Search results for "Comprehension"
showing 10 items of 475 documents
Current approaches to orthography instruction for spanish heritage learners: an analysis of intermediate and advanced textbooks
2015
As it is well known, heritage learners of Spanish have an advantage on oral production and aural comprehension over L2 learners. However, due to their lack of formal instruction in Spanish, their linguistic weaknesses lie on their literacy skills (reading and writing). In terms of writing skills, students mainly struggle with orthography issues (accentuation and spelling) and larger literacy skills (e.g. developing a thesis or organizing ideas). However, there is an important gap in the literature regarding orthographic acquisition since most of the research in the field on focus on form instruction has predominantly been on grammar acquisition (Anderson, 2008; Montrul and Bowles, 2008; Pot…
ALL OR NOTHING: A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF HYPERBOLE
2009
This paper focuses on hyperbole, a long neglected form of non-literal language despite its pervasiveness<br />in everyday speech. It addresses the production process of exaggeration, since a crucial limitation in<br />figurative language theories is the production and usage of figures of speech, probably due to the intensive<br />research effort on their comprehension. The aim is to analyse hyperbole from a semantic perspective in order<br />to devise a semasiological taxonomy which enables us to understand the nature and uses of the trope. In<br />order to analyse and classify hyperbolic items a corpus of naturally occurring conversations extracted from<br …
The birth of language ecology: interdisciplinary influences in Einar Haugen's “The ecology of language”
2015
Abstract Einar Haugen is generally regarded as the founding father of ‘language ecology’ or ‘ecology of language’. In his classic 1971 paper, he suggested that “[l]anguage ecology may be defined as the study of interactions between any given language and its environment”. After tracing the roots of language ecology in the social sciences and biology and the use of similar locutions by other linguists before him, the present paper discusses major conceptual and theoretical issues surrounding his proposal. Fundamental discrepancies between how the concept of ecology is understood in biology and sociology, on the one hand, and the attempted application to language, on the other, render details…
Self-Regulation and Link Selection Strategies in Hypertext
2010
This article explores the role of self-regulation in strategies that readers use to decide the order in which to read the different sections of a hypertext. This study explored 3 main strategies for link selection based on (a) link screen position, (b) link interest, and (c) the semantic relation of a link with the section just read. This study followed Winne's (1995, 2001) model of self-regulated learning to try to explain why some readers select hyperlinks based on strategies that lead to lower levels of comprehension (i.e., screen position and personal interest). Results from 2 studies revealed that readers with low prior knowledge base their decisions on what to read next on a default s…
The same (as what?)
2018
Aquest article adopta un enfocament radicalment contextualista en relació amb la referència de descripcions definides que contenen l?expressió anglesa the same, tant sense complement com amb complement en forma de nucli nominal i/o de sintagma comparatiu del tipus as X. S?argumenta que les descripcions definides que contenen the same no fan referència a una entitat única, encara que el resultat de la prova de comprensió efectuada sembla donar suport a la idea que aquestes descripcions poden afavorir la interpretació que aquests sintagmes definits es refereixen directament a una entitat específica.
On-line assessment of comprehension processes
2009
In this paper we describe a new version of a former paper-and-pencil standardized comprehension test called Test of Comprehension Processes (Vidal-Abarca, Gilabert, Martínez, & Sellés, 2007). The new version has been adapted to a computer-based environment based on the moving window technique. It can be used to assess comprehension strategies of students from fifth to tenth grades (11 to 16 years old). Comprehension strategies are registered on-line using reading times and visits to relevant sections of the text during the question-answering process. Data show that the computerbased version draws similar results to those provided by the paper-and-pencil version. In addition, we identify the…
Deviance, did you get it? An experiment in reading to learn
1991
Abstract This article reports an experiment in which an attempt was made to test reading a scientific text under as natural study conditions as possible. After reading a lengthy text from a Sociology textbook in English, five out of 25 Finnish college students understood a basic concept the way it had been defined by a sociologist; 4 weeks later, after going over the text the second time in Finnish, the number increased to 12. However, even after the second reading of the text in their first language, only half of the students had learnt the basic concept. This indicates that the problems in studying were not only linguistic problems; they seem also to have been study skill problems in gene…
Ohjeita, tietoa ja turvaa kielen keinoin. Ulkomailta palkatut sairaanhoitajat ammatillista suomen kielen taitoaan osoittamassa
2016
Advice, information and safety by means of language: internationally recruited nurses demonstrating their professional Finnish language skills he focus of this paper is on the professional language used by four internationally educated nurses working in Finnish in Finland. The data comes from a tailor-made professional language test module including integrated material-based tasks. The module was designed by the project Health care Finnish: developing and assessing Finnish proficiency among health care professionals (2014−2015) to complement the skill profiles based on the test results of the National Certifi- cates of Language Proficiency (NCLP) intermediate level test. None of the partic…
LANGUAGE POLICY AND PLANNING
2000
The field of language policy and planning is clearly a sub-field within applied linguistics. It generally does not draw heavily on formal linguistics, except for aspects of corpus and status planning. However, it does draw extensively from a range of disciplines in order to plan, implement, and evaluate language policies that respond to the needs of stake holders of various types. Despite continuous development of the field, aspects of language policy and planning need to be developed further. One of the key areas where policy can be enhanced considerably is in the area of policy and planning evaluation. This direction of inquiry is also relevant to a number of other areas within applied li…
Using visual strategies to support verbal comprehension in an adolescent with Down syndrome
2011
International audience; It has been frequently reported that children with Down syndrome have deficits in verbal short-term memory while having relatively good performance in visual short-term memory tasks. Such verbal deficits have a detrimental effect on various high-level cognitive processes, most notably language comprehension. In this study, we report the case of an adolescent with Down syndrome whose verbal short-term memory and comprehension capacities are impaired. Noting that his visual memory remained relatively well preserved, we developed a remediation strategy based on his visual abilities to support his verbal memory deficit. This remediation led to significant improvements in…