Reading Comprehension in ESL Learners: Multifaceted or Single Construct?

Some reading comprehension researchers have divided reading into various skills. Other researchers have claimed that it is a single construct. This study examined whether reading comprehension in ESL learners was multifaceted or a single construct. The subjects read texts and answered questions designed to test four separate comprehension skills: literal, analytical/synthesis, inference, and evaluation. Then the average of each students response to each skill question was calculated. These averages were used in a factor analysis to see if the four questions tested different skills. It was found that the four questions loaded significantly on to different factors1 showing that they were separate skills. These results differed somewhat from the results of other researchers. Limitations on this study may have affected the results. One of these limitations was that there was only one question for each skill for each reading passage. The other limitation was the fact that some students read passages from only one book rather than three.

Thesis Author: Nickerson, Mary Helen

Year Completed: 1994

Thesis Chair: C. Ray Graham