Reading Comprehension Measure

A Reading Comprehension Measure is a semantic linguistic processing measure of the proportion of meanings extracted during a reading task (from a written artifact).

• AKA: Text Meaning Comprehension Measure.
• Context:
  • output: a Reading Comprehension Score, such as a high reading comprehension score.
  • It can (typically) support a Reading Comprehension Task.
  • It can be associated with a Reading Comprehension Benchmark Task.
  • It can be supported by a Linguistic Expression Comprehension Measure.
  • It can be supported by: an Image Comprehension Task, a Mathematical Expression Comprehension Task, ...
  • It can be evaluated through various methods, including narrative or expository texts in tests, and considering the reader's background knowledge and familiarity with the topics.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • one based on Reading Comprehension Tests, such as:
    • A TOEFL Reading Section.
    • A PISA Reading Literacy Assessment.
    • ...
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • an Image Comprehension Measure.
  • a Math Comprehension Measure.
• See: Linguistic Expression Comprehension, Question Answering Benchmark, Language Comprehension Capability.

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References

2024

• (Wikipedia, 2024) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reading_comprehension Retrieved:2024-1-31.
  • Reading comprehension is the ability to process written text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader already knows. Reading comprehension relies on two abilities that are connected to each other: word reading and language comprehension. Comprehension specifically is a "creative, multifaceted process" that is dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.Some of the fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension are the ability to: * know the meaning of words, * understand the meaning of a word from a discourse context, * follow the organization of a passage and to identify antecedents and references in it, * draw inferences from a passage about its contents,
    • identify the main thought of a passage,
    • ask questions about the text,
    • answer questions asked in a passage,
    • visualize the text,
    • recall prior knowledge connected to text,
    • recognize confusion or attention problems,
    • recognize the literary devices or propositional structures used in a passage and determine its tone,
    • understand the situational mood (agents, objects, temporal and spatial reference points, casual and intentional inflections, etc.) conveyed for assertions, questioning, commanding, refraining, etc., and
    • determine the writer's purpose, intent, and point of view, and draw inferences about the writer (discourse-semantics).
  • Comprehension skills that can be applied as well as taught to all reading situations include:
    • Summarizing
    • Sequencing
    • Inferencing
    • Comparing and contrasting
    • Drawing conclusions
    • Self-questioning
    • Problem-solving
    • Relating background knowledge
    • Distinguishing between fact and opinion
    • Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details.
  • There are many reading strategies to use in improving reading comprehension and inferences, these include improving one's vocabulary, critical text analysis (intertextuality, actual events vs. narration of events, etc.), and practising deep reading.

    The ability to comprehend text is influenced by the readers' skills and their ability to process information. If word recognition is difficult, students tend to use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.

2013

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_comprehension
  • Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message.

    Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.

    Many educators in the USA believe that students need to learn to analyze text (comprehend it) even before they can read it on their own, and comprehension instruction generally begins in pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten. But other US educators consider this reading approach to be completely backward for very young children, arguing that the children must learn how to decode the words in a story through phonics before they can analyze the story itself.

    During the last century comprehension lessons usually consisted of students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or both. The whole group version of this practice also often included “Round-robin reading", wherein teachers called on individual students to read a portion of the text (and sometimes following a set order). In the last quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that the read-test methods assessed comprehension more than they taught it. The associated practice of "round robin" reading has also been questioned and eliminated by many educators.

    Instead of using the prior read-test method, research studies have concluded that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching novice readers a bank of "reading strategies," or tools to interpret and analyze text. There is not a definitive set of strategies, but common ones include summarizing what you have read, monitoring your reading to make sure it is still making sense, and analyzing the structure of the text (e.g., the use of headings in science text). Some programs teach students how to self monitor whether they are understanding and provide students with tools for fixing comprehension problems.

    Instruction in comprehension strategy use often involves the gradual release of responsibility, wherein teachers initially explain and model strategies. Over time, they give students more and more responsibility for using the strategies until they can use them independently. This technique is generally associated with the idea of self-regulation and reflects social cognitive theory, originally conceptualized by Albert Bandura.

2009

• International Reading Association http://www.reading.org/Resources/ResourcesByTopic/Comprehension/Overview.aspx
  • Understanding the meaning of text — words, numbers, and images, in print or digital form — is the ultimate goal of reading. IRA offers many resources that support teaching and learning effective comprehension strategies.

2009

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_comprehension
  • Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a writing. ...

1997

• (Pilypas, 1997) ⇒ Helen Pilypas. (1997). “The Use of the Computer as a Tool for Testing Reading Comprehension." BEd dissertation, School of Education, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide
  • QUOTE: Adopting a psycholinguistic approach, this thesis examines the use of the computer in schools as an testing tool, specifically for measuring reading comprehension.
  • The psycholinguistic approach to reading comprehension measurement provides a sound theoretical basis for this study. This approach can be explained in the terms of Osgoodís language communication model (Anderson, 1976, p. 15) which consists of three components: Source System, Message System, and Receiver system. Readability and reading comprehension can be seen to be related concepts. While readability is characterised by the degree of comprehension with which a text is read, the ability of a reader to comprehend a text is influenced by the text's readability. In order to select a text for assessing reading comprehension, the readability of that text needs to be appropriate for the reading ability of the target population. Determining readability of a text can be quite complex. Rye (1982, p. 14) suggested that there are eleven major, often difficult to measure interacting factors (see Figure 2.4) which influence readability. Readability is an estimate of the difficulty of a text. Formulas, which include factors such as sentence length, word length and word frequency have been developed to calculate readability. Reading Comprehension is defined from a psycholinguistic viewpoint as "the correspondence between the way in which a message is encoded by the writer and the way in which it is decoded by the reader" (Anderson, 1976, p. 16).

1990

• Marilyn Jager Adams. (1990). “Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print.” MIT Press.

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