Prior knowledge,reading skill,and text cohesion in the comprehension of science texts

This study examined how text features (i.e., cohesion) and individual differences (i.e., reading skill and prior knowledge) contribute to biology text comprehension. College students with low and high levels of biology knowledge read two biology texts, one of which was high in cohesion and the other low in cohesion. The two groups were similar in reading skill. Participants' text comprehension was assessed with open-ended comprehension questions that measure different levels of comprehension (i.e., text-based, local-bridging, global-bridging). Results indicated: (a) reading a high-cohesion text improved text-based comprehension; (b) overall comprehension was positively correlated with participants' prior knowledge, and (c) the degree to which participants benefited from reading a high-cohesion text depended on participants' reading skill, such that skilled participants gained more from high-cohesion text.     

Evaluating the role of polysemous word knowledge in reading comprehension among bilingual adolescents

This study reports on the development of an assessment to measure bilingual adolescents’ knowledge of polysemous vocabulary and explores the contribution of polysemous word knowledge to reading comprehension among those students. Spanish–English bilingual students in seventh grade (n = 107) completed a battery of standardized reading and language measures along with a researcher-designed measure of their knowledge of the academic senses of words that also have casual, everyday meanings. Item-response theory analyses and correlational analyses provided validity evidence for the assessment. Regression analyses indicated that students’ knowledge of academic senses of polysemous words predicted their reading comprehension, even after controlling for their knowledge of the casual sense of the same words, vocabulary breadth, and decoding skills. Findings suggest that comprehension of grade-level texts is uniquely predicted by the ability to recognize the meanings of familiar words when they appear in academic contexts.     

The role of question type and reading ability in reading comprehension

Performance on a standardized reading comprehension test reflects the number of correct answers readers select from a list of alternate choices, but fails to provide information about how readers cope with the various cognitive demands of the task. The aim of this study was to determine whether three groups of readers: normally achieving (NA), poor comprehenders (CD), with no decoding disability, and reading disabled (RD), poor comprehenders with poor decoding skills, differed in their ability to cope with reading comprehension task demands. Three task variables reflected in the question-answer relations that appear on standardized reading comprehension tests were identified.Passage Independent (PI) question can be answered with reasonable accuracy based on the reader's prior knowledge of the passage content.Inference (INFER) questions required the reader to generate an inference at the local or global test level.Locating (LOCAT) questions require the reader to match the correct answer choice to a detail explicitly stated in the text either verbatim or in paraphrase form. The relations among reader characteristics, cognitive task factors and reading comprehension test scores were analyzed using a structural relations equation with LISREL. It was found that the three reading groups differed with respect to the underlying relationship between their performance on specific question-answer types and their standardized reading comprehension score. For the NA group, a high score on PI was likely to be accompanied by a low score on INFER, whereas in the CD and RD groups, PI and INFER are positively related. The finding of a negative relationship between background knowledge and inference task factors for normally achieving readers suggests that even normal readers may have comprehension difficulties that go undetected on the basis of a standardized scores. This study indicates that current comprehension assessments may not be adequate for assessing specific reading difficulties and that more precise diagnostic tools are needed.     

In search of factors in deaf and hearing children's reading comprehension

The present study examined whether specific item characteristics, such as mode of acquisition (MoA) of word meanings, make reading comprehension tests particularly difficult for deaf children. Reading comprehension data on nearly 13,000 hearing 7-to-12-year-olds and 253 deaf 7-to-20-year-olds were analyzed, divided across test levels from second to sixth grade (not necessarily corresponding to chronological age). Factor analyses across item scores suggested that, of the determinants studied, MoA--referring to the type of information (perceptual, linguistic, or both) used in word meaning acquisition--was the only factor that contributed significantly to deaf and hearing children's reading comprehension. For hearing children, MoA influenced item scores at the third- and fourth-grade levels. For the deaf children, MoA influenced item scores through the sixth-grade level.     

运用语篇教学法提高英语阅读理解能力

阅读能力的培养是英语教学的重要环节,是提高学生综合语言运用能力的保障。语篇教学法是语篇分析在教学中的实际应用,它既注重语言知识的学习,又注重对文章主题、结构及体裁的分析,对于提高学生文章整体理解能力具有重要的指导作用。     

Effect of teacher questions on the reading comprehension of deaf children

We examined the effect of comprehension questions that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation on the reading comprehension of deaf children. The subjects were six deaf children ranging in age from 10 years, months to 12 years, 5 months. They were divided into four reading groups for the study. Quantitative analysis of the children's responses to comprehension questions indicated that the children could analyze, synthesize, and evaluate narrative text and their ability to do so did not need to be supported by answering questions related to story details. Qualitative analysis indicated that the children had some difficulty with seven reading tasks: locating pertinent information, applying relevant and accurate background knowledge, expressing themselves unambiguously, understanding the intent of the question, not relying too heavily or too little on background knowledge, considering consequential details, and providing sufficient answers.     

Mode of acquisition as a factor in deaf children's reading comprehension

This article examines the role of mode of acquisition (MoA) of word meanings in reading comprehension: children acquire word meanings using perceptual information (e.g., hearing, seeing, or smelling the referent) and/or linguistic information (e.g., verbal explanations). A total of 72 deaf and 99 hearing children between 7 and 15 years of age performed a self-paced reading task. Comprehension scores increased with age in both groups, but reading speed increased over age only for the hearing participants. For both groups, reading times on linguistically acquired words were longer than on perceptually acquired words. Although deaf children scored lower than hearing children in both conditions, comprehension scores for both groups were lower on linguistic items than on perceptual items. Thus, MoA influences reading comprehension, but the deaf show difficulty on both the perceptual and the linguistic items.     

Phonological processing, language comprehension, and reading ability

Previous research has indicated a relationship between reading ability and the integrity of certain phonological processing skills--skills that operate on the sound structure of language. This study shows how the deficient phonological processing skills of poor beginning readers can impair their comprehension of spoken phrases and sentences that are disambiguated by prosodic cues (i.e., pitch, stress, and pause). Following a brief summary of the available research literature, two new experiments are reported to illustrate that poor readers do not interpret certain sentences as accurately as good readers do, because they are less able to hold phonological material temporarily in working memory. Further insight into the basis of these differences between good and poor readers is provided by two additional pieces of evidence: The differences between good and poor readers are analogous to those between older and younger children readers, and the performance of poor readers tends to resemble that of younger children reading at their same level (i.e., reading-ability-matched controls). Apparently, good and poor readers tend to differ in the rate at which they develop phonological processing skills.     

How do general knowledge and reading strategies ability relate to reading comprehension of high school students at different educational levels?

The study examines the relationship between general knowledge, skills in applying reading strategies, and reading comprehension for ninth‐grade students at varying educational levels: academic, semi‐academic, vocational and learning disabilities. Two hundred and five students received a battery of tests evaluating their general knowledge, skills in applying four reading strategies (summary, self‐questioning, clarification and prediction), and two reading comprehension tests. The findings revealed differential contributions of general knowledge and strategy application to reading comprehension. Compared with the academic students, semi‐academics have deficient strategic skills. Vocational students, in addition to deficient strategic skills, have poor general knowledge, which further impedes their reading comprehension. The deficiency of students with learning disabilities goes beyond these two components. These results led us to recommend different foci of comprehension intervention for each group.     

浅谈如何提高学生的英语阅读理解能力

提高英语阅读理解能力,必须掌握足够的词汇量和正确的阅读技巧和方法。本文从词汇、理解技巧及阅读方法三个方面阐述了提高英语阅读理解能力的方法。     

Vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) reading comprehension ability

This study explored the role of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in reading comprehension ability of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) learners. One hundred ninety five CHL students participated in this study and completed a series of measures including two sets of vocabulary knowledge (one consisting of items pertaining to early exposure to spoken Chinese and the other comprised of items selected from a pool of words in Chinese as a foreign language classrooms), morphological awareness (structural awareness and functional awareness), and reading comprehension ability (lexical inference and passage comprehension). Drawing upon structural equation modeling with a bootstrap estimation method, the study found that vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness both contributed to reading comprehension among CHL learners. More critically, the results indicated that morphological awareness mediated the relation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in CHL learners. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses probed the relative contributions of vocabulary knowledge measures to morphological awareness and reading comprehension, and found that vocabulary knowledge acquired in formal Chinese instruction contributed to morphological awareness and reading comprehension, to a greater extent, than that gained through early exposure to spoken Chinese.     

论背景知识在阅读理解中的作用

背景知识的作用在近20年已引起语言学家的广泛注意。本文首先介绍了几种阅读理论，然后依据图式理论，阐述了该理论在阅读理解中的作用，认为充分利用读者所具有的图式，即背景知识，并发挥其认知能力，将会改查传统的阅读理解中所存在的不足之处，使读者在阅读理解中积极的参与思考，从而提高他们的理解技巧，使理解更快，更准确，更全面，最后指出该作用对教学的启发。     

Investigating the contributions of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies to L2 reading comprehension: an exploratory study

While a number of studies have investigated the influence of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies on comprehension, no L2 research exists examining and comparing the unique contributions of these two variables examined together. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the combined and individual contributions of background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies to reading comprehension. Data collected from 20 university-level English language learners were analyzed using regression analyses. The results indicated that background knowledge and reading comprehension strategies, operationalized as self-questioning, combined to account for a significant portion of variance in reading comprehension scores, with self-questioning being a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than background knowledge.     

Measuring college students' reading comprehension ability using cloze tests

Recent investigations challenge the construct validity of sustained silent reading tests. Performance of two groups of post‐secondary students (e.g. struggling and non‐struggling) on a sustained silent reading test and two types of cloze test (i.e. maze and open‐ended) was compared in order to identify the test format that contributes greater variance in reading comprehension. One hundred participants were recruited from students enrolled in a preparatory course for a high‐stakes statewide reading examination. Our results suggest that all three measures have good concurrent validity. There was no evidence that open‐ended cloze performance was more related to verbal ability than any other reading measure. Maze performance did the best job at discriminating between our struggling and non‐struggling readers. Implications for reading comprehension assessment in post secondary‐aged adults are discussed.     

语篇知识的利用与英语阅读能力的提高研究

语言存在于语篇之中,而不是句子之中。语言问题的研究离不开语篇分析。语篇分析对语言学研究具有重大的理论价值,语篇知识的掌握具有实际应用价值。在英语教学中,阅读、写作和翻译能力的提高及语法知识的掌握等都需要运用语篇知识。本文集中讨论语篇知识对学生英语阅读能力的影响,以及如何教授语篇知识的相关问题。     

Effect of phonological and morphological awareness on reading comprehension in Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities

This research explored phonological and morphological awareness among Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) and its effect on reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities. Participants included 39 seventh graders with RD and two matched control groups of normal readers: 40 seventh graders matched for chronological age (CA) and 38 third graders matched for reading age (RA). We assessed phonological awareness, word reading, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. Findings indicated that the RD group performed similarly to the RA group on phonological awareness but lower on phonological decoding. On the decontextualized morphological task, RD functioned on par with RA, whereas in a contextualized task RD performed above RA but lower than CA. In reading comprehension, RD performed as well as RA. Finally, results indicated that for normal readers contextual morphological awareness uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities, whereas no such unique contribution emerged for the RD group. The absence of an effect of morphological awareness in predicting reading comprehension was suggested to be related to a different recognition process employed by RD readers which hinder the ability of these readers to use morphosemantic structures. The lexical quality hypothesis was proposed as further support to the findings, suggesting that a low quality of lexical representation in RD students leads to ineffective reading skills and comprehension. Lexical representation is thus critical for both lexical as well as comprehension abilities.