This issue of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development summarises recent and ongoing work to establish evidence-based practices in early reading instruction and intervention, and to improve access to and quality of literacy programmes in low- and middle-income countries. In this article, I present my own thoughts on the importance and implications of the reviewed articles.

Author: Maureen W. Lovett

Source: Lovett, M. W. (2017). Working toward a more literate world: Reading intervention commentary. In A. Gove, A. Mora, & P. McCardle (Eds.), Progress toward a literate world: Early reading interventions in low-income countries, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 155, 131–141.

This issue of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development summarises recent and ongoing work to establish evidence-based practices in early reading instruction and intervention, and to improve access to and quality of literacy programmes in low- and middle-income countries. In this article, I present my own thoughts on the importance and implications of the reviewed articles.

• Projects of varying sizes and goals conducted at multiple sites in several countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America are described in this review.
• There is a commitment to documenting the efficacy and effectiveness of these programmes using the methodological standards of intervention science and education research whenever possible; that is, controlled evaluations, cluster random assignment, objective measurement, and longitudinal designs.
• Data from these projects have informed plans for future programming in countries worldwide, and results from large scale-ups have provided insight into the most important factors necessary for scale-up and sustainability.
• Access to early education has improved substantially in many countries; however, access and quality are two quite different factors.

The study

Review of the articles of this issue of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development and some thoughts on their importance and implications are presented in this study.

Possibilities in lowest resourced countries

• Reading is a system that relies on written language skills and requires (and draws upon) speech and oral language development.
• Inability to understand the language of instruction is a major barrier in schools; thus, teaching to read in the mother tongue first may be important.
• It is important to integrate oral language, phonics, and authentic writing in multilingual and multicultural environments to attain better results.
• Teacher and student attendance is important; absenteeism and tardiness are considerable detractors from instructional time.
• Availability of reading materials is important when trying to learn to read.
• Learning to read fluently requires thousands of hours of practice and the development of a complex, consolidated system of linguistic skills.
• The importance of parental (especially maternal) literacy attainment to children’s early reading progress has been long recognised. This helps parents to navigate and access health and educational services for their children and alters how they interact with their young children.
• Even the most promising evidence-based instructional programme will fail to deliver positive outcomes if not implemented with skill and intensity by teachers who understand the program, its goals, and how to teach with fidelity.
• Even when partnerships are successful and scale-up commitments strong, there often remain huge needs around teacher training and support. Such training takes time; thus, it is recommended to carefully calibrate time expectations for scale-up.
• Technology offers more possibilities for support to the teachers, and also to students who do not have access to school.

Reading comprehension is multidimensional and complex. In this article, the theoretical and empirical literature on the construction of meaning during reading comprehension is reviewed, from which implications for research, practice, and policy related to instruction and assessment are derived. It is focused specifically on the inferential processes that extract meaning from text and the sources of knowledge that facilitate the extraction and construction of meaning.

Authors: Panayiota Kendeou, Kristen L. McMaster, & Theodore J. Christ

Source: Kendeou, P., McMaster, K.L., & Christ, T.J. (2016). Reading comprehension: Core components and processes. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 62-69. DOI: 10.1177/2372732215624707

Reading comprehension is multidimensional and complex. In this article, the theoretical and empirical literature on the construction of meaning during reading comprehension is reviewed, from which implications for research, practice, and policy related to instruction and assessment are derived. It is focused specifically on the inferential processes that extract meaning from text and the sources of knowledge that facilitate the extraction and construction of meaning.

• Despite efforts to improve reading performance among children in the United States, 44% of fourth-grade and 46% of eight-grade children failed to meet the standards for reading proficiency.
• Proficient reading in fourth grade requires students to make simple inferences, draw conclusions, and make evaluations about the texts they read.
• Proficient reading in eighth grade requires students to make simple inferences, connect parts of the text, and substantiate judgments about text content.
• Students who do not meet these standards fail to derive and use the overall meaning of the text: they fail to perform the fundamental inferential processes that construct meaning while reading.
• Students who experience such difficulties are likely to struggle throughout both education and employment.

Demands of reading comprehension

• To understand a sentence, it is necessary to visually process the words; identify their phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations; and connect the words using rules of syntax to understand the underlying meaning of the sentence.
• It is necessary to integrate meaning across sentences, make use of relevant background knowledge, generate inferences, identify the text structure, and take into consideration the authors’ goals and motives.

Construction–Integration model

• This model describes reading comprehension as the activation and integration of text information and relevant background knowledge into a coherent mental representation.

How to improve inference making

• Pre-teaching activities are designed to activate background knowledge and direct students’ attention to important parts of text.
• Systematic questioning can be used about key parts of text, with feedback.
• Teachers can apply specific strategies, such as looking for clues and thinking aloud.
• Readers can apply self-questioning.
• Graphic models can be used to fill in gaps in text.
• Preventative instruction can be applied to focus on language comprehension in young children, including inference-making as a general language skill. This may serve to circumvent later reading comprehension difficulties.

Knowledge as the necessary source for reading comprehension

• At various levels of the reading comprehension process, the reader draws on different sources of knowledge: linguistic knowledge about phonology, syntax, and morphology; orthographic knowledge about the orthographic system; and general knowledge about text structure and the world.
• General knowledge can both facilitate and disrupt reading comprehension: high levels of accurate knowledge can facilitate reading comprehension, but inaccurate knowledge can severely disrupt reading comprehension.

Vocabulary learning is a dominant feature of language acquisition. Students and teachers alike know that many of the reading comprehension breakdowns experienced by students involve word recognition and lexical access. This review is an attempt to broaden knowledge of the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension performance.

Authors: Soodeh Hamzehlou Moghadam, Zaidah Zainal, & Mahsa Ghaderpour

Source: Moghadam, S.H., Zainal, Z., & Ghaderpour, M. (2012). A review on the important role of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension performance. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 66, 555-563. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.300

Vocabulary learning is a dominant feature of language acquisition. Students and teachers alike know that many of the reading comprehension breakdowns experienced by students involve word recognition and lexical access. This review is an attempt to broaden knowledge of the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension performance.

• Language acquisition is an active procedure that requires learners to continually acquire vocabulary from the target language.
• The amount of familiar and unfamiliar vocabulary is one of the most significant elements in discerning a text’s degree of complication.
• Ignorance of the differences between second language (L2) and foreign language can result in confusion in the practice of language learning, teaching, and research work.

Significance of vocabulary learning

• Vocabulary appears to be a sound indicator of language ability because learners regularly make use of dictionaries (rather than grammar books).
• A large number of words are required to become competent in a foreign language.

• Vocabulary knowledge breadth and depth correlate quite significantly (approximately .8) and are both capable of explaining a considerable portion (over 50%) of the variance in reading comprehension scores.
• Vocabulary knowledge is fundamental in reading comprehension because it functions in the same way as background knowledge in reading comprehension.

Summary

• Vocabulary knowledge is essential for reading comprehension.
• Both aspects of vocabulary knowledge—depth and breadth—are required.
• Depth of vocabulary, breadth of vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension are highly and positively correlated.

The present study introduces reading as problem SOLVing (RESOLV), a theoretical model to account for readers’ construction and management of goals during text comprehension and use. The data supports the view that reading decisions and processes are guided by readers’ perceptions and attributions regarding the task statement as well as more implicit cues from the reading context.

Authors: Jean-Francois Rouet, M. Anne Britt, & Amanda M. Durik

Source: Rouet, J.-F., Britt, M.A., & Durik, A.M. (2017) RESOLV: Readers’ Representation of Reading Contexts and Tasks, Educational Psychologist, 52(3), 200-215, DOI: 10.1080/00461520.2017.1329015

The present study introduces RESOLV, a theoretical model to account for readers’ construction and management of goals during text comprehension and use. Using RESOLV, it is assumed that readers construct two types of mental models prior to reading: the context model and the task model. First, the RESOLV model is represented and two core hypotheses are articulated. Then, evidence supporting these hypotheses is presented and discussed. The data supports the view that reading decisions and processes are guided by readers’ perceptions and attributions regarding the task statement as well as more implicit cues from the reading context.

• In contemporary societies, reading serves an increasing range of goals and purposes.
• Effectively selecting and making use of multiple sources of information requires a set of advanced literacy skills that extend beyond word decoding and passage comprehension.
• Skilled reading—particularly applied to multiple sources and functional contexts—involves the ability to decide what to read and how to read it.
• Reading always takes place in a context that motivates readers’ engagement with text.
• What readers read and how they read it depends on the reason why they read and the way they intend to use the information.
• When readers read multiple sources, their decisions depend on their initial representation of contextual demands and opportunities, which we refer to as a context model.
• Readers’ context models are based on the selection and prioritisation of selected cues from the context, which readers can then turn into a set of initial goals and actions: a task model.

Standards of coherence theory

• Comprehending a text means constructing a coherent mental representation of the situation described in the text.
• This requires the readers to engage in a complex process of connecting the contents at more and more local levels, and generating the inferences needed to establish and maintain coherence.
• Standards determine whether the reader feels that comprehension is complete or that additional inferential processes are required.
• Competent readers adopt standards that meet the demands of the reading context and task.

Defining the RESOLV model

Assumptions

• It is assumed that reading behaviour is adaptive and serves purposes that the individual deems valuable enough to warrant the investment of significant cognitive resources.
• It is acknowledged that human processing resources are limited, placing constraints on the organisation and sequencing of the reading activity; readers will optimise the amount of text information to be processed and the depth of processing as a function of cost–benefit analysis.
• It is assumed that readers perform ‘feeling of knowing evaluations’ (FOKE) prior to and during reading.
• Readers evaluate the physical, cognitive, and emotional cost relative to the benefits of reading actions with respect to achieving their goals (the cost–benefit assumption).
• Decisions to use specific reading actions correspond to an activation level and a threshold value.

Overview

• Reading takes places within a physical and social context that sets conditions and resources for reading.
• The model provides specific mechanisms to explain how readers construct a representation of the reading task, including constraints such as time, stakes, and cost–benefit ratio.
• The context includes the request, the requester, the audience, support and obstacles, and readers’ assessment of themselves as cognitive and social agents.
• Readers’ personal resources include pre-existing context schemata, knowledge of reading tasks and strategies to address them, self-regulation skills, and the skills and knowledge required to decode and comprehend written texts.
• To participate in reading, three types of constructs are necessary: a context model, a task model, and reading processes and outcomes.
• Readers’ initially form a mental model of the physical and social context.
• Based on their context model, the reader builds a task model defined as a representation of the end goal and a set of means that can be used for achieving that goal.
• Reading activity is seen as a sequence of processes, decisions, and actions that are selected through cost–benefit analysis in the service of reader-generated goals.
• Reading results in outcomes that are used to engage in self-regulation mechanisms such as moving along a goal structure, making different decisions or engaging in different actions, redefining the task for one-self, or even reconsidering the context.
• Self-regulation decisions are closely related to readers’ FOKE as well as their cost–benefit analysis and decision thresholds.

Context model

• The context model includes subjective representation of the physical and social situation that precedes and surrounds any reading experience.
• Reading is always motivated by some kind of need.
• Readers’ processing of contextual features always play a part in their engagement with text.
• Readers vary in the type of cues they attend to or focus on in a given reading context, and how they interpret those cues.
• Context models are defined as a type of mental model: representations that people construct about their environment, the objects they interact with, and themselves.
• Construction of a context model is typically achieved through two core processes: feature extraction and recognition and instantiation of a pre-existing schema.

Task model

• The task model includes subjective representation of the goal to be achieved and the means available to achieve it.
• Task model processes involve selecting prominent cues from the context model, interpreting the request, setting and updating goals/plans, and detecting and handling obstacles and impasses.
• Goal setting operates on a subset of contextual cues that have been foregrounded through deliberate or incidental selection.
• Reading goals in turn fuel readers’ decisions and actions regarding what to read and how to read it. Understanding of a desirable outcome also informs the calibration of a processing level.
• Task models are not very detailed or elaborated; rather, the initial goal representation gets updated as a function of reading outcomes.

Empirical evidence for the hypotheses

• Experienced readers can make detailed decisions about what to read or to skip in a text as a function of their interpretation of the task demands.
• Students actively control their intake of information as a function of their understanding of the task demands; however, there are substantial individual differences within this.
• Comprehension skill, domain knowledge, and other factors can mediate the relationship between the task and reading processes.
• Readers’ developing awareness of the structure and affordance of texts also impact their task models, as indicated by the strategies they use to address the question.
• The most efficient information searchers spend more time studying a table of contents or an index, rather than searching through content pages.
• Readers make decisions regarding what to read and how to read it based on their reading goals and means available to achieve these goals; that is, their task model.
• There is evidence that students take into account contextual dimensions such as the subject matter and the type of source when establishing monitoring standards for themselves.
• There is initial evidence that readers construct a representation of both explicit and implicit elements of the context and that what they encode about the situation can influence reading actions when holding the specific task instructions constant.

Summary

• Compared to prior frameworks, RESOLV emphasises the role of explicit and implicit contextual cues as well as readers’ prior experiences with similar contexts.
• The RESOLV model is based on the assumption that readers form a task model based on their context model; that is, an interpretation of the task instructions and other relevant cues of the reading environment.
• Readers’ task models are the result of their interpretation of contextual demands, which may vary as a function of readers’ perceptions of communication partners’ authority, likelihood of success, effort, and stakes.
• Within the RESOLV model, reading is considered a sequence of decisions that are made based on the reader’s cost–benefit analysis.

This study examined the quantity and quality of caregiver input longitudinally with a sample of 50 parent-child dyads. The aim was to determine which aspects of input for children aged 18, 30, and 42 months contribute most to vocabulary skill throughout early development when measured at ages 30, 42, and 54 months. Results show that additional variation in later vocabulary ability can be explained by controlling for socioeconomic status, input quantity, and children’s previous vocabulary skill, by using a diverse and sophisticated vocabulary with toddlers, and by using decontextualised language (such as narrative) with pre-school-age children.

Author: Meredith L. Rowe

Source: Rowe, M.L. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality of child-directed speech in vocabulary development. Child Development, 83(5), 1762-1774. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01805.x

This study examined the quantity and quality of caregiver input longitudinally with a sample of 50 parent-child dyads. The aim was to determine which aspects of input for children aged 18, 30, and 42 months contribute most to vocabulary skill throughout early development when measured at ages 30, 42, and 54 months. Results show that additional variation in later vocabulary ability can be explained by controlling for socioeconomic status, input quantity, and children’s previous vocabulary skill, by using a diverse and sophisticated vocabulary with toddlers, and by using decontextualised language (such as narrative) with pre-school-age children.

• One of the most powerful predictors of a child’s ability to learn to read and succeed in school is vocabulary size at the start of kindergarten.
• Children’s vocabulary size and rate of development vary widely. While it is acknowledged that some of this variability is likely due to genetics, environmental factors also play an integral role.
• One important environmental factor that contributes to individual differences in early vocabulary development is the linguistic input to which children are exposed.
• Linguistic input may be quantitative (the amount of talking) or qualitative (specific types of speech or diversity of input).
• It is possible that diversity of vocabulary input plays a more significant role in vocabulary growth when children get older, and quantity plays a more important role when children are in the earlier stages of vocabulary acquisition.
• The amount of input (quantity) and specific types of input (quality), although strongly related, may be confounded by socioeconomic status (SES).
• Research to date on parental use of sophisticated vocabulary and decontextualised language has shown positive findings in relation to children’s vocabulary skill; however, the work is scarce and limited to studies of low-income families and to parents talking to children age 3 years or older.

The study

The goal of the present study was to examine parents’ use of sophisticated vocabulary and decontextualised language with their children to determine whether these input quality measures can explain children’s subsequent vocabulary skill over and above the quantity of input to which children are exposed.

Research questions:

1. How much variation is there across families in terms of quantity and quality of parental talk to children aged 18, 30, and 42 months, and does this variation relate to SES?
2. Does variation in child vocabulary skill at 30, 42, and 54 months relate to quantity and quality of parent input?
3. Do measures of input quality also explain variation in later vocabulary skill when controlling for SES, previous vocabulary skill, and quantity of input?

Participants were 50 children and their primary caregivers. One of the primary caregivers is a father and the rest are mothers. The average education level of the primary caregivers is 15.8 years. The home visits used in this study were conducted at 18, 30, 42, and 54 months of age.

Summary

• The present study demonstrates that specific measures of input quality relate to child vocabulary skill at different points in development, even when controlling for SES and quantity of input.
• The results are consistent with a developmental scenario in which quantity of input is most important during the 2^nd year of life, the diversity or sophistication of the vocabulary in the input is most important during the 3^rd year of life, and the use of decontextualised language (such as narrative and explanations in the input) is most beneficial during the 4^th year of life.
• It would be helpful for parents to concentrate on the quality of their talk, incorporating a diverse and sophisticated vocabulary with toddlers and engaging their preschool children in conversations about past or future events.

This review led to four major findings, as follows: in almost all cases, teaching of word meanings supported comprehension of text containing the target words; instruction that focused on some active processing was typically more impactful than a definition or a dictionary method for supporting comprehension of text containing target words; there is very limited evidence that direct teaching of word meanings can improve generalised comprehension; and there is currently no empirical evidence that instruction in one or two strategies for identifying word meanings will impact generalised comprehension.

Authors: Tanya S. Wright & Gina N. Cervetti

Source: Wright, T.S. & Cervetti, G.N. (2016). A systematic review of the research on vocabulary instruction that impacts text comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 52(2), 203-226. DOI: 10.1002/rrq.163

This study comprised a systematic review of vocabulary interventions with comprehension outcomes. Analyses of 36 studies that met criteria are organised according to type of comprehension measure and type of intervention. The review led to four major findings: in almost all cases, teaching of word meanings supported comprehension of text containing the target words; instruction that focused on some active processing was typically more impactful than a definition or a dictionary method for supporting comprehension of text containing the target words; there is very limited evidence that direct teaching of word meanings can improve generalised comprehension; and there is currently no empirical evidence that instruction in one or two strategies for identifying word meanings will impact generalised comprehension.

• The ultimate goal of all reading-related instruction in schools is to help students comprehend text.
• The size of a person’s vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of their reading comprehension.
• There is evidence that schooling has a limited impact on students’ vocabulary development.
• Increased attention to vocabulary instruction in school will improve students’ vocabulary knowledge, which will, in turn, improve students’ reading comprehension.
• Educational researchers have posited a reciprocal model in which vocabulary knowledge supports comprehension of text and text comprehension supports vocabulary learning.
• Comprehension can be supported by directly teaching a set of word meanings or by teaching strategies for making sense of unknown words during reading.

The study

This study reviewed research about vocabulary interventions that may impact comprehension.

The goals of this study were:

• To complete a systematic search of the literature to ensure the inclusion of all available peer-reviewed vocabulary intervention studies with passage-level comprehension outcomes.
• To use qualitative coding and analytic strategies to identify patterns in the characteristics of vocabulary interventions that do and do not impact comprehension.
• To use the analysis to make recommendations that could inform future research on vocabulary instruction.

The data

The review consisted of 36 vocabulary intervention studies with passage comprehension as outcomes.

Implications

• In almost all cases, it was found that teaching word meanings supported comprehension of text containing the target words.
• Instruction that focused on some active processing was typically more impactful than a definition or dictionary method for supporting comprehension of text containing the target words. However, it is not known how much instruction is sufficient, as supported by the speed-of-access hypothesis. However, young students (kindergartners) with less vocabulary knowledge may not yet be ready to benefit from the type of instruction typically provided in multifaceted vocabulary interventions.
• There is very limited evidence that direct teaching of word meanings (even long-term, multifaceted interventions of large numbers of words) can improve generalised comprehension.
• There is currently no empirical evidence that instruction using one or two strategies for solving word meanings will impact generalised comprehension.
• Studies that actively teach students to monitor their understanding of vocabulary and use multiple, flexible strategies for solving word meanings are a promising area for future research.

This paper presents a review of high-quality empirical studies on book-reading practices in early childhood that have resulted in an increase in child vocabulary. Findings reveal that six strategies are consistently implemented throughout the studies, as follows: reading and re-reading texts, explicitly defining words, encouraging dialogue about book-related vocabulary through questions and discussion, re-telling, using props, and engaging children in post-reading activities.

Authors: Barbara A. Wasik, Annemarie H. Hindman, & Emily K. Snell

Source: Wasik, B.A., Hindman, A.H., & Snell, E.K. (2016). Book reading and vocabulary development: A systematic review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 37, 39-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2016.04.003

This paper presents a review of high-quality empirical studies on book-reading practices in early childhood that have resulted in an increase in child vocabulary. Various aspects of effective book reading are examined. Findings reveal that six strategies are consistently implemented throughout the studies. These are reading and re-reading texts, explicitly defining words, encouraging dialogue about book-related vocabulary through questions and discussion, re-telling, using props, and engaging children in post-reading activities. This review identifies critical remaining questions about how to optimise vocabulary learning through book reading that require systematic investigation to inform effective practice.

• Book reading is widely recognised as an important activity in the development of children’s oral language and vocabulary skills.
• Although many early skills support later reading success, supporting early vocabulary knowledge improves reading in several ways: supporting comprehension of words that children decode, helping children more rapidly recognise words they are decoding, fostering phonological awareness skills that also support reading, and increasing children’s understanding of teachers’ instruction in reading and other areas.
• Improving early vocabulary is important for all children, but especially those in poverty.
• Active processing (defined as deliberate, attentive mental manipulation of ideas) is necessary if the learner is to understand, remember, and later use and apply new information.

Benefits of book reading

• Book-reading represents a particularly potent context for learning words.
• Exposure to new words through book-reading can be accompanied by parent or teacher explanations, as well as props and materials that further clarify word meanings.
• Books can be re-read and referred to over time.
• Words are generally introduced as part of a story providing a meaningful and motivating context.

The study

In this study, literature about book-reading and vocabulary development is reviewed. Five critical dimensions of the studies were identified: contexts in which the book reading was conducted, selection and nature of the words taught, measurement of word exposure, interventions strategies, and outcome measures and findings.

Research questions:

1. What is the methodological quality and comprehensiveness of the studies?
2. In what contexts are effective book reading studies implemented?
3. What is known about the words taught during these effective studies?
4. What instructional strategies are implemented during reading or extension activities to build vocabulary?
5. What is known about how interventions are applied?
6. What measures are used to assess vocabulary learning and how many words do children learn?

Methods

The review included 31 articles covering 36 studies.

Implications

• Adult–child interaction during book-reading is critical for vocabulary learning to occur; word learning was enhanced when adults asked questions and engaged children in discussion about target vocabulary words.
• It is important to note that children still did not learn all the words they were taught; in many instances, they learned less than 25% of the words, regardless of the strategies used by adults, the number of books to which children were exposed, and the duration of the intervention.
• Those children in the intervention groups learned more words than those in the control groups, and when words were learned, knowledge was maintained over several weeks or months.
• The fact that well-conceived approaches to book reading only had modest effects suggests that something is clearly missing in the current understanding of how and why children learn words presented to them in meaningful and repeated contexts.

In this article, myths about computer games are debunked and guidelines are presented from which students may derive greater benefits.

Authors: Erin M. McTigue & Per Henning Uppstad

Source: McTigue, E.M. & Uppstad, P.H. (2018). Getting serious about serious games: Best practices for computer games in reading classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 72(4), 453-461.

In this article, myths about computer games are debunked and guidelines are presented from which students may derive greater benefits.

• Computer games that support reading acquisition are already present in primary classrooms.
• It is necessary to understand how we can adjust our expectancies and practices to make optimum use of this technology.

Computer games for literacy learning

• Computer games are a subset of computer-assisted instruction (CAI).
• Computer games have specific goals, interactive elements, and can be rewarding for the participant.
• For serious games that are played in school, the goal is to learn, rather than purely entertainment.
• Serious games are usually self-contained and supplement the core curriculum through individualised drills, adaptive practice, and assessment.

The study

The study presents myths about the use of computer games for reading.

Implications

When using serious games in early reading instruction, teachers should gain confidence in their content and pedagogical knowledge, carefully investigating the potential gains from the technology. We encourage teachers to critically analyse the limitations of serious games for reading, and before implementing, decide the extent to which such games are aligned with their pedagogical and content goals.

How to acquire increased benefits from serious games

1. Teachers should tell students explicitly that serious computer games are for learning.
2. Instruction for concepts should always be given before students practice them in a game.
3. Classroom structure should be organised so computer games are integrated with other literacy activities.
4. ‘Think-alouds’ should be used to model how to develop a mastery mind-set when playing games, such as how to slow down and what to do when a mistake is made.
5. Students should set skill-based learning goals before playing games.
6. Teachers should set up a tracking system to monitor students’ progress within games.
7. When students are playing games, questions should be asked to encourage thinking about the decisions they make.
8. Student should be allowed to work with peers when playing literacy games.
9. After game play, students should be encouraged to share one concept that they learned through the game.
10. Volunteers or paraprofessionals could be engaged to provide technical help, ask questions during game play, manage goal-setting, and track progress.

This study reviewed literature on mobile language learning in authentic environments published from 2007 to 2016. Results showed that there was an increasing trend in publications. Students’ perceptions of mobile learning technologies and language proficiency were the most common research topics.

Authors: Rustam Shadiev, Wu-Yuin Hwang, & Yueh-Min Huang

Source: Shadiev, R., Hwang, W.-Y., & Huang, Y.-M. (2017) Review of research on mobile language learning in authentic environments, Computer Assisted Language Learning, 30(3-4), 284-303, DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2017.1308383

This study reviewed literature on mobile language learning in authentic environments published from 2007 to 2016. Results showed that there was increasing trend in publications. Students’ perceptions of mobile learning technologies and language proficiency were the most common research topics. The most frequently used technologies were smartphones, mobile phones, and personal digital assistants. Learning activities in most studies were conducted in classrooms and specified locations off campus. Authentic learning environments in most studies were familiar to students and learning activities were designed using an instructor-centred approach.

• Given that most people own mobile devices today, learning can be extended beyond a traditional classroom.
• Mobile technologies are reshaping learning and instruction by supporting, expanding, and enhancing course content, learning activities, and student interactions with instructors, peers, and learning content.
• An authentic environment (meaningful learning in contexts that involve real-world problems) is an important prerequisite for effective learning.
• Students are more inclined to learn as they apply new knowledge to solve daily real-life problems that they are likely to encounter frequently (as they occur in familiar, natural contexts).
• Scalability is the ability of language-learning programs to be adapted in a wide variety of contexts, whereas sustainability is the ability of language-learning programs to remain in use. Both are important for any language-learning program.

The study

This study focuses on mobile language learning in authentic environments.

Research questions:

1. What were the trends regarding authentic mobile language learning in related literature from 2007 to 2016?
2. What were research topics in the literature on authentic mobile language learning from 2007 to 2016?
3. What mobile technologies were used in authentic mobile language-learning studies from 2007 to 2016?
4. What methodologies were employed in authentic mobile language-learning studies from 2007 to 2016?

Methods

Research articles were searched using search terms such as mobile, language, learning, authentic, environment, and multimedia from several databases.

This article reviews hypothesised links between selective attention and processing across three domains important to early academic skills.

Authors: Courtney Stevens & Daphne Bavelier

Source: Stevens, C. & Bavelier, D. (2012). The role of selective attention on academic foundations: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 2S (2012), S30-S48.

This article reviews hypothesised links between selective attention and processing across three domains important to early academic skills. First, a brief review of the neural bases of selective attention is presented. Second, the developmental time course of selective attention is examined. Third, the processes of selective attention are related to three domains important to academic foundations: language, literacy, and mathematics. Fourth, the possibility of training selective attention is discussed. Fifth, the application of these principles to educationally-focused attention-training programmes for children are examined.

• Academic achievement is determined by a variety of factors including educational opportunity, socio-economic status, social aptitudes, personality traits, and cognitive skills.
• The ability to focus on the current task and ignore distractions (referred to as selective attention) appears to have reverberating effects on several domains important to academic foundations, including language, literacy, and mathematics.

Neural bases of selective attention

How does selective attention modulate information processing?

• According to the Hillyard Principle (for example Hillyard et al., 1987), responses should be compared to the same physical stimuli to assess the effects of selective attention, while holding overall arousal levels and task demands constant so that the only difference is the focus of selective attention.
• Several studies report attentional modulation throughout multiple cortical and even subcortical processing areas.
• Attention alters the selectivity of neurons in the hierarchy of visual areas.

Mechanisms by which selective attention is deployed

• Selective attention is guided and controlled by both bottom-up signals and in a top-down fashion (for example, the intraparietal sulcus, frontal eye fields, and additional regions of the anterior frontal gyrus are important to the endogenous orienting of selective attention).
• While the effects of selective attention are most apparent in the cortical areas associated with the attended stimulus dimension, a fronto-parietal network is used across dimensions to deploy selective attention.

Neural mechanisms that actively manage competition from irrelevant stimuli

• Larger reaction time or differences in accuracy between compatible and incompatible conditions are an index of poorer attentional filtering ability. For example, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), thalamus, bilateral frontal regions, and portions of the fusiform gyrus are important. The ACC-frontal network is specifically engaged to manage response conflict.

Selective attention and academic performance

Language processing

• When processing speech, listeners learn to identify and predict word initial segments and selectively direct attention to those points in time to aid processing.
• Deploying temporal selective attention strategically may allow the listener to select and amplify processing of the portions of the speech signal most critical for comprehension.
• Early enhancement of word-initial processing is a neural mechanism available to young children and thus is a candidate critical mechanism for parsing and processing the continuous speech stream.

Literacy

• Unlike language processing where auditory selective attention is directed to critical points in time, reading requires visual selective attention to be focused spatially.
• Over the course of literacy acquisition, the brain needs to adapt processing systems to support the fast, accurate identification of written symbol strings.
• The left extra-striate cortex, known as the visual word form area (VWFA), is believed to respond preferentially during tasks that involve the automatic conversion of a visual to a linguistic form.
• There are developmental shifts in the lateralisation of the N170 (a component of event-related potential (ERP) that reflects the neural processing of faces, familial objects or words) to words during reading acquisition.
• Selective attention may be critical to the development of the VWFA, perhaps through the role of fronto-parietal attention networks, in shifting the focus of selective attention to different unit sizes (words, letters) during literacy acquisition.
• Deficits in selective attention occur among individuals with reading disorders.

Mathematics

• Working memory skills are particularly important for dealing with word problems. This begins to highlight the interaction between working memory and selective attention.
• It is suggested that there is a link between attention and mathematics word problems skills that is mediated by the effect of selective attention on working memory.
• Selective attention—and distractor suppression in particular—is important for regulating access to working memory and optimising working memory capacity.
• The links between selective attention and mathematics performance are clearly more speculative than those linking selective attention with language and literacy.

Implications

• It is important to separately assess distractor suppression and signal enhancement. These two aspects of selective attention can operate independently, and each may have unique relationships with particular academic skills.
• Some children may need more cues to support their selective attention capability. This may involve limiting distractors or presenting more opportunity for orientation so that a child is prepared to deal with distractions.
• Attention skills can be enhanced and distractor suppression may be especially modifiable.
• In a classroom context, there may be significant benefits in incorporating attention-training activities into the school context.
• To the extent that training and support for selective attention is valued, it may be leveraged as a force-multiplier across domains.