Objectives: There has been insufficient work done to explore underpinning components of different reading comprehension tasks. The purpose of this study was to investigate differential patterns of relations of components to two widely used assessments of reading comprehension. Methods: One hundred and twenty-seven typically developing children in grade 3 to 4 completed two measures of reading comprehension in 'open-ended question task' and 'cloze task formats'. Assessments to measure nonverbal IQ, phonological memory, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, receptive vocabulary, and word reading were also undertaken. Results: Correlation and regression analyses indicated that the two measures of reading comprehension are influenced by common components such as receptive vocabulary and phonological awareness. The findings also suggested that while morphological awareness predicted reading comprehension ability measured in 'open-ended question task format' , phonological memory and nonverbal IQ predicted the ability in 'cloze task format'. Conclusion: Even though common main components that predict reading comprehension exist, the differential patterns of relations and predictions of other components reflect that different measures might tap different components. The results also indicate that there might be differences in the underlying processing of two reading comprehension measures. In the future, the same approaches in this study should be used for children with comprehension difficulties in reading.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of vocabulary breadth and depth in reading comprehension. Specifically, the study examined which vocabulary knowledge (including receptive vocabulary, word associations and definitions) would influence on reading comprehension. Methods: Forty-three children in grades 1-2 and 51 children in grades 3-4 participated in the study. All children obtained 70 or higher on the nonverbal intelligence test. All participants were administered two reading comprehension tasks, and three vocabulary tests including receptive vocabulary, word associations, and word definitions. Because different reading comprehension formats would have different components affecting the contribution of reading comprehension, an open-ended question format and cloze task format were used. Stepwise multiple regressions were conducted to determine which vocabulary knowledge explained the two reading comprehension scores. Results: In grades 1 and 2, word association and definition accounted for the unique variances in each reading comprehension task. In grades 3 and 4, definition explained the variance in each comprehension task. Receptive vocabulary accounted for additional variance only on cloze-format reading comprehension. Conclusion: The results of the study were consistent with previous studies which suggested vocabulary knowledge would be an important key for text comprehension. Specifically, depth of vocabulary is more important for reading comprehension than depth breadth of vocabulary.

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This article is based on a data from the first author's master's thesis. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a tablet PC-based reading program on vocabulary, reading attitude and self-efficacy in children with reading difficulties. To increase positive attitudes toward reading and vocabulary skills, various media was used to help improve reading achievement. Methods: The participants were 15 third and fourth graders with reading difficulties, who were randomly divided into three groups: a tablet PC-based storybook reading group, a traditional paper-based storybook reading group, and a control group not utilizing any storybook reading program. The tablet PCbased and paper-based reading program were conducted three times per week for 5 weeks for a total of 15 sessions. Pre-and post-tests on vocabulary, reading attitude and self-efficacy were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the reading programs. The test scores were analyzed using non-parametric statistical methods. Results: The results indicated that the composite scores of reading attitude and self-efficacy increased in both experimental groups. There were also significant increases in vocabulary scores for the paperbased reading group. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that regardless of the media used, the storybook reading program itself had positive effects on the vocabulary, reading attitudes and self-efficacy of children with reading difficulties. While the storybook reading program using various media contributed to positive reading attitudes and self-efficacy, the paper-based storybook program had positive effects on vocabulary.

This article is based on a data from the first author's master's thesis. Objectives: Culturally diverse family in Korea usually refers to a family consisting of a married Korean citizen and a foreign spouse. Despite the rapid increase of culturally diverse families and acknowledgement of the limited linguistic stimuli for children in those populations, few studies have demonstrated proper research evidence for evaluation and intervention in various language-related areas. Morphological awareness has been recognized as a critical metalinguistic skill relevant to vocabulary acquisition and literacy development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation of linguistic competence to morphological awareness of connective endings, one of the unique bound morphemes in Korean, in school-aged Korean-speaking children. Methods: The participants were 38 lower grade children (1st and 2nd grade) and 40 upper grade children (3rd and 4th grade) from three groups: typical children from non-culturally diverse families (TND), typical children from culturally diverse families (TCD) which are language-matched with TND, and language impaired children from culturally diverse families (LCD). Results: The results showed that the significant difference of morphological awareness appeared between TCD and TND in lower grades, but was not found in upper grades. LCD, however, consistently performed lower than TND on the morphological awareness test in both grade levels. Although positive growth in morphological awareness across grades appeared in each of the three groups, LCD remained far below TCD and TND. Conclusion: The study findings revealed that cultural background made a contribution to morphological awareness during the initial period of school years, but longitudinal associations between morphological awareness and linguistic competence lasted even through the late school years.