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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - From words to text
T2 - Inference making mediates the role of vocabulary in children's reading comprehension
AU - Daugaard, Hanne
AU - Cain, Kate
AU - Elbro, Carsten
N1 - The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9752-2
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - We examined the relationship between inference making, vocabulary knowledge, and verbal working memory on children’s reading comprehension in 62 6th graders (aged 12). The effect of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension was predicted to be partly mediated by inference making for two reasons: Inference making often taps the semantic relations among words, and the precise word meanings in texts are selected by readers on the basis of context. All independent variables were significantly and moderately correlated with reading comprehension. In support of our prediction, the link between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension was significantly mediated by inference making even when verbal working memory was controlled. An alternative mediation hypothesis (vocabulary as a mediator of inference making) was not supported by the data. The study replicates and extends the findings of earlier work (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007; Segers & Verhoeven, 2016; Ahmed et al., 2016).
AB - We examined the relationship between inference making, vocabulary knowledge, and verbal working memory on children’s reading comprehension in 62 6th graders (aged 12). The effect of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension was predicted to be partly mediated by inference making for two reasons: Inference making often taps the semantic relations among words, and the precise word meanings in texts are selected by readers on the basis of context. All independent variables were significantly and moderately correlated with reading comprehension. In support of our prediction, the link between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension was significantly mediated by inference making even when verbal working memory was controlled. An alternative mediation hypothesis (vocabulary as a mediator of inference making) was not supported by the data. The study replicates and extends the findings of earlier work (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007; Segers & Verhoeven, 2016; Ahmed et al., 2016).
KW - Reading comprehension
KW - Inference making
KW - Vocabulary
KW - Working memory
U2 - 10.1007/s11145-017-9752-2
DO - 10.1007/s11145-017-9752-2
M3 - Journal article
VL - 30
SP - 1773
EP - 1788
JO - Reading and Writing
JF - Reading and Writing
SN - 0922-4777
IS - 8
ER -