Rights statement: This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Learning and Individual Differences. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Learning and Individual Differences, 71, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2019.03.005
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Cross-sectional Study of the Contribution of Rhetorical Competence to Children’s Expository Text Comprehension between Third- and Sixth-Grade
AU - Garcia, J Ricardo
AU - Sanchez, Emiliio
AU - Cain, Kate
AU - Montoya, Juan Manuel
N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Learning and Individual Differences. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Learning and Individual Differences, 71, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2019.03.005
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - Readers' rhetorical competence is related to reading comprehension and moderates the impact of rhetorical devices in expository texts. In this cross-sectional study, we examine the differences in four measures of rhetorical competence (knowledge of anaphors, organizational signals, refutations, and a total score) in grades three through to six, we determine its contribution to expository text comprehension after controlling the effect of a wide set of linguistic and cognitive variables, and we study whether this contribution is moderated by grade or any of our control variables. First, although we found evidence for some level of rhetorical competence at early ages, data suggest that rhetorical competence development takes many years. Second, we found that knowledge of some rhetorical devices is acquired before knowledge of others. Finally, rhetorical competence was a unique predictor of expository text comprehension, and its influence was evident regardless of grade and all of the control variables.
AB - Readers' rhetorical competence is related to reading comprehension and moderates the impact of rhetorical devices in expository texts. In this cross-sectional study, we examine the differences in four measures of rhetorical competence (knowledge of anaphors, organizational signals, refutations, and a total score) in grades three through to six, we determine its contribution to expository text comprehension after controlling the effect of a wide set of linguistic and cognitive variables, and we study whether this contribution is moderated by grade or any of our control variables. First, although we found evidence for some level of rhetorical competence at early ages, data suggest that rhetorical competence development takes many years. Second, we found that knowledge of some rhetorical devices is acquired before knowledge of others. Finally, rhetorical competence was a unique predictor of expository text comprehension, and its influence was evident regardless of grade and all of the control variables.
KW - Cross-sectional study
KW - Expository texts
KW - Reading comprehension
KW - Rhetorical competence
KW - Rhetorical devices
U2 - 10.1016/j.lindif.2019.03.005
DO - 10.1016/j.lindif.2019.03.005
M3 - Journal article
VL - 71
SP - 31
EP - 42
JO - Learning and Individual Differences
JF - Learning and Individual Differences
SN - 1041-6080
ER -