Poor readers reading phrased passages comprehend at the level typical of average readers reading prose, and average readers approach good readers' prose level¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 1983 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Reading phrased formats improved poor readers' comprehension to the level typical of average readers reading standard prose, and average readers' comprehension almost to the level typical of good readers reading prose. → David S. Weiss 1983

Evidence¶

David S. Weiss 1983¶

David S. Weiss. (1983). The effects of text segmentation on children's reading comprehension. Discourse Processes, 6:1, 77-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/01638538309544555

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Interpretation of Figure 1, which plots mean first-passage comprehension scores for the three formats by reading level. The text states the improvement is approximately one reading level; the figure comparison is descriptive, and no effect size was printed.

"From this figure it is evident that when poor readers read passages in a phrased format, their reading comprehension improved to the reading comprehension level typical of average readers reading standard prose passages. In a similar manner, when the average readers read passages in a phrased format, their reading comprehension improved almost to the reading comprehension level typical of good readers reading standard prose passages."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Reading passages segmented along phrase boundaries (pausal or syntactic) yields higher comprehension scores than standard prose format in elementary students — related
• Text segmentation benefits all reading levels: no interactions with grade, reading level, or passage difficulty — related
• The segmentation advantage is maintained across repeated readings and is widespread across participants — related