Cross-sectional Study of the Contribution of Rhetorical Competence to Children’s Expository Text Comprehension between Third- and Sixth-Grade

Garcia, J Ricardo and Sanchez, Emiliio and Cain, Kate and Montoya, Juan Manuel (2019) Cross-sectional Study of the Contribution of Rhetorical Competence to Children’s Expository Text Comprehension between Third- and Sixth-Grade. Learning and Individual Differences, 71. pp. 31-42. ISSN 1041-6080

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Abstract

Readers' rhetorical competence is related to reading comprehension and moderates the impact of rhetorical devices in expository texts. In this cross-sectional study, we examine the differences in four measures of rhetorical competence (knowledge of anaphors, organizational signals, refutations, and a total score) in grades three through to six, we determine its contribution to expository text comprehension after controlling the effect of a wide set of linguistic and cognitive variables, and we study whether this contribution is moderated by grade or any of our control variables. First, although we found evidence for some level of rhetorical competence at early ages, data suggest that rhetorical competence development takes many years. Second, we found that knowledge of some rhetorical devices is acquired before knowledge of others. Finally, rhetorical competence was a unique predictor of expository text comprehension, and its influence was evident regardless of grade and all of the control variables.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Learning and Individual Differences
Additional Information:
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Learning and Individual Differences. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Learning and Individual Differences, 71, 2019 DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2019.03.005
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Subjects:
?? cross-sectional studyexpository textsreading comprehensionrhetorical competencerhetorical deviceseducationsocial psychologydevelopmental and educational psychology ??
ID Code:
132103
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
19 Mar 2019 13:15
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
02 Feb 2024 00:36