Longitudinal changes in brain activation underlying reading fluency

Reading fluency -- the speed and accuracy of reading connected text -- is foundational to educational success. The current longitudinal study investigates the neural correlates of fluency development using a connected-text paradigm with an individualized presentation rate. Twenty-six children completed a functional MRI task in 1st/2nd grade (time 1) and again 1-2 years later (time 2). There was a longitudinal increase in activation in the ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex from time 1 to time 2. This increase was also associated with improvements in reading fluency skills and modulated by individual speed demands. These findings highlight the reciprocal relationship of the vOT region with reading proficiency and its importance for supporting the transition to fluent reading. These results have implications for developing effective interventions to target increased automaticity in reading.

Fluency Interventions for Struggling Readers in Grades 6 to 12: A Research Synthesis

This systematic review synthesizes fluency intervention research for struggling readers in Grades 6 through 12 from January 2006 to October 2019. The search yielded 17 studies examining reading fluency and comprehension outcomes. Most studies examined repeated reading (RR) interventions to improve reading fluency for struggling readers at these grade levels, resulting in improved fluency but few positive effects on reading comprehension outcomes, similar to trends observed in prior systematic reviews. Reading connected text with an equivalent word count to word counts of RR sessions did not result in increased reading fluency, a finding aligned with a prior synthesis. Few studies used a fluent reader as a model prior to RRs, despite previous support for modeling within fluency interventions.

Natural Scene Nutrition Information Acquisition and Analysis Based on Deep Learning

Background: In the field of personalized health, it is often difficult for individuals to obtain professional knowledge to solve their practical problems timely and accurately. While there are some applications that can get targeted information, they often fail to function properly in nonideal environments, and they cannot achieve precise answers to individual users. Therefore, how to establish an information capture model based on big data and combine it with intelligent search is an important issue in the field of personalized health. Objective: This paper starts with the information acquisition and intelligent recommendation in the field of personalized health, and proposes a natural scene information acquisition and analysis model based on deep learning, focusing on improving the recognition rate of text in natural scenes and achieving targeted smart search to allow users to get more accurate personalized health advice. Methods: In this model, natural scene information is processed from four aspects: targeted big data collection and search, connected text proposal network text detection algorithm and projectionbased text segmentation, capsule network text recognition and result analysis. The model reduces recognition bias due to problems such as special filming conditions and photographic techniques by using deep learning algorithms. At the same time, the data mining has also improved the pertinence of the results analysis. Conclusion: This model combines deep learning and data mining methods to obtain intelligent solutions at a professional level by uploading target information images in non-ideal environments, and is suitable for accurate analysis of problems in personalized health area. Results: The proposed model is applied to analyze the user's nutrient intake requirements. The results show that the method achieves 83% prediction accuracy on the nutrient composition table dataset, and its performance is better than current convolutional neural network applications. And the model can get accurate personalized data to provide users with dietary advice.

Relationship Between Single Word Reading, Connected Text Reading, and Reading Comprehension in Persons With Aphasia

Purpose This study examined the relationship between single word reading, connected text reading, and comprehension in persons with aphasia. Method Thirteen persons with aphasia read orally from the Arizona Battery for Reading and Spelling real-word and nonword lists and the Gray Oral Reading Tests–Fifth Edition. The comprehension questions following each paragraph of the Gray Oral Reading Tests–Fifth Edition were answered and scored. The Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia–Second Edition provided a measure of silent reading comprehension. Descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation were used to examine associations among reading measures. Results Persons with aphasia showed associations between single word reading and connected text reading accuracy; however, single word reading ability was not associated with oral or silent reading comprehension. Conclusions Although preliminary, the findings provide support for word-level reading abilities underlying connected text reading accuracy but suggest additional cognitive mechanisms are involved in text-level reading comprehension that are not explained by single word reading alone. The findings indicate clinicians should use caution when inferring comprehension abilities from single word reading performance as reading comprehension abilities are likely best assessed using text-level comprehension assessments.

The system of the Russian prosody

This paper is aimed at illustrating the phenomenon of compositionality in the system of the communicative meanings and their prosodic means of expression. The regularity in combining the communicative meanings is illustrated by the compositions of 1) the illocutionary meanings, 2) the meaning of discourse incompleteness, and 3) the meaning of communicative contrast. It is demonstrated that discourse incompleteness functions not only within the row of statements which constitute a connected text, but also within sequences of questions, including the contrastive contexts. The systemic method of analysis has been applied therefore to the description of a fragment of linguistic pragmatics. The material for the analysis is a minor working corpus of the sound speech specifically set up for this investigation on the basis the Russian National corpus.

Computer-Based Connected-Text Training of Speech-in-Noise Perception for Cochlear Implant Users

An interactive method for training speech perception in noise was assessed with adult cochlear implant users. The method employed recordings of connected narratives divided into phrases of 4 to 10 words, presented in babble. After each phrase, the listener identified key words from the phrase from among similar sounding foil words. Nine postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant users carried out 12 hr of training over a 4-week period. Training was carried out at home on tablet computers. The primary outcome measure was sentence recognition in babble. Vowel and consonant identification in speech-shaped noise were also assessed, along with digit span in noise, intended as a measure of some important underlying cognitive abilities. Talkers for speech tests were different from those used in training. To control for procedural learning, the test battery was administered repeatedly prior to training. Performance was assessed immediately after training and again after a further 4 weeks during which no training occurred. Sentence recognition in babble improved significantly after training, with an improvement in speech reception threshold of approximately 2 dB, which was maintained at the 4-week follow-up. There was little evidence of improvement in the other measures. It appears that the method has potential as a clinical intervention. However, the underlying sources of improvement and the extent to which benefits generalize to real-world situations remain to be determined.

Mohammed Almagout poetry in his collection ( Seyaf Alzehour) Textual reading in Purposefulness

Mohammed Almagout is a fruitful poetical character of innovative ideas , violating the standard system in thinking and writing. He aims to create intellectual and epistemological alternatives , to reach the future, where the targeted poetical dreams rather than reality. He is with humanistic vision seeking glimpses of hope. His poetical approach is humanistic targeting new horizons to provide life with purposefulness for the responder . The research problem: The research tackles the concept of ( purposefulness) as textual criteria , and basic condition in humanistic communication process, between the poet, the creator of coherence and aim connected text , and the responder , who intends to investigate the purposefulness. The research method and aim.The research follows textual approach, to explain the language of the poet in this collection, and to locate and investigate the mechanism of the poet purposefulness, where that opens a gap to show the text, and multiple readings. The purposefulness is of condensed dimension rather than significance rational , as in ordinary text.

The Effects of Choral Repeated Reading on Foreign Language Reading Fluency of Words in Connected and Disconnected Text

Repeated reading has been successfully used to enhance reading fluency in L1, but little is known about how (and to what extent) this strategy impacts reading in foreign language classrooms. Our paper reports the results of a 5-week intervention program aimed to improve reading fluency of middle school students during their English as a foreign language classes. Four classes of sixth-graders divided in two groups received two reading treatments for the last 15 minutes of the class: choral repeated reading (CRR) and reading comprehension/vocabulary development (RC/VD). Results indicated that a short term intervention program of repeated reading can lead to significant improvements of fluency only at lexical level (words in disconnected text) but not at syntactic level (words in connected text). Pedagogical implications and further research directions are addressed.

Connecting Text

This chapter discusses the act of connecting text. The benefit of a connected text is not as simple as merely 'having an audience'. The act of choice in sending something out into the world, under one's own name, and of one's own creation is a singularly autonomous act. This assertion of self is not uncommon for students in a school classroom, in fact it is an important part of what makes the school such a real and authentic place for students and teachers alike, but the formalisation of this in text is unique. The affordances of this self-assertion are often immediately clear. The text, which frequently represents the most tangible product of the classroom experience for students, extends their voice. The value they place on it is reinforced by the fact that they have the power to publish the text to the world.