Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers

Abstract

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading comprehension effect sizes among the 10 constructs. The results indicated that six of the component skills exhibited strong relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .50): morphological awareness, language comprehension, fluency, oral vocabulary knowledge, real word decoding, and working memory. Three of the component skills yielded moderate relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .30 and < .50): pseudoword decoding, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) was the only component skill that was weakly related to reading comprehension (r = .15). Morphological awareness was a significantly stronger correlate of reading comprehension than phonological awareness and RAN. This study provides the first attempt at a systematic synthesis of the recent research investigating the reading skills of adults with low literacy skills, a historically under-studied population. Directions for future research, the relation of our results to the children’s literature, and the implications for researchers and Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs are discussed.

Does memory contribute to reading comprehension in adults who struggle with reading?

“…For struggling adult readers, basic skills seem to be especially important. In Tighe and Schatschneider's (2016) meta-analysis of 16 studies involving struggling adult readers, word reading, fluency and oral vocabulary exhibited strong relations with reading comprehension (i.e., average rs > .50). These three skills have also explained variance in reading comprehension for struggling adult readers (Barnes, Kim, Tighe, & Vorstius, 2017;Braze, Tabor, Shankweiler, & Mencl, 2007;Mellard, Fall, & Woods, 2010;Sabatini, Sawaki, Shore, & Scarborough, 2010).…”

“…In the current study, we assessed the joint and unique contributions of STM and WM to reading comprehension for struggling adult readers. Additionally, we examined the predictive utility of STM and WM for reading comprehension after controlling for word reading, fluency and oral vocabulary, because these skills are known predictors of reading comprehension for struggling adult readers (Tighe & Schatschneider, 2016). Age was also included as a control variable, because STM and WM have been reported to decline with age (Cowan, Naveh-Benjamin, Kilb, & Saults, 2006;Luo, Craik, Moreno, & Bialystok, 2013).…”

“…We expected these predictors to make a substantial contribution to the reading comprehension variance. There is considerable evidence for relations between these skills and reading comprehension in struggling adult readers (e.g., Barnes et al, 2017;Braze et al, 2007;Mellard et al, 2010;Tighe & Schatschneider, 2016). Additionally, the SVR emphasises the predictive utility of decoding and linguistic comprehension for reading comprehension.…”

Adults with poor reading skills: How lexical knowledge interacts with scores on standardized reading comprehension tests

“…To illustrate this approach, we use three, quite recent, examples, studies by MacArthur, Konold, Glutting, and Alamprese (2010), Mellard, Fall, and Woods (2010), and Mellard, Woods, Desa, and Vuyk (2013; see also Nanda, Greenberg, & Morris, 2010, Tighe & Schatschneider, 2014). We discuss these in some detail to show the exploratory nature of the studies and to compare them to the diffusion model.…”

Volitional Strategies Through Metacognitive Development in Fostering Reading Motivation

“…The importance of reading skills for learners has become the focal concern of theorists (Kieffer & Vukovic, 2013;Olson, Keenan, Byrne & Samuelsson, 2014;Tighe & Schatschneider, 2016;van Staden & Bosker, 2014). Reading is deemed a vitally important skill students should have to attain high achievements in school (Luckner & Michele, 2008), a fundamental skill for understanding across disciplines (Lei, Rhinehart, Howard & Cho, 2010), and as a means for achieving a good life skill (Saunders, 2007;Inderjit, 2014;Ahmadi, Ismail & Abdullah, 2013).…”