Assessing Stability of Component Skill Predictors to Differing Reading Comprehension Levels of Adult Literacy Students

• In Event: 64.058 - Teaching and Learning in Adult Literacy and ESL Education

Abstract

This study investigated the stability of the shared and unique contributions of decoding, oral vocabulary knowledge, and metalinguistic skills (phonological awareness [PA], morphological awareness [MA], and orthographic knowledge [OK]) to varying reading comprehension (RC) levels of adult literacy students. The unique contributions of decoding, MA, and OK remained relatively stable across levels of reading comprehension, whereas PA emerged as uniquely predictive only at lower RC levels, and vocabulary exhibited increased unique contributions at higher RC levels. These results indicate slight nuances in the contributions of some component skills as a function of adults’ RC level. The findings have implications as to which component skills are most beneficial to target at different reading levels in future intervention work with this population.

Authors

• Elizabeth Tighe, Georgia State University

• Mary Fernandes, Georgia State University