Fernanda Leopoldina Viana

Propriedades psicométricas da prova de reconhecimento de palavras

This studys purpose is to present data regarding the reliability and validity of the Word Recognition Test (WRT) for students of the first 4 years of schooling. The test consists of 40 regular words of 2 and 3 syllables. Two studies were performed. The first included 328 students, and the second one 3,131 students. The coefficients of internal consistency were high in the whole 4 years (ranging between .96 and .98). The difference on performance average was statistically significant between years, with moderate magnitude effect. No statistically significant differences were found between sexes. Correlations with external criteria were positive and statistically significant. Results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) are not conclusive, pointing to the need of further studies.

Parents’ reports of lexical and grammatical aspects of toddlers’ language in European Portuguese: Developmental trends, age and gender differences:

The results from a large-scale study on toddlers’ language acquisition in European Portuguese are presented. Toddlers’ lexical and grammatical competencies were assessed using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The results, based on 3012 reports completed by parents, indicate an increase in the lexical size and on five measures of grammatical development (production of regular morphology, irregular morphology, over-regularizations, mean length of utterances and sentence complexity) across age groups. A main effect of gender was found for lexical size, production of regular and irregular morphology, production of over-regularizations and sentence complexity, with girls obtaining overall higher scores than boys. All lexical and grammatical development measures are positively correlated, even after controlling for age and gender effects. These findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with those obtained for other languages.

Development of Listening Comprehension Tests with Narrative and Expository Texts for Portuguese Students

This investigation aimed to develop and collect psychometric data for two tests assessing listening comprehension of Portuguese students in primary school: the Test of Listening Comprehension of Narrative Texts (TLC-n) and the Test of Listening Comprehension of Expository Texts (TLC-e). Two studies were conducted. The purpose of study 1 was to construct four test forms for each of the two tests to assess first, second, third and fourth grade students of the primary school. The TLC-n was administered to 1042 students, and the TLC-e was administered to 848 students. The purpose of study 2 was to test the psychometric properties of new items for the TLC-n form for fourth graders, given that the results in study 1 indicated a severe lack of difficult items. The participants were 260 fourth graders. The data were analysed using the Rasch model. Thirty items were selected for each test form. The results provided support for the model assumptions: Unidimensionality and local independence of the items. The reliability coefficients were higher than .70 for all test forms. The TLC-n and the TLC-e present good psychometric properties and represent an important contribution to the learning disabilities assessment field.

Invariance on a reading comprehension test in European Portuguese: A differential item functioning analysis between students from rural and urban areas

The aim of this study was to determine whether the items from a reading comprehension test in European Portuguese function differently across students from rural and urban areas, which biases the test validity and the equity in assessment. The sample was composed of 653 students from second, third and fourth grades. The presence of differential item functioning (DIF) was analysed using logistic regression and the Mantel–Haenszel procedure. Although 17 items were flagged with DIF, only five items showed non-negligible DIF in all effect-size measures. The evidence of invariance across students with rural or urban backgrounds for most of the items supports the validity of the test though the five identified items should be further investigated.

Validity evidence of the Test of Word Reading for Portuguese elementary students

This article presents data concerning the validity evidence of a test of word reading (TLP – Teste de Leitura de Palavras) that assesses single-word reading accuracy in Portuguese students from Grades 1 to 4. The test is composed of four vertically scaled forms, one for each grade, allowing for the evaluation of students’ word reading progression. In the internal structure-related evidence validity study, administration of the TLP to 905 Portuguese elementary students confirmed its one-dimensional structure. In the evidence based on the relationship with other variables’ study, 280 Portuguese elementary students were assessed with each TLP test form and criterion measures (reading tests, digit span, and vocabulary measures). Significant correlations were observed between results from the TLP test forms, reading instruments, short-term memory, and vocabulary measures. These results revealed adequate evidence based on internal structure and evidence based on the relationship to other variables of the TLP for the assessment of word reading accuracy in Portuguese elementary students.

The relationship between phonological awareness time and reading abilities: an assessment using self-organizing maps

Abstract Background: Classically, the assessment of reading disabilities is based on the accuracy for word and nonword reading, as well as on the accuracy or sensibility measures (such as d′) for phonological awareness tasks. Recent studies indicate that in terms of phonological awareness results, the response time is a more accurate indicator than sensibility measures (such as d′), thus providing an important measure explaining some of the differences between good and poor readers. This article explores the discriminative capability of phonological awareness task time (PATT) in reading disability assessment. Methods: One hundred and eighty-six children were tested using conventional tasks, specifically word reading, nonword reading, and phonological awareness tasks. The word and nonword accuracy and PATT were used to train self-organizing maps (SOM) to classify children into three distinct groups. Results: Phonological awareness response time provides a powerful discriminative measure. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the PATT constitutes a useful selective measure, particularly in the third and fourth grades when classical variables such as word and nonword reading accuracy lose their discriminative capabilities. Also, the use of SOM to classify children’s reading abilities can successfully categorize children and capture meaningful measures such as the lexicality effect.

Early lexical development: Do day care attendance and maternal education matter?

The aim of this study was to analyse the existence of differences in lexical development as a function of day care attendance and maternal education. Data were collected using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The reports of 2084 toddlers were analysed. The results for toddlers older than 24 months indicated that those from mothers with higher educational levels produced a higher number of words in all lexical categories than those from mothers with lower educational levels. When considering younger toddlers, a significant effect of maternal education was only found on the number of common nouns produced. Nevertheless, the size of these effects was small. Quantity of day care attendance had no effect on the number of words produced. No interaction effects between maternal education and day care attendance were found. These findings indicate that maternal education may be differently associated with the production of words from different lexical categories.

Lexical, morphological and syntactic development in toddlers between 16 and 30 months old: A comparison across European Portuguese and Galician:

The main aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between the lexical size and the emergence of morphological and syntactic markers in toddlers between the ages of 16 and 30 months and to compare these results between Galician and European Portuguese. Parents of 3012 Portuguese toddlers and those of 1081 Galician toddlers completed the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The results indicated that the number of words, the ability to combine words and the number of different morphemes produced increased with age. The ability to combine words was used as an indicator of syntactic development; this ability was also associated with the toddlers’ lexical size. In both samples, gender morphemes seemed to be the first to have their production generalized, followed by the plural and the past participle. The production of gender morphemes was accompanied by a small lexical size, whereas the imperfect tense and the person mark onset were associated with large lexical sizes. The implications of these results for charting the continuity between lexical, morphological and syntactical development are discussed.

Conteúdos linguísticos como subsídio à formação de professores alfabetizadores – a experiência do Brasil e de Portugal

Objetiva identificar em dois programas de formacao de professores alfabetizadores – no Brasil, Pacto Nacional pela Alfabetizacao na Idade Certa (Pnaic) e, em Portugal, Programa Nacional do Ensino do Portugues (Pnep) – os conteudos linguisticos relacionados ao ensino da leitura que fundamentaram a atualizacao dos professores com vistas a compreender como as descobertas cientificas penetram o campo pedagogico. Por meio de analise documental, sao apresentadas, de forma resumida, a estrutura e a organizacao dos dois programas e os respectivos conteudos de formacao. Ha muita similaridade entre os dois programas com relacao a organizacao e as estrategias metodologicas e ha diferencas importantes quanto a atualidade dos conteudos oferecidos aos professores alfabetizadores, assim como o tempo de formacao aplicado a este conteudo. A formacao linguistica do professor e essencial para desenvolver competencia para o ensino da lingua e, por conseguinte, melhorar as habilidades de ler e escrever dos alunos do ensino fundamental.

Tecnologias no aprendizado e no ensino da leitura e da escrita em perspectiva psicolinguística e interfaces

Presentation of the issue on Linguistics Technologies in learning and teaching of reading and writing in a psycholinguistic perspective and interfaces