In this paper we have developed an open-source online computational framework that can be used by different research groups to conduct reading researches on Indian language texts. The framework can be used to develop a large annotated Indian language text comprehension data from different user based experiments. The novelty in this framework lies in the fact that it brings different empirical d...

This paper presents results of a pilot project for the development of a foreign text comprehension assistant. This tool provides word, phrase and simple sentence translation between the languages of the Baltic countries (Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian) and widely used European languages (English, German, French and Russian). The paper presents the general architecture of the system, describes...

Although filling the gap in reading comprehension gained momentum with the rise of the top-down approach, Vygotsky’ concept of scaffolding and the dual code  theory provided a strong support for the use of paratext to enhance comprehension. Scaffolding is dependent on other-regulation, one type of which is object-regulation. From this vantage-point, various types of paratext can function as sou...

To a very large extent, children learn in and out of school from written text. Information Communications Technologies (ICT) offers many possibilities to facilitate learning by confronting children with multimodal texts. In order to be able to implement learning environments that optimally facilitate children’s learning, insight is needed into the cognitive processes underlying text comprehensi...

    A review of previous research on receptive skills among EFL learners  reveals that in contrast  to extensive research in reading, fewer studies have focused on the process  of listening comprehension in EFL contexts. The current study examines the effects of discourse signaling cues on Iranian EFL students' listening comprehension in academic lectures and also investigates the effect of tea...

Evidence is accumulating that the level of text comprehension is dependent on the situatedness and sensory richness of a child's mental representation formed during reading. This study investigated whether these factors involved in text comprehension also serve a functional role in writing a narrative. Direct influences of situatedness and sensory richness as well as indirect influences via the...

Much attention has been focused on the importance of reading moral stories to children (e.g., W. Bennett, 1993). Although research on general discourse comprehension is flourishing, little attention has been given to how moral discourse is understood by individuals; that is, what affects an individual's comprehension of a moral text? Eighth-grade and college students read and recalled four comp...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an intervention program to promote active text-processing strategies (main-idea identification and summarization) at two developmental levels (12- and 16-year-olds). The independent variables were training condition (experimental and control) and school level (7th and 10th grades). Several measures were taken as dependent variables: readin...

We present ERNESTA (Enhanced Readability through a Novel Event-based Simplification Tool), the first sentence simplification system for Italian, specifically developed to improve the comprehension of factual events in stories for children with low reading skills. The system performs two basic actions: First, it analyzes a text by resolving anaphoras (including null pronouns), so as to make all ...