Differential lexical predictors of reading comprehension in fourth graders

Abstract

The mental lexicon plays a central role in reading comprehension (Perfetti & Stafura, 2014). It encompasses the number of lexical entries in spoken and written language (vocabulary breadth), the semantic quality of these entries (vocabulary depth), and the connection strength between lexical representations (semantic relatedness); as such, it serves as an output for the decoding process and as an input for comprehension processes. Although different aspects of the lexicon can be distinguished, research on the role of the mental lexicon in reading comprehension often does not take these individual aspects of the lexicon into account. The current study used a multicomponent approach to examine whether measures of spoken and written vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and semantic relatedness were differentially predictive of individual differences in reading comprehension skills in fourth-grade students. The results indicated that, in addition to nonverbal reasoning, short-term memory, and word decoding, the four measures of lexical quality substantially added (30 %) to the proportion of explained variance of reading comprehension (adding up to a total proportion of 65 %). Moreover, each individual measure of lexical quality added significantly to the prediction of reading comprehension after all other measures were taken into account, with written lexical breadth and lexical depth showing the greatest increase in explained variance. It can thus be concluded that multiple components of lexical quality play a role in children’s reading comprehension.

The relationship between reading and listening comprehension: shared and modality-specific components

“…For reading comprehension, it has been shown that word reading fluency and listening comprehension are important predictors (Hoover & Gough, 1990). In addition, vocabulary has been found to be a contributor to reading comprehension (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007;Swart et al, 2017). The relation between vocabulary and reading comprehension is especially strong in poor comprehenders.…”

Can a lexical decision task predict efficiency in the judgment of ambiguous sentences?

“…Previous research has suggested this connection (Hall, Greenberg, Laures-Gore, & Pae, 2014;Swart et al, 2017), but our study is one of the first to examine a direct connection between lexical processes and efficiency. Also, this is one of the first to find a relationship between reading comprehension and lexical processes in adults.…”

“…Our findings are consistent with those of other studies. Swart et al (2017) attempted to predict a mean of several measures of a semantic task from several variables related to the lexicon. He also used other measures, such as reasoning and decoding, and was able to explain 65% of the variation in the semantic tasks, but only 30% of the variation was related to lexical measures.…”

“…If we had used only the percentage of correct responses, we would not have been able to generate a model in the regression. Other studies (see Ouellette, 2006;Swart et al, 2017) used the mean score of various semantic tasks to create a "semantic variable." The prediction of the IES in our study was similar to the mean scores in other studies.…”

“…For instance, Swart et al (2017) measured several variables related to the lexicons of fourth-grade students and attempted to predict the students' outcomes from a general mean consisting of several semantic tasks. The authors were able to predict 65% of the score, but only 30% of this variance was related to the lexical component.…”