The Relationships among Reported Strategy Use,Metacognitive Awareness,and Reading Achievement of High School Students

The metacognitive awareness and reading strategy use of high school students enrolled in two high schools were investigated. The correlations between reading scores and strategy use were examined as well as the variation in strategy use by self-rated reading proficiency and academic grades. The factor analysis revealed four factors on the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory: Metacognitive Awareness Strategies, Text-Based Strategies, Reading Process Strategies, and Predicting Strategies. Reading Process Strategies were most preferred by participants, whereas Text-Based Strategies were least preferred. A statistically significant difference in strategy use was found for reading achievement, self-rated reading proficiency, and grade level.     

The Reading Development of Swedish L2 Middle School Students and Its Relation to Reading Strategy Use

This two-year longitudinal study investigated Swedish L2 middle school students’ reading development and its relation to reported strategy use. Reading comprehension was measured on three occasions and strategy use was examined using the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) scale. The results show that student reading comprehension scores develop significantly over the last two years of middle school (grades 5–6). As expected, second-generation immigrant students score higher than first-generation immigrants, but the differences are not statistically significant. The study shows no gender-related differences in relation to reading strategy use. Boys and girls use strategies to a similar extent. However, good readers reported using all types of reading strategies, particularly global strategies, to a greater extent than poor readers. Interestingly, the reading achievement of boys was strongly correlated to the reported use of global strategies, while the reading achievement of girls was not correlated to strategy use at all. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Tape‐assisted reciprocal teaching: Cognitive bootstrapping for poor decoders

Background: Students who have limited skills in decoding and comprehension and who lack motivation to read present difficulties for practitioners. Difficulties may be compounded when these students lack access to age‐appropriate and interesting text and have lost the notion of reading as a process of obtaining meaning from print. Aims: This research examined the effects of a modified reciprocal teaching intervention for readers with poor decoding skills and poor comprehension. Tapeassisted reciprocal teaching was used to help students with poor decoding skills develop cognitive and metacognitive strategies and improve their comprehension of high interest expository texts. Methods: Two single‐subject research design studies involving four groups of students were conducted. Study I involved one experimental group and Study II was a multiple baseline design involving three experimental groups. Sample: Each experimental group comprised a heterogeneous mix of six students, three with poor decoding skills and three with adequate decoding skills, all of whom showed poor comprehension. Results: As a result of the tape‐assisted reciprocal teaching, the poor decoders demonstrated improved application of cognitive and metacognitive strategies and improved comprehension. These improvements were shown on both researcherdeveloped and standardised tests as well as on maintenance and transfer measures. The students with adequate decoding skills also showed improvements in comprehension. Conclusions: The success of the intervention for poor decoders suggests that tape assisted reciprocal teaching may be seen as a form of ‘cognitive bootstrapping’ to enable poor readers to escape the cycle of reading failure and engage more meaningfully in the process of reading.     

Examining transactional influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends

The association between poorer academic outcomes and having antisocial friends is reliably demonstrated yet not well understood. Genetically sensitive designs uniquely allow for measuring genetic vulnerabilities and/or environmental risk in the association of antisocial friend behavior and poor school achievement, allowing for a better understanding of the nature of the association. This study included 233 pairs of twins from the Florida Twin Project on Reading. First, the role of antisocial friends as an environmental moderator of reading comprehension was examined. Antisocial friends significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in reading comprehension, with increased variation at lower levels of association with antisocial friends, with niche-picking indicated. Second, the role of reading comprehension as an environmental moderator of antisocial friends was examined. Reading comprehension significantly moderated the nonshared environmental variance in associating with antisocial friends, with increased variance at lower levels of reading comprehension and indication that common genetic influences contributed to higher reading achievement and better-behaved friends. In total, these results suggested reciprocal influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends. The impact of antisocial friends appeared to be limited in the extent to which they can undermine reading achievement, and high reading achievement appeared to support less association with antisocial friends.     

The generalizability of story grammar training across setting and tasks

Reading achievement depends in part on children's ability to employ strategies to monitor their comprehension, that is on children's use of metacognitive skills. An experimental intervention program created to foster such skills was evaluated. The story grammar training was designed to increase both strategic reading behavior and explicit, observable comprehension monitoring. Fourth-grade (N = 20) and fifth-grade (N = 16) children were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Maintenance was examined using free and probed oral recall, notetaking, and summarization of brief narrative and expository texts. Generalization was assessed through free and probed written recall of a lengthy text, which required both strategic reading and summarization skills for adequate comprehension. Skill acquisition was clearly demonstrated; trained readers were able to recall and summarize passages better than untrained readers. The evidence for generalization was more equivocal: although trained readers' free recall was significantly better than that of untrained readers, their probed recall was not. Provision of metacognitive skills that promote active comprehension monitoring, then, appears to provide children with the tools needed for independent reading. Programs designed to provide such skills may aid efforts to prevent reading failure.     

不同民族中学生英语阅读的元认知意识研究

采用英语阅读的元认知意识问卷对汉族、纳西族和彝族中学生进行测查。结果表明：(1)3种民族中学生英语阅读的元认知意识水平随着年级的升高呈现出提高的趋势;(2)3种民族男女生英语阅读的元认知意识水平整体上具有一致性,但在有些项目上却呈现出女生优于男生的趋势;(3)汉族与纳西族中学生英语阅读的元认知意识水平整体上具有一致性,彝族中学生英语阅读的元认知意识水平呈现出优于汉族和纳西族的趋势。     

学习困难学生排除理解障碍的实验研究

选取62名学习困难学生和63名优生为被试,以回视作为阅读元认知调节的指标,对学习困难学生的排除理解障碍策略的应用进行了实验研究。结果表明:(1)学习困难学生的回视可分三种类型,即记忆型、理解型和检查型回视;(2)在有无元认知回视上,优差生之间存在十分显著的差异,优生具有更多的元认知回视;(3)元认知回视组的成绩十分显著地优于记忆型回视组及无回视组。     

Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Reading fluency has been identified as a key component in effective literacy instruction (National Reading Panel, 2000). Instruction in reading fluency has been shown to lead to improvements in reading achievement. Reading fluency instruction is most commonly associated with guided repeated oral reading instruction. In the present retrospective study we examine the effects of a computer-based silent reading fluency instructional system called Reading Plus (Taylor Associates, Winooski, Vermount, USA) on the reading comprehension and overall reading achievement of a large corpus of students in an urban school setting. Findings indicate that the program resulted in positive, substantial, and significant improvements in reading comprehension and overall reading achievement on a criterion referenced reading test for Grades 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 and on a norm-referenced test of reading achievement for Grades 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10. Moreover, mean gains made by students in the Reading Plus intervention were greater than mean gains for all students at the state and district level. The findings were generally positive for all subpopulations studied, including special education and regular education students. Qualitative reports from teachers who participated in the study were also supportive of the program. Implications for the study are explored for particular subgroups of students and for the role of fluency instruction with struggling adolescent readers.     

Motivational determinants of reading comprehension: A comparison of French,Caucasian–American,and African–American adolescents

The relationships between adolescents' reading comprehension and their metacognitive knowledge and self-system beliefs were studied in three groups of subjects: French nationals, Caucasian Americans, and African Americans. Subjects were tested on measures of reading comprehension, metacognitive knowledge about reading processes, attributional beliefs, and academic self-concept. Correlation and regression analyses indicated cultural differences in the predictors of reading comprehension among the three groups. For French and Caucasian Americans, reading comprehension scores were related to metacognitive knowledge, academic self-concept, and attributions of success to ability. However, metacognition and motivational beliefs were mostly unrelated to comprehension performance for African Americans. Results are discussed in terms of verification of a model of motivational influences on performance, of cultural and ethnic group differences in beliefs, and the implications for generalizability of research results.     

Predicting reading achievement in the first year of schooling: A comparison of readiness tests and instructional programs

Data from four reading-related tests, including a measure of knowledge about books and print conventions, and two demographic variables, obtained at the end of the first year of schooling, were used to predict a range of students' word and discourse reading achievement at the conclusion of that year. Students were enrolled in a reading program that emphasized either the subskills involved in breaking the reading code or the more holistic gaining of meaning from print. The results indicated that a measure of knowledge about books and print conventions is strongly related to end-of-year reading achievement, but that, over and above the other more traditional measures, it is a significant predictor of only one type of comprehension - that involving the inferential linking of two pieces of information separated in the text. Students in a subskills-emphasis program outperformed those in a meaning-emphasis program on tests of word knowledge but not of comprehension of discourse.     

阅读理解困难儿童的认知加工

阅读理解困难是阅读障碍的一个主要类型,近年来受到西方研究者的重视。阅读理解认知加工,核心是有层次的语义加工,理解困难儿童在词汇语义加工和篇章推理和整合上都存在落后。理解困难儿童的信息推理水平落后,可能原因来自两个方面：一方面是语音工作记忆缺陷导致推理加工能力缺陷,另一方面是阅读元认知缺陷导致阅读目的和理解监控发展不正常。这些缺陷之间复杂的关系,还需要进一步研究     

Scale of reading fluency in Spanish: measuring the components of fluency / Escala de fluidez lectora en español: midiendo los componentes de la fluidez

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to design and validate a rating scale to measure reading fluency. As well as speed and accuracy, different dimensions of prosody were taken into account (volume, intonation, pauses and phrasing), aspects hardly considered in reading assessment. In addition, a measure of reading quality was included. 122 Spanish primary-school children (74 in Year 2 and 48 in Year 4) read aloud a narrative text. Using inter-rater criteria, children’s reading was assessed with this new rating scale (Scale of Reading Fluency in Spanish, SRFS) (Escala de Fluidez Lectora en Español, EFLE) and with the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (Rasinski, 2004). Standardized reading comprehension and prosodic reading tests were used as criterion measures. Results show acceptable reliability and validity coefficients. We conclude that SRFS appears to be a useful instrument for using in education and research contexts.     

Improving lecture comprehension: Effects of a metacognitive strategy

In previous research self-questioning strategies have been found to significantly improve reading comprehension, presumably because of the metacognitive nature of the self-questioning process. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether this metacognitive strategy also enhances lecture comprehension, that is, comprehension of non-text, orally presented material. In a self-questioning combined with reciprocal peer-questioning condition, ninthgraders were trained to pose questions for themselves during classroom lectures; following the lectures, they used their questions to engage in reciprocal peer-questioning and responding. Students in a self-questioning only condition also engaged in self-questioning during the lectures and then answered their own questions; in a review condition, students discussed the lecture material in small cooperative groups; and in a control group students reviewed the lecture material independently. On post-practice and 10-day maintenance tests participants in the self-questioning with reciprocal peer-questioning and the self-questioning only strategy groups showed lecture comprehension superior to that of participants in both the discussion review and control groups. These results suggest that: use of a self-questioning strategy can improve high school students' comprehension of lectures; students can maintain this strategy when external prompts are removed; and this metacognitive strategy can be readily taught to high school students and incorporated into their real-world classroom learning environment.     

大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略发展及其民族差异比较

采用英语阅读的元认知意识问卷对云南省大学生,昆明汉族、丽江地区的纳西族和彝族中学生进行测查。结果表明：(1)大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平随着年级的升高呈现出提高的趋势,从中学到大学是元认知策略水平快速发展的时期;(2)男女大中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平整体上具有一致性,但在中学阶段却呈现出女生略优于男生的趋势,到了大学,男女两性发展基本平衡;(3)汉族与纳西族中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平整体上具有一致性,彝族中学生英语阅读的元认知策略水平呈现出优于汉族和纳西族的趋势。     

Gender gap in reading achievement: the mediating role of metacognitive strategies and reading-related attitudes

The purpose of this study is to explain the gender differences in reading achievement with the mediating role of metacognitive strategies and reading-related attitudes. Hypotheses were tested with 6890 students [3396 (49.3%) females, 3494 (50.7%) males] who participated in PISA 2018 in Turkey. The path analysis results indicated that gender had significant associations with metacognitive strategies and reading-related attitudes. One remarkable result is that gender affected metacognitive strategies about lower cognitive levels more than strategies about higher cognitive levels, and that the female advantage was reduced for upper metacognitive strategies. Additionally, reading-related attitudes, except for perception of reading competence, and metacognitive strategies were significantly associated with reading achievement. In addition, the results revealed that metacognitive strategies and reading-related attitudes, except for perception of reading competence, fully mediated gender and reading achievement. Overall, the results show that the gender difference in reading achievement is not only due to gender itself, but may also be due to differentiation of the metacognitive strategies and reading-related attitudes of girls and boys. As a result, the teaching of metacognitive strategies and development of reading-related attitudes to students are recommended, in order to reduce the gender gap in reading achievement. Limitations, practical implications, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

     

Prosody instruction intervention as a means to improved reading comprehension

The relationship between prosody and comprehension, previously demonstrated in K–12 students, was examined in university students enrolled in first‐year writing classes. Students completed the Gray Oral Reading Test‐5 both before and after an expressive reading intervention (ER) or no oral reading instruction (NI). Throughout the semester, the ER students marked an excerpt of text for prosodic signals and read it aloud with a partner. Training and practice in expressive reading led to a significant improvement in the normed Oral Reading Index score. Specifically, ER participants demonstrated improved accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension in comparison with NI participants. The significant relationship between accuracy and comprehension in the ER condition suggests that expressive reading instruction strengthened student ability to read words accurately and, in turn, comprehend the material better than students in the NI condition. Expressive reading practices are recommended to engage students more deeply with the text.     

语文学困生与学优生阅读理解监控的发展研究

本研究采用错误检测法和理解自信度评价法,以错误觉察人数、错误觉察成绩、理解自信度评价成绩、阅读时间和阅读理解成绩为分析指标,探讨了不同年级语文学困生与学优生的阅读理解监控特征。结果发现:(1)语文学困生的阅读理解监控能力明显低于学优生;(2)学生对低难度错误信息的理解监控能力明显高于对高难度错误信息的理解监控;(3)随着年级的增长,学生的阅读理解监控能力也随之提高。     

Phonological Awareness and Beginning Reading in Spanish-Speaking ESL First Graders: Research into Practice

In the first study, 30 Spanish-speaking English-as-a-second language (ESL) first graders whose families were Latino immigrants and who received all their school instruction in English completed an assessment battery with both Spanish and English measures of phonological awareness, Verbal IQ (VIQ), oral language proficiency, and single-word reading (real words and pseudowords); they also named English alphabet letters. Phonological awareness in Spanish predicted (a) phonological awareness in English and (b) English word reading; thus, phonological awareness may transfer across first and second languages and across oral and written language. English VIQ and oral language proficiency predicted both English and Spanish word reading, but Spanish VIQ and oral language proficiency did not predict English word reading. In the second study, the 4 males and the 4 females with the lowest reading achievement participated in an instructional design experiment in which empirically supported instructional components for teaching beginning reading to monlingual English speakers were included. These components were phonological awareness training (in both Spanish and English), explicit instruction in alphabetic principle (in English), and repeated reading of engaging English text with comprehension monitoring (in English). Both individual students and the group as a whole increased in real-word reading and pseudoword reading beyond the level expected on the basis of their Spanish or English VIQ or oral proficiency. Implications of this research for school psychology practice are discussed, especially the importance of early reading intervention and progress monitoring for Spanish-speaking ESL first graders.     

阅读障碍检测的“差异模型”与“成分模型”比较分析

阅读障碍检测的“差异模型”因其操作性强的特点备受研究者喜爱且已成为该领域研究中广为采用的检测模型,然而研究表明“差异模型”在理论与实践方面存在诸多弊端;鉴于此,一些研究者提出了基于阅读成分理论、以干预为导向、科学合理、简便易施的“成分模型”,从而避免了单一采用“差异模型”进行阅读障碍检测。研究表明“成分模型”在汉语阅读障碍检测和亚类型鉴定中同样具有可行性和有效性,因此尝试采用“成分模型”实施阅读障碍检测可以避免汉语阅读障碍检测方面存在的混杂现象,进而促使我国阅读障碍检测及亚类型鉴定朝向更加科学化、规范化方向迈进