EALTA in Voss (June 2005)

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EALTA in Voss (June 2005)

• A theory of the reading process tested in a large
  scale study
• The DESI-project
• Heiner Willenberg
• (University of Hamburg)

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What is DESI?

• A follow-up study of PISA in Germany
• Initiative and funding The permanent conferences
  of the ministers of education
• Round about 11,000 pupils (9th class) have been
  tested in September 2003 and summer 2004.
• German and English Mothertongue (L1) / First
  foreign language
• Deutsch EnglischSchülerleistungen
  International

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DESI-German
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DESI-Reading

• Two points of testing / 41 Tasks
• Four literary texts (prosa, one poem)
• Four documents (popular science)
• Added four tasks which require comparisons of
  two textstems
• Three types of tasks
• Multiple Choice
• Open tasks
• Halfopen Underlining, marking

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Three main discussion topics

• 1. A national reading test for the mother-tongue
  (or L1) can / should be based on a different
  theoretical background compared to a world-wide
  test.
• 2. The reading levels prove parts of the
  theoretical rationale and show problems.
• 3. Mother-tongue testing goes beyond
  foreign-language testing and requires a clear
  extension of the underlying framework.

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1a) Reading theory Comparison between DESI and
PISA
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1 b) Reading theory Scientific positions

• In the core The reading process becomes more
  difficult when the quantity of text which must be
  digested is growing. Quantity in time and text
  leads to more complex demands for readers.
• Dominating trend of psycholinguistics
  Speech-reception and sprech-production, cf.
  Hogrefe encylopaedias from 1999 and 2003
• Work of Walter Kintsch and coworkers (esp.
  1998/99)
• Comparable with Kirsch et al. Adult Literacy in
  OECD Countries (1998).
• These models are valid as well for individuals as
  for large- scale testing.

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1c) Theory of the reading process

• In the DESI-test
• 1. Decoding of words / Identifiying of text
  information
• 2. Making inferences between sentences
• 3. Maybe focussing on a problem (awareness of a
  problem) (one point in the text)

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1 c) Theory of the reading process

• 4. Parts of the text-structure Activating of
  existing knowledge / learned knowledge. Syllabus
  of 9th graders Metaphors, irony, funny traits,
  perspectives, evaluations
• 5. Several paragraphs Combining / Global
  inferences of divergent paragraphs. Mostly
  motives of figures, hidden traits
• 6. The whole text or essential parts Forming a
  mental model (subjective / objective)
• Figures, time, space, motives, causalities
• Possible by comparing texts or analysing
  condense quotations

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Example of a text Grandmother

• Grandmothers eyes grumbled machten Mucken /
  familiar. And she didnt see any longer the
  little dust spots on her sunday-blouse and the
  eyes of the sewing needles. We children threaded
  her files for sewing and mending. Should I get
  some glasses for me?
• For chatting you dont need any glasses, said
  grandfather.
• One day she spiced the soup of swedes with that
  gunpowder, grandfather kept in the kitchen
  cupboard - instead of pepper. Grandfather spit
  and the pieces of the swedes-soup flied around in
  the kitchen. This woman is poisoning me! The
  soup-terrine went out off the window.
• A pair of glasses should be bought for
  grandmother urgently. Grandfather at first gave
  her old ones of himself. This glasses didnt fit
  for grandmothers eyes. I feel dizzy, she told.
  
• Of course, of course, said grandfather, with
  the glasses you do see the whole swindel/
  dizzyness Schwindel bigger, said grandpa.
• Grandmother was offended and went to the district
  town by bus, where she visited an uncle. There
  she remained for one week.

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Grandmother

• Grandmother came back with some spectacles. Big
  round glasses in a nickel-plated frame, left and
  right of grandmothers pointed nose. Grandmother
  looked like a little barn owl and then she made a
  round-tour through the village. She visited her
  chatting mates Klatsch-Kumpankas, familiar and
  looked at them through her spectacles My God,
  Bertka, how old did you get in the time I wasnt
  here!
• Grandmother came back from her round and was
  completey dissatisfied How old theyve become
  when I wasnt here. And I myself young and quite
  chirpy and cheerfull. Its almost a shame. She
  looked at herself in the mirror and became quiet,
  she looked from the side and became even quieter.
• Amen said grandfather. Then she took off the
  glasses and used it only when sewing the socks
  and when cooking a meal.
• Erwin Strittmatter (1985)

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Questions and solutions

• Footnote 1 Mucken means grumbling in a
  figurative sense /familiar
• 2 Klatschkumpankas Kumpan ka means
  gossiping-mates
• 1st Level Where do you find a first mention of
  problems with grandmas eyes?
• 2nd Level Inferences Why does grandmother
  think, that Bertka has grown old during her
  absence?
• 3rd Level Focussing cannot be shown here.
• 4th Level Knowledge about text-structuresIn
  this story there are some funny parts or remarks.
  Do underline them!
• 5th Level Connecting two parts of the text
  The narrator tells that grandmother uses her
  spectacles at the end only when she is preparing
  the meals. Why?

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Questions and solutions

• 6th Level Building a mental model Grandfather
  tells With the glasses you do see the whole
  swindel/ dizzyness Schwindel bigger. What does
  he mean with this remark?
• 6th Level Building a mental model
• Second type Questions which require a
  comparison of two stories, mainly concerning
  actions and motives
• In this task you should compare both stories
  about grandmother and grandfather. Which
  assertion is correct?
• Grandmother shows emotions like jealousy or
  vanity in both stories ?
• Right
• False

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2 a) Results Levels
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2b) Levels

• 1. Identification of words and information.
• 2. Local Reading
• Inferences
• Focussing consciousness of problems or
  difficult points in text
• 3. Connections
• Activation if general knowledge
• Activation of knowledge about text structures
• Connecting divergent paragraphs mostly for
  understanding motives or causality
• 4. Mental models
• Bring together figures (characters), time, space,
  central motive, causality

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2d) Quantity of text per level 1 italic / 2
blue / 4 bold / 5 green / 6 red

• Grandmothers eyes grumbled machten Mucken /
  familiar. And she didnt see any longer the
  little dust spots on her sunday-blouse and the
  eyes of the sewing needles. We children threaded
  her files for sewing and mending. Should I get
  some glasses for me?
• For chatting you dont need any glasses, said
  grandfather.
• One day she spiced the soup of swedes with that
  gunpowder, grandfather kept in the kitchen
  cupboard - instead of pepper. Grandfather spit
  and the pieces of the swedes-soup flied around in
  the kitchen. This woman is poisoning me! The
  soup-terrine went out off the window.
• A pair of glasses should be bought for
  grandmother urgently. Grandfather at first gave
  her old ones of himself. This glasses didnt fit
  for grandmothers eyes. I feel dizzy, she told.
• Of course, of course, said grandfather, with
  the glasses you do see the whole swindel/
  dizzyness Schwindel bigger, said grandfather.
• Grandmother was offended and went to the district
  town by bus, where she visited an uncle. There
  she remained for one week.

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2d) Quantity of text per level 1 italic / 2
blue / 4 bold / 5 green / 6 red

• Grandmother came back with some spectacles. Big
  round glasses in a nickel-plated frame, left and
  right of grandmothers pointed nose. Grandmother
  looked like a little barn owl and then she made a
  round-tour through the village. She visited her
  chatting mates Klatsch-Kumpankas, familiar and
  looked at them through her spectacles My God,
  Bertka, how old did you get in the time I wasnt
  here!
• Grandmother came back from her round and was
  completey dissatisfied How old theyve become
  when I wasnt here. And I myself young and quite
  chirpy and cheerfull. Its almost a shame. She
  looked at herself in the mirror and became quiet,
  she looked from the side and became even quieter.
• Amen grandfather said. Then she took off the
  glasses and used it only when sewing the socks
  and when cooking a meal.
• Erwin Strittmatter (1985)

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2 e) Comparison between DESI and PISA 2003
Quantity of text

• PISA 2003 /2004
• 1. Short part of a text
• 2. Part of a text
• 3. Several sentences or parts of a text
• 4. Several paragraphs
• 5. Textstems oder segments of text

• DESI PD 2004
• 1. Word
• 2. Inferences between sentences
• 3. One difficult point in a text
• 4. Several aspects of text- structure
• 5. Combining paragraphs
• 6. The whole text or several texts.

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Reading theory II Difficulties of the text

• 1. Syntax Do the sentences fit into a window of
  3 seconds if the text is read aloud
• 2. Syntax Junctions in the sentences temporal,
  causal and text-steering
• 3. Vocabulary Levels Basics (1-2000), concrete,
  abstract, specialist terminology.
• 4. Text-structure Coherence in text Genuine key
  words.
• 5 Text-structure Literary traits Metaphors,
  perspective, changes of perspectives, levels of
  time, indirect speech etc.
• 6. Style Elementes of vividness Persons,
  actions, emotions (in documents).

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Difficulties of the texts

• SYNTAX Window of three seconds for the
  subject-predicate-group
• Amen grandfather said. /
• Then she took off the glasses /
• and used it only when sewing the socks and when
  cooking a meal /3/
• SYNTAX Junctions None
• VOCABULARY Mostly basics and concrete words,
  some rare concretes Of course, of course, said
  grandfather, with the glasses you do see the
  whole swindel/ dizzyness Schwindel bigger,
  said grandfather. Grandmother was offended and
  went to the district town by bus, where she
  visited an uncle. There she remained for one
  week.

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Difficulties of the texts

• TEXTSTRUCTURE Key words
• Here generally Grandfather and grandmother
• TEXTSTRUCTURE Literary aspects Funny traits
• One day she spiced the soup of swedes with that
  gunpowder, grandfather kept in the kitchen
  cupboard - instead of pepper. Grandfather spit
  and the pieces of the swedes-soup flied around in
  the kitchen. This woman is poisoning me! The
  soup-terrine went out off the window.
• Textstructure Funny traits Exaggeration, break
  of expectation
• Texts have different difficulties in the five
  categories
• But these difficulties nearly dont correlate
  with the results / achievements

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3 DESI and the CEFR?

• Main areas of testing levels in DESI
• First foreign language
• Localisation of information (1)
• Activation and understanding of vocabulary (1)
• Local inferences (2) /
• (Understandig of the topic corrsponding to the
  syllabus (4))
• (Rare global inferences (5))
• Mothertongue main points of proficiency
• Knowledge about text structures (4)
• Global inferences / Connections (5) Motives
• Mental models (6) complete interpretations,
  comparisons

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4a) Consequences for didactics

• Collection of texts and tasks can be installed
• A databank for testing in mothertongue -
  education
• Lessons can be analyzed by transcriptions and
  videos

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4b) Didactics and the parallel track(Nebenspur)

• a) All possibilities for understanding a text
  must remain in the centre Empathy, poetical
  means, emotions, horizon of one owns
  understanding (Hermeneutik)
• b) Empirical evaluation should be in the parallel
  track, as an admixture
• Observations
• Different types of tasks and their inherent
  activation-power
• A theory of partial competencies
• Theory and practice of reading strategies, used
  by the pupils on their own

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4c) Conclusio didactica

• May we smoke when praying? No
• May we pray when smoking? Yes, of course
• Let us integrate diagnosis sometimes into the
  lessons!

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1 e) Theoretical comparison to Kintsch