Investigating Predictors of Listening Comprehension

Tighe, E. L., Spencer, M., & Schatschneider, C. (2015). Investigating predictors of listening comprehension in third-, seventh-, and tenth-grade students: A dominance analysis approach. Reading Psychology, 36(8), 700-740. doi:10.1080/02702711.2014.963270

Background

The authors highlighted literature that had demonstrated the importance of an individual’s listening comprehension ability in relation to his or her reading comprehension performance. However, there has been relatively little research of potential cognitive predictors of listening comprehension, particularly in the secondary school grades.

Aims

The authors investigated the predictor contributions of working memory, verbal and nonverbal reasoning, and fluency to listening comprehension in third-, seventh-, and tenth-grade students.

Sample

The participants were 215 third graders, 188 seventh graders, and 182 tenth graders in three Florida schools.

Method

The author adopted a regression-based statistical technique, known as dominance analysis (DA), to rank order the cognitive predictors to listening comprehension in terms of their contributive importance at each of the three grade levels.

Findings

The results indicated that reasoning and fluency were the most important predictors of LC in the third grade, and reasoning was the single strongest predictor in the seventh and tenth grades. Working memory was the least predictive of listening comprehension skills across all grade levels. The findings also indicated that fluency and reasoning were more influential predictors in the primary school grade levels while higher-order reasoning skills were more important in the secondary school grade levels.

Implications

The authors highlighted that as various skills were differentially predictive of listening comprehension across different grade levels, it was important to consider this when enacting targeted interventions for students with poor listening comprehension skills. For example, as fluency and verbal reasoning were important predictors of listening comprehension in the third grade, third graders with poor skills would benefit from instruction that incorporated a fluency component. Examples of this were activities that promoted simultaneous decoding and comprehension ability, such as choral reading, and activities that facilitated verbal reasoning skills as opposed to activities that focussed on general reasoning ability (nonverbal reasoning). In addition, as the results showed that focussing on working memory skills might not be helpful to the older students, classroom activities that were designed to improve working memory skills specifically targeted at enhancing listening comprehension ability might not show significant improvement in the students’ listening comprehension.

Original article retrieved from Taylor and Francis.