ABSTRACT. The study examined the effects of argument knowledge on the comprehension and critical evaluation of arguments in text. Sixth and ninth graders completed measures of prior beliefs, vocabulary, topic knowledge and argument knowledge. Then they read argumentative texts including high-quality arguments and low-quality fallacious arguments before completing comprehension and arguments evaluation tasks. Results highlighted the contribution of argument knowledge as a common factor facilitating both comprehension and evaluation of argumentative text.

ABSTRACT. Cognitive and affective aspects of joke comprehension across the lifespan were studied by comparing jokes to non-funny revision stories. Older participants (70-92 years) took longer to read all texts compared to younger adults (30-45), they made more errors in revision questions, and their funniness ratings differentiated less between jokes and other stories. These results replicate the humor facilitation effect in a non-student population, and show slower, but mostly preserved comprehension processes in older readers.

ABSTRACT. When reading scientific texts, students often struggle with comprehending and evaluating the presented arguments. In this study, we trained psychology students’ and student teachers’ skills in decoding the functional structure of informal scientific arguments. The training was effective for all students in a post-test shortly after the training. However, the effects remained stable when measured after a short booster training in a 4-week follow-up only for psychology students.

ABSTRACT. The current study used structural equation modeling to investigate the novel hypothesis that second-language reading is constrained by cross-linguistic interactions, and that such interactions vary as a function of relative experience in one’s languages and executive attention. Consistent with our predictions, the results demonstrated that increased cross-linguistic interactions contributed to poorer second-language reading skill, and that greater relative experience in one’s first-language and poorer executive attention contributed to increased cross-linguistic interactions.

ABSTRACT. We examined Word-to-Text Integration (WTI) in 491 7th grade English as a second language learners at the beginning and end of the school year. Self-paced reading times on three sets of 24 sentences with WTI-related complexities, namely implicit and explicit inferences, distant and close anaphora, and sentences with and without anomalies, improved over time. Word-to-text integration, reflected by overall differences between reading times on simple versus complex inferences and anomalies sentences, predicted reading comprehension.

ABSTRACT. This study test the effectiveness of observational learning in the area of reading strategy instruction. A first group of pre-vocational teachers were trained by researchers in how to put teacher modeling into practice. These teachers in their turn each trained one or more colleagues in how to apply this approach. Using a cross-legged panel design, we studied the effects of both training conditions on teacher approach and on reading proficiency of students in grades 7-9.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we used Group Communication Analysis (GCA) to explore gender differences in learner interactions during small group online collaborative learning, and how gender composition influences these communication patterns. The results suggest female students were more responsive, internally cohesive, and impactful in eliciting responses regardless of group composition. More nuances of the effect of gendered grouping on learners’ emergent communication are discussed.

ABSTRACT. Alerting dashboards are changing how teachers support students in science inquiry contexts. In the present study we investigated whether teacher feedback based on the dashboard, Inq-Blotter, improved students’ inquiry performance in an intelligent tutoring system; further, we used epistemic network analysis to investigate patterns in the discursive supports provided to students by teachers. Results indicated that students’ inquiry improved as a result of teachers’ help but there was variance in the patterns of teacher feedback.

ABSTRACT. This presentation or poster will summarize the analysis of commercially available, researcher-created, and online programs that are being used in schools to determine whether they contain effective components of morphological instruction, whether they have been evaluated on websites that consider effectiveness of intervention programs, and whether they are widely available. Results from the analysis raise questions about the availability of evidence based programs and how special education researchers make claims about what is evidence based.

ABSTRACT. In this study we showed a combined approach of psychoeducation and error-marking to reduce readers’ (N=100) reliance on misinformation read beforehand when answering general knowledge questions. We found that control-group participants reproduced more misinformation on items (answered correctly one week before) for which they were presented misinformation than for items with neutral information, whereas this was not the case for participants in our intervention group, who also reproduced less misinformation in general.

ABSTRACT. Teaching is typically thought to impart knowledge from the teacher to the student, yet research has shown that it can be an effective way to improve learning for the “teacher” as well. The present research found that for complex science texts, expecting-to-teach was only beneficial in improving comprehension outcomes for students who had a high perceived understanding of the text after reading.

ABSTRACT. We examined whether different task instructions (read to understand, draw, or explain) affect college students’ online reading of scientific explanations. We predicted sentence reading times from several predictor variables, some of which included the degree to which each sentence was relevant to spatial, causal, and general processes. Task instructions affected reading, in particular reading to draw increased time taken to read sentences that emphasized causality. Students need support to encode causality in their mental models.

ABSTRACT. We designed an experiment to test the role of Elaborated Feedback (EF) orienting learners toward the correct response (EFcorrect) or towards the mistake (EFincorrect) or using a combination that depends on the correctness of the students’ response (EFcombined) Students read two texts and answered a total of 16 low-and high-level questions with two attempts. Results show that EFcombined is more efficient: students spent less time reading and obtain better scores in posttest in high-level questions.

ABSTRACT. This experiment tested whether performing a pre-search task involving either the spelling or the meaning of words modified the way adults subsequently scanned a text to find a single-word answer to a question. Eye movement recordings revealed that perceptual and semantic inductions tasks had a differential impact on the way the words of the text were processed. Interestingly, the presence in the text of words looking like the target word increased participants’ accuracy in question-answering.

ABSTRACT. We examined whether induced mood (positive vs. negative) impacted participants’ thought processes during reading. We used experience sampling to assess whether participants were mind-wandering, as well as if they made any personal associations with the text prior to the thought probe. Participants in a sad mood made significantly more personal associations during episodes of mind-wandering; whereas participants in the happy condition reported more personal associations while they were on-task.

ABSTRACT. Coordination in dialogue requires coordinating both on content as well as on process. While the former has been studied extensively, the latter has received relatively little attention. To investigate procedural co-ordination we report a collaborative task which presents participants with the recurrent co-ordination problem of performing their contributions together in a single sequence, while preventing participants from using natural language to communicate. The data show that dyads rapidly bootstrap idiosyncratic signals for coordinating procedurally.

ABSTRACT. In 32 pairs, Direction Givers (DGs) and Followers (DFs) interacted while sitting side-by-side (aligned) or opposite one another (counter-aligned). When counter-aligned, DGs used more expressions from a survey perspective (e.g., north) and DFs more words per conversational turn. This was taken to reflect the increased difficulty of coordinating when counter-aligned. Nevertheless, task performance (the accuracy of DFs’ route drawings) was unaffected by body alignment or spatial language use, suggesting that pairs compensated through grounding strategies.

ABSTRACT. The ability to establish joint attention is a critical component of language learning. How does this process unfold when a deaf child interacts with a hearing caregiver who does not use sign language? We investigate how hearing parents of deaf children accommodate their deaf children’s hearing status by using multiple sensory modalities (e.g., auditory, visual, tactile) to establish joint attention. We find that caregivers scaffold their children’s learning by communicating to support attentional allocation.

ABSTRACT. Qualitative and quantitative predictions of the collaborative model of reference proposed by Clark and colleagues were tested on a sample of individuals recruited from the general population, thus spanning a range of education levels. We found that individuals vary greatly, and that the less individuals conform to collaborative behavior, the more likely they are to fail to coordinate meaning and understanding. Variability across individuals was predicted by their level of education.

ABSTRACT. We investigate the linguistic patterns of the online message that could introduce the pragmatic misunderstandings in the judgment of politeness between native and non-native English speakers. We collected politeness ratings of 600 online messages from both native English and Chinese speakers. By identifying the messages with disparate politeness judgments, we found that colloquial expressions might contribute to varying politeness perceptions. Our findings inform our computational model to detect potential cross-lingual communication breakdowns.

ABSTRACT. In this talk, I examine how repairs in adult-child conversations guides the children’s acquisition of their first language. Children make self-repairs (repairs to their own utterances) from as early as age one. For instance, they repair their own pronunciations, such as fa to fan, based on their auditory representations in memory of the target words they are attempting (fan). For their part, adults systematically check on whether they have understood the children they are talking with. They do so with requests for clarification that are general (mh?, what?) or specific (you hid what?) and with reformulations of what the child appeared to mean (you want water?). Children typically respond to requests for clarification with self-repairs in the next turn. They also use the reformulations as a source of feedback. The contrast between their utterance and the adult’s reformulation helps them identify the error being targeted (negative feedback), and they use the reformulation itself as a model for the conventional version of their less-than-ideal utterance (positive feedback). I describe the use of reformulations in conversations with children acquiring English and French in repairing their errors in phonology, morphology, lexicon, and syntax. I also present two studies of case studies of how reformulations inform children, one of homophonous French verb forms and the other of early Hebrew verbs. I argue that the process of repair plays an essential role in the acquisition of a first language.

ABSTRACT. To what extent do trained music therapists and music therapy attendees share understanding of what just happened in their music-language interaction, and do they as participants share privileged understanding relative to observers? From comments and ratings about four 30-minute sessions, observers—but not session participants—agreed more than chance, as did participating and commenting music therapists, but agreement was low. Music therapists did not agree more about music-therapist-authored characterizations than about characterizations by non-experts.

ABSTRACT. Our physical and mental health appears to be strongly affected by the quality of our social interactions. Our understanding of these effects is currently limited by our ability to measure patterns of social interaction ‘in the wild’. This paper explores whether we can can obtain useful, non-intrusive measures of the quality of social interaction solely from an analysis of people’s hand movements captured via wrist mounted accelerometers.

ABSTRACT. In face-to-face interaction, the natural home of conversation, human communication is inherently multimodal. Findings from a range of experimental studies will be presented which investigate the role of visual bodily signals for coordination in dialogue. Together, the findings suggest that the carefully timed join action of conversing with one another is crucially influenced by what we do with our bodies, including even some of the subtlest of visual signals, such as eyebrow movements and blinks.

ABSTRACT. Communicators who don't understand each other's sarcastic intent can be humorously described as having sarchasms. How frequent are sarchasms? Participants engaged in a task that promoted sarcasm generation and then reviewed their conversations for sarcasm. The more participants reported using sarcasm, the more they perceived their partners to have used sarcasm. But there was no relationship between what one person reported for their partner and what the partner reported for themselves.

ABSTRACT. We explored the distribution of laughter in 80 real selection interviews. We show how the production of laughter reflects the institutional roles in the interview (applicants laugh more often than recruiters) as well as gender differences. Laughter occurs more often at transitions between different interview phases. Finally, shared laughter correlates with a major interview outcome, recruiters’ hiring evaluation. Laughter allows interview participants to establish rapport, manage identities and coordinate progress in the interview.

ABSTRACT. Empirical results from a tryout study (N=134) of a scenario-based virtual world task designed to assess middle school students’ proficiency with online inquiry from multiple sources are presented, focusing on relationships among inquiry processes and final products. Significant relationships among lead-in tasks and culminating activities, including selected-response and essay tasks, were observed. Notably, students’ ability to effectively correct inaccurate information significantly predicted final essay scores, after controlling for essay length and student-level characteristics.

ABSTRACT. Structure building is the ability to build a coherent mental model of a text. To identify fundamental components of this individual difference, two studies examined performances on main point identification, comprehension questions, and a conceptual structure index as a function of structure-building ability. The materials were authentic textbook materials that offered varying degrees of structural support. We identified previously unknown deficits in low structure builders, and largely affirmed current textbook practices to promote comprehension.

ABSTRACT. Background knowledge facilitates reading comprehension, in large part by facilitating the activation of relevant information. Similar knowledge-activation processes are evoked in free-recall writing tasks that require individuals to provide information about a specific topic; in either case, greater knowledge facilitates performance. This study explores evidence that differences in individual writing processes on such tasks provide information predictive of reading comprehension above and beyond the quality of the written response and other measures of prior knowledge.

ABSTRACT. College success is, in part, contingent upon the extent that students are prepared to read for college. Many students who are underprepared are referred to supplemental programs to support the reading literacy challenges they face. This study was conducted to better understand these challenges. The study explored the relations between foundational literacy skills (word and sentence processing) and inference generation on reading tasks that vary in the type of comprehension demanded.

ABSTRACT. Measurement of reading strategies often relies on retrospective self-report measures without a defined context. To improve precision of measurement within a reading context, we developed a pool of 103 reading strategy items situated in a reading task. In two studies, this initial pool was reduced to 48 items with good reliability and validity properties. Thus, the item pool developed offers researchers a reliable and valid means to measure reading strategy awareness in situated contexts.

ABSTRACT. In a survey posted online, respondents rated their feelings toward math and science and wrote explanations. Women had less positive math attitudes relative to men, in line with previous work. Computational text analysis methods on open-ended narratives reveal words that are predictive of people with negative feelings, women, and respondents writing about science instead of math. Through topic modeling, distinct and coherent topics appear, offering further insight into the origin of individuals' current math attitudes.

ABSTRACT. Design-based research (DBR) is often promoted as a means to bridge the research-practice gap. In this DBR, four teachers and two researchers developed lessons focused on text-structure instruction for grades 4-6. Analyses of logbooks, panel interviews, lesson observations and artefacts raise questions about a major DBR-premise – equal participation of researchers and teachers –, but also shows how DBR can successfully contribute to teacher professionalization if researchers provide adequate support throughout the design process.

ABSTRACT. Inference is essential for comprehension but the directionality of causality remains undetermined. We collected data from 586 3rd, 4th & 5th grade students and analyzed their cross-sectional and comprehension-age match patterns. The results indicated that older students perform better than younger ones on comprehension and inference measures. When less-skilled 5th grade comprehenders were matched with skillful 3rd graders on comprehension score, the latter outperforms the former in inference measure, indicating inference might be the cause.

ABSTRACT. Most people in the United States obtain their news solely from their social media; this leaves them susceptible to obtaining misinformation due to the recent widespread of fake news. We predicted that people would be more susceptible to obtaining misinformation if it aligned with the beliefs of their political orientation. We found that people were able to recall and recognize fake news headlines, both liberal and conservative-leaning, better than true news headlines.

ABSTRACT. Relevance instructions help readers make determination of relevance. Seductive details are interesting, but unimportant ideas. In a 2 (relevance instructions: yes vs. no) x 2 (seductive details: yes vs. no) between-subjects design, participants did think-alouds while reading and did free recall after reading. Relevance instructions promoted the use of elaborations. Seductive details impeded the use of elaborations and recall of main ideas, and made the text more difficult to comprehend.

ABSTRACT. In Experiment 1, participants (n=44) tracked their emotional arousal during listening of 24 excerpts of Stephen King horror stories; valence and transportation were rated after each text. Negative valence and higher transportation were associated with steeper increases in arousal during stories. In Experiment 2, participants (n=45) read the stories while their eye movements were recorded, and evaluated valence, arousal and transportation after each story. Higher transportation was reflected in reading behavior as facilitation in processing.

ABSTRACT. Some theories of idiom comprehension claim that idiomatic meanings are processed prior to, and independently from, literal meanings, while others hold that literal processing precedes idiomatic processing. We presented idioms at a fixed rate, and measured activation of literal and figurative meanings at two ISI probe points; meaning-biasing context was also manipulated. Results indicated that both meanings are immediately activated, but that literal meanings remain active longer and are less affected by supporting context.

ABSTRACT. Using data from 3 separate studies, we investigated the impact of fiction on Theory of Mind. Participants read one of three literary or pop fiction stories, then completed a ToM task. Results indicated different patterns of ToM activation for the individual stories. Further, different individual characteristics (age, gender, reading skill) lead to different patterns of ToM for the individual stories, highlighting the need to study these stories further.

ABSTRACT. Generalizations are superordinate terms representing subordinate concepts. Generalization inferences were examined using a lexical decision task to superordinate terms, following expository texts discussing concepts that were highly related, moderately related, or unrelated to that term. Event-related potentials showed initial processing devoted to resolving relations between the moderately related texts and the target words, followed by processing of relations between the unrelated texts and the target words. Implications for drawing inferences from expository text are considered.

ABSTRACT. This study proposes that there are different inference skills, and that they can be characterised as local or global inference. It is proposed that students respond to items with the same inference classification in a similar way, but the way they responded depends on individual differences, in this case vocabulary skill. As the relationship between vocabulary and inference group was positive, it suggests that vocabulary skill is at the least supportive of inference skill.

ABSTRACT. Russian textbooks are criticized both for their low text quality and text complexity. This study outlines the development of the Russian Language Test, constructed to measure reading skills relevant to textbook comprehension, such as grammar and vocabulary knowledge. Results from this initial study including 81 fifth-grade and 94 ninth-grade students confirm that students struggle with grammatical inferences. The study also demonstrates promise for the use of the Russian Language Test as a comprehension assessment.  

ABSTRACT. The researchers argued that in the 21st century, the purposes of reading literacy were to develop the comprehensive skills for discourse as well as the literary nature and culture context. However, the meanings of literature included the expressive form of art, the texts background of meaning and cultural content, the authors’ personalities, aesthetics forms of text, the polysemy for readers’ comprehension.

ABSTRACT. The Student Mental Model Analyzer for Research and Teaching (SMART) is an intelligent system designed to support learning from text. In SMART, students read complex STEM texts and write summaries. They then view a visualization of their mental model as compared to an expert’s model. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce SMART and to provide initial evidence for the potential of the system to improve students’ understanding of their course texts.

ABSTRACT. Within the RI-Val model of reading comprehension the coherence threshold marks the point at which the reader has gained a sufficient level of comprehension in order to move on in a text. Previous research has demonstrated that the readers’ coherence threshold can be manipulated by increasing or decreasing the task demands (Williams, Cook, & O’Brien, 2018). The goal of the current research was to investigate the coherence threshold through manipulations of the text itself.

ABSTRACT. The timing of other-initiations of repair (OIRs) reflects several conversational preferences, such as the preference for specificity. A Bayesian regression model with two predictors—the timing of the solution and the length of the trouble source—predicted OIR timing better than a model that included OIR category—'open’ vs specific—as a predictor. This suggests that cognition plays a role in OIR timing, and that the preference for specificity may support conversation progressivity.

ABSTRACT. Techniques of natural language processing and machine learning have increasingly advanced research using automated scoring or text analyses. Most analyses of open-ended survey responses, however, are still conducted through manual coding. The present study utilized latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to extract topics from open-ended survey responses that focused on the college summer melt phenomenon. Comparing the LDA models to human coded response topics revealed that LDA modeling enabled extraction of similar topics to human-coded topics.

ABSTRACT. Despite the belief that analogies aid learning from science text, research findings in this area are mixed. The goal of the present study was to identify analogies used in geoscience textbooks in order to begin to understand when, why, and how they may, or may not, support learning. Results indicated that introductory texts contain more analogies than advance topic text, more analogies with familiar or non-geological base concepts, and more graphical analogies.

ABSTRACT. Research has consistently shown that readers rely on false information even after it has been discounted. We examined the efficacy of the “truth sandwich” for reducing endorsements of inaccurate information in expository descriptions. By presenting the true account of an event both before and after presenting the false account, the “truth sandwich” supported more accurate assessments of false claims as compared to simply presenting the false account followed by the true account.

ABSTRACT. Previous research on refutation texts and knowledge revision have suggested that refutation texts are effective in promoting knowledge revision and that refutation texts with explanations are more effective than explanations alone and refutation texts without explanations. This study based on the Knowledge Revision Components framework (KReC) investigates the extent to which refutation texts that use an analogy as an explanatory tool affects online encoding processes during reading and knowledge revision.

ABSTRACT. We evaluated the extent to which a Technology-Based Early Language Comprehension Intervention (TELCI) improved inferencing skills for students with or at-risk of language comprehension difficulties in Grades 1–2. Sixty-one low/average comprehenders completed 24 video modules in one of two conditions (online/during the video vs. offline/after the video). Results suggest that students in both conditions improved inferencing (proximal) and language comprehension skills (distal). These findings suggest promising response to intervention across conditions for struggling comprehenders.

ABSTRACT. We examined the representation of story characters as information sources. Forty college students read 16 short news reports presenting two embedded characters producing discrepant or consistent content statements (sources) and an embedded character who did not produce any statement. In a later recognition task, participants showed increased accuracy and better memory for source-related information after reading discrepant than consistent statements. The manipulation did not affect memory for the non-source character. Results corroborate prior eye-movement data.

ABSTRACT. This study investigated the effect of epistemic language (i.e., certainty/uncertainty) on belief of information and trust in different sources. Two-hundred fifty participants read sixty statements varied by source and epistemic language. Statements came from one of three sources and with tentative or certain epistemic language. Individual difference measures in political ideology, epistemic cognition, and health attitudes were administered. Results suggest relations between individual differences, epistemic dimensions of language, and judgments of trust and belief.

ABSTRACT. The reading rope model (Scarborough, 2001) posits that reading components play a central role at lower levels of development, but these components become more integrated as proficiency increases. Here, we test whether there is evidence for this model across development by tracking students’ performance on a component reading battery. Results indicate multiple factors at lower levels of ability, but two single factors at higher ability suggesting the integration and automatization of skills.

ABSTRACT. The presentation will examine the methodological challenges involved in understanding authors as categories. It presents the results of a multidimensional scaling that shows that participants may not necessarily judge passages by the same author as being by the same author. Moreover, passages that they do judge as being by the same author may not necessarily share easily identifiable semantic or linguistic characteristics.

ABSTRACT. We present an adaptation of analytical rating categories to different writing tasks for assessing text quality. Our aim is to find valid and economic measures of text quality for different purposes, e.g. measuring writing in writing research contexts or evaluating writing competences in school. We present results reflecting the validity of analytical rating scales measuring text quality, and discuss them by taking into consideration alternative approaches to text quality assessment.

ABSTRACT. Research on musical stimulus and concurrent task performance has provided conflicting accounts of how higher order cognitive tasks like reading can be affected. In the current experiment we compared music of varied tempos and found that listening to music did not seem to disrupt a reader’s ability to answer explicit or inferential comprehension questions. However, we did find that slow tempo music significantly reduced overall reading speed.

ABSTRACT. Fiction and nonfiction children’s books were assessed across three measures of text socialness—proportion of mental and emotional state words (MESW), proportion of pronouns, and narrativity—to determine how these measures capture real-world socialness variability. Fiction and nonfiction books did not significantly differ in proportion of MESW and pronouns and both fiction and nonfiction fell across a continuum. Fiction and nonfiction books significantly differed for narrativity, but nonfiction books tended to fall along a continuum.

ABSTRACT. Within the RI-Val Model (O’Brien & Cook, 2016a; 2016b), both the reader’s general world knowledge and contextual information compete for influence over comprehension. Fantasy text, where these two sources often conflict, provides a platform to investigate this competition. The results of four experiments demonstrated that enhancing contextual information in a text mitigated the disruption from general world knowledge. Specifically, strong causal information supported comprehension of events that typically violate our knowledge of well-known fantasy characters.

ABSTRACT. We examined the differential impact of metaphorical and literal phrases on readers’ representations. We propose that readers infer more extreme values (e.g., how delicious something is) following metaphors. Participants read narratives with metaphorical or literal phrases. They provided Likert scale ratings, and made intuitive and reflective judgments for inferences about the narratives. Our results suggest that people infer more extreme values following metaphors and that those values affect some intuitive judgments but not reflective judgments.

ABSTRACT. First year college students (N = 219) completed expository digital text reading comprehension tasks in an e-learning course (designed for research purposes), and completed a self-report measure of their metacognitive activities during those tasks. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, two latent factors pertaining to the Global/Monitoring and Problem Solving metacognitive dimensions were extracted. Participants with higher metacognitive skills, higher verbal ability, and more Internet experience, were more likely to correctly answer comprehension questions.

ABSTRACT. This study examined how different types of background knowledge affect performance on the GISA - an assessment that evaluates authentic comprehension skills. High school students (n=78) completed the GISA and two background knowledge tests (general science, domain-specific) that included basic and conceptual questions. Linear mixed effects models indicated that conceptual knowledge of the domain was the strongest predictor of GISA performance. These findings emphasize the need to distinguish between different types of background knowledge.

ABSTRACT. The present study is the first investigation of a refutation text intervention for remediating the fraction misconception that “multiplication always makes bigger.” In-service and pre-service elementary teachers (N = 100) who were randomly assigned to read a refutation text directly refuting the fraction misunderstanding were found to have fewer misconceptions at posttest compared with those who read a control text. Findings suggest that refutation texts can support mathematics conceptual change.

ABSTRACT. The MOCCA-C assessment is designed to identify types of poor reading comprehension in college students. This poster outlines the item-writing process that the research team followed to create the items for this assessment. As a result, items generated included 209 expository and narrative items appropriate for college students’ reading level with different response choices that mimic styles of poor comprehension. These items form an online assessment currently being tested for validation.

ABSTRACT. Most of the Internet is not governed by editors and therefore misinformation can spread. Consequently, information seekers have to decide whom they can trust and which information is credible. In three experiments, we investigate how the language style and the professional affiliation of an information source influence (a) his trustworthiness and (b) the credibility of the provided information. The results show that the language style and the professional affiliation influence trustworthiness and credibility judgements differently.

ABSTRACT. This qualitative study explored the purpose of education as seen through discourse from speeches and tweets from the Secretary of Education. Labaree’s American Educational Goals of democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility served as the foundation for our analysis. Critical Discourse Analysis was used to highlight all actions taken or intended by the administration. We analyzed the codes by grouping like codes and determining their fit within Labaree’s framework.

ABSTRACT. Evidence-based argumentation is crucial to education and might promote students’ critical thinking. In an experiment, we investigated whether the effectiveness of trainings on critically questioning socio-scientific information that include dyadic online discourses exceeds the effectiveness of discourse-less trainings. Accordingly, participants (n = 33) that read information individually were compared to participants (n = 36) that engaged in argumentative discourses additionally. As expected, discourses promoted participants’ critical evaluation of arguments and their intrinsic motivation.

ABSTRACT. Homework activities that prompted students to write short explanations while reading improved both comprehension and metacomprehension over just a few weeks. In contrast, example generation activities facilitated comprehension but not metacomprehension. It was only after engaging in explanation generation activities that judgments of comprehension became more conservative, overconfidence decreased, and relative accuracy increased from baseline to transfer test. Further, providing additional scaffolding and instruction in this condition supported better course performance especially for at-risk students.

ABSTRACT. Existing media studies have not explored the recent agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra, especially as led by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) because it is a recent development. This study, therefore, applies a critical discourse approach to examine the discourse strategies deployed by selected newspapers in representing the news reports on Biafran agitators, with a view to establishing the implications of the use of language in the news reports.

ABSTRACT. Narratives are frequently written in first-person narration (using “I” pronouns) or third-person narration (using “he”, “she”, or “they” pronouns). We examined whether readers are more likely to attribute blame to the main character when a story is in first-person narration rather than third-person. Participants assigned greater blame to the character in first-person stories. Participants also took longer to make decisions about whether the character was to blame when the story was in third-person narration.

ABSTRACT. This study examined the role that prior beliefs play while people evaluate short informal arguments about everyday topics. We found that participants’ beliefs did impact their final evaluation of arguments. This effect was most prominent for arguments that were consistent with the participants’ prior beliefs. While we did find support for this belief-consistency effect, it did not over-ride participants’ ability to evaluate the logical acceptability of arguments.

ABSTRACT. This study developed a model of second language (L2) reading/listening comprehension in adolescent English learners (N=194). Path analyses revealed direct effects of L2 vocabulary/grammar on L2 reading/listening comprehension, and indirect effects of working memory, L1 inferencing-making, and general L1 ability via L2 vocabulary/grammar. The path model explained L2 reading/listening comprehension with a variance above 70%. This study highlights the importance of foundational language skills along with foundational and higher-level cognitive skills in L2 reading/listening comprehension.