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Spelling and Reading Comprehension: Investigating Unique Relations in Third Grad

Murphy, Kimberly

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Teaching and Learning.
Considerable research effort has focused on understanding reading comprehension and reading comprehension difficulties. The purpose of the present study was to add to the small but growing body of literature on the role that spelling may play. It was the first to investigate the full range of lexical-level literacy skills and the unique contribution that spelling may make to reading comprehension when controlling for word recognition and vocabulary. The study also examined whether the relation between spelling and reading comprehension varied with spelling scoring metric. Data were collected from 63 children in grade 3 who were participating in a larger study on language and reading comprehension. In addition to measuring reading comprehension, word recognition, and vocabulary, four spelling scoring metrics were examined: the number of words spelled correctly (WSC), the number of correct letter sequences (CLS), and Spelling Sensitivity Scores (Masterson & Apel, 2010) for elements (SSE) and words (SSW). Results of hierarchical regressions showed that spelling was a significant, unique predictor of reading comprehension when the CLS metric was used. The scoring metrics were differentially related to reading comprehension. Metrics that gave credit based on orthographic precision only (WSC, CLS) were more highly related to reading comprehension than metrics that scored across multiple linguistic domains (SSE, SSW) and therefore gave credit even for imprecise spellings (i.e., those that demonstrated phonological accuracy only). These results indicate that spelling may provide unique information about children’s reading comprehension and suggest promising future research directions to investigate the predictive ability of spelling and its potential to aid in the identification of children with, or at risk for, reading comprehension difficulties.
Laura Justice (Advisor)
Richard Lomax (Committee Member)
Monique Mills (Committee Member)
146 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Murphy, K. (2016). Spelling and Reading Comprehension: Investigating Unique Relations in Third Grad [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467908384

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Murphy, Kimberly. Spelling and Reading Comprehension: Investigating Unique Relations in Third Grad. 2016. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467908384.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Murphy, Kimberly. "Spelling and Reading Comprehension: Investigating Unique Relations in Third Grad." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1467908384

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)