Journal of Research in Reading最新文献

Background

The associations between the characteristics of the home literacy environment (HLE) and children's language and literacy skills have been established in first languages. This study investigated the longitudinal interplay between the father–child and mother–child HLE and children's English language skills as L2.

Methods

In this study, 176 second-year kindergarten children (Mean = 55.06 months, SD = 4.30; 96 boys, 54.5%) were followed into their third year and were assessed on their English vocabulary and word reading. The child's father and mother completed a questionnaire on their independent HLE with their child.

Results

The cross-lagged panel analysis showed that previous father–child formal HLE predicted subsequent activity levels of mother–child and father–child informal HLE. The mother–child formal HLE positively predicted the development of English word reading. A child's prior English vocabulary was positively associated with subsequent father–child informal HLE.

Conclusions

The crossover effects between the father–child and mother–child HLE emphasize that the behaviours of one parent's HLE could influence one another. Family-based interventions could consider promoting both fathers' and mothers' roles in fostering children's language learning and reading development in a positive home learning environment. The implications for the effectiveness of the HLE in supporting children's English language learning as L2 are discussed.

Background

A common approach to assessing students' integrated understanding of multiple documents is to analyse their post-reading written reports. This study investigated to what extent writing self-efficacy directly and indirectly (via integrative processing) contributed to multiple-document comprehension as assessed with an integrative writing task.

Methods

A sample of Norwegian university students (n = 67) read four documents on a controversial socio-scientific issue and afterwards wrote reports on the issue without access to the documents. Multiple-document comprehension was assessed in terms of how well the reports reflected an elaborated and integrated understanding of the four documents' content. A mediation analysis was conducted with students' working memory as a covariate, their confidence in their ability to write a text that integrated content from multiple source documents as a predictor, self-reports of their integrative processing during reading as a mediator and multiple-document comprehension as an outcome variable.

Results

There was an indirect relationship between multiple-document-based writing self-efficacy and multiple-document comprehension via integrative processing. However, no direct relationship between writing self-efficacy and multiple-document comprehension was found. The covariate of working memory uniquely adjusted students' multiple-document comprehension.

Conclusions

In the context of written assessment of multiple-document comprehension, multiple-document-based writing self-efficacy and multiple-document comprehension were indirectly related via integrative processing during reading. The results indicate that not only reading-related but also writing-related individual differences may come into play when multiple-document comprehension is assessed with an integrative writing task.

Background

We examined the influence of text and reader characteristics on sixth graders' inference generation.

Methods

Eleven- to 12-year-old US monolingual English speakers (N = 71) and Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 81) read narrative and informational expository texts requiring an inference and answered an inference-tapping question after each text. We examined the influence of language status, word reading ability, knowledge (background knowledge and vocabulary), and reading strategy awareness and use on question accuracy, question-answering times and sentence reading times.

Results

Linear mixed effects models predicting response accuracy indicated an advantage for narrative texts, in general, and for participants with higher knowledge. When examining variation across the whole sample, rather than contrasting language groups, faster question-answering and sentence processing times were associated with higher knowledge.

Conclusions

Adolescent readers are better able to generate inferences from narrative than informational expository texts, and knowledge has a critical influence on both the process and product of inference generation and may explain reading comprehension performance differences between monolingual and bilingual students.

Background

Internet documents are characterised by their non-linear hyperlink structure, which allows for more flexible reading, at the cost of higher cognitive loads. Linear text reading comprehension skills contribute to hypertext comprehension (either directly or through its impact on navigation behaviours) but cannot fully account for its complexity. There is also evidence that hypertext reading engages executive functions, but few studies have addressed the core executive function processes simultaneously. This study examined hypertext comprehension and navigation skills and their association with linear text reading comprehension and executive functions in adolescents.

Methods

One hundred thirty-six third-year students (61% boys; age: M = 14.03, SD = 0.44 years) participated in the study. Students were assessed with a paper-and-pencil expository text comprehension test, a computerised neuropsychological battery to measure executive functioning (perceptual and response inhibition, shifting and working memory [WM]) and a hypertext comprehension task.

Results

We found direct contributions of shifting, linear text comprehension and navigation efficiency to hypertext comprehension. Linear text comprehension was associated with shifting, while navigation efficiency increased with WM and linear text comprehension skills. In addition, navigation partially mediated the effects of linear text comprehension and fully mediated those of WM on hypertext comprehension.

Conclusions

We found direct and indirect contributions of executive function to hypertext comprehension, mediated by linear text comprehension and navigation efficiency. This suggests that finding and integrating information from hypertexts engages shifting beyond its contribution to linear text reading. The role of WM was explained by its contribution to navigation efficiency (providing a workspace to keep track of navigation paths, reading goals and inferential processing). These findings underline the relevance of high-level cognitive abilities for Internet reading in adolescents, as well as the importance of teaching boosting navigation strategies in middle school, given their impact on hypertext comprehension.

Background

In the last two decades, a number of empirical studies investigated the impact of UK-based interventions for struggling readers in later primary years (called Key Stage 2 or KS2 in the UK). However, to date, there are no reviews that look at the extent and nature of the existing UK-based literature. This scoping review explores the extent of the available literature focusing on struggling readers in KS2 and aims to summarise the findings of available research.

Methods

A scoping review methodology was used, and six databases were searched from 2000 to 2022. The initial search yielded 1236 studies, of which 24 met the eligibility criteria and were included in this review.

Results

Most of the included studies (21 out of 24) demonstrated positive outcomes, and the support provided led to improvement in the reading skills of struggling readers in KS2. The available intervention programmes included a wide range of intensity, varied group sizes and targeted different reading skills. There is currently insufficient evidence to suggest the relative efficacy of one intervention over another.

Conclusions

The review confirmed the need for more robust research in this area and highlighted the importance of learning lessons from the international evidence base.

Background

Although most prevalent in childhood, the acquisition of new words in oral vocabulary takes place right across the lifespan. Of the many factors that influence oral vocabulary learning, one extrinsic factor is the listening environment. The current study aimed to examine whether the presence of noise impacts oral vocabulary learning in adult native speakers of English and, if so, whether this can be alleviated by the incidental presence of orthography when introducing new words.

Methods

Sixty 18–35-year-old native speakers of English were divided into two groups: orthography present and orthography absent and were taught novel picture–word pairs either in quiet or in noise. Word learning was assessed using picture naming and picture–word-matching tasks.

Results

The results revealed that the presence of orthography during training reduced the negative impact of noise and supported word learning and retention in adults.

Conclusion

These results are promising for vocabulary instruction practices in less-than-ideal listening environments where structural modifications are not a feasible option.

Background

This study examined how children's ability to understand what they read on screens is impacted by two specific digital features: hovering hyperlinks and scrolling.

Methods

The participants were 75 English-speaking children (M = 9.90 years, SD = 0.90 years) in Grades 3 to 5 who participated in an online research study. Using a within-participants design, children read standardised passages from the Gates–MacGinitie Reading Tests (MacGinitie et al., 2000) and answered multiple-choice comprehension questions. In one condition, passages were presented without digital features referred to as the clicking condition; in another, children had to scroll to navigate through the passages, in a third, there were hyperlinks that provided a word definition when a participant hovered their cursor over a blue and underlined word, and a final condition included both scrolling and hyperlinks.

Results

As expected, there was a significant main effect of grade on children's ability to understand what they read, with better performance for children in Grade 5 than 3. Critically, there was a significant main effect of condition on children's performance on the reading comprehension questions, with higher scores for the condition with no digital features compared with the conditions with hovering hyperlinks and both scrolling and hovering hyperlinks. Performance was similar between the clicking and scrolling conditions. There was no significant interaction between grade and condition, showing consistency in effects across the upper elementary school years.

Conclusions

These findings could inform the optimal design of digital texts by identifying digital features that do and do not interfere with reading comprehension, with hyperlinks providing word level information interfering and scrolling having no negative impacts.

Background

The study describes preschoolers' digital home environment, focusing on parent–child writing interactions using a smartphone and exploring its contribution to children's early literacy.

Methods

Participants were 65 Israeli preschoolers (M = 62.37 months) from middle SES and one of their parents. Parents responded to questionnaires assessing the digital home environment (prevalence of digital devices, parental involvement in selecting digital content, children's independent digital activities and screen time). Parents were video recorded while assisting their children in writing a shopping list of three products using a smartphone (keyboard). We analysed how parents helped children segment words into their respective sounds (grapho-phonemic mediation) and type letters independently (printing mediation) and their reference to the orthography. Children's literacy skills (letter knowledge, phonological awareness and early writing) were assessed individually.

Results

Findings showed that the homes are rich with technology and children are engaged daily with various digital devices. The level of parental involvement in selecting their children's digital content and the quality of their writing support positively related to children's early literacy skills. Children's independent digital activities were negatively related to their literacy skills. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the nature of parental writing support predicted children's early literacy beyond parental involvement in selecting digital content and children's independent digital activities.

Conclusions

The study reveals the benefits of parental involvement in their children's digital world and highlights the strength of parental writing support and the potential of parent–child digital activities in promoting children's early literacy.

Highlights