Search results for "fluency"

Combinations of discourse markers with repairs and repetitions in English, French and Spanish

2020

Abstract Discourse markers have a central role in planning and repairing processes of speech production. They relate with fluency and disfluency phenomena such as pauses, repetitions and reformulations. Their polyfunctionality is challenging and few form-function mappings are stable cross-linguistically. This study combines a functional and a structural approach to discourse markers and their combination with and within repetitions and self-repairs in native English, French and Spanish, in order to establish the inter-relation between these three fluency-related devices and to find potentially universal patterns of use. Qualitative coding and quantitative analyses of categories of markers a…

Resolving reading disability : Childhood predictors and adult-age outcomes

2018

We examined frequency of adult-age reading disability (RD) and its childhood predictors among 48 adults (20 to 39 years) with documented childhood RD, and contrasted their cognitive skills, education, and employment with 37 matched controls. Among individuals with childhood RD, more than half had improved in their reading fluency to the level where the set criterion for adult-age RD was not met anymore. More fluent rapid naming, less severe childhood RD, and multiple support providers in childhood together predicted improvement of reading fluency. More fluent naming differentiated the childhood RD participants whose reading fluency had improved by adult-age from those participants whose RD …

Hold design supports learning and transfer of climbing fluency

2014

Being a discipline with a broad range of genres, rock climbing is an activity where participants seek to generalize the skills they learn in different performance contexts. A training strategy for achieving skill transfer was explored in a group of experienced climbers. Specifically, we tested the effect of practising on three routes, each of the same difficulty, but where handholds supported opportunities for using either a single technical action or multiple actions. Transfer of climbing fluidity in terms of the geometric index of entropy (GIE) of the hip trajectory was then assessed. We expected that learning would be induced on the route where multiple actions were usable. Results revea…

Speech Rate as and Indicator of Fluency in the Russian of Finnish Learners.

2009

This study focuses on the speech rate development of 12 Finnish university students of Russian during their 3.5-month-study abroad experience. Speech and articulation rates are measured in phonetic words per second and syllables per second in the Russian read-aloud speech of the subjects. This is done at three recordings: prior to, during and following their stay in Russia. The results are compared to their read-aloud Finnish speech. The students are also compared depending on the residence (host-family vs. dormitories) in Russia. The study shows that speech and articulation rates correlate with the evaluated fluency of the speech samples. It was found that speech rate is a better indicator…

Organisational transition challenges in the Finnish vocational education – perspective of distributed pedagogical leadership

2012

The article examines organisational challenges in the Finnish vocational education and training (VET) to support students’ lifelong learning pathways. Investigation of organizational challenges is done through the students’ transitions either within one school level or from one school level to another or to working life. For supporting the students’ learning pathways, it is argued here that specific attention has to be paid to collaborative practices of the personnel in order to guarantee the transitional fluency. This kind of collaboration is here called distributed pedagogical leadership. For examining the shared practices in the frame of distributed pedagogical leadership, the article in…

9. Fluency in Language Assessment

2019

Fluência verbal fonêmica e semntica: dados normativos de idosos Brasileiros

2015

This study aims to investigate the influence of sociodemographic characteristics on the performance of older people on two tasks of verbal fluency and provide normative data for a Brazilian population of healthy elderly individuals with different educational levels. The initial sample included 521 individuals aged from 60 years, participating in the Program Family Health Strategy. Participants who had scores suggestive of cognitive decline on the Mini-Mental State Examination, depressive symptoms in Geriatric Depression Scale and self-reported neurological or psychiatric disorders were excluded. The final sample consisted of 218 participants in phonemic verbal fluency task (letters F, A and…

Sedentary behaviours and cognitive function among community dwelling adults aged 50+ years: Results from the Irish longitudinal study of ageing

2020

Background:\ud \ud Sedentary behaviours (SB) are risk factors for poor cardiovascular health and all-cause mortality. However, their role in cognitive health in older adults is unclear. A few studies have examined associations between sedentary behaviours and cognition, but are limited by heterogeneity and insufficient longitudinal analyses. Therefore more robust studies, which would address identified limitations, are needed to accurately determine associations.\ud \ud Method:\ud \ud This study analysed data collected from participants aged 50+ years of The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA). We conducted cross-sectional linear regression with multivariate imputation analyses of ba…

Supporting struggling readers with digital game-based learning

2019

This study investigates the effectiveness of a digital game—GraphoLearn (GL)—in supporting second-grade students who have persistent difficulties with acquiring accurate and fluent reading skills. The participants (N = 37) were randomly assigned either to a 6-week intervention including sessions with GL, in addition to school-provided support, or a control group receiving only school-provided support. The intervention took place at the students’ homes and schools under the supervision of their parents and teachers. The results showed that the children who received the GL intervention developed significantly faster in word reading than the control group. Moreover, their reading development w…

A mobile game as a support tool for children with severe difficulties in reading and spelling

2020

We used a randomized controlled trial to investigate if a mobile game, GraphoLearn (GL), could effectively support the learning of first graders (N = 70), who have severe difficulties in reading and spelling. We studied the effects of two versions of the game: GL Reading, which focused on training letter-sound correspondence and word reading; and GL Spelling, which included additional training in phonological skills and spelling. During the spring of first grade, the children trained with tablet computers which they could carry with them during the six-week intervention. The average exposure time to training was 5 hr 44 min. The results revealed no differences in the development of reading …