Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge
We examined young readers’ comprehension as a function of text genre (narrative, science), text cohesion (high, low), and readers’ abilities (reading decoding skills and world knowledge). The overarching purpose of this study was to contribute to our understanding of the fourth grade slump. Child...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Kura Publishing
2011-07-01
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| Series: | International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/222 |
| _version_ | 1797916448987807744 |
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| author | Danielle S. McNamara Yasuhiro Ozuru Randy G. Floyd |
| author_facet | Danielle S. McNamara Yasuhiro Ozuru Randy G. Floyd |
| author_sort | Danielle S. McNamara |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We examined young readers’ comprehension as a function of text genre (narrative, science), text
cohesion (high, low), and readers’ abilities (reading decoding skills and world knowledge). The
overarching purpose of this study was to contribute to our understanding of the fourth grade slump.
Children in grade 4 read four texts, including one high and one low cohesion text from each genre.
Comprehension of each text was assessed with 12 multiple-choice questions and free and cued recall.
Comprehension was enhanced by increased knowledge: high knowledge readers showed better
comprehension than low knowledge readers and narratives were comprehended better than science
texts. Interactions between readers’ knowledge levels and text characteristics indicated that the
children showed larger effects of knowledge for science than for narrative texts, and those with more
knowledge better understood the low cohesion, narrative texts, showing a reverse cohesion effect.
Decoding skill benefited comprehension, but effects of text genre and cohesion depended less on
decoding skill than prior knowledge. Overall, the study indicates that the fourth grade slump is at least
partially attributable to the emergence of complex dependencies between the nature of the text and
the reader’s prior knowledge. The results also suggested that simply adding cohesion cues, and not
explanatory information, is not likely to be sufficient for young readers as an approach to improving
comprehension of challenging texts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T12:57:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a4f3f935a78c44c29f37641b3b005834 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1307-9298 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T12:57:20Z |
| publishDate | 2011-07-01 |
| publisher | Kura Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-a4f3f935a78c44c29f37641b3b0058342023-02-15T16:13:23ZengKura PublishingInternational Electronic Journal of Elementary Education1307-92982011-07-0141229257Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledgeDanielle S. McNamara0Yasuhiro Ozuru1Randy G. Floyd2Arizona State UniversityUniversity of Alaska AnchorageUniversity of Alaska AnchorageWe examined young readers’ comprehension as a function of text genre (narrative, science), text cohesion (high, low), and readers’ abilities (reading decoding skills and world knowledge). The overarching purpose of this study was to contribute to our understanding of the fourth grade slump. Children in grade 4 read four texts, including one high and one low cohesion text from each genre. Comprehension of each text was assessed with 12 multiple-choice questions and free and cued recall. Comprehension was enhanced by increased knowledge: high knowledge readers showed better comprehension than low knowledge readers and narratives were comprehended better than science texts. Interactions between readers’ knowledge levels and text characteristics indicated that the children showed larger effects of knowledge for science than for narrative texts, and those with more knowledge better understood the low cohesion, narrative texts, showing a reverse cohesion effect. Decoding skill benefited comprehension, but effects of text genre and cohesion depended less on decoding skill than prior knowledge. Overall, the study indicates that the fourth grade slump is at least partially attributable to the emergence of complex dependencies between the nature of the text and the reader’s prior knowledge. The results also suggested that simply adding cohesion cues, and not explanatory information, is not likely to be sufficient for young readers as an approach to improving comprehension of challenging texts.https://iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/222Comprehensionfourth grade slumpcohesiongenredomain knowledgereadingindividual differencescoherenceconstruction integration ∗ Danielle S. McNamaraDepartment of Psychology Senior Research ScientistLearning Sciences InstituteArizona State UniversityP.O. Box 872111TempeArizona 85287-2111United States. E-mail: Danielle.McNamara@asu.educonstruction integration |
| spellingShingle | Danielle S. McNamara Yasuhiro Ozuru Randy G. Floyd Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education Comprehension fourth grade slump cohesion genre domain knowledge reading individual differences coherence construction integration ∗ Danielle S. McNamara Department of Psychology Senior Research Scientist Learning Sciences InstituteArizona State University P.O. Box 872111 Tempe Arizona 85287-2111 United States. E-mail: Danielle.McNamara@asu.edu construction integration |
| title | Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge |
| title_full | Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge |
| title_fullStr | Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge |
| title_short | Comprehension challenges in the fourth grade: The roles of text cohesion, text genre, and readers’ prior knowledge |
| title_sort | comprehension challenges in the fourth grade the roles of text cohesion text genre and readers prior knowledge |
| topic | Comprehension fourth grade slump cohesion genre domain knowledge reading individual differences coherence construction integration ∗ Danielle S. McNamara Department of Psychology Senior Research Scientist Learning Sciences InstituteArizona State University P.O. Box 872111 Tempe Arizona 85287-2111 United States. E-mail: Danielle.McNamara@asu.edu construction integration |
| url | https://iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/222 |
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