A Different View on the Simple View of Reading

The simple view of reading (SVR) framework has been used for decades to explain two general component skills considered to contribute to reading comprehension: decoding and linguistic comprehension. In the past, researchers have assessed the linguistic comprehension component using a wide range of language and/or listening comprehension measures that differed from each other. Many of those tasks did not align with the concept of linguistic comprehension originally proposed. Regardless, the studies’ outcomes were similar: The SVR model adequately represents the process of reading comprehension. In this article, I propose a common thread that links those diverse measurement tasks; all the tasks measured students’ metalinguistic skills. In fact, the findings from these studies mirror those found from investigations directly measuring the influence of language awareness abilities on reading comprehension. I conclude the article with the theoretical and educational implications of taking a different view of the second component of the SVR model.

A Different View on the Simple View of Reading

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) framework has been used for decades to explain two general component skills considered to contribute to reading comprehension: decoding and linguistic comprehension. In the past, researchers have assessed the linguistic comprehension component using a wide range of language and/or listening comprehension measures that differed from each other. Many of those tasks did not align with the concept of linguistic comprehension originally proposed. Regardless, the studies’ outcomes were similar: the SVR model adequately represents the process of reading comprehension. In this paper, I propose a common thread that links those diverse measurement tasks; all the tasks measured students’ metalinguistic skills. In fact, the findings from these studies mirror those found from investigations directly measuring the influence of language awareness abilities on reading comprehension. I conclude the paper with the theoretical and educational implications of taking a different view of the second component of the SVR model.

Development of Metalinguistic Awareness in EFL Vocabulary and Spelling: A Longitudinal Case Study of a Child and Adult with Dyslexia

This longitudinal case study aimed at investigating the development of metalin- guistic awareness in EFL spelling and vocabulary in two Croatian learners with dyslexia who differed in age and language proficiency – a child and an adult. They attended weekly sessions that aimed at improving their English spelling and vocabulary. The data were collected for 45 weeks using the teacher’s notes and audio-recorded lesson observations. The results showed that the participants developed their metalinguistic skills; however, the age and language proficiency factor was salient. Also, the metacognitive component of the instruction had a different effect on the development of metalinguistic skills in spelling and vocabulary acquisition. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

The TOEFL as Exit Criteria in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Programs in Mexico: A Discourse Historical Analysis (DHA) Approach

The purpose of this article is to explore the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) assessment under its Institutional Testing Program (ITP) modality as it acts as a curriculum artifact along Mexican undergraduate degree programs considered within the exit criteria. A discourse historical approach (DHA) (Wodak, 2008; Wodak & Meyer, 2009) is taken in analyzing the TOEFL ITP assessment to further understand its implementation. The analysis helps reveal the many linguistic and metalinguistic skills and elements that extend beyond what may be traditionally taught in English courses or programs. The analysis also calls for further questioning of how suitable the TOEFL ITP may be in aiming to assess the proficiency level or development of English learners along undergraduate degrees in Mexico. Alternative types of assessment may better aid in providing a different perspective on the knowledge or progress of these students.

Performance profile of reading and metalinguistic skills in students with dyslexia, learning difficulties and learning disorders

Introduction: The reading process involves several cognitive skills, such as metalinguistic skills and memory. These processes lead the student to understand the ideas of a text for the creation of mental models, based on the context and your point of view. Objective: To analyze the performance of metalinguistic and reading skills in students with dyslexia, learning difficulties, and learning disorders. Methods: This is an observational and cross-sectional study. The group comprised 80 students from the 3rd to the 5th year of elementary, both gender, aged between eight and ten years and 11 months. The sample, distributed in four groups as follows: Group I composed of 20 students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of dyslexia, Group II make up of 20 students with a multidisciplinary diagnosis of learning disorders, Group III by 20 students with learning difficulties and Group IV comprised 20 students with excellent academic performance. Every student, individually, underwent the application of the Metalinguistic and Reading Skills Tests Protocol. Results: The Groups I and II had more errors than Group III and IV. Group III showed a higher number of mistakes than Group IV. Scores were obtained from the metalinguistic tests, word reading and pseudowords, and repetition of no -monosyllable and polysyllable words. Conclusion: Students with dyslexia and learning disorders had a higher number of mistakes in syllabic and phonemic tests, reading words, and pseudowords than students with learning difficulties and excellent academic performance.

Unraveling the complexity of the relations of metalinguistic skills to word reading with struggling adult readers: Shared, independent, and interactive effects

This study investigates the shared, independent, and interactive effects of metalinguistic skills (phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge) to word reading with a sample of struggling adult readers. Controlling for vocabulary knowledge, a second-order latent factor of metalinguistic awareness accounted for unique variance (62.5%) in adults’ word reading skills. Two-way latent interactions between the metalinguistic skills (phonological awareness × morphological awareness, morphological awareness × orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness × orthographic knowledge) revealed unique interactive contributions (1%–5.2%) of these skills to word reading controlling for the metalinguistic skill main effects and vocabulary knowledge. In particular, high levels of morphological awareness are critical to word reading irrespective of high or low phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge. In addition, higher phonological awareness skills are critical to word reading irrespective of high or low orthographic knowledge. These results indicate the importance as well as the complexity of the nature of metalinguistic skills underlying word reading for struggling adult readers. The theoretical, empirical, and applied implications of these findings are discussed in the context of researchers and practitioners invested in improving outcomes in adult literacy programs.

Comunicación escrita, procesos lectores y habilidades metalingüísticas de estudiantes de primer año universitario / Written communication, reading processes and metalinguistic skills of first year students of university: Case Study

RESUMENEste artículo describe las habilidades metalingüísticas y las habilidades de compresión de lectura involucradas en procesos de comprensión lectora y escritural en estudiantes de primer año universitario para establecer relaciones entre ellas. Se diseñaron dos grupos de trabajo para identificar las habilidades y se observaron sus relaciones con el género, la edad y el nivel socioeconómico en 700 estudiantes de primer año universitario, pertenecientes a diferentes programas de pregrado. Se encontró que las habilidades metalingüísticas y las de comprensión de lectura presentan diferencias en distintas edades y en diferentes niveles socioeconómicos, con mejores resultados en las inferencias complementarias y en las habilidades para relacionar el texto con el contexto; así mismo, se evidenció la correlación directa existente entre el pensamiento inferencial y la comprensión de lectura y se identificaron procesos cognitivos y metacognitivos que influyen en los procesos de comprensión lectora. Al final se expone una posible estrategia para abordar estas dificultades y deficiencias encontradas para el desarrollo de un plan de formación.ABSTRACTThis document describes the metalinguistic skills and reading comprehension skills, involved in writing and reading comprehension student’s processes, of the college of first year, to establish relationship between them. Two groups of work were designed to identify the mentioned skills and were observed their relations with their genre, age and socioeconomic level in 700 students of the first college’s academicals year, belonging to different undergraduate majoring. It was found that the metalinguistic and the reading comprehension skills, show different aspects in ages and socioeconomically levels, with their best results in the complementary inferences and in the ability to relate the text and the context; in the same way it was evidenced the existent direct correlation between the inferential thinking and the reading comprehension and were identified cognitive and metacognitive processes that affect the reading comprehension processes. At the end and it was exposed a possible strategy to approach the found difficulties and deficiency for the formation´s plan development.