Using Parallel, Narrative-Based Measures to Examine the Relationship Between Listening and Reading Comprehension: A...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Language and Literacy Research

Background:

• Assessing reading comprehension in young learners is crucial for academic success.
• Understanding the relationship between listening and reading comprehension provides insights into language processing.
• Diverse student populations require equitable and valid assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if narrative-based listening and reading comprehension measures assess the same construct.
• To compare scores yielded by listening and reading comprehension measures in diverse second and third graders.
• To determine the comparability and symmetry of these measures for equitable evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Narrative Language Measures (NLM) Listening and Reading subtests from the CUBED assessment.
• Collected data from 110 diverse second and third-grade students.
• Employed confirmatory factor analysis and equipercentile analyses for score comparison.

Main Results:

• A strong positive correlation was found between listening and reading comprehension measures.
• Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that both measures loaded onto a single underlying factor.
• No significant differences in mean scores were observed, and equipercentile analyses showed aligned percentile rankings.

Conclusions:

• Listening and reading comprehension measures demonstrate construct symmetry and score equity.
• Oral narrative retells and question responses can potentially function as proxy measures for reading comprehension.
• Findings support the use of oral language assessments for evaluating reading comprehension in young students.