The role of two reading strategies in text comprehension: An eye fixation study in primary school children

This study examined whether 10–12‐year‐old children use two reading strategies to aid their text comprehension: (1) distinguishing between important and unimportant words; and (2) resolving anaphoric references. Of interest was the question to what extent use of these reading strategies was predictive of reading comprehension skill over and above decoding skill and vocabulary. Reading strategy use was examined by the recording of eye fixations on specific target words. In contrast to less successful comprehenders, more successful comprehenders invested more processing time in important than in unimportant words. On the other hand, they needed less time to determine the antecedent of an anaphor. The results suggest that more successful comprehenders build a more effective mental model of the text than less successful comprehenders in at least two ways. First, they allocate more attention to the incorporation of goal‐relevant than goal‐irrelevant information into the model. Second, they ascertain that the text model is coherent and richly connected.     

Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension‐fostering and Comprehension‐monitoring Activities with Ten Primary School Girls

Abstract This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a direct instruction procedure in which children are taught and practise activities to both foster and monitor their comprehension while reading. Three different class groups of low comprehenders, Standard 4, Form 1 and Form 2, were serially exposed to 21 days of 20‐25 minutes instruction in four study activities: summarising, questioning, clarifying and predicting. Instruction was by reciprocal teaching whereby the adult tutor and children took turns leading a dialogue centred around the important topics of the instructional text. The design of this study incorporated both with‐subjects multiple baseline and between‐subjects comparisons, the no treatment comparison groups being average and above average comprehending class peers. Daily comprehension assessment on a different text at the same difficulty level as that used for reciprocal teaching and pre and post intervention scores on a reading comprehension test served as the dependent measures for the study. Results show significant increases in accuracy on comprehension tests for all experimental groups upon introduction of the reciprocal teaching procedure. On completion of the intervention two of these groups scores matched those of the above average controls. Follow‐up probes eight weeks later showed that all groups had maintained their comprehension gains.     

Are poor Chinese text comprehenders also poor in written composition?

We studied the performance in three genres of Chinese written composition (narration, exposition, and argumentation) of 158 grade 4, 5, and 6 poor Chinese text comprehenders compared with 156 good Chinese text comprehenders. We examined text comprehension and written composition relationship. Verbal working memory (verbal span working memory and operation span working memory) and different levels of linguistic tasks—morphological sensitivity (morphological compounding and morphological chain), sentence processing (syntax construction and syntax integrity), and text comprehension (narrative and expository texts)—were used to predict separately narrative, expository, and argumentation written compositions in these students. Grade for grade, the good text comprehenders outperformed the poor text comprehenders in all tasks, except for morphological chain. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed differential contribution of the tasks to different genres of writing. In particular, text comprehension made unique contribution to argumentation writing in the poor text comprehenders. Future studies should ask students to read and write parallel passages in the same genre for better comparison and incorporate both instructional and motivational variables.     

Levels of Comprehension Monitoring and Working Memory in Good and Poor Comprehenders

This paper reports two studies that investigate differences in comprehension monitoring skills between good and poor comprehenders. Two groups of 9– to 10-year-olds, who were matched for reading vocabulary and word recognition skills but who differed in comprehension skill, were selected. In the first study, in which the children were required to find anomalous words and phrases, the skilled comprehenders engaged in more accurate monitoring of sentence level anomalies (but not word level anomalies) than did the poorer comprehenders. In the second study, the comprehension monitoring task required the children to detect pairs of sentences, in short texts, that were contradictory. In addition, the working memory demands of the task were varied by placing the two items of inconsistent information either in adjacent sentences, or in sentences that were separated in the text by several others. As in the first study, less-skilled comprehenders performed more poorly on the detection task, but the difference between the groups was considerably more pronounced when the sentences were separated than when they were adjacent. In addition, the children were given a numerical working memory test, and the poorer comprehenders performed more poorly on this test. However, although working memory performance was related to performance on some of the error detection tasks, comprehension ability was also a good, and sometimes better, predictor. The results are discussed in terms of the different cognitive abilities that might contribute to efficient comprehension monitoring.     

The origin of centrality deficit in text memory and comprehension by poor comprehenders: a think-aloud study

The present study employed a think-aloud method to explore the origin of a centrality deficit (i.e., poor recall of central ideas) found in poor comprehenders (PC). Moreover, utilizing the diverse think-aloud responses, we examined the overall quality of text processing employed by PC during reading, in order to shed more light on the cognitive underpinnings underlying their poor comprehension and memory after reading. To address these goals, adolescents with good and poor comprehension, matched on reading (decoding) skills, were asked to state aloud whatever comes to their mind during the reading of two expository texts. After reading, the participants freely recalled text ideas and answered multiple-choice questions on the texts. Results indicated that PC exhibited lower performance than good comprehenders (GC) on the recall and comprehension tasks. The think-aloud protocols indicated that PC generated fewer responses than GC that reflect high-level, deep text processing, and more responses that reflect low-level, surface text processing. Furthermore, compared to GC, PC reinstated fewer prior text ideas, with this reduction being significantly greater for central than for peripheral ideas. Finally, the proportions of deep processing responses in general were positively associated with participants’ performance on recall and comprehension tasks. These findings suggest that PC exhibit poor text comprehension and memory, particularly of central ideas, because they construct a low-quality, poorly-connected text representation during reading, and produce fewer, less-elaborated retrieval cues for subsequent text comprehension and memory. This explanation is further illuminated in the context of previous findings and theoretical accounts.

     

The Role of Text Memory in Inferencing and in Comprehension Deficits

Comprehension tests often compare accuracy on inferential versus literal questions and find inferential harder than literal, and poor comprehenders performing worse than controls. Difficulties in integration are assumed to be the reason. This research explores another reason—differences in memory for the passage information underlying the questions. Thirty-nine poor comprehenders and 39 controls were given multiple-paragraph passages, which they retold before answering questions. Retellings permitted assessing question accuracy as a function of memory for the text underlying each question. Inferential accuracy was poorer than literal, and the expected group effect was obtained. However, when text memory was perfect, group differences disappeared, indicating that poor comprehenders can generate inferences as well as controls, if they have the relevant information in memory. These findings show that text memory is crucial in distinguishing poor comprehension.     

A comprehension intervention for children with reading comprehension difficulties

Abstract

Many students in Australian schools today experience difficulty understanding read text beyond Year 3 despite early intervention and rich learning experiences. Often the first indications that such students may have reading comprehension difficulties is from poor performance on comprehension tests in fourth grade. After Year 3 the written text becomes more complex and there is an increasing emphasis on reading comprehension. Less skilled comprehenders experience difficulties because they often use inefficient memory strategies and do not normally visualise story content. Readers with comprehension difficulties can be taught to construct mental imagery that will enable them to link verbal and imaginal information more efficiently into their working memory by reducing the cognitive load. The indications are that engaging readers in elaborative questioning and discussion of the text improves reader's own language and mental imagery as well as enhancing comprehension of read text. For readers who have struggled for years and have developed a resistance to reading, a literacy tutoring intervention framework that focuses on a personalised responsive relationship‐based approach to reading, combined with interesting text and student choice of appropriate material, can facilitate improved reading. The Comprehension of the Narrative intervention program is an example of a multiple strategy training intervention program that utilises explicit strategy instruction in a framework of measured stages while also increasing the level and complexity of the reading texts used. It has been shown that participating students are enabled to build on previously mastered skills and develop more effective higher order comprehension outcomes through focused dialogue with trained tutors.     

Can imagery training help children who have comprehension problems?

An experiment is reported that explored whether training in mental imagery would improve text comprehension in 9-year-old children. Two groups of children were compared: good and poor comprehenders. The groups were matched on a test of vocabulary and decoding, but differed on a comprehension test. The results showed that a three-session programme of training in imagery benefited the poor, but not the good, comprehenders, by comparison with a control group who merely answered questions about the same passages. The results are discussed in relation to possible causes of children's comprehension difficulties.     

Does weak reading comprehension reflect an integration deficit?

Seven‐ and eight‐year‐old skilled and less‐skilled comprehenders were compared on a sentence recognition task in two conditions varying in memory load and retention interval. Integration of story information during comprehension was indexed by inflated recognition errors of foils that had been constructed by integrating information across original story sentences. Skilled comprehenders exhibited more accurate memory for sentences than less‐skilled comprehenders. However, the groups did not differ in the degree to which they integrated information with minimal memory demand, or in their tendency to integrate information and retain the integrated representations with increased memory demand. These results were interpreted as evidence that integration deficits do not lie at the root of reading comprehension difficulties in mainstream children.     

Children's difficulties in reading comprehension

This paper outlines a number of studies that have investigated the difficulties experienced by children who have a specific comprehension problem: Those who have adequate word recognition skills but who, nevertheless, have difficulty understanding text. In the studies I will discuss, the performance of a group of skilled comprehenders was compared with that of a less-skilled group. The first set of studies show that the poor comprehenders have difficulty in integrating information in a text and in making inferences. A further set of studies suggests that, although such children do not have any straightforward short-term memory problem, they may have difficulty in holding and manipulating information in working memory as they are reading. A final study shows that the comprehension of the less-skilled children can be improved by a series of short training sessions that stress making inferences and integrating information in text. This finding suggests that a working-memory deficit may only be one aspect of the less-skilled comprehenders' problem.     

The Effect of Inference Training on Skilled and Less Skilled Comprehenders

This paper assess the impact of introducing inference training to skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Children aged between 6 years 6 months and 9 years 11 months, classified as skilled or less skilled comprehenders, were instructed on how to make inferences from and generate questions about a text over a period of six sessions. Comparison groups of skilled and less skilled comprehenders were trained in standard comprehension strategies. The less skilled group showed a significantly greater improvement than the skilled group, regardless of the training given, but inference training was significantly more effective than standard comprehension strategies in the less skilled group. Seven out of ten less skilled readers who were inference trained increased their performance sufficiently to become classified as skilled comprehenders, whilst four out of ten less skilled comprehenders taught standard comprehension strategies improved to the same level. It is concluded that the value of explicitly teaching children inferential skills is that the enjoyment of the task of reading is enhanced and is therefore more likely to be undertaken readily, even by pupils who may have initially found reading difficult.     

Language Impairment in Less Skilled Comprehenders: The On-Line Processing of Anaphoric Pronouns in a Listening Situation

The purpose of this experiment, conducted with second-grade children (mean age: 7;8), was to examine the hypothesis that less skilled comprehenders in a reading situation suffer an impairment in spoken language comprehension and, more specifically, in the on-line processing of anaphoric pronouns. Skilled and less skilled comprehenders performed a cross-modal naming task investigating the effects of pronoun gender and pragmatic inference from the verb on the integration of two successive sentences. Results revealed different patterns of effects in the two groups. The skilled comprehenders integrated on-line sentences by relying on pronoun gender and verb meaning. Pronoun gender appeared to exert a dominant influence relative to verb bias. In the less skilled comprehenders, on-line integration was not systematic, being dependent on the meaning of the verb and the proximity of the referent. Complementary analyses revealed similar patterns of effects among less skilled comprehenders, whether they were good decoders or poor decoders. These results show that less skilled comprehenders are developmentally delayed compared with their skilled peers, and extend the language impairment hypothesis to cover discourse-level processes.     

Unexpected Poor Comprehenders Among Adolescent ESL Students

This study explored characteristics of reading comprehension difficulties among Chinese students learning English as a second language (ESL). Two hundred forty-six Grade 8 English-immersion students in China were administered a battery of reading-related and reading comprehension tests. Three groups of comprehenders matched on age, nonverbal intelligence, and word-reading speed were identified: unexpected poor comprehenders, expected average comprehenders, and unexpected good comprehenders. The three groups differed in vocabulary and higher level processes. Vocabulary breadth and depth distinguished between the unexpected poor comprehenders and the expected average comprehenders. Inference, strategy, listening comprehension, summary writing, and morphological awareness distinguished between the expected average comprehenders and the unexpected good comprehenders. The findings suggest that vocabulary is the main source of reading comprehension difficulties in ESL unexpected poor comprehenders. The advantage of the unexpected good comprehenders group is primarily due to discourse comprehension and strategic processes, and is only possible with high language proficiency. There is no evidence that ESL unexpected poor comprehenders have poor Chinese (L1) reading ability.     

Comparative signaling generated for expository texts by 4th–8th graders: variations by text structure strategy instruction,comprehension skill,and signal word

Explicit signals of important relationships in expository texts can provide efficient processing instructions for readers with strategic knowledge about text structures. However, such signal words do not help readers without strategic knowledge about use of text structures and signal words. This study provided the first detailed investigation about the effects of structure strategy instruction on understanding several types of comparative signal words in multi-paragraph expository texts. The study, set in 41 school districts, examined four comparative signal words generated by three groups of reading comprehenders in Grades 4, 5, 7, and 8 and how such understandings were impacted by instruction with the text structure strategy. Students in classrooms randomly assigned to structure strategy instruction showed more understanding of comparative signal words than those in the business as usual control. The intervention aided 4th, 5th, and 7th graders’ generation of all signal words, but more so for the more difficult signaling words that transitioned between paragraphs. For Grade 4 the intervention helped some reading comprehension groups more than others depending on signal word difficulty. For Grade 8 the intervention increased understanding of difficult signal words, but not the easiest signal word. Males in Grade 5 using the web-based structure strategy instruction improved their generation of the easiest signal word more than females, but females improved more on the difficult signal words. The comparison text structure and its signaling words appear ideal targets for instruction at upper elementary and middle school. The findings have implications for classroom instruction about text structures.     

Comprehension and rate during silent reading: Why do some students do poorly?

This exploratory study was designed to evaluate the interplay of students’ rate and comprehension in independent silent reading of accessible text, within the frameworks of the Simple View of Reading and the RAND Reading Study Group. In the first phase, 61 sixth graders were given a reading test (GRADE), a motivation questionnaire, and an on-screen measure of comprehension-based silent reading rate (SRF-O, adapted from aimswebPlus SRF) with on-grade and below-grade text. Two-thirds of students had perfect or near-perfect SRF-O comprehension, but the other one-third had moderate to poor comprehension. These weaker SRF-O comprehenders had relatively low GRADE scores, but others with comparable GRADE scores comprehended well on SRF-O. The poorest SRF-O comprehenders read with increasing rate and decreasing comprehension across the SRF-O texts. In the second phase, the 21 students with weaker SRF-O comprehension took an oral reading fluency (ORF) test and a paper form of the silent reading rate measure (SRF-P) in a one-on-one setting. All students comprehended well on SRF-P and their SRF-P rates correlated highly with GRADE and ORF. Results support the view that poor comprehension in independent silent reading of accessible text may be due to factors other than reading ability (such as assessment context) and that, when students read with comprehension, their rate is a good indicator of their reading ability.

     

A comparison of reading comprehension knowledge in above average,average and below average comprehenders: A study in metacomprehension

Differences which exist between different groups of reading comprehenders were examined through an interview approach. Thirty sixth graders, representing above average, average and below average reading comprehenders, were interviewed as they completed 4 sets of reading comprehension exercises. Statistically significant differences were found between the three groups for correct monitoring of textual information and answering strategies: unsuccessful use of recall. Significant differences were found between the above average and below average groups for, schema about text structure; schema about solution strategies; knowledge of the given text; and incorrect monitoring of textual information. The above average and average comprehenders were found to have a significant difference on the variable, answering strategies; unsuccessful use of lookbacks. The results are discussed in terms of metacomprehension ability.     

Reading Comprehension and Predictability Effects on Sentence Processing: An Event‐Related Potential Study

Electrophysiology studies have identified two event‐related potentials that are modulated by predictive processes during language comprehension: the N400 and a frontal positivity. The N400 is smaller when words are presented within highly restrictive sentences, indicating reduced lexical retrieval costs. Violations of strong predictions generate larger frontal positivities, possibly reflecting inhibitory processes. More skilled comprehenders may exhibit enhanced predictive processing, but this possibility has seldom been investigated with event‐related potentials (ERPs). We analyzed the association between predictability ERP modulations and reading comprehension abilities. Twenty‐four undergraduate students were exposed to strongly and weakly constraining sentences, ending with an expected or unexpected final word. Their comprehension skills were assessed with a cloze task. Better comprehenders showed smaller N400s for expected words, and larger posterior positivities for unexpected endings, in strongly constraining contexts. These effects correlated with reading comprehension scores. The results suggest that better comprehenders take more advantage of predictions to reduce retrieval costs, and allocate more resources to postlexical integration processes.     

The effect of practice and expectancy of inferential questions on poor comprehenders' inferential processing and monitoring

Background

Previous studies have shown that undergraduates improve their answering and monitoring accuracy when they exclusively practice and expect inferential questions after reading. This study examined whether children with poor comprehension, who struggle particularly with inferential questions, would benefit from similar practice with and without feedback.

Methods

To address this question, 44 poor comprehenders and 44 control participants from 6th–9th grades practiced answering literal or inferential questions after reading each of three texts. They were also asked to predict their success in these questions, whereas some received feedback on their prediction (monitoring) accuracy. Then, participants read an additional three texts, but answered both practiced and unpracticed types of questions after reading all texts. They also predicted their success after reading each text.

Results

Both poor and good comprehenders answered literal questions more accurately when they had practiced. However, only good comprehenders improved their answering of inferential questions when they had practiced. No differences were found between the groups in monitoring accuracy. Feedback had a positive effect on answering accuracy, irrespective of practice.

Conclusions

Poor comprehenders differentiate to some extent between literal and inferential questions and are flexible enough to execute a different text processing plan for each type of questions. However, they presumably lack the knowledge and/or resources to execute inferential processing efficiently during reading. Moreover, all children seem to have difficulty with comprehension monitoring. Practicing and/or expecting one type of questions, with or without feedback, is insufficient for improving this ability.

     

Reading comprehension difficulties in children

This paper reports two studies investigating the nature of comprehension deficits in a group of 7–8 year old children whose decoding skills are normal, but whose reading comprehension skills are poor. The performance of these poor comprehenders was compared to two control groups, Chronological-Age controls and Comprehension-Age controls. The first study examined whether these comprehension difficulties are specific to reading. On two measures of listening comprehension the poor comprehenders were found to perform at a significantly lower level than Chronological-Age controls. However, they did not differ from a group of younger children matched for reading comprehension skills. This indicates that the observed comprehension difficulties are not restricted to reading, but rather represent a general comprehension limitation. The second study investigated whether these comprehension difficulties can be explained in terms of a memory deficit. The short-term and working memory skills of these three groups were examined. The poor comprehenders did not differ from their Chronological-Age controls on either of these tasks. In conclusion, it is argued that working memory processes are not a major causal factor in the creation of the comprehension difficulties identified in the present group of poor comprehenders.