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).

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.

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 Effect of Prior Knowledge on the Question Answering of Good and Poor Readers

1983 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty C. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Question Answering ◽  
Reading Level ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
New Information ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the question answering of good and poor readers when their prior knowledge for the answers to questions was determined before reading to be accurate, inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. Fifty-six fifth-grade students with equivalent I.Q.'s, but varying in reading ability and extent of general prior knowledge for the passage topics, participated in the study. Subjects read an expository passage written on their approximate instructional reading level. The results indicated that poor readers did not use prior knowledge to the same extent as did good readers. This was especially true when students were learning new information. The results also suggest that poor readers have difficulty answering text implicit questions even if they possess adequate prior knowledge for passage topics.

Effects of Reading Ability on Children's Comprehension Evaluation and Regulation

1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Zabrucky ◽  
Hilary Horn Ratner
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Verbal Report ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Comprehension Monitoring ◽  
Verbal Reports ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
On Line ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
Multidimensional Process

Good and poor readers in the sixth grade ( M age = 11.92 years) were videotaped reading inconsistent stories presented one sentence at a time. Children's comprehension evaluation was assessed with on-line (reading times) and verbal report measures; comprehension regulation was assessed by examining look-backs during reading. All children read inconsistencies more slowly than consistent control information but good readers were more likely than poor readers to look back at inconsistencies during reading, to give accurate verbal reports of passage consistency following reading, and to recall text inconsistencies. Results highlight the importance of using multiple comprehension monitoring measures in assessing children's abilities and of treating comprehension monitoring as a multidimensional process.

Dichotic Listening to Temporal Tonal Stimuli by Good and Poor Readers

1997 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Harel ◽  
Israel Nachson
Keyword(s):  
Reading Disability ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Hemispheric Dominance ◽  
Poor Reading ◽  
Ear Advantage ◽  
Temporal Stimuli ◽  
Right Ear Advantage ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
Tonal Stimuli

The hypothesis that reading disability is associated with impairment in the lateralization of temporal stimuli was tested by presenting 123 good- and poor-reading boys (Grades 4 through 6) with dichotic sets of temporal and nontemporal tonal stimuli for recognition. Reading ability was assessed by measuring proficiency in reading consonants, vowels, words, sentences and short stories. On the tone test, good readers showed a right-ear advantage in reporting the temporal stimuli, and a left-ear advantage in reporting the nontemporal stimuli. Poor readers showed the reversed pattern of response. Since right-ear advantage in report of given stimuli indicates left-hemispheric dominance for processing those stimuli, the data seem to suggest a link between reading disability and left-hemispheric dysfunction in processing temporal stimuli.

Picture-Naming Interference with Good and Poor Readers

1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Guttentag
Keyword(s):  
Picture Naming ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Third Grade ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Pictures And Words ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

22 third grade children of high and low reading ability ( ns = 11) were tested for their ability to name pictures while trying to ignore words or nonword strings of letters printed inside the pictures. Nonoverlapping sets of pictures and words were used as stimuli to avoid the possibility of sensitizing subjects to the particular words used in the experiment (Neisser, 1976). Both groups experienced mote interference from intra-category than extra-category words, indicating that they processed the words automatically. Only the good readers experienced more interference from pseudowords than consonant strings, suggesting that poor readers are less sensitive than good readers to orthographic regularity.

Grammatical knowledge of third grade good and poor readers

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVA E. WALTZMAN ◽  
HELEN S. CAIRNS
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Sentence Type ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Third Grade ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
Grammatical Knowledge ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Reading Groups ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
And Control

The relationship between grammatical knowledge and reading ability in third grade good and poor readers was investigated. Two aspects of grammar – binding and control – were assessed to determine whether poor readers had syntactic deficits. These principles both relate to the interpretation of pronominal elements. Interpretations were assessed through a sentence–picture matching task in which picture depictions of all the possible interpretations of pronominal elements in verbally presented sentences were included. The only sentence type that differentiated the two reading groups was performance on sentences related to one of the binding principles, Principle B. Since obedience to Principle B probably involves pragmatic as well as syntactic principles, this finding suggests another way that good readers may differ from 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.

Sensitivity to Orthographic Structure as a Function of Grade and Reading Ability

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Allington
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Zero Order ◽  
School Experience ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Achievement Level ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Direct Function ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
The One ◽  
Good And Poor Readers

Good and poor readers at two grade levels were presented with zero-order and fourth-order approximations of English words. They were directed to select the one item in each pair that was most wordlike. Results show significant differences were found between older poor readers and younger good readers whose reading ability was equivalent. These results were interpreted as providing support for the hypothesis that orthographic sensitivity is a direct function of reading achievement level, not age or school experience in general.

The association between comprehension of spoken sentences and early reading ability: the role of phonetic representation

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia A. Mann ◽  
Donald Shankweiler ◽  
Suzanne T. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
Early Reading ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Syntactic Development ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
Phonetic Representation

ABSTRACTWhen repeating spoken sentences, children who are good readers tend to be more accurate than poor readers because they are able to make more effective use of phonetic representation in the service of working memory (Mann, Liberman & Shankweiler 1980). This study of good and poor readers in the third grade has assessed both the repetition and comprehension of relative-clause sentences to explore more fully the association between early reading ability, spoken sentence processing and use of phonetic representation. It was found that the poor readers did less well than the good readers on sentence comprehension as well as on sentence repetition, and that their comprehension errors reflected a greater reliance on two sentence-processing strategies favoured by young children: the minimum-distance principle and conjoined-clause analysis. In general, the pattern of results is consonant with a view that difficulties with phonetic representation could underlie the inferior sentence comprehension of poor beginning readers. The finding that these children place greater reliance on immature processing strategies raises the further possibility that the tempo of their syntactic development may be slower than that of good readers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document