bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The interaction with text of failing and normal readers (Ph.D thesis, School of Education, Open University, 1984)
Authors: Mulholland Helen 
Published: November 2005

The research reported in this thesis was designed to investigate the nature of reading comprehension failure with a view to improving remedial reading programmes for those children who, although resembling normal readers in other respects, enter secondary education with an inadequate level of reading ability.By the use of cloze tests, in which the reader is required to restore words deleted from a text, comparisons were made between failing readers at age twelve, normal readers of age twelve and normal readers of age nine who had reached the same level of reading comprehension as the failing twelve‐year‐olds. The three groups’ responses were classified by a system based on a view of the reading process as an interaction between the reader and the text. The effects of specific aspects of text on the three groups of readers were investigated. It was found that there were significant differences between the responses offered by the failing readers at age twelve and normal readers at age nine. Since the level of reading ability of the two groups was the same, this suggests that reading failure involves qualitative differences from normal reading development.The types of difficulty experienced by failing readers, as reflected in their cloze responses, include difficulties in visual scanning, in reconstruction of syntactic structures and in vocabulary. These components did not affect all failing readers equally. Failing readers appear to have greater difficulty than normal in relating their responses to the general theme of the text and tend to treat it as a series of isolated fragments. They make less use of the context following a deleted word than normal readers. Failing readers at age twelve appear to have greater difficulty than normal readers at age nine in recognizing which segments of a text contain important information.The whole population of a secondary school, 643 subjects, was tested and it was found that failing readers at age fifteen produced the same pattern of responses as those failing at age twelve. The only improvement appearing in their reading was in the processing of complete sentences.There were indications that remedial programmes designed on the diagnostic basis provided by the research results produced an increase in reading age in six months of a similar order to that produced by previous remedial programmes in a year. The increase was approximately twenty‐four months on average for a group of failing readers whose mean reading age on entry was eight years six months. The programme caused them to alter their response patterns to resemble those of normal readers at age twelve.
Correlates of leisure‐time reading
Authors: Greaney Vincent , Hegarty Mary 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTPupils from middle‐class homes devoted an average of 7.2 per cent of leisure time to reading. The relationship between home environment, attitude to reading and motivations for reading on the one hand and leisure‐time reading on the other, was examined. The addition of these sets of variables to previously established correlates of leisure‐time reading, achievement, sex, and library membership increased the proportion of variance accounted for in leisure‐time reading by a significant amount (10.1 per cent). Correlations tended to be low, since leisure reading is a relatively sporadic type activity. From the perspective of developing the reading habit, the results suggest that what parents do is more important than what they are; the emphasis placed on reading in the home, on academic development and on intellectuality was related to leisure‐time reading. Attitude to reading correlated more highly with leisure‐time reading than any of the other variables included in the study; the correlation between attitude and time was significant even after controlling for sex, reading achievement and library membership. Among the motivational variables, reading for enjoyment was related to leisure‐time reading whereas reading for utilitarian or escapist reasons was not.
The effect of pictures on the reading processes of less able readers: a miscue analysis approach
Authors: Beveridge M. , Griffiths V. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThe impact of illustrations on the reading performance of children with reading difficulties has been examined. Nineteen children from the first year of three comprehensive schools each read illustrated and unillustrated fictional passages at three levels of difficulty. The reading performance was assessed using miscue analysis, Goodman and Burke (1972) and a two‐way analysis of variance was applied to analyse the results.Reading performance was assessed in the area of: total errors, time taken to read the passages, comprehension, grammatical relationships and errors excluding omissions and insertions. The results suggested that, in the majority of these aspects of the reading process, there was a statistically significant interaction between illustration and difficulty levels. At the lower level of difficulty, reading performance in the illustrated conditions was superior to that in the unillustrated conditions. At the higher level of difficulty the reverse trend was apparent.
Rasch scaling and reading tests
Authors: Pumfrey Peter D. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to sensitise research workers and other test users to an ongoing controversy concerning the relative merits of conventional test theory and Rasch scaling in the construction of reading tests.Supporters of Rasch scaling readily acknowledge its limitations in mapping the complexities of human reading behaviours. Despite this, the technique's practical and theoretical advantages in certain aspects of reading are seen as outweighing the acknowledged limitations. Currently an increasing number of test constructors and publishers are adopting Rasch procedures in developing reading tests. This does not mean that the approach is educationally valid. A great deal of further research is required.
An investigation into the relation between word recognition skills, reading comprehension and spelling skills in the first two years of primary school
Authors: Mommers M.J.C. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTDuring the past five years a comprehensive research project called ‘The prevention of reading difficulties’ has been designed and carried out in the Netherlands. This project included a longitudinal study to investigate the development of various sub‐skills in word recognition, reading comprehension and spelling over a period of three years.Two samples, including 12 schools each, were drawn at random. The data have been analysed by means of the general LISREL‐model. The results of the two groups largely agree with each other. With respect to the reading prerequisites two factors are found, a general factor and an auditory factor. The influence of the general factor appears clearly stronger than the other one.After 3 to 4 months of formal reading instruction, decoding speed and spelling turn out to be distinguishable factors. The influence of spelling on decoding skills supports the view that at this initial stage accuracy in the analysis and blending of words is a prerequisite to learning to decode quickly. It may be concluded that after eight months of reading instruction decoding skills, reading comprehension and spelling are clearly distinguishable factors. Decoding skills influence reading comprehension. However, the path coefficients are not so high as to be able to attribute differences in reading comprehension almost completely to differences in decoding skills.The distinctive character of the three factors of decoding, comprehension and spelling is revealed much more clearly than in cross‐sectional research. These results correspond with the assumption that cross‐sectionally found causal effects often decrease or disappear all together in favour of ‘memory effects’ in longitudinal research.
Evaluating an individualised reading programme
Authors: Kagan Dona M. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTA study was conducted as part of an attempt to evaluate an individualised reading program in which elementary school teachers prepared written prescriptions for students, targeting specific deficiencies for remediation. Teachers were free to prescribe any combination of seventy different instructional materials, including worksheets, tapes, computer software, or basal readers. Subjects were 37 teachers and 104 students for whom a total of 569 prescriptions were written over a three‐month period. Regression analyses were used to examine relationships between teachers’cognitive styles and the numbers and kinds of materials they selected for students. Regression was also used to identify significant predictors of positive reading attitudes among students. Teachers who tended to be more affectively (as opposed to analytically) oriented tended to use more instructional materials, perhaps because they appreciated the flexibility it afforded them. Among students, preferences for independent modes of learning were significant predictors of positive reading attitudes. Parental reading habits and the total number of materials prescribed were also positively related to reading attitude.
Measuring ESL readers’ ability to apply reasoning in reading: a validity study of the TOEFL reading comprehension subtest
Authors: Perkins Kyle 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the results of an attempt to measure English as a Second Language (ESL) students’ability to apply reasoning in reading. The elicitation instrument was an experimental test which was developed from a model of reading comprehension based upon cognitive activities which Piaget referred to as concrete operations. The experimental test delineated Piaget's concrete operations in prose text and set them against difficulty criteria. The experimental test which measured the ability to apply reasoning in reading and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) were administered to a pool of adult ESL subjects. The results indicated that the TOEFL reading comprehension subtest does not measure the ability to apply reasoning in reading; thus, its validity as a measure of reading is in doubt. Significant effects were also shown for the paragraph types and the item types in the experimental test. The items based on the classification paragraphs were significantly more difficult than the items based on the serial paragraphs. In like manner, the items based on the multiplication paragraphs were significantly more difficult than the items based on the addition paragraphs. And finally, the intension questions which concerned the properties of a class were significantly more difficult than the extension questions which dealt with the members of classes.The results of this study indicate a need for further, increased attention to the measurement of reading to solve problems in ESL reading assessment and to the effects of the different structural organizations of ideas (e.g., addition, classification, multiplication, and series) and the interrelations of ideas on the comprehension process. The motivation for this line of research derives from the pragmatic interest of those researchers concerned with the communicative aspects of a text and the manner in which authors organize their ideas. Current research is beginning to explain the complex interaction between text structure and the reader's processing of such structure which further explicates the comprehension process.
Reading, spelling and two types of irregularity in word recognition
Authors: Schlapp Ursula , Underwood Geoffrey 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTHow do good and poor readers, and good and poor spellers, vary in their decisions about words which have varying spelling‐to‐sound correspondences? This experiment isolates the effects of visual and phonological characteristics of words with schoolchildren of varying reading and spelling ability, aged between 9 and 11.5 years. Three groups of children were tested: good readers and good spellers, good readers who were poor spellers, and children who were both poor readers and poor spellers. The difference between‘good’and‘poor’was about two years according to the standardised tests which were used. The children performed a lexical decision task, deciding whether each letter‐string was a word or not. Response times to three types of words were compared: standard regular words (e.g. SLOT, SPADE), words with common orthography but irregular spelling‐to‐sound relationships (e.g. HAVE, FEVER), and words with unusual orthography as well as irregular spelling‐to‐sound relationships (e.g. BISCUIT, ANSWER).The performance of good readers but not of poor readers was impaired on the words which were phonologically irregular (compared with regular words). Poor spellers were worse again on the dually irregular words, although not significantly, while the good spellers performed almost as well on these words as on the regular words. These results have a number of implications: that the regularity effect is phonologically and not orthographically mediated, that good readers use a predominantly phonological strategy in lexical decision while poor readers do not, and that for the best readers/spellers as tested here the orthographically and phonologically irregular words have some sort of special status which allows them to gain fast and accurate responses.
Developmental arrest at the logographic stage: impaired literacy functions in Klinefelter's XXXY syndrome
Authors: Seymour Philip H.K. , Evans Henryka M. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTWe report an analysis of reading and spelling processes in a case of developmental disability associated with a genetic anomaly (Klinefelter XXXY syndrome). The results are interpreted within the framework of a model of reading and spelling development (Frith, 1985). An almost complete absence of alphabetic functions was noted. Reading appeared to be based on a ‘logographic lexicon’ (Seymour & Elder, 1986), and spelling on a letter sequence generator which was modifiable by access to a limited store of word images.
Reading disabilities in modern Japanese children
Authors: Hirose Takehiko , Hatta Takeshi 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACESince Makita's report (1968), it has been believed that reading disabilities in Japan are extremely rare. However, this argument does not correspond with teachers’observations in elementary schools in Japan. This study tried to re‐examine the incidence and characteristics of reading disabilities in Japan. Standardized reading ability and intelligence tests were conducted for 5th grade elementary school children of various districts. It was found that 18.7% of children have one year delay, and 10.9% of children have two or more years delay. This shows that Makita's claim of rarity of incidence of reading disabilities in Japan is incorrect.
Differences in reading strategies among 7 to 8 year old children
Authors: Pumfrey P. D. , Fletcher J. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTIn the theoretical context of compensatory processing, the research studied the syntactic, semantic and grapho‐phonic miscues made by groups of first year Junior school pupils of high, average and low reading attainments.60 children aged between 7.5 and 8.5 years of age were asked to read aloud passages from the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability. All miscues were recorded and scored. Analyses of variance were then performed on these scores at two levels of text complexity. Reading attainment and sex were used as independent variables to test specified hypotheses related to miscue quality.The high reading attainment group typically made better quality syntactic, semantic and grapho‐phonic miscues at the lower level of text complexity. Passage complexity affected the ability of some children to make effective use of syntactic and semantic cues. As text complexity increased, the miscue quality of high and above average reading attainment groups deteriorated. Higher scores on a word recognition reading test were significantly related to effective use of grapho‐phonic miscues, but not to the use of syntactic and semantic cues, in reading material from more demanding texts.Limitations in the methodology used and suggestions for future work are discussed.
Cohesion and coherence in theory and reading research
Authors: Fulcher Glenn 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTWhat is the relationship between cohesion and coherence? Researchers in the field of Applied Linguistics have traditionally attempted to list and define the cohesive devices in English which provide the basis for coherent text. Schema theoreticians, on the other hand, have argued that coherence is primary, that readers look for coherence given their existing schemata and extra‐linguistic knowledge of the world and only then do they recognise cohesion.This paper looks at these two approaches in the light of the conflict which has grown up around the relationship between the concepts of cohesion and coherence and suggests that the positions taken are the result of a theoretically different starting point. If the researcher is primarily interested in linguistic analysis then she will begin with cohesion whereas, if human psychology in the reading process is the main focus then it will be more natural to look at coherence. However, it seems to be at least intuitively obvious that both the text itself and the reader have a part to play in the reading process, that reading is simultaneously data‐driven and concept‐driven.It is suggested that these two approaches would benefit from being a part of a larger theory of the reading process. In this context the work of Ruqaiya Hasan is reviewed as the most thorough attempt to provide a theory of text which accounts for both cohesion and coherence. Secondly, data are presented which suggest that a theory which integrates cohesion and coherence is necessary. Two studies are reported: an informal classroom experiment on the influence of pronominal reference on comprehension and an analysis of the results of a test designed to examine the relationships between theoretical constructs hypothesised to constitute (at least part of) the superordinate term “reading comprehension”.
Extensive reading as a means of input to L2 learning
Authors: Tudor Ian , Hafiz Fateh 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTA group of ESL learners (n = 16) in the UK were given a 3‐month extensive reading programme involving graded readers to test the hypothesis that input of this nature could effect an improvement in their L2 competence. Comparison of pre‐and post‐treatment tests in reading and writing indicated that subjects had improved significantly in both skills, though particularly in writing. A subsequent more detailed analysis of one of the writing tests (an essay) showed post‐treatment gains in number of words written and accuracy of expression. However, subjects' vocabulary base remained relatively unchanged and they used a generally more simple syntax. The experimental treatment thus appears to have encouraged a simpler but more correct form of expression in the L2. These results may relate to the linguistic models provided by the simplified language used in the graded readers. Extensive reading is suggested to have a potential in L2 development terms, teough the effect obtained from any given reading programme may be significantly related to the linguistic form of the material used.
Reading and listening at three school stages: cloze tests and their response analysis
Authors: Mulholland Helen , Neville Mary 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThis paper reports the results of cloze tests in the reading and listening modes together with a computer analysis of responses to the tests. The subjects were groups of Scottish school children at the ages of 8‐9, 11‐12 and 13–14 years sampled over the whole country as part of a national survey of English language; the cloze tests were only a small part of the whole testing programme which also contained three other major reading tests. Approximately 400 subjects took cloze tests in each mode at each age. The test material was the same throughout for all stages tested. Two tests, each containing one narrative and one expository text were used.The mode of presentation did not significantly affect the types of cloze responses offered nor the total scores of the tests at any stage. However, results indicated better performance for older subjects when they read, and for the youngest group when they listened to, expository though not narrative passages. The comparisons of the results for the three different school stages showed continuing interdependence of reading and listening ability through the ages tested.The different cloze response patterns for the two types of text (in either mode) as well as the only moderate correlation between the texts, indicated that success in comprehending narratives may not necessarily transfer to comprehending information.
The effect of syntactic simplification on reading EST texts as L1 and L2
Authors: Ulijn Jan M. , Strother Judith B. 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThere has been a considerable suggestion in the literature that syntactic adaptation of a text would simplify it. This empirical study determined that the complexity of the syntax does not significantly affect the level of reading comprehension. While a complete conceptual and lexical analysis may be necessary for reading comprehension, a thorough syntactic analysis is not. This should be true for both expert and novice readers in a particular professional field, herein computer science.Using American (L1 or E1, English as a native language) and Dutch (L2 or E2, English as a second, nonnative language) computer science and humanities majors reading in EST (English for Science and Technology), it was found that there were no significant differences between subgroups reading an authentic (in original, unadapted form) computer science text and those reading a syntactically adapted text either in comprehension or in time across the four groups of subjects. These results indicate that syntactic simplification of an EST text is not a real simplification. Hence, technical writers and EST teachers might give priority to other more conceptual ways of rewriting texts.
A case for the use of single‐subject methodology in reading research
Authors: McCormick Sandra 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to provide information about single case experimental research methodologies and to delineate a rationale for their use in certain types of reading research. The following facets are treated: history of single subject research; individual data analysis; repeated and frequent measurement of variables; baseline measurement; internal and external validity; and designs.
Reading, phonological skills and short‐term memory: interactive tributaries of development
Authors: Ellis Nick 
Published: November 2005

ABSTRACTShort‐term memory, phonological processing and reading are associated abilities, but the causal relationships between them are yet to be determined. A longitudinal study of 40 children as they develop from 5 to 7 years old is analysed to investigate the interactive development of these skills. In children who have not yet begun to read it appears that phonological skills promote the acquisition of letter knowledge and that these two abilities, together with visual STM, lead the development of reading. The pattern changes once reading acquisition begins. LISREL analyses demonstrate that reading now promotes further growth of phonological skills and auditory STM, and these phonological skills in turn lead to the development of visual STM. The acquisition of reading makes relevant active phonological processing in short‐term memory and thus stimulates the development of these skills.