Equity and Diversity in Reading Comprehension—A Case Study of PISA 2000–2018

Recently, concerns have been raised about Arabic-speaking students’ reading achievement in Israel. Understanding language teachers’ ability to identify poor reading skills is crucial to improve students’ literacy outcomes. This pilot study examined three main aspects: the factors Arabic-speaking language teachers use to determine their third-grade students’ word reading fluency and comprehension, their ability to identify students who need an intervention based on their reading performance, and the differences between teachers who make accurate and those who make inaccurate assessments of their students’ literacy skills. The pilot study included a preliminary sample of 58 teachers and 112 students, with one to three students selected from each teacher’s classroom for assessment. All participants were native Arabic speakers. Initial findings suggest that the main factors informing teachers’ decisions on reading fluency and comprehension are vocabulary size (65.70%–77.70%), linguistic skills (63.9%–76%), and oral reading level (62%–74.30%), while less emphasis was placed on test scores (25.9%–31%) and parents’ reports (13.9%–32.80%). Four distinct profiles of students at risk of reading difficulties (ARORD) emerged: low word reading fluency and comprehension (22%), low fluency only (12%), low comprehension only (4%), and a typical group (62%). Teachers identified students with difficulties in both areas with 80% accuracy, in reading comprehension with 60%, in word reading fluency with 0%, and in the typical group with 65%. The data indicated that teachers who taught more student-facing hours were better at identifying students ARORD. The implucations highlighte the need for teachers training focused on enhancing Arabic teachers' ability to accurately assess literacy skills and become familiar with different profiles of students’ reading difficulties.

The objective of this research was to find out the influence of the form of exercises and the type of text on the students’ achievement in reading for comprehension. The exercises consisted of answering questions and making a summary, and the texts were narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative. Using the 2 x 4 factorial designs, the research was conducted in a State Junior High School. The results of the analysis indicated that: (1) the form of exercise influenced the students’ achievement in reading descriptive and expository tests. The mean of scores on reading comprehension on descriptive and expository texts achieved by the students trained using summary- making exercise was higher than the mean of scores on reading comprehension test of the students trained using question-answering practice. The form of the exercise did not influence the students’ achievement in reading narrative and argumentative texts. Keywords: reading exercise, types of text

Reading comprehension is the ability to create a mental representation of a written text. It constitutes the main mechanism through children incorporate new knowledge at school age. Reading comprehension achievement has been systematically associated with oral comprehension and reading rate. Furthermore, both oral and reading comprehension has been related to inferences generation and different linguistic abilities, like vocabulary and syntax processing. In the case of text comprehension, also orthographic recognition of written words plays a fundamental role and, for that reason, reading comprehension would be a greater challenge than oral comprehension for early readers. Indeed, word recognition during reading is essential for text meaning construction. It is well known that a slow and laborious reading mechanism would overload cognitive processing and that reading automaticity is essential to carry out text processing. Longitudinal studies realized in different orthographies indicated that reading rate was the variable that had greatest impact on reading comprehension in early readers. In studies carried out in shallow orthographies, it was also observed that reading performance have an important impact on reading comprehension measure after 3 to 5 years of instruction. However, although impact of reading skills and oral comprehension mechanisms on reading comprehension has been reported in several studies, there is another important factor to consider: text structure. Studies propose that children tend to understand “narrative schemas” more easily since they are exposed to this type of text from a very early age. Likewise, all narrative texts present, in general, the same type of structure, respect temporal sequence of events and focus on story characters, their actions and motivations. In contrast, expository texts present new information to children, are oriented to a specific topic, contain less familiar and more technical vocabulary and a higher level of abstraction. This type of structure presents numerous cohesive connections and greater propositional density than narrative texts. The present study aims to compare listening and reading comprehension of narrative and expository text. For this, a group of 32 4th graders was evaluated in oral and reading comprehension of narrative and expository texts. In reading comprehension test, children read narrative and expository texts and then orally answered a series of questions. In oral comprehension, both narrative and expository texts were read aloud to children and then they answered questions about the texts orally. Vocabulary and reading rate were also measured. Data analysis shows correlations between oral comprehension and vocabulary. Reading comprehension were associated to vocabulary, oral comprehension and reading rate. Results suggest that oral and reading comprehension are associated with different linguistic skills and to each support access skills. In comprehension test, measures show higher performance in narrative oral comprehension texts when compared to reading comprehension. This result could be related to children reading rate. In fact, reading performance shows that children were “slow readers” according to the reading tests scales used in this study. Difference between oral and written comprehension in narrative texts, was not transferred to expository. In this type of texts children had low scores, without significant differences, in oral and reading comprehension. Results suggested that expository structures challenge children comprehension in both, oral and written modality. It is suggested that different types of expository texts difficult hierarchization of information that allows, in turn, the construction of text mental representation. Data of this study suggest the importance of establish interventions that allow children to improv text processing for access higher levels of comprehension in different textual structures. Furthermore, it is necessary in educational practices to expose children to expository structures from an early age. On the other hand, it is necessary to rethink reading instruction methods that originate low reading performance. https://doi.org/10.16888/interd.2022.39.3.8

Productive engagement in the text-rich curriculum of secondary schooling requires adolescent students to be effective as comprehenders and communicators of information. Students’ enabling skills determine their achievements in consuming and producing text, and experiencing success in school. The demands of increasing complexity in reading materials and tasks as students move into secondary schooling present challenges to their achievement and self-perception, especially for those who struggle as readers. As these students progress through school they struggle to cope with academic texts in the learning opportunities of schooling. If left unattended, their reading difficulties are likely to associate with effort-retreat and disengagement in learning tasks, and to deepen their perceptions of their own poor performances and capability as poor readers in comparison with those of their peers. In response to concerns about the reading comprehension and self-perceptions of adolescents whom teachers see as struggling readers, I set out to investigate whether a reading intervention using social networking (RISN), intended to promote comprehension, would assist them. My theoretical framework for the investigation was underpinned by a sociocultural view of reading development in combination with a blending of two models that purport to explain the practices and dimensions of reading, namely, the four reading practices model explicated by Luke and Freebody (1999) and the three dimensional model of literacy theorised by Durrant and Green (2000). A case study using quantitative and qualitative methods was used to determine the fidelity of the intervention treatment and to examine its impact on students’ reading achievement and self-perceptions as readers. Participants’ reading performance was assessed before, during and following the intervention using a combination of measures, standardised test of reading comprehension and reader self-perception, work samples, classroom observations, student interviews, and teachers’ reflective discussions. Data revealed statistically significant improvements in participants’ reading achievement and in their self-perceptions as readers. Observations by teacher and student participants provided grounding for the context and experiences associated with these changes. These findings are presented, analysed and discussed within the limitations of the study.

<p>A mixed-methods quasi-experimental design was used to identify relationships between adolescent students’ attributions for their reading performance and their reading achievement by gathering baseline data from year 9 and 10 students (n = 175) and then investigating the effects of two stages of intervention on a treatment group (n = 22) and a comparison group (n = 16). The first stage of intervention used the instructional activity of reciprocal teaching to teach students cognitive strategies to improve reading comprehension. The second stage of the intervention combined on-going reciprocal teaching with attributional-retraining, aimed at to developing internal attributions for reading performance; specifically effort-related attributions rather than attributions focussing on ability. A baseline sample (which included the treatment and comparison samples as well as students from the wider year 9 and 10 cohort) completed a questionnaire about their attributions for their reading performance. There was no evidence of the hypothesised correlation between a measure of students’ incremental mindset (internal, unstable and controllable attribution) and standardised measures of reading comprehension. Analysis of the attribution data for the baseline sample showed evidence that internal and external attributions are not, as theorised, two ends of the same continuum, rather they are separate constructs, albeit negatively correlated. The treatment and comparison groups completed a standardised reading comprehension test and the attribution questionnaire at four time points: pre-intervention; between the two stages of intervention; post-intervention; and delayed post-intervention. A sub-sample of six students, representing a spectrum of reading achievement was interviewed to develop a better understanding of the responses provided in the questionnaire. The combined interventions had no significant effect on students’ attributions for their reading performance or on their reading comprehension achievement. Conversely, the first stage of the intervention, reciprocal teaching, did have a significant effect on the treatment group’s reading comprehension achievement immediately following the intervention and the group were observed eagerly participating in the activity with significantly increased engagement. The combined qualitative and quantitative data from the interventions provided evidence about the complexity of adolescents’ attributional beliefs. Students responded with a wide variety of beliefs that did not conform to the theorised pattern of attributional beliefs. The findings raise questions about how students form attributions for their successes and failures, in particular the direction of the causal relationship between achievement and attributional beliefs.</p>

<p>A mixed-methods quasi-experimental design was used to identify relationships between adolescent students’ attributions for their reading performance and their reading achievement by gathering baseline data from year 9 and 10 students (n = 175) and then investigating the effects of two stages of intervention on a treatment group (n = 22) and a comparison group (n = 16). The first stage of intervention used the instructional activity of reciprocal teaching to teach students cognitive strategies to improve reading comprehension. The second stage of the intervention combined on-going reciprocal teaching with attributional-retraining, aimed at to developing internal attributions for reading performance; specifically effort-related attributions rather than attributions focussing on ability. A baseline sample (which included the treatment and comparison samples as well as students from the wider year 9 and 10 cohort) completed a questionnaire about their attributions for their reading performance. There was no evidence of the hypothesised correlation between a measure of students’ incremental mindset (internal, unstable and controllable attribution) and standardised measures of reading comprehension. Analysis of the attribution data for the baseline sample showed evidence that internal and external attributions are not, as theorised, two ends of the same continuum, rather they are separate constructs, albeit negatively correlated. The treatment and comparison groups completed a standardised reading comprehension test and the attribution questionnaire at four time points: pre-intervention; between the two stages of intervention; post-intervention; and delayed post-intervention. A sub-sample of six students, representing a spectrum of reading achievement was interviewed to develop a better understanding of the responses provided in the questionnaire. The combined interventions had no significant effect on students’ attributions for their reading performance or on their reading comprehension achievement. Conversely, the first stage of the intervention, reciprocal teaching, did have a significant effect on the treatment group’s reading comprehension achievement immediately following the intervention and the group were observed eagerly participating in the activity with significantly increased engagement. The combined qualitative and quantitative data from the interventions provided evidence about the complexity of adolescents’ attributional beliefs. Students responded with a wide variety of beliefs that did not conform to the theorised pattern of attributional beliefs. The findings raise questions about how students form attributions for their successes and failures, in particular the direction of the causal relationship between achievement and attributional beliefs.</p>

This study explored the impact of explicit teaching of reading strategies on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) students’ reading performance in Iran. The study employed a questionnaire adapted from Chamot and O’Malley’s (1994) cognitive and metacognitive strategies framework. To test the effects of explicit teaching of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies on reading performance and strategy transfer, the study has a quasi-experimental design involving a contrast group and a treatment group, with whom an intervention program was implemented. The treatment group achieved significantly better results than the contrast group after four months of strategy-based instruction. Results of paired-sample t-tests and independent t-tests and effect size showed that reading comprehension and reading strategy use improved with strategy instruction. Moreover, SPANOVA analyses showed that the participants in the treatment group performed better than those in the contrast group in reading comprehension and reading strategy transfer. Results also showed that strategy instruction contributed to autonomous reading behaviors. Recommendations for further research are discussed.

This study focused on the impact of teachers’ reading strategies on students’ reading performance, with a specific emphasis on the role of TOEFL reading instructors in training institutions. The primary objective was to investigate how the reading strategies employed by TOEFL teachers influence students’ reading performance, and to determine the mediating effect of students’ metacognitive awareness. The participants were teachers and students from TOEFL training institutions in Henan, China. A cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data were collected through questionnaires. The findings indicated that students’ metacognitive awareness plays a significant mediating role between teachers’ reading strategies and students’ reading performance. However, this mediating effect was found to be negative, suggesting that teachers’ reading strategies did not enhance students’ metacognitive awareness. On the contrary, these strategies may have inadvertently hindered its development, thereby exerting an indirect negative impact on students’ reading performance. These results carry important implications not only for improving TOEFL preparation but also for advancing the broader practice of English reading instruction.

While the relationship between reading self-efficacy, motivation, and achievement is well-established, their relative predictive power within blended learning contexts remains underexplored. The aim of the study was to analyze the stronger predictor of reading accomplishment among 244 Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language students enrolled in a blended reading course. Additionally, the interplay between learners’ reading self-efficacy, reading motivation, and their reading performance is also a focal point of examination. To determine how gender affected individuals’ reading motivation and self-efficacy, an independent samples T-test was used in this study. Additionally, to examine the relationships between the trio of variables, Pearson correlation analysis was adopted here. Multiple linear regression analysis was implemented here to detect the stronger predictor of individuals’ reading achievement. The gender-based differences in students’ reading self-efficacy were found to be statistically significant, but not in reading motivation. Furthermore, there were positive associations among learners’ reading performance, motivation, and self-efficacy. However, reading self-efficacy was a more reliable predictor of students’ reading accomplishment than reading motivation. The findings highlight the importance of fostering students’ reading self-efficacy to enhance their learning outcomes in technology-enhanced environments.

The objectives of this research are to find out whether: 1) The students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using the Directed Reading Thinking Aactivity (DRTA) strategy was higher than taught by using the Questions-Answer Relationship (QARs) strategy. 2) The students’ achievement in reading comprehension with high curiosity was higher than that The students with low curiosity, and 3) there was interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on The students’ achievement in reading comprehension. The population of this research was the students in grade XI of MAN Kampung (MAN KP) Teungoh Langsa in 2016/2017 school year. The total number of population of this research was 160 students. There were 6 classes. Two classes were chosen consist of 30 students of each class so 60 students were selected as sample of this research by applying multistage cluster random sampling. The research design was experimental research by using factorial design 2x2. The XI IPA2 class was taught by using Directed Reading Thinking Activity and XI IAI was taught by using Questions-Answer Relationship (QARs) Strategy. Curiosity questionnaire was conducted for classifying the students upon the high and low curiosity. Students’ achievement in reading comprehension was measured by using reading comprehension test. The data were analyzed by applying two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the level of significant. The results of the data analysis proved that: 1) The students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) strategy is higher than students achievement in reading comprehension taught by Questions-Answer Relationship(QARs) Teaching strategy. 3) there was interaction between teaching strategies and curiosity on students’ achievement in reading comprehension.Keywords: Curiosity; Comprehension; Achievement; Teaching Strategies

This study investigated the constructs of reading motivation (i.e., affective and cognitive reading attitude, and reading self-concept) and examined their relations with reading behavior and performance. Hong Kong data from PIRLS 2016 were analyzed to address the questions. A special attention was paid to the indirect influences of the motivational constructs on reading performance via the influence of reading amount. Results confirmed that reading attitude could be further distinguished into the affective and cognitive components. These components of reading attitude along with reading self-concept were demonstrated to have differential relations with reading amount and achievement. Results also found significant relations between reading attitude and reading self-concept on one hand, and reading achievement on the other hand mediated by reading amount.

The objectives of the research were to find out whether a) students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using Jigsaw model was higher than taught by using Task-Based Learning (TBL) b) students’ achievement in reading comprehension with visual style was higher than that students with auditory style. The population was the students of SMA Budi Murni 2 Medan with 104 students. The samples were 3 parallel classes and two classes by applying cluster random sampling. The questionnaire was administered for classifying the students upon the visual and auditory learning style. The data were analyzed by applying two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the level of significance α= 0.05. The result proved that students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using Jigsaw was higher than that taught by using TBL, students’ achievement in reading comprehension with visual learning style was higher than those with auditory learning style and there was interaction between models of learning and learning styles on students’ achievement in reading comprehension. Moreover, Tuckey-test result also showed that visual style students got higher achievement if they were taught by using Jigsaw model while auditory style students got higher achievement if they were taught by using TBL model. Keywords: Effect; Models of Learning; Reading Comprehension; Students’ Learning Style; Students’ Achievement

Reading is not just a pastime but a pathway to personal growth and success. This study focused on examining the reading habits and performance of pupils, as well as identifying any significant differences between these habits and their reading achievements. A descriptive correlational and causal design with content analysis were employed. The respondents of the study were Grade 5 and Grade 6 pupils of three (3) selected schools in Lagonglong District who were selected through stratified random sampling using Slovin’s Formula. The statistical tools utilized were, the frequency and percentage to determine the reading habit and performance. Chi-Square was used to find the significant difference between the pupils’ reading habits and performance and Multiple Linear Regression to identify which of the independent variable/s singly or in combination predict/s the dependent variable. Results revealed that pupils spend less than an hour daily for reading practice and preferred to read fiction text such as drama, short story, novel, comic strips, legend, fairy tales and poems. The majority are in the Instructional reading level. The number of hours reading, and the type of text read have moderate correlation with reading performance but only the number of hours is a good predictor for reading performance. Thus, when reading habit is developed among children, especially the number of hours to spend for reading practice, it will improve not only their reading proficiency but also their lifelong learning. It is encouraged to hold more reading practices at home and in school to improve reading performance of pupils. An intervention may be implemented like promoting reading activities and providing access to a variety of reading materials.

Language comprehension is often affected in individuals with post-stroke aphasia. However, deficits in auditory comprehension are not fully correlated with deficits in reading comprehension and the mechanisms underlying this dissociation remain unclear. This distinction is important for understanding language mechanisms, predicting long-term impairments and future development of treatment interventions. Using comprehensive auditory and reading measures from a large cohort of individuals with aphasia, we evaluated the relationship between aphasia type and reading comprehension impairments, the relationship between auditory versus reading comprehension deficits and the crucial neuroanatomy supporting the dissociation between post-stroke reading and auditory deficits. Scores from the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised from 70 participants with aphasia after a left-hemisphere stroke were utilized to evaluate both reading and auditory comprehension of linguistically equivalent stimuli. Repeated-measures and univariate ANOVA were used to assess the relationship between auditory comprehension and aphasia types and correlations were employed to test the relationship between reading and auditory comprehension deficits. Lesion-symptom mapping was used to determine the dissociation of crucial brain structures supporting reading comprehension deficits controlling for auditory deficits and vice versa. Participants with Broca's or global aphasia had the worst performance on reading comprehension. Auditory comprehension explained 26% of the variance in reading comprehension for sentence completion and 44% for following sequential commands. Controlling for auditory comprehension, worse reading comprehension performance was independently associated with damage to the inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, posterior inferior temporal gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus and posterior thalamic radiation. Auditory and reading comprehension are only partly correlated in aphasia. Reading is an integral part of daily life and directly associated with quality of life and functional outcomes. This study demonstrated that reading performance is directly related to lesioned areas in the boundaries between visual association regions and ventral stream language areas. This behavioural and neuroanatomical dissociation provides information about the neurobiology of language and mechanisms for potential future treatment interventions.

The objectives of this study were to investigate whether: (1) Students’ achievement in reading comprehension taught by using SPE is higher than students’ Achievement in Reading comprehension taught by using SQ4R, (2) Reading comprehension achievement of high learning motivation students is higher than reading achievement of low learning motivation students, and (3) There is significant interaction between teaching reading methods and students learning motivation on students reading comprehension achievement. An experimental research with factorial design 2x2 was used in this research. The first group was treated by using SPE and the second group was treated by using SQ4R. The learning motivation test was conducted for classifying the students upon the high learning motivation and the low learning motivation. The data were analyzed by applying Two-Way ANOVA. The result reveals that (1) students achievement in reading comprehension taught by using SQ4R is higher than that of taught by using SPE, (2) reading comprehension achievement of high learning motivation students is higher that reading achievement of low learning motivation students (3) There is significant interaction between teaching reading method and students learning motivation on students achievement in reading comprehension. Thus, teaching methods and students’ learning motivation significantly affect the students’ achievement in reading comprehension.Keywords: Motivation; Reading Comprehension; Teaching Reading Methods