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Emotional intelligence and reading comprehension: Examining mediating roles of word reading, vocabulary, and working memory
This study aims to describe the reading comprehension ability of third-grade elementary school students and to identify the obstacles they face in understanding texts. The research employed a qualitative approach with a descriptive design. Data were collected through observation, oral tests, and in-depth interviews. Data analysis was carried out through data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings indicate that students' reading comprehension ability falls into the "sufficient" category, with an average score of 66. The most mastered indicator was expressing opinions about the text content, while identifying main ideas and drawing conclusions were the weakest aspects. Obstacles included lack of focus while reading, low motivation and reading interest, and underutilized literacy facilities. This study recommends implementing more structured reading instruction strategies, strengthening school literacy culture, and fostering collaboration among teachers, parents, and institutions to build positive reading habits.Keywords: Reading comprehension, reading ability, reading difficulties, elementary
Comprender la lectura es una habilidad fundamental para el éxito académico y personal de los estudiantes. Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar la investigación actual sobre la comprensión lectora en estudiantes de educación básica de Perú. Se hizo una revisión sistemática de las publicaciones realizadas en la base de datos de Scopus, Scielo y Web Of Science. Empleando los descriptores: ("reading comprehension" OR "reading comprehension levels") AND learners*. Se aplicó el método PRISMA para la elección. Se seleccionó 13 artículos para el análisis. Los resultados muestran, la mejora de la comprensión lectora en los estudiantes no se limita a la decodificación de palabras, sino que implica el desarrollo de habilidades lectoras que sean efectivas ante un contexto educativo influenciado por los avances tecnológicos. Se concluye que, para tener un buen nivel de comprensión lectora, es importante que los docentes implementen estrategias que permitan la comprensión inferencial y crítica, desarrollando procesos de orden superior en los estudiantes de educación básica.
El propósito de este estudio fue determinar en qué medida la comprensión lectora se relaciona con las aptitudes investigativas, en estudiantes del primer año de Educación de una universidad privada de Lima. Se realizó un diseño no experimental y un estudio transversal mediante métodos cuantitativos descriptivos. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 40 estudiantes y se utilizó un cuestionario validado para medir ambas variables. Los resultados mostraron que el 77,5% de los estudiantes tenía una baja comprensión lectora, lo que se reflejaba en un uso limitado de las habilidades de indagación, y el 50% de los encuestados indicó que casi nunca utilizaba las habilidades de indagación. La correlación obtenida mediante el coeficiente de Pearson (0,92) confirmó una relación significativa entre las dos variables. Con base en estos hallazgos, se concluyó que, dados los efectos positivos de la comprensión lectora en las habilidades investigativas, existe una necesidad urgente de implementar currículos que mejoren la comprensión lectora. También se recomienda combinar estrategias didácticas innovadoras con un seguimiento continuo de los avances en estas áreas para mejorar la formación de los futuros docentes.
In this study, the role of teacher-student relationships and students’ social and emotional skills as potential predictors of students’ emotional and behavioural difficulties was investigated by tapping into 962 primary school students’ perceptions via questionnaires. While significant correlations were found linking teachers’ interpersonal behaviour and students’ social and emotional skills to emotional and behavioural difficulties, data analysis indicated that students’ social and emotional skills were found to be more of a determinant of their behaviour than teachers’ interpersonal behaviour. Results are interpreted in relation to systems perspective and Social and Emotional Learning theory, and practical implications of the findings are discussed
According to the multidimensional view of reading comprehension (RAND), reading comprehension (RC) is influenced by three components: the reader, text, and task. A broader perspective considers factors beyond the cognitive and linguistic dimensions and incorporates the contribution of emotional condition. The present study examined individual differences in readers’ literacy and emotional involvement in the RC process, including the reader, text, and task components. A total of 230 Hebrew-speaking students in the fourth and fifth grades received a battery of emotional and non-emotional vocabulary, word reading, RC measures (simple and mental inferencing questions), and comprehension of different text types. The students were classified as typical readers (TRs), poor readers (PRs), minority-language (ML) students, and students with learning disabilities (LDs). In monitoring the reading fluency measure, an analysis of variance revealed that students with LDs performed significantly lower in all variables than the TRs and PRs. They also performed lower than the ML students in emotional factors such as comprehension of narrative texts and the theory of mind task. The findings highlight the language-specific nature of gaps in ML students vis-à-vis the complex multicomponent nature of deficits in students with LDs.
This meta-analysis examined the correlation between social–emotional skills and reading ability and identified possible moderators by synthesizing 285 correlations from 37 studies among 38 samples with 28,404 participants. Results showed a significantly positive correlation between social–emotional skills and reading ability among typically developing readers, r = 0.23, 95% CI [0.19, 0.28]. The moderation analysis revealed that, after controlling for types of social–emotional skills and grade level, the correlation between social–emotional skills and reading ability was moderated by the levels of reading (i.e., word reading vs. reading comprehension), β = 0.07, 95% CI [0.02, 0.11], t = 5.03, p < 0.05. Specifically, social–emotional skills had a significantly stronger correlation with reading comprehension than it with word reading. This work provides support for the lattice model of reading, suggesting that future research efforts are needed to examine the underlying mechanisms between social–emotional skills and reading ability.
Pathways of relations of language, cognitive, and literacy skills (i.e., working
memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, inference, comprehension
monitoring, word reading, and listening comprehension) to reading comprehension
were examined by comparing four variations of direct and indirect effects model of reading. Results from 350 English-speaking second graders revealed that language and cognitive component skills had direct and indirect relations to listening comprehension, explaining 86% of variance. Word reading and listening comprehension completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive component skills to reading comprehension and explained virtually all the variance in reading comprehension.
Total effects of component skills varied from small to substantial. The findings support the direct and indirect effects model of reading model and indicate that word reading and listening comprehension are upperlevel skills that are built on multiple language and cognitive component skills, which have direct and indirect relations among themselves. The results underscore the importance of understanding nature of relations.
This study examines the roles of cognitive flexibility and reading motivation in explaining the longitudinal link between teacher-student closeness and reading achievement. The investigation is motivated by the fact that cognitive flexibility and reading motivation have been shown to be correlates of teacher-student relationship and reading achievement, yet their mediating roles are less well understood. The current study uses a sample of 17,342 students (8463 females; mean age = 73.42 months) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study with different ethnic backgrounds. A declining trend of teacher-student closeness from kindergarten to Grade 2 was found. Teacher-student closeness at kindergarten was positively associated with reading achievement at Grade 4 and the effect was mediated by cognitive flexibility and reading motivation at Grade 3. Declining closeness from kindergarten to Grade 2 was not related to the other associations. Consistent with the extended attachment view, these findings highlight the importance of an early supportive teacher-student relationship in promoting flexibility in thinking and interest in reading. This enhances subsequent reading performance in the middle elementary school years.
This nationwide mixed methods study investigated the relationships among self‐regulation (S‐R), emotional intelligence (EI), willingness to communicate (WTC), and reading comprehension ability of Persian foreign language (PFL) learners in Iran. Therefore, 141 non‐Persian students, from 28 different countries studying at 12 universities across Iran were selected to participate in the study. The participants were asked to answer S‐R, EI, WTC scales, and a reading comprehension test. To deeper understand the constructs in the questionnaires and to triangulate the data, structured interviews were conducted with 45 participants. Besides, for checking the strengths of the causal relationships among the variables, structural equation modeling was utilized. The three independent variables were strong predictors of reading comprehension, with WTC being the strongest predictor. Considering the increasing number of PFL learners, implications focus on how second language practitioners, especially those concerned with PFL can benefit from the results of this study. The role of individual differences in the process of language learning, particularly in reading comprehension, has been recognized as very influential. No research has been conducted to explore the possible effects of S‐R, EI, and WTC on Persian foreign language (PFL) learners' reading comprehension ability. Can S‐R, EI, and WTC predict PFL learners' reading comprehension ability? What is a valid model of interrelationships among S‐R, EI, WTC, and reading comprehension? By answering these questions, this nationwide mixed methods study tries to fill the gap in the literature.
We conducted a research synthesis to examine the impact of cooperative, collaborative, and peer-tutoring strategies on elementary English learners’ (EL) reading and oral proficiencies in studies from the United States. Seven studies were included in the analysis and fully examined regarding the characteristics of sample, intervention, design, and outcome. Effect sizes were reported by the outcome. We found that cooperative/collaborative/peer-tutoring (CCP) strategies boost elementary ELs’ reading comprehension, reading fluency, and phonemic awareness. Ongoing professional development (PD) and coaching help teachers to improve the quality of strategy implementation. The findings indicated that the quality of implementation, the actual amount of time of these strategies are used in the classroom, and the instructional impact of CCP strategies utilization to improve ELs’ English reading and speaking should be the focus of future research.
This study examined the direct and indirect relations of foundational language skills (vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and orthographic knowledge), higher-order cognitive skills (inference making and comprehension monitoring), and word reading to reading comprehension in Chinese. Consistent with the hierarchical relations specified in the Direct and Indirect Effect Model of Reading (DIER, Kim, Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(4):667–684, 2020a; Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2020b), the foundational language skills are considered as lower level skills, and the higher-order cognitive skills and word reading are considered as upper level skills in this study. Participants were 164 Chinese (Mandarin)-speaking third graders. Results revealed that syntactic knowledge, orthographic knowledge, inference making, comprehension monitoring, and word reading made direct contributions to reading comprehension. In addition, syntactic knowledge contributed indirectly to reading comprehension via inference making, comprehension monitoring, and word reading. Orthographic knowledge also contributed indirectly to reading comprehension via comprehension monitoring. Language skills, higher-order cognitive skills, and word reading explained 72% of variances in reading comprehension. The findings highlight both the direct and indirect pathways and effects of various language and higher-order cognitive skills on reading comprehension in Chinese.
This study examined the relations among family socialization, loneliness, linguistic skills, and reading comprehension in 78 Mandarin-speaking Chinese third graders with a mean age of 8.67 years old. The participants were administered a battery of tasks to assess their non-verbal intelligence, linguistic-skills, word reading, and Chinese reading comprehension, and asked to complete loneliness, trait anxiety, family socialization, and demographic questionnaires. Regression analysis showed that family socialization, loneliness, and linguistic-skills were significant predictors of reading comprehension after controlling for SES, non-verbal intelligence, trait anxiety, and word reading. Mediation analysis showed that linguistic skills fully mediated the relation between loneliness and reading comprehension after accounting for the variance of controlled variables. These findings suggest that family socialization and loneliness significantly affect the development of reading comprehension.
The present study analyzed the joint predictive role of verbal working memory (WM), verbal short‐term memory (STM), fluid intelligence, and intelligence mindset in reading comprehension, controlling for prior reading comprehension performance, in typically developing Spanish‐speaking school‐aged children. A sample of 83 children aged 9–10 years old were evaluated at fourth grade of primary school, with measures of verbal WM, verbal STM, fluid intelligence, intelligence mindset and reading comprehension; then with the measure of reading comprehension after 1 year, during fifth grade. Results showed that controlling for prior performance, verbal WM and fluid intelligence significantly predicted reading comprehension after 1 year, whereas verbal STM and intelligence mindset did not make a significant contribution. These results indicate that when jointly considered, a higher level of verbal WM and fluid intelligence in fourth grade is related to a better performance in reading comprehension in fifth grade. Possible explanations and implications of these results are discussed.
Cognitive control guides behaviour by controlling what, when, and how information is represented in the brain1. For example, attention controls sensory processing; top-down signals from prefrontal and parietal cortex strengthen the representation of task-relevant stimuli2–4. A similar ‘selection’ mechanism is thought to control the representations held ‘in mind’—in working memory5–10. Here we show that shared neural mechanisms underlie the selection of items from working memory and attention to sensory stimuli. We trained rhesus monkeys to switch between two tasks, either selecting one item from a set of items held in working memory or attending to one stimulus from a set of visual stimuli. Neural recordings showed that similar representations in prefrontal cortex encoded the control of both selection and attention, suggesting that prefrontal cortex acts as a domain-general controller. By contrast, both attention and selection were represented independently in parietal and visual cortex. Both selection and attention facilitated behaviour by enhancing and transforming the representation of the selected memory or attended stimulus. Specifically, during the selection task, memory items were initially represented in independent subspaces of neural activity in prefrontal cortex. Selecting an item caused its representation to transform from its own subspace to a new subspace used to guide behaviour. A similar transformation occurred for attention. Our results suggest that prefrontal cortex controls cognition by dynamically transforming representations to control what and when cognitive computations are engaged. The prefrontal cortex in monkeys controls working memory in a similar way to attention, by selectively transforming the representations of remembered items.
We assessed the relationship between word-to-text-integration (WTI) and reading
comprehension in 7th grade students (n=441) learning English as a second language (L2). The students performed a self-paced WTI reading task in Fall (T1)
and Spring (T2), consisting of three text manipulation types (anaphora resolution,
argument overlap, anomaly detection), divided in simple and complex passages.
The passages contained proximate versus distant anaphora, explicit repetitions versus implicit inferences, and no anomalies versus anomalies. We frst examined how
WTI complexity was related to reading times on target, target plus one, and target
plus two, controlling for word frequency, decoding fuency, gender, and age. Mixedefects models showed shorter reading times on T2 than on T1 and for simple compared to complex passages, indicating improvement of L2 reading speed. Complexity afected WTI for our L2 learners, as was refected by longer reading times on
complex compared to simple argument overlap and anomaly detection passages. We
then assessed whether reading comprehension could be predicted by WTI. Longer
reading times on complex compared to simple argument overlap and anomaly detection passages predicted ofine reading comprehension. These WTI-measures of
complexity are thus indicators of WTI profciency for novice L2 learners.
Background
Though many empirical studies have shown the positive relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and resilience, the bidirectional relationship need to be further explored. Moreover, little research uses holistic approaches to study the relationship among a series of contextual variables, EI and perceptions of resilience in adolescents.Objective
The present study investigated the bidirectional relationship between EI and perceptions of resilience in adolescents and explored the effect of contextual variables on their development.Method
In a three-wave, longitudinal study, 988 students of sixth graders (mean age of 11.38 years) completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Shanghai High School Student Development-Questionnaire to investigate EI, perceptions of resilience and contextual factors, respectively. A structural equation modeling (SEM) examining the relationship among EI, perceptions of resilience and contextual factors was conducted.ResultsSEM indicated EI and perceptions of resilience at T1 (first semester in sixth grade) predicted EI and perceptions of resilience at T2 (second semester in sixth grade), respectively. EI at T2 can predict perception of resilience at T3 (second semester of seventh grade), but perceptions of resilience at T2 cannot predict EI at T3. As a protective factor, social support positively predicts EI and perceptions of resilience, while family conflicts, school bullying as risk factors negatively predict EI and perceptions of resilience.Conclusions
The findings clarified the bidirectional relationship between EI and perceptions of resilience and highlighted the importance of contextual factors. Particularly, good quality of environment such as sufficient social support, combating school bullying and mitigating family conflicts is required to improve adolescents’ EI and resilience to help them cope with the challenges.
Research attests to the important contributions of emotional, athletic, and cognitive expertise for sport performance. However, little is known regarding the interplay between trait emotional intelligence, athletic expertise, and working memory. The aim of this research was to examine the interplay between working memory (emotional, capacity and ability), trait emotional intelligence and athletic expertise. In total, 437 participants aged between 18 and 27 years with a range of athletic expertise (i.e., non-athlete n = 96, novice n = 92, amateur n = 85, elite n = 83, and super-elite n = 81) completed the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form, an Emotion Recognition Task (i.e., working memory-emotional), a Spatial Span Task (i.e., working memory-capacity), and a Spatial Working Memory Test (i.e., working memory-ability). Structural equation modelling indicated a significant positive relationship between trait emotional intelligence and all three components of working memory (i.e., emotional, capacity and ability). Also, this differed over athletic expertise whereby those with more expertise reported larger effects than those with less expertise. These findings suggest that trait emotional intelligence is important for working memory in athletes. Moreover, the link between cognitive and affective processes are increasingly relevant as athletes develop expertise levels.
This study investigated the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. To address the correlation picture under Chinese logographical scripts, the researchers investigated the potential explanation for the correlation via Reading Stage, Information Gap, Content-based Approach, and Cognition and Creativity Theory approaches. This study undertook a meta-analysis to synthesize 89 independent samples from primary school stage to Master's degree stage. Results showed the correlation picture as an inverted U-shape, supporting the idea that vocabulary knowledge contributed a large proportion of variance on text comprehension and might also support the independent hypothesis of the impact of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension. In each education stage, the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension was independent in that it did not interact with any significant moderators. This study informed that the vocabulary knowledge not only determined text comprehension progress through facial semantic meaning identification but also suggested that the coordinate development of vocabulary knowledge, grammatical knowledge, and inference would be better in complexity comprehension task performance.
This study examined the effects of a syllable-based reading intervention for German second graders who demonstrated difficulties in the recognition of written words. The intervention focused on fostering word reading via syllable segmentation. The materials consisted of the 500 most frequent syllables typically read by 6-to 8-year-old children. The aims were to practice phonological recoding, consolidate orthographic representations of syllables, and routinize the access to these representations. Compared to children randomly assigned to a wait-list group, poor readers in the treatment condition showed significant improvements in standardized measures of phonological recoding, direct word recognition, and text-based reading comprehension after the 24-session intervention. Poor readers in the treatment condition also showed greater improvements in development of word recognition compared to children with efficient word recognition skills. The results provide evidence that a syllable-based reading intervention is a promising approach to increase struggling readers' word recognition skills, which in turn will improve their reading comprehension.
Objectives
Social perception is an important aspect of emotional intelligence that affects adolescent functioning at school and in everyday life. This study examined the relationship between Social Perception (affect labeling, matching prosody with facial expressions, and understanding the motives of a speaker) and Reading Comprehension, as well as Listening Comprehension. This is important to consider because understanding emotions, social expressions of emotion, and the motives of others may play a significant role in understanding conversations and stories.
Methods
Hierarchical linear regressions involving 40 diverse adolescents from across the United States were utilized to see if Social Perception tests administered by psychologists predicted Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension above and beyond education level, gender, and ethnicity.
Results
Social Perception predicted Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Tests, Second Edition (WIAT-II), when controlling for education level, gender and ethnicity. The model explained 36% of the variance in reading comprehension and 54% of the variance in listening comprehension.
Conclusions
The implications for research and educational practice are considered. For instance, future studies should examine whether listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and emotional intelligence can be increased as part of the same intervention package.
We investigated 2 hypotheses of a recently proposed integrative theoretical model of reading, the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER; Kim, 2017b, 2019): (a) hierarchical relations and (b) dynamic relations (or differential relations) of skills to reading comprehension. Students were assessed on reading comprehension, word reading, listening comprehension, working memory, attention, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, perspective taking (theory of mind), knowledge-based inference, and comprehension monitoring in Grade 2 and again in Grade 4. Structural equation model results supported the hierarchical relations hypothesis of DIER. When a nonhierarchical, direct relations model was fitted, primarily the upper level skills (i.e., word reading and listening comprehension) were statistically significant. When hierarchical, direct, and indirect relations models were fitted, lower level skills (e.g., working memory, vocabulary) and higher order cognitive skills (e.g., perspective taking) were indirectly related to reading comprehension via multiple pathways, whereas word reading and listening comprehension remained directly related to reading comprehension. Furthermore, the magnitudes of relations varied in Grade 2 versus Grade 4 such that perspective taking (as measured by theory of mind), vocabulary, and working memory had larger effects whereas comprehension monitoring and grammatical knowledge had smaller effects on reading comprehension in Grade 4 than in Grade 2. These results provide some support for the dynamic relations hypothesis of DIER, but also suggest the complex nature of the dynamic relations as a function of development and text characteristics.
Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews the current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological, and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of altered neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Approaches to improve treatments based on empirical evidence of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescents are also discussed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.
Inference making is fundamental to the construction of a coherent mental model of a text. We examined how vocabulary and verbal working memory relate to inference development concurrently and longitudinally in 4- to 9-year-olds. Four hundred and twenty prekindergartners completed oral assessments of inference making, vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and verbal working memory each year until Grade 3. Concurrently, hierarchical regressions revealed that a greater proportion of total variance in inference making was explained by vocabulary and verbal working memory for younger than older children. Vocabulary breadth was a stronger predictor of inference than verbal working memory, but the opposite pattern was found for vocabulary depth and verbal working memory. The longitudinal relations between inference making, vocabulary, and verbal working memory were investigated in two separate cross-lagged models: one with vocabulary breadth and a second with vocabulary depth. Both vocabulary breadth and depth explained subsequent inference making and verbal working memory throughout the early grades. Inference making also predicted subsequent vocabulary depth. The results highlight the critical role of vocabulary knowledge in the development of inference ability both within and across time, the importance of vocabulary in supporting the development of verbal working memory, and the changing dynamics between language and memory in early development.
In the present study that measured the emotional intelligence of the students who were learning Turkish as a foreign language, the aim was to determine whether the emotional intelligence of the students affected their reading comprehension skills and reading anxiety. Thus, initially, the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale was adapted for foreign students after the required approvals were obtained. Then, the correlations between the emotional intelligence of the students and their reading anxiety and reading comprehension skills were investigated. The analysis of the data collected from 138 students attending İnönü University Turkish Language Learning Research and Application Center (TÖMER) demonstrated that the level of emotional intelligence of the students decreased general level reading anxiety levels (ß =-6.69). It was also concluded that general emotional intelligence level of the students increased their reading comprehension skills (ß = 9.079). Furthermore, it was determined the general emotional intelligence scores of female students (x = 3.389) were higher than male students (x = 3.181) (t = 2.944; p = 0.004 <0.05). As a result, emotional intelligence of the foreign language learning students effects on the reading comprehension skills and the reading anxiety.
Cognitive reappraisal reduces anxiety, but we know little about how socioeconomic status (SES) moderates this association. Drawing from developmental, affective, and health psychological frameworks, the present 2 studies investigated SES as a moderator of reappraisal and anxiety using performance-based (Study 1) and self-report (Study 1 and 2) measures of reappraisal; analyzing nonclinical (Study 1) and clinical (Study 2) symptoms of anxiety; and utilizing a small, laboratory-based study (Study 1) and a large-scale 9-year longitudinal study (Study 2). Across studies, findings showed that reappraisal predicted lower anxiety at low levels of SES but did not or less so at high levels of SES. These results were found for self-report measures of reappraisal; generalized across nonclinical and clinical symptoms of anxiety; and emerged both concurrently and prospectively across 9 years. Findings remained stable when controlling for a number of covariates, including age, gender, and race; were more robust for income than education; largely generalized across gender (except for a men-specific moderation effect for education in Study 2); and were directional such that SES did not moderate associations between anxiety and changes in reappraisal. These findings highlight the importance of considering socioeconomic context in the link between reappraisal and anxiety.
The main purpose of the present study was to empirically investigate the possible correlation between students’ emotional inteligence and thier reading comprehension and students’ emotional intelligence influences their reading comprehension. The participants in the study were 53 the eleventh grade students of SMA Sandika Banyuasin which were selected from two classes consisting of science and social. Reading comprehension test was done to measure students’ reading comprehension by using TOEFL Junior reading comprehension section. Then, USMEQ-i by Yusoff (2010) was administered to the participants to measure their emotional intelligence. SPSS program was run using Pearson Product Moment formula and Regression Analysis to find out the correlation and the influence. The result showed that there was a postive significant correlation between students’ emotional intelligence and reading comprehension with r = .661.Then, there influenced of students’ emotional intelligence on thier reading comprehension with 43.7%.
Τhe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of parents’ expectations, family’s socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy environment (formal and informal literacy experiences and literacy resources at home) with emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, vocabulary) and word reading in Chinese. One hundred and forty third-year kindergarten Chinese children (71 girls and 69 boys; mean age = 70.54 months) were assessed on nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading. Parents also filled out a questionnaire on their educational level and income, the frequency of engaging in different home literacy-related activities with their child, and their expectations about their child’s reading/school performance. Results of path analysis showed that formal literacy activities predicted phonological awareness and literacy resources at home predicted vocabulary. In addition, family’s SES was a significant predictor of literacy resources at home and parents’ expectations was a significant predictor of all home literacy aspects and of word reading. Results of multiple mediation analysis further showed that the effects of parents’ expectations on word reading were partly mediated by formal literacy experiences and literacy resources at home. In contrast, the effects of literacy resources at home on word reading were fully mediated by the effects of vocabulary on phonological awareness. Taken together, these findings suggest that the links between home literacy environment (including the factors that shape the quantity and quality of the home literacy experiences) and reading in Chinese are not as straightforward as those previously reported in alphabetic languages.
Book reading appears to be a highly revered and widely practiced home and school routine within and across literate western cultures. This study examined the relationship between home practices and expected children’s production. We assumed the contribution of home literacy patterns such as storytelling to have a predictive value on the development of children’s narrative productions as one facet of children’s literacy development. To this end, we set out to investigate similarities and differences in the profile of parental narrative input and children’s narrative productions. We first looked at the structural and organizational characteristics of adult-child and child-adult narratives and the relationship between the two in terms of its narrative forms and functions. Then we analyzed the interaction during narratives to — and by- children to other adults. The participants of this study were 64 parent-child dyads recruited into three age groups. Parents were asked to tell their child a picture-book story and the children were asked to tell the same story to an adult experimenter. The stories were recorded and transcribed. The data were coded into structural and interactive categories and analyzed between parent and children productions and across the three age groups. The results showed a complex relationship between parental narrative input and child-adult output. While parental narrative input resembles child narrative input, this resemblance grows stronger as the child gets older. Yet the differences between parental and child narrative input may be motivated by the child’s linguistic, narrative and social development.
The purpose of this study was to investigate two levels of reading comprehension, namely literal and inferential, of two text types of narration and exposition in Iranian EFL learners. The elicitation instruments were four expository texts and four narrative ones. One hundred eighty upper-intermediate EFL learners were assigned the reading passages followed by both literal and inferential multiple-choice items. Paired-samples t tests were run to provide answers to the research questions of this study. From an inter-text-type angle, the results demonstrated that the participants meaningfully outperformed on the expository texts at the level of literal comprehension. Yet, regarding inferential comprehension, there was no significant difference between the two text types. The results, from an intra-text-type perspective, also revealed that in the expository texts, literal comprehension meaningfully outweighed inferential comprehension, whereas no significant difference was observed between literal and inferential comprehension in the narrative texts. Finally, probable explanations and interpretations for the obtained results were provided.
Emotional intelligence is an important area of psychology, which has gained acceptance in almost every academic discipline. It also seems to influence the various academic activities undertaken by students. This paper, which is part of a larger study, reviews the literature on emotional intelligence, and its relationship with the academic and non-academic characteristics of students with an emphasis on the significance of this relationship. This review shows that emotional intelligence of students is a key element for them while handling a stressful situation. It also illustrates that emotional intelligence can be supportive in managing library anxiety among students leading to better academic performance. This article will assist the academic librarians to recognize role of emotional intelligence in library-related activities of the patrons. It is recommended that future research should give more attention to this area.
Emotion regulation is central to psychological health, and several emotion-regulation strategies have been identified as beneficial. However, new theorizing suggests the benefits of emotion regulation should depend on its context. One important contextual moderator might be socioeconomic status (SES), because SES powerfully shapes people’s ecology: lower SES affords less control over one’s environment and thus, the ability to self-regulate should be particularly important. Accordingly, effectively regulating one’s emotions (e.g., using cognitive reappraisal) could be more beneficial in lower (vs. higher) SES contexts. Three studies (N = 429) tested whether SES moderates the link between cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA; measured with surveys and in the laboratory) and depression. Each study and a meta-analysis of the 3 studies revealed that CRA was associated with less depression for lower SES but not higher SES individuals. Thus, CRA may be uniquely beneficial in lower SES contexts. More broadly, the effects of emotion regulation depend upon the ecology within which it is used.
As with other fields, medical sciences are subject to different sources of bias. While understanding sources of bias is a key element for drawing valid conclusions, bias in health research continues to be a very sensitive issue that can affect the focus and outcome of investigations. Information bias, otherwise known as misclassification, is one of the most common sources of bias that affects the validity of health research. It originates from the approach that is utilized to obtain or confirm study measurements. This paper seeks to raise awareness of information bias in observational and experimental research study designs as well as to enrich discussions concerning bias problems. Specifying the types of bias can be essential to limit its effects and, the use of adjustment methods might serve to improve clinical evaluation and health care practice.
This study examined the links between two aspects of vocabulary knowledge (i.e., breadth and depth) and reading comprehension, and the mediating impact of word reading on these links within and across first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English among 391 Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual second graders. After administering tasks on receptive and expressive vocabulary breadth, expressive vocabulary depth, word reading, and reading comprehension, path model analyses revealed a direct effect of receptive vocabulary breadth, and indirect effects of expressive vocabulary breadth and depth through word reading, on reading comprehension in L1 Chinese. However, in L2 English, a direct effect occurred in expressive vocabulary depth, while indirect effects were observed in receptive and expressive vocabulary breadth. The cross-language analyses showed a direct effect of Chinese receptive vocabulary, and an indirect effect of Chinese expressive vocabulary depth through L2 English word reading, on English reading comprehension.
Morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension are intertwined and develop together in Chinese children. This study simultaneously examined the reciprocal relationships between these three skills in a 4-year longitudinal sample of 142 third-grade Chinese-speaking students. After controlling for non-verbal intelligence, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, and word reading at the initial level, the cross-lagged model results showed that (1) morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were significantly related to each other in grades 3 to 4, while no reciprocal longitudinal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge emerged in grades 4 to 6; (2) morphological awareness in grade 3 did not have a predictive effect on reading comprehension in grade 4, but morphological awareness in grade 4 had a significant effect on reading comprehension in grade 6. Reversely, reading comprehension was a stable predictor of later morphological awareness in grades 3 to 4 and grades 4 to 6; and (3) there were bidirectional predictive relationships between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in grades 3 to 4 and grades 4 to 6. These findings indicate the symbiotic associations between morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension, and highlight the dynamic and reciprocal nature of these three skills in Chinese children.
Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) is considered a central affective factor influencing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. This study thus developed an online simulation game to create a virtually situated learning environment for reducing EFL primary school students’ FLA levels and improving their English vocabulary learning. A total of 110 fifth graders from four classes participated in this study. Two classes were randomly assigned to the experimental group (N = 57) using the online simulation game, and the other two classes were the control group (N = 53) using onsite instruction. Each participant was then classified as a low, moderate, or high anxiety student based on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). This study found that, compared to the onsite instruction, the online simulation game more effectively assisted the low, moderate, and high anxiety students in reducing their FLA. Situated learning in the online simulation game made a connection between English vocabulary learning and the real world explicitly and visibly, which could further promote their English vocabulary learning. In particular, the moderate and high anxiety students’ English vocabulary learning was significantly improved after the online simulation game. These results suggest that an online simulation game can create a situated learning environment that helps reduce EFL students’ FLA and subsequently facilitate their English vocabulary learning.
This study investigated the relationships between affective and cognitive factors and reading comprehension in English as a second language (ESL). Specifically, we evaluated the contributions of reading anxiety and verbal working memory to ESL reading comprehension in Chinese students. A total of 105 Chinese ESL undergraduates were included. Structural equation modeling results showed that reading anxiety, represented by reading trait and state anxiety, and verbal working memory were unique predictors of ESL reading comprehension. In addition, there was no significant reading anxiety × working memory interaction effect. Mediation analyses revealed that reading anxiety partially mediated the relationship between verbal working memory and ESL reading comprehension. These results highlight the importance of affective and cognitive factors in predicting ESL reading comprehension and shed light on the methods in enhancing ESL learning.
In the current study, we examined relations between text features (e.g., word concreteness, referential cohesion) and reading comprehension using multilevel logistic models. The sample was 158 native English‐speaking students between 8 years, 8 months and 11 years, 2 months of age with a wide range of reading ability. In line with the simple view of reading, decoding ability and language comprehension were associated with reading comprehension performance. Text characteristics, including indices of word frequency, number of pronouns, word concreteness, and deep cohesion, also predicted unique variance in reading comprehension performance over and above the simple view’s components. Additionally, the emotional charge of text (i.e., lexical ratings of arousal) predicted reading comprehension beyond traditional person‐level and text‐based characteristics. These findings add to a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that it is important to consider emotional charge in addition to person‐level and text‐based characteristics to better understand reading comprehension performance.
Prior research suggests that positive teacher-child relationships support children's engagement in the classroom and their language skills. This short-term longitudinal study explored whether profiles of preschool children's engagement in the classroom (winter) mediated the association between teacher-child relationships (fall) and children's language skills (spring). The analytic sample included 708 children. Children's engagement was measured using a direct observational measure called the inCLASS. A latent profile analysis revealed six profiles of children's engagement: (1) highly engaged with tasks and peers; (2) engaged; (3) low engagement; (4) mild conflict; (5) high conflict, but positive engagement with teachers; and (6) extreme conflict. Using the low engagement profile as the reference group, mediation analyses revealed 3 indirect effects: (a) close-teacher-child relationship (as reported by teachers using the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale) was positively related to children's growth in expressive vocabulary (EV) skills (Woodcock-Johnson III Picture Vocabulary subscale) by spring through membership in the engaged rather than the low engagement profile; (b) a close relationship with a teacher was negatively related to children's EV skills through membership in the mild conflict profile with teachers and peers, and (c) a conflictual relationship with a teacher was negatively related to children's EV skills through membership in the mild conflict profile. Poor teacher-student relationships can lead children to become unengaged or negatively engaged in the classroom. Improving close teacher-child relationships can support more optimal patterns of engagement in the classroom, with positive implications for their EV development.
The use of printed words to capture language is one of the most remarkable inventions of humankind, and learning to read them is one of the most remarkable achievements of individuals. In recent decades, how we learn to read and understand printed text has been studied intensely in genetics, education, psychology, and cognitive science, and both the volume of research papers and breadth of the topics they examine have increased exponentially. Theories of Reading Development collects within a single volume state-of-the-art descriptions of important theories of reading development and disabilities. The included chapters focus on multiple aspects of reading development and are written by leading experts in the field. Each chapter is an independent theoretical review of the topic to which the authors have made a significant contribution and can be enjoyed on its own, or in relation to others in the book. The volume is written for professionals, graduate students, and researchers in education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. It can be used either as a core or as a supplementary text in senior undergraduate and graduate education and psychology courses focusing on reading development.
With the one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) analysis based on 49,416 individuals from 267 independent samples and 210 studies, the current study systematically investigated models including meta-linguistic skills, decoding, language comprehension, and reading comprehension for Chinese population. Findings showed: 1) decoding and language comprehension were moderately related and together explained 52.7% variance of reading comprehension; 2) meta-linguistic skills made significant direct and unique contributions to decoding and showed a strong relation with language comprehension; however, meta-linguistic skills did not make direct contributions to reading comprehension beyond decoding and language comprehension; 3) location (Mainland vs. Hong Kong) did not emerge as a significant moderator in the model; 4) grade level significantly explained the between-study heterogeneity on the relation between decoding and reading comprehension, such that decoding made more contributions to reading comprehension before grade 2 than after; and 5) the effects of language comprehension on reading comprehension stayed stable with grade, and so did meta-linguistic skills on decoding. These findings, taken together, suggest that the Simple View of Reading (SVR) can be applied to reading in non-alphabetic languages such as Chinese. For Chinese reading development, grade 2 may be the transitional grade where the effects of decoding on reading comprehension started to decrease significantly. The null direct effects of meta-linguistics skills on reading comprehension further support the parsimonious structure of SVR (decoding and language comprehension) in explaining reading comprehension in Chinese.
Learning to read is a critical but often challenging academic task for young children. In the current study, we explore the relation between children’s reading affect-–particularly anxiety-–and reading achievement in the early years of reading acquisition. We hypothesized that reading anxiety would relate to reading achievement across the school year and that boys and girls might show differential patterns in the relation between reading anxiety and achievement due to the common stereotype that boys underperform in reading. A sample of first and second grade students completed measures of reading anxiety, positive reading affect, math achievement, and reading achievement in the fall and spring. Results show that reading anxiety and reading achievement share a bi-directional relation in which fall reading anxiety predicts spring reading achievement and vice versa. Furthermore, the pattern of relation between reading anxiety and achievement differs by gender: boys appear more susceptible to the reciprocal damaging effects of reading anxiety on reading achievement across the school year. Finally, reading achievement shares a stronger relation with reading anxiety than with positive reading affect, perhaps because of the phenomenon in which negative relative to positive experiences have a greater psychological impact.
Social skills and vocabulary are important areas of development involved in early reading achievement, yet little attention has been given to understanding the dynamic associations among them during the elementary years. This study examined the relations among three dimensions of social skills—cooperation, assertion, and self-control—vocabulary and developing reading comprehension (RC) skills in a longitudinal sample of first graders (n = 468). Using Structural Equation Modeling, reciprocal effects were observed between vocabulary and RC as well as direct effects among social skills, vocabulary, and RC after controlling for the influence of problem behaviors. This study highlights the reciprocal nature of students’ vocabulary and RC skills as well as provides preliminary evidence suggesting that social skills play a role in developing vocabulary and RC skills, and further, vocabulary and RC skills play a role in social development during middle childhood. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.
The simple view of reading (SVR) proposes that reading comprehension is the product of two constructs, namely decoding and linguistic comprehension. The present study examined the adequacy of an extended SVR in Chinese. Participants were 190 pairs of Chinese twin children of Grades 1–3 recruited in Hong Kong. The children were given Chinese measures of decoding (character reading, word reading, and 1-min word reading), linguistic comprehension (morphological awareness, vocabulary, morphosyntactic skills, and discourse skills), rapid naming (Chinese digits, English digits, and English letters), and passage reading comprehension (with multiple-choice and open-ended questions). Results of structural equation modeling showed that the direct paths from decoding and linguistic comprehension to reading comprehension were significant, but that from rapid naming was not. For the role of rapid naming in reading comprehension, the best fitting model showed that the contribution of rapid naming to reading comprehension was fully mediated by decoding. The model explained a total of 83% of the variance in reading comprehension. Therefore, the present findings support the SVR in a Chinese writing system; rapid naming may reflect some basic visual-verbal learning ability which is important for acquiring word recognition skills.
This study investigated the reciprocal relationship between Chinese syntactic awareness and Chinese reading comprehension among 129 Hong Kong Chinese-speaking children participating in a 10-year longitudinal study. All children were tested on tasks of nonverbal reasoning, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, word reading, syntactic judgment/correction, conjunction cloze, and reading comprehension. Results showed that children's syntactic awareness at age 11 was significantly associated with their reading comprehension at age 12 even after taking into account early nonverbal reasoning ability, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, word reading, vocabulary knowledge, and the previous year's reading comprehension. The results also showed that children's performance in reading comprehension at age 11 accounted for substantial variance in syntactic awareness at age 12. These findings suggest that the relation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension is bidirectional, and they may mutually reinforce each other during reading development in Cantonese-speaking children.
The relation between children’s theory of mind (ToM) and emerging reading comprehension was investigated in a longitudinal study over 2.5 years. A total of 80 children were tested for ToM, decoding, language skills, and executive function (EF) at Time 1 (mean age = 3; 10 [years; months]). At Time 2 (mean age = 6; 03), children’s word reading efficiency, language skills, and reading comprehension were measured. Mediation analysis showed that ToM at Time 1, when children were around 4 years old, indirectly predicted Time 2 reading comprehension, when children were 6 years old, via language ability after controlling for age, nonverbal ability, decoding, EF, and earlier language ability. Importantly, ToM at 4 years also directly predicted reading comprehension 2.5 years later at 6 years. This is the first longitudinal study to show a direct contribution of ToM to reading comprehension in typical development. Findings are discussed in terms of the simple view of reading (SVR); ToM not only supports reading comprehension indirectly by facilitating language but also contributes to it directly over and above the SVR. The potential role of metacognition is considered when accounting for the direct contribution of early ToM to later reading comprehension.
This article presents a meta-analytic review of the relation between executive function and reading comprehension. Results (N = 6,673) supported a moderate positive association between executive function and reading comprehension (r = .36). Moderator analyses suggested that correlations between executive function and reading comprehension did not vary systematically by age range, type of executive function measure used, type of reading comprehension measure used, or whether the study was a dissertation or a published article but did vary by type of executive function examined in the studies. Studies linking specific executive functions with reading comprehension are then reviewed. The article concludes by discussing implications for a theoretical model of reading comprehension as well as for future research.
In order to expand on previous research, this cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and cognitive abilities in healthy adults with a special focus on potential sex differences. EI was assessed by means of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), whereas cognitive abilities were investigated using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), which measures key aspects of cognitive functioning, i.e. verbal memory, working memory, motor speed, verbal fluency, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. 137 subjects (65% female) with a mean age of 38.7 ± 11.8 years were included into the study. While males and females were comparable with regard to EI, men achieved significantly higher BACS composite scores and outperformed women in the BACS subscales motor speed, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. Verbal fluency significantly predicted EI, whereas the MSCEIT subscale understanding emotions significantly predicted the BACS composite score. Our findings support previous research and emphasize the relevance of considering cognitive abilities when assessing ability EI in healthy individuals.
In this article, I present a developmental model of how children learn to comprehend what they read, which builds on current models of reading comprehension and integrates findings from instructional research and evidence-based models of development in early and middle childhood. The lattice model holds that children's developing reading comprehension is a function of the interacting, reciprocal, and bootstrapping effects of developing text-specific, linguistic, and social-cognitive processes, which interact with instruction as Child Characteristic × Instruction (C × I) interaction effects. The processes develop over time and in the context of classroom, home, peer, community, and other influences to affect children's development of proficient reading comprehension. First, I describe models of reading comprehension; then, I review the basic processes in the model, the role of instruction, and C × I interactions in the context of the lattice model. Finally, I discuss implications for instruction and research.
Peer tutoring is an instructional strategy that allows students to help one another learn content material through the repetition of key concepts. In more than 40 years of published studies, literature reviews, and meta-analyses of peer tutoring, this quantitative synthesis of the literature is the first to examine the impact of peer tutoring on academic, social, and linguistic outcomes for English language learner (ELL) students. A total of 363 ELLs in kindergarten through 12th grade are represented in the analyses across 17 studies; seven studies used single-case research designs, nine used group designs, and one was a case study. Findings suggest that ELLs benefit from peer tutoring academically, socially, and linguistically. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
The present study was set up to detect any possible relationship among learners' emotional intelligence (EI), tolerance of ambiguity, and willingness to communicate inside the classroom. For this purpose, 64 undergraduate EFL university students were chosen. The instruments utilized in this study were a) Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I) to measure learners’ emotional intelligence, b) Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale (SLTAS) to identify participants’ tolerance of ambiguity, and c) willingness to communicate questionnaire to evaluate learners' willingness to initiate and take part in the interpersonal communication inside the classroom. The gathered data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation Product Moment test. The results showed that although the relationship between emotional intelligence and tolerance of ambiguity was not statistically meaningful, the two variables were positively correlated with learners' willingness to communicate.