The Differential Importance of Component Skills on Reading Comprehension Test Performance Among Struggling Adolescent Readers

2020 ◽  
pp. 002221942093213
Author(s):  
Nathan H. Clemens ◽  
Yu-Yu Hsiao ◽  
Kejin Lee ◽  
Amanda Martinez-Lincoln ◽  
Clinton Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Adolescent Readers ◽  
Component Skills ◽  
Struggling Adolescent Readers ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

Reading comprehension tests vary in format and characteristics, which may influence the extent to which component skills are involved in test performance. With students in Grades 6 to 8 with reading difficulties, dominance analyses examined the differential importance of component reading and language skills (word- and text-reading fluency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and working memory) on several standardized tests of reading comprehension: The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, 4th edition (GMRT), Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation, Gray Oral Reading Test, 5th edition (GORT-5), and the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC). Students’ word- and text-reading fluency skills were generally the most dominant predictors of performance on most reading comprehension tests, especially those with a time limit (GMRT and TOSREC). Listening comprehension was most important on the GORT-5, a test in which students read passages orally and listen to questions read by an examiner. Working memory was the least important component skill across the reading comprehension tests. Overall, results were consistent with previous work indicating that reading comprehension measures vary with regard to the skills or knowledge sources that are most important for test performance and extend these findings to struggling adolescent readers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Exploring which test-taker characteristics predict young L2 learners’ performance on listening and reading comprehension tests

2021 ◽  
pp. 026553222199113
Author(s):  
Sarah Sok ◽  
Hye Won Shin ◽  
Juhyun Do
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Test Taker ◽  
Phonological Working Memory ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

Test-taker characteristics (TTCs), or individual difference variables, are known to be a systematic source of variance in language test performance. Although previous research has documented the impact of a range of TTCs on second language (L2) learners’ test performance, few of these studies have involved young learners. Given that young L2 learners undergo rapid maturational changes in their cognitive abilities, are susceptible to affective factors in unique ways, and have little autonomy with respect to the context of L2 acquisition, the relationship between their personal attributes and their test performance merit separate research attention. To fill this gap, we investigated the extent to which sixth-grade, Korean-L1, EFL learners’ ( n = 107) TTCs predicted their performance on tests of L2 listening and reading comprehension. The TTCs under investigation included three cognitive characteristics (aptitude, phonological working memory, L1 competence), one affective factor (motivation), and two demographic variables (socioeconomic status and gender). Results showed that aptitude and phonological working memory significantly predicted participants’ performance on both L2 listening and reading comprehension tests, whereas motivation predicted performance on the L2 listening comprehension test only. These findings suggest that higher aptitude, phonological working memory, and motivation contribute positively to young learners’ L2 outcomes.

Validity of Multiple-Sentence Reading Comprehension Tests for Aphasic Adults

1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. E. Nicholas ◽  
D. L. MacLennan ◽  
R. H. Brookshire
Keyword(s):  
Differential Diagnosis ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Test Items ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

This study assessed the passage dependency of multiple-sentence reading test items from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (Goodglass & Kaplan, 1983), the Minnesota Test for Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia (Schuell, 1965), Examining for Aphasia (Eisenson, 1954), the Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia (LaPointe & Horner, 1979), and the Western Aphasia Battery (Kertesz, 1982). More than half of the test items from these reading tests were answered correctly by a significantly greater than chance number of both aphasic and non-brain-damaged adults without reading the passages whose comprehension the items purported to test. These results suggest that published tests for assessing aphasic persons' comprehension of multiple-sentence passages do not provide valid estimates of such persons' ability to comprehend information from printed texts.

scholarly journals Lower-Level Processing Skills in English-as-a-Second-Language Reading Comprehension: Possible Influence of First Language Orthography

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 448
Author(s):  
Xiangying Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
First Language ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Component Skills ◽  
Text Reading ◽  
Decoding Efficiency

<em>Cross-linguistic studies on second language (L2) reading reveal that component skills of reading such as word recognition, phonemic decoding, spelling, and oral text reading are prone to the influence of first language (L1) orthography but few empirical studies have examined the possible influence of L1 orthography on these skills. This study investigates how adult ESL learners of two different L1 backgrounds (Spanish and Chinese) compare in their performances on word recognition efficiency, phonemic decoding efficiency, spelling, and oral text reading fluency and how these skills are related to their overall ability in reading comprehension. The differences in the learners’ performances on the component skills and the variations in the role of these skills in ESL reading comprehension indicated possible influence of the orthographic features of learners’ first language.</em>

scholarly journals Test-taking Strategies on Reading Comprehension Tests: A Review of Major Research Themes

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Mohammed S. Assiri ◽  
Emad A. Alodhahi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Test Taking Strategies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

<p><em>There is a growing body of thought and research on strategy use on tests of reading comprehension. Nevertheless, there have been few research reviews that have treated major themes involved in thought and research on test-taking strategies, specifically in the context of reading comprehension. Hence, this paper reviews the themes that are central to the discussion of strategy choice and use on reading comprehension tests. Research themes that form the foci of the paper include discussion of test-taking strategies as they relate to the process of reading test-taking, formats of reading tests, validation of reading tests, level of language proficiency, and performance on tests of reading comprehension.</em></p>

Phrase-Reading Mediates Between Words and Syntax in Struggling Adolescent Readers

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patsy Nomvete ◽  
Susan R. Easterbrooks
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Struggling Readers ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Reading Rate ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Adolescent Readers ◽  
Struggling Adolescent Readers ◽  
Positive Significant Correlation ◽  
Passage Reading

The components involved in adolescent reading are complex and not clearly understood in struggling readers. Phrase reading, a language skill associated with prosodic understanding of syntactic phrases, has received little attention. We studied 70 adolescent readers including delayed readers to answer the following questions: (a) Do phrase-reading ability, syntactic awareness, passage-reading rate, and reading comprehension have a positive, significant correlation; (b) Do language-related variables (i.e., phrasing ability, syntactic awareness) account for more of the variance in comprehension than passage-reading rate; (c) Does phrase-reading ability, as measured by phrase-level prosody, provide a mechanism for, or at least partially mediate, how passage-reading rate and syntactic awareness affect reading comprehension? Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression and mediation regression. All answers were affirmative suggesting that researchers studying adolescent struggling readers should investigate prosodic phrasing-reading ability as a tool for improving reading comprehension.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Language Patterns of Standardized Reading Comprehension Tests and their Effect on Student Performance

1974 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-366
Author(s):  
Eugene Jongsma
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
Fourth Grade ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Fourth Grade Students ◽  
Language Patterns ◽  
Comprehension Tests ◽  
Reading Comprehension Tests

A random sample of passages was drawn from standardized reading comprehension tests for fourth grade students. The number and types of language patterns found in the test passages were determined through a method of linguistic analysis. The patterns identified on the tests did not reflect the patterns used most frequently in the oral language of fourth grade children. When the test passages were rewritten using a larger percentage of high frequency oral language patterns, and administered to comparable groups of students, no significant difference in comprehension performance was observed between those students taking the revised test and those taking the intact standardized test passages.

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