Reading Component Skills of Learners in Adult Basic Education

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 108 - 121
Main Authors: MacArthur, Charles A., Konold, Timothy R., Glutting, Joseph J., Alamprese, Judith A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2010
SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Accuracy
Acknowledgment
Adolescent
Adult
Adult Basic Education
Adult education
Adult literacy
Age Differences
Age Factors
Aged
American English
Comparative Analysis
Comprehension
Confirmatory factor analysis
Construct Validity
Decoding
Decoding (Reading)
Educational Status
English (Second Language)
English as a second language learning
Factor Analysis
Factor Structure
Female
Five factor model
Fluency
Gender Differences
Humans
Immigrants
Language Skills
Language Tests - standards
Language Tests - statistics & numerical data
Learning Disabilities
Learning disabled students
Literacy Education
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Meaning
Middle Aged
Modification
Multilingualism
Native Speakers
Nelson Reading Test
Reading
Reading Comprehension
Reading Fluency
Reading Instruction
Reading Skills
Reading Tests
Reliability
Reproducibility of Results
Scores
Sex Factors
Skills
Special education
Spelling
Students
Thinking Skills
United States
Validity
Wide Range Achievement Test 3
Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement Revised
Word Recognition
Young Adult
United States
New York
United States > US
adult literacy
models of reading skills
reading
ISSN:0022-2194, 1538-4780, 1538-4780
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components is needed because available measures were neither developed for nor normed on ABE populations or with nonnative speakers of English. The study included 486 students, 334 born or educated in the United States (native) and 152 not born or educated in the United States (nonnative) but who spoke English well enough to participate in English reading classes. All students had scores on 11 measures covering five constructs: decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test three models: a two-factor model with print and meaning factors; a three-factor model that separated out a fluency factor; and a five-factor model based on the hypothesized constructs. The five-factor model fit best. In addition, the CFA model fit both native and nonnative populations equally well without modification, showing that the tests measure the same constructs with the same accuracy for both groups. Group comparisons found no difference between the native and nonnative samples on word recognition, but the native sample scored higher on fluency and comprehension and lower on decoding than did the nonnative sample. Students with self-reported learning disabilities scored lower on all reading components. Differences by age and gender were also analyzed.
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ISSN:0022-2194
1538-4780
1538-4780
DOI:10.1177/0022219409359342