This study examined the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical approaches and the Kindergarten learners’ reading performance in selected schools in the Division of Cagayan de Oro. It assessed five approaches: context support, ICT integration, language experience, phonemic awareness, and the whole-word approach. It also evaluated learners’ performance in comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary. Using a descriptive-correlational research design, the study involved 115 Kindergarten teachers and 230 learners. Data were gathered through a modified questionnaire and standardized test, then analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient. The findings revealed that teachers demonstrated a very high level of pedagogical approaches, with the whole-word approach rated highest and language experience lowest. Meanwhile, learners achieved satisfactory reading performance, with comprehension as their strongest area and vocabulary as their weakest. However, no significant relationship was found between teachers’ pedagogical approaches and learners’ reading performance. The study concluded that teachers were well-equipped to facilitate reading instruction through various strategies. It recommended providing more opportunities for learners to connect reading and writing activities with their personal experiences, interests, and real-life situations. Teachers were also encouraged to explore alternative instructional practices that address learners’ specific reading needs and improve their overall reading performance.
Language shapes the organization of semantic memory and influences how individuals retrieve and combine concepts. The present study examined how language experience relates to associative thinking using Forward Flow, a metric that captures how far a thought sequence diverges semantically from an initial concept. Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals completed a free association task in each of their respective languages. Greater vocabulary and language dominance predicted higher Forward Flow, indicating more semantically distant thought sequences. Among bilinguals, Forward Flow was higher in the dominant language than in the non-dominant language, suggesting that the conceptual associations bilinguals make depend on the language of retrieval. The associations participants generated were also influenced by idiosyncratic features of the languages they spoke, such as compounding, semantic ambiguity, and phonology. Our findings suggest that individual language experience and language-specific properties are linked to associative thinking, highlighting the role of language in the conceptual associations people make.
زبان ساختار حافظه معنایی را شکل می‌دهد و بر نحوه بازیابی و ترکیب مفاهیم توسط افراد تأثیر می‌گذارد. پژوهش حاضر به بررسی رابطه تجربه زبانی با تفکر تداعی‌گرایانه با استفاده از شاخص جریان پیش‌رونده (Forward Flow) می‌پردازد؛ معیاری که میزان فاصله معنایی توالی اندیشه‌ها از یک مفهوم اولیه را اندازه‌گیری می‌کند. دوزبانه‌های اسپانیایی-انگلیسی و تک‌زبانه‌های انگلیسی یک تکلیف تداعی آزاد را به زبان‌های مربوطه خود انجام دادند. واژگان گسترده‌تر و تسلط زبانی بیشتر، جریان پیش‌رونده بالاتری را پیش‌بینی کرد که نشان‌دهنده توالی اندیشه‌هایی با فاصله معنایی بیشتر است. در میان دوزبانه‌ها، جریان پیش‌رونده در زبان غالب بالاتر از زبان غیرغالب بود که نشان می‌دهد تداعی‌های مفهومی دوزبانه‌ها به زبان بازیابی بستگی دارد. تداعی‌هایی که شرکت‌کنندگان تولید کردند همچنین تحت تأثیر ویژگی‌های خاص زبان‌هایی که صحبت می‌کردند، مانند ترکیب‌سازی، ابهام معنایی و آواشناسی قرار داشت. یافته‌های ما نشان می‌دهد که تجربه زبانی فردی و ویژگی‌های خاص زبان با تفکر تداعی‌گرایانه مرتبط است و نقش زبان را در تداعی‌های مفهومی افراد برجسته می‌کند.
