Symbol Grounding as an Educational Tool

在西方文化中，掌握书面语言和数学符号对于在各级教育中取得成功至关重要。与此同时，很明显，发展符号技能对儿童来说是困难的，对一些人来说，这种困难会持续一生。本研究探讨了为什么许多儿童发现符号操作艰巨（符号接地的困难），并测试了基于理论的干预（接地行动），以克服这一困难。对于像文字这样有意义的符号来说，它们需要与经验相联系，也就是说，接地。例如，婴儿的母亲说“瓶子”这个词，同时给她的婴儿一个真实的瓶子来握住和操纵。然而，在学习阅读时，书面文字和经验之间的联系被打破了，原因有二：儿童必须专注于将书面文字翻译成声音的困难任务，而文字所指的物体和动作不在阅读环境中。 行动中的接地是一个两部分的程序，教孩子们如何地面书面文字在他们的看法和行动。 在物理操纵阶段，儿童操纵玩具，使之与他们正在阅读的句子相对应。 例如，当阅读关于农场的活动时，孩子在她面前有玩具谷仓、拖拉机、动物等。当她读一个句子如“农民把拖拉机开到谷仓”时，孩子用玩具来模拟句子。这个活动迫使孩子考虑玩具（地面）与单词和句法之间的关系。在PM的几次迭代之后，孩子被引入想象操纵（IM）。在这个阶段，孩子们被教导在阅读的同时想象操纵玩具。 以前的工作已经证明了非常大的积极影响接地在行动时，与个人，小团体，并在课堂上。 目前的项目将调查接地在行动中，其扩展到阅读在计算机上（儿童操纵电脑屏幕上的图片），并在课堂上实施的成功的理论基础。大约25名一至三年级的教师将被随机分配到实施接地行动或控制条件的班级。根据每周对儿童进行的理解测试，预计地面行动将产生相当大的好处。 此外，与对照组儿童相比，接受接地动作的儿童在标准化阅读测试中应表现出更大的收获。这项工作的科学重要性来自于对语言和阅读理解基础的调查。 一个被广泛接受的观点是，理解是使用抽象规则（语法）操纵符号的结果。 这个项目探讨了另一种假设，即交际需要语言符号联系相关的经验，正是这些经验的配合产生了理解。在一定程度上，接地在行动中是成功的课堂上，它可能会产生影响，通过引入有效的程序教学阅读理解，从而产生巨大的推动儿童的能力，学习和享受阅读。

Facility with written linguistic and mathematical symbols is essential for success at all levels of education in a Western culture. At the same time, it is clear that developing skill with symbols is difficult for children, and for some that difficulty continues throughout the life span. This research examines why many children find symbol manipulation arduous (difficulties in symbol grounding) and tests a theory-based intervention (grounding-in-action) for overcoming this difficulty. For symbols such as words to be meaningful, they need to be connected to experiences, that is, grounded. For example, an infant's mother says the word "bottle" while presenting her infant with a real bottle to hold and manipulate. When learning to read, however, the connection between written words and the experience is broken for two reasons: Children must focus on the difficult task of translating the written words into sounds, and the objects and actions to which the words refer are not in the reading environment. Grounding-in-action is a two-part procedure for teaching children how to ground written words in their perceptions and actions. In the physical manipulation (PM) stage, children manipulate toys to correspond to the sentences they are reading. For example, when reading about activities on a farm, the child has before her a toy barn, tractor, animals, etc. As she reads a sentence such as "The farmer drives the tractor to the barn" the child uses the toys to simulate the sentence. This activity forces the child to consider the relation between the toys (the ground) and the words and syntax. After several iterations of PM, the child is introduced to imagined manipulation (IM). In this stage, children are taught to imagine manipulating the toys while reading. Previous work has demonstrated very large positive effects of grounding-in-action when working with individuals, small groups, and in the classroom. The current project will investigate the theoretical basis for the success of grounding-in-action, its extension to reading on computers (children manipulate pictures on the computer screen), and implementation in the classroom. Approximately 25 first- to third-grade teachers will be randomly assigned to classes that implement grounding-in-action or a control condition. Grounding-in-action is expected to produce considerable benefits as measured by weekly comprehension tests given to the children. In addition, the children who receive grounding-in-action should show greater gains on a standardized reading test compared to children in the control condition.The scientific importance of the work derives from investigating the basis of language and reading comprehension. A widely accepted view is that comprehension results from the manipulation of symbols using abstract rules (syntax). This project investigates the alternative hypothesis that communication requires that linguistic symbols contact relevant experiences, and it is the fitting together of those experiences that produces comprehension. To the extent that grounding-in-action is successful in the classroom, it may have an impact on society by introducing effective procedures for teaching reading comprehension, thereby producing a tremendous boost in children's ability to learn from and enjoy reading.