Text Comprehension (text + comprehension)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The Effect of Frequency of Input-Enhancements on Word Learning and Text Comprehension

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2007
Susanne Rott
Research on second language lexical development during reading has found positive effects for word frequency, the provision of glosses, and elaborative word processing. However, findings have been inconclusive regarding the effect of such intervention tasks on long-term retention. Likewise, few studies have looked at the cumulative effect of interventions on word learning or text comprehension. This investigation sought to assess the effect of increased frequency of target words (TWs) comparing lexical gain of words that occurred once (F1) or four times (F4) in the input passage. The study further investigated the combined effect of frequency (F4) and semantic or visual enhancements. It compared the following reading conditions: (a) TWs were glossed four times in the text (four-gloss: 4G); (b) TWs were first glossed, then retrieved in the first language, and bolded twice (gloss-retrieval: GR); and (c) TWs were first glossed and then bolded three times (gloss-bolding: GB). In addition, the study assessed the effect of these interventions on long-term retention (4,6 weeks) of lexical knowledge and on text comprehension. Findings revealed that the GR and 4G reading conditions resulted in more productive word gain than the GB condition or when readers encountered a TW only once. Repeated visual enhancements seemed to have no effect on strengthening word encoding. The comprehension of main ideas was highest when the TW was glossed four times followed by the gloss-bolding reading condition and the gloss-retrieval task. [source]


Computer-Assisted Reading: The Effect of Glossing Format on Comprehension and Vocabulary Retention

FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 2 2001
Serafima Gettys
Two glossing methods are compared. The first method provides readers with sentence-level translation equivalents of the second-language (L2) words. The second method connects the words with their meanings through basic dictionary forms. The main purpose of the study was to determine which of the two glossing formats is more beneficial for text comprehension and vocabulary retention. The results of the study show that retention of lexical items is better aided by reading the text with dictionary-form equivalents of the L2 words, because it involves a deeper level of cognitive processing. The situation is less clear-cut regarding the effect of the two glossing formats on global comprehension. The pedagogical implications of the data obtained are discussed. [source]


Bottom-up processing and reading comprehension in experienced adult readers

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 3 2009
Virginia M. Holmes
Previous research has indicated a weak to moderate role for word recognition skill in contributing to reading comprehension efficiency in highly experienced adult readers. The goal of this study was to re-evaluate the strength of this association, including assessment of the contribution of skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes and identifying letters. Unexpectedly, the results revealed a very strong association between efficiency in reading connected text and word recognition skill, as measured by efficiency of access to the orthographic lexicon. Ability to identify letters rapidly and accurately also contributed to orthographic access skill. These associations were only minimally reduced by controlling for skill in discriminating unfamiliar shapes. The results were interpreted in terms of the verbal-efficiency theory, according to which rapid and accurate lower-level processing liberates resources for equally crucial higher-level comprehension processing, ultimately resulting in more efficient text comprehension. [source]


Chinese children's constructive activity and text comprehension

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 4 2008
Yin-Kum Law
This study investigated how constructive activities are involved when Chinese students are performing reading tasks that require deeper levels of understanding. Forty students from Grade 5 (19 boys and 21 girls), and 42 students from Grade 6 (20 boys and 22 girls) participated in this study. To reveal the children's constructive processes in reading, they were asked to think aloud while responding to a text. Analyses of the children's protocols identified five levels of constructive activity. Analyses further indicated that the Grade 6 children performed better than the Grade 5 children, and skilled readers outperformed less skilled readers in higher levels of constructivist activity and text understanding tasks. Implications of the important roles of constructivist activity in children's learning from texts were discussed. [source]


The role of two reading strategies in text comprehension: An eye fixation study in primary school children

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 2 2008
Menno Van Der Schoot
This study examined whether 10,12-year-old children use two reading strategies to aid their text comprehension: (1) distinguishing between important and unimportant words; and (2) resolving anaphoric references. Of interest was the question to what extent use of these reading strategies was predictive of reading comprehension skill over and above decoding skill and vocabulary. Reading strategy use was examined by the recording of eye fixations on specific target words. In contrast to less successful comprehenders, more successful comprehenders invested more processing time in important than in unimportant words. On the other hand, they needed less time to determine the antecedent of an anaphor. The results suggest that more successful comprehenders build a more effective mental model of the text than less successful comprehenders in at least two ways. First, they allocate more attention to the incorporation of goal-relevant than goal-irrelevant information into the model. Second, they ascertain that the text model is coherent and richly connected. [source]


Prosodic reading, reading comprehension and morphological skills in Hebrew-speaking fourth graders

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 2 2007
Dorit Ravid
Employing prosody skilfully, one of the cornerstones of fluent reading, is an indicator of text comprehension. Morphological knowledge has been shown to underlie lexical acquisition and to be related to reading development. The relationship between reading comprehension, prosodic reading and morphological knowledge was investigated in 51 Hebrew-speaking fourth-grade students aged 9,10. Participants were tested on comprehension of two stories and on appropriate prosodic reading of one of them. Their prosodic reading was compared with an agreed prosodic map compiled from experts' reading. Participants were also administered a battery of morphological tasks. All three domains, including almost all of their component parts, were strongly correlated. The multiple regression in steps showed that morphology and reading comprehension each contribute to prosodic reading, while morphology and prosody each contribute to reading comprehension. The connection between reading comprehension and prosodic reading is however moderated by good morphological skills. [source]


The Effect of Frequency of Input-Enhancements on Word Learning and Text Comprehension

LANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2007
Susanne Rott
Research on second language lexical development during reading has found positive effects for word frequency, the provision of glosses, and elaborative word processing. However, findings have been inconclusive regarding the effect of such intervention tasks on long-term retention. Likewise, few studies have looked at the cumulative effect of interventions on word learning or text comprehension. This investigation sought to assess the effect of increased frequency of target words (TWs) comparing lexical gain of words that occurred once (F1) or four times (F4) in the input passage. The study further investigated the combined effect of frequency (F4) and semantic or visual enhancements. It compared the following reading conditions: (a) TWs were glossed four times in the text (four-gloss: 4G); (b) TWs were first glossed, then retrieved in the first language, and bolded twice (gloss-retrieval: GR); and (c) TWs were first glossed and then bolded three times (gloss-bolding: GB). In addition, the study assessed the effect of these interventions on long-term retention (4,6 weeks) of lexical knowledge and on text comprehension. Findings revealed that the GR and 4G reading conditions resulted in more productive word gain than the GB condition or when readers encountered a TW only once. Repeated visual enhancements seemed to have no effect on strengthening word encoding. The comprehension of main ideas was highest when the TW was glossed four times followed by the gloss-bolding reading condition and the gloss-retrieval task. [source]


Perspective-driven text comprehension

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Johanna K. Kaakinen
The present article reports results of an eye-tracking experiment, which examines whether the perspective-driven text comprehension framework applies to comprehension of narrative text. Sixty-four participants were instructed to adopt either a burglar's or an interior designer's perspective. A pilot test showed that readers have more overlapping prior knowledge with the burglar-relevant than with the interior designer-relevant information of the experimental text. Participants read either a transparent text version where the (ir)relevance of text segments to the perspective was made apparent, or an opaque text version where no direct mention of the perspective was made. After reading participants wrote a free recall of the text. The results showed that perspective-related prior knowledge modulates the perspective effects observed in on-line text processing and that signalling of (ir)relevance helps in encoding relevant information to memory. It is concluded that the proposed framework generalizes to the on-line comprehension of narrative texts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The psychology of science text comprehension.

APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2003
& Arthur C. Graesser (Eds)., José A. León, José Otero
No abstract is available for this article. [source]