Ampersand最新文献

{"title":"Can readability formulae adapt to the changing demographics of the UK school-aged population? A study on reading materials for school-age bilingual readers","authors":"Megha Sarin ,&nbsp;Maria Garraffa","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100141","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100141","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Due to the increase bilingual population in the UK, it is imperative that reading materials are made accessible for them in and out of school. This study begins by reviewing literature on bilinguals reading comprehension competence, discussing findings and impact on limiting academic achievement. Much literature criticises readability formulae as a tool for grading reading materials. Readability formulae, for example, do not account for differences in reader's dialects and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, this study looks to identify those discrepancies and assess the effectiveness of two well-known readability formulae. It then compares these to a readability formula for bilinguals to identify any consistencies between outcomes, enabling identification of any categories or factors crucial in identifying the reading difficulty of texts for bilinguals not included in well-known readability formulae, specifically for school-aged children.</p></div><div><h3>Method</h3><p>20 randomly selected eBooks available for children aged 7-9 y were quantitatively evaluated using three readability formulae: Spache, Flesch-Kincaid and McAlpine EFLAW.</p></div><div><h3>Findings</h3><p>Based on these results, it is inconclusive if the readability formulae are consistent with each other, as they did not appear to follow the same trend and assessed different criteria. Therefore, the findings suggest no readability formula used in this study can be confidently used on its own to successfully assess the readability of books to deem suitability for bilingual readers as it is paramount that non-text factors need to be incorporated when matching books for students.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>This study concludes that a formula or a new set of criteria needs to be created which incorporates the salient factors affecting reading comprehension of bilinguals to best allow educators and authors to select and modify reading materials for this growing population, to increase accessibility academically, enabling best outcomes to be achieved.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100141"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48597266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Guided induction and deductive instruction: Analyzing efficiency versus depth of processing in the L2 acquisition of Palestinian Arabic","authors":"Hana Baalousha ,&nbsp;Paul A. Malovrh","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100140","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100140","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The present study examined the effects of guided induction (GI) and deductive instruction (DI) on the acquisition of verbal negation structure in spoken Palestinian Arabic (PA) using an interpretation task in a self-paced reading paradigm. The experimental design featured a 30- item pre-test, posttest and a delayed test used to assess the short- and long- term accuracy gains and reaction times. Twenty-seven learners of Arabic as a foreign language participated in the experiment. Results indicated that both groups benefited from their respective intervention at the immediate level as indicated by accuracy gains. However, only the guided induction group improved significantly from pretest to posttest, administered 4 weeks later. It also showed that while both groups performed comparably at the immediate level, GI group outperformed DI on the delayed test. Additionally, while reading times data was not informative, GI took significantly longer response time than DI. These results are in line with Cerezo et al. (2016) and Zhuang (2019)who found an edge for GI. In addition to finding a main effect for GI, results are original in terms of experimenting with the complex Arabic negation structure, thus extending evidence to a novel structure with multi-layered complexity.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100140"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41419756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reading order during bilingual quality checking of translations: An issue in search of studies","authors":"Brian Mossop","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100138","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100138","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper investigates three questions about the order in which the source text and the translation are read during bilingual quality checking of translations. How do translators behave with respect to reading order during self-revision, other-revision and post-editing? What reasons do translators give for using one or the other order? Is one order better in terms of error detection? Reading order is of interest not only because one order may yield more error detection but also because the two orders may differ cognitively. The few existing eye-tracking, interview and survey studies on reading order are summarized and commented on. They suggest, first, that it is unclear whether reading order affects error detection. Second, that post-editors mostly look at the machine translation output first, but for self- and other-revisers, practices are mixed. Third, that as translators leave their student days behind and gain experience, about half abandon source-first as their default reading order during other-revision. Also considered are two articles involving order in other fields: metaphor studies and second language acquisition.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49162911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Speaking in nobody's mother tongue: English immersion at home as a family language policy","authors":"Ana Belén Alarcón Utrera,&nbsp;Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100135","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100135","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In a globalized society, where neoliberalism imposes its logic at all levels, languages (and particularly, English) are seen as profitable commodities to thrive in the market society. In Spain, a growing number of families, aware of the value ascribed to English as an international <em>lingua franca</em> (ELF), intensively support their children to achieve a high command in this language, by means of the implementation of strategies such as the creation of English immersion scenarios at home. The participants in this study were 17 families, with parents whose mother tongue was not English, but who used English at home in the interactions with their children. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews and was analysed against the frameworks of neoliberal approaches to language learning, family language policy, non-native bilingualism, good parenting, and linguistic family agency and entrepreneurship. Results shed light into language beliefs and conceptions, and language planning and management that underpin this atypical sociolinguistic practice, as well as the dilemmas and disruptions families deal with to successfully implement immersion environments in a language that is nobody's mother tongue.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46787806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fluency development beyond speech rate: A study on the effects of read aloud protocols on EFL learners","authors":"Rodrigo A. Rodríguez-Fuentes,&nbsp;Luzkarime Calle-Díaz","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100133","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Research on the effectiveness of read aloud protocols to develop EFL fluency has mostly had positive outcomes. However, the impact of these types of interventions in intermediate levels of proficiency has yet to be conclusive when measured using speech rate as a dependent variable, e.g., word correct per minute. We studied how a listener's comprehension and intelligibility might change when read aloud protocols are used to enhance fluency. To do so, we used a data set that did not present increasing rates in speech rate after 11 weeks of practice (as reported in Rodríguez-Fuentes et al., 2023). We asked a group of independent raters to rank each participant's three (first, middle, and last) performances to assess if they could find differences in the performances over time. Seventy-nine percent of the raters perceived that the third performances were the best of each set they were provided, and that the second performances were better than the first. There was a consistent positive progression in perceived fluency. Also, a qualitative analysis of students' reflections showed significant gains from using read aloud protocols (RAPs) and increased awareness of key areas of fluency development, such as intonation, speech flow (vs. word-by-word reading), and self-confidence, among others.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100133"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49701855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How processing instruction and structured input research has operationalized individual differences: How much do they matter?","authors":"James F. Lee","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100127","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100127","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":"Article 100127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42823806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Production of pragmatic routines by Algerian EFL learners: The effect of corpus-based instructiondaia","authors":"Hamida Bouzekria, Bassil Mashaqba, Eman Al Khalaf, A. Huneety","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100122","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48139382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Educational bilingualism: Reflections on a longitudinal study of children's cognitive, social, and linguistic development","authors":"G. Chamorro, Vikki Janke","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100115","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45249582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Educational bilingualism: Reflections on a longitudinal study of children's cognitive and linguistic development","authors":"Gloria Chamorro ,&nbsp;Vikki Janke","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100115","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Our longitudinal study examined the cognitive and linguistic development of bilingually-educated, yet monolingually-raised, Spanish children, exploring (a) whether bilingual education procured a bilingual advantage, (b) whether greater L2 exposure was key to producing it, and (c) how development proceeded over time.</p><p>We compared three groups of children in Years 1 and 2 of primary education in Spain: one attending monolingual education (MON), and two attending English-Spanish bilingual education, where one group received higher exposure (HiEx) and the other lower exposure (LoEx) to English. Children were tested in their schools on attention and L1 and L2 vocabulary skills, as well as several background measures.</p><p>Across both years, the groups differed in their English vocabulary: HiEx outperformed LoEx and MON (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.001), and LoEx outperformed MON (<em>p</em> = 0.02) but there were no differences in the children's L1 vocabulary scores. After one year of schooling, bilingually-educated children scored higher than MON on certain cognitive skills (interference suppression, <em>p</em> &lt; 0.001; response inhibition, <em>p</em> = 0.02) but these differences did not materialise after a second year. The present paper combines these results from our two previously published studies with other current literature on educational bilingualism into a discussion on how future work on this population could progress.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"10 ","pages":"Article 100115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49756814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Processing instruction and structured input: A critical overview","authors":"James F. Lee ,&nbsp;Alessandro G. Benati","doi":"10.1016/j.amper.2023.100136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100136","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35076,"journal":{"name":"Ampersand","volume":"11 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49701775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}