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The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986) provides a conceptual framework for describing the processes involved when readers comprehend text and strong evidence for the SVR comes from factor analytic studies showing dissociation between decoding and comprehension skills. The aim of the present study was to investigate if pre-decoding and comprehension components exist in Canadian English-speaking pre-readers (n = 36) with the use of Principal Components Analysis and to create a parent literacy questionnaire that contains parent literacy practices that may predict children's pre-decoding and comprehension skills. All children were administered a battery of pre-reading measures and parents completed a literacy survey. Principal Components Analysis demonstrated that listening comprehension and pre-decoding measures loaded as distinct components. The findings provide support for the SVR framework. No clear patterns were identified between parent literacy practices and children's pre-reading skills. Further work is needed with a larger and more representative sample.

An important question in the field of reading development is whether models of reading, which apply largely to monolingual English (L1) learners, also apply to English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. The pursuit of such an inquiry is critical to the development of empirically valid models of reading in ESL populations. This study investigated the nature and determinants of the developmental pathways of reading comprehension in ESL (N=153) and L1 learners (N=593) from the fourth to the seventh grade. Two research questions guided the research: (1) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in their reading comprehension growth trajectories? (2) How similar are ESL learners to L1 learners in the determinants of their reading comprehension growth trajectories? The following basic processes of reading comprehension were examined: phonological awareness, pseudoword decoding, word identification, reading fluency, and syntactic awareness. Using latent growth modeling, the study found that ESL learners were identical to L1 learners in the functional form (both showed linear growth), slope or rate of growth, intra-individual variability, and linguistic determinants, of their reading comprehension growth trajectories. However, they were weaker than L1 learners in their reading comprehension skill levels. These results provide compelling support for the applicability of L1 models of reading comprehension for ESL learners, and help shape an emergent conceptualization of reading comprehension development for ESL learners.

Six studies were conducted to investigate young children's earliest insights into the interpretive nature of knowing, or the formation of what has been called an "Interpretive Theory of Mind." This insight was operationalized as the ability to recognize that two persons exposed to precisely the same information can, nonetheless, end up holding sharply different opinions about what is the self-same reality. All of the studies made use of a set of pictures fitted with covers such that most of the underlying picture was hidden, leaving only an ambiguous set of lines visible through a small viewing window. The key question asked concerned subjects' understanding that other persons who have not seen the full picture but only the restricted view, and who know nothing about the full contents of the picture, are all nevertheless free and able to hold different beliefs about what is depicted in this restricted view. An important feature of this procedure is that it can assess both subjects' understanding of simple false belief as well as their understanding of the interpretive possibilities that such stimuli afford. This feature was exploited to demonstrate that young persons who appreciate that beliefs can be false—an achievement that is commonly taken to mark the point of entry into a theory-like understanding of mental life—cannot always be counted on to also appreciate that different interpretations of the same stimulus are possible. By exploring children's reactions to inherently ambiguous stimuli that, by design, easily lend themselves to misinterpretation, it is possible to distinguish between a theory of mind that rests entirely on notions of false belief (i.e., one that views the mind as a recording device capable only of mistakes of ignorance), and a more complex appreciation of the mind's more active capacity for constructively interpreting—and so misinterpreting—reality. What these studies reveal is that an interpretive theory of mind is different from, and later arriving than, an appreciation of the possibility of false belief, and, contrary to competing claims, this interpretive theory actually makes its first appearance during, but not before, the early school years.

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No description available.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test materials for training prospective teachers in appropriate questioning strategy in teaching reading. The intent wasto enhance teacher skill in phrasing comprehension questions that promote children's critical reading behaviors. ProceduresInstructional and evaluative materials and a question classification system were developed based upon a review of literature relative to reading comprehension and instructional questioning. The classification system, titled ASK:Q Comprehension Categories, contained six categories. Vocabulary-Experiential, Literal, and Transformational constituted the Non-Critical categories. The Critical Reading categories included the Inferential, Evaluative, and Creative categories.The instructional material, titled TASK:QS, consisted of a series of four lesson booklets. The acronym was derived from: Teaching for Acquisition of Skill and Knowledge in Questioning Strategy. The booklets were designed to be used by groups of four or five college students in a reading methods class. Each lesson was intended to be self- or group-instructional and required the major portion of a class period. The evaluative material, ASK:Q, consisted of preand post-test forms, each containing three reading selections for which comprehension questions were to be written. The acronym was derived from Assessing Skill and Knowledge in Questioning. ASK:Q was subjected to analysis for validity and rater-reliability.Early in the quarter ASK:Q-1 (pre-test) was administered to students in two sections of a reading methods course at Ball State University to assess the question-phrasing status of the participants. Both sections were taught by the same instructor. Students in one section (control group) experienced the conventional course content. Students in the other section (experimental group) experienced the same course content. In addition, the experimental group used one TASK:QS lesson each week during the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth weeks of the quarter. ASK:Q-2 (post-test) was administered to students in both sections at the conclusion of the study to record any changes in question-phrasing ability.Questions written in response to ASK:Q-1 and ASK:Q-2 were scored in terms of assignment to the ASK:Q Comprehension Categories. Analysis of covariance was applied to pre-test and post-test scores. The corresponding F-values were used to determine the significance of changes in questioning strategy. Analysis focused upon changes in total number of Critical Reading questions and changes in the number of questions written in each comprehension category.ConclusionsWhile both groups evidenced gains, the experimental group wrote significantly more Critical Reading questions. Because of the small number of questions, the VocabularyExperiential category was not subjected to analysis. Changes reached statistical significance for only the Literal and Creative categories, the experimental group evidenced improved questioning strategy with respect to increased or decreased use of each of the categories analyzed. Based on statistical evidence it may be concluded that exposure to the instructional materials had only a limited effect upon enhancing the use of questions in specific comprehension categories. Results tend to indicate that questioning strategy may be influenced more effectively with respect to the total Critical Reading category rather than in terms of specific comprehension categories. It would appear that TASK:QS materials provide an effective means for enhancing teachers' skill in phrasing appropriate reading comprehension questions.The present study provided evidence that improvements can be effected in pre-service teachers' reading comprehension questioning. Results of the study also indicated that questioning strategy may be enhanced within the format of a reading methods course. It would appear appropriate to provide experiences similar to TASK:QS for prospective teachers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of prestated purposes on the silent reading comprehension of good and poor readers using an informal reading inventory. This study was conducted using 38 third grades and 38 fourth graders from a rural school in east central Indiana. These subjects were designated as good or poor readers by performance on the Metropolitan Achievement Test, Reading subtest. Each subject scored an intelligence quotient of 85 or above on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Ten good readers and nine poor readers from the third and fourth grades, respectively, were randomly assigned the purpose treatment; and ten good readers and nine poor readers from each grade, respectively, were randomly assigned the nonpurpose treatment.The purpose treatment consisted of giving the oral prestated purpose labeled "examiners introduction" in the Analytical Reading Inventory. The nonpurpose treatment consisted of no prestated purpose prior to the silent reading of the passages.Each subject was administered the Analytical Reading Inventory. Procedures for administration recommended in the Analytical Reading Inventory were followed. A silent reading comprehension score was obtained by adding the total number of questions correct between and including the independent and frustration reading levels.Four null hypotheses were tested using a fully crossed 2x2x2 design with all factors fixed. The Bonferroni t-test 95 percent confidence interval procedure was applied in analyzing the silent reading comprehension scores. No significant differences were found on any of the four hypotheses.The major conclusion drawn from the results of the analysis was that prestated purposes do not appear to aid or hinder the silent reading comprehension of good or poor third and fourth grade readers. The results of this study would appear to indicate that the use of prestated purposes on an informal reading inventory are of little consequence to the total silent reading comprehension score. Therefore, consideration needs to be given as to whether or not to use prestated purposes when administering an informal reading inventory in a diagnostic testing situation. This consideration may be no more than to leave the use of prestated purposes to the discretion of the examiner.

The thesis has explored the influence of both perceived and actual mispronunciation upon comprehension of a spoken message. An eight-item short-answer test measured the dependent variable, comprehension. A set of three point scales including distractors measured perception of mispronunciation.In addition, the thesis indicates the value of replicating studies using different samples and different degrees of mispronunciation. It was found that there is a difference in perception of mispronunciations by foreign and American graduate students. It was also found that there is no difference in the way foreign and American graduate students score on comprehension tests, and there is no significant relationship between level of mispronunciation and comprehension on an immediate posttest.