The Debate Rages On While Children Still Learn and Play
December 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under Court Case
Beth Butler asked:
Parents look at me with confusion on their faces or call me with anxiety in their voices. They all wonder if they are doing the right thing. Many are on waiting lists to be have their child participate in a dual immersion program at a local magnet school, while others fork over hundreds and hundreds of dollars to have their toddler attend language immersion classes once a week. The problem is that these families represent a very small percentage of our United States population.
How many of you are able to afford hundreds of dollars for a weekly Spanish class for your child? How long is that waiting list for the immersion or dual immersion program at your local magnet school? Do a lot of your neighbors and colleagues have the same opportunity as you? The answers to these and other questions surrounding our feeble attempt to bring early language learning into the picture of this great nation are weak, feeble and show a clear lack of direction.
Research continues to conclude that bilingual education can and does provide children with a strong foundation in acquiring second language skills while increasing their proficiency in reading and math. (Dr. Bialystok, York University, 2001) In fact, Colin Baker, in his book titled Policy and Practice in Bilingual Education, speaks directly to the fact that bilingual education can work in the school systems and will result in meaningful instruction with successful language acquisition.
With that being said, could we get real here? There is absolutely no way our country of the United States of America will ever make the funds available to create the opportunity for immersion programs to be set up at every public elementary school starting next school year. My own daughter had physical education cut last year in her public school classroom. This year, they have teacher-directed PE three times a week. That sounds to me like what we used to call recess. All of us here about budget cuts here and not enough funds there. The harsh reality is that our country will never do what many other countries have been doing and continue to do to provide early language learning for their citizens.
Let us pretend for a fleeting moment that they did allot the funding (that is like dreaming for the salaries of teachers to finally be commiserate with doctors), then what? Where would they find enough bilingual teachers to instruct in all of these immersion programs across the country? The answer is nowhere. Statistics show that the United States does not have the pool of educators needed to implement nation wide immersion programs at any level. Can anyone say outsourcing? I do not know about you, but I am trying my best to support products, services and ideas that keep the jobs here in the US.
The last point that needs to be brought up in regards to this immersion vs. bilingual education debate is the most important one in my eyes. It is a common sense approach, a very easy to understand perspective and a view that involves the heart as well as the mind. Pretend you are a very young child again. Go ahead. Close your eyes for a moment (then open them back up to continue reading!). Your parents ramble on and on about objects in your home, and you learn the words for each item as you develop from an infant into a toddler. Your siblings also get involved in the family fun, and roll a ball at you, instructing you to roll the ball back. Here comes natural language learning!
Did you know that most language experts, linguists, agree that it is just as easy to learn two words for an object as it is to learn only one when you are in these early and formative years? That means your brother could easily toss in his limited knowledge of a second language from his middle school Spanish class and tell you pelota (pay-low-tah) while rolling the ball and also saying ball. Or at the dinner table, with you in your high chair, your family is using the words thank you followed by gracias (grah-see-ahs) as they pass one another food. These are all examples of introducing a new language in a bilingual format. There exists a seamless flow back and forth between the native language and the target language.
How much more realistic is this type of instruction for the stay at home mom, the preschool teacher, the family child care provider and the homeschooling parent? Tons! Even if you do not speak one word of French, you could easily grasp command of a few simply vocabulary words a week and introduce them to your baby. Or say you do not recall a lot of your high school Spanish (just enough to be dangerous at a bar in Mexico!); I bet you could easily bring a few words a day into your home and the life of your children by using this technique. You make the commitment, and you could easily change the course of direction in regards to the cognitive development of your child.
Resources are everywhere, and many of them are free. Yes, you heard me correctly. F-R-E-E!!! Simply conduct a search on the internet by plugging in the target language you want to introduce to your child. You will pull up thousands of results, and your job is now to sift through them and find what will make your child tick. Language cards, music CDs, DVDs, board books and more abound in the world of language learning. And the best thing is many of these resources are truly presented in a bilingual format.
So, while the debate between immersion vs. bilingual education rages on, do not get caught up in the frenzy and waste valuable time during the window of opportunity your child is experiencing when it comes to learning a second language. Make the most of the first five years of life as Dr. John Mike compels us to in his book Brilliant Babies Powerful Adults and give your children the opportunity to travel successfully in this very global society in which they are growing up.
Parents look at me with confusion on their faces or call me with anxiety in their voices. They all wonder if they are doing the right thing. Many are on waiting lists to be have their child participate in a dual immersion program at a local magnet school, while others fork over hundreds and hundreds of dollars to have their toddler attend language immersion classes once a week. The problem is that these families represent a very small percentage of our United States population.
How many of you are able to afford hundreds of dollars for a weekly Spanish class for your child? How long is that waiting list for the immersion or dual immersion program at your local magnet school? Do a lot of your neighbors and colleagues have the same opportunity as you? The answers to these and other questions surrounding our feeble attempt to bring early language learning into the picture of this great nation are weak, feeble and show a clear lack of direction.
Research continues to conclude that bilingual education can and does provide children with a strong foundation in acquiring second language skills while increasing their proficiency in reading and math. (Dr. Bialystok, York University, 2001) In fact, Colin Baker, in his book titled Policy and Practice in Bilingual Education, speaks directly to the fact that bilingual education can work in the school systems and will result in meaningful instruction with successful language acquisition.
With that being said, could we get real here? There is absolutely no way our country of the United States of America will ever make the funds available to create the opportunity for immersion programs to be set up at every public elementary school starting next school year. My own daughter had physical education cut last year in her public school classroom. This year, they have teacher-directed PE three times a week. That sounds to me like what we used to call recess. All of us here about budget cuts here and not enough funds there. The harsh reality is that our country will never do what many other countries have been doing and continue to do to provide early language learning for their citizens.
Let us pretend for a fleeting moment that they did allot the funding (that is like dreaming for the salaries of teachers to finally be commiserate with doctors), then what? Where would they find enough bilingual teachers to instruct in all of these immersion programs across the country? The answer is nowhere. Statistics show that the United States does not have the pool of educators needed to implement nation wide immersion programs at any level. Can anyone say outsourcing? I do not know about you, but I am trying my best to support products, services and ideas that keep the jobs here in the US.
The last point that needs to be brought up in regards to this immersion vs. bilingual education debate is the most important one in my eyes. It is a common sense approach, a very easy to understand perspective and a view that involves the heart as well as the mind. Pretend you are a very young child again. Go ahead. Close your eyes for a moment (then open them back up to continue reading!). Your parents ramble on and on about objects in your home, and you learn the words for each item as you develop from an infant into a toddler. Your siblings also get involved in the family fun, and roll a ball at you, instructing you to roll the ball back. Here comes natural language learning!
Did you know that most language experts, linguists, agree that it is just as easy to learn two words for an object as it is to learn only one when you are in these early and formative years? That means your brother could easily toss in his limited knowledge of a second language from his middle school Spanish class and tell you pelota (pay-low-tah) while rolling the ball and also saying ball. Or at the dinner table, with you in your high chair, your family is using the words thank you followed by gracias (grah-see-ahs) as they pass one another food. These are all examples of introducing a new language in a bilingual format. There exists a seamless flow back and forth between the native language and the target language.
How much more realistic is this type of instruction for the stay at home mom, the preschool teacher, the family child care provider and the homeschooling parent? Tons! Even if you do not speak one word of French, you could easily grasp command of a few simply vocabulary words a week and introduce them to your baby. Or say you do not recall a lot of your high school Spanish (just enough to be dangerous at a bar in Mexico!); I bet you could easily bring a few words a day into your home and the life of your children by using this technique. You make the commitment, and you could easily change the course of direction in regards to the cognitive development of your child.
Resources are everywhere, and many of them are free. Yes, you heard me correctly. F-R-E-E!!! Simply conduct a search on the internet by plugging in the target language you want to introduce to your child. You will pull up thousands of results, and your job is now to sift through them and find what will make your child tick. Language cards, music CDs, DVDs, board books and more abound in the world of language learning. And the best thing is many of these resources are truly presented in a bilingual format.
So, while the debate between immersion vs. bilingual education rages on, do not get caught up in the frenzy and waste valuable time during the window of opportunity your child is experiencing when it comes to learning a second language. Make the most of the first five years of life as Dr. John Mike compels us to in his book Brilliant Babies Powerful Adults and give your children the opportunity to travel successfully in this very global society in which they are growing up.
Testing for the effects of Music on Reading Comprehension Skills under Different Music Environments
Ardeshir Sadehkhou asked:
References
Boyle, R., & Coltheart, V. (1996). Effects of irrelevant sounds on phonological coding in reading comprehension and short-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 49A(2), 398-416. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1080/027249896392702
Collins, M. W., & Levy, B. A. (2008). Developing fluent text processing with practice: Memorial influences on fluency and comprehension. The Canadian Psychologist. 49(2), 133-139. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0708-5591.49.2.133
Furnham, A., & Allass, K. (1999). The influence of musical distraction of varying complexity on the cognitive performance of extroverts and introverts. European Journal of Personality. 13(1), 27- 38. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0984(199901/02)
Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). Music while you work: The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extroverts. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 11(5), 445-455. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0720(199710)
Klauda, S., & Guthrie, J. (2008). Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology. 100(2), 310-321. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.310
Oron-Gilad, T., Ronen, A., & Shinar, D. (2008). Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) while
driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 40(3), 851-860. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026
Registrar, D., Darrow, A., Standley, J., & Swedberg, O. (2007). The use of music to enhance reading skills in second grade students and students with reading disabilities. Journal of Music Therapy. 44(1), 23-37. Retrieved September 09, 2008.
Savolainen, H., Ahonen, T., Aro., M., Tolvanen, A., & Holopainen, L. (2008). Reading comprehension, word reading and spelling as predictors of school achievement and choice of secondary education. Learning and Instruction. 18(2), 201-210. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.017
Smith, A. (2005). Aircraft and road traffic noise and children’s cognition. The Lancet,
336(9487), 715-716. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(05)67174-7
Yao, S., Kuo-En, C., & Jung, Huang (2008). Improving children’s reading comprehension and use of strategies through computer-based strategy training. Computers in Human Behavior. 24(4), 1552-1571. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.009
Testing the Effects of Music on Reading Comprehension Skills under Different Music Environments
The influence of background music on working cognitive memory has been a debate and has become a subject that has gotten many psychological researches involved. At the same time, thanks to the advancement of technology, we now can listen to music almost wherever we may end up going. Background music while studying has become an almost every day task for students. Many students listen to music while they study. Do we want our students listening to music while they study?
School achievement clearly predicts future educational attainment (Savolainen, Ahonen, Aro, Tolvanen and Hlopainen, 2008). As we see on a daily basis, this habit is well accepted in most institutions and there is nothing that is being done to ban it, not to mention the fact there is no research with data that would back such arguments whether it’s for this habit of against it. (Darrow, Standley and Swedberg, 2007, p. 25) state in their study that according to (Tucker, 1981) “it is widely believed that music learning, music reading and/or, music participation enhance academic achievement, especially reading and math.”
Other researchers have measured the influence of background music on cognitive performance (Furnham and Allass, 1999), however that is considered as background noise which is playing from a stereo possibly located somewhere around the subject. Our research is measuring their comprehension abilities while the subject is listening to music with their headphones on.
To understand the affects of background music on reading comprehension we must be able to measure their comprehension and then control the environment with music.
The affects of music on concentration while driving has also been looked at to see if music could possibly have an effect on fatigue in which some drives might experience. (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007).
It is important to look further into the details of this habit that is little by little taking over most college students. Why would anyone not like listening to their favorite music while studying? However, will this practice hurt the individuals at the end of their study sessions by interfering with their comprehension skills while they read?
Though a number of studies have researched similar ideas, such as memory recall while listening to music, reading comprehension measurements while listening to music and while in complete silence, they haven’t so far tested for music in which the individual might find motivating to study in.
Reading in many ways is like driving, and includes many tasks that the individual must complete to comprehend the material well. Music could in a sense make you more alert just like it does to drives who listen to music when they drive.
Over a relatively short period of time, a reader progresses from laborious word by word decoding to quickly and accurately understanding the constructing meaning contained in sentences, paragraphs, and entire passages (Collins and Levy, 2008). According to (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007), psychological fatigue, on the contrary, is a subjective experience of disinclination to continue performing the task at hand. Therefore if music takes away the individuals focus away from the fatigue, it might actually do less harm than originally thought.
Once we take this important issue in account, we can then draw a closer line to the conclusion and expand our understanding of this habit and what it can and can’t do for the students.
This research will be similar to current researches in many ways, yet will have other ways to measuring for accuracy. It is our goal to only look at the short-term effects of music on reading comprehension. There are studies out in which the researchers have measured cognition between children who were raised in areas where the traffic noise and aircraft noise was high vs. children who lived in quite areas (Stanfeld, 2005). We are also staying away from measuring memory by making the passage available for the subjects to go back to whenever they might need to.
“Measuring for phonological codes in reading comprehension has been the subject of investigation for many years” (Boyle and Coltheart, 1996). As stated by this very article the answers to component which are essential for short-term memory has still remained unanswered.
Throughout this study, it is predicted for the individuals who listen to music to have a lower reading comprehension level than the other two controls. The second group in which the individuals get to listen to their own favorite music is predicted to do better than the last group in which we choose the music, however worst than the group who do the task in silence.
It is also predicted that the music which is playing in the subject’s ear, whether it is their choice of music or ours will interfere with their comprehension and delay their understating of materials within the context of the passage.
For example, the subjects might need to read the same sentence(s) more than once in order to comprehend the full meaning of the author.
By confirming this hypothesis, one can decide on the study skills he or she might want to get used to. Once we reach our conclusion in this study, it will implicate the very fact that music is good but only to a certain degree such as driving. However it is an unnecessary tool for students to use while they study. If the comprehension levels are lower when the individual is listening to music, it will set the ground for major studies to follow and possibly making this an epidemic. This study is a very small step in summarizing and concluding this issue, and there hasn’t been a significant amount of evidence based on the research done. However, we wish to confirm our hypothesis as far as the effects of music on reading comprehension.
Although the majority of research show a strong correlation between music and cognitive tasks, and even succeeding and doing better in special education students, they fail to control for music the is the choice of the subject.
This study was designed to investigate the correlation between individuals who listen to music while reading a passage and compare their comprehension levels to the subjects who read their passages in silence and compare those levels with subjects who read passages while listening to the music they have chosen as their favorite music which in many cases is a type of music that will motivate them.
Method
Participants
We will be using 60 participants for our study. We will use 20 participants for each of the three conditions. The participants will be assigned to the randomly assigned conditions in sets of 5. We will have a total of 12 sets of participants, 4 sets per condition. We will randomly assign the conditions by writing each condition on pieces of paper, placing them in a bag, and drawing them out one by one. Our selection procedure is based on the qualification of being able to read English fluently and participants must be a Psychology 150 and/or 250 students whom will be notified by the school’s research management website also known as “Sona System” once our research methods are approved by the board. The participants will get credit for their participation. The credit authorization will be filled out by us, the researcher, and we will also list their credits on the Sona System.
Materials
The participants will be given a 5 page booklet, a pencil and a stop watch for their timing purposes. We will also be using a desktop PC if available in the research rooms or we will provide a laptop for the purposes of playing a CD and accessing the World Wide Web to find the participant’s music of choice. The participants in the conditions with music will be advised to bring their own headphones, and if for any reason they forget to bring their own, they will be given a headphone which they can keep at the end of the research session.
Procedures
Our research is measuring the level of reading comprehension of the participants based on three different conditions. Condition one involves no music, condition two involves listening
to music that has been chosen by the researcher and condition three involves the participants listening to the music of their choice. All conditions will require the participant to read the passage that is being provided to them. The participants will be given an introduction to what they will be doing.
This introduction will take just under one minute. They will be told about the booklet and the 10 questions which they will have to answer following reading the passage. We will tell the participants that they can go back to the passage whenever they feel necessary, since this is NOT a memory research. They will be informed that they can use any way they are most comfortable with, whether it be search and destroy method, in which the participant can read the questions first one by one then going through the passage to look for answers or they can read the passage then start to answer the questions and go back if they needed to.
In all three conditions, the participants will be given a total of 8 minutes to complete reading the passage and answering the questions. They will also be informed that they may NOT guess on any questions. If they can’t find it, they will have to move on or if they don’t have enough time to finish, they will have to leave the questions blank.
The researcher will ask the participant to place his/her pencil on the table and STOP after the 8 minutes has lapsed. For the participants in which the condition requires listening to music we will provide ear phones which are either connected to a PC in the research rooms or a laptop
which will be able to play a CD. For all participants we have decided to use Classical Jazz by Sade and the song is called “The Sweetest Taboo”.
The participants will be given 1 minute to come up with the 5 songs of their choice in the condition in which the participant uses the music of their choice. We will then take an extra
minute to find one of their songs on the World Wide Web. They will then also be given the headphones along with their favorite music playing ON REPLAY for the duration of the 8 minutes.
The total duration for the experiment will take no more than 15 minutes. Once the participants are done with the passage, they will get debriefed and credit will be given to them for their class participation purposes.
Results
Within all the groups, the total number of participants was 56. There were 46 females and 10 males. There were 82% females and 18% males. The mean of their ages was 20. The median of their ages was 19 and the mode of their ages stood at 18. The standard deviation of the ages was calculated to be 4.692. The minimum age was of the participants was 18 and the maximum age was 50. The variance age of the groups was 22.015.
For Condition #1 in which we had No Music, we had 20 participants, which equaled to 35.7% of the total participants. For Condition #2 in which the participants listened to Jazz Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants. For Condition #3 in which the participants chose their Own Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants.
Over 75% of the scores were above the 50%tile rank and 27% of the scores were perfect. Also, 5% got zero questions right. The mean score was 6.59. The median score was 6 and the mode score was 10. The standard deviation of the scores was calculated to be 2.84.
The minimum score was 0 and the maximum score was 10. The scores ranged from 0 to 10. The variance of the scores was 8.065.
Between all of our participants 53.36% were freshman totaling 31 students, and 23.21% were sophomores, totaling 13 students. Also, 19.64% were juniors, totaling 11 student and 1.79% seniors totaling 1 student. From the whole participant pool, 46.43% of our subjects normally listened to music while studying which equals to 26 students.
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated on participants’ ratings of reading comprehension scores. The independent variable was the music conditions in which the participants read the article under. The dependent variable was the measurement of reading comprehension based on their scores. The higher the score the higher the participant’s reading comprehension level. The analysis was significant, F(2, 55) = 35.98, p < 0.05. A post-hoc analysis showed that the participants in the No Music condition outperformed both the participants in the Jazz Music condition and Their Own Music condition; also there was a significant difference between the participants in Their Own Music condition and the Jazz Music Condition where the participants in Their Own Music condition outperformed the participants in Our Music Condition.
References
Boyle, R., & Coltheart, V. (1996). Effects of irrelevant sounds on phonological coding in reading comprehension and short-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 49A(2), 398-416. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1080/027249896392702
Collins, M. W., & Levy, B. A. (2008). Developing fluent text processing with practice: Memorial influences on fluency and comprehension. The Canadian Psychologist. 49(2), 133-139. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0708-5591.49.2.133
Furnham, A., & Allass, K. (1999). The influence of musical distraction of varying complexity on the cognitive performance of extroverts and introverts. European Journal of Personality. 13(1), 27- 38. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0984(199901/02)
Furnham, A., & Bradley, A. (1997). Music while you work: The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extroverts. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 11(5), 445-455. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 0720(199710)
Klauda, S., & Guthrie, J. (2008). Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology. 100(2), 310-321. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.310
Oron-Gilad, T., Ronen, A., & Shinar, D. (2008). Alertness maintaining tasks (AMTs) while
driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 40(3), 851-860. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2007.09.026
Registrar, D., Darrow, A., Standley, J., & Swedberg, O. (2007). The use of music to enhance reading skills in second grade students and students with reading disabilities. Journal of Music Therapy. 44(1), 23-37. Retrieved September 09, 2008.
Savolainen, H., Ahonen, T., Aro., M., Tolvanen, A., & Holopainen, L. (2008). Reading comprehension, word reading and spelling as predictors of school achievement and choice of secondary education. Learning and Instruction. 18(2), 201-210. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2007.09.017
Smith, A. (2005). Aircraft and road traffic noise and children’s cognition. The Lancet,
336(9487), 715-716. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(05)67174-7
Yao, S., Kuo-En, C., & Jung, Huang (2008). Improving children’s reading comprehension and use of strategies through computer-based strategy training. Computers in Human Behavior. 24(4), 1552-1571. Retrieved September 09, 2008. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2007.05.009
Testing the Effects of Music on Reading Comprehension Skills under Different Music Environments
The influence of background music on working cognitive memory has been a debate and has become a subject that has gotten many psychological researches involved. At the same time, thanks to the advancement of technology, we now can listen to music almost wherever we may end up going. Background music while studying has become an almost every day task for students. Many students listen to music while they study. Do we want our students listening to music while they study?
School achievement clearly predicts future educational attainment (Savolainen, Ahonen, Aro, Tolvanen and Hlopainen, 2008). As we see on a daily basis, this habit is well accepted in most institutions and there is nothing that is being done to ban it, not to mention the fact there is no research with data that would back such arguments whether it’s for this habit of against it. (Darrow, Standley and Swedberg, 2007, p. 25) state in their study that according to (Tucker, 1981) “it is widely believed that music learning, music reading and/or, music participation enhance academic achievement, especially reading and math.”
Other researchers have measured the influence of background music on cognitive performance (Furnham and Allass, 1999), however that is considered as background noise which is playing from a stereo possibly located somewhere around the subject. Our research is measuring their comprehension abilities while the subject is listening to music with their headphones on.
To understand the affects of background music on reading comprehension we must be able to measure their comprehension and then control the environment with music.
The affects of music on concentration while driving has also been looked at to see if music could possibly have an effect on fatigue in which some drives might experience. (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007).
It is important to look further into the details of this habit that is little by little taking over most college students. Why would anyone not like listening to their favorite music while studying? However, will this practice hurt the individuals at the end of their study sessions by interfering with their comprehension skills while they read?
Though a number of studies have researched similar ideas, such as memory recall while listening to music, reading comprehension measurements while listening to music and while in complete silence, they haven’t so far tested for music in which the individual might find motivating to study in.
Reading in many ways is like driving, and includes many tasks that the individual must complete to comprehend the material well. Music could in a sense make you more alert just like it does to drives who listen to music when they drive.
Over a relatively short period of time, a reader progresses from laborious word by word decoding to quickly and accurately understanding the constructing meaning contained in sentences, paragraphs, and entire passages (Collins and Levy, 2008). According to (Gilad, Ronen and Shinar, 2007), psychological fatigue, on the contrary, is a subjective experience of disinclination to continue performing the task at hand. Therefore if music takes away the individuals focus away from the fatigue, it might actually do less harm than originally thought.
Once we take this important issue in account, we can then draw a closer line to the conclusion and expand our understanding of this habit and what it can and can’t do for the students.
This research will be similar to current researches in many ways, yet will have other ways to measuring for accuracy. It is our goal to only look at the short-term effects of music on reading comprehension. There are studies out in which the researchers have measured cognition between children who were raised in areas where the traffic noise and aircraft noise was high vs. children who lived in quite areas (Stanfeld, 2005). We are also staying away from measuring memory by making the passage available for the subjects to go back to whenever they might need to.
“Measuring for phonological codes in reading comprehension has been the subject of investigation for many years” (Boyle and Coltheart, 1996). As stated by this very article the answers to component which are essential for short-term memory has still remained unanswered.
Throughout this study, it is predicted for the individuals who listen to music to have a lower reading comprehension level than the other two controls. The second group in which the individuals get to listen to their own favorite music is predicted to do better than the last group in which we choose the music, however worst than the group who do the task in silence.
It is also predicted that the music which is playing in the subject’s ear, whether it is their choice of music or ours will interfere with their comprehension and delay their understating of materials within the context of the passage.
For example, the subjects might need to read the same sentence(s) more than once in order to comprehend the full meaning of the author.
By confirming this hypothesis, one can decide on the study skills he or she might want to get used to. Once we reach our conclusion in this study, it will implicate the very fact that music is good but only to a certain degree such as driving. However it is an unnecessary tool for students to use while they study. If the comprehension levels are lower when the individual is listening to music, it will set the ground for major studies to follow and possibly making this an epidemic. This study is a very small step in summarizing and concluding this issue, and there hasn’t been a significant amount of evidence based on the research done. However, we wish to confirm our hypothesis as far as the effects of music on reading comprehension.
Although the majority of research show a strong correlation between music and cognitive tasks, and even succeeding and doing better in special education students, they fail to control for music the is the choice of the subject.
This study was designed to investigate the correlation between individuals who listen to music while reading a passage and compare their comprehension levels to the subjects who read their passages in silence and compare those levels with subjects who read passages while listening to the music they have chosen as their favorite music which in many cases is a type of music that will motivate them.
Method
Participants
We will be using 60 participants for our study. We will use 20 participants for each of the three conditions. The participants will be assigned to the randomly assigned conditions in sets of 5. We will have a total of 12 sets of participants, 4 sets per condition. We will randomly assign the conditions by writing each condition on pieces of paper, placing them in a bag, and drawing them out one by one. Our selection procedure is based on the qualification of being able to read English fluently and participants must be a Psychology 150 and/or 250 students whom will be notified by the school’s research management website also known as “Sona System” once our research methods are approved by the board. The participants will get credit for their participation. The credit authorization will be filled out by us, the researcher, and we will also list their credits on the Sona System.
Materials
The participants will be given a 5 page booklet, a pencil and a stop watch for their timing purposes. We will also be using a desktop PC if available in the research rooms or we will provide a laptop for the purposes of playing a CD and accessing the World Wide Web to find the participant’s music of choice. The participants in the conditions with music will be advised to bring their own headphones, and if for any reason they forget to bring their own, they will be given a headphone which they can keep at the end of the research session.
Procedures
Our research is measuring the level of reading comprehension of the participants based on three different conditions. Condition one involves no music, condition two involves listening
to music that has been chosen by the researcher and condition three involves the participants listening to the music of their choice. All conditions will require the participant to read the passage that is being provided to them. The participants will be given an introduction to what they will be doing.
This introduction will take just under one minute. They will be told about the booklet and the 10 questions which they will have to answer following reading the passage. We will tell the participants that they can go back to the passage whenever they feel necessary, since this is NOT a memory research. They will be informed that they can use any way they are most comfortable with, whether it be search and destroy method, in which the participant can read the questions first one by one then going through the passage to look for answers or they can read the passage then start to answer the questions and go back if they needed to.
In all three conditions, the participants will be given a total of 8 minutes to complete reading the passage and answering the questions. They will also be informed that they may NOT guess on any questions. If they can’t find it, they will have to move on or if they don’t have enough time to finish, they will have to leave the questions blank.
The researcher will ask the participant to place his/her pencil on the table and STOP after the 8 minutes has lapsed. For the participants in which the condition requires listening to music we will provide ear phones which are either connected to a PC in the research rooms or a laptop
which will be able to play a CD. For all participants we have decided to use Classical Jazz by Sade and the song is called “The Sweetest Taboo”.
The participants will be given 1 minute to come up with the 5 songs of their choice in the condition in which the participant uses the music of their choice. We will then take an extra
minute to find one of their songs on the World Wide Web. They will then also be given the headphones along with their favorite music playing ON REPLAY for the duration of the 8 minutes.
The total duration for the experiment will take no more than 15 minutes. Once the participants are done with the passage, they will get debriefed and credit will be given to them for their class participation purposes.
Results
Within all the groups, the total number of participants was 56. There were 46 females and 10 males. There were 82% females and 18% males. The mean of their ages was 20. The median of their ages was 19 and the mode of their ages stood at 18. The standard deviation of the ages was calculated to be 4.692. The minimum age was of the participants was 18 and the maximum age was 50. The variance age of the groups was 22.015.
For Condition #1 in which we had No Music, we had 20 participants, which equaled to 35.7% of the total participants. For Condition #2 in which the participants listened to Jazz Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants. For Condition #3 in which the participants chose their Own Music, we had 18 participants, which equaled to 32.15% of the total participants.
Over 75% of the scores were above the 50%tile rank and 27% of the scores were perfect. Also, 5% got zero questions right. The mean score was 6.59. The median score was 6 and the mode score was 10. The standard deviation of the scores was calculated to be 2.84.
The minimum score was 0 and the maximum score was 10. The scores ranged from 0 to 10. The variance of the scores was 8.065.
Between all of our participants 53.36% were freshman totaling 31 students, and 23.21% were sophomores, totaling 13 students. Also, 19.64% were juniors, totaling 11 student and 1.79% seniors totaling 1 student. From the whole participant pool, 46.43% of our subjects normally listened to music while studying which equals to 26 students.
A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated on participants’ ratings of reading comprehension scores. The independent variable was the music conditions in which the participants read the article under. The dependent variable was the measurement of reading comprehension based on their scores. The higher the score the higher the participant’s reading comprehension level. The analysis was significant, F(2, 55) = 35.98, p < 0.05. A post-hoc analysis showed that the participants in the No Music condition outperformed both the participants in the Jazz Music condition and Their Own Music condition; also there was a significant difference between the participants in Their Own Music condition and the Jazz Music Condition where the participants in Their Own Music condition outperformed the participants in Our Music Condition.
Five Strategies for Sharpening your Communication Skills in College
November 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under College And University
Chris Stout asked:
Communicating in college is crucial. You have to be able to voice your opinions clearly and effectively on a daily basis. Here five tips for sharpening your communication skills in college.
1. Speak up
If no one can hear you, it won’t matter what you say. Make your points like you mean it. Clear your throat and address the class confidently. Be certain that you’ve thought for a moment before you opening your mouth. Once you’ve mentally organized what it is you want to say, execute the verbal expression of your thoughts as clearly as possible. Don’t go overboard with the volume (you don’t want to be a disturbance), but be sure that you can be heard by everyone.
2. Outside of the classroom, practice reading aloud to someone.
This tactic works wonders. When you read aloud to someone, you practice so many things. You get to hone your ability to speak loud and clear. You gain comfort you’re your ability to vocalize the text, and you can calm any concerns you may have about speaking in public. This latter part is why you have to take turns reading aloud to another person. Reading aloud by yourself is too easy. With another person present, the reading becomes a practical presentation.
3. Become well-informed.
Do you are homework as instructed, and read the assignments before you get to class. Communicating in your classes is difficult when you haven’t properly prepared. The more informed you are, the more pertinent you analysis will be. Don’t just speak so that you can hear yourself talk, have something valuable to say. The more work you’ve done, the more comfortable you will feel expressing your ideas.
4. Have educated debates outside of class.
Discuss what you are learning with others, and let others share what they have learned. You are not going to be able to take every single class that you want, so learn form other peoples experiences. Ask questions and exchange ideas. Practice articulating your positions in a comfortable environment. This way, when it’s time for you to speak up in class, you’ll have already had experience articulating you thoughts out loud.
5. Meet your professors during office hours.
If you want a better handle on the material you’re studying, go see your professor during office hours, You’ll learn added insights and extra contexts. You’ll be able to frame your ideas more effectively, because you will have added familiarity with the subjects you are studying. If you can debate your professors in their office, you can certainly voice your opinions in class.
Take college as an opportunity to hone your communication abilities. Practice writing, arguing, sharing and defending your ideas outside of class so that you can be a more effective communicator during section and lectures.
Communicating in college is crucial. You have to be able to voice your opinions clearly and effectively on a daily basis. Here five tips for sharpening your communication skills in college.
1. Speak up
If no one can hear you, it won’t matter what you say. Make your points like you mean it. Clear your throat and address the class confidently. Be certain that you’ve thought for a moment before you opening your mouth. Once you’ve mentally organized what it is you want to say, execute the verbal expression of your thoughts as clearly as possible. Don’t go overboard with the volume (you don’t want to be a disturbance), but be sure that you can be heard by everyone.
2. Outside of the classroom, practice reading aloud to someone.
This tactic works wonders. When you read aloud to someone, you practice so many things. You get to hone your ability to speak loud and clear. You gain comfort you’re your ability to vocalize the text, and you can calm any concerns you may have about speaking in public. This latter part is why you have to take turns reading aloud to another person. Reading aloud by yourself is too easy. With another person present, the reading becomes a practical presentation.
3. Become well-informed.
Do you are homework as instructed, and read the assignments before you get to class. Communicating in your classes is difficult when you haven’t properly prepared. The more informed you are, the more pertinent you analysis will be. Don’t just speak so that you can hear yourself talk, have something valuable to say. The more work you’ve done, the more comfortable you will feel expressing your ideas.
4. Have educated debates outside of class.
Discuss what you are learning with others, and let others share what they have learned. You are not going to be able to take every single class that you want, so learn form other peoples experiences. Ask questions and exchange ideas. Practice articulating your positions in a comfortable environment. This way, when it’s time for you to speak up in class, you’ll have already had experience articulating you thoughts out loud.
5. Meet your professors during office hours.
If you want a better handle on the material you’re studying, go see your professor during office hours, You’ll learn added insights and extra contexts. You’ll be able to frame your ideas more effectively, because you will have added familiarity with the subjects you are studying. If you can debate your professors in their office, you can certainly voice your opinions in class.
Take college as an opportunity to hone your communication abilities. Practice writing, arguing, sharing and defending your ideas outside of class so that you can be a more effective communicator during section and lectures.
Peacocks & Penguins
Ernie Fitzpatrick asked:
Twelve years ago I read a small book that was far from the kind of reading that I’d normally read. I was ten years into having started a church, and I was seeing that the changes I had made from a denomination to a charismatic church weren’t enough. There was more. I didn’t FIT in the denomination, nor could I wear Saul’s charismatic armor.
The book was entitled, “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins”.
The COLORFUL Spirit that I felt and embraced didn’t match with the BLACK-n-WHITE constraints of this instead of that, ours and not theirs, as well as believe and don’t question! However, I had questions! I had doubts about things that I was told I could not question. When something didn’t make sense, I had simply been told to JUST BELIEVE.
That’s like telling a Peacock to paint their feathers black and white.
On top of that my “nature” was to question and to embrace all sides of an issue and not just that which I’d grown up with and thought unquestionable. I received a college scholarship because of my debate skills in high school. I attribute my success in part because of my debate coach. In my first debate, I was told I’d be opening the debate on the AFFIRMATIVE. So, I prepared all of the reasons why the question would work.
An hour before I was to debate, the coach came in and said, SURPRISE! Ernest, I want you to take the NEGATIVE side! Say what!
I had an hour to do an about face and prepare just the opposite arguments, but what I realized, to my amazement, was that in preparing for one side, I had to look at the other side to anticipate what they might say. Any good attorney will tell you that you never ask a question of the person on the witness stand that you don’t know what their answer will be – or at least have a good idea.
Unfortunately, most fervent and religious people only know what they’ve been told and that’s all they want to know. They spend their life “defending the faith” regardless of how illogical the arguments may be. And, they have not a clue as to what the other religions believe because they don’t care, etc. In life generally the Mars male doesn’t want to know how the Venus female feels.
Mars rules. NOT!
The heterosexual doesn’t even want to be around the ********* homosexual, let alone communicate or try and understand the emotions that they’re feeling, being trapped in a body that doesn’t match their emotions. It’s easier to just quote a Scripture and tell them to get “right with God”. Scientifically and spiritually we are ALL RAINBOW people- Peacocks. We’ve just allowed the doctrine, dogma, and law to paint us with a BLACK-n-WHITE brush. Our way or the highway.
Let your LIGHT(s- all the colors)) SHINE!
Twelve years ago I read a small book that was far from the kind of reading that I’d normally read. I was ten years into having started a church, and I was seeing that the changes I had made from a denomination to a charismatic church weren’t enough. There was more. I didn’t FIT in the denomination, nor could I wear Saul’s charismatic armor.
The book was entitled, “A Peacock in the Land of Penguins”.
The COLORFUL Spirit that I felt and embraced didn’t match with the BLACK-n-WHITE constraints of this instead of that, ours and not theirs, as well as believe and don’t question! However, I had questions! I had doubts about things that I was told I could not question. When something didn’t make sense, I had simply been told to JUST BELIEVE.
That’s like telling a Peacock to paint their feathers black and white.
On top of that my “nature” was to question and to embrace all sides of an issue and not just that which I’d grown up with and thought unquestionable. I received a college scholarship because of my debate skills in high school. I attribute my success in part because of my debate coach. In my first debate, I was told I’d be opening the debate on the AFFIRMATIVE. So, I prepared all of the reasons why the question would work.
An hour before I was to debate, the coach came in and said, SURPRISE! Ernest, I want you to take the NEGATIVE side! Say what!
I had an hour to do an about face and prepare just the opposite arguments, but what I realized, to my amazement, was that in preparing for one side, I had to look at the other side to anticipate what they might say. Any good attorney will tell you that you never ask a question of the person on the witness stand that you don’t know what their answer will be – or at least have a good idea.
Unfortunately, most fervent and religious people only know what they’ve been told and that’s all they want to know. They spend their life “defending the faith” regardless of how illogical the arguments may be. And, they have not a clue as to what the other religions believe because they don’t care, etc. In life generally the Mars male doesn’t want to know how the Venus female feels.
Mars rules. NOT!
The heterosexual doesn’t even want to be around the ********* homosexual, let alone communicate or try and understand the emotions that they’re feeling, being trapped in a body that doesn’t match their emotions. It’s easier to just quote a Scripture and tell them to get “right with God”. Scientifically and spiritually we are ALL RAINBOW people- Peacocks. We’ve just allowed the doctrine, dogma, and law to paint us with a BLACK-n-WHITE brush. Our way or the highway.
Let your LIGHT(s- all the colors)) SHINE!
