Word-Level Stress Is to Decoding as Phrase-Level Stress Is to Reading Comprehension: A Study of Prosodic Influence in Children’s Reading Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marth Palm-Leis
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Elementary School Teachers ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Stress Sensitivity ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Word Decoding ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Solid Foundation

This study aims to determine how the use of prosody in spoken language can effect reading development and later, reading ability as an adult. Research shows that individuals who can identify which syllables or words are emphasized within a phrase also have more advanced decoding abilities (i.e. are more proficient at translating letters into speech sounds) and have more advanced reading comprehension. To date, there has been little research examining the precise method by which this awareness of emphasis or “stress” at the word-level and the phrase-level uniquely contribute to reading ability. In this study, I predict that adults’ word-level stress awareness will be more strongly predictive of their word decoding ability than their reading comprehension. I also postulate that adult’s awareness of stress at the phrase-level will be more predictive of their reading comprehension than decoding, when word-level stress sensitivity is removed from the equation.  Eighty students from Queen’s University were recruited to participate in two 60-minute interview sessions, during which completed a battery of reading and executive functioning tasks. Multiple regression analyses will be conducted to evaluate the relationship between the measures of interest. The results from this study will benefit elementary school teachers, speech-language pathologists and others working towards providing children with a solid foundation in the spoken language from which their literacy skills can grow. These results may also have important implications for the development of educational programs for individuals with specific reading impairments.

The Relationship of Pitch Sight-Singing Skills With Tonal Discrimination, Language Reading Skills, and Academic Ability in Children

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Reifinger
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Academic Ability ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Sight Singing ◽  
Ability Test ◽  
Resource Hypothesis

This study investigated correlates that might explain variance in beginning sight-singing achievement, including tonal discrimination, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and academic ability. Both curriculum-based and standardized tests were used, including the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation, Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, and Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. Sight-singing ability of second-grade students ( N = 170) was individually assessed for pitch accuracy only using four-note tonal patterns following a 16-week instructional period and again 8 weeks later following a period of no practice. A factor analysis explained 62% of the variance across 13 variables, revealing correlated factors of Music Ability, Reading Ability, and Academic Ability. Regression analyses with individual variables as predictors indicated that significant variance in sight-singing achievement beyond that explained by pitch matching ability could be explained by reading comprehension ability. Similar results were found with both sight-singing tests. Findings are discussed in relation to Patel’s shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis and the need to advocate for music education programs.

Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON ◽  
JOHN R. KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Single Word Reading

Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examined the roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading. This 4-year longitudinal study (Grades 2–5) compared these two factors in three aspects of reading development: pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and single word reading. Morphological awareness contributed significantly to pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, after controlling prior measures of reading ability, verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and phonological awareness. This contribution was comparable to that of phonological awareness and remained 3 years after morphological awareness was assessed. In contrast, morphological awareness rarely contributed significantly to single word reading. We argue that these results provide evidence that morphological awareness has a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.

Morphological Awareness Skills of Second- and Third-Grade Students With and Without Speech Sound Disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-616
Author(s):  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Victoria S. Henbest
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Real Word ◽  
Speech Sound Disorders ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Third Grade Students ◽  
Pseudoword Reading

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.

The Cycle of Academic Reading Fear Among Undergraduates

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 265
Author(s):  
Noor Hanim Rahmat ◽  
Mazlen Arepin ◽  
Suraiya Sulaiman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Anxiety Scale ◽  
Academic Reading ◽  
Reading Anxiety

This study investigates students' fear in academic reading as well as the influence of perceived difficulties in their reading comprehension. The paper aims to study the level of anxiety as experienced by undergaduate students in academic reading. Data from 25 respondents were analyzed quantitatively using Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) developed by Saito, Horwitz, and Garza (1999). Te objectives of the study are to examine the influence of students' fear and perceived difficulties in academic reading. The findings of this study reveal that factors such as background and culture, general reading ability, vocabulary, grammar as well as teaching method can make readers fear reading. The results of this study bear interesting implications towards the teaching and learning of academic reading in English as a Second Language.

Examining Mindset and Grit in Concurrent and Future Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly M. Martinez ◽  
LaTasha R Holden ◽  
Sara Ann Hart ◽  
Jeanette Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Preliminary Test ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Potential Intervention ◽  
Comprehension Ability ◽  
Twin Method ◽  
Positive Correlations ◽  
Ability Measure ◽  
Reading Comprehension Ability

Non-cognitive factors have gained attention in recent years as potential intervention targets for academic achievement improvement in students. Two notable facets, intelligence mindset and grit, have been of particular interest. Both have been shown to consistently improve educational outcomes, although little work has focused on reading ability. We used a correlational and twin method design to preliminary test if mindset and grit could be potential intervention targets to increase reading ability. As such, we examined the relation between both grit and mindset on current, future, and change in reading comprehension ability in a twin sample. We used data from 422 twin pairs (171 monozygotic pairs, 251 dizygotic pairs) drawn from the Florida Twin Project on Reading, Behavior and Environment (Taylor et al., 2019). Twins were on average 13 years old when the questionnaire and first reading ability measure were collected, and on average 15 years old when the second reading ability measure was collected. Weak and moderate positive correlations were found between both mindset and grit with each reading ability score and neither were significantly related to change in reading ability. Twin modeling suggested little to no common genetic or environmental influences between mindset and grit to reading ability. In total, our results do not lend support to the notion of mindset or grit being a mechanism of change for reading ability.

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 Evidence for complementary effects of code- and knowledge-focused reading instruction

2021 ◽  
pp. 026565902110142
Author(s):  
Meghan Vollebregt ◽  
Jana Leggett ◽  
Sherry Raffalovitch ◽  
Colin King ◽  
Deanna Friesen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Word Recognition ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Nonsense Word ◽  
Dialogic Reading ◽  
Written Expression ◽  
Word Decoding ◽  
School Year ◽  
One Year

There is growing recognition of the need to end the debate regarding reading instruction in favor of an approach that provides a solid foundation in phonics and other underlying language skills to become expert readers. We advance this agenda by providing evidence of specific effects of instruction focused primarily on the written code or on developing knowledge. In a grade 1 program evaluation study, an inclusive and comprehensive program with a greater code-based focus called Reading for All (RfA) was compared to a knowledge-focused program involving Dialogic Reading. Phonological awareness, letter word recognition, nonsense word decoding, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, written expression and vocabulary were measured at the beginning and end of the school year, and one year after in one school only. Results revealed improvements in all measures except listening comprehension and vocabulary for the RfA program at the end of the first school year. These gains were maintained for all measures one year later with the exception of an improvement in written expression. The Dialogic Reading group was associated with a specific improvement in vocabulary in schools from lower socioeconomic contexts. Higher scores were observed for RfA than Dialogic Reading groups at the end of the first year on nonsense word decoding, phonological awareness and written expression, with the differences in the latter two remaining significant one year later. The results provide evidence of the need for interventions to support both word recognition and linguistic comprehension to better reading comprehension.

scholarly journals Applying Sight Translation as a Means to Enhance Reading Ability of Iranian EFL Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Moslem Fatollahi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Comprehension Ability ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Iranian Context ◽  
Reading Comprehension Ability

<p>Sight translation is the oral translation of a written text and is a mixture of translation and interpreting. Sight translation is a widely-used activity in translation training programs. Yet, this mode of translation has rarely been applied as a reading instruction technique in Iranian EFL instruction context in spite of the growing interest in using sight translation in language teaching and learning. This study aims at investigating the effect of sight translation on the reading comprehension ability of Iranian undergraduate EFL students. This is a quasi-experimental study involving treatment. To this end, four reading comprehension classes involving 70 learners were divided into two groups, with the experimental one receiving reading instruction with sight translation exercises and the control group receiving reading instruction without sight translation exercises. The posttest results revealed that the experimental group performing sight translation exercises in classroom outperformed the control group who had not engaged in sight translation. This study has implications for ELT instructors and learners in an Iranian context as they can use sight translation exercises as an effective technique for improving the reading comprehension ability of their learners.</p>

Increasing Secondary Students’ Comprehension Through Explicit Attention to Narrative Text Structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 004005992110255
Author(s):  
Whitney Sommers Butler ◽  
Casey Hord ◽  
Susan Watts-Taffe
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
School Students

In spite of the prevailing assumption that formal reading instruction is no longer needed once adolescents reach high school, students at the secondary level still benefit from explicit reading instruction to continue developing advanced literacy skills enabling them to access complex narrative texts. This article argues for the importance of teachers to scrutinize the texts they plan to teach to determine what instruction and supports are needed to promote reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities. Specifically, this article examines how nonlinear text structures can challenge adolescent reading comprehension and illustrates explicit text structure instruction with three exemplar texts which use unconventional narrative patterns. The article emphasizes the importance of considering the qualitative features of texts to inform instruction to support reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities.

Reading Development in Children With Nonsyndromic Cleft Palate With or Without Cleft Lip: Meta-analysis and Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 105566562110398
Author(s):  
Hope Sparks Lancaster ◽  
Kari M. Lien ◽  
Jordan Haas ◽  
Paige Ellis ◽  
Nancy J. Scherer
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Cleft Palate ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
School Age ◽  
Word Decoding

Objective We conducted a meta-analysis and systematic review of literature comparing pre-reading and general reading in school-age children with nonsyndromic cleft palate with or without cleft lip (NSCP/L) to their peers without NSCP/L. Methods Our literature search identified 1238 possible records. After screening we identified 11 samples for inclusion for systematic review and eight for meta-analysis. We compared 292 children with NSCP/L to 311 peers for 23 pre-reading effect sizes and 17 general reading effect sizes (EFg). We conducted a random-effects metaregression using robust variance estimation. Results On average school-age children with NSCP/L scored lower on pre-reading (EFg = −0.36) and general reading measures (EFg = −0.38) compared to their peers. We conducted post-hoc analyses on phonological awareness and word decoding effect sizes; children with NSCP/L performed lower on phonological awareness (EFg = −0.22) and word decoding (EFg = −0.39) compared to their peers. There was weak evidence that hearing status and/or speech-language functioning might moderate reading development. There was limited evidence that age or socioeconomic status moderated reading development. However, samples did not consistently report several characteristics that were coded for this project. Conclusions Our findings suggest that school-age children with NSCP/L have persistent reading problems. Further research is needed to explore reading development in children with NSCP/L, as well as the relationships among hearing, speech, language, and reading development.

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