In a West Texas oilfield school district of 33,000 students, many freshmen high school students continue to fail their English standardized test, the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness English I End of Course exam (STAAR EOC), at astounding rates. One cause of this unfortunate trend is that students choose not to bolster their reading…

This grounded theory research study investigated one active reading strategy, note taking, with a goal of creating student-centered, evidence-based curriculum for the developmental reading instructor. Sixteen students participated in a two-part session: a semi-structured interview and a think aloud of an assigned, academic text. The students were…

This dissertation recounts the history of some widely read texts and develops new ways of writing about the past; it is at once an investigation into the particulars of history and an account of the historiography needed of that investigation. As an historical account, it documents the development during the seventeenth century of the learned…

An efficient assessment cycle is a necessary component of early literacy instruction. To support student growth, educators must screen, diagnose, and monitor student progress. Diagnostic assessments provide critical information that can empower educators to address student needs. Using information from diagnostic assessments requires educators to…

Reading and understanding scientific texts is useful and necessary in many informal collaboration settings, including research or innovation collaborations, or when discussing public science in lay peer groups. In this work, we investigate whether an interactive predefined concept map that builds up gradually while reading a scientific research…

Purpose: Despite the considerable scientific interest in researching the reading skills of the deaf population, most of these studies focus on reading comprehension (RC) at the word or sentence level. Such reading activates different underlying language processes than text-level reading, which is more akin to real-life reading literacy. The…

Cross-sectional studies have already addressed the question of the syllable's role in the first steps of reading acquisition--though with mixed results. To determine whether and when (1) syllables become units that drive the segmentation of and access to words and how (2) sublexical orthographic and phonological syllable frequency mediate the…

Speech development occurs in highly variable environments; however, little is known about the effect of situational context on emerging infant vocalizations. At 4 time points (4, 6, 9, and 12 months), we longitudinally measured vocalizations of 104 White infant-caregiver dyads (41 girls) during three play contexts: book-sharing, toy play, and…

Purpose: Children with hearing loss (HL) experience challenges in sound-related knowledge and techniques for manipulating sounds, which can affect their reading fluency. This study aims to use the unique phonetic, semantic, and visual integration of Chinese characters to access phonological information through visual representation, thereby…

Positive teacher feedback plays a crucial role in student learning. While previous studies on positive teacher feedback have primarily focused on its relationship with student achievement, much less attention has been given to how such feedback associates with student self-efficacy, particularly reading self-efficacy--a key predictor of both…

Purpose: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) benefit from the inclusion of retrieval practice during word learning. However, most studies reporting this positive effect have been conducted in controlled laboratory conditions. In this study, we take a step toward real-world application by matching the design details of a previous…

English language arts must be a class of both challenge and engagement. Joyful literacies can open the door to the unplanned and the new for both students and teachers as they center students' literacy experiences alongside the skills of the discipline, not just at the end of the year but, alternatively, throughout the whole school year. This…

Academic buoyancy has been a hot topic in positive psychology and foreign language learning. Previous research has shown a strong connection between academic buoyancy and academic achievement. However, little is known about how academic buoyancy affects EFL (English as a Foreign Language) reading through academic engagement. Adopting a…

Having opportunities to work with literary texts in language teaching is crucial to promoting students' language development, general education, and personal growth. Despite the recognized importance of reading literary texts in research and in policy, to date, little is known about the frequency and characteristics of literature instruction in…

Previous research has shown that phonological awareness is one of the most important prerequisites for early reading. Monitoring its development requires reliable, easy-to-use instruments especially in the last years of kindergarten. The present study aims to explore the potential for assessing phonological awareness and some of its subskills…