Ministries to Adopt Effective Research-Based Policies? An Example - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

How to Encourage Education Ministries to Adopt Effective Research-Based Policies? An Example for Arabic

Helen Abadzi

University of Texas at Arlington GCES Ras al Khaimah April 8, 2018

Nonprofits have goals that funding applicants must match

• Basic skills are sometimes hard to finance
• “we don’t support reading”
• But GCES in 2016 provided the opportunity for a link
• Result!
• The Al Qasimi foundation sponsored a reading pilot based on

cognitive science

Visual perception and learning

• f Arabic letters and words

Research and potential for improvement

Special issues on Arabic reading

سرادملارطق يف ءادأ لضفلؤا

TIMSS and PIRLS 2011

http://www.sec.gov.qa/En/Media/News/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=2549

3 نم4 تناك سرادم سرادم تانبلا

سرادملارطق يف ءادأ لضفلؤا

TIMSS and PIRLS 2011

105 points and 119 points

Diff 105

Diff 119

Arab countries must compete with the rest of the world!

• Students taking grade 4 PIRLS must read 1000-word passages and answer

questions

• Other countries do that
• Challenges:
• Arabic reading takes longer to automatize than some other scripts
• Students must learn a formal language
• Grammar emphasizes definitions
• Arab students may only read 100-300 word passages in grade 4
• Comprehension may be inexact and potentially slow

Arabic has multiple visual particularities Arabic has many letters that have multiple parts Our brains process single shapes most efficiently The visual system expects some separation among letters Students must learn letter sounds that they do not use in their dialects

• We get used to dense texts with practice
• Middle class children easily adapt
• Weaker, poorer students get less practice, and so find dense text

difficult

Words with many diacritics are read more slowly

Dai, Ibrahim, and Share, 2013

Seen a week earlier Never seen before

pseudowords

Good readers, grades 3 and 6 Speed in seconds per item

Reading Arabic is a bit slower than reading English يلجنلئا ةغللا نم ًلبيلق أطبأ لكشب ةيبرعلا ةغللا ةءارق متتةيز

3.5 times faster

Our visual system reads fastest when letters on blackboards and textbooks are big and rather loose

• Critical letter size
• Critical spacing
• Distance from blackboard
• Research by D. Pelli et al. (2006, 2007 etc)
• Reading slow for those not habituated to the

dense script

Grade 3 textbook Few words, many pictures Hard to build up speed and automaticity with so little text Students keep reading short texts They cannot deal with the 800- 1000 texts of PIRLS

Harakat are initially necessary but crowd the page

Children learn languages by sampling grammatical rules auditorily

• What if the school language cannot be sampled

from the environment?

• It must be taught systematically
• In grade 1!

Middle English is a rough analogy to standard Arabic

Of the langage of the inhabitatores of Englonde

Hit may be schewede clerely to the wytte that there were so mony diuersites

• f langages in that londe as were diuersites of nacions.

But Scottes and men of Wales kepe theire propre langage, as men inpermixte with other naciones; but perauenture Scottes haue taken somme parte in theire communicacion of the langage of Pictes, with whom thei dwellede somme tyme, and were confederate with theyme. Men of Flaundres that inhabite the weste partes of Wales levenge the speche

• f barbre speke after the Saxones. And though men of Englonde hade in the

begynnenge a langage tripartite, as of the sowthe parte of Englond, of the myddelle parte of Englonde, and of the northe parte of Englonde, procedenge as of thre peple of Germanye, borowe moche in theire speche now, as of thro the commixtion with the Danes and after that with the Normannes.

English: go went gone do did done speak spoke spoken

Students must comprehend standard Arabic quic ickly and and accurately!

• Students are typically unfamiliar with standard Arabic
• They may take longer to interpret some grammar forms
• Negatives expressions, future tense, verb conjugations
• Some words have different meanings in dialects
• Students may be unsure of exact word meanings
• They may delay, make mistakes, read meanings incorrectly

hada

A bit of the science that was used in the Arabic experiment

In Ras al Khaimah

Perceptual learning for reading a few days of training creates large and lasting effects

19

Yemen - Creative Al Qasimi foundation

The features of the science-based Arabic book – privilege the visual aspects and practice

• Start from separated letters
• Present one sign at most per day
• Give 20 minutes of practice in order to build up speed
• Use no terminology (a i u)
• Put spaced letters, use broad font
• Show analogies
• Teach the various shapes in sequence rather than randomly
• Hypothesis that students can derive connected letters e.g. t from nun etc.
• Try to use the most frequent letters, but with important exceptions
• Real words as soon as possible; combinations challenging
• Give at least 5000 words in the book
• Book really only for half the year
• Then students can do more language
• Question: how to organize, edit the book to get maximal reading speed out of it?

Arabic reading in Ras al Khaimah A pilot of two classes Arabic - UAE

Results in Ras al Khaimah Arabic - UAE

Making students comprehension-ready

• Reading aside, to be understood, enough language must fit into

working memory

• Comprehension speed
• Vocabulary “depth” – precise meaning knowledge

Im Improvin ing the understandin ing of standard Arabic

Explicit instruction of words and expressions – from Emirati to standard Arabic

• Conjugating standard Arabic verbs and nouns
• With minimal or no terminology
• 6 of the 10 forms in grade 1
• The hollow, reduplicated, etc verbs
• Teaching pronouns of all types
• negative expressions
• Used forms and vocabulary found in grade 1 Arabic books

Patterns make easy chunks pattern detection therefore facilitates automaticity

a e i

• u

B ba be bi bo bu C ca ce ci co cu D da de de do du F fa fe fi fo fu G ga ge gi go gu H ha he hi ho hu Etc

ضَضض ُِض صَص ص ِصُِ ثثَِ ثثُِ ققَِق ُِق ددَِ ددُِ ششَِش ُِش سسَِس ِسُِ 26

2 x 1 = 2 2 x 2 = 4 2 x 3 = 6 2 x 4 = 8 2 x 5 = 10

1 .فاكلاو ءايلا و نيلوعفملا ان و ءاهلا عم ةلصتملا رئامضلا عم لعفلا فيرصت. ةيميلعتلا لئاسولا: ةبسانم روص ةعومجم

تقولاسردلا تاوطخ 7د.

انيب قرفلا ملعملا لأسي"انْرَكَش " و"انَرَكَش" / "انْمَسَر " و"انَمَسَر" / "انْعِمَس " و"انَعِمَس" ةئيهتلا ةزفاحلا

8د.

امهراركت مهنم بلطيس هنلؤ نيتيلاتلا نيتصقلل تاصنلبا بلبطلا نم ملعملا بلطي: لبئاق ملعملا أدبي" : ْنَم ،نابضغ فيس هَبرض؟" ،" ْنَم َكَبَرَض؟فيس اي" ."ينَبَرَضحنادم ".نارمع و دشار لاق" : و نحنانَبَرَضاضيأ نادمح". لعفلا عم بيردتلا ملعملا رركي" َقَبَس" :" نم ،نابضغ فيس هَقَبَس؟" ،" نم َكَقَبَسس اي؟في" ."ينَقَبَسنادمح ". لاق نارمعو دشار ": نحنوانَقَبَساضيأ نادمح". ةلحرملا1 ضرعلا

10د.

لاعفلؤا عم ةصقلا راركت مهنم ملعملا بلطي مث ،نيتقباسلا نيتصقلا راركتب بلبطلا موقي : َعَفَد" : ْنَم ،نابضغ فيس هَعَفَد؟ ... " َكَسَم" : نم ،نابضغ فيس هَكَسَم؟... " َعَنَم" : نم ،نابضغ فيس هَعَنَم؟... " ةلحرملا2 بيردتلا

15د.

يلاتلا لكشلاب ةصقلا ملعملا مدقي: " نم ،ناحرف فيس هَرَكَش؟" " ْنَمكَرَكَش؟فيس اي" ،"ينَرَكَشنادمح ".نارمعو دشار لاق" :نحنو انَرَكَشاضيأ نادمح ".لاعفلؤا عم ةصقلا نيوكت ملعملا بلطي و ةصقلا راركتب بلبطلا موقي: َعِمَس: َمَسَر: َفَصَو : ةلحرملا3 ءادلؤا

5د.

لعفلا مادختسا ملعملا بلطي" َعَنَم "ةلمج لك يف ملبكلا نع هفقوت دنع ةيلاتلا ةصقلا يف: " نم ،افده فيس لجسي مل ___( هَعَنَم)؟" " نم ____( َكَعَنَم )؟فيس اي" " ____(ينَعَنَم )نادمح". نارمعو دشار لاق " : نحنو _____(انَعَنَم )اضيأ نادمح". ةمتاخلا

Grammar experiment at the Harran public school

Grade 1 Teach standard Arabic language and reading in separate, parallel periods Combine when fluency is attained – end of grade 1 or mid-grade 2

• Oral standard Arabic grammar – comprehension readiness
• Grammatical differences from vernaculars
• Letter-by-letter reading, practice for automaticity

Read & understand Standard Arabic fluently Grades 1-2

Grammar before complex comprehension

• Comprehension speed matters
• First comprehension level is literal
• Quickly many students ought to draw inferences from text
• Obviously background knowledge is needed, that is furthermore

rapidly and fluently brought into working memory

• Teachers should ask questions to help students clarify, summarize,

predict

• Many teachers have limited capacity to ask such questions

31

Challenge: Great improvement in time for PIRLS 2022

• Much reading practice in grade 1
• Teach standard Arabic grammar systematically in grades 1-3
• No terminology
• Use the local vernacular as support
• In grades 2-4 spend class time in reading passages to increase speed

and understanding

• Explain vocabulary and syntax precisely
• Increase passage length to 1000 words by grade 4

Philanthropies can do much for education but they need

• Willingness to delve into details
• Interest in understanding the science involved in learning
• Willingness to support with actions on the ground
• This is what the Al Qasimi foundation does!

Thank you for your attention!