Papers by Martin Nystrand
Using Readability Research to
Question-answer (Q&A) is fundamental for dialogic instruction, an important pedagogical technique... more Question-answer (Q&A) is fundamental for dialogic instruction, an important pedagogical technique based on the free exchange of ideas and open-ended discussion. Automatically detecting Q&A is key to providing teachers with feedback on appropriate use of dialogic instructional strategies. In line with this, this paper studies the possibility of automatically detecting segments of Q&A in live classrooms based solely on audio recordings of teacher speech. The proposed approach has two steps. First, teacher utterances were automatically detected from the audio stream via an amplitude envelope thresholding-based approach. Second, supervised classifiers were trained on speech-silence patterns derived from the teacher utterances. The best models were able to detect Q&A segments in windows of 90 seconds with an AUC (Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve) of 0.78 in a manner that generalizes to new classes. Implications of the findings for automatic coding of classroom disco...
Ability grouping appears to be a rational means of organizing a student body with diverse academi... more Ability grouping appears to be a rational means of organizing a student body with diverse academic skills. Many observers contend, however, that when students are grouped according to their purported capacities for learning, high-achieving students receive better instruction and increase their achievement advantage over students in other groups. This paper examines the kinds of instruction students receive in honors, regular, and remedial eighthand ninth-grade English classes. It also assesses the links between instruction and achievement. The authors find that rates of student participation and discussion are higher in honors classes, contributing to the learning gaps between groups. Another finding is that rates of open-ended questions are similar across classes, but that honors students benefit more from such discourse because it more often occurs in the context of sustained study of literature. Beyond Technical Rationality: Ability-Group Differences in the Distribution and Effec...
It has previously been shown that the effective use of dialogic instruction has a positive impact... more It has previously been shown that the effective use of dialogic instruction has a positive impact on student achievement. In this study, we investigate whether linguistic features used to classify properties of classroom discourse generalize across different subpopulations. Results showed that the machine learned models perform equally well when trained and validated on different subpopulations. Correlation-Based Feature Subset evaluation revealed an inclusion relationship between different subsets in terms of their most predictive features.
Educational Researcher, 2018
Analyzing the quality of classroom talk is central to educational research and improvement effort... more Analyzing the quality of classroom talk is central to educational research and improvement efforts. In particular, the presence of authentic teacher questions, where answers are not predetermined by the teacher, helps constitute and serves as a marker of productive classroom discourse. Further, authentic questions can be cultivated to improve teaching effectiveness and consequently student achievement. Unfortunately, current methods to measure question authenticity do not scale because they rely on human observations or coding of teacher discourse. To address this challenge, we set out to use automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning to train computers to detect authentic questions in real-world classrooms automatically. Our methods were iteratively refined using classroom audio and human-coded observational data from two sources: (a) a large archival database of text transcripts of 451 observations from 112 classrooms; and (b) a newly collected...
A Study of Automatic Speech Recognition in Noisy Classroom Environments for Automated Dialog Analysis
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2015
The development of large-scale automatic classroom dialog analysis systems requires accurate spee... more The development of large-scale automatic classroom dialog analysis systems requires accurate speech-to-text translation. A variety of automatic speech recognition (ASR) engines were evaluated for this purpose. Recordings of teachers in noisy classrooms were used for testing. In comparing ASR results, Google Speech and Bing Speech were more accurate with word accuracy scores of 0.56 for Google and 0.52 for Bing compared to 0.41 for AT&T Watson, 0.08 for Microsoft, 0.14 for Sphinx with the HUB4 model, and 0.00 for Sphinx with the WSJ model. Further analysis revealed both Google and Bing engines were largely unaffected by speakers, speech class sessions, and speech characteristics. Bing results were validated across speakers in a laboratory study, and a method of improving Bing results is presented. Results provide a useful understanding of the capabilities of contemporary ASR engines in noisy classroom environments. Results also highlight a list of issues to be aware of when selecting an ASR engine for difficult speech recognition tasks.
Distinguishing formative and receptive contexts in the disciplinary formation of composition studies: A response to Mailloux
Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2001
In his essay “Disciplinary Identities: On the Rhetorical Paths between English and Communication ... more In his essay “Disciplinary Identities: On the Rhetorical Paths between English and Communication Studies,”; Steven Mailloux notes that “many compositionists in the seventies and eighties did not find it necessary to claim to be a scientific discipline “(16). I respond to this claim by focusing on the new discourse about writing that emerged in the 1970s in work by Emig,
International Journal of Educational Research, 1994
uses data from 58 eighth-grade English classes in the midwestern Umted States to study between-tr... more uses data from 58 eighth-grade English classes in the midwestern Umted States to study between-track differences in literature achtevement. The main purpose of this chapter is to learn whether achievement gaps between tracks can be attributed to variation in the quality of instruction. Indicators of instructional quahty included a composite measure of the quality of instructtonal discourse, and survey and observational measures of student participation m schoolwork. The analyses, usmg a hierarchical hnear modeling approach. yielded three main results' (1) Achievement differences between tracked and untracked schools were not statistically significant. (2) Within the tracked schools, high-track students scored considerably higher, and low-track students lower, than then counterparts in middle or "regular" classes. (3) About a quarter of the high-track advantage and over a third of the low-track disadvantage could be attributed to dtfferences in the quality of instruction and participation in the different types of classes.
Lesson Plans for the Open Classroom
The English Journal, 1974
EJ Workshop: Can Creativity Be Taught?
The English Journal, 1974
A Future Shocked Language?
The English Journal, 1973
Dewey, Dixon, and the Future of Creativity
The English Journal, 1970
The English Journal, 1993
Research has shown that in the small group setting, students develop well articulated understandi... more Research has shown that in the small group setting, students develop well articulated understandings and better recall of their readings. One study, however, showed negative results in terms of recall, understanding, and personal response for small group work in eighth-grade literature classes. Those findings led to follow-up research on the ninth-grade level. In an examination of 54 ninth-grade English classes, small group activities occurred in only 29 of 216 classes observed, for an average of only 15 minutes at a time. As in the eighth-grade study, the ninth-grade research showed that overall, small group work actually led to lower student achievement. However, regression analysis demonstrated that in the group setting, the greater the degree of student autonomy, the greater was the production of knowledge and the greater the likelihood that group time would contribute to achievement. The apparent ineffectiveness f small group work overall suggests, therefore, that groups are sometimes used ineffectively. When small group time allows students to interact over a problem, they benefit. For group work to succeed, teachers must carefully design collaborative tasks that are interesting to students, and not just to the teacher. (One figure is included; 26 references are attachee.) (SG)
On Writing and Rhetoric in Everyday Life
Written Communication, 2001
The Elementary School Journal, 2001
As teaching argumentative and persuasive writing returns to the classroom, so does the question o... more As teaching argumentative and persuasive writing returns to the classroom, so does the question of how to do so effectively. Process writing reforms over the past thirty years have sought to change the ways writing is taught from drill and practice in grammar exercises to a focus more on continuous writing and revision. Arguing from an ecological perspective on writing development, however, we show that such changes may not be enough. Based on a 9-week observation of a middle-school language arts-social studies block class, we claim that competing demands in modern classrooms can lead to environments that sabotage the teaching of argument. The students in this class, in a unit that included writing an argumentative research paper, wrote "hybrid" textsargumentative theses followed but not always supported by lists of facts. In trying to explain these texts, we realized that the epistemology fostered by classroom talk and other activities was inimical to the complex rhetoric the teacher was trying to develop in encouraging students to write arguments. Abundant research on children's writing development over the last 30 years has generated many new approaches to instruction we now know as "cutting edge" or "best practices" in the teaching of writing in elementary school. While often seminal, new approaches have been limited (see . First, they tend to focus on the writing of younger children, often having less to say about the writing of older children and young adolescents, that is, middle school or junior high school writers. In addition, they tend to treat writing as a distinct element in the curriculum, thereby missing the more general classroom context of language development, including reading instruction, language instruction, and classroom interaction more generally. This paper takes up the situation of older children writing argumentative essays and examines the value of a broad, discourse "ecology" view of these young writers' experience. More specifically, it examines the puzzling situation of an excellent teacher of writing who encountered unanticipated difficulties in helping her seventh-grade
Text properties are objective, text meaning is not
Contemporary Psychology: A Journal of Reviews, 1990
Discourse Processes, 2003
In the 1st-ever use of event-history analysis to investigate discourse processes quantitatively, ... more In the 1st-ever use of event-history analysis to investigate discourse processes quantitatively, this study recasts understanding of discourse in terms of the (a) antecedents and (b) consequences of discourse participant "moves" as they (c) affect the inertia of the discourse and accordingly structure unfolding discourse processes. The method is used to compute the probabilities of the effects of particular discourse moves on subsequent discourse patterns and to measure and systematically contrast static
Reply to Mr. Wilburn
Curriculum Inquiry, 1977
but also for the ways in which language and the individuals who use it are approached in the clas... more but also for the ways in which language and the individuals who use it are approached in the classroom." With this and several other oblique references to the classroom, one suspects that Nystrand has intended this anthology for teachers of language arts, although he never explicitly says so. His purpose in collecting this anthology may have been to encourage teachers to reconsider "the general efficacy of instruction in composition" or "the significance of informal talk in the classroom." On the other hand, his purpose may have been more general: "it is hoped that the reader will come to some understanding of the framework which is relevant to the everyday uses of language such as talk and some forms of writing." It is impossible to determine with assurance the purpose of this work, but one thing is clear: it could not be intended as a general introduction to linguistic thought. It is too nonrepresentative. The scope of the collection is a curious thing. Although he alludes to structure frequently, Nystrand does not elaborate on the Saussaurean leitmotif running through his collection: the focus on paradigms and on the distinction between la langue and la parole. Nor does he mention that many of his selections represent the General Semantic school of thought. In fact, he reveals very little about the intended linguistic context of the collection at all.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 1981
Gnys at wrk: A child learns to write and read is the story and case study of how the author's son... more Gnys at wrk: A child learns to write and read is the story and case study of how the author's son Paul learned to write and read, processes she observed over a span of six years (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11). This well-documented study is a first -a thorough and extensive case study of a child who "taught" himself to read and write (discussion of "taught" in a moment) before starting school. The book will be of great interest to educators and researchers in psychology and linguistics who are as curious about written language development and the process of learning to write as they are curious about initial language acquisition and learning to read. Bissex's study not only adds to a scant literature on early written language development (e.g., but also complements existing work on other facets of child language, including M. Clark's (1976) work on young fluent readers and extensive, well-established work on language acquisition (see Clark & Clark, 1977, Chs. 8, 9, & 10 for thorough review and bibliography). Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the study for researchers and educators is the fact that it is the first extensive case study in an area of applied psycholinguistics that, while not entirely new, has been largely neglected and is only now becoming a major area of inquiry both in psychology and linguistics -writing generally and learning to write specifically. I shall consequently limit this review to Bissex's treatment of writing and not treat reading despite her persuasive thesis that the two are best understood together. There is much about Bissex's study that is reminiscent of the interest in language acquisition that was so prominent in psycholinguistics in the early 1960s. Current interest in understanding how children learn to write is reflected in numerous recent and forthcoming studies, including Bartlett, in press; Britton, in press; Gundlach, in press a, b; Harste, Burke, & Woodward, in press; Martlew, in press; Scardamalia, in press; How did Paul learn to write? The story begins one pleasant, sunny day in Vermont: Five-year-old Paul was in the house. I was outside on the deck reading. After he had tried unsatisfactorily to talk with me, he decided to get my attention a new way -to break through print with print. Selecting the rubber letter stamps he needed from his set, Paul printed and delivered this message: RUDF (Are you deaf?!). Of course, I put down my book (p. 3). Paul is indeed precocious. He eagerly and incessantly makes signs, stories, little books, directions, lists and catalogs, newspapers, notes, and letters beginning at age 5; riddles and rhymes at 6; charts and organizers beginning at 7; a diary at 8; and secret codes at 9. In assaying these developments, Bissex traces and speculates on some very interesting developmental patterns: 1. Paul seems to show his first sense of the written language when, at age
A review of current theory and research related to writing ability leads to the conclusion that t... more A review of current theory and research related to writing ability leads to the conclusion that there is no existing test, instrument, or set of procedures which vill provide valid data regarding the,writing abilities of individuals. As an alternative approach, a textual cognition model of written communicative competence is proposed and elaborated. Arising out of the Trent Valley Project of the Ontario Institute for the Study of Education, the model is operationalieed through an extension of the cloze procedure from reading to writing. The underlying assumptions are,-, that written communicative compete,nce implies that a student's writing vill make sense for'an intended or relevant audience and that, in turn, the cloze procedure vill provide a valid measute of the extent to which the it;iting does make sense to that audience:,On the basis of preliminary investigations, a taxonomy of impediments to successful written communication is developed for problems at the graphic, syntactic, lexical, and contextual levels. Questions remaining to be answered about the textual cognition model and the agsociated cloze procedure are listed.
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Papers by Martin Nystrand