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The challenge and the opportunity of lexical inferencing in language minority students

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Abstract

Lexical inferencing from text is a powerful tool for vocabulary and reading comprehension enhancement. Lexical inferencing relies on the pre-requisite skills of reading and existing vocabulary, and is also linked to non-verbal inferencing abilities and reading comprehension. In this study, we examined whether Fifth-grade Russian-speaking language minority (LM) students might exhibit reduced lexical inferencing abilities in comparison to their native Hebrew-speaking (NH) peers, due to their reduced proficiency in the societal language. Participants completed a measure of lexical inferencing during text reading, and measures of underlying skills, including vocabulary, word reading accuracy, reading comprehension and non-verbal inferencing. As a group, LM students demonstrated comparable lexical inferencing abilities to those of their NH peers despite significantly lower vocabulary knowledge in vocabulary. Two explanations are suggested; first, although LM students had reduced vocabulary, they were nonetheless above the vocabulary threshold required for text comprehension. Second, the regression analyses revealed that non-verbal inferencing explained unique variance only in the LM group, demonstrating that they recruited language-external resources to support lexical inferencing. The current results show that lexical inferencing can serve as a powerful tool for promoting reading comprehension and vocabulary, domains that are points of weakness for language minority students.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Shira Bleicher, Moran Hatan and Ina Kandelis for research assistance and Nashchon Korem for help in data analyses. The current study was partly supported by the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Learning Disabilities and Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Hushi Rd., 3498838, Haifa, Israel

    Daphna Shahar-Yames & Anat Prior

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  1. Daphna Shahar-Yames
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  2. Anat Prior
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anat Prior.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Performance of the omitted participants in comparison to retained participants of their respective group

 

Native Hebrew

Language minority

Omitted N = 3

Retained N = 53

Omitted N = 8

Retained N = 48

Vocabulary

37

41

31

35

Reading accuracy

83%

88%

82%

86%

Reading comprehension

14

24

17

22

Non-verbal ability

12

26

23

23

Appendix 2: Lexical Inferencing Task: Sample Story

Everyone says that 13-year-old Alon is a “born actor.” His parents say that even when he was 2 years old, he would stand at the table at family events and entertain the audience. When a theater department was opened at the performing arts school, it was clear that Alon would be the first to sign up for it. The theater class puts on shows twice a year. In preparation for the show, many rehearsals are held in the afternoons as well, and students spend a lot of time working on the sets and the characters’ costumes. For the first role he played, Alon had to find a shoftar. Alon asked friends and neighbors if any of them had a shoftar and explained that he needed it because he was playing the role of an old man who has trouble keeping stable while walking. When he did not find what he was looking for, Alon had an idea—he went to the retirement home near his house and asked if they could help him out. The retirement home staff was happy to help him and promised to come see the play.

Appendix 3

Number of participants receiving each score (0, 1, 2), by text and by language group

 

Native Hebrew N = 53

Language minority N = 48

0

1

2

0

1

2

Text 1

28

0

25

18

2

28

Text 2

13

19

21

14

16

18

Text 3

6

14

33

12

13

23

Text 4

19

2

32

15

7

26

Text 5

10

3

40

10

1

37

Text 6

15

3

35

15

3

30

Text 7

23

15

15

22

16

10

Text 8

17

6

30

17

8

23

Appendix 4

Correlations among lexical inferencing and other experimental tasks, by language group

 

Native Hebrew speakers N = 53

Language minority N = 48

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

1. Vocabulary

.23

.33*

.25

.32*

.19

.05

.51**

.34*

2. Word reading accuracy

 

.07

.39**

.53**

 

.25

.37*

.36*

3. Non-verbal ability

  

.19

.26

  

.23

.36*

4. Reading comprehension

   

.56**

   

.52**

5. Lexical inferencing

        
  1. *p < .05; **p < .005; ***p < .001

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Shahar-Yames, D., Prior, A. The challenge and the opportunity of lexical inferencing in language minority students. Read Writ 31, 1109–1132 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9830-0

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