In previous publications the authors of this paper identified specific relations between comprehension and convincement. On the basis of Grounded Theory, this research analyzes the changes that arise in said relations as a response to changing conditions. For their study, the authors analyze an interaction, at a distance, between a tutor and a…

As stated in Cardoso, Smith, and Garcia Fuentes (2015), second language researchers and practitioners have explored the pedagogical capabilities of Text-To-Speech synthesizers (TTS) for their potential to enhance the acquisition of writing (e.g. Kirstein, 2006), vocabulary and reading (e.g. Proctor, Dalton, & Grisham, 2007), and pronunciation…

The mathematical proficiencies in the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" of understanding, problem solving, reasoning, and fluency are intended to be entwined actions that work together to build generalised understandings of mathematical concepts. A content analysis identifying the incidence of key proficiency terms (KPTs) embedded in…

Current education standards in the U.S. require school students to read and understand complex texts from different subject areas (e.g., social studies). However, such texts usually contain figurative language, complex phrases and sentences, as well as unfamiliar discourse relations. This may present an obstacle to students whose native language…

"Reading in Pairs" is a peer tutoring program designed to improve oral fluency and reading comprehension in English as a Foreign Language. In this program students work in pairs, using an established relationship framework and the support of their teacher. This article outlines the main conceptual foundations of the program: peer…

iSTART is an intelligent tutoring system designed to provide self-explanation instruction and practice to improve students' comprehension of complex, challenging text. This study examined the effects of extended game-based practice within the system as well as the effects of two metacognitive supports implemented within this practice. High school…

The meaning given to letters is significant for students' ability to be successful with algebraic tasks. Recent studies have noted that even when students have a sense of generalised number, they often have a natural number bias in the values they think a letter can take. This study analyses interviews from 13 students across two schools to…

Lack of reading fluency is a significant obstacle to children's ability to learn from text. In this study, we explored the effects of two practices used to scaffold fluency -- repeated reading of a passage and listening to a passage before reading it. Since the differences between these practices may be subtle, we employed eye tracking to measure…

This paper examines the factors that hinder students' success in working with and understanding the mathematics of quadratic equations using a case study analysis of student error patterns. Twenty-five Year 11 students were administered a written test to examine their understanding of concepts and procedures associated with this topic. The…

The Center for the Study of Adult Literacy (CSAL) seeks to improve our understanding of ways to advance the reading skills of adult learners. Our web-based instructional tutor uses trialogues in the AutoTutor framework to deliver lessons in reading comprehension. We have found a way to manipulate proven comprehension strategies to fit the daily…

This study aims to enhance foreign language learners' language competence by integrating formal and informal learning environments and considers how they can improve their grammatical and lexical skills through the gathering (comprehension) and sharing (writing) of information in the foreign language. Experiments with German learners at a Japanese…

In order to enhance second language (L2) acquisition, English as a Second Language (ESL) students are encouraged to exploit the abundant information and opportunities for authentic language use afforded by the Internet. This study investigated the online research and comprehension strategies employed by ESL learners in a public university in…

This research aims to determine the relationship between conversation and reading approach with social media and to find out their implication in inquiry-based learning. The author also aims to find out how social media as new literacies can help students to challenge and improve their responsibility in learning, also develop their skills and…

This paper introduces a new captioning tool, Partial and Synchronized Caption with Hints (PSCH), as a means to facilitate second language (L2) listening by providing cues for ambiguous and difficult words/phrases in the caption while filtering out the easy words. Each word in the caption is synchronized to the corresponding audio to enable…

Although a reader's text-level comprehension is affected by the comprehension of individual sentences in a text, little attention has been paid to the difficulty of sentences. This study investigates whether measures (features) of text difficulty affect the "gradience" observed in sentence difficulty judgments. We examine two traditional…