Paul Macaruso

The Efficacy of Computer-Assisted Instruction for Advancing Literacy Skills in Kindergarten Children

We examined the benefits of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as a supplement to a phonics-based reading curriculum for kindergartners in an urban public school system. The CAI program provides systematic exercises in phonological awareness and letter–sound correspondences. Comparisons were made between children in classes receiving a sufficient amount of CAI support and children in matched classes taught by the same teacher but without CAI. The treatment and control groups did not differ on pretest measures of preliteracy skills. There were, however, significant differences between groups on posttest measures of phonological awareness skills particularly for students with the lowest pretest scores.

Grapheme-to-lexeme feedback in the spelling system: Evidence from a dysgraphic patient.

This article presents an argument for grapheme-to-lexeme feedback in the cognitive spelling system, based on the impaired spelling performance of dysgraphic patient CM. The argument relates two features of CMs spelling. First, letters from prior spelling responses intrude into subsequent responses at rates far greater than expected by chance. This letter persistence effect arises at a level of abstract grapheme representations, and apparently results from abnormal persistence of activation. Second, CM makes many formal lexical errors (e.g., carpet → compute). Analyses revealed that a large proportion of these errors are “true” lexical errors originating in lexical selection, rather than “chance” lexical errors that happen by chance to take the form of words. Additional analyses demonstrated that CMs true lexical errors exhibit the letter persistence effect. We argue that this finding can be understood only within a functional architecture in which activation from the grapheme level feeds back to the lexeme level, thereby influencing lexical selection.

Expanding the Simple View of Reading in Accounting for Reading Skills in Community College Students.

The simple view of reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) proposes that listening comprehension and decoding, properly measured, can account for all of the variance in reading comprehension. We assessed the simple view in community college students. In addition to listening comprehension and decoding, we included measures of oral vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, phonological awareness, reading fluency, and verbal working memory. In combination, the measures yielded an R2 of.48, but only listening comprehension and reading fluency made independent contributions to reading comprehension. Predictors that best distinguished less skilled from average readers were phonological awareness and verbal working memory. These findings suggest a need to expand the simple view in accounting for individual differences among adult readers.

The functional architecture of the cognitive numerical-processing system: Evidence from a patient with multiple impairments

Abstract RH, a brain-damaged patient with multiple impairments in numerical processing, was tested extensively on a set of transcoding tasks in which numerals were converted from one form to another (e.g. 94 → ninety-four). The pattern of error rates across tasks, and the patterns of error types within tasks, support the assumption that numerical processing is mediated by multiple independent numeral comprehension and numeral production processes that communicate via central semantic representations of numbers (McCloskey, Caramazza, & Basili, 1985).

Syntactically Cued Text Facilitates Oral Reading Fluency in Developing Readers.

Can fluency in oral reading be facilitated by formatting text to preserve major syntactic boundaries? Seven-, 8-, and 9-year-old children read aloud passages under two text format conditions. In the structure-preserving condition, the ends of lines coincided with ends of clauses; in the phrase-disrupting condition, line breaks always interrupted a phrasal unit. Experiment 1 showed that oral reading fluency, as indexed by skill in phrasal reading, was rated higher when children were reading in the structure-preserving condition. In addition, the structure-preserving condition resulted in significantly fewer false starts at the beginning of lines following a return sweep. The results of Experiment 2, in which texts of varying levels of difficulty were read by slightly older readers, confirmed both findings. Measures of fluency were correlated with other language and reading measures; however, no effects of format were obtained on oral reading rate (words correct per minute). Taken as a whole, these findings indicate a benefit of keeping clausal units intact in promoting fluent reading by facilitating the transition from one line to the next.

Efficacy of Computer-Assisted Instruction for the Development of Early Literacy Skills in Young Children

Two studies examined the efficacy of using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to supplement a phonics-based reading curriculum for preschoolers and kindergartners in an urban public school system. The CAI programs provided exercises in phonological awareness and basic phonics skills. We compared treatment classes using CAI with control classes receiving the same classroom instruction without CAI. For preschoolers, the treatment group made significantly greater gains than controls in phonological awareness. For kindergartners, treatment students with low pretest scores made significantly greater gains than controls, particularly in word reading. Overall, preschoolers and low-performing kindergartners benefited from intensive practice provided by CAI programs.

Benefits of Computer-Assisted Instruction for Struggling Readers in Middle School

This study investigated the benefits of computer‐assisted instruction (CAI) for middle‐school students attending remedial reading classes. As a supplement to a strong language‐based reading curriculum, a CAI programme that works on strengthening phonics word identification skills was provided to students in the treatment group. These students were compared with control students taught by the same teacher but without CAI support. Students in the treatment group showed greater reading gains than control students. Group differences in gain scores were significant in the area of decoding skills. These results show that a skills‐based CAI programme can boost decoding for struggling readers in middle school.

Benefits of Computer-Assisted Instruction to Support Reading Acquisition in English Language Learners

Young children who are English language learners (ELLs) face major challenges in learning to read English. This study examined whether computer-assisted instruction (CAI) can be beneficial to ELL kindergartners enrolled in bilingual classes. The CAI programs provided systematic and structured exercises in developing phonological awareness and phonics skills. Comparisons were made between a treatment group given CAI support and a control group receiving the same classroom instruction without structured CAI support. Differences in pretest and posttest scores revealed significantly greater gains for the treatment group compared to the control group. The largest discrepancy between groups occurred in the area of phonological awareness. Significant differences favoring the treatment group were also found in sight word recognition. A subanalysis of low performers in the two groups showed similar outcomes as the full groups. Our findings indicate that ELL students benefit from intensive practice in basic reading skills as provided by CAI support.

Exploration of a Blended Learning Approach to Reading Instruction for Low SES Students in Early Elementary Grades

This study investigated the potential benefits of a blended learning approach on the reading skills of low socioeconomic status students in Grades 1 and 2. Treatment students received English language arts instruction that was both teacher-led and technology-based. Comparisons were made with control students who received the same English language arts instruction without the blended learning component. Results showed significantly greater pretest/posttest gains on a standardized reading assessment for the treatment students compared to the control students. The greatest discrepancy occurred in reading comprehension. A sub-analysis of low-performing English language learner students in the treatment group revealed the largest reading gains. At posttest, these students performed at the level of non-English language learner students in the control group. Results indicated a blended learning approach can be effective in enhancing the reading skills of low socioeconomic students.

Teachers’ skill ratings of children with learning disabilities: A comparison of the United States and Japan

This study compared U.S. and Japanese grade school teachers’ perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of children in their classrooms identified as fitting commonly used criteria for a learning disability. U.S. teachers identified 4.0 percent of their children as meeting the criteria and Japanese teachers identified 1.5 percent. The teachers then rated these children’s abilities in the areas of listening, speaking, reading/writing, reasoning, mathematics, social, and study skills. Overall, U.S. and Japanese teachers’ rating patterns were similar on 70 percent of the skills. In most areas where significant differences were found—listening, speaking, reading/writing and study skills—U.S. teachers rated higher percentages of their children as “weaker” than Japanese teachers. A noteworthy exception was the area of social skills where Japanese children received higher percentages of “weak” ratings. U.S. and Japanese teachers also differed in their perceptions of causative factors leading to their children’s learning difficulties. We discuss the findings in terms of U.S.-Japanese differences in writing systems and cultural expectations.