Processing of expository and narrative texts by low- and high-comprehending children

The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension. Results from think-aloud protocols indicated that text genre affected the way the readers processed the texts. When reading narrative texts they made more text-based and knowledge-based inferences, and when reading expository texts they made more comments and asked more questions, but also made a higher number of invalid knowledge-based inferences. Furthermore, low- and high-comprehending readers did not differ in the patterns of text-processing strategies used: all readers used a variety of comprehension strategies, ranging from literal repetitions to elaborate knowledge-based inferences. There was one exception: for expository texts, low-comprehending readers generated a higher number of inaccurate elaborative and predictive inferences. Finally, the results confirmed and extended prior research by showing that low-comprehending readers can be classified either as readers who construct a limited mental representation that mainly reflects the literal meaning of the text (struggling paraphrasers), or as readers who attempt to enrich their mental representation by generating elaborative and predictive inferences (struggling elaborators). A similar dichotomy was observed for high-comprehending readers.     

Speech and Language Difficulties in Children With and Without a Family History of Dyslexia

According to recent psychological theories of situation model construction, readers routinely and quickly construct inferences that elaborate causal antecedents of explicit events in the text, but not inferences about causal consequences. The process of forecasting lengthy causal chains into the future is taxing on working memory, so these inferences are either not constructed or their construction consumes a comparatively large amount of reading time. This study collected self-paced sentence reading times from younger and older adults who read expository texts on scientific and technological mechanisms. Readers were also measured on working memory span, general world knowledge, reasoning ability, and reading frequency. Multiple regression analyses on the reading times revealed that (a) causal consequence inferences were more time consuming than causal antecedent inferences and (b) noncausal elaborative inferences were not constructed. The pattern of beta weights for inference variables was remarkably similar for younger and older adults and was unaffected by other measures of individual differences. The process of constructing causal inferences is therefore stable and predictable across different groups of readers.     

The relation of knowledge of textual integration devices to expository text comprehension under different assessment conditions

In this study we propose a theoretical construct (called rhetorical competence) that represents the ability of readers to detect, understand, and use the linguistic cues or discourse markers that texts contain. We measure one of the three postulated components of rhetorical competence (knowledge of textual integration markers), assessing whether readers correctly interpret these markers while reading. The influence of this skill on reading competence is examined in a correlational study of 185 sixth-grade pupils (aged 11–12 years) using different assessment materials (a standardized test and an academic text) and reading conditions (habitual and aided). Multiple regression analyses of the data indicate that knowledge of textual integration devices makes a significant independent contribution to expository text comprehension under most assessment conditions when the effects of working memory, prior knowledge, and word recognition skills are controlled.     

Time course of elaborative inferences in reading as a function of prior vocabulary knowledge

Elaborative inferences during reading were assessed by means of a naming task and eye-fixation monitoring in low- and high-vocabulary undergraduates. A context sentence was followed by a target word to be named or read. Evidence for inferences involved facilitation in naming latencies or reading times for the target word when this was predictable by the context. The results indicated that high-vocabulary readers were faster and more likely to make inferences on-line than low-vocabulary readers. Those low in vocabulary, generated inferences only after 1050 ms of the end of the inducing context sentence, whereas those high in vocabulary made inferences 500 ms earlier. Furthermore, when the stimuli involved reading of continuous text, rather than discrete naming of target words, only the high-vocabulary readers drew inferences, which suggests that low-vocabulary readers are unlikely to make inferences in natural reading conditions.     

Effects of the TWA strategy on expository reading comprehension of students with autism

High‐functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been shown to have significant reading comprehension difficulty. This multiple baseline study examined the effect of the think before reading, think while reading, and think after reading (TWA) strategy on expository text comprehension of four boys with ASD. Following baseline, each student received six sessions of TWA instruction. Data were collected on retell and comprehension question accuracy during the baseline, intervention and maintenance phases. Results supported the effectiveness of TWA as a reading strategy to increase the expository text comprehension of students with ASD. Effects during the intervention phase were immediate and consistent for comprehension questions, with greater variability observed for retell. Data collected at maintenance suggested that the gains were sustained for both comprehension questions and retell.     

Reading argumentative texts: comprehension and evaluation goals and outcomes

The study is situated at the interface between reading comprehension and critical thinking research. Its purpose was to examine the influence of reading goals and argument quality on the comprehension and critical evaluation of argumentative texts. Young adult readers read to comprehend or evaluate texts on two different controversial issues. Argument quality was varied across text versions on the basis of the hasty generalization fallacy. Text versions varied with respect to the quality of the arguments included, but not in terms of argument content. Measures of comprehension included main claim recall, overall recall and inferences in recall. Text evaluation was measured with a rating task. The sample’s familiarity with the text topics was low, and prior beliefs were relatively neutral. The results indicated that an evaluation goal had a consistent positive effect on main claim and text recall when compared to comprehension goal. Argument quality, however, had no main or interactive effects on text evaluation. The findings indicate that reading to evaluate argumentative text facilitates the representation of its content and critical argument elements, such as the claim it promotes. However, this representation is not sufficient for analyzing and critically evaluating the text’s argument line. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to current efforts to promote critical-analytic thinking skills in the context of reading and writing.     

Expository text comprehension in secondary school: for which readers does knowledge of connectives contribute the most?

The present study examined whether knowledge of connectives contributes uniquely to expository text comprehension above and beyond reading fluency, general vocabulary knowledge and metacognitive knowledge. Furthermore, it was examined whether this contribution differs for readers with different language backgrounds or readers who vary in reading fluency, general vocabulary knowledge or metacognitive knowledge levels. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that knowledge of connectives explained individual differences in eighth graders' text comprehension (n = 171) on top of the variance accounted for by the control variables. Moreover, the contribution of knowledge of connectives to text comprehension depended on a reader's level of metacognitive knowledge: more metacognitive knowledge resulted in a larger association between knowledge of connectives and text comprehension. Reading fluency, vocabulary knowledge and language background did not interact with knowledge of connectives. Findings are interpreted in the context of the strategic use of connectives during expository text reading.

What is already known about this topic?

• Connectives (words such as moreover, because and although) help the reader in establishing coherence between text parts.
• In primary school, for fifth graders, knowledge of connectives has been shown to be uniquely related to English text comprehension controlling for reading fluency and general vocabulary knowledge.
• For fifth graders, the relationship between knowledge of connectives and English text comprehension was higher for English‐only students than for their peers who learned English as a second language.

What this paper adds:

• The present study found that knowledge of connectives also has a unique relation with Dutch expository text comprehension for eighth graders above and beyond reading fluency, general vocabulary knowledge and metacognitive knowledge (about text structure and reading and writing strategies).
• The relationship between knowledge of connectives and text comprehension was not moderated by reading fluency, general vocabulary knowledge and language background (monolingual versus bilingual Dutch).
• Metacognitive knowledge did impact the relationship between knowledge of connectives and text comprehension: the higher the metacognitive knowledge, the higher the association between knowledge of connectives and text comprehension.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• Secondary school readers are assumed to benefit from knowing connectives because these words are frequent in expository texts and signal relationships that students may often not infer without the help of these devices (i.e., with the use of background knowledge). This seems to apply in particular for expository texts that are intended to convey new information and relationships to students (see also Singer & O'Connell, 2003 ).
• We found a significant interaction between knowledge of connectives and metacognitive knowledge, which seems to indicate that knowing more connectives does not help much in improving expository text comprehension when metacognitive knowledge about text structure and reading strategies is low. This result suggests that it may be wise to couple instruction on the meaning of connectives with instruction about the structure of expository texts and ways to strategically deal with these texts.
• More specifically, besides instruction on the meaning of connectives, we advise teachers in secondary school to get students to understand the importance of connectives as markers of local and global coherence in texts, and to teach them how to strategically use connectives during reading.

     

Activation of Background Knowledge for Inference Making: Effects on Reading Comprehension

Failure to activate relevant, existing background knowledge may be a cause of poor reading comprehension. This failure may cause particular problems with inferences that depend heavily on prior knowledge. Conversely, teaching how to use background knowledge in the context of gap-filling inferences could improve reading comprehension in general. This idea was supported in an experimental study comprising 16 sixth-grade classes (N?=?236) randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. In the experimental condition, students' contribution to “gap-filling” inferences with expository texts were made explicit by means of graphic models and inference-demanding questions. After eight 30-min sessions, a large training effect was found on students' inference making skills with a substantial and sustained transfer effect to a standard measure of reading comprehension. The effects were not mediated by students' motivation, decoding ability, vocabulary, or nonverbal IQ.     

A latent variable analysis of the contribution of executive function to adult readers’ comprehension of science text: the roles of vocabulary ability and level of comprehension

Emerging evidence suggests that executive function plays an important role in adult readers’ understanding of text. This study examined the contribution of executive function to comprehension of expository science text among adult readers, as well as the role of vocabulary ability in the relation between executive function and text comprehension. The roles of additional reader characteristics, including age, reading time, prior knowledge, and vocabulary ability, in comprehension were also examined. Using structural equation modeling, a latent executive function factor significantly predicted comprehension after accounting for age, reading time, prior knowledge, and vocabulary ability. Vocabulary ability mediated the relation between executive function and both lower-level and higher-level reading comprehension. Executive function contributed more strongly to lower-level compared with higher-level comprehension of the text. Implications for future research are discussed.

     

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.

     

Looking at the keyboard or the monitor: relationship with text production processes

In this paper we explored text production differences in an expository text production task between writers who looked mainly at the keyboard and writers who looked mainly at the monitor. Eye-tracking technology and keystroke-logging were combined to systematically describe and define these two groups in respect of the complex interplay between text production and the reading of one’s own emerging text. Findings showed that monitor gazers typed significantly faster and were more productive writers. They also read their own text more, and they frequently read in parallel with writing. Analysis of fixation durations suggests that more cognitive processing is in use during reading in parallel with writing than during reading in pauses. Keyboard gazers used the left and right cursor keys significantly more. We suggest that this is because they revised their texts in a much more serial mode than monitor gazers. Finally, analysis of the characteristics of the final texts showed no differences between the groups.     

Impact of text availability and question format on reading comprehension processes

We conducted two experiments to analyze how text availability and question format affect readers’ processes and performance on measures of expository text reading comprehension. Junior high school students read expository texts and answered both multiple choice and open-ended questions on a computer that recorded reading times and readers’ actions with Read&Answer software. The results showed that readers reread prior text segments during initial reading of the text more often when they knew that the text would be unavailable when answering questions than when they knew that the text would be available. In addition, readers made more search decisions in the text- available condition when answering open-ended questions than when answering multiple-choice questions. Regarding performance, we repeatedly found an interaction effect between availability and question format: text availability benefited the open-ended but not the multiple-choice format. We concluded that the two availability conditions are useful in assessing different discourse processes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for the development of models of reading and new ways to assess reading literacy skills that emphasize purposeful reading.     

Facilitating Knowledge-Based Inferences in Less-Skilled Readers

The present study replicated Long, Oppy, and Seely's (1994) finding that skilled readers make knowledge-based inferences spontaneously during reading whereas less-skilled readers do not. However, the study also showed that less-skilled readers can make knowledge-based inferences with appropriate textual support. Evidence for knowledge-based inferences was obtained by examining whether readers were faster to make lexical decision responses to theme-appropriate targets (e.g.,burglar) than to theme-inappropriate targets (e.g.,blueprint), when reading short passages (e.g.,The old woman awoke to a sound from downstairs. She reached into her purse and found only a file.). Whereas skilled readers generated knowledge-based inferences under all text conditions, less-skilled readers only showed evidence of having generated knowledge-based inferences when the text incorporated a question inviting the inference (e.g.,The old woman awoke and said, ‘Why is there a sound downstairs?’ She reached into her purse and found only a file.) and text-presentation speed was slower.     

Students’ genre expectations and the effects of text cohesion on reading comprehension

This study raises the question what makes school texts comprehensible by analyzing whether students’ genre expectations about literary or expository texts moderate the impact of different forms of text cohesion on reading comprehension, even when the texts are similar regarding their genre. 754 students (Grade 9) from comprehensive schools read one of four text versions with similar content, but different degrees of local and global text cohesion. The four more or less cohesive texts were introduced as literary texts (part of a story) or as expository texts (newspaper article), although the different genres were only purported and the texts contained both literary and expository passages. Reading comprehension was assessed with multiple-choice-items, semi-open, and open-ended questions. Results demonstrate that global cohesion was profitable for reading comprehension with expository expectations, but not with literary ones. Local text cohesion and both forms of cohesion in combination did not interact with students’ genre expectations and had no main effect on comprehension. When students reading skills and prior knowledge were considered, the interaction was still apparent. Moreover, students with lower levels of reading skills tended to profit especially from texts with global cohesion, whereas the readers with higher reading skills achieved equal means in reading comprehension irrespective of the degree of global text cohesion. The findings are discussed with respect to theoretical aspects of text–reader-interactions, cognitive and emotional components of genre expectations, and the composition and instruction of comprehensible school texts.     

A plausible connection: Models examining the relations between evaluation,plausibility, and the refutation text effect

Students are often asked to make evaluations of scientific explanations, which may involve judgments about the plausibility of competing alternatives. We examined undergraduate students' critical evaluations and plausibility perceptions of climate change when reading two different types of text: expository and refutation. Our findings show that greater critical evaluation and higher plausibility related to more knowledge after reading, but only with the refutation text. Furthermore, we found that greater plausibility had a stronger effect on knowledge after reading the refutation text, whereas greater background knowledge had a stronger effect on knowledge after reading the expository text. We also examined changes in students' plausibility and knowledge. There was significant changes in plausibility and knowledge with the refutation text, but no significant change in either variable with the expository text. These results suggest that evaluations and judgments about plausibility may be factors contributing to the refutation effect and knowledge reconstruction.     

What predicts adult readers’ understanding of STEM texts?

The current study examined the relations among key variables that underlie reading comprehension of expository science texts in a diverse population of adult native English readers. Using Mechanical Turk to sample a range of adult readers, the study also examined the effect of text presentation on readers’ comprehension and knowledge structure established after reading. In Study 1, ratings of situational interest, select reading background variables, and select measures of readers’ knowledge structure accounted for significant variance in comprehension. In Study 2, the knowledge structure metrics of primacy, recency, and node degree as well as several text ratings were found to be comparable across text presentation formats. Participants who read the text sentence-by-sentence obtained higher scores on measures of comprehension and provided higher ratings of situational interest than those who received the whole paragraph text at once. Knowledge structure measures for the sentence-by-sentence and paragraph formats were similar (68% overlap). We discuss implications for future research examining factors that underlie the successful comprehension of science texts.     

The role text structure inference skill plays for eighth graders’ expository text comprehension

The present study investigated whether text structure inference skill (i.e., the ability to infer overall text structure) has unique predictive value for expository text comprehension on top of the variance accounted for by sentence reading fluency, linguistic knowledge and metacognitive knowledge. Furthermore, it was examined whether the unique predictive value of text structure inference skill differs between monolingual and bilingual Dutch students or students who vary in reading proficiency, reading fluency or linguistic knowledge levels. One hundred fifty-one eighth graders took tests that tapped into their expository text comprehension, sentence reading fluency, linguistic knowledge, metacognitive knowledge, and text structure inference skill. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that text structure inference skill has no unique predictive value for eighth graders’ expository text comprehension controlling for reading fluency, linguistic knowledge and metacognitive knowledge. However, text structure inference skill has unique predictive value for expository text comprehension in models that do not include both knowledge of connectives and metacognitive knowledge as control variables, stressing the importance of these two cognitions for text structure inference skill. Moreover, the predictive value of text structure inference skill does not depend on readers’ language backgrounds or on their reading proficiency, reading fluency or vocabulary knowledge levels. We conclude our paper with the limitations of our study as well as the research and practical implications.