Factors that influence reading comprehension: Discriminating between good readers and poor readers
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify skills that differentiate good readers from poor readers with respect to comprehension when considered in relation to other variables. Skills included in the study were decoding, processing speed, sight vocabulary, short-term memory, free recall story retelling ability, vocabulary knowledge, deductive reasoning, context use in cloze passages, and awareness of strategies used in reading for comprehension. One-hundred-six 5th-grade students served as participants. A discriminant analysis was conducted with performance on a standardized measure of reading comprehension serving as the grouping variable and the selected component skills serving as the predictor variables. Results indicated that while all variables together discriminated significantly good and poor readers, decoding skill and reading strategy awareness best defined the discriminant function and thus appear to discriminate best good and poor readers with respect to comprehension.
Subject Area
Literacy|Reading instruction|Elementary education
Recommended Citation
Tarnofsky, Melissa Bari, "Factors that influence reading comprehension: Discriminating between good readers and poor readers" (2002). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3056163.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3056163
