From words to text: inference making mediates the role of vocabulary in children’s reading comprehension

Daugaard, Hanne Trebbien; Cain, Kate; Elbro, Carsten

doi:10.1007/s11145-017-9752-2

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…A relation between reasoning and reading (accuracy, time, and, especially, comprehension) has been validated through this study's findings, in agreement with previous studies (Ahmed et al, 2016;Cromley & Azevedo, 2007;Graesser, Singer, & Trabasso, 1994;Kendeou et al, 2014;Segers & Verhoeven, 2016;Tzeng, 2010). Inference making, which is a basic process in reasoning, is also a significant element of reading comprehension (Daugaard et al, 2017). While reading a text, in order to understand a sentence, individuals have to visually handle each word of the sentence, classify their depictions, and relate them in order to construct a perception of the sentence's meaning.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The relevance of literacy skills (reading and writing) in the performance of reasoning tasks has been shown both in research with children (Elbro & Buch-Iversen, 2013, in a population with typical development; Rapp, van den Broek, McMaster, Kendeou, & Espin, 2007, in a population with RD) and with adults (Falmagne, 2015, in people with typical development; Lindgrén & Laine, 2011, in those with RD). Thus, the connection between the two abilities-literacy and reasoning-has been repeatedly reported in the previous literature; as an example, inference-making skills, a main process in reasoning, predict performance in reading comprehension (Daugaard, Cain, & Elbro, 2017). Likewise, practice in extracting inferences can enhance reading comprehension (Elbro & Buch-Iversen, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…All the reported studies have been carried out on adults, with and without RD (Bacon & Handley, 2010, 2014Knauff & Johnson-Laird, 2002;Panagiotidou et al, 2018). It was therefore thought it would be interesting to study the relationship between reasoning and reading comprehension skills already suggested in previous research (e.g., Daugaard et al, 2017;Kendeou, van de Broek, Helder, & Karlsson, 2014), using the new reasoning task. Moreover, by extending this study to skills considered as prerequisites of comprehension, like phonological decoding-reading skills (pseudoword reading) and basic cognitive skills (intelligence) (Tzeng, 2010), it should be possible to test their relationship with reasoning skills measured by the new task.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the visual impedance effect in children with and without reading difficulties using a new visual reasoning task

2019

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This study examined reasoning skills in children, specifically transitive reasoning and the visual impedance effect, with a new visual/pictorial task. The visual impedance effect is the effect produced by the possible interference in the reasoning process of irrelevant details elicited from the premises of a reasoning task. The new task had no reading requirements, which made it suitable for testing reasoning in primary school children, especially children with reading difficulties (RD), such as dyslexia. The study aimed also to validate the possible use of the task for studying reasoning and detecting the visual impedance effect without the interference of reading skills and to investigate the association between transitive reasoning and reading abilities. A pilot study (N = 10) was used to test the suitability of the new task for primary school children. Afterwards, the task was tested on a larger sample of children of third to sixth Grade, with and without RD (N = 84). Results showed that the new task is able to detect the main reasoning effects as well as the visual impedance effect. The findings are discussed, with the new task considered appropriate for studying reasoning skills in child populations both with and without RD.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing the visual impedance effect in children with and without reading difficulties using a new visual reasoning task

2019

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“…It might also be difficult to eliminate every aspect other than that intended for measurement. For example, poor vocabulary can result in an underestimation of inference-making skills (Segers and Verhoeven, 2016; Daugaard et al, 2017; Swart et al, 2017). These issues could be addressed by measuring text comprehension in a more comprehensive way, i.e., measuring different aspects of the reading process in conjunction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-Grained Assessment of Children’s Text Comprehension Skills

2019

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Text comprehension is an essential skill for achievement in personal, academic, and professional life. Therefore, it is tremendously important that children’s text comprehension skills are actively monitored from an early stage. Text comprehension is, however, a complex process in which different reading abilities continuously interact with each other on the word, sentence, and text levels. In educational practice, various tests are used to measure these different reading abilities in isolation, which makes it very difficult to understand why a child scores high or low on a specific reading test and to adequately tailor reading instruction to the child’s needs. Dynamic assessment has the potential to offer insights and guidance to teachers as cognitive processes that are important for learning are examined. In dynamic tests, students receive mediation through instruction when answering test questions. Although computer-based dynamic assessment in the reading domain holds potential, there is almost no support for the validity of dynamic measures of text comprehension. The aim of the present study is to determine design principles for the intended use of computer-based dynamic assessment of text comprehension. Based on the dynamic assessment literature, we developed a model for assessing the different reading abilities in conjunction. The assumption is that this model gives a fine-grained view of children’s strengths and weaknesses in text comprehension and provides detailed information on children’s instructional needs. The model was applied in a computer-based (fourth-grade) reading assessment and evaluated in practice through a three-group experimental design. We examined whether it is possible to (1) measure different aspects of the reading process in conjunction in order to obtain a full understanding of children’s text comprehension skills, (2) measure children’s learning potential in text comprehension, and (3) provide information on their instructional needs. The results show that while the model helped in explaining the children’s text comprehension scores, unexpectedly, mediation did not clearly lead to progress in text comprehension. Based on the outcomes, we substantiate design principles for computer-based dynamic assessment of text comprehension.

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“…Some readers may possess the requisite knowledge but still fail to integrate their knowledge while reading (Cain & Oakhill, 1999). General knowledge of the words in a text is not enough; readers must also be able to retrieve their correct meaning from memory (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982;Daugaard, Cain, & Elbro, 2017), and they must possess the skill to make inferences about the text while reading (Cain et al, 2004;Cain & Oakhill, 1999).…”

Section: Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Exploration of Text Difficulty and Knowledge Support on Adolescents' Comprehension

Lupo

Tortorelli

Invernizzi

et al. 2019

Reading Research Quarterly

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The purpose of the study was to determine whether easy or challenging versions of texts, when accompanied by different types of instructional support, improved adolescents' reading comprehension, particularly for students with below‐average reading comprehension. The authors examined 293 ninth‐grade students' reading comprehension of 24 leveled texts over a 12‐week intervention in which teachers were randomly assigned to one of two instructional strategies prior to reading: K‐W‐L or Listen‐Read‐Discuss. Students were randomly assigned within classes to read either easy or challenging versions of the texts, and students' text comprehension was assessed after each lesson. General comprehension was assessed before and after the intervention using the Gates–MacGinitie Reading Comprehension subtest. The authors analyzed the texts using Lexile Analyzer, Coh‐Metrix Text Easability Assessor, and TextEvaluator to compare aspects of concreteness, formality of language, cohesion, and familiarity across versions. Findings revealed that comprehension of the easy and challenging versions was similar for most students, but students in the K‐W‐L classrooms outperformed students in the Listen‐Read‐Discuss classrooms. Only a small subset of students who read significantly below average, many of whom were identified as English learners, benefited from reading the easier versions. The Coh‐Metrix and TextEvaluator tools indicated that the easier texts had more familiar vocabulary, greater lexical cohesion, fewer academic vocabulary words, and a more conversational tone, but similar grammatical cohesion and concreteness of words. The results suggest that most students, even if struggling with comprehension, can read challenging versions of texts when accompanied by instructional support.

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From words to text: inference making mediates the role of vocabulary in children’s reading comprehension

Cited by 39 publications

References 44 publications

Testing the visual impedance effect in children with and without reading difficulties using a new visual reasoning task

Testing the visual impedance effect in children with and without reading difficulties using a new visual reasoning task

Fine-Grained Assessment of Children’s Text Comprehension Skills

An Exploration of Text Difficulty and Knowledge Support on Adolescents' Comprehension

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