Influences of orthographic consistency and reading instruction on the development of nonword reading skills

Wimmer and Goswami (1994) report that seven-, eight-, and nine-year old English children had considerably more difficulties with a nonword reading task than German children who acquire an orthography with highly consistent grapheme-phoneme correspondences. In Study 1, seven-, eight-, and nine year old English children receiving a phonics instruction were presented with the same task and compared with the children tested by Wimmer and Goswami. Study 2 is a replication with different samples of English children receiving the standard electic approach combining both whole-word and phonics strategies, English children receiving a phonics teaching approach and German children who are taught via phonics methods and acquire a consistent orthography. Children from Grades 1 to 4 were tested. In both studies, the English phonics children read the nonwords with almost the aame accuracy and speed as the German children. In Study 1, the English phonics children performed clearly better on nonword reading than the English standard sample. In Study 2, this difference was also evident but less marked. In Grade 1 English phonics as well as English standard children had clearly more difficulties with phonological decoding than German children indicating a relevant influence of orthographic consistency.     

The relationship between language dominance and pre-reading skills in young bilingual children in Egypt

This study explored the relationship among pre-reading skills, language proficiency, and visual perceptual abilities in 150 children who had been exposed to both English and Arabic (mean age 70 months). Information regarding language proficiency was gathered indirectly through reports from teachers and parents and directly through children’s test performance. Consequently, the children were divided into three language dominance groups: stronger in Arabic, stronger in English, or equally strong in both English and Arabic. The main aim of this study was to determine whether the pre-literacy skills (visual processing skills, phonological processes, and orthographic knowledge) differed across the three groups and were correlated with langauge dominance. No significant relationships were found between language dominance and tasks that pertained to phonological awareness skills, which may support the notion of the transfer of phonological processing skills between languages. Visual processing and visual memory skills did not differ across language groups, a finding which was expected, as these functions do not directly pertain to language dominance. However, overall the groups did better on the English orthographic task than on the Arabic orthography, perhaps because they found Arabic print more visually confusing and demanding than English.     

Inattention,hyperactivity and low parental education in children with conduct problems and poor reading skills

Concerns over the poor reading performance of children with conduct problems are often expressed by their parents and teachers. In order to intervene effectively with these children, it is necessary to know what their difficulties are, both at school and at home. To date, there is still a lot of ambiguity in relation to the specific difficulties children with conduct problems and coexisting poor reading experience in important academic domains and in the family context. The aim of the present study was to compare the problems of attention and hyperactivity in the classroom and parental education in four groups of children: conduct problems only (CP); conduct problems and coexisting poor reading (CP‐PR); poor reading only (PR); and a comparison group (COM). A sample of 2nd Grade Greek children (n = 113) was selected on the basis of the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale‐28 (CTRS‐28), Conduct Problems Scale and the Reading Ability Detection Test. The CTRS‐28, Inattention and Hyperactivity scales and a brief questionnaire on parental education were used to assess attention, hyperactivity and level of parental education, respectively. The results showed that children with CP‐PR were significantly more inattentive and hyperactive than the other groups of children. Their parents were also more likely to have spent fewer years in school than the parents of CP only and COM children. The earlier findings have implications for intervention planning and theoretical understanding of childhood conduct problems.     

Improving students' reading comprehension skills: Effects of strategy instruction and reciprocal teaching

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different forms of strategy instruction on 210 elementary-school students' reading comprehension. Students were assigned to any one of three intervention conditions or to a traditional instruction condition (control condition). Training students were taught four reading strategies (summarizing, questioning, clarifying, predicting) and practiced these strategies in small groups (reciprocal teaching), pairs, or instructor-guided small groups. At both the post- and follow-up test the intervention students attained higher scores on an experimenter-developed task of reading comprehension and strategy use than the control students who received traditional instruction. Furthermore, students who practiced reciprocal teaching in small groups outperformed students in instructor-guided and traditional instruction groups on a standardized reading comprehension test.     

Contexts of reading instruction: Implications for literacy skills and kindergarteners’ behavioral engagement

This observational study examined kindergarteners’ (n = 170) exposure to literacy instruction in their classrooms (n = 36), child-by-instruction interactions, and behavioral engagement in relation to literacy skills. Time spent in four instructional contexts was coded according to who managed children's attention (teacher-managed, TM or child-managed, CM), and the content focus (basic skills such as teaching letters and their sounds, or meaning-focused such as discussing a book); children's behavioral engagement and off-task behavior were also coded live five times over the year. Word-reading and phonological awareness skills were assessed in fall and spring. Hierarchical Linear Modeling results indicated that kindergarteners with lower initial skills gained more in word-reading, but not phonological awareness, when they were exposed to relatively more time in TM basic skills instruction. In contrast, more time in CM meaning-focused instruction did not interact with initial skills to predict either outcome. Engagement analyses indicated that students were more likely to be off-task in CM than in TM contexts. Children who spent more time off-task during TM contexts had lower spring scores on both outcomes. Discussion explores the implications of this work for both literacy learning and behavioral engagement in the transition year of kindergarten.     

Predicting reading disabilities using dynamic assessment of decoding before and after the onset of reading instruction: a longitudinal study from kindergarten through grade 2

The present study examined the predictive validity of a dynamic test of decoding in which participants are taught three novel letters and how to synthesize the corresponding letter sounds into new words. One version of this dynamic test was administered to 158 kindergarten children before the onset of formal reading instruction along with traditional predictors of reading. Similarly, a parallel version of the dynamic test was administered to the same children after a few months of formal reading instruction. At the end of grade 2, the children were assessed on outcome measures of reading and categorized as having disabilities with either accuracy or fluency measures. Administered before as well as after the onset of formal reading instruction, the dynamic test of decoding contributed uniquely to the prediction of difficulties with reading accuracy at the end of grade 2 after control for traditional predictors of reading. Difficulties with reading fluency were also predicted by the dynamic decoding test, but the unique prediction value was more limited. This study showed that a dynamic assessment of decoding can be a useful addition to traditional test batteries for early identification of children at risk for reading disabilities. Even when taken before formal reading instruction, a combination of the dynamic assessment and two traditional measures (letter knowledge and rapid automatized naming) yielded a very high prediction accuracy of reading difficulties at the end of grade 2.     

The relationship between strategic reading instruction,student learning of L2‐based reading strategies and L2 reading achievement

This study investigates the relationship between strategic reading instruction, the process of learning second language‐based reading strategies and English reading achievement for Thai university students of science and technology. In a course in reading general English texts for 16 weeks, 82 students were taught using a strategies‐based approach (experimental cohort), whereas another 82 students were taught using a traditional, teacher‐centred approach (control cohort). A pre‐test/post‐test research design was employed, and a portfolio approach was used to investigate the experimental cohort students' process of learning reading strategies. The results showed that the experimental cohort outperformed the control cohort in the post‐course standardised English test. The higher‐level reading proficiency learners in the experimental cohort were also found to be better than their low‐level peers at learning to use second language‐based reading strategies effectively. Implications are discussed for alternative instructional practice of reading in English as a foreign language (EFL).     

The child,the text and the teacher: reading primers and reading instruction

From the late sixteenth century, in response to the problem of how best to teach children to read, a variety of texts, such as primers, spellers and readers were produced in England for vernacular instruction. This paper describes how these materials were used by teachers to develop, first, a specific religious understanding according to the stricture of the time and, second, a moral reading practice that provided the child with a guide to secular conduct. The analysis focuses on the use of these texts as a productive means for shaping the child-reader in the context of newly emerging educational spaces, which fostered a particular, morally formative relation among teacher, child and text.     

Narrowing the gap between research and practice in sight word reading instruction

This paper describes a program designed to bridge the gap between educational research and practice. Researchers disseminated findings and gathered additional field data on teaching sight words to learning disabled children, while practitioners were given the opportunity to apply these findings in their own teaching. Learning disabilities teachers (N = 37) were divided into three experimental groups and given training and materials for a one-week teaching procedure to be used with children in their classes. Instructional packets differed in the number of sight words presented at one time (5 + 5 vs. 10) and the use of reduced response competition. Results showed that overall posttest performance did not differ among the groups; however, children taught using reduced response competition required fewer trials to reach criterion on each word. Questionnaire results indicated that teachers benefited from the program. Future attempts such as this should be made to combine research and teacher-training efforts.     

Preservice elementary teachers' conceptions of moon phases before and after instruction

This study focused on the conceptual understandings held by 78 preservice elementary teachers about moon phases, before and after instruction. Participants in the physics groups received instruction on moon phases in an inquiry‐based physics course; participants in the methods group received no instruction on moon phases. The instructive effect of two different types of preinstruction interviews also was compared. The instruction on moon phases used in the study is from Physics by Inquiry by Lillian McDermott. In the study, the method of inquiry followed a qualitative design, involving classroom observations, document analysis, and structured interviews. Inductive data analysis identified patterns and themes in the participants' conceptual understanding. Results indicate that without the instruction, most preservice teachers were likely to hold alternative conceptions on the cause of moon phases. Participants who had the instruction were much more likely to hold a scientific understanding after instruction. The instruction appears to be more effective in promoting a scientific understanding of moon phases than instruction previously reported in the literature. It also appears that using a three‐dimensional model or making two‐dimensional drawings during the preinstruction interviews does not have instructive value. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 633–658, 2002     

The connection between phonological,syntactic and semantic skills and children’s reading and spelling

In recent years two radically different views have dominated discussions about the way in which children learn to read and write. The first view is that the crucial hurdle in learning to read is the discovery of how to do the correct phonological analysis. The second view is that the crucial factor is the use of context, and that children use what they know about the meaning — and particularly the semantics and the syntax — of the passages that they are reading to help them decipher and learn about difficult written words. Learning to read is ‘a psycholinguistic guessing game’ according to this view and children set about it in much the same way as they set about learning to speak. Thus according to the first view children’s semantic and syntactic skills will determine their progress in reading and according to the second it will be their phonological skills. We present longitudinal evidence about a group of children in their first year at school which shows that both kinds of skill do play a part, but that they make entirely different contributions. Semantic and syntactic skills determine how well children make use of the context of what they are reading. Phonological skills affect their use of letter-sound relationships.     

Associations between reading achievement and independent reading in early elementary school: a genetically informative cross-lagged study

This study used a cross-lagged twin design to examine reading achievement and independent reading from 10 to 11 years (n = 436 twin pairs). Reading achievement at age 10 significantly predicted independent reading at age 11. The alternative path, from independent reading at age 10 to reading achievement at age 11, was not significant. Individual differences in reading achievement and independent reading at both ages were primarily due to genetic influences. Furthermore, individual differences in independent reading at age 11 partly reflected genetic influences on reading achievement at age 10. These findings suggest that genetic influences that contribute to individual differences in children's reading abilities also influence the extent to which children actively seek out and create opportunities to read.     

Preschool prediction: Orthographic and phonological skills,and reading

Because of the research demonstrating the roles of phonological awareness, serial naming speed, and orthographic processing in reading, a test of each of these skills was added to a preschool screening battery. The main aim of the study was to determine whether these measures would contribute to the prediction of reading. The 118 subjects were first tested six months before kindergarten entry and were followed up 19 and 24 months later. Each additional screening test made a significant, independent contribution to the prediction of early first grade word reading/spelling, after the contributions of a parent rating of preschool reading ability (PRA), verbal IQ, socio-economic status (SES), and chronological age were accounted for. With letter naming and PRA, the additional tests were responsible for 62 percent of the variance. The orthographic test made the largest single contribution (32%) to the variance in word reading/spelling. Variables contributing significantly to the prediction of later first grade reading comprehension were (in order of proportion of the variance accounted for) letter naming, sentence memory, object naming speed, the orthographic test, and SES. The revised preschool screening battery correctly identified 91 percent of individual first grade good and poor readers. It was concluded that preschool measures of phonological awareness, serial naming speed, and orthographic processing make a strong contribution to prediction of first grade reading.     

The relationships between reading processes and English skills of deaf college students

This research project investigated the relationships between various working memory (WM) recoding processes and English language skills in a sample of 86 prelingually deaf college students from varied educational backgrounds. Part 1 reports the results of a short-term memory (STM) experiment and a Recoding Strategies questionnaire. The STM results suggested that, for most deaf students, neither the speech, sign, or visual codes are as efficient as the speech code of hearing persons for the purpose of maintaining English linguistic information in WM. However, the ability to use speech-based recoding processes was positively correlated with WM capacity, and the use of sign recoding was found to decrease as the ability to make efficient use of a speech recoding strategy increased. In addition, the questionnaire data suggested that neither the speech nor sign recoding systems provide the majority of students with a complete internal representation of English surface structure grammatical information in WM. There was no evidence that the use of sign language in education interfered with the ability to develop a speech recoding strategy, or that knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) negatively influenced the acquisition of English skills. The overall pattern of results suggested that WM processes and recoding strategies may be influencing grammatical processes, and the acquisition of English skills, in distinctive ways.     

Relations between early reading and writing skills among Spanish-speaking language minority children

Although there is a growing body of literature on the development of reading skills of Spanish-speaking language minority children, little research has focused on the development of writing skills in this population. This study evaluated whether children’s Spanish early reading skills (i.e., print knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language) were related to their Spanish and English early writing skills using a sample of 554 children whose home language was Spanish. Multivariate regression analyses with simultaneous outcomes (Spanish and English invented spelling skills) were conducted to evaluate whether children’s early reading and writing skills were related across languages. Results indicated that children’s print knowledge and phonological awareness skills, but not oral language skills, were significantly related to their Spanish and English invented spelling skills. Spanish early literacy skills were not differentially related to Spanish and English reading and writing skills. The magnitude of the relations between print knowledge and oral language skills and children’s invented spelling skills varied as a function of child age; however, the magnitude of the relation between phonological awareness and invented spelling skills did not differ as a function of child age. Furthermore, results suggested that language minority children’s early reading and writing skills are related but distinct constructs and that children may be able to apply information gained from learning to read and write in their first language when learning to write in their second language.     

Covariation between reading and arithmetic skills from Grade 1 to Grade 7

This study examined the extent to which reading and arithmetic skills show covariation at Grade 1 and at Grade 7, to what extent this covariation is time-invariant or time-specific, and to what extent different antecedents will predict these time-invariant and time-specific portions of the covariation. The reading and arithmetic skills of a total of 1335 Finnish children were assessed at the end of Grade 1 and then again at the end of Grade 7. Phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), counting, and parental education levels were measured in kindergarten; working memory at Grade 1 and nonverbal reasoning at Grade 3. The results showed that reading and arithmetic had a substantial amount of covariation at grades 1 and 7, and that most of the covariation between these grades was time-invariant and could be predicted by RAN, counting, letter knowledge, working memory, and nonverbal reasoning. The time-specific portion of the covariation between reading and arithmetic in Grade 1 was predicted by phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and counting; while time-specific covariation in Grade 7 was predicted by parental education level and nonverbal reasoning.     

Effortful Control, Surgency, and reading skills in middle childhood

We examined the associations between components of temperament and children’s word and pseudo-word reading skills, in a school-age sample using a within-family internal-replication design. We estimated the statistical prediction of word and pseudo-word reading in separate regression equations that included the main effects of, and two-way interaction between, Surgency and Effortful Control. Children with better Effortful Control scores showed better reading skills. Surgency was unrelated to reading skills, but moderated the effect of Effortful Control. The positive association between reading skills and Effortful Control was present only for children who were low in Surgency. Thus, reading achievement in school-age children is optimized by strong Effortful Control, but these processes may be disrupted for those children who are high in Surgency.