Adult Readers’ Sensitivity to Phrase Boundaries in Texts

AbstractPrevious research has suggested that phrasing or chunking texts during reading is an important aspect of fluent reading. Past studies have indicated that good and poor elementary readers differ in their ability to phrase texts. In the present study, good and poor college-aged readers were asked to identify phrase boundaries in two texts varying in difficulty. Results of the study indicate an interaction between reading ability and text difficulty. In the easier text, both good and poor readers performed at the same level. With the more difficult text, the performance of the poor readers diminished significantly, whereas the good readers’ performance remained at the same level as the easier text. Further analysis indicated that errors in phrasing were due more to a relative insensitivity rather than to too great a sensitivity to phrase boundaries. Results of the study are discussed within the framework of word difficulty in the two texts.

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