTE requested the team from Toulouse organise the fifth conference in France (Albi) in 2005. For this conference, we invited specialists from French-speaking countries to present their research and reflections on the role of literature both inside and outside school. This issue presents the corresponding papers.
In this article we examine and "exapt" Wurzel's concept of superstable markers in an innovative manner. We develop an extended view of superstability through a critical discussion of Wurzel's original definition and the status of marker-superstability versus allomorphy in Natural Morphology: As we understand it, superstability is - above and beyond a step towards uniformity - mainly a symptom for the weakening of the category affected (cf. 1.,2. and 4.). This view is exemplified in four short case studies on superstability in different grammatical categories of four Germanic languages: genitive case in Mainland Scandinavian and English (3.1), plural formation in Dutch (3.2), second person singular ending -st in German (3.3), and ablaut generalisation in Luxembourgish (3.4).
In order to understand the specific structures and features of the German surnames the most important facts about their emergence and history should be outlined and, at the same time, be compared with the Swedish surnames because there are considerable differences (for further details cf. Nubling 1997 a, b). First of all, surnames in Germany emerged rather early, with the first instances occurring in the 11th century in southern Germany; by the 16th century surnames were common all over Germany. Differences are related to geography (from south to north), social class (from the upper to the lower classes) und urban versus rural areas.
Many Bantu languages have grammaticized one or both types of motion verb - COME and GO - as future markers. However, they may differ in the semantics of future temporal reference, in some cases referring to a "near" future, in others to a "remote" future. This paper explores how the underlying image-schemas of such verbs in several languages - Bamileke-Dschang, Bamun, and Larnnso' (Grassfields Bantu), Duala, Chimwera, Chindali, Kihunde, and Zulu (Narrow Bantu) - contribute to how the verbs become grammaticized in relation to the dual construals of linguistic time: ego-moving vs. moving-event.