Children's Monitoring of Another's Comprehension: Effects of Reading Ability and Context

1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Kirby ◽  
Warwick R. Teasdale
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Comprehension Monitoring ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Prior Context ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Below Average Readers

Previous research has shown that children do not monitor their own comprehension very well when reading. Theories have been advanced which emphasize the roles of capabilities and strategies in inhibiting monitoring; at least one crucial factor is that children often do not perceive that errors are possible in text. This paper describes the development of a task, the inserted cloze task, in which children are required to judge the correctness of another child's comprehension. This task elicits comprehension monitoring quite easily. An empirical study of above and below average readers in Years 3 and 4 is reported. Their performance indicates that use of prior context within the sentence poses little difficulty for either group of readers. However use of within-sentence following context is most likely in simple texts, and is the only measure which differentiates the better readers from the less able. These results demonstrate that comprehension can be elicited from even less skilled readers, but that the amount of context which must be considered is an important factor. A possible hierarchy of comprehension skills is discussed, and suggestions for the teaching of these skills are presented. It is concluded that the inserted cloze task would be useful in teaching comprehension monitoring.

scholarly journals Fostering Comprehension Monitoring in below Average Readers through Self-Instruction Training

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gloria E. Miller ◽  
Andrea Giovenco ◽  
Katheryn A. Rentiers
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Expository Texts ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Comprehension Monitoring ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Ability Levels ◽  
Instruction Effect ◽  
Self Instruction ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Below Average Readers

The benefits of self-instruction training on the comprehension monitoring performances of below average and above average readers were examined. Fourth- and fifth-grade students were tested on their ability to detect between-sentence contradictions in short expository texts after receiving either three sessions of self-instruction or equivalent didactic instruction. Additionally, generalization was assessed on text passages different from those employed during training and on postreading monitoring measures. A significant self-instruction effect was found for both reading ability levels on all of these measures. Moreover, the below average readers performed at a level commensurate with their higher ability peers on the transfer measures. It was concluded that self-instruction training was successful in enhancing student's regulatory processing during reading.

Amount of Verbal Information and Ear-Differences in 5- and 6-Year-Old Boys and Girls

1976 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. John Van Duyne ◽  
Bruno J. D'Alonzo ◽  
David Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Reading Ability ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Brain Lateralization ◽  
Verbal Information ◽  
Verbal Instructions ◽  
Reading Abilities ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Below Average Readers ◽  
Better Than

Two experiments were performed. The first was to determine the effects of varying the amount of information in verbal instructions presented monaurally on differences between ears and sexes in 5-yr.-old boys and girls. Verbal instructions were given for the performance of a visual-motor task. The results indicated that the amount of verbal information affects ear-asymmetry in girls and not boys. The second experiment was performed to determine the effects of varying the amount of verbal information in verbal instructions presented monaurally on differences between ears, sexes, and reading ability of 6-yr.-old boys and girls. The findings indicated that above average readers performed better than below average readers. Ear-asymmetry was observed across sex and reading abilities for sentences containing 7 and 8 stimulus attributes. No ear-asymmetry was observed in sentences containing 9 stimulus attributes. The results appear to support the progressive lateralization hypothesis which states that ear-asymmetry is dependent on task conditions. The results also support sex differences in the development of brain lateralization.

Children Read Normal and Reversed Letters: A Simple Test of Reading Skill

1975 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Staller ◽  
Robert Sekuler
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Image ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Naming Time ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Normal Orientation ◽  
Good And Poor Readers ◽  
Image Orientation ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Below Average Readers

Above- and below-average readers in grades 3, 5 and 7 named letters under two conditions. In one condition, letters were presented in normal orientation. In the other condition, letters were presented in left-right mirror image orientation. The ratio of (1) naming time on normal letters to (2) naming time on mirror image letters was calculated for each child. Good readers had lower ratios than poor readers. This was due primarily to the faster naming of normal letters by good readers. Good and poor readers named mirror image letters at similar speeds. Two possible explanations for the results are discussed. One explanation is that the skilled readers have a better memory for the normal orientation of the letter shapes. A second explanation is that skilled readers process more peripheral information, when naming, than their less skilled counterparts, but that this peripheral processing is curtailed when transformed text is presented.

Metacognitive Abilities of Above and below Average Readers: Effects of Conceptual Tempo, Passage Level, and Error Type on Error Detection

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence G. Erickson ◽  
Steven A. Stahl ◽  
Steven D. Rinehart
Keyword(s):  
Error Detection ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Sixth Grade ◽  
Metacognitive Skills ◽  
Error Type ◽  
Difficulty Judgment ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Below Average Readers ◽  
Conceptual Tempo

A number of researchers have suggested recently that differences between good and poor comprehenders lie in differences in metacognitive skills. This study examines one of the paradigms used to measure metacognitive skill–the error detection task. Seventy-four above and below grade level sixth graders were asked to detect order changes and nonsense word substitutions in third-grade and sixth-grade level passages. It was found that conceptual tempo (impulsivity/reflectivity), passage readability, and error type, as well as reading ability, all influenced the performance of these children on the error detection tasks. No differences were found between above and below average readers on two other metacognitive tasks, a reading difficulty judgment, and a knowledge and purposes of reading interview. Results indicate that conceptual tempo should be considered in any explanation of the relationship between metacognitive monitoring and reading ability.

Audiovisual Equivalence of Stimuli in Acquisition of Associations at Two Reading Levels

1974 ◽  
Vol 38 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1271-1274
Author(s):  
Robert M. Alworth
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Paired Associate ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Delayed Presentation ◽  
Associate Learning ◽  
Reading Levels ◽  
Average Readers ◽  
Element Sequence ◽  
Below Average Readers

This research was intended to investigate the difficulty experienced by retarded readers in acquiring associations between auditory and visual information. First- and second-grade above- and below-average readers ( ns = 41, 42) were presented paired-associate tasks involving: (a) simultaneous and delayed stimulus presentation, (b) visual-visual and visual-auditory stimuli, and (c) stimuli in which within-stimulus element sequence was and was not relevant in determining the associated response. Inferior paired-associate learning was noted in below-average readers, delayed-presentation tasks, and sequence-relevant tasks. No significant interactions were noted.

scholarly journals The Contributions of Language Skills and Comprehension Monitoring to Chinese Reading Comprehension: A Longitudinal Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aiping Zhao ◽  
Ying Guo ◽  
Shuyan Sun ◽  
Mark H. C. Lai ◽  
Allison Breit ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Orthographic Knowledge ◽  
Comprehension Monitoring ◽  
Chinese Reading ◽  
Syntactic Knowledge ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Reading Comprehension Skills

This study examined how vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and orthographic knowledge are related to comprehension monitoring and whether comprehension monitoring mediates the relations between these language skills and reading comprehension. Eighty-nine Chinese children were assessed on their vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, orthographic knowledge, and comprehension monitoring in Grade 1. Their reading comprehension skills were assessed in Grade 1 and Grade 3. Results showed that in Grade 1, comprehension monitoring mediated the relations between vocabulary and syntactic knowledge and reading comprehension. For Grade 3 reading comprehension, syntactic knowledge in Grade 1 was the only significant predictor. These findings indicate that multiple language skills make direct and indirect contributions via comprehension monitoring to Chinese reading comprehension, and the relations would change as children’s reading skills develop.

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.

Perceptual Span of Poor Readers

1975 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Spring ◽  
Robert Farmer
Keyword(s):  
Linear Relation ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Naming Speed ◽  
Poor Readers ◽  
Perceptual Span ◽  
Phonological Coding ◽  
Average Readers

A model is described attributing narrow perceptual spans of poor readers to abnormally slow phonological coding speed. In a test of the model with elementary-age school boys, (1) poor readers were slower than average readers on a digit naming task; (2) perceptual span for random digits was impaired for poor readers; (3) a linear relation was found between perceptual span and naming speed; and (4) within the limits of reliability, perceptual span and naming speed accounted for the same portion of reading ability variance. Discrepant results are also presented, and possible modifications of the model are discussed.

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