most commonly studied executive functions are inhibition of dominant responses, planning and monitoring, and shifting. Executive functions facilitate decision making (intention), information selection and storing (representation) and logical organization and planning. They fundamentally filter irrelevant information (interference suppression) and inhibit dominant or inappropriate responses (inhibition) that hamper child competence. Executive functions change with age, are decisive as regards social and academic achievement and have different expressions according to typical or atypical development, i.e. deficit in some aspects conditions the existence of certain disorders.
But it is not just nature that gives rise to cognitive development. Social interaction transcends and models the individual neurobiological functioning; i.e.
cognitive development is both individual and social. In this sense, this study is concerned with reading which constitutes basically a social and communicative practice that involves the development of cognitive as well as discursive abilities to achieve specific goals.
The development of reading is associated, on the one hand, to environmental factors such as exposure and context, and to the development of positive attitude and motivation. Children from poor socio-economic contexts, for instance, usually have a lower and more limited performance in reading than other kids (Wigfield and Asher 2002).
On the other hand, different processes are involved in the acquisition of the reading comprehension skill: processes of lexical access, related to more or less mechanic decoding of a text (identification of letters, syllable construction, decoding of words, syntactic processing); and comprehension processes that imply high level operations (integration of propositions in schemes, inferences, use of goals in reading). The literature shows evidence that these processes depend on basic cognitive capacities such as memory and attention. It seems relevant, then, to design a longitudinal study for the correct diagnosis of reading abilities that takes care of both cognitive and social aspects of development and that evaluates the changes that may occur parallel to the acquisition of reading in children with normal reading development and in those with difficulties.
The study
The hypotheses on which the study is based are:
different cognitive demands that reading in L1 and L2 may involve (Ardila 1998;
Matute and Leal 2003).
The objectives are:
?To describe the development of executive functions in children and their relation with the acquisition of reading in Spanish and English
?To explore the existence of differential relations in the development of executive functions and the acquisition of reading according to socio- economic level and cognitive demand
The influence of cognitive development on learning in pre-school and school children has been documented (Feinstein and Bynner 2004; Mellier and Fessard 1998; Sommerfelt et al, 2000). For example, a study by Etchepareborda and Abad- Mas (2005) shows that when cognitive development is affected, the dysfunction caused will influence many formal academic learning processes, such as attention, inhibition of irrelevant stimulus, recognition of patterns, recognition of hierarchies, formulation of intentions, recognition and selection of goals, setting of plans, analysis of activities and difficulties for the execution of a plan, etc.
Cognitive development starts at the sixth month of gestation and involves the development of functions such as attention, perception, memory, imitation, logical thinking and executive functions (Goswami 1998; Mehler and Dupoux 1992) as well as of diverse knowledge domains: numerical, linguistic, physical, biological and psychological. However, many cognitive abilities are developed slowly and do not reach their ultimate possibilities until adulthood (De Luca et al.
2003; Diamond 2002; Luciana and Nelson 2002; Luciana et al 2005; Luna et al 2004; Lyons-Warren, Lillie, and Hershey, 2004; Munoz et al 1998; Zelazo, Craik, and Booth 2004). Cognitive development is functionally possible through preformed competencies, such as logic (protologic), executive functions and social interaction.
Present research studies on cognitive development pay great attention to the role of executive functions. They are basically defined as a construct that refers to self-regulating central abilities that orchestrate basic or domain-specific processes, with the aim of achieving a goal (Elliott 2003). They play a role in controlling, supervising and self regulating cognitive and emotional activity. The
The test is a standardized, individually administered test of accuracy and fluency with connected text. Student performance is measured by having students read a passage aloud for one minute. The number of correct words per minute from the passage is the oral reading fluency rate.
The DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) measure is a standardized, individually administered test of the alphabetic principle - including letter-sound correspondence and of the ability to blend letters into words in which letters represent their most common sounds. In 1 year of School 2 higher levels of st
performance can be found in the Nonsense Word Fluency test, although students in School 1 are the ones in contact with English since kindergarten. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that this is due to a higher level of proficiency in English since the ability in question can be attributed to other processes that relate to reading development in Spanish.
In all the tests administered in English, students at School 1 show better performance in 3rd. year than students at School 2. These significant differences can be observed only in English, i.e. the results of reading comprehension in Spanish tests do not show higher levels of performance. Apparently then, a higher cognitive demand on students, understood as more hours of exposure to the L2, does not correlate with a better development of reading comprehension skills in L1. On the contrary, students in School 2 did slightly better than the ones in School 1 in reading comprehension in Spanish. It is worth considering that these are only preliminary findings and assumptions. In years to come, it will be possible to arrive at more conclusive results.
The relation between reading and executive functions is controversial. The analysis of cognitive variables associated to reading abilities allows us to improve our understanding not only of factors related to successful reading but also of those related to learning problems. However, in the Spanish speaking world, there are not enough studies that evaluate the basic cognitive processes of school children (Rosselli et al 2001). The results of the present project are expected to be valuable for the Argentine school system, especially to optimize the teaching of early reading.
References - there is a relationship between the level of development of the executive
functions and the level of competence in the reading skill in Spanish and
Ardila, A. (1998): 'Semantic Paralexias in Spanish Language.' Aphasiology 12: 885-900.
traditional teaching/learning environment. For example, it is possible to notice a move from whole-class to single-group instruction, from passive to more actively involved students, from verbal learning to a mix of verbal and visual thinking, from lecture to coaching, from work concentrated on better students to work with weaker ones, from a class where all students learn the same things to one where students learn different things at a different pace. These changes will be the result of an effective integration of technology and will lead to changes in teaching behaviour.
The lesson plan and its implementation described here aim at showing the application of a content and language integrated learning lesson plus the use of technology and the Internet. CLIL is an “educational approach in which non- language subjects are taught through a foreign, second or other additional language. (Marsh 1994). Marsh explains that CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through foreign language with dual- focused aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language. (Marsh 1994). The proposal is to use culture as subject matter content for teaching English with the aim of assisting students in increasing their cultural knowledge while developing language skills. (Dueñas). The intention is to facilitate the learning of the language by focusing on the acquisition of knowledge about real life and cultural matters rather than the language as such. By integrating language and subject matter learning, students have the opportunity “of participating more and using the target language with less pressure, acquiring self- confidence. The cultural information is what, according to Ballman (1977),
“derives the linguistic, structural, lexical, cognitive and affective needs of the learners”. The lesson plan combines elements of content, communication, cognition and culture, where all four language skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing are fully combined.
The project is based on a film which offers possibilities for development in the culture, language, content and learning dimensions. Most of the activities are designed and implemented using educational technology, among other things to enhance motivation, to allow students to use technology creatively and imaginatively and to give them decision-making opportunities. Mahnaz (2000) considers that the use of computer technology in schools offers a different way of learning. Duffy and Jonassen (1992) suggest that students learn with particular