Chapter 34: Motivational and Cognitive Proedictors of Text Comprehension and Reading Amount

The article, “Motivational and Cognitive Predictors of Text Comprehension and Reading Amount” by John T. Guthrie, Allan Wigfield, Jamie L. Metsala, and Kathleen E. Cox, discusses the correlation between reading amount and text comprehension. In the past reading researchers and psychologists attempted to predict significant variables such as word recognition or text comprehension from important underlying processes, which were generally cognitive. This article extends this earlier work by examining how motivational and reading amount variables, in addition to cognitive processes, add to the prediction of students’ text comprehension. Through combing motivational and cognitive constructs, the researchers hope to understand more fully text comprehension.

Definitions in this article:
· Text Comprehension- the capacity of the learner to construct new knowledge or information from written text (Anderson & Pearson, 1984).
o Two major cognitive predictors:
1. Past achievement
2. Prior Knowledge (Schema)
· Reading Amount- the frequency and time spent reading a range of topics for various purposes.
· Motivation- relation to characteristics of individuals, such as their goals, competence-related beliefs, and needs that influence their achievement and activities
· Goal- purposes individuals have for doing different activities.
o Two broad goal orientations:
1. Performance Goal- focus is on demonstrating that one is capable and can outperform others.
2. Mastery Orientation- attempts to improve one’s capabilities and focusing on the task one is doing.
· Intrinsic Motivation- curiosity and interest in an activity one is doing and striving for a mastery orientation toward tasks
· Extrinsic motivation- effort directed toward towards obtaining external recognition, rewards, or incentives in learning and reading
· Self-efficacy- people’s judgments of their ability to organize and execute courses of action required to reach designated types of performances”

Based on the amount children read, the measurement of text comprehension is possible. As noted in this report, text comprehension in grade 5 was predicted by reading amount (based on time spent reading out of school from diaries), after accounting for prior text comprehension in grade 2. Additionally, text comprehension from grade 5 to grade 10 was significantly correlated with reading amount, according to a composite of print exposure measured at grade 11. These finding are emphasized by out-of-school reading for enjoyment, although in-school reading also plays a role in text comprehension. For example, Elley (1992) ascertains that teacher reported frequency of silent reading in class was greatly associated with text comprehension.
There are numerous reports on motivation. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation plays an important role. Intrinsic motivation is associated with how a person feels, the better they feel about their reading ability, and the more intrinsically motivated they are to read. While some students have extrinsic motivation for reading, it is clear that many students are motivated to read for both intrinsic and extrinsic reasons. In this study, curiosity, performance goals, and extrinsic motivation were included to broaden the knowledge domain to include the reader’s goals in addition to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In short, the more motivated a student to read, the higher the reading amount.

Self-efficacy also plays an important role in reading motivation. For example, in a range of reading studies, Schunk and Zimmerman (1997) noted that students with high self-efficacy see difficult reading tasks as challenging and work diligently to master them, using their cognitive strategies productively. Students’ success, according to Schunk and Zimmerman, was due to self-efficacy within a reading task and is associated with the use of strategies, self-regulation, and text comprehension within the tasks. If a student feels they can execute the desired task, they are more likely to try to achieve it.

To demonstrate how this all works, the results of two studies are included. In Study 1, a local sample of third and fifth graders was used since other research had previously used the same groups. In addition to using the same groups, these grades also spanned an important period in terms of the developing relations between motivation and achievement. Study 2, consisted of a national sample of students in grades 8 and 10. Since these age groups had not often been included in research on reading motivation, they were included, even though in general motivation literature it has been shown that motivation and achievement in these age groups relate to each other.
The primary interests of conducting the research were:
· To see how children’s text comprehension was predicted by their reading amount and reading motivation and
· To see how children’s reading amount was predicted by their reading motivation.
The study is organized around these three questions:
1. To what extent are passage comprehension and conceptual learning from multiple texts predicted by reading amount when accounting for the contributions of past achievement, prior knowledge, reading motivation, and reading efficacy to text comprehension?
2. To what extent is reading amount predicted by reading motivation when accounting for the contributions of past achievement, prior knowledge, and reading efficacy to reading amount?
3. To what extent is reading amount predicted by intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when analyzed separately and controlling the contributions of each for past reading achievement, prior knowledge, and self-efficacy?
The participants in both studies are as follows:
Study 1:
Three schools bordering a large mid-Atlantic metropolis.
Each school- multicultural population consisting of approx. 55% African American, 22% Caucasian, 15% Hispanic, and 7% Asian or other
Total of 271 students- 117 fifth graders, 154 third graders, 47% boys, 53% girls
Two schools had Chapter 1 designation
These two grades were frequently used in prior research and were of interest to practitioners due to accountability at these levels
Total of 10 teachers- age range between 41-50, with 20 to 24 years of teaching experience, and all had bachelor’s degrees plus 45 hours of university credit.

Study 2:
Drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88) database.
Selected all grade 10 students who were included as eighth graders in the base-year sample
Total of 17,424 students representing national sample (see Owings et al., 1994).
Results

The results of the two studies confirmed that indeed, text comprehension is predicted by reading amount. This was done by showing the effects of reading amount on text comprehension by using a variety of measures of reading amount. These measures included print exposure, diaries kept by children, and self-reporting questionnaires. In Study 1, it was found that reading amount predicts text comprehension even when controlling the underlying variables. However, in Study 2, reading motivation was the predictor for text comprehension. This shows that reading motivation is a predictor of reading amount.

Since I am a Title 1 reading teacher, this report has relevance for me as I find myself being a cheerleader for some of my students. I am always trying to find ways to help my students become more engaged in reading. I feel it begins with seeing the relevance in learning the skills associated with reading. For example, a second grade student I had a few years ago thought he could only read when he was with me. We work on his reading skills and eventually after feeling success in small groups, read a few short stories to his class. After reading to his class, he was gleaming from ear to ear. From that day on, he has been more motivated to read and thus this day is reading a larger amount than he had been. Success like this helps me to see the correlation between reading motivation and reading amount. In addition, because of a greater reading amount, his text comprehension has also increased.