Development of linguistic and reading skills and their relationship with the comprehension of narrative and expository texts in second and third grade students

Abstract

The study aimed at examining the links between reading comprehension and the most commonly observed language and reading skills in literature: prosody, vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, reading accuracy and reading speed. Specifically, objectives were 1) to determine how selected linguistic and reading skills influence textual comprehension; 2) to establish whether this influence varies when comparing second and third grade students and 3) to observe whether the impact of the selected skills varies depending on the type of text (narrative or expository). The final sample consisted of 297 children (136 second graders and 161 third graders) belonging to two private schools from Santiago, Chile. Results showed that the relationship between reading comprehension and the measured skills varies according to grade (smaller effect in 2nd grade) and type of text (smaller effect for narrative texts). In general, vocabulary and listening comprehension were the two skills most influencing reading comprehension. No relevant effects of reading accuracy or speed on reading comprehension were observed. t is concluded that, once a certain basic reading proficiency is reached, the skills that most influence reading comprehension are linguistic skills and that, in the third grade, these show a consolidation possibly related to cognitive maturation.