This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,m...This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.展开更多
This paper discusses the relationship between commanding those basic information contained in a text and the final purpose of comprehending in a text-reading process.By using the main topic and the central meaning tha...This paper discusses the relationship between commanding those basic information contained in a text and the final purpose of comprehending in a text-reading process.By using the main topic and the central meaning that all texts have as two main examples,the author mainly illustrates what a reader should pay attention to in reading a text.展开更多
In this article I discuss data from a series of experiments in which readers’ eye movements were recorded as they processed sentences in which each word disappeared or was masked 60ms after fixation onset. We used th...In this article I discuss data from a series of experiments in which readers’ eye movements were recorded as they processed sentences in which each word disappeared or was masked 60ms after fixation onset. We used this paradigm to investigate whether we could induce a gap effect during reading, and how visual and linguistic factors affected eye movements under these conditions. The data showed that no gap effect occurred in our experiment. Overall reading times were the same under normal and disappearing presentation conditions. However, readers did adopt a strategy of making fewer but longer fixations when the text disappeared than when it did not. Additionally, clear frequency effects occurred regardless of whether the text was presented normally or disappeared. This finding indicates that while the visual uptake of information is important, cognitive processes associated with the lexical identification of words are a primary influence on when readers move their eyes during reading. The findings are taken to support the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control.展开更多
The increasing prevalence of technology in society has an impact on young people’s language use and development. Greeklish is the writing of Greek texts using the Latin instead of the Greek alphabet, a practice known...The increasing prevalence of technology in society has an impact on young people’s language use and development. Greeklish is the writing of Greek texts using the Latin instead of the Greek alphabet, a practice known as Latinization, also employed for many non-latin alphabet languages. The primary aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of Greeklish on reading time. A sample of 732 young Greeks were asked about their habits when communicating through e-mail and social media with their friends and they then participated in an experiment in which they were asked to read and understand two short texts, one written in Greek and the other in Greeklish. The findings of the research show that nearly one third of the participants use Greeklish. The results of the experiment conducted reveal that understanding is not affected by the alphabet used but reading Greeklish is significantly more time consuming than reading Greek independently of the sex and the familiarity of the participants with Greeklish. The findings suggest that amending social and communication media with software utilities related to Latinization such as language identifiers and converters may reduce reading time and thus facilitate written communication among the users.展开更多
Reading,especially reading at text level,is a process of continuously repeating,consolidating and understanding words,phrases,and sentences.However,from the perspective of psycholinguistics,the compariosn and contrast...Reading,especially reading at text level,is a process of continuously repeating,consolidating and understanding words,phrases,and sentences.However,from the perspective of psycholinguistics,the compariosn and contrast of empirical data from experiments and researches would be evidences to support the idea that reading at text level is mainly influenced by readers' ability of identifying a text's cohesion and coherence,balancing the activation and suppression of background knowledge,as well as readers' utilization of working memory.Readers can make good use of these three aspects in order to advance their understanding of reading at text level.展开更多
The advent and extensive use of computer and increasing development of different technologies it is important to increase the awareness of issues related to the electronic text or text presentation on computer screen....The advent and extensive use of computer and increasing development of different technologies it is important to increase the awareness of issues related to the electronic text or text presentation on computer screen. The usage of web shows the importance of usability and readability of the web applications or sources provide by the web and web textual contents. Web application fails to encounter the user’s requirements in effective manner specially related to textual information, because the designers are unaware from some of the important factors effecting readability, reading from the screen. In this regard, this study is the continuation of the previous work that has been done for the improvement of readability, to handle the readability issues on the basis of Eye Blink for male participants and female participants. To achieve general recommendations for suitable or optimum length of text line for all type of users on the bases of eye blink. Basically during reading from the computer screen focus losses at two positions, when eye blink in the middle of text line and when text line ends. The study specifies suitable length of text line on the basis of Eye Blink, assuming three typographical variables i.e. font style, font color, font size, and with white background, which improve the overall readability or reading from computer screen. The study also shows two important things the degree of understandability and the degree of attractive appearance of different combination.展开更多
Background:The International Reading Speed Texts(IReST)were developed in Europe as a standardized measure to assess continuous reading in normally sighted and visually impaired individuals.The IReST is used throughout...Background:The International Reading Speed Texts(IReST)were developed in Europe as a standardized measure to assess continuous reading in normally sighted and visually impaired individuals.The IReST is used throughout the United States and Canada to assess reading speed;however,the normative values may not be valid in North America(NA).Additionally there are no normative values for individuals with visual impairments.The aim of this study was to validate the IReSTs in a normally sighted English-speaking NA sample with and without a simulated reduction in visual acuity.Methods:Fifty undergraduate students from Concordia University participated in this study.Participants were systematically assigned to a counterbalanced order of testing conditions and were asked to read all 10 IReSTs aloud.The normal and impaired vision conditions were counterbalanced such that the first set of five IReSTs were read with either the participants normal/corrected-to-normal vision or with a simulated 20/80 visual impairment.Results:Multiple two-sample dependent t-tests using a Holm-Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons were used to compare the IReST values(means and standard deviations)to the current sample;the results showed statistically significant differences between the current samples mean reading speed and the values provided by the IReSTs.In all cases,P were equal to or less than 0.005.Mean difference scores ranged from 14.87 to 30.05 wpm,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 4.82 to 43.32.Measures of effect size using bias corrected Hedge’s g*ranged from 0.83 to 1.32,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 0.25 to 1.93.Multiple two-sample dependent t-tests using a Holm-Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons were used to compare the mean reading speed in wpm of the normal and impaired vision conditions;the results showed statistically significant differences between the mean reading speeds of the normal vision condition and the simulated impairment condition on the IReSTs.In all cases,the P were less than 0.001.Mean difference scores ranged from 25.44 to 41.8 wpm,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 21.66 to 46.Measures of effect size using bias corrected Hedge’s g*ranged from 2.74 to 3.81,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 1.97 to 4.74.Further Bayesian analyses revealed BF10 factors ranging from 1.277×107 to 7.334×1011,indicating decisive evidence for the research.Conclusions:There are statistically significant differences in reading speed between the NA English sample and the normative values established by the IReST;such that reading speeds of the NA English sample are slower than the normative values of the IReST.Additionally,participants in the simulated impairment condition read the IReSTs significantly slower than the normal vision condition.展开更多
One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride...One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice are typically listed in the key reading materials for L2 learners.Contrary to the popularity,a large number of L2 learners find it is hard to complete due to the low text coverage with existing vocabulary.The corpus has become an important language research tool to store language materials according to the specific goals and the way through certain technical means.This paper is going to explore the text coverage of The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice by range analysis,and comparing with English Curriculum Standards to figure out suitable reading targets of these two materials.展开更多
Despite that language learning strategy(LLS) has been heatedly discussed since its emergence in 1975, its conceptualization, categorization and strategy training models are still in dispute. However, what commonly rev...Despite that language learning strategy(LLS) has been heatedly discussed since its emergence in 1975, its conceptualization, categorization and strategy training models are still in dispute. However, what commonly revealed by most studies is that there is a positive correlation between the use of language learning strategy and language learners' performance. This paper applies Dornyei's classification, known as cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, social strategies and affective strategies. By reviewing previous studies on the application of metacognitive strategy in English as a second language(ESL) reading comprehension, plenty of useful implications for reading pedagogy are suggested. It further explains how certain important metacognitive strategies, namely Semantic Mapping(SM) and Experience-Text-Relationship(ETR), can be implemented in second language reading comprehension, aiming to encourage language learners to be aware of learning strategies,"learn how to learn"(Cohen, 1988, p66)!展开更多
文摘This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.
文摘This paper discusses the relationship between commanding those basic information contained in a text and the final purpose of comprehending in a text-reading process.By using the main topic and the central meaning that all texts have as two main examples,the author mainly illustrates what a reader should pay attention to in reading a text.
文摘In this article I discuss data from a series of experiments in which readers’ eye movements were recorded as they processed sentences in which each word disappeared or was masked 60ms after fixation onset. We used this paradigm to investigate whether we could induce a gap effect during reading, and how visual and linguistic factors affected eye movements under these conditions. The data showed that no gap effect occurred in our experiment. Overall reading times were the same under normal and disappearing presentation conditions. However, readers did adopt a strategy of making fewer but longer fixations when the text disappeared than when it did not. Additionally, clear frequency effects occurred regardless of whether the text was presented normally or disappeared. This finding indicates that while the visual uptake of information is important, cognitive processes associated with the lexical identification of words are a primary influence on when readers move their eyes during reading. The findings are taken to support the E-Z Reader model of eye movement control.
文摘The increasing prevalence of technology in society has an impact on young people’s language use and development. Greeklish is the writing of Greek texts using the Latin instead of the Greek alphabet, a practice known as Latinization, also employed for many non-latin alphabet languages. The primary aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of Greeklish on reading time. A sample of 732 young Greeks were asked about their habits when communicating through e-mail and social media with their friends and they then participated in an experiment in which they were asked to read and understand two short texts, one written in Greek and the other in Greeklish. The findings of the research show that nearly one third of the participants use Greeklish. The results of the experiment conducted reveal that understanding is not affected by the alphabet used but reading Greeklish is significantly more time consuming than reading Greek independently of the sex and the familiarity of the participants with Greeklish. The findings suggest that amending social and communication media with software utilities related to Latinization such as language identifiers and converters may reduce reading time and thus facilitate written communication among the users.
文摘Reading,especially reading at text level,is a process of continuously repeating,consolidating and understanding words,phrases,and sentences.However,from the perspective of psycholinguistics,the compariosn and contrast of empirical data from experiments and researches would be evidences to support the idea that reading at text level is mainly influenced by readers' ability of identifying a text's cohesion and coherence,balancing the activation and suppression of background knowledge,as well as readers' utilization of working memory.Readers can make good use of these three aspects in order to advance their understanding of reading at text level.
文摘The advent and extensive use of computer and increasing development of different technologies it is important to increase the awareness of issues related to the electronic text or text presentation on computer screen. The usage of web shows the importance of usability and readability of the web applications or sources provide by the web and web textual contents. Web application fails to encounter the user’s requirements in effective manner specially related to textual information, because the designers are unaware from some of the important factors effecting readability, reading from the screen. In this regard, this study is the continuation of the previous work that has been done for the improvement of readability, to handle the readability issues on the basis of Eye Blink for male participants and female participants. To achieve general recommendations for suitable or optimum length of text line for all type of users on the bases of eye blink. Basically during reading from the computer screen focus losses at two positions, when eye blink in the middle of text line and when text line ends. The study specifies suitable length of text line on the basis of Eye Blink, assuming three typographical variables i.e. font style, font color, font size, and with white background, which improve the overall readability or reading from computer screen. The study also shows two important things the degree of understandability and the degree of attractive appearance of different combination.
文摘Background:The International Reading Speed Texts(IReST)were developed in Europe as a standardized measure to assess continuous reading in normally sighted and visually impaired individuals.The IReST is used throughout the United States and Canada to assess reading speed;however,the normative values may not be valid in North America(NA).Additionally there are no normative values for individuals with visual impairments.The aim of this study was to validate the IReSTs in a normally sighted English-speaking NA sample with and without a simulated reduction in visual acuity.Methods:Fifty undergraduate students from Concordia University participated in this study.Participants were systematically assigned to a counterbalanced order of testing conditions and were asked to read all 10 IReSTs aloud.The normal and impaired vision conditions were counterbalanced such that the first set of five IReSTs were read with either the participants normal/corrected-to-normal vision or with a simulated 20/80 visual impairment.Results:Multiple two-sample dependent t-tests using a Holm-Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons were used to compare the IReST values(means and standard deviations)to the current sample;the results showed statistically significant differences between the current samples mean reading speed and the values provided by the IReSTs.In all cases,P were equal to or less than 0.005.Mean difference scores ranged from 14.87 to 30.05 wpm,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 4.82 to 43.32.Measures of effect size using bias corrected Hedge’s g*ranged from 0.83 to 1.32,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 0.25 to 1.93.Multiple two-sample dependent t-tests using a Holm-Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons were used to compare the mean reading speed in wpm of the normal and impaired vision conditions;the results showed statistically significant differences between the mean reading speeds of the normal vision condition and the simulated impairment condition on the IReSTs.In all cases,the P were less than 0.001.Mean difference scores ranged from 25.44 to 41.8 wpm,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 21.66 to 46.Measures of effect size using bias corrected Hedge’s g*ranged from 2.74 to 3.81,with 95%confidence intervals ranging from 1.97 to 4.74.Further Bayesian analyses revealed BF10 factors ranging from 1.277×107 to 7.334×1011,indicating decisive evidence for the research.Conclusions:There are statistically significant differences in reading speed between the NA English sample and the normative values established by the IReST;such that reading speeds of the NA English sample are slower than the normative values of the IReST.Additionally,participants in the simulated impairment condition read the IReSTs significantly slower than the normal vision condition.
文摘One of the common problems for L2 learners in ESL reading is that the text is either too difficult to understand or too simple to challenge,particularly the extracurricular reading material.The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice are typically listed in the key reading materials for L2 learners.Contrary to the popularity,a large number of L2 learners find it is hard to complete due to the low text coverage with existing vocabulary.The corpus has become an important language research tool to store language materials according to the specific goals and the way through certain technical means.This paper is going to explore the text coverage of The Little Prince and Pride and Prejudice by range analysis,and comparing with English Curriculum Standards to figure out suitable reading targets of these two materials.
文摘Despite that language learning strategy(LLS) has been heatedly discussed since its emergence in 1975, its conceptualization, categorization and strategy training models are still in dispute. However, what commonly revealed by most studies is that there is a positive correlation between the use of language learning strategy and language learners' performance. This paper applies Dornyei's classification, known as cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, social strategies and affective strategies. By reviewing previous studies on the application of metacognitive strategy in English as a second language(ESL) reading comprehension, plenty of useful implications for reading pedagogy are suggested. It further explains how certain important metacognitive strategies, namely Semantic Mapping(SM) and Experience-Text-Relationship(ETR), can be implemented in second language reading comprehension, aiming to encourage language learners to be aware of learning strategies,"learn how to learn"(Cohen, 1988, p66)!
