Context Facilitates the Decoding of Lexically Ambiguous Words for Adult Literacy Learners.

An estimated one-fifth of adults in the United States possess low literacy skills, which includes minimal proficiency in reading and difficulty processing contextual information. One way to study reading behavior of adults with low literacy is through eye movement studies; however, these investigations have been generally limited. Thus, the present study collected eye movement data (e.g., gaze duration, total time, regressions) from adult literacy learners while they read sentences to investigate online reading behavior. We manipulated the lexical ambiguity of the target words, context strength, and context location in the sentences. The role of vocabulary depth, which refers to the deeper understanding of a word in one's vocabulary, was also examined. Results show that adult literacy learners spent more total time reading ambiguous words compared to control words and vocabulary depth was significantly correlated with processing of lexically ambiguous words. Participants with higher depth scores were more sensitive to the complexity of ambiguous words and more effective at utilizing context compared to those with lower depth scores, which is reflected by more total time reading ambiguous words when more informative context was available and more regressions made to the target word by participants with higher depth scores. Overall, there is evidence to demonstrate the benefits of context use in lexical processing, as well as adult learners' sensitivity to changes in lexical ambiguity.

The impact of test-taking strategies on eye movements of elementary students during reading comprehension assessment.

Teachers often encourage students to use test-taking strategies during reading comprehension assessments, but these strategies are not always evidence-based. One common strategy involves teaching students to read the questions before reading an associated passage. Research findings comparing the passage-first (PF) and questions-first (QF) strategies are mixed. The present study employed eye-tracking technology to record 84 third- and fourth-grade participants' eye movements (EMs) as they read a passage and responded to multiple-choice (MC) questions using PF and QF strategies in a within-subject design. Although there were no significant differences between groups in accuracy on MC questions, EM measures revealed that the PF condition was superior to the QF condition for elementary readers in terms of efficiency in reading and responding to questions. These findings suggest that the PF strategy supports a more comprehensive understanding of the text. Ultimately, within the PF condition, students required less time to obtain the same accuracy outcomes they attained when reading in the QF condition. School psychologists can improve reading comprehension instruction by encouraging the importance of teaching children to gain meaning from the text rather than search the passage for answers to MC questions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

It's in the Way That You Use It: How Vocabulary Knowledge and Usage Predict Writing Quality Among Adult Basic Education Learners.

The goal of this study was to describe how underlying vocabulary knowledge manifests into vocabulary usage, and in turn, how usage predicts writing quality among adult basic education (ABE) learners. ABE learners were administered tasks that measured vocabulary knowledge, in the forms of both vocabulary breadth and depth. Participants were also given a composition writing task, and these samples were evaluated for overall writing quality and vocabulary usage. A mediating model was constructed to describe the relationships among variables. This model indicates that vocabulary depth is predictive of writing quality through the mediating variable of vocabulary usage after controlling for the direct contribution of vocabulary breadth. We found no evidence that vocabulary breadth contributes to writing quality when controlling for vocabulary depth and vocabulary usage. The results of the study reveal important relationships among vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary usage in written work that warrants further investigation in developing learners.

Before, During, and After: An Examination of the Pre-Task Planning and Post-Task Revising Practices of Adults with Low Literacy and their Effect on the Quality of Written Compositions.

This study sought to examine the pre-task planning and post-task revising practices of adults with low literacy and how those practices affect overall writing quality. Seventy-six adults with low literacy composed essays in response to a prompt and were given time for pre-task planning and post-task revising. Results showed that participants with higher planning skills were able to utilize planning and revising processes to increase the detail included in their compositions while potentially streamlining the language contained therein. Writers with lower planning skills, in contrast, focused on lower-level aspects of writing (e.g., word choice) and were unable to make use of the more demanding processes of planning and revising to improve their compositions. These findings suggest a hierarchical development of writing skills and the possibility of sacrifices in certain areas of the writing process as writers focus on other areas. Practical implications for practitioners are discussed.

The Factor Structure of Vocabulary: An Investigation of Breadth and Depth of Adults with Low Literacy Skills.

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor structure of vocabulary. We believe that not only is vocabulary multidimensional, but depth of vocabulary knowledge should also be assessed with multiple measures since it too, is composed of multiple aspects. Furthermore, to explore the predictive validity of the different aspects of vocabulary knowledge, we assessed the relationship between vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy skills. The participants were 103 adults. They completed 12 tasks that have been used in past studies to measure vocabulary breadth, depth, and reading comprehension. We had several important findings. First, we confirmed that all of the assessments were highly reliable for adults with low literacy skills. Second, the results of the factor analysis indicated two distinct vocabulary factors. Finally, both breadth and depth contribute independently to explaining variance in reading comprehension. Implications for vocabulary measurement are suggested.

Vocabulary accessibility and acquisition: do you get more from a financestor or a sociophite?

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the current study was to examine how the morphological structure of a real word or novel word affected the incidental vocabulary learning of participants and to examine how these target items are processed as they are read. In addition, we examined the roles of vocabulary depth and breadth in the process of incidental vocabulary learning. METHODS: We had participants read short passages that contained real words or novel words that differed on their morphological accessibility as we collected eye movement data. Participants also completed several vocabulary depth and breadth measures. RESULTS: Accessible real words and novel words were learned better than inaccessible and less accessible items, but there was a processing cost associated with accessible real words compared with inaccessible real words. In contrast, participants spent more time on the less accessible novel words compared with accessible novel words, but that extra processing time did not translate into better acquisition scores. Finally, both vocabulary breadth and depth explained variance in incidental vocabulary acquisition, while breadth explained variance in gaze duration and depth explained variance in regressive eye movements. CONCLUSIONS: Accessibility of the targets affected both acquisition and reading time, and depth and breadth are both individual differences that explain variance in incidental acquisition and the processing of those words.

Impact of Informative Context's Meaning Consistency During Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition.

The authors examined the influence of context meaning consistency on incidental vocabulary acquisition during reading. Context meaning consistency refers to informational context that reflected the same meaning (i.e., consistent) or different meanings (i.e., inconsistent) across two self-paced reading sessions for a given item (both sessions on the same day). The first sentence of each sentence-pair item contained informational context, and the second sentence contained a target word (novel target or known control). Acquisition was assessed via surprise memory tests given right after the reading sessions (immediate) and again approximately a week later (delayed). Inconsistent context was generally associated with inflated reading times and less recall than consistent context, and retention was particularly low when the first encounter with the novel target was during the second reading session. Self-paced reading times were also particularly inflated in the second reading session for items in which readers encountered the novel word version of the target for the first time (i.e., known control encountered during the first reading session instead). Acquisition was facilitated most for novel targets that were presented during both reading sessions in consistent meaning context, but suffered the most in the case of consistent context and the novel target initially encountered in the second session. When presented with different meanings for the same novel target across self-paced reading sessions (inconsistent context condition), the intended meaning for the initial presentation was more likely to remain in memory.

Examining the maintenance and generalization effects of repeated practice: A comparison of three interventions.

Repeated reading (RR) procedures are consistent with the procedures recommended by Haring and Eaton's (1978) Instructional Hierarchy (IH) for promoting students' fluent responding to newly learned stimuli. It is therefore not surprising that an extensive body of literature exists, which supports RR as an effective practice for promoting students' reading fluency of practiced passages. Less clear, however, is the extent to which RR helps students read the words practiced in an intervention passage when those same words are presented in a new passage. The current study employed randomized control design procedures to examine the maintenance and generalization effects of three interventions that were designed based upon Haring and Eaton's (1978) IH. Across four days, students either practiced reading (a) the same passage seven times (RR+RR), (b) one passage four times and three passages each once (RR+Guided Wide Reading [GWR]), or (c) seven passages each once (GWR+GWR). Students participated in the study across 2weeks, with intervention being provided on a different passage set each week. All passages practiced within a week, regardless of condition, contained four target low frequency and four high frequency words. Across the 130 students for whom data were analyzed, results indicated that increased opportunities to practice words led to greater maintenance effects when passages were read seven days later but revealed minimal differences across conditions in students' reading of target words presented within a generalization passage.

Beyond breadth: The contributions of vocabulary depth to reading comprehension among skilled readers.

This study investigated the relationships among vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, reading comprehension, and reading rate among college-aged students. While the relationships of some of these variables have been explored in previous research, the current study's focus on the role of vocabulary depth on the literacy measures within a sample of skilled readers is new and produced several interesting findings. First, consistent with the hypotheses, both vocabulary breadth and depth were significantly correlated with reading comprehension and reading rate. Second, while both types of vocabulary knowledge explained unique variance in reading comprehension, only vocabulary breadth explained unique variance in reading rate. Finally, although vocabulary breadth was significantly correlated with both of the vocabulary depth measures, the two depth measures were not significantly correlated with each other. This work implies that a strong depth of vocabulary affects reading comprehension, in addition to the well-established relationship between vocabulary breadth and comprehension.

Repeated versus wide reading: A randomized control design study examining the impact of fluency interventions on underlying reading behavior.

Repeated readings (RR) has garnered much attention as an evidence based intervention designed to improve all components of reading fluency (rate, accuracy, prosody, and comprehension). Despite this attention, there is not an abundance of research comparing its effectiveness to other potential interventions. The current study presents the findings from a randomized control trial study involving the assignment of 168second grade students to a RR, wide reading (WR), or business as usual condition. Intervention students were provided with 9-10weeks of intervention with sessions occurring four times per week. Pre- and post-testing were conducted using Woodcock-Johnson III reading achievement measures (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) probes, measures of prosody, and measures of students' eye movements when reading. Changes in fluency were also monitored using weekly CBM progress monitoring procedures. Data were collected on the amount of time students spent reading and the number of words read by students during each intervention session. Results indicate substantial gains made by students across conditions, with some measures indicating greater gains by students in the two intervention conditions. Analyses do not indicate that RR was superior to WR. In addition to expanding the RR literature, this study greatly expands research evaluating changes in reading behaviors that occur with improvements in reading fluency. Implications regarding whether schools should provide more opportunities to repeatedly practice the same text (i.e., RR) or practice a wide range of text (i.e., WR) are provided.

Morphological Awareness Intervention: Improving Spelling, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension for Adult Learners.

Adult Basic Education programs are under pressure to develop and deliver instruction that promotes rapid and sustained literacy development. We describe a novel approach to a literacy intervention that focuses on morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units contained in words. We argue that if you teach learners that big words are comprised of smaller components (i.e., morphemes), you will provide those students with the skills to figure out the meanings of new words. Research with children has demonstrated that teaching them about morphemes improves word recognition, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension (Bowers & Kirby, 2009; Kirk & Gillon, 2009; Nunes, Bryant, & Olsson, 2003). Our hope is that this type of intervention will be successful with adult learners, too.

Investigating morphological awareness and the processing of transparent and opaque words in adults with low literacy skills and in skilled readers.

For adults with low literacy skills, the role of phonology in reading has been fairly well researched, but less is known about the role of morphology in reading. We investigated the contribution of morphological awareness to word reading and reading comprehension and found that for adults with low literacy skills and skilled readers, morphological awareness explained unique variance in word reading and reading comprehension. In addition, we investigated the effects of orthographic and phonological opacity in morphological processing. Results indicated that adults with low literacy skills were more impaired than skilled readers on items containing phonological changes but were spared on items involving orthographic changes. These results are consistent with previous findings of adults with low literacy skills reliance on orthographic codes. Educational implications are discussed.

The Contributions of Phonological and Morphological Awareness to Literacy Skills in the Adult Basic Education Population.

The Adult Basic Education (ABE) population consists of a wide range of abilities with needs that may be unique to this set of learners. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relative contributions of phonological decoding and morphological awareness to spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension across a sample of ABE students. In this study, phonological decoding was a unique predictor of spelling ability, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. We also found that morphological awareness was a unique predictor of spelling ability, vocabulary, and listening comprehension. Morphological awareness indirectly contributed to reading comprehension through vocabulary. These findings suggest the need for morphological interventions for this group of learners.

To tell a morphologically complex tale: investigating the story-telling abilities of children and adults with low literacy skills.

This study examined differences between adults with low literacy skills and typically achieving children, who were matched on decoding ability, on their production of morphologically complex words (MC) in oral and written stories. In addition, we collected data on their morphological awareness, spelling, and vocabulary skills. Both adults and children were more likely to produce MC words in their oral stories compared to their written stories. While children were much more skilled at using -ed forms to produce past tense verbs than adults, adults were more likely to add -s to a verb and to produce contractions compared to children. Children and adults were comparable in pluralizing words, adding -ing to verbs, and producing derived MC words. For all of the literacy measures (morphological awareness, spelling, and vocabulary) adults always outperformed children. Thus, while adults were stronger in morphological awareness, spelling, and vocabulary, those skills did not seem to aid in the growth of explicitly applying morphological knowledge in the story-telling tasks.

An investigation of morphological awareness and processing in adults with low literacy.

Morphological awareness, which is an understanding of how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning such as roots, prefixes, and suffixes, has emerged as an important contributor to word reading and comprehension skills. The first aim of the current study was to investigate the contribution of morphological awareness independent of phonological awareness and decoding to the reading comprehension abilities of adults with low literacy. Results indicated that morphological awareness was a significant unique predictor of reading comprehension. A second aim of the study was to investigate the processing of morphologically complex words of adults with low literacy in both an oral reading passage and a single-word naming task. Adults' accuracy and response times were measured on different types of morphologically complex words and compared with control words matched on frequency in both the passage and the naming tasks. Results revealed that adults were vulnerable to morphological complexity: they performed more accurately and faster on matched control words versus morphologically complex word types. The educational implications for Adult Basic Education programs are discussed.

Investigating Predictors of Spelling Ability for Adults with Low Literacy Skills.

This study examined whether the spelling abilities of adults with low literacy skills could be predicted by their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness. Sixty Adult Basic Education (ABE) students completed several literacy tasks. It was predicted that scores on phonological and orthographic tasks would explain variance in spelling scores, whereas scores on morphological tasks may not. Scores on all phonological tasks and on one orthographic task emerged as significant predictors of spelling scores. Additionally, error analyses revealed a limited influence of morphological knowledge in spelling attempts. Implications for ABE instruction are discussed.

An investigation into semantic and phonological processing in individuals with Williams syndrome.

PURPOSE: The current study examined semantic and phonological processing in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). Previous research in language processing in individuals with WS suggests a complex linguistic system characterized by "deviant" semantic organization and differential phonological processing. METHOD: Two experiments explored these representations in individuals with WS. The first experiment analyzed the relative typicality and frequency of participants' responses to a semantic and phonological fluency task. The second experiment tapped into online language processing through a semantic priming task and an online sentence reading task measuring the effects of word frequency. Thirteen participants with WS were matched to a group of participants on reading grade level and a group of participants on chronological age. RESULTS: The results of the semantic fluency task, semantic priming task, and word frequency task suggest that semantic organization in individuals with WS appears commensurate with their reading level rather than deviant. CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of results suggests that individuals with WS do not appear to have deviant semantic organization, while confirming that online tasks that tap into these processes are a promising direction in investigations that include atypically developing populations. These findings for the phonological tasks warrant further research into phonological processing in individuals with WS.

Examining the impact of feedback and repeated readings on oral reading fluency: let's not forget prosody.

Although extensive research supports repeated readings (RR) as an intervention for improving reading fluency, it largely ignores reading prosody, which is a key component of reading fluency. The current study extends the RR literature by examining the impact of RR on prosody and whether the content of directions and feedback might impact what components of fluency are improved. Elementary students (N = 76) were randomly assigned to either a rate- or prosody-focused RR intervention. The study differs from existing RR research in that (a) students were average as opposed to struggling students, (b) prosody was evaluated, and (c) measures of prosody were objective as opposed to subjective. Results support previous research suggesting that RR improves fluency but indicate that the nature of the instruction and performance feedback provided to students influences the components of reading fluency (i.e., rate or prosody) that are improved.

Reading Expressively and Understanding Thoroughly: An Examination of Prosody in Adults with Low Literacy Skills.

The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between prosody, which is the expressive quality of reading out loud, and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy skills compared to skilled readers. All participants read a passage orally, and we extracted prosodic measures from the recordings. We examined pitch changes and how long readers paused at various points while reading. Finally, for the adults with low literacy skills, we collected information on decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension. We found several interesting results. First, adults with low literacy skills paused longer than skilled readers and paused at a substantially greater number of punctuation marks. Second, while adults with low literacy skills do mark the end of declarative sentences with a pitch declination similar to skilled readers, their readings of questions lack a change in pitch. Third, decoding and word recognition skills were related to pauses while reading; readers with lower skills made longer and more frequent and inappropriate pauses. Finally, pausing measures explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension among the adults with low literacy skills.

Literacy Skill Differences between Adult Native English and Native Spanish Speakers.

The goal of this study was to compare the literacy skills of adult native English and native Spanish ABE speakers. Participants were 169 native English speakers and 124 native Spanish speakers recruited from five prior research projects. The results showed that the native Spanish speakers were less skilled on morphology and passage comprehension tasks but were equally skilled on the phonology and vocabulary tasks. Morphology, coupled with phonology, was a stronger predictor of vocabulary and comprehension abilities for the native Spanish speakers, which suggests that instruction focused on morphology is likely to have a greater impact on this group.