A Path Analysis of Reading Comprehension for Adults With Low Literacy

Abstract

Adult literacy interventions often rely on models of reading validated with children or adult populations with a broad range of reading. Such models do not fully satisfy the need for intervention research and development for adults with low literacy. Thus, the authors hypothesized that a model representing the relationship between reading component skills would be predictive of reading comprehension for an adult population with low literacy and beneficial to adult literacy researchers. Using data from 174 adults participating in adult basic education and secondary education programs, the authors performed a path analysis of component skills' contribution to reading comprehension. The findings are clear that existing reading models do not describe this population. The implications are discussed in terms of instructional and curricular interventions.The National Assessment of Adult Literacy survey found that 43% of U.S. adults lacked the basic knowledge and skills needed to read and understand moderately dense texts, summarize, make simple inferences, determine cause and effect, or recognize an author's purpose (Kutner, Greenberg, & Baer, 2005). More than 60 million (79%) of these adults with low literacy were between 16 and 64 years old, indicating that a large literacy deficit exists among the current and future U.S. workforce (Kutner, et al., 2005;Kutner, et al., 2007;U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). To address the economic, civic, and cultural implications of this literacy deficit, Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA; P.L.105-220) supports basic literacy programs for adults.WIA requires that funded adult education (AE) programs use evidenced-based approaches to service delivery to ensure that participants receive effective instruction. Intervention researchers attempting to address this requirement are faced with the challenge of understanding which reading skills this population lacks and in which reading processes they experience breakdowns that impede reading development (Kruidenier, 2002;Rapp, van den Broek, McMaster, Kendeou, & Espin, 2007). Although several studies of adults with low literacy provide evidence of individual reading components' contributions to reading, no theory-based models of reading exist that represent the processes in which adult struggling readers engage (Comings & Soricone, 2007). Thus, as a substitute for such a model, adult literacy interventions often rely on theory, research, and models of reading that are based on studies of children or adults with a broad range of reading abilities (Kruidenier, 2002;McShane, 2005).The current approach to providing evidence for interventions is pragmatic, but ultimately may be incomplete or inaccurate because of such factors as a high prevalence of learning disabilities among adult literacy learners (Patterson, 2008) and developmental and experiential differences between children and adults (e.g., Bell & Perfetti, 1994;Davidson & Strucker, 2002;Gough, Hoover & Peterson, 1996;Greenberg, Ehri, & Perin, 2002;Sabatini, 2002). Thus, pro...

Adult reading teachers’ beliefs about how less-skilled adult readers can be taught to read.

“…The reading processes of less-skilled adult readers involve a range of separate reading components (Mellard, Fall and Woods 2010) which can be identified by assessment and be targeted in instruction (National Research Council 2012). This knowledge was evident in the theory-based category, albeit, with a particular focus.…”

Literacy components model for at‐risk young adults enrolled in career and technical education

“…Models describing the relationship among component reading skills of adolescents and adults with low literacy suggest a variety of literacy component skills and deficits to be considered for understanding adult subpopulations (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007;Hock et al, 2009;MacArthur et al, 2010;Mellard & Fall, 2012;Mellard et al, 2010;Sabatini et al, 2010). With data from a diverse sample of ninth grade students, most of whom were normally developing readers, Cromley and Azevedo (2007) modelled reading comprehension by hypothesising direct and inferentially mediated relations among background knowledge, inferences, reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary and word reading.…”

“…This finding provided support for the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills for use with adult populations. Mellard et al (2010) fit a reading model to data from a more diverse sample of adult basic and secondary education learners with an average fifth grade reading level. They hypothesised a path model of reading comprehension and tested for and estimated the magnitude of significant connections between such reading components as phonemic decoding, word reading, fluency, vocabulary, language comprehension, auditory working memory, rapid automatic naming and reading comprehension.…”

“…Some models of reading that were based on adults with very low literacy or reading disability identified fluency and or processing speed as important components (e.g., Hock et al, 2009;Joshi & Aaron, 2000;Macaruso & Shankweiler, 2010;Mellard & Fall, 2012;Mellard et al, 2010;Nanda et al, 2010). However, three of the four measures that loaded onto our processing speed component do not require fluent reading ability but rather rapidity of naming or decision-making tasks (Figure 3).…”

O papel da consciência fonológica e da nomeação seriada rápida na alfabetização de adultos

“…Bryant & Bradley, 1987;Caravolas, Volin, & Hulme, 2005;Cardoso-Martins, 1995;Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Ziegler et al, 2010). Resultados semelhantes têm sido obtidos em estudos com adultos com pouca ou nenhuma escolaridade, sugerindo que o papel desempenhado pela consciência fonológica na alfabetização também independe da idade ou do nível de desenvolvimento do aprendiz (e.g., Binder & Borecki, 2008;Durgunoglu & Öney, 2002;Loureiro et al, 2004;Lukatela, Carello, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1995;Mellard, Fall, & Woods, 2010;Mota & Castro, 2007).A despeito do enorme interesse que a nomeação seriada rápida tem despertado entre os estudiosos da alfabetização, não encontramos nenhum estudo que tenha …”