bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oral reading errors: part of speech effects and their theoretical and practical implications
Authors: Potter F.N.
Published: November 2005

Data are presented which show striking differences between the characteristics of oral reading errors made to content and function words. Content word errors tend to be graphically similar but contextually unacceptable, whereas the reverse is true for errors made to function words — which are contextually acceptable but graphically dissimilar. This was true for two samples: for one child reading a total of 2,588 words, and for 12 children reading about 450 words each. There were however differences between the samples, and reasons for these are discussed. It is argued that some errors are better viewed not as errors in word recognition, but as post‐recognition errors — that is, errors which occur even when the word has been correctly identified. The errors in this study are also compared with those made by an adult with acquired deep dyslexia reading words in isolation, and similarities between the two sets of errors were observed. Finally it is concluded that teachers and researchers should (1) categorize errors into visual, semantic, derivational and function word errors, (2) should calculate the proportion of function word errors, and (3) bear in mind that oral reading errors may occur even when words are correctly recognised.
Automatic and conscious context effects in average and advanced readers
Authors: Simpson Greg B. , Lorsbach Thomas C.
Published: November 2005

Average and advanced readers from the fourth and sixth grades read visually presented words as rapidly as possible. Target words were preceded by a related prime word, an unrelated word, or a neutral warning stimulus. Related trials constituted 75% of the word prime trials for half of the subjects in each group, and only 25% for the other half. All groups were sensitive to this proportion manipulation, showing only faster naming times for related targets in the 25% condition. In the 75% condition, subjects showed inhibition for unrelated targets, as well as facilitation for related targets. The results indicate that the ability to use context deliberately to facilitate word recognition reaches asymptote for the average reader by the sixth grade at the latest, and perhaps by the fourth. This ability does not appear to be one that shows further improvements at higher levels of reading skill. Some possible reasons for the discrepancies between this research and that using incomplete sentence contexts are considered.
Oral reading errors of two young beginning readers
Authors: Campbell Robin
Published: November 2005

Oral reading errors were collected from two young beginning readers (6 years old) as they read to their class teacher throughout a school year. The data were collected from the naturalistic setting of an infant classroom. The errors of substitution were analysed for graphophonic, syntactic and semantic similarity and examined to determine whether the observed response was a previously read word. The study demonstrated that the two boys frequently used a previously read word as a substitution although there was less reliance upon this source towards the end of the year. The graphophonic cue system was used throughout the year, with first letter similarity particularly in evidence. However, finer discriminations over time were also noted. The contextual constraints of syntax and semantics were in evidence throughout the year and the use of these cues had increased by the end of the year. The evidence from this in–depth case study was used to question previously postulated developmental phases of reading.
Young children's comprehension and recall of computer screen displayed text
Authors: Gambrel Linda B. , Bradley Virginia N. , McLaughlin Elaine M.
Published: November 2005

In this study 26 third grade and 36 fifth grade students, experienced in computer‐assisted instruction, were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: computer screen displayed text or traditional printed page text. According to assigned treatment condition, subjects either read a story from the computer screen or printed page booklet. There were no statistically significant differences between the two treatment conditions on measures of reading comprehension. On the attitude survey subjects reported greater interest in the story when reading from the computer, however, they reported that the story was more difficult when reading from the computer screen. The results of the study suggest that extended reading of prose materials on computer screens is feasible for children as young as eight years of age.
Reciprocal teaching and reading comprehension: a review
Authors: Moore Phillip J.
Published: November 2005

Reading researchers recently have turned their attention to co‐operative forms of learning and teaching. One particular form of co‐operative teaching is reciprocal teaching which involves the reciprocal interaction of experts and novices in explicit, overt demonstrations of strategy use. Scaffolding, active meaningful involvement, feedback, and fading of the expert's leading the interactions are seen as critical elements of the technique. This paper outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the technique and reviews research examining the effects of reciprocal teaching of comprehension strategies (summarising, predicting, clarifying, questioning) on comprehension disabled subjects. In general the findings show powerful effects, effects that transfer and generalise. The potential of the technique for enhancing other reading skills is discussed.
Object‐naming deficits in developmental dyslexia
Authors: Snowling Maggie , van Wagtendonk Bente , Stafford Carolyn
Published: November 2005

This paper reports two experiments which focus on the object naming deficits of dyslexic readers. In Experiment 1, dyslexic and normal readers were asked to name objects depicted by pictures or following their spoken definition. Ten‐year‐old dyslexics named fewer objects correctly than other children of a similar age, performing only as well as a younger group of 8‐year‐old normal readers. This was true irrespective of the modality through which they were tested. In terms of naming latency, however, they were similar to comparison groups. In Experiment 2, nine‐year‐old dyslexic and normal readers performed as well as each other in a receptive vocabulary test in which pictures had to be matched to spoken words. However, once again, on a picture naming test, the dyslexics did less well than controls. We argue that dyslexic children are subject to verbal naming difficulties which cannot be accounted for by generally low levels of vocabulary knowledge. Their problems are attributable not to difficulties in semantic representation but to difficulties with the lexical‐phonological representation of spoken words they know. We propose that, in turn, these difficulties are related to their memory and reading problems.
Interactions in the development of spelling, reading and phonological skills
Authors: Cataldo Suzanne , Ellis Nick
Published: November 2005

Early interactive processes of development in reading, spelling and implicit and explicit phonological awareness were assessed in a group of children at four time‐points as they progressed through their first three years in school. Exploratory causal path analyses were used to investigate the contribution of each ability to the subsequent growth of skill in reading, spelling and phonological awareness. The resultant structural models demonstrate a role of spelling in the early stages of reading acquisition, as well as differential contributions of implicit and explicit phonological awareness to both reading and spelling. They also suggest a developmental cascade from implicit to explicit phonemic awareness in the normal acquisition of phonological knowledge and associated skills.

In the early formulative stages of reading implicit phonemic awareness and reading act reciprocally to build skill in each other. But, as ability in word recognition improves, implicit phonemic awareness plays a diminished role in reading. This pattern of initial reciprocal influence and later dissociation is repeated in the relationship between implicit phoneme awareness and spelling. Explicit phonemic awareness is an important factor in the first stages of spelling development but only emerges later as a significant contributor to reading. The early influence of explicit phoneme awareness on spelling, in conjunction with the major contribution of spelling to beginning reading, indicates that experience in spelling promotes the use of a phonological strategy in reading. Within a developmental context, explicit phoneme awareness initially appears to grow out of an implicit appreciation of the overall sound properties of words. Thereafter, ability to identify and segment phonemes develops independently of implicit phonemic awareness and plays an increasingly important role in the further growth of reading and spelling.
Pseudohomophone effects in 8 and 11 year old good and poor readers
Authors: Johnston Rhona S. , Rugg Michael D. , Scott Tana
Published: November 2005

Eight and 11 year old good and poor readers carried out a lexical decision task, in which the accuracy of responding to nonwords and pseudohomophonic nonwords was assessed. Nonwords such as‘loast', are meaningless but conform to the rules of English spelling. Pseudohomophones, such as‘poast', are a special category of nonword as they sound like real words. In this study, the two classes of nonwords were closely matched for visual similarity,‘poast’and‘loast', for example, differing only in the initial consonant. All the groups were more prone to misclassify pseudo‐homophones as words than nonwords. Poor readers of average and below average IQ, and their reading age controls, performed very similarly. It was concluded that the poor readers were equally as able to generate phonological information from nonwords as their reading age controls, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the poor readers suffered primarily from a phonological dysfunction. Both the average and below average intelligence poor readers showed a pattern of performance indicative of a delay or an arrestment in reading development, rather than a deficit in generating and utilising phonological information.
Reading comprehension: skill or skills?
Authors: Rost Detlef H.
Published: November 2005

Research on the complexity of reading comprehension is highly controversial. In spite of the evidence for a holistic reading comprehension of skilled readers, reading specialists and teachers argue that early reading comprehension is composed of different separate subskills. To investigate this, 38 German reading tests (covering many different aspects of reading comprehension), one spelling test and one speed‐of‐information‐processing test were administered to 220 German second graders (114 girls, 106 boys). The frequency distribution of the 780 correlation coefficients indicated a very homogeneous structure. Taking into account critical points in the design of dimension analytical studies, a principal component analysis (principal axis extraction) led to only one broad general reading comprehension component, accounting for 61% of the total variance (56% for girls, 65% for boys). Reading comprehension of early readers thus appears to be holistic, closely related to general intelligence and verbal problem solving.
The processing of cohesion in fiction and non‐fiction by good and poor readers
Authors: MacLean Margaret , Chapman L. John
Published: November 2005

Halliday and Hasan's (1976) concept of textual cohesion has generated considerable interest among reading educators. However, there has been very little research which has considered how cohesion operates during reading. This paper reports on a study which used a selective deletion procedure to investigate how good and poor readers (N = 44) from a secondary school in England were able to use cohesion while reading fiction and non‐fiction. A feature of the analysis of the results thus obtained is the validation of the concept of a reading development continuum (RDC). Results indicate that good readers were more successful in maintaining the global unity of text than were the poor readers. As well, both groups of readers found it easier to perceive cohesion in fiction than they did in non‐fiction. Implications of these findings for reading instruction at the elementary and secondary levels are discussed.
Phonemic Analysis: effects of word properties
Authors: Schreuder Robert , van Bon Wim H. J.
Published: November 2005

The relation between performance in phonemic segmentation and reading and writing ability is discussed. Not much is known about how segmentation is carried out and which word properties influence performance. Therefore, effects of word properties (length, CV structure, syllabic structure, meaning) were investigated in two experiments. Strong indications were obtained that an onset‐rime distinction is relevant for the process of segmentation. The meaning of a word appears to have no influence. The decentration hypothesis can therefore be abandoned as an explanation for segmentation difficulties.

Effects of length and syllabic boundary can be explained by the (disruptive) effect of consonant clusters, which are not only difficult to segment themselves, but also adversely affect the processing of segments earlier in the word. This leads to the conclusion that a simple, strictly serial model for segmentation cannot be adequate. The results furthermore suggest that an articulatory rather than a phonological code is the object of segmentation.
Ideational prominence and reading comprehension of expository prose: a partial replication
Authors: Abramovici Shimon
Published: November 2005

It has often been demonstrated that adults are more likely to remember important text elements than less important elements –“levels effect”. It is not clear whether the same effect exists in children because the evidence is inconsistent. Most of the existing studies with children can be criticised for failing to include adult subjects as well as children, thereby making it impossible to determine whether the observed differences between adults and children reflect genuine differences in processing or just the effects of strategies for coping with the specific texts selected for the children. The present study partly replicated a study that found no evidence for a levels effect in children (Baumann, 1981) with a group of adults. With one passage stronger evidence for a levels effect was found with the adults in our study than was found with children, whereas with the second passage no evidence for a levels effect was found in either study. It was argued that this finding suggested that there were differences between adults and children in the extent to which they engaged in the type of processing that resulted in levels effects, but also that texts differed in the degree to which they induced this type of processing, and that the latter factor had to be taken into account in developmental studies.
Redundancy and the cohesion doze
Authors: Bensoussan Marsha
Published: November 2005

Reading involves simultaneous top‐down processing, where the reader applies prior knowledge to the text, and bottom‐up processing, where the reader derives meaning from macro‐level structures in the text. Text redundancy is central to both.

This study investigated the usefulness of using grammatical cohesion to evaluate comprehension on the macro‐ or discourse‐level, as well as on the micro‐level. The Cohesion Cloze was used to determine the extent to which 65 native speakers of Hebrew made use of text redundancy or cohesion when reading an English text. According to the categorization of grammatical and lexical cohesion by Halliday and Hasan (1976), blanks were chosen to test students’ recognition of the repetition of a word or its pronoun, a synonym, superordinate, or generalization. Students were directed to fill in the blanks with words already found in the text. Items were analyzed in terms of discourse analysis as relations of cohesion and coherence in the text.

Results indicated that there was a relation between anaphora and coherence that contributed to reading difficulty. Cohesive markers were helpful where blanks were multi‐determined and there was redundancy of coherence. Passages which focused on a single idea were found easier to fill in than passages containing ideas that were compared and contrasted. Thus shifts in argument. were found to be more difficult to comprehend than a continuous chain of thought.
Pre‐reading format and learner proficiency level in L2 reading comprehension
Authors: Tudor Ian
Published: November 2005

The article describes two related experiments into the effect of pre‐reading on the text comprehension of a population of L2 learners at three proficiency levels. Four sets of pre‐reading materials were used, two in each experiment. All were geared to content‐schemata activation, but differed in terms of the type of stimulus provided. The materials used in experiment I (a text summary and a set of pre‐questions) involved the provision of a relatively elaborated set of interpretive cues; those used in experiment II (topic prediction and a vocabulary‐based task) were more open and allowed for a greater degree of learner‐based schemata activation. Two main lines of investigation were pursued: the first relates to the relative effectiveness of the different pre‐reading formats, and the second to the possibility of an interaction between pre‐reading format and L2 proficiency level. Results indicated the more constraining, schemata‐provision formats used in experiment I to be more effective as aids to text comprehension. No level‐treatment interaction was observed, though comprehension facilitation was observed only among the lower proficiency groups — the higher proficiency group deriving no benefit from any of the pre‐reading formats used.
Primary school children's interpretations of lexical ambiguity in mathematical descriptions
Authors: Durkin Kevin , Shire Beatrice
Published: November 2005

Many words are used in mathematical descriptions in ways which differ from their everyday meanings. This study investigates how children interpret lexical ambiguity in written descriptions of mathematical relationships. Primary grade children were asked to identify the synonyms of ambiguous words, such as leaves, high, tables, make, which were presented in sentences biased toward either their dominant or their mathematical senses. Performance was superior in the everyday contexts. Error analyses revealed that subjects were more likely to identify incorrectly the synonym of the dominant sense when the ambiguous word was used in its mathematical meaning than they were to identify the subordinate, mathematical sense when the ambiguous word was used in its dominant meaning. Performance was age related and errors were more likely in younger children. The implications of a bias to interpret ambiguous terms in their dominant sense when reading maths materials are discussed as a pervasive but often unrecognised factor in mathematical education.
Patterns in children's ability to recall explicit, implicit and metaphorical information
Authors: Kincade Kay M.
Published: November 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of grade level and recall task type on children's memory for explicit, implicit and metaphorical information following reading. Forty second and 40 fifth grade subjects balanced as to gender read four prose passages and were randomly assigned to cued and free recall conditions. A MANOVA produced significant main effects for grade level and task type on each of three dependent variables; EXPLICIT, IMPLICIT and METAPHOR recall measures. As predicted, fifth graders fared better than second graders and the cued condition exceeded free recall. Of greater significance was the finding that second graders were able to engage in metaphorical reasoning when the task was appropriately structured. The results suggest that providing externally generated, structured probes can greatly enhance children's reading recall at both grade levels and can enable children to demonstrate metaphorical comprehension prior to the age at which it spontaneously appears. In addition, significantly different patterns of recalled information were found within the two task conditions, patterns that remained stable across age groups.
The relationship between the phonological strategies employed In reading and spelling
Authors: Huxford Laura , Terrell Colin , Bradley Lynette
Published: November 2005

This paper summarises a longitudinal study which examined the relationship between the abilities of young children to read and spell phonologically. Empirical evidence of Bryant and Bradley (1980) and Cataldo and Ellis (1988) to show that children acquire the ability to use a phonological strategy for spelling before the ability to use an equivalent strategy for reading is confirmed. Implications for the teaching of reading are discussed.
Comprehending coherent and incoherent texts: evidence from eye movement patterns and recall performance
Authors: Vauras Marja , Hyönä Jukka , Niemi Pekka
Published: November 2005

The effect of text structure on the reading process and recall performance was examined. Adult readers’ eye movements were monitored when they read coherently and incoherently structured texts (N=19). Incoherence was brought about by changing the sentence order in the middle paragraphs of the two stimulus texts. Each subject read and learned one text in a coherent and the other in an incoherent form in two experimental sessions. Immediate free recall followed the reading. The eye movement data showed that during the first pass reading, i.e. initial reading of a sentence until the end of the sentence is reached, structurally incoherent text segments attracted the largest number of regressive fixations, and, hence, were given more visual attention than coherent text segments (indicated by the total duration of fixations). On the other hand, more rereadings, i.e. all fixations made after the first pass reading but before moving away from the given sentence, were devoted to text segments resolving the incoherence. Textual incoherence was further found to lead to inferior recall. However, no clear‐cut correspondence between eye movement behavior and quantitative recall performance was found.
Necessary indeterminacy and the microethnographic study of reading as a social process
Authors: Bloome David
Published: November 2005

This article discusses a microethnographic approach to the study of classroom reading and writing. Inherent to a microethnographic perspective is a view of reading and writing as social and cultural processes. Reading and writing are viewed as a set of social and cultural events, in which people act and react to each other. This view of reading and writing is contrasted with dominant psychologically‐oriented views. Two dimensions of reading and writing as social and cultural processes are emphasized in the article: (1) author‐reader interaction, and (2) social relationships among people during a reading or writing event. The actions and reactions that people take to each other are necessarily indeterminate in meaning and significance, their meaning and significance is negotiated and reconstructed as people continue to interact. The indeterminacy of actions, reactions, and utterances provides a basis for dialogue and the co‐construction of meaning and action. A transcript of part of a classroom reading lesson is analyzed and discussed to provide an illustration of a microethnographic approach to understanding reading and writing as social and cultural processes and the role of indeterminacy. Implications of viewing reading and writing as social and cultural processes and the concept of necessary indeterminacy are extended to the conduct of reading research.
Talk about texts: reading as a social event
Authors: Maybin Janet , Moss Gemma
Published: November 2005

Drawing on anthropological evidence that interactions with texts are often mediated through oral language practices and Vygotsky's ideas about the primacy of social dialogue for individual intellectual development, the authors argue that children's informal talk about both electronic and printed texts throws new light on the reading process as a whole. They analyse children's talk about a school library book, a piece of graffiti, a television programme and a film to show how readings are shaped by the social organization and personal relationships of the readers, whether in curriculum activities, friendship groups or at home in the family. Readings are constructed, contested and negotiated through talk at the point where texts are first calculated and reshaped again when they are jointly recalled. Talk also helps to construct the text's legitimate audience and the reader's position within it.
The social construction of reading strategies: new directions for research
Authors: Parry Kate
Published: November 2005

In recent decades reading research has moved from predominantly quantitative work to more qualitative studies in which individual readers are observed in interaction with texts. Considerable differences have been found in the strategies employed by these readers, especially by those of different social and cultural backgrounds. These diverse strategies can be partly attributed to the different processes by which people learn to read and through the different ways in which they see written texts used in their own social environments; the contrasting situations and strategies of Japanese and Nigerian readers are used to illustrate the point. If teachers are to deal effectively with readers of various cultural backgrounds—as they must do in ESL and EFL classes—they need to know more about such contrasts; more work is therefore needed on the relationship between the literacy practices of cultural communities and the reading strategies of particular individuals.
L1 and L2 vocabulary glosses in L2 reading passages: Their effectiveness for increasing comprehension and vocabulary knowledge
Authors: Jacobs George M. , Dufon Peggy , Hong Fong Cheng
Published: November 2005

This study investigated the effect of vocabulary glossing on recall and vocabulary learning, as well as learners’ preferences as to glossing. Eighty‐five native speakers of English studying Spanish at the university level participated.

Participants read a Spanish text under one of three treatment conditions: no gloss, English glosses, or Spanish glosses. They then were asked to write what they recalled of the passage, translate a list of the glossed vocabulary, and complete a questionnaire. The translation task was repeated four weeks later.

Results showed that glossing did not significantly affect recall for the participants overall, but that those with higher than average proficiency recalled more if they had read a glossed version of the text. Those who had glosses outperformed their peers on the translation task administered immediately after they had read the text. However, this difference disappeared on the retest. Participants expressed preference for glosses, wished that they be located in the margin, and favoured Spanish glosses if they were comprehensible.
Sentence context and meaning frequency effects in children's processing of ambiguous words
Authors: Simpson Greg B. , Krueger Merilee A. , Kang Hyewon , Elofson Amy C.
Published: November 2005

Nine‐ and twelve‐year‐old children named target words which were preceded by sentences ending in words having more than one meaning. Sentences biased the ambiguous word toward its dominant (more frequent) or subordinate (less frequent) meaning. Targets were related to the same meaning as that biased by the sentence, the other meaning, or were unrelated. Targets were presented 0, 300, or 700 ms following the sentence. For both ages, dominant sentences facilitated responses only to the contextually appropriate target. However, subordinate sentences led to facilitation of the appropriate meaning only for the younger group. Older children showed greater facilitation for the inappropriate (but more common) meaning. These results indicate that younger children are more sensitive to the sentence context in which an ambiguous word appears, while the processing of the older children is determined more by the relative frequencies of the words meanings.
The relationship between musical ability and literacy skills
Authors: Douglas Sheila , Willatts Peter
Published: November 2005

Research has shown that a relationship exists between phonological awareness and literary skills. It has been suggested that a structured programme of musical activities can be used to help children develop a multi‐sensory awareness and response to sounds. The relationship between musical ability and literacy skills was examined in a study that showed an association between rhythmic ability and reading. A further pilot intervention study showed that training in musical skills is a valuable additional strategy for assisting children with reading difficulties.
Reading medical English abstracts: a genre study of the interaction between structural variables and the reader's linguistico‐conceptual competence (L2)
Authors: Salager‐Meyer Françoise
Published: November 2005

Study Objective: To investigate how structural variables influence readers’ construction of meaning from short‐text samples of expository prose across different levels of background knowledge, text familiarity and L2 competence.

Subjects: 36 Spanish‐speaking medical graduates of different L2 proficiency—18 High Intermediate (HI) and 18 Advanced subjects (AD)—were randomly divided into 2 sub‐groups of 9 subjects.

Design: Rhetorical manipulations were performed on the published versions of three semantically different medical English abstracts (familiar and relatively unfamiliar topics). Each sub‐group received one of either version and completed a reading test. A questionnaire elicited background information on the subjects. Self‐generated comments on the abstracts were optional.

Statistical Treatment of Data: The number of correct answers for each abstract was recorded. Between‐group one‐ and two‐way ANOVAs were applied. The questionnaires and self‐generated comments were both qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed.

Results: Both groups differed in their background knowledge and in their intensity of English reading. The AD subjects outperformed the HI ones in reading performance for all three abstracts together, and for the two relatively unfamiliar abstracts only. No difference was observed for the familiar abstract. In the well structured but relatively unfamiliar abstract, only L2 competence affected reading performance. In the relatively unfamiliar and poorly structured abstract, text structure, L2 competence and the interaction between both variables affected reading comprehension.

Conclusions: Textual variables operate differently depending on the extent of the readers’ background knowledge and linguistic competence. Variables such as exposure to reading materials (in L1 and L2), background knowledge and L2 competence seem to outweigh the importance of structural variables.
The teacher response to children's miscues of substitution
Authors: Campbell Robin
Published: November 2005

The teacher response to the miscues of substitution, produced by two beginning readers (6 years old) during the course of a complete academic year within the naturalistic setting of an infant classroom, was explored. The teacher responses were categorised into five main types. The study demonstrated that the teacher response was determined, in part, by the nature of the miscue in terms of its graphophonic, syntactic and semantic link with the text word. The effectiveness of the teacher response was also explored. It was found that although ‘providing the word’ was the most effective strategy to employ for immediate results it was least effective for supporting the child during future readings. Non‐response when used for meaningful substitutions did not impede the child's subsequent reading. Most effective was the restarting of the sentence for the child; this helped the child to repair the miscue immediately and had a continuing positive effect when the word was next met.
Inner speech in young French children's reading
Authors: Liva Angeline , Pugh A.K.
Published: November 2005

The role of speech and inner speech in reading is contentious and the study of inner speech in reading is fraught with methodological problems. An approach sometimes used is the ‘e‐cancelling’ method, where subjects are instructed to mark all incidences of the letter ‘e’ in a text so that inferences can be made from underlining ‘e's that would be silent versus those that would be sounded in speech. However, this method does not work well in the French language and, in attempting to use letter cancelling approaches with French children aged 7–8 years, we have used other vowels as targets. In this paper we present some results about the effects on rate of reading and comprehension of various tasks intended to induce attention to the sound of parts of the text. Our conclusion, in line with that of Liva (1987) and other researchers, is that, at this early stage of reading development, reference to the sound of text does not inhibit comprehension.
Portuguese preschool teachers' beliefs about early literacy development
Authors: Guimãraes Ana Sofia , Youngman Michael
Published: November 2005

This work describes a questionnaire survey conducted in a county in central Portugal. The intention was to ascertain preschool teachers’ opinions about early literacy development and its place in preschool education, and to investigate the skills and knowledge seen by teachers as important for early reading and writing development.

The results show that, overall, teachers regard preschool education as important for future literacy acquisition, but the majority do not think that early literacy activities should always be part of the preschool curriculum. Concerning the skills that they perceive as important in terms of literacy development, greater emphasis was attributed to verbal, perceptual (auditory and visual) and fine motor skills. Letter/sound knowledge and phonological awareness were considered the least important. Various inferences are drawn, and recommendations for future policy decisions are offered.
The metacognitive reading strategies of five early readers
Authors: Brenna Beverley A.
Published: November 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the metacognitive reading strategies of five children, four to six years of age, who were reading fluently prior to formal instruction in grade one. Fluency was judged on whether the children could conduct meaningful reading (Smith, 1988) with relative smoothness (Duffy and Roehler, 1989). Methods of this case study included semi‐structured interviews, role playing, observations and informal miscue analyses of oral reading. The children's personal characteristics and home environments provided a context for their reading strategies, and particular attention was given to the caregiver‐child interactions which may have facilitated the development of metacognitive reading strategies.

Findings suggest that each of the children utilized a variety of metacognitive reading strategies and showed individual preferences for certain strategies, as indicated by the number of times these strategies were used. The children also responded differently to particular research methods, a finding which supports the employment of a variety of methods when studying young children. Findings from this study also draw a relationship between caregiver‐child interactions and the development of particular metacognitive reading strategies.
Researching and promoting phonological awareness in the nursery class
Authors: Layton Lyn , Deeny Karen , Tall Graham , Upton Graham
Published: November 2005

The paper summarises the pilot study and the first two phases of a longitudinal study which set out to prevent the emergence of written language difficulties, by addressing the ability of pre‐schoolers to make phonological judgements. It describes the assessment procedure which was used with 240 nursery‐class children, aged 4 years 5 months, and the activities which were designed to give these children experience in attending to the sound structure of language before the assessment was carried out. Following assessment 41 children were identified as having poor rhyme awareness and were targeted for one‐to‐one training. In the second phase of the study, also discussed here, 21 were given training in the skills supporting phonological awareness and the remainder were assigned to a control group for equivalent training in categorisation skills. It is intended that the literacy skills of both groups will be assessed when the children are 7 years old.
Uninterrupted, Sustained, Silent Reading: the rhetoric and the practice
Authors: Robertson Chris , Keating Iris , Shenton Lesley , Roberts Ivy
Published: November 2005

The study investigated whether the rhetoric of uninterrupted, sustained, silent reading (USSR/ERIC) was evident in primary classrooms where the practice was professed to operate. Nine primary schools in three different counties were surveyed, and the sample included both urban and rural schools. Structured interviews were undertaken with the headteacher and two members of staff in each school, followed by classroom observations, focusing on what do teachers do in practice during USSR/ERIC.

From both interviews and observations it was evident that teacher interpretation of how the sessions should be organised and managed was not specifically that of the rhetoric, with only one school closely following the prescribed model. Whilst the value of a quiet reading time was generally acknowledged and much good practice observed in sessions, it would appear that many models which operate under the guise of ‘uninterrupted sustained silent reading’ are governed by teacher preference or pupil need.
Conceptions of literacy in primary and secondary school teachers
Authors: Webster Alec , Beveridge Michael , Reed Malcolm
Published: November 2005

Recently, teachers have been described as lacking an organised and consistent understanding of how children acquire literacy. Arguments about falling standards have been aired in the media, and links drawn between methods currently in favour in UK schools, and an apparent failure of children to acquire ‘basic skills'. Proposals have now been made by the Department for Education which give greater prominence to more structured, skill‐based primary teaching which, it is claimed, will raise standards and better prepare children to meet the demands they face as they move into secondary school. This study analyses teachers’ conceptual maps of literacy teaching as the preliminary phase of a research programme aimed at describing and enhancing pupils’ functional use of literacy across the curriculum. The analysis is based on a four‐quadrant model of adult‐child proximation. Using a questionnaire format, important similarities and contrasts were found between the views of primary and secondary teachers. However, the study does reveal that teachers have complex models of literacy which underpin their work and do not adhere to simplistic, uni‐dimensional methods.
Do bilingual children read words better in lists or in context?
Authors: Wong Mei Yin , Underwood Geoffrey
Published: November 2005

The aim of this study was to determine whether 11‐year‐old children in Singapore, from English Dominant or English Non‐Dominant backgrounds, read better orally when words were presented in list or text. The children read words in passage and in list form presented in counterbalanced order. In a study of good, average and poor readers, Nicholson (1991) found that context was of more benefit to poorer readers and to younger readers. With the English Non‐Dominant readers in the present study regarded as less proficient readers of English, these children should be expected to show the greatest gains from passage presentations. Error analyses showed that English Non‐Dominant readers performed less well in list readings relative to text readings, while the English Dominant readers produced no difference in performance for these conditions. This indicates that readers with less exposure to English relied more on contextual information than the more experienced readers. Thus, Goodman's (1965) idea of enlightened guessing was again questioned in this study for the case of bilingual readers. Additionally, reading miscues were found to vary in type according to whether the same words were being read in list or in context.
Targeting Inflation with a Role for Money
Authors: Söderström Ulf
Published: November 2005

This paper demonstrates how a target for money growth can be beneficial for an inflation‐targeting central bank acting under discretion. Because the growth rate of money is closely related to the change in the interest rate and the growth of real output, delegating a money growth target to the central bank makes discretionary policy more inertial, leading to better social outcomes. This delegation scheme is also compared with other schemes suggested in the literature. The results indicate that stabilizing money growth around a target can be a sensible strategy for monetary policy, although other delegation schemes are often more efficient.
The Signalling Role of Municipal Currencies in Local Development
Authors: Jayaraman Rajshri , Oak Mandar
Published: November 2005

The last decade has seen the burgeoning of several hundred local community currency institutions in cities across the world. Although residents of these communities claim that local currency promotes local development, how it does so has hitherto been unexplored. We argue that the introduction of a municipal currency may serve as a signal of demand for local goods. Where demand uncertainty deters firms from investing in more productive technologies, such a signal improves the chances that technology choice will be optimal. The introduction of a local currency therefore always improves ex ante efficiency and may lead to ex post efficiency, with strictly higher levels of productivity and welfare.
A Dynamic Model of Differential Human Capital and Criminal Activity
Authors: Mocan H. Naci , Billups Stephen C. , Overland Jody
Published: November 2005

This paper presents a dynamic model of criminal activity. Individuals are endowed with legal and criminal human capital. Potential incomes in legal and criminal sectors depend on the level of the relevant human capital, the rate of return and random shocks. Human capital can be enhanced by participating in both sectors. Legal human capital can also be enhanced through investment. Human capital is subject to depreciation. Individuals maximize expected discounted lifetime utility, which depends on consumption. The model allows analyses of the effects of recessions, imprisonment/rehabilitation scenarios, sanctions and returns to human capital. New insights, such as hysteresis in criminal behaviour, are obtained.
The Impact of Monetary Union on Macroeconomic Integration: Evidence from West Africa
Authors: Fielding David , Shields Kalvinder
Published: November 2005

Data from 19 African nations is used to investigate the hypothesis that monetary union—represented in this case by the CFA Franc Zone—augments the extent of macroeconomic integration. The paper covers two key dimensions of integration: the volume of bilateral trade, and the magnitude of cross‐country business cycle correlation. Restricting our attention to a part of the world in which (for historical reasons) monetary union membership is exogenous to economic characteristics, we can test whether the large single‐currency effects claimed by A. Rose apply within a sample of less developed countries.
The Validity of the Long‐run Heckscher–Ohlin Theorem in the Ricardian System
Authors: Uchiyama Takashi
Published: November 2005

Applying Burgstaller's Ricardian two‐sector growth model to the two‐country open economy, this paper shows that the long‐run Heckscher–Ohlin theorem holds also in a Ricardian world. In addition it is shown that, if two Ricardian countries that are different only in their demand parameters open trade, comparative advantage and the corresponding trade pattern at trade opening continue in the long run after the opening of trade.
Factor Proportions and Ricardian Comparative Advantage: Thoughts on Uchiyama
Authors: Burgstaller André
Published: November 2005

In a Ricardo–Pasinetti world, inferring a long‐run comparative advantage from a stationary‐state factor proportions differential is invalid, since the latter may be present in the absence of the former and will be a consequence, not the cause, of long‐run comparative advantage where such exists.
Empowering learners: an exploration of mediating learning for care workers
Authors: Miers Margaret E. , Coles Jonathan G. , Girot Elizabeth , Wilkinson Geoff
Published: November 2005

Care workers in learning disability services have welcomed the introduction of a university Certificate in Empowering Practice designed to meet their learning needs. An independent evaluation in 2001 confirmed students’ and employers’ satisfaction with the award. Subsequently, four colleagues – two evaluators and two lecturers on the empowering practice modules – engaged in a co‐operative inquiry to explore lecturers’ perceptions of the learning and teaching processes intrinsic to the success of the certificate. This article reports on the rationale, process and outcomes of the co‐operative inquiry. Co‐operative inquiry involves working with each other as co‐subjects and co‐researchers. The inquiry focuses on transfer of learning and on facilitating learning in groups. The study explores the significance of conceptual understanding; moving back and forth between theory and practice; lecturers’ person and student‐centred philosophy and practice; accepting emotional influences on learning; metacognitive control; and managing risk through relationships. It reviews ideas underpinning the development of the programme and design of the curriculum, including the situational model of curriculum development and the notion of constructive alignment. The outcomes of the co‐operative inquiry include enhanced understanding of the importance of the nature of lecturer/learner relationships in empowering care workers to change practice.
Human papillomavirus and disease mechanisms: relevance to oral and cervical cancers*
Authors: Nair S , Pillai MR
Published: November 2005

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most common malignancy and is a major cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. Carcinoma of the uterine cervix is the most common female malignancy in the world. While cervical cancer is a worldwide disease, oral cancer has the highest incidence in developing countries, especially among tobacco and alcohol users and betel quid chewers. A strong association of cervical and oral cancer with high‐risk human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 and 18 infections underlines the importance of the virus in the pathogenesis of these squamous cell carcinomas. Functionally high‐risk HPV infection contributes to carcinogenesis and tumor progression predominantly through the actions of two viral oncogenes, E6 and E7. The E6 and E7 genes have been studied in different patient populations and a number of variants have been described. More than 40 variants have been classified and may be related to differences in progression of squamous intraepithelial lesions. The transcription factor, NFκB and its activation pathways are frequently targeted by viruses and aberrant constitutive activation of NFκB is frequently found in human tumors of diverse tissue origin. Diet–gene interactions are also likely to contribute considerably to the observed inter‐individual variations in HPV associated cancer risk, in response to exposures to the nutritional factors that have the potential to promote or protect against cancer.