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Comparing Generic and Passage-Specific Assessments of Vocabulary and Fluency as Predictors of Reading Comprehension in Narrative and Expository Passages

Previous research has investigated vocabulary and fluency as predictors of reading comprehension, most of it concentrating on younger school-age readers. The present study compared both passage-specific and generic assessments of vocabulary and fluency as predictors of reading comprehension in college-age readers. The comparison was done for both standardized tasks and experimental tasks and for expository and narrative text types. The study also investigated the effect of text type and question type (inferential and non-inferential) on reading comprehension. Seventy eight college-age readers completed a battery of reading comprehension, vocabulary and fluency tests. The results of the study reveal an interaction between passage type and question type on comprehension performance with students performing better on inferential questions for narrative texts, and on non-inferential questions for expository texts. Furthermore, vocabulary was found to be a better predictor of reading comprehension than fluency for both standardized and experimental tasks. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: July 28, 2006. / Inference Making / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard K. Wagner, Professor Directing Thesis; Colleen Kelly, Committee Member; Gretchen Sunderman, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168598
ContributorsPriya, Kanu (authoraut), Wagner, Richard K. (professor directing thesis), Kelly, Colleen (committee member), Sunderman, Gretchen (committee member), Department of Psychology (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf

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