Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Compared to research on English as a First Language (EL1) reading comprehension, there is a dearth of studies investigating English as a Second Language (ESL) reading comprehension. This dissertation reports findings from two studies which examined the cognitive processes underlying English reading comprehension in Chinese ESL students. Two-hundred and forty six Grade 8 students in an English immersion program in a junior middle school in China were administered a battery of reading-related and reading comprehension tests. The first study investigated the cognitive predictors of English reading comprehension in these students. It tested whether the Simple View of Reading model (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) applied to Chinese ESL students and whether the effects of breadth and depth of vocabulary contributed to different levels of reading comprehension. The results showed that the Simple View of Reading model did not predict Chinese English-immersion students’ reading comprehension well. Vocabulary as well as inference and strategy added further variance to the general understanding of text. Vocabulary breadth and depth explained unique variance in reading comprehension, with vocabulary breadth contributing more to general understanding of text and vocabulary depth to deep processing of text. The second study explored characteristics of reading comprehension difficulties among Chinese English-immersion students. Three groups of comprehenders matched on age, nonverbal intelligence, and word reading speed were identified from the 246 Grade 8 Chinese English-immersion students: 33 unexpected poor comprehenders, 28 expected average comprehenders, and 30 unexpected good comprehenders. The three groups differed in vocabulary and higher-level processes. Vocabulary breadth and depth distinguished between the unexpected poor comprehenders and the expected average comprehenders. Inference, strategy, listening comprehension, summary writing, and morphological awareness distinguished between the expected average comprehenders and the unexpected good comprehenders. The findings suggest that vocabulary is the main source of reading comprehension difficulties in these unexpected poor comprehenders. The advantage of the unexpected good comprehenders group was primarily due to discourse comprehension and strategic processes, and is only possible with high language proficiency. Taken together, both vocabulary and higher-level skills are essential to successful reading comprehension in Chinese English-immersion students. The higher-level skills can be used more efficiently to help these students’ reading comprehension when they have acquired adequate vocabulary knowledge. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-19 11:58:53.81

There is a dearth of measures which evaluate reading comprehension in people with traumatic brain injuries returning to secondary level education. Existing standardized assessments do not accurately measure constructs of high level reading comprehension. Correct information unit (CIU) analysis can be a valuable tool for measuring reading comprehension in these more demanding contexts. However, the measure requires a significant amount of time to administer and score, leading practicing clinicians to use other measures. This exploratory project sought to fill the gap by increasing the clinical feasibility of CIU analysis. Researchers implemented a human-in-the-loop automation of CIU scoring. A within rater comparison across three raters design was utilized to evaluate if the automation provided an increase in efficiency versus by hand scoring. Findings indicate a trend of increased efficiency across raters which was not statistically significant. This thesis supports further studies to continue development of the automated application of CIU analysis.

Researchers and educators agree that reading comprehension and interest in reading are strong predictors of future success in academics. I studied the effects of establishing interest for reading (i.e. increased reinforcement value for reading) and reading achievement with 4th grade students. In Experiment I, I tested the correlations between a measure of reinforcement value for reading level (determined by a 20-min, 10s whole interval probe session) and reading achievement tests of 30 fourth-grade students. The reading achievement tests measured passage comprehension, literary comprehension, informational comprehension, and vocabulary. I found significant correlations between reinforcement value for reading and all reading achievement measures. In Experiment II, using a pre- and postintervention design with a multiple probe logic, I tested the effects of establishing a level of interest in reading (CR+ for reading) through a 4-step, peer-collaborative procedure on reading achievement outcomes for 6 fourth grade students. The 4-step procedure included 1) shared reading period, 2) vocabulary task 3) independent reading period, and 4) a comprehension drawing task. The establishment of CR+ for reading in all 6 participants resulted in grade-level increases from 0.8-4.1 in WJ-IV passage comprehension, -0.4- 2.3 in WJ-IV vocabulary, and 0.2-2.3 in Gray Silent Reading Tests (GSRT). In Experiment III, I conducted a component analysis to test the significance of the independent and shared reading component of the 4-step peer-collaborative procedure. Using a simultaneous treatment design with a built-in crossover, I studied the effects a Collaborative Independent Reading Treatment (CIR) and Collaborative Shared Reading Treatment (CSR) on establishing CR+ for Reading and the overall effect it had on reading achievement. The 4-step peer-collaborative procedure was the same except students were either exposed to only shared or independent reading and not the other. Participants were yoked into dyads across treatment conditions and completed intervention with a partner in the same treatment condition. Participants in the CIR treatment met CR+ for reading in 1 phase while participants in the CSR treatment did not meet CR+ for reading in 1 phase. The establishment of CR+ for reading in the CIR treatment group resulted in grade-level increases from 1.2 to 3.4 in the WJ-IV passage comprehension, 0.4 to 4.5 in the WJ-IV vocabulary, and -1.2 to 4.3 in the GSRT. Without the establishment of CR+ for reading in the CSR treatment group, grade-level increases for WJ-IV passage comprehension was -1 to 2.1, WJ-IV vocabulary was -0.9 to 0, and GSRT was -0.3 to 1.5). I conducted a crossover treatment where participants in the CSR treatment group underwent the CIR treatment procedure. All 4 participants acquired CR+ for reading in 1 phase of the intervention and increases were 0.6 to 2.2 for WJ-IV passage comprehension, 0.8 to 4.3 for WJ-IV vocabulary, and -0.5 to 2.7 for GSRT. The CIR treatment procedure was more effective in, not only establishing reinforcement value for reading, but also in increasing reading achievement in a very short amount of time.

No description available.

This study examined the effects of the number of columns and type of justification on reading speed, reading comprehension, and satisfaction for online text. Sixty-six participants read a single narrative passage of approximately 2200 words presented in one of six conditions: one, two, or three columns and full- or left-justification. Results from this study found that reading speeds for the two-column full-justified condition and one-column left-justified condition were fastest overall. Fast readers performed best under the two-column full-justified condition, and slow readers performed best under the one-column left-justified condition. No significant differences were found for overall satisfaction or comprehension. Further studies are needed to examine the importance of individual difference in reading ability on online reading performance. / "May 2005." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, Dept. of Psychology

Syftet med vår studie är att, inom skolämnet SO, undersöka huruvida bearbetade lärobokstexter kan underlätta läsförståelsen hos elever i år 9. För att uppnå vårt syfte har vi, i vår undersökning, använt oss av flera forskningsmetoder. Vi har gjort en s.k. triangulering bestående dels av en kvantitativ upprepad mätning och dels en kvalitativ hermeneutisk metod med enkätfrågor. Vårt urval har bestått av 6 elever i år 9 från en 6-9 skola. De deltagande eleverna har ej uppnått godkänd nivå gällande läsförståelse i Nationellt prov i svenska för år 9. Resultatet pekar på att skolans faktatexter kan göras mer tillgängliga för eleverna om texterna bearbetas med olika språkliga faktorer, såsom t.ex. författarröst och kausalitet vilket har visat sig öka elevernas läsförståelse.

This study used a 3 (positive vs. neutral vs. negative) ¡Ñ 2 (VCD story vs. written story) ¡Ñ2 (male vs. female) experimental design to estimate the effects of information input and emotion on fifth grader¡¦s memory recall and comprehension performance. Six classes of fifth graders were selected from two public elementary schools in Kaohsiung city and were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions explored whether the participants recall different amounts of information and correctly recall the information for VCD story and written story of different emotional orientation (positive, neutral, and negative). Students were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions by class. The data collected from the participants were analyzed statistically with a one-way ANOVA and a three-way MANOVA. According to the result of one-way ANOVA, there were no significant differences in Chinese language exam among the six classes: this result indicated that the reading ability among these six classes is equal. According to the result of three-way MANOVA, there was no significant interaction between information input, emotion and gender was found. With regard to the free recall test, the interaction between emotion and gender is significant on main idea recall. The simple main effects of emotion at male is significant, the students who received the positive or negative emotional input had a better performance on main idea recall. The simple main effects of gender at positive emotion is significant, boys had a better performance on main idea recall than girls. The main effect of information input is significant on main idea recall, and student who read a written story had a IX better performance on main idea recall. The main effect of emotion was significant on the total recall, the idea unit recall, and the main idea recall; students who received the positive or negative emotional input had a better performance on the total recall, the idea unit recall, and the main idea recall. With regard to the comprehension test, the main effect of information was not significant on the percent correct of the whole comprehension test. However, the main effect of emotion was significant on the percent correct of literal and critical comprehension; moreover, students receiving the positive or negative emotional information had a better performance on the percent correct of literal and critical comprehension. In conclusion, written story can help children to recall the main idea of a story better: furthermore, the information with positive or negative emotion can improve students¡¦ memory recall and comprehension. Therefore, teachers and parents should choose information on input appropriately. Also, they should choose teaching material with more emotional stimulus in order to improve students¡¦ memory and comprehension.

Thesis (PhD(Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 336-365).