The Role of Orthographic and Semantic Learning in Word Reading and Reading Comprehension

We tested the theoretically driven hypotheses that children’s orthographic and semantic learning are associated with their word reading and reading comprehension skills, even when orthographic and semantic knowledge are taken into account. A sample of 139 English-speaking Grade 3 children completed a learning task in which they read stories about new inventions. Then, they were tested on their learning of the spelling and meaning of the inventions (i.e., orthographic and semantic learning, respectively). Word reading and reading comprehension were assessed with standardised tasks, and orthographic and semantic knowledge were assessed with choice tasks targeting the spelling and meaning of existing words. The results of our structural equation modeling indicated that orthographic learning predicted word reading directly and reading comprehension indirectly via word reading. We also found that semantic learning predicted reading comprehension directly. These findings support integration of the self-teaching hypothesis and the lexical quality hypothesis

Stand Characteristics and Leaf Litter Composition of a Dry Forest Hectare in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica

One hectare of tropical dry forest in Guanacaste Conservation Area, Costa Rica was mapped and all trees larger than 10 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) identified. The same hectare was sampled for leaf litter and the two data sets, forest and litter, were compared. Dominant and subdominant species of the forest are represented in the leaf litter, whereas rare tree species are highly variable in their representation in the leaf litter. Relative abundance of dominant and subdominant tree species is represented well by the litter although absolute rank-order is nor identical between source forest basal area and leaf litter mass. The litter adds a significant component to the source forest data owing to the presence of vines and lianas, and more rarely small trees or shrubs. This indicates that litter studies may be able to add depth to forest diversity surveys. The source forest also was used to test foliar physiognomic reconstructions of climate that have been proposed recently by paleobotanists as an alternative to taxonomic affinities methods. The observed climate of the area does not conform to the climatic values that were predicted by application of these new methods. RESUMEN Una hectÁrea de bosque seco tropical en el Area de ConservaciÓn de Guanacaste, Costa Rica fue mapeada, y todos los Árboles mayores de 10 cm de dap fueron identificados. En la misma hectÁrea, se tomaron muestras de hojarasca y los dos colecciones de datos. bosque y hojarasca, fueron comparadas. Se encontrÓ que las especies dominantes y subdominantes del bosque estaban representadas en las muestras de hojarasca, mientras que la presencia de especias arbÓreas raras en las muestras de mojarasca fue muy variable. La abundancia relativa de especies arbÓreas dominantesestÁ bien representada en la hojarasca aunque el Área basal del bosque de origen y la masa de hojarasca no heron idÉnticos en rangos absolutos. La hojarasca aÑade un componente significativo a los datos del bosque de origen debido a la presencia de bejucos y lianas en la hojarasca, y mÁs raramente Árboles pequeÑos y arbustos. Estos datos indican que los estudios de hojarasca pueden incrementar la precisiÓn de las estimaciones de la diversidad de los bosques. El bosque de origen fue usado tarnbien para examinar reconstrucciones del clima basados en la fisiognomia foliar recientemenre propuesras por paleobotÁnicas como una alternativa a mÉtodos de afinidad raxonÓmicas. El clima observado en el Área no corresponde con los valores climÁticos que fueron predecidos por la aplicaciÓn de estos nuevos mÉtodos.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73234/1/j.1744-7429.1997.tb00034.x.pd

To get hold of the wrong end of the stick:reasons for poor idiom understanding in children with reading comprehension difficulties.

Purpose: The aim was to identify the source of idiom understanding difficulties in children with specific reading comprehension failure. Method: Two groups (Ns=15) of 9- to 10-year-olds participated. One group had age-appropriate word reading and reading comprehension; the other had age-appropriate word reading, but poor reading comprehension. Each child completed an independent assessment of semantic analysis skills and two multiple-choice assessments of idiom comprehension. In one, idiomatic phrases were embedded in supportive story contexts; in the other they were presented out of context. Performance on transparent idioms, which are amenable to interpretation by semantic analysis, and opaque idioms, which can only be interpreted by inference from context if the meaning is not known, was compared. Results: The groups demonstrated comparable semantic analysis skills and understanding of transparent idioms. Children with poor comprehension were impaired in the use of supportive context to aid their understanding of the opaque idioms. Conclusions: The study identifies poor inference from context as a source of the idiom understanding difficulties in children with poor reading comprehension; there was no evidence that poor semantic analysis skills contributed to their difficulties. Children with poor comprehension should be supported in the use of context to understand unfamiliar figurative language

Morphological and syntactic awareness in poor comprehenders:another piece of the puzzle

Poor comprehenders have intact word reading skills but struggle specifically with understanding what they read. We investigated whether two metalinguistic skills, morphological and syntactic awareness, are specifically related to poor reading comprehension by including separate and combined measures of each. We identified poor comprehenders (n = 15) and average comprehenders (n = 15) in grade 4 who were matched on word reading accuracy and speed, vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, and age. The two groups performed comparably on a morphological awareness task that involved both morphological and syntactic cues. However, poor comprehenders performed less well than average comprehenders on a derivational word analogy task in which there was no additional syntactic information, thus tapping only morphological awareness, and also less well on a syntactic awareness task, in which there were no morphological manipulations. Our task and participant selection process ruled out key non-metalinguistic sources of influence on these tasks. These findings suggest that the relationships among reading comprehension, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness, depend on the tasks used to measure the latter two. Future research needs to identify precisely in what ways these metalinguistic difficulties connect to challenges with reading comprehension

Effects of a First‐Grade Mathematics Vocabulary Intervention: A Pilot Study for Students with Mathematics Difficulty

There is an emerging research base exploring the relation between mathematics vocabulary and achievement; therefore, we conducted a pilot study of a mathematics vocabulary intervention for first-grade students with mathematics difficulty (MD). At posttest, the vocabulary intervention group scored significantly higher than the active control on mathematics vocabulary; growth, however, was not significant. The vocabulary intervention group had significantly higher gains on the Concepts and Communication subtest of a distal measure. While all students began the intervention below the 13th percentile in mathematics, 31% of participants exceeded the 25th percentile at posttest. The results of this pilot study have implications for practitioners working with students with MD, and also make a contribution to the knowledge base on mathematics vocabulary intervention