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Summary writing is an important tactic for learning from text and the summaries provide information on students' comprehension and learning processes. We investigated the nature of the summaries produced by bilingual adolescents, and whether their summaries were related to their reading abilities in their first and second languages. In each language, we examined the performance of students identified as typically developing, poor decoders, or poor comprehenders. Participants were 246 grade 8 students enrolled in English immersion programs in China. Measures included English word reading and reading comprehension, Chinese word reading and reading comprehension, and nonverbal ability. Students' text-absent summaries of an English 254-word expository passage were analyzed for the number of themes, main ideas, important details, and unimportant details. Using latent profile analysis, participants were identified as typical readers (TR, n = 123), poor decoders (PD, n = 74), or poor comprehenders (PC, n = 49) in English, and TR (n = 129), PD (n = 74), or PC (n = 43) in Chinese, based on word reading and reading comprehension in both English and Chinese. MANCOVA results showed that after controlling for nonverbal ability, in the English-defined groups, the TR group outperformed PD and PC on themes, main ideas, and important details; in the Chinese-defined groups, the TR group outperformed PD and PC on themes, TR performed better than PC on main ideas and important details, and PD outperformed PC on main ideas. Discussion focuses on the difficulties faced by bilingual students with reading difficulties and on the potential of summary writing instruction to improve their comprehension and learning processes.

Purpose: We performed a meta-analysis to examine if children with dyslexia experience deficits in morphological awareness (MA) and if the effect sizes are influenced by different moderators (age, aspect of MA measured, type of MA task, language, modality input, semantic knowledge, and selection criteria). Method: We reviewed 40 studies published in English between January 1990 and August 2021, representing a total of 5,018 participants (age range = 5.1-13.9 years). Studies with adults or English language learners were excluded. There were 49 independent samples in the chronological-age (CA) -- dyslexia (DYS) comparison and 18 independent samples in the comparison between DYS and reading--level (RL) controls. Results: A random-effects model analysis revealed a large effect size for the CA--DYS comparison (g = 1.11) and a non-significant effect size for the RL--DYS comparison (g = -0.08). Age was the only significant moderator of the effect sizes. Conclusion: These findings suggest, first, that individuals with dyslexia experience significant difficulties in MA and second, that the effect sizes are as large as those reported for phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and orthographic knowledge. The lack of a significant RL-DYS difference indicates that MA is not a core causal feature of dyslexia.

The Triangle Model of Reading proposes that phonology, orthography, and semantics are crucial to understand word reading and reading disability (RD). Morphology has been added as a binding agent to this model. However, it is unclear how these variables relate to word reading in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or comorbid ADHD and RD (ADHD+RD). This study examined the performance of Chinese children with RD, ADHD, or ADHD+RD in phonology, orthography, semantics, and morphology, and investigated whether morphology made an additional contribution beyond the other skills in explaining word reading fluency. Participants were 151 Grade 1 to 3 Chinese students: RD (n = 31), ADHD (n = 43), ADHD+RD (n = 27), and typically developing controls (TD, n = 50). Results indicated that children with ADHD+RD (a) showed similar performance to RD and ADHD in tone awareness, orthographic legality, and homophone morpheme awareness; (b) had similar performance to RD but worse than ADHD in phonology, semantics, and morpheme production; and (c) had more severe deficits than RD and ADHD in orthographic reversal, morpheme identification, and homograph awareness. Morphology significantly predicted word reading fluency beyond the other skills, and its predictive effect was more salient for ADHD+RD, ADHD, and TD. The findings provide evidence of both shared and additive effects of RD and ADHD. Morphology may be an important diagnostic factor in identifying Chinese reading and behavioral deficit groups and a worthwhile target for intervention.

This study examined (a) the identification of various reading groups across languages in Chinese (L1) adolescents learning English as a second language (ESL), in terms of their word-reading and reading comprehension skills, (b) overlap in reading group membership across languages, and (c) the performance of the various reading groups on reading-related language comprehension measures in English. The participants were 246 eighth-grade students from an English-immersion program in a middle school in China. Latent profile analysis identified three reading groups in each language: (a) a typically developing reader group with average or above-average word-reading and reading comprehension, (b) a group with poor decoding/word-reading skills and weak reading comprehension, and (c) a group with poor reading comprehension in the absence of poor decoding/word reading. The overlap in profile characteristics across languages for typically developing readers and poor decoders was high (about 68% for typically developing readers and 54% for poor decoders), whereas the overlap for being poor comprehenders in each language was moderate (about 37%). Furthermore, poor decoders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor comprehender groups on word reading in the other language, while poor comprehenders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor decoder groups on reading comprehension in the other language. The comparison of the reading groups' performance on English reading-related language comprehension measures showed that poor comprehenders and poor decoders performed worse than typically developing readers. Implications for identification and instruction of ESL children with reading difficulties are discussed.

Little research has been conducted on Arabic letter knowledge. This study investigates the nature of Arabic letter knowledge, its dimensionality, and the relative difficulty of letter knowledge items, all within an item response theory (IRT) framework. Three letter knowledge tests were administered to 142 native Arabic-speaking kindergarteners (mean age = 67 months). The letter recognition task was found to be multidimensional, containing two factors, whereas the allograph and syllable tasks were found to be unidimensional. Results showed that a two parameter model fit best for all three tasks, demonstrating that items varied in degree of difficulty and in discrimination. Findings provide a subset of letters that are most useful for quickly and precisely assessing children's letter knowledge. Results are discussed in the context of orthographic and linguistic features of Arabic. Implications for assessment and instruction are discussed.

We investigated the contribution of morphological awareness to university students' reading comprehension ability. Although there is considerable evidence that morphological awareness contributes to children's reading ability, there is much less evidence concerning adults; the few studies of adults have not controlled other known predictors of reading comprehension. Furthermore, there is little information about the predictors of morphological awareness. Measures related to word reading (phonological decoding, orthographic processing), language comprehension (vocabulary, inferences, working memory), morphological awareness, and reading (reading speed and reading comprehension) were administered to 71 undergraduate students. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that (a) morphological awareness was predicted by orthographic processing and the three language comprehension measures, (b) morphological awareness was a significant predictor of both reading speed and reading comprehension, after controlling all of the other predictors, and (c) morphological awareness continued to predict reading comprehension after also controlling text reading speed. These results demonstrate that morphological awareness is still an important individual difference factor for proficient adult readers. We discuss the implications of these results for assessment and university instruction.

Although reading is an important and generative skill, it remains controversial how reading skills and reading difficulties develop. Currently, the fields of neuroscience, cognition, and education each have complex models to describe reading and elucidate where in the reading process deficits occur. We suggest that integrating the neural, cognitive, and educational accounts of reading offers the promise of transformative change in understanding reading development and reading difficulties. As a starting point for bridging the gaps among these fields, we used naming speed tasks as the basis for this review because they provide a "microcosm" of the processes involved during reading. We use naming speed tasks to investigate how incorporating cognitive psychology with neuroimaging techniques, under the guidance of educational theories, can further the understanding of learning and instruction, and may lead to the identification of the neural signatures of reading difficulties that might be hidden from view earlier in development.

The distinctive features of the Arabic language and orthography offer opportunities to investigate multiple word characteristics at the item level. The aim of this paper was to model differences in word reading at the item level among 3rd grade native Arabic-speaking children (n = 303) using cross-classified generalized random-effects (CCGRE) analysis. The participants read 80 vowelized words that varied in multiple elements that may contribute to their decodability: number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, ligaturing (connectivity), semantics (concrete vs. abstract), orthographic frequency, root type frequency, and part of speech. Morphological awareness (MA) was included as a person-level predictor. Results of individual models showed that MA, number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, number of ligatures, orthographic frequency, and part of speech were significantly related to the probability of a correct response. However, when all predictors were entered simultaneously, only MA and number of morphemes remained significant. These results underscore the important role of morphology in the lexical structure of Arabic words and in Arabic word reading. Discussion focuses on the role of morphology in Arabic reading and the implications for intervention to improve word recognition in children learning to read Arabic.

We examined the unique contributions of prosodic awareness and morphological awareness to school-aged children's word reading and reading comprehension. A total of 110 elementary-age children from Grades 4 and 5 participated in the current study. To measure prosodic awareness, children were asked to listen to and reflect on the stress patterns of multisyllabic words and identify the syllable of the word that contained the primary stress. Two measures of morphological awareness were administered including morphological production and the nonword suffix choice task. Prosodic awareness and morphological awareness were significantly correlated in the low to moderate range. We found that both metalinguistic skills uniquely predicted word reading, and morphological awareness was the only predictor of word reading that also explained individual differences in reading comprehension. Furthermore, the relationship between prosodic awareness and word reading was partially mediated by phonemic awareness and morphological awareness, and the relationship between prosodic awareness and reading comprehension was fully mediated by morphological awareness and word reading. We conclude that prosodic awareness assessed at the word-level only affects word reading, which in turn supports reading comprehension. We also provide further evidence for the role of morphological awareness as a unique contributor to both decoding and meaning-making processes.

Purpose: We investigated the cognitive and linguistic processes that underlie reading in Arabic in relation to a well-defined theoretical framework of reading and the factors that underlie reading. Method: The sample was 201 (101 boys, 100 girls) 3rd-grade Arabic-speaking children. Children were administered measures of Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness (PA), Naming Speed, Orthographic Processing, Morphological Awareness (MA), Memory, Nonverbal Ability, and 5 reading outcomes. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for each of the 5 reading outcomes to investigate the predictors of children's reading. Results: Each of the constructs explained unique variance when added to the model. In the final models, PA was the strongest predictor of all outcomes, followed by MA. In a follow-up analysis, participants were divided into good and poor decoders, based on their Pseudoword Reading scores. Good decoders outscored poor decoders on every measure. Within-group regression analyses indicated that poor decoders relied on more component processes than good decoders, suggesting a lack of automaticity. Variance in reading outcomes was better predicted for poor decoders than for good decoders. Conclusion: These results indicate that standard predictors apply well to Arabic, showing the particular importance of PA and MA. Longitudinal and instructional studies are required to determine developmental patterns and ways to improve reading performance.

The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of rapid automatized naming (RAN) in the identification of poor readers in two alphabetic orthographies: English and Greek. Ninety-seven English-speaking Canadian (mean age = 66.70 months) and 70 Greek children (mean age = 67.60 months) were followed from Kindergarten until Grade 3. In Kindergarten and Grade 1, they were assessed on measures of RAN, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge. In Grade 3, they were assessed on measures of reading accuracy (for the English sample) and reading fluency (for the Greek sample). The results of logistic regression and receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses indicated that RAN was a significant predictor of an individual's risk for reading difficulties when assessed in Grade 1 in English and in both Kindergarten and Grade 1 in Greek. Although the logistic models (including RAN as one of the predictors) accurately identified the majority of the children who turned out to be poor readers, they also over-identified as poor readers a large number of children who did not manifest reading difficulties later on. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

We examined the developmental relationships between home literacy environment (parent teaching, shared book reading) and emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, rapid naming speed) in kindergarten, reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, and reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3 in a sample of Canadian children learning to read English (N = 214). Results from a latent variable model showed that parent teaching predicted letter knowledge and phonological awareness, and shared book reading predicted vocabulary and rapid naming speed after controlling for family socioeconomic status. Moreover, both parent teaching and shared book reading contributed indirectly to reading accuracy and fluency in Grade 1, which then mediated the effects of home literacy environment on reading comprehension in Grades 2 and 3. The results suggest that the effects of home literacy environment on later reading development are distributed via more pathways than previously thought.

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten (FDELK) programme, which integrates play-based learning and team teaching, in promoting 32,027 kindergarteners' self-regulation (SR), literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Outcome measures derived from teacher reports of students' school readiness in the Early Development Instrument were analysed in separate hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for individual and school-level characteristics. Results revealed essentially no benefit for students participating in the FDELK programme when compared to peers in Half-Day Kindergarten (HDK) or Alternate-Day Kindergarten programmes. Being older, female, and in higher socio-economic status schools with a history of higher achievement predicted more positive SR, literacy, and numeracy outcomes. Findings suggest the FDELK programme requires improvement. Play-based learning programmes, such as the FDELK, might be enhanced by incorporating evidence-based guidelines and goals for play, reducing class sizes to more effectively scaffold learning, and revising curriculum expectations to include a greater focus on SR, literacy, and numeracy skills.

Wolf and Bowers (1999) described a model in which phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (NS) make independent contributions to reading ability. We tested this model in a sample of 201 Grade 3 Arabic-speaking children in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Measures of general cognitive ability, vocabulary, PA, NS, word reading, and reading comprehension were administered. Regression analyses indicated that PA and NS were significant and unique predictors of every reading outcome, after controlling the effects of age, gender, cognitive ability, and vocabulary, with PA being the more powerful factor. Results are interpreted in terms of key features of Arabic language and orthography and the reading level of the sample. Implications for assessment and instruction are discussed.

Chemosensory systems (CSS) are complex regulatory pathways capable of perceiving external signals and translating them into different cellular behaviors such as motility and development. In the δ-proteobacterium Myxococcus xanthus, chemosensing allows groups of cells to orient themselves and aggregate into specialized multicellular biofilms termed fruiting bodies. M. xanthus contains eight predicted CSS and 21 chemoreceptors. In this work, we systematically deleted genes encoding components of each CSS and chemoreceptors and determined their effects on M. xanthus social behaviors. Then, to understand how the 21 chemoreceptors are distributed among the eight CSS, we examined their phylogenetic distribution, genomic organization and subcellular localization. We found that, in vivo, receptors belonging to the same phylogenetic group colocalize and interact with CSS components of the respective phylogenetic group. Finally, we identified a large chemosensory module formed by three interconnected CSS and multiple chemoreceptors and showed that complex behaviors such as cell group motility and biofilm formation require regulatory apparatus composed of multiple interconnected Che-like systems.

Naming speed (NS) refers to how quickly and accurately participants name a set of familiar stimuli (e.g., letters). NS is an established predictor of reading ability, but controversy remains over why it is related to reading. We used three techniques (stimulus manipulations to emphasize phonological and/or visual aspects, decomposition of NS times into pause and articulation components, and analysis of eye movements during task performance) with three groups of participants (children with dyslexia, ages 9-10; chronological-age [CA] controls, ages 9-10; reading-level [RL] controls, ages 6-7) to examine NS and the NS-reading relationship. Results indicated (a) for all groups, increasing visual similarity of the letters decreased letter naming efficiency and increased naming errors, saccades, regressions (rapid eye movements back to letters already fixated), pause times, and fixation durations; (b) children with dyslexia performed like RL controls and were less efficient, had longer articulation times, pause times, fixation durations, and made more errors and regressions than CA controls; and (c) pause time and fixation duration were the most powerful predictors of reading. We conclude that NS is related to reading via fixation durations and pause times: Longer fixation durations and pause times reflect the greater amount of time needed to acquire visual/orthographic information from stimuli and prepare the correct response.

Purpose: We investigated the cognitive and linguistic processes that underlie reading in Arabic in relation to a well-defined theoretical framework of reading and the factors that underlie reading. Method: The sample was 201 (101 boys, 100 girls) 3rd-grade Arabic-speaking children. Children were administered measures of Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness (PA), Naming Speed, Orthographic Processing, Morphological Awareness (MA), Memory, Nonverbal Ability, and 5 reading outcomes. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for each of the 5 reading outcomes to investigate the predictors of children's reading. Results: Each of the constructs explained unique variance when added to the model. In the final models, PA was the strongest predictor of all outcomes, followed by MA. In a follow-up analysis, participants were divided into good and poor decoders, based on their Pseudoword Reading scores. Good decoders outscored poor decoders on every measure. Within-group regression analyses indicated that poor decoders relied on more component processes than good decoders, suggesting a lack of automaticity. Variance in reading outcomes was better predicted for poor decoders than for good decoders. Conclusion: These results indicate that standard predictors apply well to Arabic, showing the particular importance of PA and MA. Longitudinal and instructional studies are required to determine developmental patterns and ways to improve reading performance., Our purpose in this article is to examine whether the constructs that are established predictors of reading in English and other European orthographies function in the same way in Arabic [...]

The Triangle Model of Reading proposes that phonology, orthography, and semantics are crucial to understand word reading and reading disability (RD). Morphology has been added as a binding agent to this model. However, it is unclear how these variables relate to word reading in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or comorbid ADHD and RD (ADHD+RD). This study examined the performance of Chinese children with RD, ADHD, or ADHD+RD in phonology, orthography, semantics, and morphology, and investigated whether morphology made an additional contribution beyond the other skills in explaining word reading fluency. Participants were 151 Grade 1 to 3 Chinese students: RD (n = 31), ADHD (n = 43), ADHD+RD (n = 27), and typically developing controls (TD, n = 50). Results indicated that children with ADHD+RD (a) showed similar performance to RD and ADHD in tone awareness, orthographic legality, and homophone morpheme awareness; (b) had similar performance to RD but worse than ADHD in phonology, semantics, and morpheme production; and (c) had more severe deficits than RD and ADHD in orthographic reversal, morpheme identification, and homograph awareness. Morphology significantly predicted word reading fluency beyond the other skills, and its predictive effect was more salient for ADHD+RD, ADHD, and TD. The findings provide evidence of both shared and additive effects of RD and ADHD. Morphology may be an important diagnostic factor in identifying Chinese reading and behavioral deficit groups and a worthwhile target for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension administered at Grade 10 were used. The probabilities of later-grade reading achievement based on earlier-grade reading achievement were computed, and tests of regression to the mean were conducted. Most changes in relative achievement were attributed to regression toward the mean. Overall, results suggest considerable stability across time.

This study explored the relationship between two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, that is, breadth of vocabulary (the number of words known) and depth of vocabulary (the richness of word knowledge), and their effects on different aspects of English reading in Chinese high school students learning English as a second language. Two hundred and forty-six Grade 8 students in China were administered measures of word reading, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension. Results showed that breadth and depth of vocabulary were moderately correlated. They both contributed to word reading, but breadth of vocabulary had a stronger effect than depth of vocabulary. When reading comprehension was the outcome measure, vocabulary breadth significantly predicted a multiple-choice reading comprehension measure, which requires general understanding of the text, while vocabulary depth contributed to summary writing, a measure of deeper text processing. Discussion focuses on the important roles of different dimensions of vocabulary knowledge for different types of second language reading.

Comparable processes in different species often involve homologous genes. One question is whether the network structure, in particular the feedback control structure, is also conserved. The bacterial chemotaxis pathways in E. coli and B. subtilis both regulate the same task, namely, excitation and adaptation to environmental signals. Both pathways employ many orthologous genes. Yet how these orthologs contribute to network function in each organism is different. To investigate this problem, we propose what is to our knowledge the first computational model for B. subtilis chemotaxis and compare it to previously published models for chemotaxis in E. coli. The models reveal that the core control strategy for signal processing is the same in both organisms, though in B. subtilis there are two additional feedback loops that provide an additional layer of regulation and robustness. Furthermore, the network structures are different despite the similarity of the proteins in each organism. These results demonstrate the limitations of pathway inferences based solely on homology and suggest that the control strategy is an evolutionarily conserved property.