D GARCÍA CANTÚS: El gremio p 33.

In order to gain a measure of component discourse level comprehension skills, four individual reading tasks were selected, adapted and developed from existing materials used in published research (Stein & Glenn, 1982; Yuill & Oakhill, 1988; Cain and Oakhill, 1999; Cain, Oakhill & Bryant, 2004). The tasks were originally developed for children in the Upper Primary age group (aged 10-11 years) and were therefore appropriate for participants in the current study (in the final year of Primary or first term of Secondary School). Task D also incorporated several researcher-developed activities, which were trialled during a preliminary research project (Roberts, 2011) and subsequently modified for use in the current study.

The comprehension tasks were piloted with a typically developing skilled and less-skilled comprehender (aged 11 years). This enabled the average time taken to complete each task to be established and the order of tasks to be considered. It also gave the opportunity for the researcher to observe a skilled DQGOHVVVNLOOHGFRPSUHKHQGHU¶VDSSURDFKWRWKHWDVNVDQGWRJDLQIHHGEDFN from the pupils. A summary of the performance of the two children on the component comprehension tasks (child X and Y) is provided in Appendix J.

A brief description of each task is presented in Table 2, followed by a detailed description of the development of tasks A ± D. The accompanying resources, instructions and scoring criteria (developed by the aforementioned authors) is provided in Appendices F, G, H and I.

Brief description of component comprehension Tasks A - D

Task Component comprehension skill Brief description of task

A Inference and integration

Children read aloud three short stories (1 practice). They then answered six questions: 2 literal information, 2 text- connecting inferences and 2 global coherence inferences.

B Knowledge of story structure

Children were presented with 2 short stories cut up into 7 (practice) and 12 constituent sentences. They

rearranged the sentences so that the story made sense.

C Comprehension monitoring

(Global)

Following a practice task, children read two short passages that

contained incoherent information i.e. SDUWVWKDWµGLGQRWPDNHVHQVH WRJHWKHU¶7KH\ZHUHDVNHGWRLGHQWLI\ these parts. D (i) Comprehension monitoring (Anaphors)

Children read aloud a short story containing errors of pronoun use (children were not made aware of errors). Corrections and identification of errors were noted.

D (ii)

Pronoun identification and agreement

Children completed a cloze activity, selecting the correct pronoun(s) to complete sentences from the short story.

D (iii)

Prediction (Part A & Part B)

After reading the first part of the short story, children were asked to predict what would happen next (Part A). After reading the second part they were asked to identify clues or links from part 1 to the story events in part 2 (Part B).

D (iv)

Anaphoric resolution

After reading the short story, children were given a copy with anaphors highlighted in red. Children referred to this to answer 22 questions (2

practice) requiring them to resolve the anaphors (i.e. identify the previous text each word linked to).

3.5.1 Task A: Inference and integration

Originally developed by Cain and Oakhill (1999), following a practice story, children read aloud two short stories followed by six questions. Each set of six questions included two literal and four questions assessing their ability to make coherence inferences. Two questions required children to integrate information between two sentences and the other two required integrating real world knowledge with information in the text to fill in missing details. Children were presented with the questions in a written format and they were also read aloud by the researcher. Participants gave their answers verbally which were scribed verbatim by the researcher.

3.5.2 Task B: Knowledge of story structure

Cain et al., (2004) developed this task from an original sentence anagram WDVN XVHG WR DVVHVV FKLOGUHQ¶V understanding of story structure (Stein & Glenn, 1982). Children were present with a short practice story, cut up into its seven constituent sentences, which were placed randomly on the table. They were asked to arrange the sentences in the correct order, so that the story made sense. The children were then presented with another story, cut up into its twelve constituent sentences, which they were asked to order.

3.5.3 Task C: Comprehension monitoring - Global

This task was adapted from the materials developed by Cain et al., (2004). Following a practice task, the children were given two factual passages to UHDG FRQWDLQLQJ WZR LQFRQVLVWHQFLHV RU µSDUWV WKDW GLG QRW PDNH VHQVH WRJHWKHU¶7KHFKLOGUHQZHUHWROGWKDWWKHSDVVDJHVPLJKWFRQWDLQRQHRUPRUH parts that do not make sense together and were asked to underline these. Children were informed that they were not required to read the passages aloud, but if they did choose to read them aloud, this was permitted. When the children indicated they had finished the activity, if the child had underlined any parts of the text, the researcher asked them to explain why they had underlined them. Responses were recorded verbatim.

3.5.4 Task D Parts (i) to (iv): Comprehension Monitoring (Anaphors), Pronoun identification and agreement, Prediction, Anaphoric Resolution

(i) Comprehension Monitoring ± Anaphors

Participants were asked to read aloud part one of a short narrative developed by the researcher. The text contained seven errors in the form of incorrect use of pronouns. Participants were not informed that there were any mistakes beforehand. Corrections, hesitations and explicit identification of errors by the participants were recorded.

(ii) Pronoun identification and agreement± Cloze activity

Participants completed a cloze activity using sentences or short extracts from the story in part (i). Participants were required to circle or write the correct pronoun(s) to complete the sentence so that it made sense. This task was incorporated to assess participants¶XQGHUVWDQGLQJDQGXVHRISURQRXQVLQD structured task-specific context.

(iii) Prediction ± Part A & B

After reading the correct version of story one (correct pronouns), the participants were asked to predict what happened next in the story (Part A). Following the Anaphoric Resolution questions for part one of the story, participants were asked to read the second part of the story. They were then asked to explain what happened in part two, and to identify the links or clues to these events within the text in part one (Part B). Answers were given verbally and recorded verbatim.

(iv) Anaphoric Resolution

This task was developed from the original narrative material and questions used by Yuill & Oakhill (1988), as described in Chapter 2. The subject matter of the narrative passage developed by the authors (a fishing trip) was deemed inappropriate for the children in the sample, considering their environmental context and experiences. Therefore, a narrative with more familiar content (a bike ride) was developed from the preliminary research study (Roberts, 2011).

This narrative was based upon the same structure as the previous authors, incorporating the four different types of anaphor, of both immediate (preceding sentence) and remote distances (more than two sentences apart). Illustrative examples of each type of anaphor from the narrative are shown in Table 3. All examples show an immediate distance between the anaphor and antecedent (not more than one sentence apart). Remote examples require the full body of narrative text and are shown in Appendix I, p214). Whilst the researcher did not intend to analyse each anaphor type separately, it was important to include all four types to provide a valid overall measure.

Participants worked through the pre-task training developed by Yuill & Oakhill (1988). They were shown a task sheet to refer to during the activity, with anaphors highlighted in red (see Appendix p220). Children were asked two practice questions to ensure they understood the task. Participants were then asked a total of 20 questions, 13 relating to part one of the story and 7 to part two. Responses were given verbally and recorded by the researcher.

Table 3

Task D (iv) Anaphoric Resolution: Types of anaphor

Anaphor type Illustrative example from narrative material

Reference (R)

Rosie felt the fresh summer breeze on her face as she pedalled her shiny new purple bicycle. It was the best birthday present she could have wished for and she (IR; Rosie) FRXOGQ¶WZDLWIRU7RPWR see it!

Ellipsis (E)

Tom placed his water bottle inside his rucksack and zipped it up. ³, PDGH KDP DQG SLFNOH VDQGZLFKHV , KRSH \RX KDYH UHPHPEHUHG \RXUV´ ³2I FRXUVH , have´ IE; remembered my

sandwiches) said Rosie. Substitution (S)

³:KRERXJKW\RXWKHQHZELNH5RVLH"´

³0XPdid´IS; bought her the new bike) she shouted back.

Lexical (L)

:KHQ5RVLHDQG7RPWXUQHGLQWRWKHGULYHZD\7RP¶VPXPZDV busy watering the flowerbeds in the front garden. The sunflowers

(IL; in the flowerbeds in the front garden) were almost as tall as she was.