Nalan Babur

The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of an experimental program designed to develop the phonological awareness (PA) skills of beginning readers in Turkish, an orthographically transparent language. We administered pre-, post-, and follow-up tests to assess the PA skills of 113 first graders and kindergartners in 2 experimental groups (software and in-class face-to-face training) and a control group. Analysis of variance results indicated that all 3 groups improved in terms of overall PA performance. In Grade 1, the children exposed to training, regardless of type, obtained significantly higher posttest means than those in the control group. In kindergarten, the software training group made more immediate progress than the other 2 groups. However, the immediate gains observed at posttest were not maintained at follow-up. We discuss the relevance to the research literature and implications for practice.

Teachers have an important role in the achievement progress of students with dyslexia. Therefore, measuring teachers’ knowledge and perception of dyslexia is important. Given that an instrument that measures both teachers’ knowledge and perception of dyslexia is not available, this study aims to develop a scale to measure primary school teachers’ knowledge and perception of dyslexia. Two hundred and one primary school teachers participated in the study, and exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify the dimensions of the scale and to select scale items. Configural, metric and scalar invariance across gender groups was supported. This study also examines whether teachers’ knowledge and perception of dyslexia differ with regard to their backgrounds. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between primary school teachers’ teaching experience and their knowledge of dyslexia. Also, their knowledge of dyslexia did not differ with regard to other variables ...

Education for all is the slogan of UNESCO. During the last decades a worldwide movement towards inclusive education is taking place. The idea is to make the school accessible to all children, whatever their differences or background. Not only accessible but also to give every child a good education, together with itspeers. Inclusive education also means that children with special needs and/or disability are integrated into regular education settings. Article 24 of the 2006 UN Convention on the rights of people with disability states that children with a disability have the right to be educated in regular school settings together with non-disabled peers and that governments should take measures to grant them that right. A number of countries have adapted their laws, in order to make education more inclusive. But practice is lagging way behind policies: teachers hardly know how to deal with a diversity of students’ needs and performance levels and there are many organizational gaps. T...

Bu çalışma, ilkokul ikinci sınıf öğrencilerinde, okuma akıcılığı ile dilbilimsel ve bilişsel beceriler arasındaki ilişkileri incelemektedir. Çalışmada dilbilimsel becerilerden fonolojikfarkındalık, morfolojik farkındalık; bilişsel becerilerden hızlı otomatik isimlendirme ve fonolojik belleğin zayıf ve iyi okuyucuların okuma akıcılığındaki belirleyici rolü araştırılmaktadır. Araştırmaya, 65 ikinci sınıf öğrencisi katılmıştır. Öğrenciler okuma akıcılıklarına göre, zayıf ve iyi okuyucular olarak iki gruba ayrılmıştır. Zayıf okuyucularda, fonolojik farkındalık ve hızlı otomatik isimlendirmenin okuma akıcılığı ile ilişkili olduğu; iyi okuyucularda, fonolojik farkındalık ve morfolojik farkındalığın okuma akıcılığı ile korelasyon gösterdiği görülmüştür. Ayrıca, regresyon analizlerinde, okuma becerisini yordayan en önemli ölçüt; zayıf okuyucularda fonolojik farkındalık iken, iyi okuyucularda morfolojikfarkındalık olarak bulunmuştur. Elde edilen bulgulara göre, fonolojikfarkındalık ve hızlı ...

The aim of the present paper was to investigate the influence of phonological encoding (PE) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) on word reading and word spelling in Turkish. Seventy-seven students attending Grade 3 and Grade 4 participated in the study. Tests of word reading, word spelling (dictation), PE and RAN were administered in order to examine the relationships among the variables. The results showed that both RAN and PE were significant predictors of word reading and word spelling above and beyond grade level. Correlational analyses revealed that as the grade level increased, RAN demonstrated stronger correlations with word reading and word spelling while the influence of PE on these two measures tended to decrease. The findings are discussed in terms of the development of phonological and orthographic processing with reference to the transparent orthography of the Turkish language.

This study investigated the role of phonological awareness in the reading acquisition of Turkish-English successive bilingual children. Cross-language transfer, the relationship between phonological awareness and phonological memory and the effect of grade level on phonological awareness were also explored. The results confirmed the previous research which demonstrated that there is a strong relationship between phonological awareness and reading in monolingual children. Bilingual data, on the other hand, did not present a significant relationship between phonological awareness and reading. Error analyses of nonword reading task revealed that Turkish-English bilingual children transfer phonological awareness skills from Turkish in order to decode English pseudowords, which was evident from their use of Turkish grapheme-phoneme correspondences and Turkish phonological rules. Compatible with the previous research, the present study indicated a significant relationship between phonolog...

This study investigates phonological awareness skills of Turkish-English successive bilingual children in order to determine the predictors of success in word reading in English and Turkish. Fifty Turkish-English successive bilingual and sixteen monolingual English-speaking children participated in the study. The data were collected through multiple instruments, examining phonological awareness (PA) and word recognition in both languages. The results indicated that phonological awareness was a strong predictor of word level reading success in both Turkish and English. These data also revealed that PA followed a developmental pattern from syllables to phonemes. Additionally, both qualitative and quantitative analyses demonstrated that Turkish PA exerted an impact on English word recognition in bilingual children, suggesting cross-language transfer of PA between the two languages.

This study aimed to explore how children with learning disabilities (LD) perceive their quality of life (QoL) and to compare self‐reports and proxy reports regarding their QoL. Children with LD, their typically developing peers, their parents and teachers responded to the child, parent, and teacher forms of KINDLR Questionnaire for Measuring Health‐Related Quality of Life (Ravens‐Sieberer & Bullinger, 1998). Findings showed that children with LD reported significantly lower QoL scores than those reported by typically developing peers. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and t‐test results showed that agreement between child reports and parent‐proxy reports was either low or moderate on each QoL dimension. Findings of the study may be used to raise awareness regarding the social and educational needs of children with LD in Turkey.

Alanyazinda Turkce’nin dilbilgisel ve ses bilgisel yapisina uygun okuma basarisini olcen test(ler) yer almamaktadir (Bingol, 2003). Bu eksiklik, klinik boyutuyla oldugu kadar egitim acisindan da okuma sorunlarina tani koymada hatalara yol acmaktadir. Bu calismanin temel amaci, Turkce’nin dilbilgisel ve ses bilgisel ozelliklerine uygun kelime okuma testlerinin gelistirilmesiyle okuma edinimi alanindaki bu bosluga katkida bulunmaktir. Calisma kapsaminda gelistirilen Kelime Okuma Testi (KOBIT), Istanbul’da bulunan ilkokullarda ogrenim goren 300'un uzerinde 1-5. sinif ogrenciye uygulanmistir. 283 ogrencinin verisine dayanarak elde edilen sonuclar, testin alt olcekleri icin hesaplanan Cronbach alfa katsayilarinin, test-esdeger test ve test-tekrar test korelasyonlarinin .85'in uzerinde oldugunu gostermistir. Ayrica, alt olceklerin birbirleriyle ve toplam test puanlariyla iliskileri ile Kelime Okuma Hizi ile iliskilerinin de .75'in uzerinde oldugu tespit edilmistir. Sonuclar, K...

The main purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) to cognitive, linguistic, and basic reading skills (word/nonword reading). Concurrent relationships among RAN, Phonological Awareness (PA), Verbal Short-Term Memory (STM), Processing Speed (PS), Letter Knowledge (LK) and Early Reading Skills (READ) were examined in 133 first- and second-grade children. The sample consisted of students who demonstrated a variety of reading skills. Causal models of RAN and Basic Reading skills were developed. The proposed direct and indirect relationships among variables were examined and appropriateness of the path models was tested through path analyses. Path analyses revealed that RAN digits/letters (RAN-DL) and PA were important and independent predictors of READ at each grade level. The findings demonstrated that RAN-DL had an increasingly predictive role in READ, whereas the importance of PA relatively diminished in the second grade. LK had a consistent predictive role in READ in both grades, whereas STM and PS had changing direct and indirect roles in READ in both grades. RAN objects (RAN-OBJ) had no significant role in READ at either grade level. Results indicated that STM and LK made significant contributions to RAN-DL and RAN-OBJ in the first grade; however, PS explained significant variance in only RAN-OBJ. PA did not explain any significant variance in RAN-DL and RAN-OBJ at either grade level. Interestingly, none of these four variables contributed to RAN-DL and RAN-OBJ in the second grade

... Title: Interactive, Collaborative Professional Development in Early Literacy Instruction: Supporting the Balancing Act. Full-Text Availability Options: ... Title: Interactive, Collaborative Professional Development in Early Literacy Instruction: Supporting the Balancing Act. ...