Factors That Affect Reading Comprehension

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According to Carlisle and Rice (2003), reading and listening comprehension grow more similar by about fifth grade compared to earlier grades for both good and poor readers--good word readers are able to read a lot. The consequences of reading well include maximal exposure to new words and phrases, opportunities to read different types of texts, and practice monitoring one’s understanding (Stanovich, 1986; Cunningham & Stanovich 1998). In contrast, however, poor word readers remain at the mercy of their word reading difficulties. As a result of not reading, they fail to learn many new words, do not develop proficiency in understanding texts, and often learn to dislike reading (Baker &Wigfield, 1999). In the 1980s, research on comprehension focused on how proficient readers understand what they read. The combined results of these studies suggest that good readers are strategic, orchestrating …show more content…

Processes involve decoding, working memory, inference-making, and comprehension monitoring. In contrast, knowledge factors include word meanings and domain knowledge related to the content of what is being read. These factors provide a framework for thinking about current trends in reading comprehension instructional research. Much of the research over the past several years has focused on the teaching of specific comprehension strategies that reflect those used by good readers (Pressley, 2000) and this continues to be an important focus for researchers. However, there is renewed interest in other aspects of reading comprehension. For example, an area of interest in contemporary reading comprehension research relates to the importance of individual word knowledge and decoding and its contribution to text comprehension. Another current issue is how strategic processing interacts with specific domain knowledge in content area

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