ReaderBench: An Integrated Cohesion-Centered Framework

Dascalu, M., Stavarache, L.L., Dessus, P., Trausan-Matu, S., McNamara, D.S., & Bianco, M. (2015). ReaderBench: An Integrated Cohesion-Centered Framework. In G. Conole, T. Klobucar, C. Rensing, J. Konert & É. Lavoué (Eds.), 10th European Conf. on Technology Enhanced Learning (pp. 505–508). Toledo, Spain: Springer.

Modeling Individual Differences among Writers Using ReaderBench

The current study builds upon a previous study, which examined the degree to which the lexical properties of students’ essays could predict their vocabulary scores. We expand on this previous research by incorporating new natural language processing indices related to both the surface- and discourse-levels of students’ essays. Additionally, we investigate the degree to which these NLP indices can be used to account for variance in students’ reading comprehension skills. We calculated linguistic essay features using our framework, ReaderBench, which is an automated text analysis tools that calculates indices related to linguistic and rhetorical features of text. University students (n = 108) produced timed (25 minutes), argumentative essays, which were then analyzed by ReaderBench. Additionally, they completed the Gates-MacGinitie Vocabulary and Reading comprehension tests. The results of this study indicated that two indices were able to account for 32.4% of the variance in vocabulary scores and 31.6% of the variance in reading comprehension scores. Follow-up analyses revealed that these models further improved when only considering essays that contained multiple paragraph (R2 values = .61 and .49, respectively). Overall, the results of the current study suggest that natural language processing techniques can help to inform models of individual differences among student writers.

Exploring the use of prediction and summarization to increase students' listening and reading comprehension /

This study examined the effect of expHcitly instructing students to use a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies. Specifically, this study examined whether providing students with a "predictive story-frame" which combined the use of prediction and summarization strategies improved their reading comprehension relative to providing students with generic instruction on prediction and summarization. Results were examined in terms of instructional condition and reading ability. Students from 2 grade 4 classes participated in this study. The reading component of the Canadian Achievement Tests, Second Edition (CAT/2) was used to identify students as either "average or above average" or "below average" readers. Students received either strategic predication and summarization instruction (story-frame) or generic prediction and summarization instruction (notepad). Students were provided with new but comparable stories for each session. For both groups, the researcher modelled the strategic tools and provided guided practice, independent practice, and independent reading sessions. Comprehension was measured with an immediate and 1-week delayed comprehension test for each of the 4 stories, hi addition, students participated in a 1- week delayed interview, where they were asked to retell the story and to answer questions about the central elements (character, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, and ending events) of each story. There were significant differences, with medium to large effect sizes, in comprehension and recall scores as a fimction of both instructional condition and reading ability. Students in the story-frame condition outperformed students in the notepad condition, and average to above average readers performed better than below average readers. Students in the story-frame condition outperformed students in the notepad condition on the comprehension tests and on the oral retellings when teacher modelling and guidance were present. In the cued recall sessions, students in the story-frame instructional condition recalled more correct information and generated fewer errors than students in the notepad condition. Average to above average readers performed better than below average readers across comprehension and retelling measures. The majority of students in both instructional conditions reported that they would use their strategic tool again.

Sentence comprehension before and after 1970: Topics, debates and techniques

[EN] Language Down the Garden Path traces the lines of research that grew out of Bever's classic paper. Leading scientists review over 40 years of debates on the factors at play in language comprehension, production, and acquisition (the role of prediction, grammar, working memory, prosody, abstractness, syntax and semantics mapping); the current status of universals and narrow syntax; and virtually every topic relevant in psycholinguistics since 1970. Written in an accessible and engaging style, the book will appeal to all those interested in understanding the questions that shaped, and are still shaping, this field and the ways in which linguists, cognitive scientists, psychologists, and neuroscientists are seeking to answer them.