Individual Differences in Fifth Graders’ Literacy and Academic Language Predict Comprehension Monitoring Development: An Eye-Movement Study

Abstract

In this study, we investigated fifth-graders’ (n=52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation, and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children read two sentences; the second included either a plausible or implausible word in the context of the first sentence. Stronger readers had shorter reading times overall suggesting faster processing of text. Generally fifth-graders reacted to the implausible word (i.e., longer gaze duration on the implausible v. the plausible word, which reflects lexical access). Students with stronger academic language, compared to those with weaker academic language, generally spent more time re-reading the implausible target compared to the plausible target. This difference increased from fall to spring. Results support the centrality of academic language for meaning integration, setting standards of coherence, and utilizing comprehension repair strategies.

A Lattice Model of the Development of Reading Comprehension

“…When students monitor their comprehension, they recognize that text does not make sense and use strategies, such as rereading or self-questioning (e.g., “what is the author trying to say?”), to make inferences and repair their understanding to develop a coherent mental representation. In a study that tracked fifth graders’ eye movements (32), students identified aspects of text that did not make sense but differed in the extent to which they attempted to repair their misunderstanding. Students with weaker academic language skills generally spent less time rereading and trying to repair their understanding of words that did not make sense than did students with stronger language skills.…”

Building word knowledge, learning strategies, and metacognition with the Word-Knowledge e-Book

“…Although the terminology of comprehension monitoring might overlook the distinction between the two aspects of evaluation and regulation of comprehension, comprehension monitoring is not a unitary skill (L. Baker, 1984). Researchers have similarly defined comprehension monitoring as the conscious and unconscious strategies and skills used to (1) evaluate reading comprehension and identify inconsistencies that might occur during text reading and (2) regulate reading comprehension or repair the misunderstandings (Cain, Oakhill, & Bryant, 2004; Connor et al, 2015). Thus, there are two parts to reading comprehension monitoring: recognizing when text does not make sense (calibration), and then actively working to repair comprehension (strategy use).…”

Development of comprehension monitoring in beginner readers

“…The third limitation is that our measure of comprehension monitoring did not assess whether children detected the errors during presentation of the story, or later when prompted by the sense question. In older readers, the study of moment-by-moment processing of text with eye tracking has been successful (Connor, Radach, Vorstius, Day, McLean, & Morrison, 2015).…”