Educators and researchers agree that oral language is fundamental to students' reading acquisition. It is not clear how best to conceptualise oral language within models of reading -- as one's overall understanding of spoken language, or as individual skills, each with unique contributions to children's reading comprehension. In our longitudinal…

The simple view of reading describes reading as the product of decoding (D) and listening comprehension (LC). However, the simple view of reading has been challenged, and evidence has proved it to be too simple to explain the complexities of reading comprehension in the elementary school years. Hypotheses have been advanced that there are…

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) describes reading as the product of decoding (D) and listening comprehension (LC; Gough, Hoover, & Peterson, 1996). However, the SVR has been challenged, and evidence has proved it to be too simple to explain the complexities of reading comprehension in the elementary school years. Hypotheses have been advanced…

As a part of a more extensive computerized dynamic assessment (CDA) project delivered through a dedicated website, www.lingeli.com, this study explores EFL learners' perspectives on an online listening comprehension dynamic assessment software focusing on inferential listening skills while trying to minimize the guessing effect. The study…

This study evaluates the feasibility and initial efficacy of an 11-week listening comprehension intervention, Building Vocabulary and Early Reading Strategies (BVERS) that was delivered remotely to 14 elementary-aged children with autism spectrum disorder. Children were randomly assigned to one of two groups: BVERS only, or BVERS with a parent…

Background: Blended mathematical sensemaking in science ("Math-Sci sensemaking") involves deep conceptual understanding of quantitative relationships describing scientific phenomena and has been studied in various disciplines. However, no unified characterization of blended Math-Sci sensemaking exists. Results: We developed a theoretical…

How does conceptual structure of external representations contribute to learning? This investigation considered the influence of generative concept sorting and of external structure information moderated by perceived difficulty. In Study 1, undergraduate students completed a perceived difficulty survey and comprehension pretest, then a sorting…

In recent years, the concept of gamification has appeared within the educational sector as a methodological innovation. There are several studies that show the motivational advantages of using this methodology in education. However, there is a dearth of studies that analyse its influence on the promotion of reading. We carried out a…

This meta-analysis examined the contribution of prosodic sensitivity to reading comprehension, and characterized the pathways by which this contribution occurs and the factors affecting it. Using meta-regression with robust variance estimation to synthesize and quantify 53 papers comprising 62 studies on word reading (77 effect sizes, N = 6,043…

Reading comprehension (RC) is a multi-faceted construct but is often assessed with a single instrument. Previous research has highlighted that commonly used RC tests are only mildly correlated and vary in the skills they assess, including the differential contribution of oral language and decoding to children's performance. Our study, framed…

This study investigated the extent to which lexical repetition in English passages developed in a content management system appeared to affect reading comprehension. Participants were 65 graduate students at a Midwestern public university, all of whom were native English readers. Instruments were two passages adjusted to maximize or minimize…

Two recent computational models of reading development propose that irregular words are read using a combination of decoding and lexical knowledge but differ in assumptions about how these sources of information interact and about the relative importance of different aspects of lexical knowledge. We report developmental data that help to…

Fun facts--facts that are interesting, unusual, and often little-known--are a popular form of entertainment throughout the world. There are countless books, TV quiz shows (Jeopardy!), board games (Trivial Pursuit), and museums (Ripley's Believe It or Not!) dedicated to trivia and the unusual that fascinate people of all ages. Short oral…

Background: Despite increasing knowledge of social communication skills of autistic people, the interrelatedness of different skills such as non-linguistic comprehension, social inference and empathizing skills is not much known about. A better understanding of the complex interplay between different domains of social communication helps us to…

Although current approaches to second language (L2) pronunciation underscore that instruction should concentrate on pronunciation features that help learners be more intelligible (and not necessarily more native like), there is little empirical evidence as to what those features are, especially in languages other than English. To address this gap,…