Answering the questions of “which, how, and when”: A comprehensive investigation of the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension

Abstract

Reading comprehension, or the understanding of written texts, is a vital skill for full engagement in school and society, and, as such, is among the most important skills children learn in elementary school. One skill reliably implicated in theories of reading comprehension is syntax: the organization of words and phrases into sentences. However, there remain many open questions regarding the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension, including which aspect of syntactic skills matters most for reading comprehension, how syntactic skills contribute to reading comprehension, and if these relations change throughout elementary school. Thus, the overarching goal of this dissertation was to comprehensively explore the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension in English-speaking elementary students. This goal was accomplished through three studies, including a meta-analysis and two studies of original data collection. The results from all studies suggest that two aspects of syntactic skills — those of comprehension and awareness — are both important for reading comprehension, challenging current theories that suggest only comprehension or awareness contributes to reading comprehension. These findings also illuminate just how syntactic skills contribute to reading comprehension: both word reading and vocabulary mediate the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension. Interestingly, these relations are influenced by the aspect of syntactic skill and developmental period. Results also offer preliminary evidence of mediation for the more novel mechanism of syntactic parsing. Finally, these results indicate that these direct and mediated relations between syntactic skills and reading comprehension shift through reading development, providing further clarity as to the timeline of these relations. Together, the findings of this dissertation push the boundaries of current theoretical predictions, offer clear targets for intervention design, and, in turn, suggest potential practices for education.