ERIC Number: EJ1269784
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Oct
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0663
EISSN: N/A
Academic Language and Listening Comprehension--Two Sides of the Same Coin? An Empirical Examination of Their Dimensionality, Relations to Reading Comprehension, and Assessment Modality
Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Petscher, Yaacov; Uccelli, Paola; Kelcey, Benjamin
Journal of Educational Psychology, v112 n7 p1367-1387 Oct 2020
Two widely studied language skills in relation to reading comprehension are listening comprehension skill and academic language proficiency. Although their constituent skills and theoretical accounts of how they are related to reading comprehension share a large overlap, they have been studied in separate lines of work. In this study, we investigated the dimensionality of listening comprehension and academic language proficiency tasks, their relations to reading comprehension, and the impact of assessment modality (reading vs. oral language) of academic language proficiency, using data from children in Grade 2 (N = 350). Two cohorts of children from the same schools were assessed on the same set of listening comprehension, word reading, reading comprehension, and academic language tasks. Whereas the first three constructs were assessed in identical manner across the 2 cohorts, academic language tasks were assessed in different modalities (1 cohort in a reading context and the other cohort in an oral language context). Academic language proficiency and listening comprehension skill tasks were best described as having a general oral language construct that captured common variance among all the tasks as well as having specific residual factors. Students' average performance on academic language tasks was lower in the reading context, wherein students' reading skill was also captured beyond the academic "language" proficiency. Across assessment modalities, it was the general oral language construct, not the specific factors, that was reliable, and consistently and most dominantly related to reading comprehension after accounting for word reading. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED602242.]
Descriptors: Academic Language, Listening Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Elementary School Students, Grade 2, Oral Language, Reading Skills, Listening Comprehension Tests, Word Recognition, Reading Tests, Achievement Tests
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 2; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305A130131