The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components in 144 children aged 7 to 14 (72 immersion…

This study was conducted to examine the factors that influence informational text comprehension and to determine how these vary for students with higher and lower component skills. The sample included 177 students in grades 3-5. Regression analyses were used to predict informational text comprehension with decoding efficiency, vocabulary…

This study is a secondary analysis of reading data collected from over 165,000 fourth graders as part of the U.S. National Assessment of Educational Progress. Using hierarchical linear modelling, the authors investigated factors associated with students' informational text comprehension, including out-of-school reading engagement, and in-school…

In this study, we examined whether Chinese character structure influenced readers' saccadic targeting in Chinese reading. Readers' eye movements were recorded when they read single sentences containing one-character or two-character target words. Both the one-character words and the two constituent characters of two-character words either had a…

We present a meta-analysis to test the validity of the Simple View of Reading Gough & Tunmer ("Remedial and Special Education," 7:6-10, "1986") for beginner readers of English and other, more transparent, orthographies. Our meta-analytic approach established that the relative influence of decoding and linguistic comprehension on reading…

To investigate the construct validly of a section of a high stakes test, an exploratory factor analysis using principal components analysis was employed. The rotation used was varimax with the suppression level of 0.30. Eleven factors were extracted out of 35 reading comprehension items. The fact that these factors emerged speak to the construct…

This article proposes an instance-based theoretical framework to account for the influence of both contexts and definitions on learning new word meanings and reports 2 studies that examine hypotheses about learning from context. One is that variation in contexts is important for allowing core meaning features of a word to emerge. The second is…

Describes four types of comprehension that have been investigated: microcomprehension, coherence comprehension, macrocomprehension, and elaborative comprehension. Discusses the relationships among these types of comprehension and examines their implications for research and teaching. (FL)

Proposes a new measure of individual differences in reading comprehension ability. Components of the task predict performance on a test of global reading comprehension and on a range of specific comprehension tests. Asserts that the task is better at predicting reading comprehension than is a typical working memory span task. (Contains 76…

The authors report results of a study into the role of components of first-language (L1; Dutch) and second-language (L2; English) reading comprehension. Differences in the contributions of components of L1 and L2 reading comprehension are analyzed, in particular processing speed in L1 and L2. Findings indicate that regression weights of the L1 and…