Affiliation:
1. Behavioural Science Institute Radboud University Nijmegen The Netherlands
2. Kohnstamm Institute Amstelveen The Netherlands
3. Education and Pedagogy – Development & Education of Youth in Diverse Societies Utrecht University Utrecht The Netherlands
4. Research Institute of Child Development and Education University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands
Abstract
BackgroundWord‐to‐text integration (WTI) can be challenging for second‐language (L2) learners, although it can positively contribute to reading comprehension. The present study examined the role of WTI, after controlling for decoding, vocabulary and morphosyntactic awareness, in predicting English as an L2 reading comprehension development in 441 Dutch seventh‐grade students.MethodsAt the beginning (Time 1 [T1]) and the end (Time 2 [T2]) of the school year, students were tested on their English decoding, vocabulary, morphological and syntactic awareness and reading comprehension with paper‐and‐pencil tasks and on WTI with a self‐paced reading task with reading times being compared on passages with unknown versus known words and passages with and without anomalies.ResultsMediation analyses showed small indirect effects of processing argument overlap and anomalies on T2 reading comprehension, via T1 reading comprehension.ConclusionsWTI explained unique variance in reading comprehension at T2 via reading comprehension at T1, suggesting that it moderately impacts initial stages of reading comprehension in English as a second language (ESL).
Funder
Nationaal Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek
Subject
Psychology (miscellaneous),Developmental and Educational Psychology,Education