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Radboud University, 14 januari 2020, Promotores : Verhoeven, L.T.W., Segers, P.C.J., Contains fulltext : 214843.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)

Contains fulltext : 219564.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), The aim of this study was to examine variation in early reading comprehension development for second language (L2) readers compared with first language (L1) readers and to investigate the impact of vocabulary knowledge in their first and second language. Participants were 75 Dutch monolingual children (L1 readers) and 71 Turkish–Dutch bilingual children (L2 readers), aged between 6 and 8 years old at the start of the study. In a longitudinal design, three waves of data were collected across second and third grades. The L2 readers had lower reading comprehension scores than the L1 readers on average, but this performance gap narrowed over time. To further investigate variation among the L2 readers, four categorical subgroups of L2 readers were identified with varying levels of L1 (Turkish) and L2 (Dutch) vocabulary knowledge by means of cluster analysis. Group membership was related to reading comprehension and showed an interaction with time, indicating that reading comprehension performance of the two L2 subgroups with high L1 vocabulary increased more over time compared with L1 readers. The L2 subgroup with high vocabulary in both languages even caught up with their monolingual peers in third grade. These findings demonstrate how individual differences in L1 and L2 vocabulary knowledge explain variation in early L2 reading comprehension development and highlight the importance of considering L2 readers' first language in research and education.

This study explored what Dutch science museums are currently doing to reach an inclusive audience. Furthermore, it explored their current visitor profile and the problems these museums encounter while trying to be inclusive. I analyzed publicly accessible documents of seven science museums across the Netherlands, conducted semi-structured interviews with their representatives and had an interview with the project leader of Diversity and Inclusivity of the sector organization of science museums and science centers in the Netherlands. For the analysis of the transcripts I used a combination of deductive and inductive coding methods. The results show that the dominant groups which visits Dutch science museums are higher educated, higher income, with white European background families, experienced museum visitors, elders and tourists. The nondominant groups are teenagers, younger students, people from a migration background and people with lower socio-economic backgrounds. The results imply that the museums do not yet have a definition of inclusion. The nondominant groups are mostly reached through formal education programs and activities the museums provide. Other inclusive actions undertaken are being free of admission, (free) one-time events, activities and programs. The problems museums encounter while trying to be inclusive are not having a diverse management, not knowing how to communicate with nondominant groups and not having enough money to bind new target audiences to the museum. I conclude that inclusion in Dutch science museums is at the beginning stage, but that the museums are gaining awareness regarding attracting inclusive audiences and becoming an inclusive institution.

18th Biennial Conference of the European Association of Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI 2019) (Aken, Germany, 12-16 August, 2019), Item does not contain fulltext

Contains fulltext : 202739.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), Using classical and quantile regression analyses, we investigated whether predictor variables for early reading comprehension differed depending on language background and ability level in a mixed group of 161 monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) children in second grade (6-8 years). Although L2 readers scored lower on oral language skills and reading comprehension, the prediction of reading comprehension was similar for L1 and L2 readers. Classical regression identified decoding, vocabulary, and morphosyntactic knowledge as unique predictors with no interaction with language background. Quantile regression demonstrated that the prediction of reading comprehension differed across ability levels; decoding and morphosyntactic knowledge were consistently unique predictors, but vocabulary was uniquely related only for poor comprehenders and working memory only for good comprehenders. In both types of analysis, language background did not explain unique variance, indicating that individual differences in the predictor variables explained the L1-L2 performance gap in early reading comprehension across the ability range.

Contains fulltext : 178748pub.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), We investigated online processing of causal relations in beginning first (L1) and second language (L2) readers (8-10 years old). By means of eye-tracking, we measured children's processing times of two-clause sentences including a causal relation. Two text-related factors were investigated: coherence marking (i.e., presence vs. absence of the Dutch connective omdat 'because') and linear order of clauses (i.e., cause-effect vs. effect-cause). In addition, syntactic knowledge was included as a child-related factor of interest. The results showed that coherence marking and individual differences in syntactic knowledge influenced children's online sentence processing. In contrast to L1 readers, the absence of a connective led to longer sentence processing times for L2 readers with lower syntactic knowledge; they experienced more difficulty with processing sentences in which no connective was present. Apparently, L2 readers with limited syntactic knowledge benefit from coherence marking provided by a connective, which allows them to establish the causal coherence relation between clauses in a more efficient way. Reversing the linear order of clauses did not affect children's online sentence processing. This study provides an initial step towards the use of online measures to examine sentence processing in beginning L1 and L2 readers aimed at gaining more insight into L2 reading comprehension difficulties.

Item does not contain fulltext, In het basisonderwijs is er een aanzienlijk aantal leerlingen dat thuis geen of weinig Nederlands spreekt. Zij leren lezen in hun tweede taal. Bekend is dat veel tweede-taallezers, ondanks een goede technische leesvaardigheid, problemen ondervinden bij begrijpend lezen. Al in de onderbouw van de basisschool, waar leren lezen centraal staat en teksten nog relatief eenvoudig zijn, hebben tweede-taallezers een behoorlijke achterstand in begrijpend lezen op hun eentalige klasgenoten. Aangezien begrijpend lezen een essentiële vaardigheid is, zowel op school als daarbuiten, is het van groot belang onderzoek te doen naar de problemen die tweede-taallezers ervaren. In dit artikel wordt een overzicht gegeven van wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar begrijpend lezen bij eerste- en tweede-taallezers. Het doel hierbij is om te laten zien wat er reeds bekend is over de problemen die tweede-taallezers ervaren met begrijpend lezen en hoe toekomstig onderzoek het inzicht hierin kan vergroten.