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Reading Ability: Lexical Quality to Comprehension
Abstract
The lexical quality hypothesis (LQH) claims that variation in the quality of word representations has consequences for reading skill, including comprehension. High lexical quality includes well-specified and partly redundant representations of form (orthography and phonology) and flexible representations of meaning, allowing for rapid and reliable meaning retrieval. Low-quality representations lead to specific word-related problems in comprehension. Six lines of research on adult readers demonstrate some of the implications of the LQH. First, large-scale correlational results show the general interdependence of comprehension and lexical skill while identifying disassociations that allow focus on comprehension-specific skill. Second, word-level semantic processing studies show comprehension skill differences in the time course of form-meaning confusions. Studies of rare vocabulary learning using event-related potentials (ERPs) show that, third, skilled comprehenders learn new words more effectively and show stronger ERP indicators for memory of the word learning event and, fourth, suggest skill differences in the stability of orthographic representations. Fifth, ERP markers show comprehension skill differences in meaning processing of ordinary words. Finally, in text reading, ERP results demonstrate momentary difficulties for low-skill comprehenders in integrating a word with the prior text. The studies provide evidence that word-level knowledge has consequences for word meaning processes in comprehension.
... L'apprentissage de l'orthographe d'un mot serait favorisé lorsque le scripteur est en mesure d'encoder des informations de différentes natures à son sujet, comme sa forme orale, sa forme écrite ainsi que son sens (Apel, 2011;Apel et al., 2019;Perfetti, 2007;Perfetti, 2017). Lorsque le scripteur est familier avec la forme orale du mot, cela implique qu'il est en mesure de le prononcer, de le comprendre et d'en analyser les différentes composantes phonologiques qui le composent, comme les syllabes ou les phonèmes Nation, 2001). ...
... Il devient donc plus difficile pour lui de l'emmagasiner en mémoire ; d'où la pertinence d'enseigner non seulement l'orthographe des mots, mais aussi leur signification (Perfetti et Hart, 2002). Perfetti (2007; précise que plus le scripteur est en contact avec les différentes caractéristiques d'un mot, dont son sens et sa forme, plus sa représentation en mémoire serait de qualité. En effet, dès le début de l'apprentissage formel de l'écrit, la capacité de l'enfant à associer une forme orale à un sens donné lui permet d'accéder plus facilement à la représentation du mot qu'il veut écrire. ...
... En ajout aux approches formelles et informelles de l'apprentissage de l'orthographe, l'enseignement du sens des mots permettrait également à l'apprenant de développer une représentation orthographique du mot de plus grande qualité dans la mesure où la forme du mot (à l'oral ou à l'écrit) doit nécessairement être associée à un sens (Álvarez-Cañizo et al., 2019;Ouellette, 2010;van Rijthoven et al., 2018). Plus l'individu fait des liens entre les informations associées à la forme orale du mot, à la forme écrite et au sens pouvant se rattacher au mot à apprendre, plus le mot en question serait bien représenté mentalement (Nation, 2001, Perfetti, 2007. Dans cet article, une attention particulière sera accordée à l'enseignement formel de l'orthographe grâce à un enseignement de certains phénomènes visuo-orthographiques des mots et à l'enseignement du sens propre à chaque mot. ...
La majorité des erreurs commises en orthographe lexicale par les élèves du primaire sont associées à la production des phonèmes multigraphémiques et des lettres muettes non porteuses de sens. Pour documenter les meilleures façons d’enseigner ces phénomènes orthographiques, deux conditions expérimentales ont été mises à l’essai auprès de deux groupes d’élèves de 7-8 ans : 1) enseignement des propriétés formelles et des propriétés sémantiques des mots (n = 43) et 2) enseignement des propriétés formelles des mots (n = 44). Un troisième groupe d’élèves constituait le groupe contrôle (n = 44). Pour les deux conditions expérimentales, 24 mots ont été enseignés aux élèves. Pour évaluer les apprentissages réalisés, une dictée a été proposée aux élèves avant et après l’intervention. Les résultats montrent que l’intervention a favorisé l’apprentissage des phonèmes multigraphémiques et des lettres muettes chez les élèves ayant tiré profit des conditions expérimentales mises à l’essai, bien que des variations soient observées selon le phénomène orthographique.
... From a theoretical perspective, when students encounter an unfamiliar word during reading, they engage in phonological recoding to establish sound-spelling correspondence (Share, 1995) and infer the meaning of the words from their contexts, including the surrounding words and sentence structure (Horst, 2013;Perfetti & Stafura, 2014;Sternberg, 1987). Once an association between the sound, spelling, and meaning of the word is established, it attains lexical quality in the reader's mental lexicon (Perfetti, 2007). This process is often referred to as incidental word learning (Swanborn & de Glopper, 1999) or statistical learning (Treiman & Kessler, 2022). ...
... Indeed, most words occur multiple times in a book. Words that are unfamiliar to a child during the first few occurrences may become more familiar as they repeatedly show up across contexts (Hulme et al., 2019;Joseph & Nation, 2018), leading to higher lexical quality (Brinchmann et al., 2016;Perfetti, 2007;Richter et al., 2013). When reading through fiction, the child develops a mental model (Kintsch, 2004) of the characters, their relationships, and events in the narrative. ...
With only about a third of students in US public schools achieving the NAEP Proficient level, many educators believe students are not getting enough reading practice. However, how much reading practice is enough? This study quantifies the relationship between the amount of book reading and the expected number of words learned. We collected 45 children's novels, M(Lexile) = 994 L, or Grade 6, and assembled a corpus of 3.2 million words. When reading a book from the corpus, sixth graders would on average encounter over 1000 word types above their grade level. We estimated that they could learn about 300 of these words, based on word repetitions and literature on incidental word learning. Through simulation, we demonstrated that sixth graders would need to read half a million words from the corpus to learn 2000 words incidentally. The implications for using book reading to promote vocabulary growth are discussed.
... Thus, appropriate inference in this context requires the use of random effects for school and block and a continuous covariate for baseline achievement, necessitating our more flexible approach. Second, the authors explicitly draw on a network theory of vocabulary learning inspired by the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), wherein a larger vocabulary network (in terms of both size and strength) facilitates students' ability to access the meaning of vocabulary quickly and efficiently and thus improves reading comprehension (Fitzgerald et al., 2022). Third, intervention activities included teaching vocabulary words in "concept maps" (Novak, 1990;Palmer et al., 2014) in which the semantic connections between words were made explicit and therefore may predict positive treatment effects on network strength. ...
Network models have become an important tool in psychological research, offering a way to understand complex interactions between variables. However, comparing networks across groups can be challenging due to computational complexities, especially with large data sets. This study presents a solution to this challenge by leveraging similarities between network models and item response theory (IRT) models. Specifically, we show that the two-parameter logistic IRT model can effectively identify causal effects on both the overall network state and the strength of connections within the network. Through simulations, we highlight how this method can capture these effects accurately. We first apply our approach to vocabulary assessment data from a content literacy intervention to demonstrate practical steps in modeling and interpretation, showcasing its utility in real-world scenarios. Next, we apply our method to 72 data sets from randomized controlled trials across diverse fields such as education, economics, and health. Our findings reveal that interventions often influence network strength without affecting network state, offering researchers new insights into how interventions impact different domains. This study provides a practical method for researchers aiming to understand the nuanced effects of interventions using network models in the social and behavioral sciences.
... A más de reconocer automáticamente las palabras en la lectura, el léxico mental actúa como fuente que atribuye el contenido semántico a las palabras que constan en los textos. En quienes ya tiene experticia lectora el proceso se inicia con las representaciones ortográficas que permiten rememorar las representaciones fonológicas de cada palabra, se sabe, que el léxico otorga la significación de esta, es el paso que lector da para construir el significado mientras realiza la lectura (Perfetti, 2007). Asimismo, para Errázuriz y otros (2020), señan que la compresión lectora es procesos cognitivos de interacción entre el texto y el lector, el segundo construye significados para cumplir con el objetivo que persigue. ...
El presente trabajo tiene como problemática de las inadecuadas técnicas innovadoras que mejoren la comprensión lectora por parte de los docentes, quienes utilizan estrategias tradicionales en el proceso de la lectura, por lo que los estudiantes acarrean desde los primeros años de educación básica hasta el bachillerato que no entienden lo que leen en los textos. El objetivo que se plantea es analizar las técnicas que permitan mejorar la comprensión lectora. En el método se utilizó la Revisión Sistemática de Literatura, con una investigación descriptiva y revisión de la literatura en las diferentes bases de datos como el Google académicos, base de datos científicos en educación, entre otros. Los resultados se determinan de cada uno de los objetivos específicos planteados, así, sobre la fundamentación teórica sobre las técnicas para mejorar la comprensión lectora en los niños de Educación Básica Media, se parte del aporte de Rosenblat en 1976, quien se refirió a un proceso simultaneo de extracción y construcción transaccional entre las experiencias previas y el conocimiento del lector en el texto y en el contexto que se realiza la actividad, en relación con la descripción de técnicas que sirven para mejorar la comprensión lectora en los niños, con respecto a la comparación de resultados de la RBS sobre las técnicas para mejorar la comprensión lectora en los estudiantes de Educación Básica Media, en los hallazgos de (Madariaga y otros, 2009), al implementar estrategias de comprensión lectora en las aulas de clase, se evidenciaron debilidades, las imitaciones empiezan en el desconocimiento conceptual y procedimental. La conclusión determina que existió el fundamento teóricamente sobre las técnicas para mejorar la comprensión lectora en los niños de Educación Básica Media, con diferentes aportes de autores tanto tradicionales como constructivista, cada uno, defendiendo su postura filosófica, pero en realidad coincidiendo en la importancia que utilizar técnicas y estrategias que promueva que los niños comprendan lo que leen.
This study investigated how single-text reading comprehension and individual differences contribute to multiple-text integration. One hundred fourteen students read sets of multiple texts on two distinct topics and completed two multiple-text integration tasks for each topic: an essay and a sentence verification task. The tasks were evaluated across three integration levels: selecting main ideas, forming generalizations, and generating deep-level inferences. The researchers conducted a series of linear regressions and hierarchical linear models separately for each integration task and integration level. The findings revealed that reading comprehension measures differentially influenced the two tasks and three integration processing levels. Additionally, individual differences — including reading strategies, interest, and vocabulary — were found to predict multiple-text integration performance. Overall, the results suggest that reading comprehension skills and individual differences uniquely predict various aspects of intertextual integration, highlighting the complex nature of how readers process and synthesize information across multiple texts.
Spelling words containing phonologically and orthographically irregular letters presents a significant challenge for young writers. This study investigates the impact of spelling-to-sound regularity and different types of frequency on the spelling of Hebrew verbs with the root letter Aleph א . Aleph functions both as a consonant and a vowel, offering a unique lens through which to explore the influence of regularity and irregularity on the process of Hebrew spelling acquisition. Participants included 133 Hebrew-speaking children (grades 3, 5, 8, and 11) and college students, who completed two verb dictation tasks. In each task, half of the items featured Aleph as a consonantal root letter (representing a glottal stop), and the other half featured Aleph as a vowel. The first task varied in word frequency, while the second varied in root frequency. The results indicate that the acquisition of Aleph spelling develops gradually, with full mastery occurring by 11th grade. Notably, Aleph as a consonant is learned more quickly than as a vowel. Word frequency influences spelling accuracy across all age groups, particularly when Aleph represents a vowel. Root frequency affects the spelling of Aleph as a vowel at all ages, whereas its impact on consonantal Aleph is limited to younger age groups (up to grade 8). These findings underscore the critical role of both phonological and orthographic irregularity in spelling development. The study highlights the importance of addressing the intersection of phonology, morphology, and orthography in language instruction, as this approach can help identify irregularities and enhance spelling acquisition.
The most authoritative resource for students and researchers, The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language has been thoroughly updated and extended. Enhancements include new chapters on the acquisition of words, processing deficits in children with specific language impairments, and language in children with Williams syndrome, new authors for the bilingualism and autism chapters, a refocused discourse chapter on written narratives, and a new section on reading and reading disorders, cementing the handbook's position as the best study of the subject available. In a wide-ranging survey, language development is traced from prelinguistic infancy to adolescence in typical and atypical contexts; the material is intuitively grouped into six thematic sections, enabling readers to easily find specific in-depth information. With topics as varied as statistical learning, bilingualism, and the neurobiology of reading disorders, this multidisciplinary Handbook is an essential reference for students and researchers in linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, speech pathology, education and anthropology.
This study provides a meta-analysis of the correlational literature on measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading, and related abilities. Correlations (N = 2,257) were corrected for sample size, restriction in range, and attenuation from 49 independent samples. Correlations between phonological awareness (PA) and rapid naming (RAN) were low (.38) and loaded on different factors. PA and RAN were moderately correlated with real-word reading (.48 and .46, respectively). Other findings were that (a) real-word reading was correlated best (r values were .60 to .80) with spelling and pseudoword reading, but correlations with RAN, PA, vocabulary, orthography, IQ, and memory measures were in the low-to-moderate range (.37 to .43); and (b) correlations between reading and RAN/PA varied minimally across age groups but were weaker in poor readers than in skilled readers. The results suggested that the importance of RAN and PA measures in accounting for reading performance has been overstated.
Comparisons of reading measures from a sample of 361 children aged 7.5 to 9.5, including many with reading difficulties, showed high correlations between word reading and nonword reading, and between each of these abilities and reading comprehension. These results, together with other findings from these children, showed that skill in word identification was almost inseparable from the phonologically analytic decoding process that is tapped by nonword reading, and, correspondingly, differences in reading comprehension were closely associated with differences in decoding skill. The findings support the conclusion that bottom-up skills largely drive the reading process in this age group. Only a small number of children departed from the norm in showing better reading comprehension than would be expected from their decoding skills, and those with the opposite discrepancy accounted for even fewer.
Introduction: Simple Ideas about Reading Comprehension. A Framework for Comprehension. Higher-Level Factors in Comprehension. The Linguistic-Conceptual Machinery for Comprehension. Word Identification, Decoding, and Phonological Awareness .Comprehension Instruction. Conclusion: A More General View of Comprehension Development
This paper reports two experiments which focus on the object naming deficits of dyslexic readers. In Experiment 1, dyslexic and normal readers were asked to name objects depicted by pictures or following their spoken definition. Ten-year-old dyslexics named fewer objects correctly than other children of a similar age, performing only as well as a younger group of 8-year-old normal readers. This was true irrespective of the modality through which they were tested. In terms of naming latency, however, they were similar to comparison groups. In Experiment 2, nine-year-old dyslexic and normal readers performed as well as each other in a receptive vocabulary test in which pictures had to be matched to spoken words. However, once again, on a picture naming test, the dyslexics did less well than controls. We argue that dyslexic children are subject to verbal naming difficulties which cannot be accounted for by generally low levels of vocabulary knowledge. Their problems are attributable not to difficulties in semantic representation but to difficulties with the lexical-phonological representation of spoken words they know. We propose that, in turn, these difficulties are related to their memory and reading problems.
The roles of basic reading processes and prior knowledge to comprehension of expository text were addressed in a study of college readers. According to their performance in the Nelson‐Denny Reading Comprehension Text, 34 college students were divided into groups of above‐average and average readers and had to complete tasks of word and pseudoword vocalization, sentence verification, probe discourse memory, text‐based word recognition and word prediction. Subjects also took a prior knowledge test, read an expository text, and answered comprehension questions that covered explicit and implicit text information. The data indicated that word identification and propositional encoding measures were closely related to individual differences in college‐level reading comprehension ability. Examining the relative contributions of basic reading and prior knowledge to comprehension, it was shown that knowledge played the major role in answering explicit questions, whereas probe discourse memory was relatively more important when the information was implicit.
In this paper, we discuss the relative contribution of several theoretically relevant skills and abilities in accounting for variance in both word reading and text comprehension. We present data from the first and second waves of a longitudinal study, when the children were 7 to 8 years, and 8 to 9 years old. In multiple regression analyses, we show that there is a dissociation between the skills and abilities that account for variance in word reading, and those that account for variance in text comprehension. The pattern of results is very similar at both time points. Significant variance in comprehension skill is accounted for by measures of text integration, metacognitive monitoring, and working memory. By contrast, these measures do not account for variance in word reading ability, which was best accounted for by a phoneme deletion task. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the development of reading ability, children’s problems in text comprehension and for remediation will be discussed.
Children with specific reading comprehension difficulties were compared with control children on tests of language skill. The two groups performed at a similar level on tests requiring predominantly phonological skills, but the poor comprehenders performed less well on tests tapping semantic ability. Although the two groups were matched for decoding ability (as assessed by nonword reading), the poor comprehenders were worse at reading words with irregular spelling patterns and low-frequency words. These results show that despite having adequate phonological decoding skills, poor comprehenders have problems reading words that are typically read with support from semantics. These findings are related to connectionist models of reading development in which phonological and semantic processes interact.