Comprehension of Ambiguous Sentences in Non-Disabled and Disabled Adolescents

Abstract

If students are to effectively comprehend a text, they must be able to resolve ambiguities. Recent studies of adolescents with learning disabilities suggest multiple reasons for failure to resolve ambiguous structures. Furthermore, previous research does not clearly indicate the age at which syntactic ambiguities can be resolved consistently. The present study investigated similarities and differences in the comprehension of ambiguous sentences in adolescents with and without learning disabilities. Four groups representing four ability levels were sampled in a public high schools. Two additional groups of students with learning disabilities were sampled at a private residential school. The public school group that attained academic honors was superior to all other groups in paraphrasing the meanings of ambiguous sentences. Two other college bound public school groups were superior to a non-college bound group in the public system. These findings suggest a continuum of ability to interpret amiguous structures across a range of 16 year old subjects. The learning disabled private school group with stronger verbal than non-verbal abilities was also significantly better than the non-college bound disabled public school gorup. This superiority of the learning disabled over the non-college bound group suggest a continuum of ability to interpret ambiguous structures in a population of students with various disabilites. The study found associations between knowledge of syntax and knowledge of lexical meaning and interpretation of ambigous materials. There also was a strong relationships between the ability to paraphrase the meanings of ambiguous sentences and overall ability in reading comprehension.