Pupil Understanding of Connectives in Reading

Abstract

INVESTIGATES STUDENTS' fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade reading comprehension of connectives. The study was carried out in three sections: 1] identification of various types of connectives and the kind of sentence structures in which they appear; 2] construction of a Connectives Reading Test; and, 3] analysis of results of Connectives Reading Test. Results showed that, for each grade group tested, there was an increase in pupil understanding of the items of the Connectives Reading Test and of each of 17 selected connectives, from a lower to a higher grade. Within each grade, at least five achievement groups were identified whose group means on the Connectives Reading Test differed significantly one from the other. Other findings indicated that, by connective class, comprehension problems appeared to focus on the test items containing sentence linkers. Of the 17 individual connectives, student comprehension of the items testing six connectives, however, thus, which, although, and yet were below the comprehension level of the total student group on all test items. A significant relationship was found between the understanding a child has of connectives and his sex, mental age, and abilities in listening, reading, and written language. Place of residence in urban, small town, or rural areas exerted a significant effect upon pupil test scores interacting significantly with both grade and sex factors.

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