Search results for "Language Experience Approach"

Literacy programs efficacy for developing children’s early reading skills in familiar language in Zambia

2018

This study investigated the comparative efficacy of a phonics-based reading program and a language experience approach based literacy program to develop reading skills among Zambian early childhood school learners. The learners (n = 1 986; Grade 2 level; females = 50.1%) took either the phonics-based reading program (n = 1 593) or the alternative language experience approach based program (n = 393). They were all assessed for reading skills utilising the Early Grade Reading Assessment test (EGRA) in four languages (Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kiikaonde, and Silozi). Results suggest that learners in phonics-based literacy program were significantly better in letter-sound knowledge in all the four la…

Willingness to Communicate in a Foreign Language: Evidence from Those Who Approach and Those Who Avoid L2 Communication

2014

It is still unclear why some learners are willing to communicate in a foreign language while others are disinclined to do so. One of the most promising paths of inquiry in this respect is the study of willingness to communicate (WTC), focusing on the volitional process of initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication. That is the reason why the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the testimonials of Polish students with persistently low or high L2 WTC scores obtained during their 3-year secondary grammar school experience. The qualitative results of the study appear to demonstrate that, independently from the individual’s general predilections towards communication in the …

2019

The effect of sensory experience on hemispheric specialisation for language production is not well understood. Children born deaf, including those who have cochlear implants, have drastically different perceptual experiences of language than their hearing peers. Using functional transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD), we measured lateralisation during language production in a heterogeneous group of 19 deaf children and in 19 hearing children, matched on language ability. In children born deaf, we observed significant left lateralisation during language production (British Sign Language, spoken English, or a combination of languages). There was no difference in the strength of lateralisation…

Importance of the left auditory areas in chord discrimination in music experts as demonstrated by MEG

2011

The brain basis behind musical competence in its various forms is not yet known. To determine the pattern of hemispheric lateralization during sound-change discrimination, we recorded the magnetic counterpart of the electrical mismatch negativity (MMNm) responses in professional musicians, musical participants (with high scores in the musicality tests but without professional training in music) and non-musicians. While watching a silenced video, they were presented with short sounds with frequency and duration deviants and C major chords with C minor chords as deviants. MMNm to chord deviants was stronger in both musicians and musical participants than in non-musicians, particularly in thei…