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Effects of Dictation, Speech to Text, and Handwriting on the Written Composition of Elementary School English Language Learners
Abstract
Previous research has shown that both dictation and speech-to-text (STT) software can increase the quality of writing for native English speakers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of these modalities on the written composition and cognitive load of elementary school English language learners (ELLs). In a within-subjects experimental design, 21 ELLs completed persuasive texts in 3 modalities: handwriting, dictation to a scribe (DS), and dictation to STT. Repeated measures analyses of variance showed that DS, compared to handwriting, resulted in significantly higher text quality, word count, and fluency and a lower error rate and required effort. STT, compared to handwriting, resulted in significantly higher holistic text quality and a lower error rate and effort. We examined student and text characteristics associated with text quality in each modality. Both modalities present young ELLs with options for written composition.
... Using automatic speech recognition (ASR) when writing may be one way to do so. Studies of children with English as a first (L1) and second language (L2) show that using ASR to write texts can increase text complexity and reduce linguistic errors (Arcon et al., 2017;Quinlan, 2004); see forthcoming discussion. Additionally, high-quality ASR is accessible and free on devices that are used daily. ...
... In addition, there were fewer errors, as the ASR program provided error-free spelling of most words. Arcon et al. (2017), in a study of ESL elementary students attending school in English, found that texts composed using ASR had fewer errors and received higher scores on a holistic rating scale than handwritten ones. The increased complexity in texts and automatic error-free production by ASR show the potential for this technology to allow students to go beyond form when writing. ...
... To the best of our knowledge, the literature surrounding ASR has focused on pronunciation, with minimal research examining the use of ASR as an L2 writing tool. Only Arcon et al. (2017;discussed above) have explored L2 learner use of ASR by children, and we found no studies examining the use of ASR by L2 adult writers. An interesting ASR tool that could be further explored for use with adult L2 learners is Google Voice Typing (henceforth, GVT). ...
Writing involves more than attention to form (e.g., orthography, grammar), since it requires attention to text type, content, and genre. However, most students of English as a second language (L2) tend to prioritize linguistic accuracy in their writing, to the detriment of the content of their texts. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has the potential to mitigate this, as it reduces the cognitive burden of writing by facilitating the text input process (using a skill most humans possess—speaking), offering assistance in spelling, and allowing a focus on other aspects of the task (e.g., cohesion, content). Automatic speech recognition is not only accessible and free, but it also fulfills Chapelle’s (2001) criteria of an effective computer-assisted language learning tool (e.g., authenticity, learner fit). Despite these affordances, there is a dearth of studies examining the possible affordances of ASR for writing. This mixed methods, one-shot study examines L2 writers’ perceptions of using ASR to write using the technology acceptance model (TAM). Seventeen (N = 17) undergraduate students at a Canadian university were provided with training on Google Voice Typing (Google Docs) and carried out a series of ASR-based writing tasks over a two-hour period. In order to measure their perceptions of the target criteria, participants filled in a TAM-informed survey consisting of statements about their experience with ASR scored on a 7-point Likert scale. To further explore the participants’ perceptions, semi-structured interviews followed. Findings indicate positive perceptions of ASR’s usefulness in terms of language learning and its ease of use due to the user-friendly voice commands. This suggests that ASR has pedagogical potential, thus requiring further examination to determine its optimal use for L2 writing.
... In their broad review of STT in education, Shadiev et al. [30] summarised its benefits for students with disabilities, online students, non-native speakers and in collaborative learning activities and traditional classroom environments. Pennington et al. [31] present a review on how STT supports writing in primary and higher education, and Arcon et al. [32] conducted a within-subjects experimental design study on how STT can be used for second language learning in elementary education. Yet, little is known about the use of STT in secondary education or its impact on specific tasks for learners with writing difficulties, and even less is known about its general impact on learning. ...
... Thus, articles that include the use of either speech recognition alone or speech recognition combined with other kinds of assistive technologies (such as speech synthesis or digital voice feedback) are included. Studies on speech recognition for second language instruction (e.g., Arcon et al. [32]) and speech-and language therapy (e.g., Kitzing et al. [51]) were excluded. ...
... MacArthur and Cavalier [25] and Quinlan [54] describe improved writing performance and higher holistic text quality for pupils with LD; they report that less fluent writers displayed fewer surface errors using STT. This is in line with research in elementary school on the use of STT as an assistive technology for English language instruction [32] and as an approach to promote idea generation [58]. That younger pupils and pupils with LD have similar benefits of STT as an assistive technology, may be due to similarities among the two groups with respect to limited working memory and transcription skills that are not yet fully developed [32]. ...
Purpose
To identify and describe the aims, methodological approaches, and major findings of studies on the use of STT among secondary pupils (age 12–18) with learning difficulties published from January 2000 to April 2022.
Materials and method
This scoping review includes empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals and grey literature between January 2000 and April 2022. Searches were conducted in April 2022 in three databases: ERIC, PsycINFO and Scopus. In addition, related reviews were manually screened for relevant papers.
Results
Eight peer-revied studies and five publications of grey literature were found to meet the inclusion criteria; two studies employed experimental designs, four employed quasi-experimental designs and seven employed explorative designs. Six studies described STT as an assistive technology (a compensatory aid for poor writing performance); two assessed STT as an instructional technology to determine whether it improves overall writing and related skills (e.g., reading). Results suggest that STT may increase pupils’ abilities to produce texts with fewer errors, provide help with spelling and improve reading comprehension and word recognition. To date, there is a paucity of high-quality research on the use of STT among adolescents with LD.
Conclusion
The scoping review shows that very little research has been conducted on the use of STT for adolescents with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings from the studies identified five areas of interest: writing related skills, text assessment, writing processes, accuracy of the technology, and participants’ experiences. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT. Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION
• There is a great need for more robust research on the use of speech-to-text technology (STT) in educational settings, especially on its effect on writing skills
• Studies describe STT as either an assistive (a compensatory aid for poor writing performance) or instructional technology (aiming to improve learning in general). It is important that practitioners are aware of the different aims and possible consequences of introducing STT to learners with writing difficulties.
• STT provides both opportunities and challenges for writers with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT, yet inaccuracy of the technology was presented as one of the main challenges.
• Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties.
... SRT has been employed in language learning research to facilitate skills such as pronunciation (Ahn & Lee, 2016), listening (Mirzaei, Meshgi, Akita & Kawahara, 2017), writing (Arcon, Klein & Dombroski, 2017), grammar (Bodnar, Cucchiarini, de Vries, Strik & van Hout, 2017), and vocabulary (Cavus & Ibrahim, 2017). The results of related studies were mostly positive (e.g. ...
... Learners spoke to the system, generated translated texts from speech input, and translated texts were shown to language partners. For writing, SRT can help learners demonstrate compositional ability independent of transcription; for example, technology mitigates challenges with spelling and allows students to compose written content using their rich oral vocabulary (Arcon et al., 2017;Baker, 2017). For vocabulary, word recognition and grammar learning, learners had to speak vocabulary words and their order in a sentence to SRT so that it could analyze learners' speech and provide immediate corrective feedback, such as the correct pronunciation, their recognition, and order (Bodnar et al., 2017;Cavus & Ibrahim, 2017;Matthews & O'Toole, 2015). ...
... To give commands to the system applications, a lecturer or student spoke to the system to execute a command. For example, students in Arcon et al. (2017) composed and modified their essays by executing specific word-processing editing commands through a speech recognition interface. Such an approach was useful in improving speaking skills. ...
Speech recognition technology (SRT) is now widely used in education because of its potential to aid learning, particularly language learning. Nevertheless, SRT has received only limited attention in earlier review studies. The present research aimed to address this gap in the field. To this end, 26 articles published in SSCI journals between 2014 and 2020 were selected and reviewed with respect to domain and skills, technology and their application, participants and duration, measures, reported results, and advantages and disadvantages of SRT. The results showed that English received much more attention than any other language, and scholars mostly focused on facilitating pronunciation skills. Dragon Naturally Speaking and Google speech recognition were the most popular technologies, and their most frequent application was providing feedback. According to the results, college students were involved in research more than any other group, most studies were carried out for less than one month, and most scholars administered a questionnaire or pre-/posttest to collect the data. Positive results related to gains in proficiency and student perceptions of SRT were identified. The study revealed that improved affective factors and enhanced language skills were advantages, whereas a low accuracy rate and insufficiency (i.e. lack of some useful features to support learning efficiently) of SRT were disadvantages. Based on the results, the study puts forward several implications and suggestions for educators and researchers in the field.
... Due to technological advances, speech-to-text (STT) technology, previously expensive and available only to pupils with documented needs, has now been integrated into writing software An Exploratory Study on the Use of Speech-to-Text Technology as a Writing Modality 39 from Google, Microsoft and Apple. Arcon et al. (2017) suggest that if pupils can dictate rather than transcribe, constraints pertaining to spelling and orthography would be reduced, and their texts would increase in quantity and quality. Indeed, research indicates that pupils with learning difficulties can produce higher-quality compositions when dictating texts to a scribe compared to writing by hand or typing (De La Paz & Graham, 1997). ...
... Writing as knowledge telling is characterized by idea retrieval and retelling, while knowledge transformation includes the interaction between planning, translating and reviewing ideas to make sure that the writer's ideas come across as the author intends (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987;Kellogg, 2008). One of the arguments for introducing pupils with low writing achievement to STT technology, has been that the technology can reduce barriers pertaining to spelling and encoding and allow the pupils to focus on planning and reviewing ideas, resulting in more advanced writing strategies, increased fluency and improved text quality (Arcon et al., 2017;De La Paz & Graham, 1997). ...
Six Norwegian lower secondary school pupils (ages 14–15 years) with low writing achievement participated in a stimulated recall study aimed at exploring how pupils write and experience writing with speech-to-text (STT) technology in an educational context. The study employed an exploratory design, collecting data from screen recordings and stimulated recall interviews. The screen recordings were captured while the adolescents wrote a reflective text in Norwegian, using STT and keyboard. Findings showed that the pupils were able to produce a reflective text using STT technology while experiencing both benefits and challenges due to the technology. Benefits included the opportunity to use words that they did not know how to spell and verbal skills to produce arguments in writing. Challenges were mainly related to transcription errors and technological inaccuracies. Findings suggest that technological issues need to be addressed and sufficient planning and instruction is necessary before STT can be a truly beneficial tool for adolescents with low writing achievement in secondary education.
... In terms of learning platforms, 67% of the articles used software based on desktop platforms, 23% of the articles used web-based platforms, and 11% of the articles used android-based platforms (Appendix 1). More specifically, a few software programs, namely Windows Speech Recognition (Hwang et al., 2016;Chen, 2011;Evers & Chen, 2020;Kuo et al., 2012;Shadiev et al., 2020), Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Arcon et al., 2017;Estes & Bloom, 2010;Haug & Klein, 2017;Mees et al., 2013), Kinesthetic System (Wang et al., 2019;Hwang et al., 2020), Neurosky MindWave (Shadiev et al., 2017(Shadiev et al., , 2020, and EzVision/GPS (Nguyen et al., 2018;Sun et al., 2015), were commonly used by the Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved. ...
... The development of NLP and image processing with ML and AI was beneficial for STR and ITR; consequently, STR and ITR can meet learners' needs, develop their imaginations, and help them to improve their learning achievements. It was found that STR significantly improved learners' oral presentation and group discussion skills , self-regulated speaking practice (Ahn & Lee, 2016), and writing strategies (Arcon et al., 2017;Haug & Klein, 2017). In addition, it was found that ITR significantly enhanced learners' EFL writing (Nguyen et al., 2020), English vocabulary acquisition (Shadiev et al., 2020), and Spanish writing (Castañeda, 2011). ...
Since recognition technology has been widely used to support learners' language learning, it is necessary to have a framework that can support the implementation of anything-to-text recognition technology, such as speech-to-text recognition, image-to-text recognition, body movement-to-text recognition, emotion-to-text recognition, and location-to-text recognition, into learning designs. Therefore, in this study, we aim to review published articles related to anything-to-text recognition in language learning from 2011 to 2020 and propose an anything-to-text recognition framework. A total of 48 articles passed the selection process of this study. The results showed that most of the published articles focused on English language learning and recruited university students to participate in their studies. In addition, most of the articles aimed to foster learners' listening skills, and very few of them paid attention to writing skills. Speech-to-text recognition was commonly used to help speaking and listening skills. Image-to-text recognition was usually used to help reading and listening skills. Body movement-to-text, emotion-to-text, and location-to-text recognition technologies were rarely used; however, these also had the potential to support language learning. Based on these findings, an anything-to-text recognition framework should consist of three important layers, namely learning representations, recognition accuracy, and learning effects with regard to learners' needs and imaginations in language learning supported by recognition technologies. Furthermore, this study also highlights the features of research trends and provides suggestions for researchers in this field.
... Several technological solutions have been suggested to address this important problem. Arcon et al. (2017), for example, applied speech-to-text recognition (STR) technology. In foreign language as a medium of instruction (FLMI), it synchronously generates texts from speech that are then displayed to students (Rosell-Aguilar, 2017;Shadiev et al., 2014). ...
... Recent evidence suggests that STR technology is a useful tool to assist student learning (Arcon et al., 2017;Mirzaei et al., 2017;Ranchal et al., 2013;Rosell-Aguilar, 2017;Ryba et al., 2006;Shadiev et al., 2014;Shadiev & Yang, 2020;Wald, 2018). According to Shadiev and Sun (2019, p. 6), "STR technology synchronously transcribes text streams from a lecturer's speech input, which are then shown to students." ...
Scholars suggest that not every student completely comprehends the content of a lecture in a foreign language as the medium of instruction, especially in the case of those with low language ability. To facilitate comprehension of lectures in a foreign language, learning content was presented to students in multiple modalities; that is, in addition to verbal (speech of the instructor) and visual (lecture slides) content, texts generated by speech-to-text recognition (STR) or speech-enabled language translation (SELT) were shown to the students. The goal was to compare how these two additional content modalities (i.e., STR-texts vs. SELT-texts) facilitate student comprehension of lecture content. Because processing multimodal content requires additional cognitive resources, another goal was to explore whether STR-texts versus SELT-texts impose any cognitive load on the students. To this end, two groups of students were recruited, where they attended two lectures at the intermediate and advanced levels. STR-texts were shown to a control group, and SELT-texts were shown to an experimental group. The posttest results and the cognitive load of the students in both groups after each lecture were compared. Four main findings were obtained: (a) The experimental group outperformed the control group on both posttests. However, when student language ability was considered, the difference was statistically significant for low ability students only; (b) there was not a significant between-group difference in cognitive load; however, if student language ability was considered, a significant between-group difference existed during the more difficult lecture; (c) between-group differences in self-efficacy were statistically insignificant; and (d) associations among some research variables were found. Based on these results, several implications were drawn for the teaching and research community.
... A small group of studies (n = 6) gave insight into technology scaffolds that could be incorporated into instruction to support ML writers. For instance, Arcon et al. [54] tested the impacts of dictation (DT) and speech-to-text (STT) software on the quality of MLs' written composition. They found that, relative to handwriting, STT produced significantly higher holistic quality writing and a lower error rate in students' compositions. ...
Because of the Common Core State Standards (2010), all elementary students across the United States, including multilingual learners, must learn to compose written texts in opinion, informational, and narrative genres. By nature, writing also plays many diverse roles in educational settings, and advanced writing skills are needed for students to reach interdisciplinary success. Specifically, writing can be incorporated into content-area learning in subjects such as science, social studies, and math to support genre-based writing development. While advanced writing can be challenging for any student to master, multilingual students may need additional support to develop these crucial composition skills because of the complexities of learning two languages simultaneously. Furthermore, while many educators understand that multilingual students have distinct literacy needs, not all teachers are prepared to meet these specific writing instructional demands. This article presents the results of a systematic review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach. This study investigated literacy-based empirical research used to support multilingual learners since the inception of the Common Core (2010–2023) genre-based writing standards. In characterizing effective writing supports, seven themes emerged: (a) the role of the teacher, (b) writing mentor texts, (c) the creation of multimodal texts, (d) writing scaffolds, (e) authenticity, (f) specific teacher instruction, and (g) multilingual language approaches. While this body of research is literacy-focused, these findings provide elementary teachers with specific strategies to support developing multilingual writers when implemented into traditional literacy spaces or content-area instruction.
... • Students with disabilities make few changes during the editing/revising stage • Editing/ revising is a complex skill (Arcon et al., 2017;Bouck et al., 2015;De Silva & Graham, 2015;Goldman et al., 2023b;Gosse & Reybroeck, 2020;Graham et al., ...
Editing and revising is an important part of writing, especially as writing and technology are becoming intertwined. This session will crosswalk the Strategic Intervention Model’s (SIM) Error Monitoring Strategy, an editing and revising strategy, to available technologies to support teachers in removing barriers to writing for students with disabilities.
... They found that speech recognition made the speaking activity more interactive and motivating, and 57% of the participants thought that the application was helpful in practicing their oral English. Arcon et al. (2017) applied speech recognition to composition writing for elementary school English language learners (ELLs). They found the application led to higher holistic text quality, as well as less error and effort. ...
Research on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) has rapidly progressed in recent years, and understanding the research trends and development is essential for technological innovations and implementations in education. Using a bibliometric analysis of 6843 publications from Web of Science and Scopus, we found that China, US, India, Spain, and Germany led the research profuctivity. AIED research is concerned more with higher education compared to K-12 education. Fifteen research trends emerged from the analysis, such as Educational Robots and Large Data Mining. Research has primarily leveraged technologies of machine learning, decision trees, deep learning, speech recognition, and computer vision in AIED. The major implementations of AI include educational robots, automated grading, recommender systems, learning analytics, and intelligent tutoring systems. Among the implementations, a majority of AIED research was conducted in seven major subject domains, chief among them being science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and language disciplines, with a focus on computer science and English education.
... STR also has played important role in clarifying the English lecture content (Shadiev & Sun, 2020), facilitating self-oriented EFL speaking (Nguyen et al., 2020), self-regulated EFL speaking practice (Ahn & Lee, 2016), and so on. Several studies also used STR to support EFL writing to improve text usage (Arcon et al., 2017;Nguyen et al., 2020). ...
Different recognitions become more mature and have been widely applied for EFL learning. Each recognition also has its specific features useful for EFL descriptive writing. The pictorial and verbal representations and current context found in image-to-text recognition (ITR), translated speech-to-text recognition (TSTR), and location-to-text recognition (LTR) respectively could be beneficial for EFL descriptive writing concerning enriching lexical language resources, developing writing ideas, and the others. This study investigated the influences of multiple recognitions and their affordances for EFL descriptive writing in authentic context learning via their generations and usages. An experiment had been conducted for twelve weeks in a vocational high school in Taiwan. Three tests, 1291 essays, and open-ended questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that multiple recognitions in the context improve the reasoning, organization, communication, and convention aspects of EFL descriptive writing. Although the ITR affordance is less than TSTR, it significantly influences the appropriate vocabulary usage, the detailed content developments, and the various sentence elaboration of the writing. The TSTR affordance is better than the other recognitions because of its convenience for making more sentences; however, it does not immediately influence EFL descriptive writing. The LTR affordance is similar to ITR, and it can be useful for the usage of other recognitions concerning the direction of the general ideas, main subjects, and related objects addressed in the writing. Although the recognition accuracy needs to be improved, the integration of multiple recognitions has big potential and should be widely applied for EFL writing considering the affordances and significant influences.
... available at no cost). Despite its multiple affordances, there is only one study examining ASR as an L2 writing tool, and it is in the context of children with emerging literacy (Arcon, Klein, & Dombroski, 2017). ...
The 2021 EUROCALL conference engaged just under 250 speakers from 40 different countries. Cnam Paris and Sorbonne Université joined forces to host and organise the event despite the challenging context due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Originally programmed to be held on site in the heart of Paris, France, the EUROCALL organising team and executive committee agreed to opt for a blended and then for a fully online conference. The theme of the 2021 EUROCALL conference was “CALL & Professionalisation”. This volume, a selection of 54 short papers by some of the EUROCALL 2021 presenters, offers a combination of research studies as well as practical examples fairly representative of the theme of the conference.
... therefore, dictation has indirect effect to reading comprehension (Johnson, 2013). Dictation could increase the number of ideas, quantity of the text, and the quality of the text produced by young learners (Arcon et al., 2017). ...
The results of Program of International Student Assessment show that the literacy skills of Indonesian students was in the low level. This study aims to investigate English literacy activities in elementary schools. This research is a qualitative research with a case study method. There were three English teachers who teach on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade assigned as the subjects of this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire, interview guide, and checklist. The data collection procedure was carried out by distributing questionnaires, conducting interviews, and conducting classroom observations. Data were analyzed using data analysis methods from Cresswell which consisted of data organization, coding, description and developing themes, reporting findings, interpreting, and validating data. The results of this study indicate that there are eight literacy activities, namely Directed Reading-Thinking Activity, guided reading, reading with multimedia assistance, thinking aloud, reading aloud, dictating, recognizing letters, and writing. This study provides a description about English literacy activities in Primary School conducted by teachers. Therefore, a suggestion is directed to English teachers to teach literacy to students since the early age as literacy is an important basis for students’ future learning.
... Another possibility for more efficient text capture might be to use voice dictation tools (e.g., speech-to-text), which are built into many of today's tablet devices. With practice, evidence suggests speech recognition technology can be beneficial for young children and emergent writers (Arcon et al. 2017;Haug and Klein 2018). When such technologies are not available, however, one instructional strategy is to provide students time to practice typing using the "soft" keyboard. ...
Traditional paper science notebooks have served the purpose of engaging learners in the scientific practices, however, as with many things, paper is being replaced by digital. This study examined the digital notebook entries of students to consider the affordances and limitations of digital science notebooks versus traditional paper science notebooks. Affordances were related to the use of audio, ability to copy and paste, take photographs, and include material from the internet. Limitations included the time it took students to write and/or draw tables, and the potential learning opportunities lost from close observation through drawing to photographs. This study highlights how a digital science notebook can also integrate technology in a manner that promotes active learning and critical thinking. Based on the notebook entries examined, we suggest that the affordances outweigh the limitations and encourage further research on digital science notebooks.
... Some scholars argue that not everyone who participates at such academic events fully benefit from them, especially participants with a low language ability [1]. When information is processed in EMI, it is complex process and causes cognitive load [2] because of high element interactivity [3][4][5][6]. To address this important issue, several technological interventions have been proposed. ...
We applied STR, i.e. speech-to-text recognition, and SELT, i.e. speech-enabled language translation, technologies to lectures which were in English as Media of Instruction (EMI) to help students manage their cognitive load effectively. The goal was to compare how these two technologies help achieve this important task. To this end, two groups of students were recruited to attend two lectures (one at the intermediate and the other at the advanced level). STRtexts were shown to a control group while SELT-texts were shown to an experimental group. We compared the cognitive load of the students in both groups after each lecture. Our findings revealed that between-group difference in cognitive load was not significant; however, if student language ability was considered, a significant between-group difference existed during the advanced level lecture. We draw implications for researchers and teachers following these results.
... Scholars have attempted to facilitate student comprehension of lecture content delivered in a foreign language as the medium of instruction by proposing various technological interventions [10]. For example, Arcon et al. [11] applied speech-to-text recognition (STR) technology to lectures. STR synchronously generated text streams from speech input that were then shown to the participants [12,13]. ...
In this study, researchers applied speech-enabled language translation (SELT) technology during lectures in English as a medium of instruction in order to improve student perceived learning emotions. Thirty three university students participated in this study. Their perceived learning emotions were measured before, during, and after class using the questionnaire. The difference in perceived learning emotions of all students before, during and after class was compared. In addition, learning emotions of low EFL ability and high EFL ability students were compared. The results showed no significant difference in perceived learning emotions of all students before, during, and after class. There was a significant difference in perceived learning emotions between low EFL ability students and high EFL ability students. Perceived learning emotions of high EFL ability students were significantly better before class but significantly lower during and after class compared to those of low EFL ability students. This result suggests that SELT was beneficial for perceived learning emotions of low EFL ability students during and after lectures in English as a medium of instruction.
... However, not everyone fully comprehends communicated content in such events due different language abilities (Sungwon, 2017). To address this important issue several technological interventions have been proposed, for example, speech-to-text recognition (STR) technology (Arcon et al., 2017). STR synchronously generates text streams from speech input that are then shown to participants (Wald, 2018). ...
... It is not clear whether any participants in Baker's study were English learners with disabilities; however, voice typing can serve as a compensatory aid to meet disability-related needs. Similarly, voice typing can support accurate transcription for English learners (Arcon, Klein, & Dombroski, 2017). Therefore, technologysupported LEA instruction should be investigated for its capacity to support individualized learning outcomes for English learners with exceptional needs. ...
The language experience approach (LEA) to reading instruction uses learner-dictated passages to foster reading development. In this study, researchers explored LEA instruction for English learners with exceptional needs that were supported by voice typing, word prediction, and screen reading tools. A multiple baseline design was used to investigate the effects of technology-supported LEA on the oral reading of three emerging bilingual (Arabic/English) students with developmental delay, speech-language impairment, or at-risk status. All participants demonstrated slight increases in the number of words read correctly per min on reading curriculum-based measures during technology-supported LEA instruction. Similarly, increases occurred in the number of words read correctly from learner-dictated passages while decreases occurred in the percentage of meaning-change miscues made during oral reading. Social validation data indicated high participant satisfaction with technology-supported LEA. Implications relate to the feasibility of implementation and the need for future research.
This protocol article describes the background, theoretical framework, and methods for two intervention studies using assistive technology to produce text. The participants will be 15 10–12-year-old students with dyslexia from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The first study aims to examine how an intervention focusing on using speech-to-text technology influences texts written by students with dyslexia, and the second study aims to investigate the writing process when students with dyslexia use speech-to-text technology. Study 1 uses a multiple baseline design, whereas Study 2 uses verbal protocols.
High quality teaching materials, which will effectively integrate four major language learning skills, is critical in language learning. Material designers are practitioners who are well aware of the (non)effectiveness of various teaching methods and strategies. This paper aimed to study the types of exercises in young leaners’ language classes and skills focused on. The content analysis was done by examining the most frequently used student books from grade 1 to 4. The analysis has proven that the receptive skills are generally more focused on but the productive ones also receive attention even at the lowest grades. The usual stimulus for in-class tasks is a visual one, which is also used computer/tablet-ready additional learning material. The complexity level ranges from basic shorter output in the lower to more autonomous and real-like communicative situations in the higher grades.
Concerns about learning how to write are ubiquitous in elementary schools across the world, one reason why this is the case is that many students received insufficient writing instruction in elementary classrooms. The lack of specific instructional practice and adaptions have impeded students’ writing development. Given the changing nature of literacy and the importance of early writing, integrating technology and writing in elementary classrooms provided a potential solution for this problem. This paper examined 20 empirical studies published between 1990 and 2020 by conducting a meta-analysis to measure the impact of technology on the writing performances of elementary students. The results of this meta-analysis confirmed that technology has a medium effect on writing quality and a strong effect on writing quantity for elementary school students. Subsequently, the authors analyzed the effect sizes of moderating variables by including study features such as types of technology integration, writing genres, demographics, and methodological characteristics. The authors have found that the type of technology integration and writing genres are two important variables affecting the casual relationship of technology and writing performances for elementary students. This aspect has been overlooked by previous literature. The novel findings indicated how we can address writing issues and change classroom writing practices for the better across the world by increasing stakeholders’ awareness about the importance of elementary school writing, with the goal of developing visions for curriculum and instruction at the classroom, school, and policy levels. Recommendations for more research on elementary school writing with advanced technology were discussed.
Fluency is considered an essential prerequisite for successful text production. Writing fluency means mastering the basic processes of writing so that cognitive resources are freed up to concentrate on content planning or revision when writing texts. Although the importance of these basic processes is well known, there has been little research on this in a German language context. What is known, however, is that digital technologies can support written production. Compared to handwriting, typing is less demanding in terms of motor skills, for example. Dictation in conjunction with speech recognition in turn supports text production not only in the area of motor execution, but also in the area of spelling. In order to capture the characteristics and currently possible potential of dictation with speech recognition, this study investigated this input mode and contrasted it with handwriting and typing in a writing fluency test (N = 46, 8th grade). The results show that the participants produce longer and more correct texts with the help of dictation with speech recognition than when handwriting or typing. However, there is also evidence that this new form of text production has its own challenges.
People write for many reasons. Writing is used as a tool to record ideas and information, communicate with others, chronicle experiences, express one's feelings, persuade others, facilitate learning, create imagined worlds, and evaluate students' competence (Graham, 2006). In some instances, the only intended reader of a piece of writing is the author. Examples of such writing include diaries, to do lists, and lecture notes. In other instances, writing is meant to be both read and formally evaluated by others. This kind of writing can range from term papers to state and federal writing assessments to writing requirements included as part of college entrance applications.
This article discusses five trends in research on writing as a learning activity. Firstly, earlier decades were marked by conflicting views about the effects of writing on learning; in the past decade, the use of meta-analysis has shown that the effects of writing on learning are reliable, and that several variables mediate and moderate these effects. Secondly, in earlier decades, it was thought that text as a medium inherently elicited thinking and learning. Research during the past decade has indicated that writing to learn is a selfregulated activity, dependent on the goals and strategies of the writer. Thirdly, the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) movement emphasized domain-general approaches to WTL. Much recent research is consistent with the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) movement, incorporating genres that embody forms of reasoning specific to a given discipline. Fourthly, WTL as a classroom practice was always partially social, but the theoretical conceptualization of it was largely individual. During the past two decades, WTL has broadened to include theories and research that integrate social and psychological processes. Fifthly, WTL research has traditionally focused on epistemic learning in schools; more recently, it has been extended to include reflective learning in the professions and additional kinds of outcomes.
Writing development seems heavily dependent upon the automatization of transcription. This study aimed to further investigate the link between transcription and writing by examining the effects of promoting handwriting and spelling skills on a comprehensive set of writing measures (viz., bursts and pauses, levels of written language, and writing performance). Second graders were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 intervention programs aimed to promote handwriting (n = 18), spelling (n = 17), or keyboarding (n = 20) skills. These programs were implemented during 10 weekly units composed of 4 30-min lessons. The most reliable and robust differences were found between the handwriting and keyboarding interventions. Handwriting students displayed greater handwriting fluency, showed longer bursts and shorter pauses, and wrote longer and better stories than keyboarding students. This study supports the contention that transcription is critical in writing by leveraging several aspects of early text production. Specifically, a key finding is that handwriting seems to be causally related to increases in burst length, which is a cornerstone in allowing writing fluency. (PsycINFO Database Record
While there are many ways to author text today, writing with paper and pen (or pencil) is still quite common at home and work, and predominates writing at school. Because handwriting can bias readers’ judgments about the ideas in a text and impact other writing processes, like planning and text generation, it is important to ensure students develop legible and fluent handwriting. This meta-analysis examined true- and quasi-experimental intervention studies conducted with K-12 students to determine if teaching handwriting enhanced legibility and fluency and resulted in better writing performance. When compared to no instruction or non-handwriting instructional conditions, teaching handwriting resulted in statistically greater legibility (ES = 0.59) and fluency (ES = 0.63). Motor instruction did not produce better handwriting skills (ES = 0.10 for legibility and −0.07 for fluency), but individualizing handwriting instruction (ES = 0.69) and teaching handwriting via technology (ES = 0.85) resulted in statistically significant improvements in legibility. Finally, handwriting instruction produced statistically significant gains in the quality (ES = 0.84), length (ES = 1.33), and fluency of students’ writing (ES = 0.48). The findings from this meta-analysis provide support for one of the assumptions underlying the Simple View of Writing (Berninger et al., Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 291–304, 2002): text transcription skills are an important ingredient in writing and writing development.
A model of how working memory, as conceived by Baddeley (1986), supports the planning of ideas, translating ideas into written sentences, and reviewing the ideas and text already produced was proposed by Kellogg (1996). A progress report based on research from the past 17 years shows strong support for the core assumption that planning, translating, and reviewing are all dependent on the central executive. Similarly, the translation of ideas into a sentence does in fact require also verbal working memory, but the claim that editing makes no demands on the phonological loop is tenuous. As predicted by the model, planning also engages the viisuo-spatial sketchpad. However, it turns out to do so only in planning with concrete concepts that elicit mental imagery. Abstract concepts do not require visuo-spatial resources, a point not anticipated by the original model. Moreover, it is unclear the extent to which planning involves spatial as opposed to visual working memory. Contrary to Baddeley's original model, these are now known to be independent stores of working memory; the specific role of the spatial store in writing is uncertain based on the existing literature. The implications of this body of research for the instruction of writing are considered in the final section of the paper.
This article outlines a theory of the development of writing expertise illustrated by a review of relevant research. An argument is made for two necessary (although not sufficient) components in the development of writing expertise: fluent language generation processes and extensive knowledge relevant to writing. Fluent language processes enable the developing writer (especially the young developing writer) to begin to manage the constraints imposed by working memory, whereas extensive knowledge allows the writer to move beyond the constraints of short-term working memory and take advantage of long-term memory resources by relying instead on long-term working memory.
The contribution of linguistic, reading, and transcription processes to writing in kindergarten English as a second language (ESL) children and their native-English speaking peers (EL1) were examined. ESL and EL1 performed similarly on one of the two measures of phonological awareness (PA) and on measures of early reading, spelling, and writing. EL1 outperformed ESL on a pseudoword repetition task and on the English vocabulary and syntactic knowledge tasks. ESL outperformed EL1 on a writing fluency measure. Correlation and hierarchical regression results varied as a function of the writing tasks (procedural or generative) and language status. Across language groups, writing tasks that captured children's developing graphophonemic knowledge were associated with a breadth of cognitive, linguistic, and early literacy skills. PA, reading, and transcription skills, but not oral vocabulary and syntactic knowledge contributed the most variance to writing irrespective of language status. The results suggest that parallel component skills and processes underlie ESL and EL1 children's early writing when formal literacy instruction begins in kindergarten even though ESL children are developing English oral and literacy proficiency simultaneously. © Earli, This article is published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.
A model of how working memory, as conceived by Baddeley (1986), supports the planning of ideas, translating ideas into written sentences, and reviewing the ideas and text already produced was proposed by Kellogg (1996). A progress report based on research from the past 17 years shows strong support for the core assumption that planning, translating, and reviewing are all dependent on the central executive. Similarly, the translation of ideas into a sentence does in fact require also verbal working memory, but the claim that editing makes no demands on the phonological loop is tenuous. As predicted by the model, planning also engages the visuo-spatial sketchpad. However, it turns out to do so only in planning with concrete concepts that elicit mental imagery. Abstract concepts do not require visuo-spatial resources, a point not anticipated by the original model. Moreover, it is unclear the extent to which planning involves spatial as opposed to visual working memory. Contrary to Baddeley’s original model, these are now known to be independent stores of working memory; the specific role of the spatial store in writing is uncertain based on the existing literature. The implications of this body of research for the instruction of writing are considered in the final section of the paper.
This study examined the use of speech recognition (SR) technology to support a group of elementary school children's learning of English as a foreign language (EFL). SR technology has been used in various language learning contexts. Its application to EFL teaching and learning is still relatively recent, but a solid understanding of its effectiveness for EFL learning is important because SR-based programs are now available online and easily accessible to many EFL learners worldwide. In this study, an online reading program featuring SR technology has been used as supplementary materials for a group of EFL elementary school students to maintain their interest as well as to advance in English learning. The researcher examined and analyzed the students' performance from the tracking system. Field observations and interviews with both children and the EFL teacher were also conducted to understand how they responded to the feedback provided by the program and their perceived affordance of SR technology for their learning.
This paper reviewed literature from 1999 to 2014 inclusively on how Speech-to-Text Recognition (STR) technology has been applied to enhance learning. The first aim of this review is to understand how STR technology has been used to support learning over the past fifteen years, and the second is to analyze all research evidence to understand how Speech-to-Text Recognition technology can enhance learning. The findings are discussed from different perspectives as follows: (a) potentials of STR technology, (b) its use by specific groups of users in different domains, (c) quantitative and/or qualitative research methodology used, and (d) STR technology implications. Some STR literature review showed that in earlier stage of development, the STR technology was applied to assist learning only for specific users, i.e., students with cognitive and physical disabilities, or foreign students. Educators and researchers started to apply STR technology in a traditional learning environment to assist broader group of users, while STR technology has been rapidly advancing over the years. The review revealed a number of distinct advantages of using STR for learning. That is, STR-generated texts enable students to understand learning content of a lecture better, to confirm missed or misheard parts of a speech, to take notes or complete homework, and to prepare for exams. Furthermore, some implications over the STR technology in pedagogical and technological aspects were discussed in the review, such as the design of technology-based learning activities, accuracy rate of the STR process and learning behaviors to use STR-texts that may limit the STR educational value. Thus, the review furthermore discussed some potential solutions for the future research.
This article provides a rationale for using an oral mode of production as a means of composing. For individuals with learning disabilities (LD), composing orally may allow them to circumvent transcription or text production problems (e.g., handwriting, spelling, punctuation), which in turn may allow greater focus on higher-order concerns such as planning and content generation. Support for this position comes from research on the use of dictation as well as studies of both simulated and existing speech recognition systems involving individuals with LD. Current characteristics of speech recognition systems are described, with an emphasis on what these applications require of teachers and students. Finally, recommendations are offered for teachers who plan to use dictation or speech recognition with individuals with LD.
This paper discusses cognitive load measurement techniques with regard to their contribution to cognitive load theory (CLT). CLT is concerned with the design of instructional methods that efficiently use people's limited cognitive processing capacity to apply acquired knowledge and skills to new situations (i.e., transfer). CLT is based on a cognitive architecture that consists of a limited working memory with partly independent processing units for visual and auditory information, which interacts with an unlimited long-term memory. These structures and functions of human cognitive architecture have been used to design a variety of novel efficient instructional methods. The associated research has shown that measures of cognitive load can reveal important information for CLT that is not necessarily reflected by traditional performance-based measures. Particularly, the combination of performance and cognitive load measures has been identified to constitute a reliable estimate of the mental efficiency of instructional methods. The discussion of previously used cognitive load measurement techniques and their role in the advancement of CLT is followed by a discussion of aspects of CLT to which measurement of cognitive load is likely to be of benefit. Within the cognitive load framework, we will also discuss some promising new techniques.
The present study investigated the effects of speech recognition technology (SR) and advance planning on children's writing processes. Fluent and less fluent writers, ages 11 to 14, composed 4 narratives, via handwriting and SR, both with and without advance planning. Less fluent children's handwritten narratives were significantly inferior to those of fluent children in terms of length, quality, and surface errors. For less fluent writers, SR (a) significantly increased the length and (b) decreased the surface errors of narratives. Although narrative length related positively to holistic quality, SR did not significantly improve quality. Advance planning helped children to compose more fully developed stories. For children with writing difficulties, advance planning and SR may each independently support text generation.
This study examined the effects of dictation and explicit instruction in planning on the composing skills of students in 5th-, 6th-, and 7th-grade with learning disabilities. Students received instruction in either (a) planning, where students learned a strategy for developing, evaluating, and organizing ideas prior to composing, or (b) comparison, where students learned about essay structure, revised sample essays, and composed and shared essays with peers. In both conditions, half the students dictated and half the students wrote their plans and essays. The combination of dictation and instruction in advanced planning resulted in more complete and qualitatively better essays in contrast to those written by students in the comparison condition on both a posttest and 2-week maintenance probe. Results indicate advanced planning is important when using dictation to compose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Fourth- and sixth-grade students with and without learning disabilities wrote essays about a controversial topic after receiving either a general persuasion goal or an elaborated goal that included subgoals based on elements of argumentative discourse. Students in the elaborated goal condition produced more persuasive essays that were responsive to alternative standpoints than students in the general goal condition. Students with learning disabilities wrote poorer quality and less elaborated arguments than students without disabilities. Measures derived from the structure of students’ argumentative strategies were highly predictive of essay quality, and they accounted for the effects of goal condition, grade, and disability status. Nearly all students used the argument from consequences strategy to defend their standpoint. The implications for argumentative writing are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Understanding how to measure cognitive load is a fundamental challenge for cognitive load theory. In 2 experiments, 155 college students (ages = 17 to 22; 49 men and 106 women) with low domain knowledge learned from a multimedia lesson on electric motors. At 8 points during learning, their cognitive load was measured via self-report scales (mental effort ratings) and response time to a secondary visual monitoring task, and they completed a difficulty rating scale at the end of the lesson. Correlations among the three measures were generally low. Analyses of variance indicated that the response time measure was most sensitive to manipulations of extraneous processing (created by adding redundant text), effort ratings were most sensitive to manipulations of intrinsic processing (created by sentence complexity), and difficulty ratings were most sensitive to indications of germane processing (reflected by transfer test performance). Results are consistent with a triarchic theory of cognitive load in which different aspects of cognitive load may be tapped by different measures of cognitive load. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Longitudinal structural equation modeling was used to evaluate longitudinal relationships across adjacent grade levels 1 to 7 for levels of language in writing (Model 1, subword letter writing, word spelling, and text composing) or writing and reading (Model 2, subword letter writing and word spelling and reading; Model 3, word spelling and reading and text composing and comprehending). Significant longitudinal relationships were observed within and across levels of language: spelling to spelling and spelling to composing (Grades 1 to 7), Models 1 and 3, and composing to spelling (Grades 3 to 6, Model 1; Grades 4 to 6, Model 3); spelling to word reading and word reading to spelling (Grades 2 to 7), Models 2 and 3; spelling to word reading (Grade 1), Model 2, and word reading to spelling (Grade 1), Model 3; composition to comprehension (Grades 3 to 5), Model 3; comprehension to composition (Grades 2 to 6), Model 3; and comprehension to word reading (Grades 1 to 6), Model 3. Results are discussed in reference to the levels of language in translating ideas into written language and integrating writing and reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if an independent variable affects a dependent variable through some mediator is so well known that it is used by authors and requested by reviewers almost reflexively. Many research projects have been terminated early in a research program or later in the review process because the data did not conform to Baron and Kenny's criteria, impeding theoretical development. While the technical literature has disputed some of Baron and Kenny's tests, this literature has not diffused to practicing researchers. We present a nontechnical summary of the flaws in the Baron and Kenny logic, some of which have not been previously noted. We provide a decision tree and a step-by-step procedure for testing mediation, classifying its type, and interpreting the implications of findings for theory building and future research. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
This paper explores the potential of the use of voice recognition technology with second language speakers of English. The study is a development of an earlier study conducted with a small group of native speakers (Coniam, 1998a, TEXT Technology 8.). The current study involves the analysis of the output produced by a small group of very competent second language subjects reading a text into the voice recognition software Dragon Systems ‘Dragon Naturally Speaking’. As the program is speaker-dependent and has to be trained to recognise each person's voice, subjects first spent about 45 minutes reading a training text of some 3800 words. As the test text, they then read a second text consisting of 1050 words. The output produced by the software was analysed in terms of words, sub-clausal units, clauses and t-units. In terms of accuracy, the second language speakers' output on each category of analysis was significantly lower than that achieved by the native speakers. Nonetheless, the results were consistent in line with the native speakers' scores; i.e. that the highest accuracy scores were achieved at the lowest (and most discrete) level of analysis, the word level, and the lowest scores at the t-unit, or sentence level of analysis. The paper concludes that voice recognition technology is still an at early stage of development in terms of accuracy and single-speaker dependency. Nonetheless, the fact that consistent results have emerged suggests that the development of an assessment tool, such as a reading aloud test via voice recognition technology and determining a score through an analysis of the output, may be a testing procedure with potential.
Writing is a complex task. Its development depends in large part on changes that occur in children’s strategic behavior, knowledge, and motivation. In the present study, the effectiveness of an instructional model, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), designed to foster development in each of these areas, was examined. Adding a peer support component to SRSD instruction to facilitate maintenance and generalization was also examined. Struggling, third grade writers, the majority of whom were minority students attending schools that served primarily low-income families, received SRSD instruction focused primarily on learning writing strategies and knowledge for planning and composing stories and persuasive essays. These students wrote longer, more complete, and qualitatively better papers for both of these genres than peers in the comparison condition (Writers’ Workshop). These effects were maintained over time for story writing and generalized to a third uninstructed genre, informative writing. SRSD instruction boosted students’ knowledge about writing as well. The peer support component augmented SRSD instruction by increasing students’ knowledge of planning and enhancing generalization to informative and narrative writing. In contrast, self-efficacy for writing was not influenced by either SRSD condition (with or without peer support).
This study investigated the cognitive effort of 5th and 9th graders while writing a text. We manipulated genre (narrative text vs. argumentative text) and tested how level of handwriting automatisation contributes to cognitive effort and fluency in writing. The participants were 23 students from Grade 5 and 21 from Grade 9, who wrote two texts differing in genre while performing a secondary reaction time task. The results showed that cognitive effort interacted with genre. Cognitive effort decreased between Grades 5 and 9 only for writing argumentative text. Handwriting did not contribute to fluency in writing, but contributed to cognitive effort only in 5th-graders' writing of narrative text. The findings are discussed in light of the factors contributing to cognitive effort and fluency in writing.
Alternative models of the structure of individual and developmental differences of written composition and handwriting fluency were tested using confirmatory factor analysis of writing samples provided by first- and fourth-grade students. For both groups, a five-factor model provided the best fit to the data. Four of the factors represented aspects of written composition: macro-organization (use of top sentence and number and ordering of ideas), productivity (number and diversity of words used), complexity (mean length of T-unit and syntactic density), and spelling and punctuation. The fifth factor represented handwriting fluency. Handwriting fluency was correlated with written composition factors at both grades. The magnitude of developmental differences between first grade and fourth grade expressed as effect sizes varied for variables representing the five constructs: large effect sizes were found for productivity and handwriting fluency variables; moderate effect sizes were found for complexity and macro-organization variables; and minimal effect sizes were found for spelling and punctuation variables.
This study examined whether decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities, broadly defined by the Simple View of Reading, in grade 1 each uniquely predicted the grade 6 writing performance of English-speaking children (n = 76) who were educated bilingually in both English their first language and French, a second language. Prediction was made from (1) English to English; (2) French to French; and (3) English to French. Results showed that both decoding and linguistic comprehension scores predicted writing accuracy but rarely predicted persuasive writing. Within the linguistic comprehension cluster of tests, Formulating Sentences was a strong consistent within- and between-language predictor of writing accuracy. In practical terms, the present results indicate that early screening for later writing ability using measures of sentence formulation early in students' schooling, in their L1 or L2, can provide greatest predictive power and allow teachers to differentiate instruction in the primary grades. Theoretically, the present results argue that there are correlations between reading-related abilities and writing abilities not only within the same language but also across languages, adding to the growing body of evidence for facilitative cross-linguistic relationships between bilinguals' developing languages.
This chapter aims to synthesize research on technology and second language writing through the lenses of three common and broad discourses surrounding literacy and technology: achievement, change, and power (modified from Warschauer & Ware, 2008). The authors discuss the meaning and relationship of each perspective to the field of technology and second language writing as well as provide an overview of recent research under each category. This framework-based analysis sheds new light on current research, offering researchers and teachers an opportunity to consider the weaknesses and strengths of each research focus as well as the gaps in the literature. Through examining the interwoven relationship between technology and second language writing under different perspectives, the authors ultimately aim to explore the ways we can maximize the educational benefits of technology use for non-native speakers of English.
THE PROBLEM OF COGNITIVE LOAD MEASUREMENT: WHAT ARE GOOD COGNITIVE LOAD INDICATORS? The previous chapters have outlined the basic theoretical assumptions for cognitive load theory (Chapter 2), described how cognitive load affects the process of schema acquisition (Chapter 3), and discussed the role that learners' individual differences play in the process of knowledge construction (Chapter 4). The central problem identified by Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) is that learning is impaired when the total amount of processing requirements exceeds the limited capacity of human working memory. In addition to the fundamental assumption that learning is a function of available cognitive resources, CLT makes some additional assumptions with respect to the relation among cognitive resources, demands, and learning. The first of these additional assumptions is that instructional design and/or methods may induce either a useful (germane) or a wasteful (extraneous) consumption of cognitive capacity. The second assumption is that the source of cognitive load can also vary depending on the complexity of the task to-be-solved (intrinsic cognitive load defined by element interactivity). There is a large body of empirical research supporting the assumptions of CLT by analyzing the relation between the factors influencing cognitive load and learning outcomes. For example, several empirically well-established instructional design principles (Mayer, 2005) were identified in that line of research, which are discussed in other chapters of this book (see Chapters 7, 8). However, can CLT's assumptions be verified directly?
Students with physical disabilities often have difficulty with writing fluency, despite the use of various strategies, adaptations, and assistive technology (AT). One possible intervention is the use of speech recognition software, although there is little research on its impact on students with physical disabilities. This study used an alternating treatments design to compare the use of speech recognition software to word processing on first draft writing with students with physical disabilities. Areas examined were fluency, accuracy, type of word errors, recall of intended meaning, and length. The results of this study indicated that fluency and length were greater for all participants with speech recognition compared to word processing, but accuracy was lower using speech recognition.
Cognitive and linguistic components related to spelling and writing in English as a second language (ESL) and native-English speaking (EL1) third graders were examined. ESL and EL1 children performed similarly on rapid naming, phonological awareness (PA), verbal short-term and working memory, reading fluency, single-word spelling, text spelling, handwriting fluency, and paragraph writing fluency tasks, and on writing quality indices. ESL children scored lower on vocabulary, syntactic awareness and decoding fluency measures. PA predicted single-word spelling for EL1 and PA and rapid naming predicted single-word spelling for ESL. PA and rapid naming contributed to text level spelling across groups. Rapid naming and syntactic awareness predicted writing quality (content and structure) for ESL children, but syntactic awareness and oral vocabulary predicted writing quality for EL1. Transcription predicted overall writing achievement for ESL, but transcription, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness were all important to overall writing ability for EL1. Results are discussed in relation to the componential model of writing in a first or a second language.
This study addressed the feasibility and validity of dictation using speech recognition software and dictation to a scribe as accommodations for tests involving extended writing. On the issue of feasibility, high school students with and without learning disabilities (LD) learned to use speech recognition software with acceptable accuracy. Total word errors with speech recognition were under 10%, and there were few unreadable words. On the issue of writing quality, for students with LD, essays dictated using speech recognition were better than handwritten essays, and essays dictated to a scribe were even better. No differences in quality were found for students without LD. The results provide support for the validity of dictation as a test accommodation.
The study investigated the role of word-level and verbal skills in writing quality of learners who spoke English as a first (L1) and second (L2) language. One hundred and sixty-eight L1 and L2 learners (M = 115.38 months, SD = 3.57 months) participated in the study. All testing was conducted in English. There was a statistically significant L1 advantage on the measures of writing quality and verbal skills (i.e., vocabulary, verbal working memory, and semantic fluency) but not on word-level skills (i.e., spelling and word reading). Results from the multi-sample structural equation modeling analysis showed that the word-level and verbal skills made independent contributions to writing quality of L1 and L2 learners and the strength of these relationships was invariant (equivalent) across the two samples. The educational implications of research on L2 learners who are learning to write in a majority language were discussed.
This study explores a second-grade English language learner's literacy development and ability to use blogging for social and academic purposes, in the context of learning academic writing genres in a US urban school. Grounded in sociocultural theories, it conceptualizes learning as appropriation, and language as a dynamic and functional system of semiotic resources. Data included written texts, blog postings, videotaped classroom interactions, informal conversations, interviews, instructional materials, and school documents. Data analysis, using qualitative coding procedures and systemic functional linguistics, focused on appropriation of blogging and language use. The findings show that the child appropriated blogging to gain recognition for his social and academic status among peers and to solve problems. These appropriations enabled the student not only to construct new social relations in and out of the class, but also to have a critical view of linguistic choices, demonstrating emergent knowledge of the interpersonal function of texts and the interrelation between interpersonal and experiential functions. The implications of the study relate to use of Web 2.0 tools for emergent literacy development and conceptualization of digital literacies.
The purposes of the study we describe here were (a) to identify the challenges that English Language Learner and non–English Language Learner high school students in an urban public school district experience when composing in the genre of exposition, a genre considered to be central to advanced academic literacy; and (b) to relate these challenges to characteristics of the writing they produce. We present a descriptive inventory of the challenges these adolescents faced when composing in the genre of exposition and also compare the challenges that the 2 groups experienced both in relation to each other and in relation to characteristics of the writing they produced. Finally, we relate our findings to implications for improving writing instruction and assessment for adolescents.
This article focuses on the use of natural language processing NLP to facilitate second language learning within the context of academic English. It describes a full cycle of educational software development, from needs analysis to software testing. Two studies are included: 1 the needs analysis conducted to develop the Intelligent Sentence Writing Tutor ISWT which diagnoses and at request corrects second language errors in writing, and 2 the summative evaluation of ISWT. The former comprises a survey of learning styles and learner corpus analysis which have both fed into the development of ISWT. The latter is addressed in a quantitative study with elements of both within-sample and comparison design. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the examined phenomenon, the paper establishes links to previous and concurrent research in the fields of second language acquisition and ICALL intelligent computer assisted language learning, while relying on a variety of theories and approaches to address a specific educational problem. The comprehensive coverage of the development process takes precedence over the fine detail of individual development stages.
It is the consensus that, as a result of the extra constraints placed on working memory, texts written in a second language (L2) are usually of lower quality than texts written in the first language (L1) by the same writer. However, no method is currently available for quantifying the quality difference between L1 and L2 texts. In the present study, we tested a rating procedure for enabling quality judgments of L1 and L2 texts on a single scale. Two main features define this procedure: 1) raters are bilingual or near native users of both the L1 and L2; 2) ratings are performed with L1 and L2 benchmark texts. Direct comparisons of observed L1 and L2 scores are only warranted if the ratings with L1 and L2 benchmarks are parallel tests and if the ratings are reliable. Results showed that both conditions are met. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) indicate that, while score variances are large, there is a relatively large added L2 effect: in the investigated population, L2 text scores were much lower than L1 text scores. The tested rating procedure is a promising method for cross-national comparisons of writing proficiency.
Generally, researchers agree that that verbal working memory plays an important role in cognitive processes involved in writing. However, there is disagreement about which cognitive processes make use of working memory. Kellogg has proposed that verbal working memory is involved in translating but not in editing or producing (i.e., typing) text. In this study, the authors used articulatory suppression, a technique that reduces working memory to explore this question. Twenty participants transcribed six texts from one computer window to another, three of the texts with articulatory suppression and three without. When participants were in the articulatory suppression condition, they transcribed significantly more slowly and made significantly more errors than they did in the control condition. Implications for Kellogg’s proposal are discussed.
In Section 1 of this article, the author discusses the succession of models of adult writing that he and his colleagues have proposed from 1980 to the present. He notes the most important changes that differentiate earlier and later models and discusses reasons for the changes. In Section 2, he describes his recent efforts to model young children’s expository writing. He proposes three models that constitute an elaboration of Bereiter and Scardamalia’s knowledge-telling model. In Section 3, he describes three running computer programs that simulate the action of the models described in Section 2.
Research evidence is reviewed to show (a) that transcription and working memory processes constrain the development of composition skills in students with and without learning disabilities; and (b) that in turn other processes constrain the development of transcription and working memory skills. The view of working memory as a resource-limited process is contrasted with a view of working memory as a resource-coordination process that integrates transcription and constructive processes, which may be on different time scales, in real time. Theory-driven, research-validated interventions for transcription are discussed with a focus on how training transcription transfers to improved composition. Five theoretical explanations for why the spelling component of transcription is more difficult to learn than the word recognition component of reviewing are also considered with a focus on the instructional implications of each for improving spelling. Finally, a rationale is presented for directing writing instruction to the simultaneous goals of (a) automaticity of low-level transcription and (b) high-level construction or meaning for purposeful communication.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how different methods of text production affect the writing processes and products of LD students. Eleven fifth and sixth grade LD students, selected for their experience with word processing, composed and revised stories using handwriting, dictation, and word processing. Dictated stories were significantly longer, were of higher quality, and had fewer grammatical errors than handwritten or word processed stories. The handwritten and word processed stories did not differ on any of the product measures, including length, quality, story structure, mechanical or grammatical errors, vocabulary, or mean T-unit length. However, differences between handwriting and word processing were found on the process measures of composing rate and revisions. Implications for writing in struction with LD students are discussed.
A single-subject, alternating-treatments design was implemented for three adults with learning disabilities to compare the transcription of college-level texts using a speech recognition system and a traditional keyboard. The accuracy and rate of transcribing after editing was calculated for each transcribed passage. The results provide evidence that the accuracy of transcription using the speech recognition system was slightly lower than the accuracy of transcription using the traditional keyboard for all of the participants. The rate of transcription using the speech recognition system was very similar to the keyboard for two of the participants. For the third participant, the transcription rate using the keyboard exceeded the rate using the speech recognition system for all four sessions. Following the fourth and final session, 1 participant indicated that she preferred the speech recognition system, and the others participants stated that they had no preference between the speech recognition system and the keyboard. Educational implications and directions for future research are discussed. (Contains 1 table, 3 figures, and 1 endnote.)
The review examines ways in which working memory contributes to individual and particularly to developmental differences in writing skill. It begins with a brief definition of working memory and then summarizes current debates regarding working memory and capacity theories in the field of reading. It is argued that a capacity theory of writing can provide a framework within which to consider the development of writing skill, and relevant data are discussed. Effects of capacity limitations are documented in all three component writing processes: planning, translating, and reviewing.
The present experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis that the use of the written mode increases the working memory load. Second and fourth graders were orally presented with series of unrelated words which they were required to recall in sequence. Each subject had to recall five different lists in the following conditions: oral alone, written, oral with a concurrent task (tapping, categorization, drawing). Participants recalled more words in the oral condition than in either the written mode or the `oral and categorization' conditions. Moreover, second graders performed better in the oral mode than in the `oral and drawing condition'. This trend was not significant with older children. Finally, the tapping task did not affect children's performance. The results are consistent with our cognitive load hypothesis.
In this article, I discuss research on the use of technology to support the writing of students with learning disabilities. Struggling writers can benefit from a wide range of computer applications for writing. Word processing, spelling checkers, word prediction, and speech recognition offer support for transcription and revision. Word processing also opens up opportunities for more meaningful publication of writing. Outlining programs and concept mapping software can help with planning. New forms of writing, including Internet chat, blogs, multimedia, and wikis, have not been studied extensively, but they may offer both opportunities and challenges to struggling writers. In addition to describing the research, I try to articulate some general themes and principles that I hope will be helpful to both teachers and researchers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) (from the journal abstract)
A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to investigate the effects of word prediction and text-to-speech alone and in combination on four narrative composition-writing skills (writing fluency, syntax, spelling accuracy, and overall organization) of six fifth-grade Hispanic boys with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Participants were divided randomly and equally into Cohorts A and B. During baseline, both cohorts wrote for 15-minute sessions using word processing only. During intervention, Cohort A participants used word prediction, and then word prediction with text-to-speech. Concurrently, Cohort B participants used text-to-speech followed by text-to-speech with word prediction. The results indicated that word prediction alone or in combination with text-to-speech had a positive effect on the narrative composition-writing skills of the targeted students. With text-to-speech alone, inconsequential results were observed.
Technology to support writing by students with learning and academic disabilities: Recent research trends and findings
- G R Peterson-Karlan
Technology, literacy, and young second language learners Technology-mediated learning environments for young English learners: Connections in and out of school
- J Cummins