Children's difficulties in reading comprehension

This paper outlines a number of studies that have investigated the difficulties experienced by children who have a specific comprehension problem: Those who have adequate word recognition skills but who, nevertheless, have difficulty understanding text. In the studies I will discuss, the performance of a group of skilled comprehenders was compared with that of a less-skilled group. The first set of studies show that the poor comprehenders have difficulty in integrating information in a text and in making inferences. A further set of studies suggests that, although such children do not have any straightforward short-term memory problem, they may have difficulty in holding and manipulating information in working memory as they are reading. A final study shows that the comprehension of the less-skilled children can be improved by a series of short training sessions that stress making inferences and integrating information in text. This finding suggests that a working-memory deficit may only be one aspect of the less-skilled comprehenders' problem.     

英语阅读中的默读与朗读

阅读是一种技巧,掌握了这种技巧,学生们就会如虎添翼,阅读能力大大提高。阅读有多种方法,本文主要谈论默读和朗读两种阅读技巧。通过默读和朗读,可提高学生阅读理解力和阅读速度,锻炼学生英语表达能力,并帮助学生在听、说、写等方面得到进一步提高。     

Motivation for reading comprehension

In a sample of 104 Norwegian ninth-grade students, we examined whether perceived reading efficacy and reading task value uniquely predicted the comprehension of a social studies text after variance associated with gender, achievement in the domain, topic knowledge, deeper strategies, and surface strategies had been removed through forced-order hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Results showed that even after removing variance from these variables, the motivation constructs accounted for additional variance. However, only reading task value was a statistically significant positive predictor of reading comprehension, whereas the relationship between reading efficacy and reading comprehension did not reach statistical significance. Thus, reading task value seems particularly important because it can override the contributions of other important constructs. In terms of education, the findings suggest that an emphasis on cognitive constructs such as prior knowledge and strategic text-processing should not make us overlook the specific importance of promoting motivation for reading comprehension.     

Schema effects in EFL reading comprehension

Schemata are known to play an important a role in reading comprehension. Comprehension is seen as the interaction between top-down processing from activated schemata and bottom-up processing from concepts expressed by the text. If readers activate an inappropriate schema, they may miss the meaning of the text. The present study examines the effects of faulty schemata on reading comprehension. At the end of an advanced English reading course at Haifa University, a test of reading comprehension was administered to 125 students. One section of the test contained an advanced level text about love and marriage, a text close to the personal experience of the examinees. Using dictionaries, students translated expressions and sentences and answered short-answer comprehension questions in English. Results indicated that 23% of the wrong answers to the comprehension questions were driven by schemata which differed substantially from the actual content of the text.     

英语阅读理解应试技巧初探

该文主要叙述了英语阅读理解测试的方向和目的，总结了归纳了阅读测试的5大题型及其应试技巧。     

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 comprehension intervention for children with reading comprehension difficulties

Abstract

Many students in Australian schools today experience difficulty understanding read text beyond Year 3 despite early intervention and rich learning experiences. Often the first indications that such students may have reading comprehension difficulties is from poor performance on comprehension tests in fourth grade. After Year 3 the written text becomes more complex and there is an increasing emphasis on reading comprehension. Less skilled comprehenders experience difficulties because they often use inefficient memory strategies and do not normally visualise story content. Readers with comprehension difficulties can be taught to construct mental imagery that will enable them to link verbal and imaginal information more efficiently into their working memory by reducing the cognitive load. The indications are that engaging readers in elaborative questioning and discussion of the text improves reader's own language and mental imagery as well as enhancing comprehension of read text. For readers who have struggled for years and have developed a resistance to reading, a literacy tutoring intervention framework that focuses on a personalised responsive relationship‐based approach to reading, combined with interesting text and student choice of appropriate material, can facilitate improved reading. The Comprehension of the Narrative intervention program is an example of a multiple strategy training intervention program that utilises explicit strategy instruction in a framework of measured stages while also increasing the level and complexity of the reading texts used. It has been shown that participating students are enabled to build on previously mastered skills and develop more effective higher order comprehension outcomes through focused dialogue with trained tutors.     

主述位理论与英语阅读理解

阅读作为英语学习策略之一,长期以来一直是英语学习中探索的重点和核心。探讨阅读理解的理论模式以及阅读技巧,成为研究者所关注的焦点。文章基于韩礼德的功能语法,从语篇功能的主述位结构探讨阅读理解,论证其在操作上的适用性和可行性,为英语阅读教学提供一个新的视角。     

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.     

The role of reading comprehension in word meaning acquisition during reading

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of reading comprehension on the acquisition of word meanings from context and to compare it to the effects of local context characteristics, such as proximity and directness of context clues. The study also examined the effects of prior topic and enabling concept knowledge. Sixth-grade students were pretested on their knowledge of target vocabulary from two expository passages appropriate for their grade and reading level. The students were then familiarized with selected main concepts from one passage and, subsequently, read both experimental passages. Half of the target words appeared in an informative context, while the rest appeared in an less-informative context. A comprehension test and a vocabulary posttest followed the reading of each passage. Hierarchical Regression analyses indicated that reading comprehension level and prior main concept knowledge facilitated vocabulary learning from context. In comparison, the effect of presence or absence of informative context clues was not significant. These findings, underline the need for a reconceptualization of context to take into account the mental representation that readers construct in addition to the printed text that surrounds an unfamiliar word.     

Role of reading engagement in mediating effects of reading comprehension instruction on reading outcomes

The engagement model of reading development suggests that instruction improves students' reading comprehension to the extent that it increases students' engagement processes in reading. We compared how Concept‐Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) (support for cognitive and motivational processes in reading), strategy instruction (support for cognitive strategies in reading), and traditional instruction in fourth‐grade classrooms differentially influenced students' reading comprehension, strategy use, and engagement in reading. Students experiencing CORI were significantly higher than both comparison groups on reading comprehension, reading strategies, and reading engagement. When students' level of reading engagement was statistically controlled, the differences between the treatment groups were not significant. We infer that the level of students' reading engagement during classroom work mediated the instructional effects on reading outcomes. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

对大学英语六级考试阅读理解部分的分析

通过对大学英语六级考试阅读理解部分进行测试重点、考题形式等方面的分析，指出学生必须具备扎实的语言基础，灵活运用词汇与语法。     

The relationship between reading comprehension strategies and reading attitudes

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between levels of reading comprehension strategy use, reading attitudes, and the amount of reading per year among elementary school students. The study was conducted with 1316 students (649 girls and 667 boys) attending the fourth and fifth grades of 15 elementary schools in Denizli, Turkey. Stratified Sampling Method was employed to obtain data using Reading Attitude Scale (RAS) and Reading Comprehension Strategies Scale (RCSS). The analyses indicate that reading attitude is a significant predictor of the level of reading comprehension strategies used by students (R² = 0.44). The findings show that there is a negative and low-level relationship (r = ?0.054) between daily time spent reading and the level of strategy used, and a positive and low-level relationship (r = 0.01) between the level of strategy used and the number of books that a child reads per year.     

Toward modeling reading comprehension and reading fluency in English language learners

This study investigated the adequacy of an expanded simple view of reading (SVR) framework for English language learners (ELLs), using mediation modeling approach. The proposed expanded SVR included reading fluency as an outcome and phonological awareness and naming speed as predictors. To test the fit of the proposed mediation model, longitudinal data from 308 ELLs from different linguistic backgrounds were analyzed using structural equation modeling. We examined the mediating role of Grade 2 word-level reading skills in the association between Grade 1 phonological awareness, naming speed, and listening comprehension and Grade 3 reading comprehension and reading fluency. The results indicated that word-level reading skills fully mediated the association between phonological awareness, reading comprehension and reading fluency. Word-level reading skills partially mediated the association between naming speed and reading fluency. Listening comprehension contributed directly to reading comprehension and reading fluency. It appears that reading development in ELLs is better understood when reading fluency is added to the SVR framework as an outcome and naming speed as a building block of SVR. Theoretical aspects of the mediation model in relation to ELL reading development are also addressed.     

浅析考研英语阅读理解命题趋势及解题策略

阅读理解在全国硕士研究生入学英语考试中占有很大的比重,为整个试卷的40%,很多考生虽下了很大的功夫,但效果不十分理想。本文结合作者多年的考研辅导经验与心得体会,分析考研英语阅读理解部分的大纲要求、命题趋势,提出应对策略。     

Oral reading fluency,reading motivation and reading comprehension among second graders

The relationships between oral reading fluency, reading motivation and reading comprehension were examined at the beginning and the end of second grade among 121 Hebrew speaking students. The contribution of oral reading fluency and three sub-factors of motivation—self-concept as a reader, value attached to reading and literacy outloud (social interactions about literacy)—at the beginning of the school year to reading comprehension at the end of the year was also examined. Results indicate that all oral reading fluency measures and all motivational sub-factors were significantly correlated with reading comprehension at the end of second grade. In addition, positive change in self-concept as a reader along the school year was related to improvement in reading achievement. Finally, text rate and self-concept as a reader at the beginning of second grade together predicted 28% of the variance in reading comprehension at the end of second grade. The results support the notion that the cognitive approach to reading cannot explain all the variance in reading comprehension and emphasize the necessity of including motivational factors in the language arts curriculum in the early stages of reading acquisition.