Cognitive processing, language awareness, and reading in Grade 2 and Grade 4 children     

Che Kan Leong 《Contemporary educational psychology》1984,9(4):369-383

The role of cognitive processing and language awareness in relation to reading is discussed. The framework for cognitive processing was Luria's (1966a, Higher cortical functions in man, New York: Basic Books; 1966b, Human brain and psychological processes, New York: Harper & Row) simultaneous and successive syntheses. Language awareness involved understanding of phonological representation, ambiguities, and incongruities. The sample of 56 Grade 2 and 64 Grade 4 children was administered a battery of seven “simultaneous-successive” tasks. Principal component and promax oblique factor analyses and factor scores were used to classify the children as low-low, low-high, high-low, and high-high simultaneous-successive “processors.” A series of ANOVAs showed significant differences by grade and level of cognitive processing for the three language awareness tasks and for reading. These tasks and factor scores derived from the simultaneous and successive components of the within correlation matrix for the total sample of 120 children after removing covariance associated with the two grades were subjected to stepwise multiple regression analyses and a path analysis to tease out the contribution of these components to reading. Results showed a much greater direct effect from language awareness on reading than simultaneous and successive syntheses. Ability to reflect on language and to use language as “disembedded modes of thinking” are seen as central to reading acquisition and development.  相似文献