The developmental progression of comprehension‐related skills in children learning EAL

Many children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) underachieve in areas of English literacy, especially in the primary years. These difficulties are often attributed to low levels of English language fluency as they enter the education system. In an effort to provide a greater understanding of this underachievement, the cognitive‐linguistic factors underlying literacy development in monolingual children and children learning EAL were examined in a three‐year longitudinal project. The project, conducted in schools in the north of England, followed the developmental progression of forty‐three children learning EAL and forty‐three monolingual children from school years Two to Four. Children were assessed on measures of reading accuracy, reading and listening comprehension, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and reception of grammar. Analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of children on reading accuracy, but children learning EAL had lower levels of vocabulary and comprehension at each point in time. Data are discussed in terms of the development of underlying language skills and the impact of these skills on both reading and listening comprehension. The implications of the findings for classroom practice are considered.     

网络环境下的大学英语阅读课教学探微

在外语教学中,阅读是一个极为重要的环节,阅读理解是所有阅读技巧的目标也是阅读学习的最终目的,它可以加强学习者的听、说、写、译等技巧。在网络环境下,计算机的使用比传统的方法更能加强学习者的阅读理解能力。     

The Simple View of Reading in Bilingual Language-Minority Children Acquiring a Highly Transparent Second Language

The present study evaluated which components within the simple view of reading model better predicted reading comprehension in a sample of bilingual language-minority children exposed to Italian, a highly transparent language, as a second language. The sample included 260 typically developing bilingual children who were attending either the first 2 years (n = 95) or the last 3 years (n = 165) of primary school and who had Italian as an instructional language. Children were administered a comprehensive battery for the assessment of decoding skills, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension latent variables. Results showed that, in both groups, listening comprehension was the most powerful predictor of reading comprehension, followed, only for younger children, by reading accuracy. Reading speed was not a significant predictor. These results confirmed the primary role of listening comprehension in predicting reading comprehension in bilinguals and added important evidence regarding the role of reading accuracy as a predictor of reading comprehension.     

浅谈中级阶段对外汉语阅读教学

阅读是留学生学习和掌握汉语的基本技能之一,阅读教学在对外汉语教学中十分重要。本文从对外汉语教学出发,浅谈中级阶段阅读教学的一些原则和方法。     

Comprehension monitoring and reading comprehension in bilingual students

This study explored comprehension monitoring, use of reading strategies and reading comprehension of bilingual students at different levels of perceived proficiency in Italian. The participants were bilingual fifth to eighth‐grade elementary school students from four Italian schools in Rijeka, Croatia. Students' reading comprehension was assessed. Their comprehension monitoring skill was measured on the Metacomprehension test and through use of a cloze task. The Strategic Reading Questionnaire (SRQ) was used as a self‐report measure of strategic reading. A questionnaire investigating Italian language use and perceived proficiency in the Italian language was also administered. Perceived proficiency in Italian was not clearly determined by early or late preschool age of second language acquisition. Bilingual students with high perceived proficiency in Italian (high PP group) had better meta‐cognitive reading skills than those with low perceived proficiency in Italian (low PP group). Comprehension monitoring was the most important predictor of reading comprehension in all students.     

Can the simple view deal with the complexities of reading?

We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word‐reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second‐language reading.     

The role of background knowledge in text comprehension for children learning English as an additional language

Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience difficulties with reading comprehension relative to their monolingual peers. While low levels of vocabulary appear to be one factor underlying these difficulties, other factors such as a relative lack of appropriate background knowledge may also contribute. Sixteen children learning EAL and 16 of their monolingual peers, matched for word reading accuracy, were assessed using a standard measure of reading comprehension and an experimental measure of reading comprehension for which relevant background knowledge was taught before assessing understanding. Tests of receptive and expressive vocabulary were also completed. Results confirmed lower levels of reading comprehension for children learning EAL for both standard and ‘background’ controlled measures. Analysis of comprehension by question type on the experimental measure showed that while both groups made use of taught knowledge to answer inferential questions, children learning EAL had specific difficulties with both literal questions and questions requiring the interpretation of a simile. It is suggested that relevant background information should be used to facilitate children's text comprehension. Furthermore, several factors, especially vocabulary differences, but also text search strategies, context use and comprehension monitoring skills, may contribute to the comprehension difficulties experienced by children learning EAL.     

Evidence for the early emergence of the simple view of reading in a transparent orthography

The main aim of the present study was to empirically test the emergence of the Simple View of Reading (SVR) in a transparent orthography, and specifically in Greek. To do so, we examined whether the constituent components of the SVR could be identified in young, Greek-speaking children even before the beginning of formal reading instruction. Our investigation focused on Kindergarten children and examined the dissociation of decoding-related and language comprehension skills using Exploratory Factor Analysis. All children were administered a battery of decoding-related and comprehension measures. The analysis demonstrated that comprehension and decoding-related measures loaded as distinct factors in young Greek-speaking children and that the two factors were weakly correlated. The present findings provide important support for the validity of the SVR framework as a model of reading skills acquisition in a language with a transparent orthography, such as Greek.     

The effect of language specific factors on early written composition: the role of spelling,oral language and text generation skills in a shallow orthography

Spelling skills have been identified as one of the major barriers to written text production in young English writers. By contrast oral language skills and text generation have been found to be less influential in the texts produced by beginning writers. To date, our understanding of the role of spelling skills in transparent orthographies is limited. The current study addressed this gap by examining the contribution of spelling, oral language and text generation skills in written text production in Italian beginner writers. Eighty-three children aged 7–8 years participated in the study. Spelling, lexical retrieval, receptive grammar, and written sentence generation and reformulation skills were assessed and children were asked to write a text on a set topic. A factor analysis revealed that the children’s written text production was captured by three factors: productivity, complexity and accuracy. In contrast to results from children learning to write in opaque orthographies, such as English, this study showed that receptive grammar and written sentence generation skills accounted for significant variance in measures of productivity, complexity and accuracy in Italian children’s written text production. Spelling skills contributed to text accuracy and quality and explained more variance than receptive grammar in microstructural accuracy. By contrast, oral grammatical skills explained more variance in text quality than spelling. The current study shows the differential impact of language systems, such as Italian, on written text production. Implications for assessment and instruction are outlined.     

Understanding literacy development of language minority students: an integrative approach

This special issue of Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal contains nine papers by researchers who presented at the Language and Reading Comprehension for Immigrant Children (LARCIC) conference, which took place at OISE/University of Toronto in 2009. The first set of five papers focuses on the contribution of cognitive factors to reading comprehension in language minority children, and the second set of four papers focuses on the joint effects of cognitive and socio-cultural factors on literacy development in these children. Three common themes emerge in the first set of papers. The first theme compares the cognitive processes that contribute to reading comprehension between language minority children and their peers who speak the societal language as the first language. In particular, the application of the Simple View of Reading model in language minority children is discussed. The second theme compares the reading performance of language minority children to their peers. The third theme explores the nature of reading constructs in language minority children. Two common themes underlie the second set of papers. The first theme addresses the mediating role of socio-cultural factors in vocabulary development in language minority children. The second theme explores the joint effects of cognitive and socio-cultural factors on cross-language transfer of literacy skills. Taken together, the papers presented in this special issue point to the importance of considering both cognitive and socio-cultural factors in literacy research involving language minority children.     

Young Spanish-English speaking children’s reading attitudes in relation to language skills

Background: Reading attitudes are recognised as an influencing factor on the language and literacy achievement of school age monolingual English-speaking children. The relationship between reading attitudes and achievement in young Spanish-speaking English Learners (ELs) remains understudied.

Purpose: The aim of the current study was to describe reading attitudes of young Spanish-speaking ELs and to examine the relationship between attitudes and language performance.

Method: The investigators utilised the Elementary Reading Attitudes Survey (ERAS) with 204 participants: 100 ELs in kindergarten and 104 in first grade. Investigators administered standardised measures of language and literacy performance. Correlational analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between attitudes and performance on language assessments.

Findings: Significant mean differences were observed between girls and boys, with girls showing more positive attitudes towards recreational reading. Phonological awareness skills showed a significant strong correlation with academic reading attitudes for children in kindergarten. Spanish receptive vocabulary showed significant positive correlation with reading attitudes. No significant grade differences were found in overall mean reading attitudes.

Conclusions: Overall, students in both grades demonstrated generally positive attitudes towards reading, despite potential language barriers. Findings substantiate a positive relationship between reading attitudes and receptive vocabulary, and phonological awareness skills in young children.     

It matters whether reading comprehension is conceptualised as rate or accuracy

This study shows that it makes a difference whether accuracy measures or rate measures are used when assessing reading comprehension. When the outcome is reading comprehension accuracy (i.e., the number of correct responses), word reading skills (measured as access to orthographic representations) account for a modest amount of the variance in the reading comprehension of 10‐year old children. However, this changes when reading comprehension is conceptualised as rate (i.e., number of correct responses per minute); when this is done, the correlation with word reading increases. The result was validated in two different reading comprehension tests. Moreover, this study indicates that it is not merely efficient word reading that influences the process of comprehending at a fast rate. When word reading and receptive vocabulary are controlled, a written measure of the ability to access and connect similar word meanings (synonym judgement) explains additional variance in reading comprehension rate.     

An evaluation of two approaches for teaching reading comprehension strategies in the primary years using science information texts

There are few research studies on the effects of teaching comprehension strategies to young children in the primary grades. Using a Dominant–Less Dominant Mixed Model design employing both qualitative and quantitative data collection, we evaluated two approaches for teaching comprehension strategies to 7- and 8-year-old children in four second-grade classrooms using science information texts. The first approach focused upon explicitly teaching a series of single comprehension strategies, one-at-a-time (SSI). The second approach focused on teaching a “set” or “family” of transacted comprehension strategies within a collaborative, interactive and engaging routine (TSI). Results showed no difference between teaching young children a “set” of comprehension strategies and teaching comprehension strategies explicitly, one-at-a-time on their reading comprehension performance as measured by a standardized test of reading comprehension, recall of main ideas from reading two 200 word passages from information texts, a reading motivation survey and a strategy use survey. Results showed significant differences between students taught a set of comprehension strategies on measures of elaborated knowledge acquisition from reading science books (detail idea units recalled), retention of science content knowledge, and significantly improved criterion or curriculum-based reading comprehension test scores. These benefits favoring TSI over SSI are important because the learning curve is relatively steep for teachers to develop the ability to teach and for young children to develop the ability to coordinate a “set” of transacted comprehension strategies.     

谈英语阅读理解能力的培养与提高

阅读是英语学习的四项基本技能之一,是人们运用语言和其他已有知识获取信息的过程,阅读能力是一个综合的语言理解和运用能力;从解析英语阅读能力入手,论述了英语阅读能力对英语学习的重要性,概述了学生英语能力的现状,分析总结了在学习过程中提高阅读能力的主要方法及技巧。     

提高日语读解能力策略研究

阅读是外语教学中五大基本技能之一,日语读解能力的培养至关重要。本文对如何提高学生日语读解能力提出了自己的看法,认为要提高日语读解能力,首先要加大阅读量,提高理解能力;其次要采用多种阅读方法,掌握多种读解技巧,提高阅读速度;同时加强文化背景知识的学习,提高学习者的综合能力。     

Development of Reading in Grades K–2 in Spanish‐Speaking English‐Language Learners

Development of English‐ and Spanish‐reading skills was explored in a sample of 251 Spanish‐speaking English‐language learners from kindergarten through Grade 2. Word identification and reading comprehension developed at a normal rate based on monolingual norms for Spanish‐ and English‐speaking children, but English oral language lagged significantly behind. Four categories of predictor variables were obtained in Spanish in kindergarten and in English in first grade: print knowledge, expressive language (as measured by vocabulary and sentence repetition tasks), phonological awareness, and rapid automatic naming (RAN). Longitudinal regression analyses indicated a modest amount of cross‐language transfer from Spanish to English. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that developing English‐language skills (particularly phonological awareness and RAN) mediated the contribution of Spanish‐language variables to later reading. Further analyses revealed stronger within‐ than cross‐language associations of expressive language with later reading, suggesting that some variables function cross‐linguistically, and others within a particular language. Results suggest that some of the cognitive factors underlying reading disabilities in monolingual children (e.g., phonological awareness and RAN) may be important to an understanding of reading difficulties in bilingual children.     

Integrating Scenario‐Based and Component Reading Skill Measures to Understand the Reading Behavior of Struggling Readers

In recent years, researchers, educators, and policy makers have called for a new generation of reading comprehension assessments (e.g., Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2008). Advocates of this movement argue for a deeper type of reading assessment, one that captures students’ ability to not only understand single texts in isolation but also to engage in purposeful, multisource integration of sources. While this shift in how we define and measure reading comprehension is laudable, assessments must also measure the fundamental reading skills that may impede higher‐level comprehension processes. This article presents data from two assessments that were designed to work in tandem to provide a more complete picture of reading comprehension. Middle school students were given a component skills battery which measured core reading skills such as word recognition, decoding, vocabulary, and morphology, as well a second assessment designed to measure reading comprehension. Reading comprehension was measured using a scenario‐based assessment approach, which required students to read a range of sources to fulfill a particular reading goal. The results indicate that students, including struggling readers, were able to read, understand, and problem solve in complex learning environments, but students’ ability to do so was often tempered by their basic reading skills. We argue that including a measure of component skills alongside a measure of higher‐level comprehension is beneficial in interpreting student performance. Accordingly, we present the results on the scenario‐based measure as a function of reading component skills and argue for the value of using this approach for struggling readers.     

Reading in English as a First or Second Language: The Case of Grade 3 Spanish,Portuguese, and English Speakers

This study compared variables related to reading ability in Grade 3 students learning English as a first language (L1) and second language (L2). The students learning English as an L2 came from diverse backgrounds, with different levels of bilingualism in Spanish and English or Portuguese and English before they entered school. Both within‐group and between‐group differences emerged in comparing Spanish children from two cohorts, and in comparing the Spanish group to the Portuguese and English groups. Models predicting reading comprehension found differences with respect to the contribution of receptive vocabulary, decoding, and print exposure in the L1 and L2 groups, depending on the L2 students’ bilingual language status and language acquisition experiences. Additionally, print exposure was more highly related to comprehension in the lowest performing L2 groups. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study

This article presents the findings of the final phase of a 5-year longitudinal study with 168 middle- and upper middle-class children in which the complex relations among early home literacy experiences, subsequent receptive language and emergent literacy skills, and reading achievement were examined. Results showed that children's exposure to books was related to the development of vocabulary and listening comprehension skills, and that these language skills were directly related to children's reading in grade 3. In contrast, parent involvement in teaching children about reading and writing words was related to the development of early literacy skills. Early literacy skills directly predicted word reading at the end of grade 1 and indirectly predicted reading in grade 3. Word reading at the end of grade 1 predicted reading comprehension in grade 3. Thus, the various pathways that lead to fluent reading have their roots in different aspects of children's early experiences.