Role of text and student characteristics in real‐time reading processes across the primary grades

Abstract

Although much is known about beginning readers using behavioural measures, realtime processes are still less clear. The present study examined eye movements (skipping rate, gaze, look back and second-pass duration) as a function of text-related (difficulty and word class) and student-related characteristics (word decoding, reading comprehension, short term and working memory). Twenty-four third and 20 fifth graders read a relatively easy (below grade level) and more difficult text (at grade level). The results showed that skipping rate mainly relied on text characteristics and a three-way interaction of grade, text difficulty and word class. Gaze durations depended mostly on student characteristics. Results on look backs showed more and longer look backs in difficult texts. Finally, second-pass duration mostly relied on grade level. To conclude, this study shows that both student and text characteristics should be taken into account when studying online text reading development.

Examination of Different Reading Strategies with Eye Tracking Measures in Paragraph Questions

“…A number of factors can affect reading comprehension levels of the students and their answering speed. These factors can be attributed to either questions such as subject area and the difficulty level of the question or to students such as reading skills, prior knowledge, short-term memory, working memory and reading strategies (Hannon, 2012;Leeuw, Segers & Verhoeven, 2016;Solaz-Portolés & Sanjosé, 2007). In order to comprehend better, students can develop their own reading strategies or use recommended strategies by their peers and teachers (Basturk & Dogan, 2010;Cohen, 1998;Yesilyurt, 2008).…”

“…For instance, while S-FS subjects were solving a paragraph question, they were required to simultaneously keep the question stem in mind and associate with the paragraph by comprehending it. The rise of cognitive load might cause an increase in the number of regressions (Leeuw, Segers & Verhoeven, 2016) on the question stem AOIs, consequently an increase in fixation counts and dwell time in the same area occur. As stated by Radach (1998), a regression to an area which cannot be comprehended causes new fixations to be done in this area.…”

Differences in text processing by low- and high-comprehending beginning readers of expository and narrative texts: Evidence from eye movements

“…We hypothesized that because young readers have greater difficulty processing expository texts than narrative texts (Best et al, 2008), they need to adapt their reading approach to obtain a proper understanding of expository texts (cf. Leeuw et al, 2016;Rayner, 1986). In addition, we hypothesized that readers with high comprehension skills will adjust their reading approach more easily to the text than readers with poor comprehension skills (Duke & Pearson, 2002;Rapp et al, 2007) because high-comprehending readers generally have better comprehension-monitoring skills Perfetti et al, 2005;Van der Schoot et al, 2012), better strategic skills (Duke & Pearson, 2002;Pressley & Wharton-McDonald, 1997;Rapp et al, 2007;Van der Schoot et al, 2012), greater structural awareness , and a more flexible reading approach (Duke & Pearson, 2002;Rapp et al, 2007;Schroeder, 2011;Zabrucky & Ratner, 1992).…”

The effectiveness of the Multisensory Method on Early Reading Ability in 6-7 Years Old Children

“…Low students ' ability to read causes difficulties in understanding textual words. As findings from (de Leeuw et al, 2016) Stating that students with low reading skills will need more time to know each word in the text that will complicate the student's efforts to understand each textual instruction at every school learning activity. Similarly, the social proficiency of reading children will be used as the basis for understanding the forms of social interactions such as the values and norms in which they are represented.…”