Reading comprehension: skill or skills?

Abstract

Research on the complexity of reading comprehension is highly controversial. In spite of the evidence for a holistic reading comprehension of skilled readers, reading specialists and teachers argue that early reading comprehension is composed of different separate subskills. To investigate this, 38 German reading tests (covering many different aspects of reading comprehension), one spelling test and one speedof-information-processing test were administered to 220 German second graders (I 14 girls, 106 boys). The frequency distribution of the 780 correlation coefficients indic ed a very homogeneous structure. Taking into account critical points in the desi 2 of dimension-analytical studies, a principal component analysis (principal axis extraction) led to only one broad general reading comprehension component, accounting for 61% of the total variance (56% for girls, 65% for boys). Reading comprehension of early readers thus appears to be holistic, closely related to general intelligence and verbal problem solving. RESUME La comprehension de la lecture: est-elle une ou plurielle?Les recherches relatives a la complexitk factorielle de la comprehension de la lecture donnent lieu A beaucoup de controverses. Des etudes dimensionnelles analytiques essaient d'identifier des facteurs ou des composantes que I'on pourrait kvaluer stparement par des tests de comprkhension de lecture. Suivant une interpretation, la comprkhension de lecture est un concept holistique, indivisible, que I'on ne peut skparer en sous-habiletks diffkrentes. D'autres chercheurs voient la comprehension de lecture comme un phknomene complexe, compose d'habiletks diverses. On a ISSN 0141-0423 $2.00 !G) 1989 Journal of Reseurch in Reuding (UKRA) 88 DETLEF H. ROSTpostule cent ou plus de cent sous-composantes et, en se basant sur des analyses componentielles de la cornprehension de lecture de lecteurs experiment&, on a identifie trois a huit habiletes. Les etudes qui ne trouvent que deux habiletds, la lecture 'litterale' et la lecture 'inf6rentielle', occupent une position intermediaire.Du fait que I'on peut trouver beaucoup de faiblesses dans le plan, les analyses statistiques, et I'interpretation des etudes dimensionnelles analytiques relatives A la cornprehension de lecture, nous discutons plus en detail certains points critiques des etudes dimensionnelles analytiques (taille de I'kchantillon, homogCnCite de I'khantillon, validite de contenu, structure des variables, fidelitk des variables, selection du modtle, extraction et rotation des facteurs, effets scolaires, facteurs aleat oires) .Des specialistes de lecture et des enseignants soutiennent que le debut de la lecture comporte des habiletes skparkes, en depit des preuves en faveur d'une comprehension holistique des lecteurs exHrimentes (cf. Rost, 1985). Pour examiner ce probleme nous avons realise une etude afin de repondre A la question de savoir s'il est possible d'identifier empiriquement, psychologiquement et pedagogiquement des souscomposantes solides de la comprehension de lecture chez les app...

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“…On the other hand, they can be distinguished between according to the linguistic processes involved, that is, whether they involve productive (speaking and writing) or receptive (listening and reading) competencies. Against the background of theories on the acquisition of reading and listening comprehension skills (e.g., Gough et al, 1996), the extent to which the cognitive processes involved should be understood as modality-independent or modality-specific has also been discussed for some time (for a review, see Rost & Schilling, 2006). In educational psychology as well as in applied linguistics, numerous studies can be found on the question of the extent to which the four designated competencies should be understood as unidimensional or as multidimensional constructs (e.g., Rost, 1989;Zwick, 2005).…”

“…Against the background of theories on the acquisition of reading and listening comprehension skills (e.g., Gough et al, 1996), the extent to which the cognitive processes involved should be understood as modality-independent or modality-specific has also been discussed for some time (for a review, see Rost & Schilling, 2006). In educational psychology as well as in applied linguistics, numerous studies can be found on the question of the extent to which the four designated competencies should be understood as unidimensional or as multidimensional constructs (e.g., Rost, 1989;Zwick, 2005). What unites such studies is the overarching question of how to adequately represent and measure students' language performance.…”

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“…One persistent issue for the current study was to establish a theoretical framework of reading comprehension and determine whether it is one skill or a group of sub-skills. An answer to this issue was found in Rost (1989) who initiated his research to investigate the claim that early reading comprehension is composed of different separate sub-skills. He administered 38 German reading tests (covering many different aspects of reading comprehension), one spelling test and one speed-of-information-processing test to 220 German second graders (114 girls and 106 boys).…”

“…A principal component analysis led to one general reading comprehension component. Therefore, Rost (1989) viewed reading comprehension as a complex phenomenon consisting of various sub-skills. Moreover, he necessitated that competent readers should identify important problems, locate useful information, critically analyze the information they find, synthesize this information to solve the problems, and then communicate the solutions to inform others.…”

Literacy in Europe

“…He presented an integrated view on literacy processes, combining insights from applied linguistics and schema theory. Rost (1989) explored the question of the complexity of the reading comprehension construct. His conclusion was that, with young readers, reading comprehension tends to be a holistic construct closely related to general intelligence and verbal problem solving.…”