How do infants learn about the formal properties of language using only cues they can access in speech? And what intuitions do they bring to the learning problem? Chapter 2: To explore whether current notions of statistically-based language learning could successfully scale to infants' linguistic experiences "in the wild", we implemented…

Audiobooks allow language learners to read and listen to the same text simultaneously; yet the effects of this bimodal input (written and spoken) on learners' comprehension have been inconsistent, suggesting that the conditions under which audiobooks can help comprehension are not well understood. As such, I explored silent reading speed and text…

Prosody is an important indicator of reading development, but many teachers are unclear about how it can help students improve their reading fluency. Beyond demonstrating expressive or flowing reading, specific components of "reading prosody" can distinctly reveal how well word recognition and comprehension processes coalesce, providing…

English holds a dominant position in the L2 context, particularly for programs aimed at developing composite English skills. Despite this, the influence of individual differences on listening comprehension within the business English framework remains underexplored. Therefore, this study investigates the structural relationships among second…

As handheld devices, such as tablets, become a common tool in schools, a critical and urgent question for the research community is to assess their potential impact on educational outcomes. Previous meta-analytic research has evidenced the "screen inferiority effect": Readers tend to understand texts slightly worse when reading on-screen…

International comparative measures show that South Africa has extremely low standards in reading. A variety of programmes aimed at boosting reading have been developed, however, the effectiveness of these programmes is unclear. Prior reviews of effective reading instruction practices have focused almost exclusively on learners whose first language…

Student question generation (SQG) is an effective strategy for improving reading comprehension. It helps students improve their understanding of reading materials, metacognitively monitor their comprehension, and self-correct comprehension gaps. Internet technologies have been used to facilitate SQG process through intensive peer support. However,…

There are conflicting reports not only on the effect of scientific inquiry on academic achievement but also insufficient evidence on the relationship between understanding the nature of scientific inquiry and academic achievement; more generalizable studies are needed. The purpose of this large sampled study was to investigate the middle school…

Numerous studies have examined the positive and negative effects of various types of interactions that occur while children view electronic book (e-book) stories. However, the effects of the different types of interactions have not been compared, and more importantly, the optimal amount and reoccurrence of these interactions on children has not…

Assessing students' answers and in particular natural language answers is a crucial challenge in the field of education. Advances in transformer-based models such as Large Language Models (LLMs), have led to significant progress in various natural language tasks. Nevertheless, amidst the growing trend of evaluating LLMs across diverse tasks,…

A substantial quantity of research has explored whether readers' eye movements are sensitive to the distinction between function and content words. No clear answer has emerged, in part due to the difficulty of accounting for differences in length, frequency, and predictability between the words in the two classes. Based on evidence that readers…

In this paper, I discuss the inspiration, development, and further refinement of the Knowledge Revision Components framework (KReC; Kendeou & O'Brien, 2014). In KReC, we theorize about the conditions that facilitate knowledge revision during reading, and thus successful learning in the presence of prior, often incorrect knowledge. I discuss…

The introduction of statistical concepts into school curricula in Australia and New Zealand in the early 1990s initiated an ongoing research program into the learning and teaching of statistics and probability in both countries. This paper reviews the contribution of Australian and New Zealand researchers to building statistical literacy at…

Valid consent requires the potential research participant understands the information provided. We examined current practice in 50 proposed Clinical Trials of Investigational Medicinal Products to determine how this understanding is checked. The majority of the proposals (n = 44) indicated confirmation of understanding would take place during an…

Making inferences is essential to comprehending text. Teachers can ask inferential questions, model their thinking, and teach specific strategies to support upper elementary students in making inferences while reading.