From the Editors

Contemporary approaches to the study of reading comprehension examine how multiple cognitive skills are interconnected. Within this framework, the aim of the present study was to explore the relationships between core executive functions, oral language skills and reading fluency in their effect on reading comprehension. A sample of 78 children in 5th and 6th grade of primary school were tested on reading comprehension and fluency, as well as on working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, vocabulary, oral comprehension and fluid intelligence. Correlation, hierarchical regression, and mediation analyses were conducted. The results show that working memory predicts reading comprehension, even when controlled for oral language skills. However, when reading fluency is introduced into the model, only vocabulary and reading fluency are significant predictors. The mediation analysis shows that reading fluency is a complete mediator of the effect of working memory on reading comprehension. In addition, vocabulary was found to be a relevant predictor of reading comprehension, even controlling for other skills. These findings show that it is crucial to assess interactions between multiple cognitive processes when studying written language comprehension. Furthermore, they suggest that one way in which executive functions affect reading comprehension is indirect and that reading fluency mediates this relationship.

Purpose This study examined resilience mechanisms influencing Grade 9 reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. Performance in reading fluency and comprehension in Grade 1 (age 7–8 years) was considered a risk factor for Grade 9 (age 15–16 years) reading performance. We focused on the potential promotive and protective effects of cognitive skills, motivational and parental factors, and gender on reading. Promotive factors benefit all individuals regardless of their level of risk, while protective factors generate more benefit for individuals at higher risk compared with those at lower risk. Method Data from a longitudinal Finnish sample of approximately 2,000 individuals were analyzed. Promotive and protective factors were examined separately for reading fluency and comprehension. Promotive factors were identified as main effects while controlling for Grade 1 performance. Protective factors were identified based on significant interactions with the risk factor, i.e. Grade 1 reading fluency and comprehension skills, and the signaling of gap-closing effects between those at lower and higher risk. Results Most examined skills and factors were identified as promotive factors for reading fluency and comprehension. Four protective factors emerged for reading fluency: pre-literacy skills, arithmetic fluency, oral language, and homework persistence. Oral language was identified as a protective factor for reading comprehension. Two additional significant interactions emerged for reading fluency: parental teaching of reading and parental support with reading-related homework, but they did not conform to the classic protective factor model. Conclusion This study advances the application of constructs indicating resilience in reading research and sheds light on factors that provide promotive and protective support for early reading skills development.

This study aimed to develop the Reading Fluency and Comprehension Supplemental Education Program (OKA2DEP) and investigate the effects on reading fluency and comprehension skills of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) in Turkey. OKA2DEP is the abbreviation of the Turkish name of the program and OKA stands for both reading fluency and reading comprehension and therefore had 2 as a superscript number. DEP stands for Supplemental Education Program. OKA2DEP contains the keyword/mnemonic, repeated reading and story map strategies, and the word cards exercises. The changing criterion design, which belongs to the single subject designs, was used for the study. Social validity data were collected through subjective evaluation and social comparison. Results showed that OKA2DEP was effective in developing participants’ reading fluency and comprehension and that they were able to maintain these skills one, two and three months after completing the implementation. Findings indicated that participants and their parents were satisfied with the effects of OKA2DEP, but participating students’ reading levels were still behind their peers without disabilities.

This study examined the independent contribution of morphological awareness and orthographic awareness in reading comprehension, controlling for working memory and reading fluency in Arabic-speaking children. Participants (N = 244) from grades four and five, were classified into typical comprehenders (n = 207) and poor comprehenders (n = 37). All the participants underwent reading comprehension tasks (sentence comprehension and reading maze), orthographic awareness tasks (word choice and parsing), morphological awareness test (root morpheme awareness), working memory test (listening sentence span), word reading fluency, and word reading accuracy and fluency (reading in one minute). The results indicated that morphological awareness and orthographic awareness contributed significantly to reading comprehension (composite scores) only in the typical comprehenders group. Although morphological awareness showed significant predictive relation with reading comprehension, orthographic awareness was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension while controlling for working memory and reading fluency. The findings are discussed, and future directions for research are suggested.

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children (N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.

The ability to read in second or foreign language (L2/FL) is a vital skill for academic and autonomous language learning. This study investigates the reading performance of two TEFL students from different language backgrounds on two English texts and their equivalent Persian translations comparing their reading rate and comprehension in L1 and L2. A combination of think-aloud protocol, interview and observation methods was used in order to figure out the reading strategies used by each participant in the process of reading and comprehending each text. First, participants were asked to model the steps of their thinking when reading the same text and to discuss what strategies and process they went through while interacting with the passage. Then, they were asked to respond some questions at the end of each reading passage. Last, an interview about their reading experiences and strategies is conducted. Findings of collected data from multiple sources were examined in the sense that the overall extracted themes were triangulated. The data were analyzed based on the Uso-Juan, Esther and Alicia Martinez-Flor (2006) framework for key reading strategies. The result showed that there is a positive relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension. The most effective strategies employed by each participant were also reported. Through critically and analytically reflecting on differences between L1 and L2 reading, language learners can learn how to read so as to get the most out of their academic materials.

Tabletop gaming is currently experiencing a golden age. The size of the tabletop gaming industry and the number of people engaged with the hobby are at a peak, and are still increasing. However, what motivates people to engage with tabletop games is not well studied. This study aims to understand the motivations for tabletop game play; it does so by introducing a questionnaire, called the tabletop gaming motivation inventory (TGMI), to measure these motivations. The inventory is based on literature, in particular literature which deals with similar inventories used to investigate video gaming motivations. We carried out a survey with tabletop game players (N = 867). Our inventory is validated using factor analyses, which lead to a final questionnaire consisting of 11 factors based on 39 items. Moreover, we investigated how these motivations vary with respect to prior experience of players, their frequency of play and geographical locations.

This paper discusses and examines the effects of a fluency reading instruction cycle onstudents’ progress in there ading skill. To reach this objective, the study implemented the Fluency Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI) approach, a research-based integrated fluency routine framework, to determine if the components of reading fluency (automaticity, word recognition accuracy, prosody, and comprehension) improve. The present research was conductedatthe department of English in the ENS-C where an experimental pretest-posttest with control group design was used. Pretest and posttests of reading fluency, reading comprehension and reading prosody were administered, and a t test was used to compare the means of correct word per minute (CWPM), prosody, and comprehension within an experimental group and a control group. The results indicated that the FORI is an effective approach to improve students’reading fluency and comprehension as demonstrated by CWPM improvement, prosody gains, and comprehension achievements as well.

Guided reading (GR) approach has been shown to have positive effect on reading fluency and comprehension. However, most studies on GR have focused on primary schools, specifically the Foundation Phase. Therefore, this study employed the GR approach to examine its possible effects on the reading proficiencies of Grade 9 English Second Language (ESL) learners in Gauteng province. Social and cognitive constructivism underpinned the study, which employed action research to determine the possible effects of implementing GR on the reading proficiencies of a sample of eight Grade 9 ESL learners who were purposively selected to participate in this study. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and reflection cards, oral and written reading tests. Results indicated that GR approach had caused a significant improvement in these learners’ reading fluency and comprehension because of collaborative learning and scaffolding. In addition, GR also developed a sense of ownership in their learning, a sense of community and innovative and inquisitive minds. The study recommends that learners who struggle with reading be identified early, and GR intervention strategies be implemented and monitored. Every school needs to have a reading policy and the Education Department should ensure that it is implemented and monitored. Keywords: guided reading, reading proficiencies, reading fluency, reading comprehension, second language

BackgroundCognitive and linguistic factors have been incorporated into models to explain reading comprehension beyond classical models of reading. This study explores the contribution of executive functions, mainly domain‐general and reading‐specific cognitive flexibility, in reading comprehension of science texts in monolingual Spanish speaking upper elementary students.MethodsA total of 275 Chilean students from fourth to sixth grade participated in this study. They were evaluated in working memory, inhibition, reading fluency, domain‐general and reading‐specific cognitive flexibility, academic vocabulary and science reading comprehension.ResultsThe results show that cognitive flexibility is a variable that explains performance in science reading comprehension across elementary grades. Furthermore, reading domain‐specific cognitive flexibility was found to be the variable that explains additional performance in science reading comprehension above inhibition, reading fluency, academic vocabulary and domain‐general cognitive flexibility in Grade 4 and Grade 5, but not in Grade 6.ConclusionsThese results suggest the contribution of cognitive variables such as cognitive flexibility in explaining performance in reading comprehension of science texts. The need to develop cognitive tests specific to reading domain is also discussed.

Prior research has highlighted opportunities for technology to better support the tabletop game experience in offline and online settings, but little work has focused on the social aspect of tabletop gaming. We investigated the social and collaborative aspects of tabletop gaming in the unique context of “social distancing” during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the experience of remote tabletop gaming. With a multi-method qualitative approach (including digital ethnography and in-depth interviews), we empirically studied how people appropriate existing technologies and adapt their offline practices to play tabletop games remotely. We identify three themes that describe people's game and social experience during remote play: creating a shared tabletop environment (shared space), enabling a collective understanding (shared information and awareness), and facilitating a communal temporal experience (shared time). We reflect on challenges and design opportunities for a better experience in the age of remote collaboration.

Reading fluency is a major determinant of reading comprehension but depends on moderating factors such as auditory working memory (AWM), word recognition and sentence reading skills. We investigated how word and sentence reading skills relate to reading comprehension differentially across the first 6 years of schooling and tested which reading variable best predicted teacher judgements. We conducted our research in a rather transparent language, namely, German, drawing on two different data sets. The first was derived from the normative sample of a reading comprehension test (ELFE‐II), including 2056 first to sixth graders with readings tests at the word, sentence and text level. The second sample included 114 students from second to fourth grade. The latter completed a series of tests that measured word and sentence reading fluency, pseudoword reading, AWM, reading comprehension, self‐concept and teacher ratings. We analysed the data via hierarchical regression analyses to predict reading comprehension and teacher judgements. The impact of reading fluency was strongest in second and third grade, afterwards superseded by sentence comprehension. AWM significantly contributed to reading comprehension independently of reading fluency, whereas basic decoding skills disappeared after considering fluency. Students' AWM and reading comprehension predicted teacher judgements on reading fluency. Reading comprehension judgements depended both on the students' self‐concept and reading comprehension. Our results underline that the role of word reading accuracy for reading comprehension quickly diminishes during elementary school and that teachers base their assessments mainly on the current reading comprehension skill.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between fourth-graders' reading fluency, reading comprehension and attention. It was conducted using the relational screening model and included 132 fourth-graders with grade level adequate reading skills. The study results showed that good readers' attention had significant effects on reading speed, prosody, word recognition and comprehension, respectively. There is also a higher level of relationship between attention, reading speed and prosody. To improve good readers' prosodic reading skills and increase their reading speeds, attention-enhancing activities are needed.

Assessing reading and online research comprehension: Do difficulties in attention and executive function matter?

This study investigates the influence of Chinese morphological awareness and reading fluency on reading comprehension, as well as the mediating role of reading fluency.The participants were 169 Uyghur children.Regression analysis was employed to examine the predictive effects of homophone morphological awareness and reading fluency on reading comprehension.The results revealed that both homophone morphological awareness and reading fluency had relatively stable predictive effects on reading comprehension.Additionally, homophone morphological awareness also had a certain predictive effect on reading fluency.It was found that morphological awareness can influence reading comprehension through reading fluency.These findings highlight the important role of Chinese morphological awareness in reading comprehension and its promotion through reading fluency.Therefore, schools and teachers in minority areas can enhance students' reading comprehension abilities by strengthening their morphological awareness and reading fluency.