Using Language Production as a Learning Intervention

这个项目测试了一种新方法，用于提高阅读能力差的读者，包括那些有阅读障碍的人的阅读技能，并改善第二语言学习。第二语言学习需要大量的时间来学习个人之前没有经历过的材料。虽然这对外语学习来说是显而易见的，但对学习阅读来说却不那么明显。书面语和口语在词汇和句子结构上都有很大的不同，所以要成为一个流利的读者需要大量的阅读经验来了解书面语和口语的区别。因为阅读能力差的人没有进行这种广泛的练习，他们远远落后于那些有更高技能的同龄人。目前在阅读和第二语言学习方面的教学方法都是不充分的，在这两个领域进行干预符合国家利益。低识字率在美国人口中普遍存在，并与低就业率、糟糕的健康状况、有限的社会参与和较高的监禁率有关。该项目将记忆和学习研究结合起来，探讨与传统的以阅读和听力为重点的课程相比，在语言学习过程中说话如何以及为什么不仅能提高口语技能，还能提高书面和口语的理解能力。这些研究严格比较了通过口语和听力练习来学习第二语言，包括学习方法是否影响学生的注意力、练习和学习动机。这些研究还考察了说话与短期记忆或工作记忆之间的联系，短时记忆是指在头脑中记住信息的能力。工作记忆能力被认为是长期学习的重要组成部分，包括母语或外语词汇学习。同样的方法也将应用于旨在提高阅读理解能力的干预措施，这些干预措施是针对有阅读障碍或其他读写能力低下的读者，包括缺乏指导、练习或英语技能低下的障碍。干预将使用口语练习，提供书面语言的词汇和句子结构模式的练习，这对一个不情愿的读者来说本质上是“陌生的”。其目的是提供关键的学习机会，这对提高阅读流畅性至关重要，而不总是要求阅读练习，而阅读能力差的读者不愿意参与。第二语言和阅读干预也调查了学生对各种教育干预的反应，在这些干预中，一开始就拥有更多知识的学生通常从额外的指导中获得更大的好处，而那些最需要帮助的学生则落在后面。如果言语干预提供了必要的背景技能，它们可以帮助有阅读障碍的人和其他困难的学习者从这个项目中测试的新干预中学习，并使困难的学习者利用当前学校课程中的现有教学。该项目由感知、行动和认知项目、学习科学项目和电子病历核心研究项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project tests a new method for improving reading skill in poor readers, including those with dyslexia, and improving second language learning. Second language learning requires significant time to learn material that has not occurred in the individual's prior experience. While this is obvious for foreign language learning, it is less obvious but also true for learning to read. Written and spoken language differ greatly in both their vocabulary and sentence structure, so becoming a fluent reader requires significant reading experience to learn how written language differs from speech. Because poor readers do not engage in this extensive practice, they fall further behind peers who have higher skill. Current instruction methods in both reading and second language learning are inadequate and intervention in both of these areas is in the national interest. Poor literacy is widespread in the US population and is associated with low employment, poor health outcomes, limited participation in society, and higher rates of incarceration. The project combines memory and learning research to investigate how and why speaking during language learning yields not just better speaking skills but also better written and spoken language comprehension than more traditional reading- and listening-focused curricula. The studies rigorously compare second language learning via speaking vs. listening practice, including whether the learning method influences students' motivation to pay attention, practice, and learn. The studies also examine the link between speaking and short-term or working memory, which is the ability to hold information in mind for short durations. Working memory abilities are thought to be an important component of longer-term learning, including vocabulary learning in a native or foreign language. The same methods will be applied to interventions aimed at improving reading comprehension for poor readers with dyslexia or other sources of low literacy, including inadequate instruction, practice, or barriers from low English skills. The interventions will use spoken language exercises that provide practice with the vocabulary and sentence structure patterns of written language, which are essentially "foreign" to a reluctant reader. The aim is to provide key learning opportunities that are crucial to developing reading fluency without always requiring reading practice in which poor readers are reluctant to engage. Both the second language and the reading interventions also investigate students' response to various educational interventions, where students who begin with more knowledge generally get greater benefit from additional instruction, leaving behind those who most need the help. If the speaking interventions provide essential background skills, they could help people with dyslexia and other struggling learners learn from the novel interventions tested in this project and position struggling learners to take advantage of existing instruction in current school curricula.This project is co-funded by the Perception, Action, and Cognition Program, the Science of Learning Program, and the EHR Core Research Program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.