Development of Linguistic and Reading Skills and Their Relationship to the Comprehension of Narrative and Expository Texts in Second and Third Grade Students

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine reading comprehension in relation to the linguistic and reading skills commonly observed in the literature: prosody, vocabulary, grammar, listening comprehension, accuracy, and reading speed. Specifically, we sought to 1) determine how the selected language and reading skills influence text comprehension; 2) determine whether this influence varies when comparing second and third grade students; and 3) observe whether the influence of the selected skills differs depending on genre (narrative or expository text). The final sample consisted of 297 second and third graders (136 and 161, respectively) from two private schools in Santiago, Chile. The results showed that the influence of the assessed skills on reading comprehension varied according to school level (smaller effect in second grade) and text type (smaller effect for narrative texts). In general, vocabulary and listening comprehension were the two skills with the greatest influence on reading comprehension. No relevant effect of reading accuracy or speed on comprehension was observed. It is concluded that once a certain level of basic literacy is reached, the skills that most influence reading comprehension are linguistic skills, and that these show a consolidation in the third grade that may be related to cognitive maturation.