Establishing coherence in schoolbook texts

Silfhout, G. van; Evers-Vermeul, Jacqueline; Sanders, Ted

doi:10.1075/dujal.3.1.01sil

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(122 reference statements)

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“…In addition, readers generate more inferences from discourse relations conveyed by connectives compared to implicit relations (Millis, Golding & Barker, 1995;Degand, Lefèvre & Bestgen, 1999) and they also answer questions faster (Millis & Just, 1994). Even young readers benefit from the presence of connectives (Mouchon, Fayol & Gaonac'h, 1995;Cain & Nash, 2011, van Silfhout et al, 2014. Conversely, when connectives are not correctly used to mark coherence relations, Paper published in: Second Language Research DOI: 10.1177/0267658315573349…”

Section: Importance For Text Processing and Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives: The role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks

Zufferey

Mak

Degand

et al. 2015

Second Language Research

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Advanced learners' comprehension of discourse connectives: the role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks. AbstractDiscourse connectives are important indicators of textual coherence, and mastering them is an essential part of acquiring a language. In this paper, we compare advanced learners' sensitivity to the meaning conveyed by connectives in an off-line grammaticality judgment task and an online reading experiment using eye-tracking. We also assess the influence of L1 transfer by comparing learners' comprehension of two non native-like semantic uses of connectives in English, often produced by learners due to transfer from French and Dutch. Our results indicate that in an off-line task, transfer is an important factor accounting for French-and Dutchspeaking learners' non native-like comprehension of connectives. During on-line processing however, learners are as sensitive as native speakers to the meaning conveyed by connectives.These results raise intriguing questions regarding explicit vs. implicit knowledge in language learners.

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Section: Importance For Text Processing and Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives: The role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks

Zufferey

Mak

Degand

et al. 2015

Second Language Research

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“…Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact of cohesion devices on the memory of causally connected sentences compared to isolated sentences (Trabasso and van den Broek, 1985; cf. Myers et al, 1987; Fletcher and Bloom, 1988) and on reading comprehension (Degand et al, 1999; Linderholm et al, 2000; Degand and Sanders, 2002; Maury and Teisserenc, 2005; Sanders et al, 2007; Van Silfhout et al, 2014a,b, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generating Causal Relations in Scientific Texts: The Long-Term Advantages of Successful Generation

Abel

Hänze

2019

Front. Psychol.

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A high level of text comprehension can be achieved by engaging learners in processes of organization and integration while reading a cohesive text. In the present study, we investigated the impact of an innovative generative technique on learning with scientific texts. The cohesion generation was implemented by means of explicit cohesion gaps. High school students (n = 199) were randomly assigned to either receive a fully cohesive scientific text (control condition) or a scientific text that required the selection of causal connectives, such as because, although, therefore, or however (generation condition). Learners in the generation condition were required to reflect on causal relations to complete the text. All students were tested immediately (T1) and 2 weeks after the learning phase (T2). Cognitive load was measured by a dual task and self-report measure. Contrary to our expectations, no differences were found in performance on inference questions (situation model). Learners in the generation condition performed worse on text-based questions at T1 but showed less forgetting from T1 to T2. The impact of condition on the situation model was moderated by reading skills. Remarkably, the generation success was highly predictive for learning outcomes even when controlling for learners’ proficiencies. Consequently, learners who succeeded to employ effortful processes to overcome the difficulty showed a superior performance on both the text-base and situation-model questions compared to students reading the cohesive text. Moreover, in these learners, generative activity led to a sustainable learning performance 2 weeks later. Poor readers especially took advantage of generative activity, despite struggling to perform the cohesion task as indicated by the cognitive load measures. The results suggest that the activity of generating causal relations can augment inferential processing in learners who are not involved in inferential processing spontaneously. To successfully apply this generative learning technique, students require considerable instructional support.

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“…While reading in their first language, readers directly benefit from connectives since they increase the local and global comprehension of a text (e.g., Degand et al 1999;Van Silfhout et al 2014), increase processing speed (Murray 1997;Sanders and Noordman 2000) and improve recall of its content (Caron et al 1988). However, learners even at an advanced stage of language acquisition still lag behind native speakers in their mastery of connectives in L2.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Second Language Acquisition and the Mastery of Discourse Connectives: Assessing the Factors That Hinder L2-Learners from Mastering French Connectives

2020

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Even though the mastery of discourse connectives represents an important step toward reaching high language proficiency, it remains highly difficult for L2-learners to master them. We conducted an experiment in which we tested the mastery of 12 monofunctional French connectives conveying six different coherence relations by 151 German-speaking learners of French, as well as a control group of 63 native French speakers. Our results show that the cognitive complexity of the coherence relation and connectives’ frequency, both found to be important factors for native speakers’ connective mastery, play a minor role for the mastery by non-native speakers. Instead, we argue that two specific factors, namely the connectives’ register and meaning transparency, seem to be more predictive variables. In addition, we found that a higher exposure to print in L1, correlates with a better mastery of the connectives in L2. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of second language acquisition.

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Establishing coherence in schoolbook texts

Cited by 19 publications

References 54 publications

Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives: The role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks

Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives: The role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks

Generating Causal Relations in Scientific Texts: The Long-Term Advantages of Successful Generation

Second Language Acquisition and the Mastery of Discourse Connectives: Assessing the Factors That Hinder L2-Learners from Mastering French Connectives

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