Readability and Understandability Scores for Snippet Assessment: an Exploratory Study

Code search engines usually use readability feature to rank code snippets. There are several metrics to calculate this feature, but developers may have different perceptions about readability. Correlation between readability and understandability features has already been proposed, i.e., developers need to read and comprehend the code snippet syntax, but also understand the semantics. This work investigate scores for understandability and readability features, under the perspective of the possible subjective perception of code snippet comprehension. We find that code snippets with higher readability score has better comprehension than lower ones. The understandability score presents better comprehension in specific situations, e.g. nested loops or if-else chains. The developers also mentioned writability aspects as the principal characteristic to evaluate code snippets comprehension. These results provide insights for future works in code comprehension score optimization.

The Correlation Between Students’ Reading Anxiety and Their Reading Comprehension in ESP Context

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between reading anxiety and reading comprehension of ESP students in Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. The participants in this study were 50 first-year Governmental Science students who took intensive reading I. This study used correlational design to analyze the relationship between two variables (Reading anxiety and Reading comprehension). In collecting the data, the English Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Inventory (EFLRAI) questionnaire was used to investigate the level and potential causes of reading anxiety. Moreover, in assembling students' reading comprehension data, the researcher constructed a reading comprehension test specifically for governmental science students. Based on the study results, the non-English department students belong to moderate a level of reading anxiety. Specifically, reading anxiety is divided into three main aspects; top-down reading anxiety, bottom-up reading anxiety, and classroom reading anxiety. It was found out that the most potent sources of reading anxiety were in bottom-up reading anxiety, namely unclear-meaning vocabulary in English written text. Regarding students reading comprehension level, the ESP students have a low reading comprehension score. Besides, the research findings illustrated that there is a negative moderate-strong relationship between reading anxiety and Comprehension of ESP students. In means, the higher anxiety the students have, the lower their comprehension score they obtained. Thus, by knowing this, the teacher should select a carefully teaching method in their ESP classroom to decrease their reading anxiety and encourage them to improve their reading comprehension and deal with their anxiety.

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH REQUEST (RECIPROCAL QUESTION) STRATEGY FOR INDONESIAN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

This research is aim at improving to the reading comprehension of eight grade students at SMPN 2 Kedunggalar through Request (Reciprocal Question). In conducting this study, the researcher applied Classroom Action Research (CAR) as the strategy of the research. It was conducted in two cycles and each cycle consisted four phases : planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The subjects of the study were 31 students of class VIII B of SMPN 2 Kedunggalar. There were two forms of data in this study. The qualitative data were obtained by doing observing. Meanwhile, the quantitative data were obtained from the students‟ reading comprehension score of the pre-test and post-test and they were analyzed by using descriptive. The students have to reach four indicators they are understanding of content, generic structure, languages feature and purpose recount text. Applied request strategy can improved the students reading skill. The enrichment supported them comprehending the texts. The improvement was supported by the compare of the students‟ mean score from the pre-test, post test 1 and post-test 2 with percentage students passed KKM, 33 percentage 0%,41 percentage 9,7% and 77 96,8%. Their involvement in the reading class also improved. In addition, the students became more active and they enjoyed the process of teaching and learning reading.

Does a comic style informed assent form improve comprehension for minors participating in clinical trials?

Background Several authors have shown that children and adolescents have limited understanding of critical elements of the research studies in which they are participating. The inclusion of graphic elements is a promising approach to increase the understandability of assent forms of clinical trials. Objectives To design a new assent form in comic strip format for minors participating in clinical trials and to compare the comprehension of this new document with a traditional assent form. Methods This study included an assessment of the readability of standard informed assents, the evaluation of the comprehension of one of these documents, the development of a new (comic format) informed assent from the original document previously evaluated, and the analysis of readability and comprehension of the new informed assent. The readability of the documents was assessed using previously validated formulas, whereas comprehension analyses were performed through a questionnaire taken by two groups of 12-year-old students of secondary schools. Ethical considerations: All procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Findings Compared with the original document, the comic assent form improved the grammatical readability of the “Aims, Risks and Benefits and How to Get More Information” sections, the comprehension scores in the Aims and Procedure sections, the understanding of ideas, and the formation of macro-ideas. The benefits of the comic strip format were more noticeable among participants in the lower percentiles of the comprehension score. Conclusions Our results show that the comic assent form has high readability and comprehensibility compared with its original form, particularly in the domains of knowledge-based inferences and macro-ideas formation. The use of forms that combine text and comic strips may help the comprehension of minors participating of a clinical trial, supporting their autonomy in decision-making.

Reading Intervention Practice: Effects of Print and E-Dictionary Use

This study investigated reading intervention method using print and e-dictionary. In particular, the study examined the effects of print and e-dictionary usage on reading habits and reading comprehension of form sixth students in Johor. Respondents were students with low/limited English proficiency (LEP) in their second semester of sixth form program. Using a mixed method approach, data was gathered quantitatively and qualitatively. Questionnaires were utilised to collect information on students’ reading habits and reading attitudes. Reading comprehension test results were obtained from the school MUET panel examination record. The quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS software while the participants’ reading comprehension test results were analysed using Excel program. The participants’ writing reflection constituted the qualitative data. Findings show that the use of e-dictionary and print dictionary during a reading intervention program affected the reading habits and attitudes of the participants to a certain extent. The use of e-dictionary and print dictionary while reading act as an important factor in assisting LEP students to be better readers. However, there was no significant relationship between the use of e-dictionary and print dictionary and reading comprehension score. Several recommendations on intervention strategies for future research are made from the findings of this study.

The Effect of Herringbone Technique on Students’ Reading Comprehension through Narrative Text at MTs PAB 1 Helvetia, Medan

The Effect of Herringbone Technique on Students’ Reading Comprehension through Narrative Text at MTs PAB 1 Helvetia, Medan Rizky Vita Losi Universitas Pembangunan Panca Budi [email protected] Abstract This research dealt with Herringbone technique which was proposed by Deegan (2006). The aim of this research was to know whether Herringbone technique was effective to be applied on students’ reading comprehension through narrative text. The sample of this research was grade VIII-E students which consisted of 31 students at MTs PAB 1 Helvetia, Medan. The data of this research was students’ reading comprehension score on pre-test and post-test. The data was analyzed by using Paired Sample T-Test formula which was calculated by SPSS 2.2. From the data analysis, it was found that the T-Test value was higher than the T-Table value (10,085 > 2,042). It showed that the alternative hypothesis (Ha) was accepted and the null hypothesis (Ho) was rejected. It also showed that there was a significance effect after applying Herringbone technique on students’ reading comprehension through narrative text at MTs PAB 1 Helvetia, Medan. Keywords: herringbone technique, students’ reading comprehension, paired sample t-test formula

The engaging of early age children in environmental behavior through wayang kancil folktale

School is a medium to solve the waste problem through clean lifestyle psychoeducation. Wayang kancil folktale uses animal characters as an alternative method to teach early age children to reduce littering behavior. This approach is applied because the animal world is close to the children's world. In addition, an interaction between children and the storyteller through folktale occurs during wayang kancil show. This study is action research which involves 14 second-year nursery student from a pre-school institution in Yogyakarta. The A-B-A experiment design puts the hypotheses of wayang kancil folktale to stimulate littering behavior at an early age to the test. Baseline, intervention, and reversal measurement was conducted consecutively for nine days which was recorded in observation sheets. Comprehension test was carried out before and after the intervention. The observation result was analyzed using visual analysis. Meanwhile, a comprehension score is rated by implemented paired sample t-test. The coefficient of reliability test of inter-rater was 0.971. Pre and post-intervention comprehension score increased rapidly (p = 0.000; < 0.01). The result proves that wayang kancil folktale was able to reduce children’s littering behavior.

Correlation between Students’ Cognitive Reading Strategies and Reading Comprehension

This research aims to 1) describe students’ responses toward cognitive reading strategies and their reading comprehension score; 2) find out the correlation between students’ cognitive reading strategies and their reading comprehension. The current research is quantitative in nature. The quantitative is intended to describe the responses of students to cognitive and reading strategies and to explain to what extent the correlation between students’ cognitive reading strategies and reading comprehension. The samples are the fourth semester students of English education as subjects or participants of the research. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to get responses from students in term of Cognitive Reading Strategies. IELTS Reading Testing was used to get Students’ reading comprehension scores. The quantitative data were analyzed by correlation product moment. The results of the study shows that most of students usually use four cognitive reading strategies included in this research and cognitive reading strategies correlate significantly to students’ reading comprehension with p value of 0.00 and coefficient value of 0.61.

Determination of appropriate compression rate for developing the Persian version of time compressed sentence test

Background and Aim: Time compressed spe­ech test is one of the most useful monaural tests for evaluation of central auditory processing disorder. For developing the time compressed sentences test, the compression rate of the sen­tences must be set so that the average speech comprehension score is about 90% in normal individuals and can challenge central auditory processing system sufficiently so subjects with auditory processing disorders could be identi­fied. Therefore, the aim of the present study was finding the appropriate compression rate for developing compressed sentences test in Persian. Method: Initially, two 10-sentence lists were prepared based on the experts’ opinion and were compressed by the amount of 60, 65, 70, 75 and 80% using Praat software. Compressed sentences were tested on twelve 18–25 year-old normal individuals and the speech comprehen­sion score in different compression rates was compared and the compression rate in which the average score was approximately 90% was reported as an appropriate compression rate for developing time compressed sentences test in Persian. Results: 70% compression rate was able to cre­ate an average score of 95.27% (± 3.31) and 93.6% (± 7.17) in the right and left ear, res­pectively. Conclusion: Results showed that the compre­ssion rate of 70% was appropriate rate for dev­eloping the test in the Persian language.

User-driven design of child restraint information to reduce errors in use: a pilot randomised controlled trial

BackgroundIncorrect use of child restraints is a long-standing problem that increases the risk of injury in crashes. We used user-centred design to develop prototype child restraint instructional materials. The objective of this study was to evaluate these materials in terms of comprehension and errors in the use of child restraints. The relationship between comprehension and errors in use was also explored.MethodsWe used a parallel-group randomised controlled trial in a laboratory setting. The intervention group (n=22) were provided with prototype materials and the control group (n=22) with existing instructional materials for the same restraint. Participants installed the restraint in a vehicle buck, secured an appropriately sized mannequin in the restraint and underwent a comprehension test. Our primary outcome was overall correct use, and our secondary outcomes were (1) comprehension score and (2) percent errors in the installation trial.ResultsThere was 27% more overall correct use (p=0.042) and a higher mean comprehension score in the intervention group (mean 17, 95% CI 16 to 18) compared with the control group (mean 12, 95% CI 10 to 14, p<0.001). The mean error percentage in the control group was 23% (95% CI 16% to 31%) compared with 14% in the intervention group (95% CI 8% to 20%, p=0.056). For every one point increase in comprehension, there was an almost 2% (95% CI −2.7% to −1.0%) reduction in errors (y=45.5–1.87x, p value for slope <0.001).ConclusionsConsumer-driven design of informational materials can increase the correct use of child restraints. Targeting improved comprehension of informational materials may be an effective mechanism for reducing child restraint misuse.