Motivational and Cognitive Predictors of Text Comprehension and Reading Amount

Motivational variables contribute to reading achievement and text comprehension through several paths. We report the results of 2 studies further examining these relations. Study 1 included 3rd and 5th graders. We measured their motivation and reading amount with questionnaires and their text comprehension with 2 performance tests. Results revealed that reading amount significantly predicted text comprehension on 2 different indicators, even when the contributions of past reading achievement, prior topic knowledge, self-efficacy for reading, and reading motivation were controlled statistically. Study 1 also showed that reading motivation significantly predicted reading amount when past reading achievement, prior topic knowledge, and self-efficacy were controlled. In Study 2, we investigated the same variables among students in Grades 8 and 10 from a nationally representative data set. Similar to Study 1, the results showed that reading amount significantly predicted text comprehension with other variables controlled. Further, motivation predicted reading amount with other variables controlled and directly predicted text comprehension. Findings were interpreted as supporting a process of attunement of motivational and cognitive goals as a function of time.     

语篇理论在高级英语教学中的运用

高级英语是英语专业学生高年级阶段开设的一门专业必修课程.文章认为,高级英语教学中,教师应该遵循语篇理解过程的规律,运用语篇教学理论,引导学生分析学习语篇技巧,提高学生的语篇理解能力和文学鉴赏能力等.     

What oral text reading fluency can reveal about reading comprehension

Text reading fluency – the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation – has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor to reading comprehension outcomes in addition to decoding efficiency and language comprehension. One hundred and six Dutch primary school children from fourth grade participated in this study and were assessed on decoding efficiency, vocabulary, syntactic ability, reading fluency performance and reading comprehension skills. Regression analysis showed that text reading prosody, not text reading rate, explained additional variance in reading comprehension performance when decoding efficiency and language comprehension were controlled for. This result suggests that the inclusion of text reading prosody as an aspect of text reading fluency is justified and that a natural intonation is associated with better comprehension of what is read.     

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.     

Slow and fast adult readers in text comprehension

Reading speed is a component of reading ability tests designed to separate «good» and «poor» readers. The purpose of the two experiments reported in this paper were to study whether slow and fast adult readers differ in terms of the subprocesses involved in textual organization. For this, two variables were manipulated: title and type of text. Subjects were classified as slow and fast readers based on the median value of the distribution of reading times on a preliminary text. Data clearly show that reading speed is a reliable individual characteristic. In Experiment 1, the recall performance of slow and fast readers did not differ. No interaction between reading speed and the title and type of text variables were observed. In Experiment 2, these results were replicated and extended to a summary test. So, it appears that slow and fast readers do not process textual organization in a different way and show identical comprehension performances. Further research is necessary to identify those factors that characterize good comprehenders among slow and fast readers.     

语境理论与英语阅读教学

语言的运用离不开语境，语境对于交际中话语的理解起着关键的作用。英语阅读教学，实际上是以语言单位为载体，交际环境为依托而展开的信息交流过程；语境理论有助于理解交际的意图和语篇的意义。从而保持语篇连贯性。借助语境进行语篇分析是我们正确理解词义、句义，并实现阅读目的的必由之路。     

衔接与评价分析在英语阅读教学中的运用

在大学英语阅读教学中,语篇结构知识有助于宏观理解,对那些使语篇得以保持衔接连贯的因素的分析有利于理解语篇的建构过程。其中,对衔接手段的分析有助于在语篇表面快速把握文章的发展脉络,对评价资源的分析有助于准确解读文章如何实现语义层的连贯。根据语篇结构的不同,两种分析方法相互渗透,交替使用,可增强学生的语篇理解能力。     

Research on action–emotion style and study habits: Effects of individual differences on learning and academic performance of undergraduate students

The present study addresses two objectives regarding motivational and affective variables which affect undergraduate students' learning outcomes. In this investigation, we (1) built an empirical model based on the presage–process–product paradigm to clarify potential effects of study habits and of action–emotion style (a classification resulting from analyses of the components of the Type-A Behavior Pattern) on students' academic performance; and (2) evaluated relations of inter-dependence between levels of TABP components, study habits and undergraduate students' academic performance. We used two different samples of 360 and 409 university students from different programs at a university in southeastern Spain. Findings suggest that action–emotion style is a predictor for explaining students' individual differences in motivation and learning outcomes. The research results of this study, although exploratory in nature, are discussed with respect to implications at the research and practical level.     

Assessing Reading Comprehension: The Effects of Text-Based Interest,Gender, and Ability

Previous research has established that interest in a text is related to better comprehension and recall, but the impact of interest on comprehension in testing situations has not been widely investigated. This study used Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) to examine the relationship between students' interest in reading passages and their performance on reading comprehension test items over those passages. The study involved 19,735 students in Grades 4 through 8. Stimuli consisted of 98 different reading passages. A small but significant relationship between interest and test performance was found, which was stronger for girls and for students of higher ability levels. A second HLM analysis was employed to explore whether certain passage characteristics were associated with higher or lower interest. The implications for test construction are discussed.     

Children’s Reading Comprehension and Oral Reading Fluency in Easy Text

This study explored third-graders’ oral reading fluency (ORF) in easy text in relation to their third- and fourth-grade reading comprehension. It also examined the children’s performance on two different measures of text exposure, a self-report questionnaire and a title-recognition test. Although third-graders’ ORF related significantly to their reading comprehension, oral language comprehension accounted for most of the variance in reading comprehension, whereas single word reading speed accounted for most of the variance in ORF. Third-grade reading comprehension and ORF each predicted unique variance in children’s scores on a fourth-grade state-mandated reading comprehension assessment. Scores on the self-report questionnaire correlated significantly with third-grade ORF and fourth-grade reading; the self-report accounted for reliable variance in ORF even with all of the other reading ability variables entered first. Results are consistent with the viewpoint that text exposure affects reading fluency. They also demonstrate that ORF is a valuable predictor of middle-elementary children’s reading comprehension, even when the ORF measure employs very easy text in which children achieve near-perfect word accuracy.     

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.     

Working memory capacity and comprehension processes in deaf readers

This research studied deaf students' performance on memory span and component reading tasks that incorporated processes involved in higher level comprehension. The instruments developed in the study provide the basis for the measurement of functional working memory capacity, vocabulary knowledge, domain-relevant knowledge, and inference abilities. Multiple regression analysis was used to construct models that show the contributions of the independent assessments to reading comprehension ability. Overall results suggest that working memory operates as a general executive system, as indicated by significant correlations between subjects' performance on reading and nonreading tasks. Limitations in vocabulary knowledge continue to pose problems in reading for deaf individuals. General or procedural knowledge also plays a part in reading comprehension processes.     

数学建模与数学实验课程的改革与实践

数学专业开设的＂数学建模与数学实验＂课程在教学过程中以多媒体教学为手段,并借助于MATLAB等数学软件培养学生的实践能力、创新意识。在教学内容、教学手段、考核方式、实践训练等方面进行改革尝试,促使学生掌握数学建模的基本理论,并且使学生能够学以致用,在数学建模、软件设计、团队协作等各个方面得到了锻炼。     

Phonological skills and reading comprehension

In the present study the mainfocus is on the impact of phonologicalawareness on reading comprehension. The studyinvolved 1300 children in Grade 1. Syllableawareness, phoneme awareness, word decodingand reading comprehension were each assessedwith two or three subtests. The results wereanalyzed by structural modeling. Due to themarked skewness observed for some of themanifest variables, separate analyses wereperformed for students with average worddecoding performance and for students with poorword decoding. Both among average and poordecoders, phonological awareness had a directimpact on reading comprehension, indicatingthat phonological factors play an independentrole in the processing of text. One possibleway to explain this observation is that atleast two critical factors in comprehension,vocabulary and short-term memory, are bothdetermined in part by phonological ability. Itmight also be the case that phonologicalawareness partly reflects metacognitiveprocesses assumed to be involved in readingcomprehension.     

A profile of causal development amongst ten-year-olds: Implications for reading and writing

Causality has been singled out by several researchers as an important factor in text comprehension and memory. The basic assumption underlying this view is that the perception of causal ties between elements in a text binds the text elements together and enables the reader to construct a coherent representation of the text in memory. Although research findings indicate that causality is a strong predictor of comprehension in narrative texts, the role that causality plays in the comprehension of expository texts has received relatively little attention. In the research reported in this article, a profile of causal development in ten-year-olds was built up on the basis of their recall of history and science texts in which the amount of causal connectivity differed. Four variables were identified and measured, namely length of recall protocols, amount of causal connections recalled from original test passages, amount of causal density and causal hierarchicalization created in the recall protocols. The results of the recall test were also compared to the subjects' English grades. The findings indicate that causal connections play an important role in expository text recall, and that subjects who have a strong causal profile also, generally, perform well in English. The research and pedagogical implications of these findings for reading and writing skills are discussed.     

The role of linguistic features in science and math comprehension and performance: A systematic review and desiderata for future research

There is a growing body of research on the role of linguistic features (LF) in comprehension and performance in science and math. Of particular interest is which LF facilitate or hinder comprehension. In this systematic review, we provide an overview of findings on LF at the word, sentence and text levels, on comprehension and performance in science and math. Our literature search revealed n = 40 articles included in this review. Overall, the role of LF in comprehension and performance in science and math is complex, with findings varying across the different LF. For each LF, we discuss the findings and uncover remaining questions. In the general discussion, we uncover strengths and weaknesses of previous research and discuss open questions before making eight recommendations and identifying tasks for future research aiming to understand the complex nature of LF.     

Does rhetorical competence moderate the effect of rhetorical devices on the comprehension of expository texts beyond general comprehension skills?

Many studies have demonstrated the facilitating role of rhetorical devices in text comprehension, but there are also studies where rhetorical devices have not shown such effect. The present study sets out to explore whether readers’ knowledge of rhetorical devices (that is, rhetorical competence) moderates their effectiveness beyond general comprehension skills and, consequently, whether rhetorical competence may be considered a component skill of reading comprehension. 192 sixth- to seventh-grade students were assessed on rhetorical competence and were required to read a difficult marked text with specific rhetorical devices (a refutation, an objective, and four organizational signals) or the same text without them. After reading, students produced a summary in order to obtain three dependent variables: main ideas (as a measure of participants’ ability to select relevant information from the text), causal links between them (as an indicator of participants’ ability to grasp the logical structure of the text and to organize its ideas), and the combination of main ideas plus causal links (as an indicator of participants’ global comprehension of the text). Analyses controlling for general comprehension skills and other important variables (working memory, prior knowledge, decoding) demonstrated that: (a) readers of the marked text scored higher in terms of all dependent variables, and (b) rhetorical competence level moderated the effect of rhetorical devices on the composite measure (main ideas plus causal links) and on the organization of the summary by means of causal links.     

语篇衔接与连贯理论在听力教学中的应用

本文借鉴语篇衔接与连贯理论,探讨该理论在听力教学中的运用和指导意义,在听力教学过程中,教师应帮助学生构建图式,依靠认知语境,展开联想,推测话语的真正含义,以期达到正确理解语篇,提高听力理解水平的目的。     

THE EFFECTS OF VIOLATIONS OF UNIDIMENSIONALITY ON THE ESTIMATION OF ITEM AND ABILITY PARAMETERS AND ON ITEM RESPONSE THEORY EQUATING OF THE GRE VERBAL SCALE

One of the major assumptions of item response theory (IRT)models is that performance on a set of items is unidimensional, that is, the probability of successful performance by examinees on a set of items can be modeled by a mathematical model that has only one ability parameter. In practice, this strong assumption is likely to be violated. An important pragmatic question to consider is: What are the consequences of these violations? In this research, evidence is provided of violations of unidimensionality on the verbal scale of the GRE Aptitude Test, and the impact of these violations on IRT equating is examined. Previous factor analytic research on the GRE Aptitude Test suggested that two verbal dimensions, discrete verbal (analogies, antonyms, and sentence completions)and reading comprehension, existed. Consequently, the present research involved two separate calibrations (homogeneous) of discrete verbal items and reading comprehension items as well as a single calibration (heterogeneous) of all verbal item types. Thus, each verbal item was calibrated twice and each examinee obtained three ability estimates: reading comprehension, discrete verbal, and all verbal. The comparability of ability estimates based on homogeneous calibrations (reading comprehension or discrete verbal) to each other and to the all-verbal ability estimates was examined. The effects of homogeneity of item calibration pool on estimates of item discrimination were also examined. Then the comparability of IRT equatings based on homogeneous and heterogeneous calibrations was assessed. The effects of calibration homogeneity on ability parameter estimates and discrimination parameter estimates are consistent with the existence of two highly correlated verbal dimensions. IRT equating results indicate that although violations of unidimensionality may have an impact on equating, the effect may not be substantial.