The relationship between understanding grammatical conjunction and reading comprehension in Native American children.

Abstract

Findings paralleled a previous large scale study of fourth grade children in an urban setting of mixed socio-economic levels and heterogeneous classes.

Three test instruments were used: the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, the Multiple Choice Conjunctions Test, and the Cloze Comprehension of Conjunctions Test. Statistical procedures used were the Spearman Rho Correlation, scattergrams, crossbreaks, chi-square, and the Mann-Whitney U.

The findings were: there is a statistically significant relationship between the understanding of conjunctions and reading comprehension, as measured by objective tests, at the fourth grade level. There is a statistically significant positive maturational change in the understanding of conjunctions from the fourth to the fifth grades. There is also a maturational change in the understanding of conjunctions, as measured by the Cloze procedure, but not by objective multiple choice tests, from the fifth to the sixth grades. A Variation of Goodman's Miscue Analysis indicated a maturational tendency to move from syntactic dominance at the fourth grade level to semantic focus at the sixth grade level.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the understanding of grammatical conjunctions and reading comprehension for Native American children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. The problem was approached through three hypotheses. The first involved the correlation between reading comprehension and understanding conjunctions for the group and for each grade. The second involved the establishment of a hierarchy of difficulty among the most difficult conjunctions. The third problem concerned tracing developmental changes through these grades in the understanding of conjunctions and in the relationship between the two variables.