A comparison of the factors affecting reading performance of functionally illiterate adults and children matched by reading level

Abstract

S We examined the relations among phonological awareness, short‐term memory, orthographic ability, contextual information, and reading skill in a study of 60 functionally illiterate adults enrolled in Adult Basic Education programs. Using a multiple regression analysis, the results indicated that phonological awareness, orthographic ability, and context each accounted for a unique portion of the variance in reading skill. To compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of these adult readers to children, we tested 99 children and matched them to the adults on reading level. We then divided the adults and children into more and less skilled readers. Although the more skilled readers out‐performed the less skilled readers on most of the tasks, tasks that relied on general world knowledge or experience tended to favor the adult readers. Adults seem to be relying less on phonological decoding, which is an area of weakness for them, and more on remembering specific words and patterns, which is an area of relative strength. Examinamos las relaciones entre conciencia fonológica, memoria a corto plazo, habilidad ortográfica, información contextual y habilidad lectora mediante el estudio de 60 analfabetos funcionales adultos inscriptos en programas de educación básica de adultos. Los resultados de un análisis de regresión múltiple indicaron que la conciencia fonológica, la habilidad ortográfica y el contexto dieron cuenta, cada uno, de una porción única de la varianza en habilidad lectora. Para comparar fuerzas y debilidades relativas de los lectores adultos con respecto a los niños, evaluamos a 99 niños y los apareamos con los adultos por nivel de lectura. Luego dividimos a los adultos y niños en grupos de lectores de mayor y menor habilidad. Si bien los lectores de mayor habilidad se desempeñaron mejor que los de menor habilidad en la mayoría de las tareas, aquellas tareas que dependían de conocimiento del mundo o experiencia tendieron a favorecer a los adultos. Los adultos parecen depender menos de la decodificación fonológica, que es un área de debilidad para ellos y más de la memoria de palabras y patrones específicos, que es un área de fuerza relativa. Wir untersuchten die Relationen zwischen phonologischem Bewußtsein, Kurzzeitgedächtnis, orthografischer Fähigkeit, kontextualer Information, und der Lesekenntnis in einer Studie mit 60 funktionell illiteraten Erwachsenen bei dem Erlernen von Basisprogrammen für Erwachsene. Bei der Anwendung einer multiplen Regressionsanalyse zeigten die Ergebnisse auf, daß ein phonologisches Bewußtsein, die orthographische Leistung und der Kontext jeweils über einen eigenen Anteil in der Lesebefähigung gemäß der Abweichungerhebung verfügt. Um die relativen Stärken und Schwächen dieser erwachsenen Leser mit denen der Kinder zu vergleichen, prüften wir 99 Kinder und verglichen sie mit den Erwachsenen auf Leseeinstufung. Wir unterteilten dann die Erwachsenen und Kinder in mehr oder minder befähigte Leser. Erwachsene scheinen sich weniger auf phonologisches Entschlüsseln zu verla...

The use of phonological, orthographic, and contextual information during reading: a comparison of adults who are learning to read and skilled adult readers

“…Past research has shown that skilled readers often fail to show a processing time difference between the correct homophone and the incorrect homophone conditions (Rayner et al, 1998), which suggests that skilled readers are using phonological codes to activate word meanings. The results from Greenberg et al (2002) and Thompkins and Binder (2003) suggest ABE readers may not be as proficient with using phonological representations compared to orthographic representations. If this is the case, the ABE adults may notice the incorrect homophone and slow down in that condition compared to when the correct homophone was present.…”

“…They concluded that phonological awareness is related to reading skill in adults as well as children. Thompkins and Binder (2003) examined relationships among phonological awareness, memory abilities, orthographic abilities, use of context, and reading skill in adults enrolled in ABE classes and children who were match to the adults on reading achievement level. They found that adults outperformed children in memory ability, use of context and orthographic abilities, while children outperformed adults on phonological awareness tasks.…”

Cognitive and psycholinguistic skills of adults who are functionally illiterate: Current state of research and implications for adult education

“…However, they do not differ from the children on a nonspeech tone manipulation tasks (Pratt & Brady, 1988). Using a regression analysis, Thompkins and Binder (2003) found that phonological awareness accounted for a unique portion of the variance in A-IL reading scores. Functional illiteracy could therefore be viewed as an instance of developmental dyslexia that has gone untreated in childhood (Greenberg et al, 1997).…”

“…Adult literacy students scored much lower than 1st-5th-grade children matched for reading level on word segmentation tasks, especially when segmenting into phonemes (Greenberg et al, 1997;Thompkins & Binder, 2003). However, they do not differ from the children on a nonspeech tone manipulation tasks (Pratt & Brady, 1988).…”

Analyse cognitive et linguistique de l’illettrisme : bilan des études et implications pour la formation

“…En revanche, ils manipulent sans difficultés particulières des sons non linguistiques (Pratt & Brady, 1988). D'après une analyse de la régression menée par Thompkins et Binder (2003), les compétences métaphonologiques rendraient compte d'une part spécifique de la variance des scores en lecture des adultes illettrés. L'illettrisme pourrait donc être un cas particulier de dyslexie développementale qui n'aurait pas été prise en charge durant l'enfance (Delahaie et al, 2000;Greenberg et al, 1997).…”