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Comprehension of quantifier sentences in poor readers with different levels of arithmetic proficiency

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Abstract

This study compared the sentence hyperbole comprehension performance of Chinese poor readers with various levels of arithmetic proficiency. A total of 168 Chinese poor readers in Grade 1 were recruited, and their nonverbal intelligence, verbal working memory, Chinese receptive vocabulary, Chinese grammatical knowledge, character reading and morphological awareness were controlled. The reaction times of these students in correctly answering literal and inferential questions was selected for further comparison. Results of a mixed-effect model analysis show that the participants with good and poor arithmetic proficiency levels demonstrated similar levels of literal information comprehension, regardless of the presentation form of the quantifier construction that was built by the quantifier location of the sentences, the number of numeric characters in a single quantifier and the hyperbole function applied in the sentence quantifier. Students with good arithmetic proficiency also demonstrated faster response in comprehending quantifier inferential information. Primary school students with good arithmetic proficiency outperformed those with poor proficiency in the inferential reading of verbal numeric information. In addition, differences in arithmetic proficiency did not significantly affect the students’ word/character semantic representation cognition and shallow literal information processing. Overall, the results distinguish the interaction and independent numerical information processes at the literal and inferential levels of text quantifier comprehension for young primary school students with poor reading proficiency.
Reading and Writing
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-022-10344-9
Abstract
This study compared the sentence hyperbole comprehension performance of Chi-
nese poor readers with various levels of arithmetic prociency. A total of 168 Chi-
nese poor readers in Grade 1 were recruited, and their nonverbal intelligence, verbal
working memory, Chinese receptive vocabulary, Chinese grammatical knowledge,
character reading and morphological awareness were controlled. The reaction times
of these students in correctly answering literal and inferential questions was select-
ed for further comparison. Results of a mixed-eect model analysis show that the
participants with good and poor arithmetic prociency levels demonstrated similar
levels of literal information comprehension, regardless of the presentation form of
the quantier construction that was built by the quantier location of the sentences,
the number of numeric characters in a single quantier and the hyperbole function
applied in the sentence quantier. Students with good arithmetic prociency also
demonstrated faster response in comprehending quantier inferential information.
Primary school students with good arithmetic prociency outperformed those with
poor prociency in the inferential reading of verbal numeric information. In addi-
tion, dierences in arithmetic prociency did not signicantly aect the students’
word/character semantic representation cognition and shallow literal information
processing. Overall, the results distinguish the interaction and independent numeri-
cal information processes at the literal and inferential levels of text quantier com-
prehension for young primary school students with poor reading prociency.
Keywords Text comprehension · Hyperbole · Quantier identication · Poor
readers
Accepted: 4 August 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022
Comprehension of quantifier sentences in poor readers
with different levels of arithmetic proficiency
YangDong1· Bonnie Wing-YinChow2· JianhongMo3· Hao-YuanZheng4·
Sammy Xiao-YingWu5· JieYang1
Jian-Hong Mo and Hao-Yuan Zheng had same contribution to this paper.
Extended author information available on the last page of the article
1 3
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