Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h6L128715760; Sun, 20 Jul 2003 21:02:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 21:02:08 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <1c4.cc4894c.2c4c9458@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2445] clues to meaning in language X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 39 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 2791 Lines: 101 This is response to the discussion about syntax on the EFF list. >From Tom Sticht Andrea made the point that syntax is important in deriving meaning from what is listened to or read. This reminded me of a research study colleagues and I did long ago. We were studying the reading and listening skills of army personnel and were interested in how different aspects of the spoken language might affect their ability to learn by listening. In one condition we presented two short (63 and 82 words) stories for men to read and fill in missing words in a cloze format. This provided a baseline of performance on the cloze tests. In a second condition, before men took the cloze test, they had a chance to hear all the words in the stories, including the ones left out in the cloze items, by listening to them presented as a random set of words spoken in a monotone at a constant rate of presentation. Thus there were no syntax clues, no inflectional clues, nor any sequence clues to meaning to help the men recall the words and place them in the correct cloze slots of the stories when they read them and took the cloze test. Still, just encountering the words by listening raised their cloze scores from the baseline of 21 percent to 33 percent correct. In a third condition, men listened to the words presented in story sequence, and hence with proper syntax, but in a monotone voice without any inflectional clues to meaning. They then read the stories and completed the cloze tests. In this case, adding the presence of the sequence of words in a story format when listening increased the cloze test scores to over 43 percent correct. Finally, in a fourth condition, men listened to the stories read in a story sequence using normal inflection and expression as additional aids to memory and recall. In this case cloze test performance rose to over 48 percent correct. This study of clues to meaning, memory and recall in learning by listening suggests that a variety of clues may be used by listeners and readers to construct meaning when attending to language in either spoken or written form. This includes syntactical clues to meaning, as Andrea has indicated, and other clues such as inflection and emphasis, auditory information sometimes called suprasegmentals by linguists. Listening to adult new readers read aloud may indicate the extent to which they are able to draw upon syntactical and suprasegmental knowledge, in addition to word knowledge (vocabulary), to construct meaning from what they are reading. Tom Sticht Sticht, T. G. (1969, December). Learning by listening in relation to aptitude, reading and rate-controlled speech. HumRRO Technical Report 69-23. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization.
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