Deficient syntactic control in poor readers: Is a weak phonetic memory code responsible?

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clause ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Memory Code ◽  
Normal Subject ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

ABSTRACTGroups of good and poor readers at second-grade level were tested for comprehension of adjectival constructions of the John is eager/easy to please types and of center-embedded relative clause constructions. The poor readers were inferior to good readers in understanding O-type adjectives (easy) but not S-type (eager). As well, they were poorer at comprehending embedded sentences, but only when the sentences described improbable events, ones which reversed the normal subject/object roles. When either noun could, on pragmatic grounds, assume either role, both groups fared equally well. The results are interpreted as casting doubt on recent assertions that deficient use of a phonetic memory code underlies the syntactic inferiority often seen in poor readers. A more pervasive linguistic immaturity is suggested as being involved.

A comparison of comprehension and production abilities of good and poor readers

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva G. Bar-Shalom ◽  
Stephen Crain ◽  
Donald Shankweiler
Keyword(s):  
Reading Disability ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Production Task ◽  
High Error Rate ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

ABSTRACTResearch from several sources indicates that reading disability is often associated with difficulty in comprehending some complex spoken sentences, including those with relative clauses. The present study exploits a new methodology, elicited production, to identify the source of comprehension difficulties of poor readers. Both the elicited production task and a conventional act-out task were employed in a study of 30 children (aged 7-8), who were selected for reading ability. On the act-out task, the poor readers displayed a high error rate on two relative clause structures (SO and OO relatives), as had been found by Mann, Shankweiler, and Smith (1984), but these structures were elicited from the poor readers as successfully as from the good readers (on more than 80% of trials).

The Pronunciation of Familiar, Unfamiliar and Synthetic Words by Good and Poor Adolescent Readers

1976 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra S. Smiley ◽  
Frank L. Pasquale ◽  
Cristine L. Chandler
Keyword(s):  
Word List ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Seventh Grade ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Adolescent Readers ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Actual Word

The word pronunciations of good and poor seventh-grade readers were compared to second-, fifth-, and sixth-grade readers previously tested on similar lists of actual and synthetic words. On the actual word list, poor readers correctly pronounced about the same number of words as a combined group of normal second- and fifth-grade readers, but fewer words than did the seventh-grade good readers. On the synthetic word list, the performance of the poor readers was comparable to good seventh-grade readers except for the long vowels where their performance most closely resembled poor second-grade readers. The implications of this pattern of results are discussed.

Syntactic comprehension in young poor readers

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne T. Smith ◽  
Paul Macaruso ◽  
Donald Shankweiler ◽  
Stephen Crain
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Specific Reading Disability ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Specific Reading ◽  
High Level ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
Pragmatic Aspects

ABSTRACTChildren with specific reading disability fail to understand some complex spoken sentences as well as good readers. This investigation sought to identify the source of poor readers' comprehension difficulties. Second-grade good and poor readers were tested on spoken sentences with restrictive relative clauses in two experiments designed to minimize demands on working memory. The methodological innovations resulted in a high level of performance by both reader groups, demonstrating knowledge of relative clause structure. The poor readers' performance closely paralleled that of the good readers both in pattern of errors and in awareness of the pragmatic aspects of relative clauses. The findings suggest that limitations in processing account for comprehension difficulties displayed by some poor readers in previous investigations.

scholarly journals Good and Poor Readers' Recall of Familiar and Unfamiliar Text

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara M. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Fifth Graders ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
Mean Difference ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Third Grade ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

This study investigated poor readers' use of prior knowledge in reading by comparing good and poor readers' recall of familiar and unfamiliar text. Thirty-one third graders and thirty-one fifth graders, reading on a third grade level, and twenty fifth graders, reading on a fifth grade level, read and orally recalled two third grade expository passages, one on a familiar topic and one on an unfamiliar topic, which were very similar in structure. Both fifth grade groups recalled more than the third graders on the familiar passage. The fifth grade good readers recalled more than the poor readers and third graders on the unfamiliar passage. All groups recalled more on the familiar than unfamiliar passage, but the poor readers' mean difference score between the two passages was greater than the other two groups' mean difference scores. These findings suggest that poor readers' comprehension, in particular, suffers when their use of prior knowledge is restricted, as when reading unfamiliar material. Also, it appears that poor readers can do an adequate job of comprehending if given familiar material to read on an appropriate level.

scholarly journals Flexibility of Schema Shifting in Good and Poor Readers

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A.R. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Free Recall ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Cognitive Structures ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
The Third ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

This study was designed to see whether good and poor readers show similar facility in shifting between familiar schemata in a listening comprehension task. Similar flexibility would mitigate an explanation of comprehension differences based on mediational control mechanisms in the deployment of cognitive structures. Twenty good and twenty poor readers at the third grade level listened to two short passages about very familiar daily activities. Comprehension of the second passage demanded a shift in schemata and only half of the children were explicitly cued to this shift. Analyses of free recall and interview responses indicated that although good readers recalled more information, there was similar flexibility of schema shifting for good and poor readers.

Deaf readers' comprehension of relative clause structures

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane C. Lillo-Martin ◽  
Vicki L. Hanson ◽  
Suzanne T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
American Sign ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Deaf Readers ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

ABSTRACTIt is commonly found that most deaf readers display an overall depressed level of reading performance in conjunction with specific difficulties in complex syntax. In this study, deaf good and poor readers' comprehension of relative clause structures was tested in written English, signed English, and American Sign Language. It was found that the behavior of deaf good and poor readers was parallel across relative clause sentence types, and that the deaf readers generally performed similarly to hearing readers tested in a different study. These results support the hypothesis that a specific syntactic disability does not differentiate deaf good and poor readers. Instead, it is suggested that a processing deficit may underlie the poor readers' comprehension difficulties.

Poor readers are not easy to fool: Comprehension of adjectives with exceptional control properties

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Macaruso ◽  
Donald Shankweiler ◽  
Brian Byrne ◽  
Stephen Crain
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Object Control ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

ABSTRACTAn earlier experiment by Byrne (1981) found that young, poor readers tend to act out sentences containing adjectives with object control, like easy, as though they were adjectives with subject control, like eager. Byrne interpreted this result as evidence that poor readers lag in the acquisition of syntactic knowledge underlying this distinction. However, the possibility that a processing limitation could have contributed to the poor readers' difficulties with objectcontrol adjectives had not been fully explored. In an effort to tease apart these alternatives, we tested comprehension of object-control adjectives in second grade good and poor readers, using both an act-out task and a sentence-picture matching task. Contrary to Byrne's (1981) results, we did not find significant group differences in interpreting object-control adjectives with either task. Reasons for the discrepancy are suggested, and remedies for the pitfalls in designing experiments to assess syntactic knowledge in young children are proposed.

The Impact of Reading Competence on the Ability to Take a Perspective

1979 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Grabe ◽  
Walt Prentice
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Vocabulary Test ◽  
Control Groups ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Reading Competence ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Impact

Students grouped as good or poor readers on the basis of a vocabulary test were asked to read a story from a certain perspective or with instructions to read carefully. While the groups given a perspective recalled more information than the control groups, the most interesting results came from the significant interaction of reading ability, reading instruction and type of information. Relative to good readers in the control condition, good readers given a perspective responded with greater recall of information related to the perspective. The poor readers appeared unable or unwilling to use the perspective in differentially processing the perspective relevant sentences.

The Application of the Boder Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns To the Assessment of Learning Disabilities in French Immersion Poor Readers

1988 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Corrinne A. Wiss ◽  
Wendy Burnett
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
French Immersion ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Reading Problems ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Spelling Errors ◽  
Assessment Of Learning ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

The Boder Test of Reading-Spelling Patterns (Boder & Jarrico, 1982) is a widely used method for screening and defining reading problems at the level of the word. In order to apply this method in another language, in this case French, criteria for determining what constitutes a good phonetic equivalent for a misspelled word are required. It is essential to know which errors differentiate good and poor readers since errors that are commonly made by good readers are not diagnostic. This paper reports guidelines which have been developed by analyzing spelling errors in a sample of good and poor French immersion readers. These criteria for good phonetic equivalents can be applied, along with the method outlined in the Boder test manual, and used as an assessment tool for screening decoding and encoding problems in French immersion children. When used in conjunction with the English test, the assessment provides bilingual comparisons and guidelines for remedial programming.

Auditory Evoked Responses to Similar Words with Phonemic Difference: Comparison between Children with Good and Poor Reading Scores

2001 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 160-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Valencia ◽  
Gloria B. McAnulty ◽  
Deborah P. Waber ◽  
Frank H. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Poor Reader ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potentials ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Poor Reading ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Parietal Area ◽  
Long Latency ◽  
Lower Amplitude ◽  
Reader Group ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

Our previous study demonstrated a physiologic deficit in two-tone discrimination in poor readers. 1 This was specific to the left parietal area suggesting that poor readers handled rapid tones differently. The current paper extends this finding in the same population, demonstrating that poor readers also have difficulty with phonemic discrimination. Long latency auditory evoked potentials (AEP) were formed using a phonemic discrimination task in a group of children with reading disabilities and controls. Measuring peak-to-peak amplitude of the waveforms, we found reduced N1-P2 amplitude in the Poor Reader group. Using the t-statistic significance probability map (SPM) technique, we also found a group difference, maximal over the mid-parietal area, from 584 msec to 626 msec after the stimulus onset. This difference was due to a lower amplitude on the Poor Reader group. We hypothesized that this late difference constitutes a P3 response and that the Poor Reader group generated smaller P3 waves. These auditory evoked response (AER) data support a discrimination deficit for close phonemes in the Poor Reader group as they had smaller N1-P2 absolute amplitude and developed smaller P3 waves. Based on these data we should be able to differentiate between Good and Poor readers based on long latency potentials created from phonemic stimuli.

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