A Multi-skills Approach for Low Literate Adult Learners

 描述(申请人提供)：这是一个为期三年的项目，旨在为成人基础教育(ABE)项目的学生确定阅读和写作困难的来源。根据2003年NALS的研究，相当数量的成年人难以达到足以在我们的社会中有效运作的阅读水平。成人文盲问题对就业、公民参与和知情获得医疗保健具有重大负面影响。不足为奇的是，对这一群体的研究数量不多，但不断增加的研究表明，他们的阅读行为在很大程度上与阅读成就匹配的儿童不同。不幸的是，建立针对成人学习阅读的独特特征的评估和干预工具的基础研究基础，与儿童学习阅读的已知情况相比，仍然非常贫困(NICHD，2001)。因此，安倍项目中使用的许多干预和评估材料都是基于我们对儿童的了解。该项目将扩大必要的基础研究基础，以建立针对这一人群特定需求的有效评估和干预方案。该项目将比较两组参与者的阅读和写作行为，这两组参与者是目前参加ABE项目的阅读水平低于7年级的成年人和阅读能力匹配的儿童。这两个群体将在社会经济因素以及族裔和种族背景上相匹配。虽然语音意识被许多人视为识字最重要的方面，但英语的书写系统并不是纯粹的字母，而是语音素；单词在写作中是根据它们的含义和发音来表示的。因此，本项目将侧重于形态因素对阅读和写作发展的贡献。此外，词法被认为是词汇深度的一个组成部分。深度指的是我们现在对特定单词的了解程度，而广度是指我们知道多少单词。本研究的目的是探讨词法在词汇深度中的作用。我们将使用一种多技能的方法来理解形态意识和词汇深度的其他方面如何有助于阅读理解，在监控眼动的情况下无声阅读中的视觉单词识别，以及这两组学习者的写作。两组的表现将进行比较，以更详细地了解成年人学习阅读的独特特点。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a three year project designed to identify sources of reading and writing difficulty for students in adult basic education (ABE) programs. According to the 2003 NALS study, a significant number of adults struggle to read at a level adequate to function effectively in our society. The problem of adult illiteracy has a significant negative impact on job acquisition, civic participation, and informed access to healthcare. Not surprisingly, the small but growing body of research on this population of readers suggests that their reading behavior differs in significant ways from that of children matched on reading achievement. Unfortunately, the basic research foundation upon which to build assessment and intervention tools targeted to the unique characteristics of adults learning to read is still greaty impoverished in relation to what is known about children learning to read (NICHD, 2001). Thus, much of the intervention and assessment material used in ABE programs is based upon what we know about children. This project will expand the basic research foundation necessary to build effective assessment and intervention programs targeted to the specific needs of this population. This project will compare the reading and writing behavior of two groups of participants (adults with less than a 7th grade reading level who are currently enrolled in ABE programs and children who are matched on reading ability). Both groups will be matched on socio-economic factors and ethnic and racial background. While phonological awareness is seen by many as the most important aspect of literacy acquisition, the English system of writing is not purely alphabetic, rather, it is morphophonemic; words are represented in writing according to their meanings as well as the way they sound. Thus, this project will focus on the contributions of morphological factors as they relate to reading and writing development. Furthermore, morphology has been identified as one component of vocabulary depth. Depth refers to how much we now about particular words compared to breadth which is how many words we know. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of morphology in vocabulary depth. We will use a multi-skills approach to understand how morphological awareness and other aspect of vocabulary depth contributes to reading comprehension, visual word recognition in silent reading while eye movements are monitored, and writing in these two groups of learners. Performance across the two groups will be compared to gain a more detailed understanding of the unique characteristics of the adult learning to read.