學習障礙兒童線上閱讀歷程：來自眼球移動的證據

Reading Patterns of Learning Disability Children During Text Reading: Evidence From Eye Movements

本研究以眼動儀記錄國小三至六年級經鑑定之學習障礙兒童在閱讀不同文體時，詞彙之特徵對他們眼動型態的影響。研究結果顯示，不論是第一次連續凝視時間（first gaze）、重新回視的總時間（rereading gaze）或總閱讀時間（total reading time），其眼動型態都受詞頻效果的影響，與Chen 和Ko（2011）所研究的一般兒童讀者的眼動型態相似。但是，若和一般兒童閱讀篇章之眼動資料比較，本研究也發現，學習障礙學童閱讀篇章時的眼動行為，並未隨著年級漸增而有逐漸成熟的發展曲線。整體而言，文體和詞彙特徵對學習障礙兒童的閱讀雖有影響，但他們的閱讀時間比一般兒童要來得長，且停留在國小三至四年級的閱讀型態。研究者根據此結果進行討論，並針對未來教學與研究提出建議。

Chen and Ko (2011) found that older students treat word units as the primary reading unit, regardless of whether they read words at a high or low frequency. Younger students, such as second grade students, do not treat words as primary processing units when they encounter low-frequency words. Rather, they read according to characters. These findings suggest that a word-based processes strategy is adopted by Chinese children; however, when presented a word with low word frequency, younger Chinese children tend to read systematically according to character. This raises the question of whether Chinese learning disability (LD) children adopt words as reading units when they read text. Young children with reading difficulties may exhibit weak word-level processing skills rather than comprehension deficits alone. In this study, we investigated and compared the eye movement patterns of LD and non-LD children while reading text. Methods: One hundred LD students (from third to sixth grade) participated in the study. All were native speakers of Mandarin and had either normal or corrected vision. The participants in this research were referred from the pool of students with learning disabilities maintained by the bureau of education of a local county government. The participants’ eye movements were recorded using an SR Eyelink 1000 eye-tracking system at the rate of 1,000 Hz. The participants were tested individually in two sessions. In the first session, the participants were administered tests to assess their reading fluency. In the second session, the participants were asked to carefully read four passages and were told that they would have to answer comprehension questions after finishing each reading. Because the materials used in this study were identical to those used in by Chen and Ko (2011), we were able to compare the eye movement patterns of the LD and non-LD readers. Findings: We focused on the ways LD students differed from non-LD students in first pass of processing and subsequent processing. In general, both the LD and non-LD elementary school children exhibited the effects of word frequency. However, the LD students required a longer fixation duration than the non-LD students did, both during the first pass and at subsequent processing stages. One phenomenon worth noting is that no difference was found among LD students in different grades. However, the non-LD students showed a significant difference between the fifth and sixth grades. The non-LD 6th students fixated on LF words significantly shorter than did those of fifth grade students during both the first pass and subsequent processing. Conclusion/Implications: Overall, the data in this study showed that the word-frequency effect appeared while the LD students read during the first pass and in subsequent processing. This suggests that LD students process texts according to word even when they have relatively slow word-decoding skills. Based on the pattern of data, it appears that the reading ability of the LD students in this study did not change as they grew older. This implies that when LD students have reading difficulties, their difficulties continue as they matriculate grades. Could specially designed readings make a difference? This will be an important topic in educational settings and will require more study before a stronger instructional program can be designed.