Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:06:13.557Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Syntactic awareness and reading ability: Is there any evidence for a special relationship?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2007

KATE CAIN
KATE CAIN
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Syntactic awareness has been linked to word reading and reading comprehension. The predictive power of two syntactic awareness tasks (grammatical correction, word-order correction) for both aspects of reading was explored in 8- and 10-year-olds. The relative contributions of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory to each were assessed. After vocabulary, memory explained variance on the word-order correction task; in contrast, grammatical knowledge explained performance on the grammatical correction task. The relation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension was mediated by vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory; in contrast, word reading and syntactic awareness shared unique variance not explained by these controls. The implications for how we measure syntactic awareness and its relation with reading ability are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 679 - 694
Copyright
2007 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentin S.Deutsch A., & Liberman I. Y. 1990. Syntactic competence and reading ability in children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 48, 147– 172.Google Scholar
Bishop D. V. M.2003. Test for reception of grammar—2nd edition. New York: Harcourt Assessment.
Bowey J. A.1986a. Syntactic awareness and verbal performance from preschool to fifth grade. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 15, 285– 306.Google Scholar
Bowey J. A.1986b. Syntactic awareness in relation to reading skill and ongoing comprehension monitoring. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 41, 282– 299.Google Scholar
Bowey J. A.1994. Grammatical awareness and learning to read: A critique. In E. M. H. Assink (Ed.), Literacy acquisition and social context (pp. 122– 149). London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Bowey J. A., & Patel R. K.1988. Metalinguistic ability and early reading achievement. Applied Psycholinguistics, 9, 367– 383.Google Scholar
Cain K.Oakhill J., & Bryant P. E. 2004. Children's reading comprehension ability: Concurrent prediction by working memory, verbal ability, and component skill. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 671– 681.Google Scholar
Castles A., & Coltheart M.2004. Is there a causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read? Cognition, 91, 77– 111.Google Scholar
Demont E., & Gombert J. E.1996. Phonological awareness as a predictor of recoding skills and syntactic awareness as a predictor of comprehension skills. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 66, 315– 332.Google Scholar
Dunn L. M.Dunn L. M., Whetton C., & Pintillie D.1992. British Picture Vocabulary Scale. Windsor: NFER–Nelson.
Gaux C., & Gombert J. E.1999. Implicit and explicit syntactic knowledge and reading in pre-adolescents. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17, 169– 188.Google Scholar
Goff D. A.Pratt C., & Ong B.2005. The relations between children's reading comprehension, working memory, language skills and components of reading decoding in a normal sample. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18, 583– 616.Google Scholar
Gottardo A.Stanovich K. E., & Siegel L.1996. The relationships between phonological sensitivity, syntactic processing, and verbal working memory in the reading performance of third-grade children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 63, 563– 582.Google Scholar
Muter V., & Snowling M.1998. Concurrent and longitudinal predictors of reading: The role of metalinguistic and short-term memory skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 320– 337.Google Scholar
Nation K., & Snowling M. J.2000. Factors influencing syntactic awareness skills in normal readers and poor comprehenders. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 229– 241.Google Scholar
Neale M. D.1997. The Neale Analysis of Reading Ability—Revised (NARA-II). Windsor: NFER–Nelson.
Rego L. L. B., & Bryant P. E.1993. The connection between phonological, syntactic and semantic skills and children's reading and spelling. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 13, 235– 246.Google Scholar
Siegel L. S., & Ryan E. B.1988. Development of grammatical-sensitivity, phonological, and short-term memory skills in normally achieving and learning disabled children. Developmental Psychology, 24, 28– 37.Google Scholar
Siegel L. S., & Ryan E. B.1989. Development of working memory in normally achieving and subtypes of learning disabled children. Child Development, 60, 973– 980.Google Scholar
Stanovich K. E., & Cunningham A. E.1992. Studying the consequences of literacy within a literate society: The cognitive correlates of print exposure. Memory and Cognition, 20, 51– 68.Google Scholar
Swanson H. L., & Howell M.2001. Working memory, short-term memory, and speech rate as predictors of children's reading performance at different ages. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 720– 734.Google Scholar
Tunmer W., & Bowey J. A.1984. Metalinguistic awareness and reading acquisition. In W. E. Tunmer, J. A. Bowey, C. Pratt, & M. L. Herriman (Eds.), Metalinguistic awareness in children: Theory, research, and implications. Berlin: Springer–Verlag.
Tunmer W. E.1989. The role of language-related factors in reading disability. In D. Shankweiler, & I. Y. Liberman (Eds.), Phonology and reading disability: Solving the reading puzzle (pp. 91– 131). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Tunmer W. E., & Hoover W.1992. Cognitive and linguistic factors in learning to read. In P. B. Gough, L. C. Ehri, & R. Treiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp. 175– 214). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Willows D. M., & Ryan E. B.1986. The development of grammatical sensitivity and its relationship to early reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 253– 266.Google Scholar
Yuill N. M.Oakhill J. V., & Parkin A. J. 1989. Working memory, comprehension skill and the resolution of text anomaly. British Journal of Psychology, 80, 351– 361.Google Scholar