Date of Award
Spring 1979
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Leslie, Lauren
Second Advisor
Negin, Gary
Third Advisor
Ivanoff, John
Abstract
The present study was a comparative investigation using two different theories that stressed the role that either language or perceptual abilities play in differentiating good from poor readers. A sample of 34 second- and 34 sixth-grade students from the New Berlin School District in Milwaukee County were presented nine tasks. The nine tasks consisted of three perceptual tasks, three perceptual tasks that allow for language mediation, and three language tasks. After screening the students to insure average intelligence, socio-cultural opportunity, and freedom from gross sensory, emotional, or neurological handicaps, each subject was presented the nine tasks. Three sets of statistical operations were performed on the data. A multivariate analysis of variance tested the effect of reading level and grade level on nine dependent variables. The findings indicated that performance on the nine tasks was significantly related to reading level and grade level but was not significantly related to the interaction effect of reading level and grade level. Univariate F tests on the nine measures for the reading level variable indicated that performance on the Serial-Order Short-Tenn Memory Task, the Listening Comprehension Task, and the Verbal Expression Task was significantly related to reading-level placement. The univariate F tests involving grade level and the nine dependent measures showed that all of the measures except Listening Comprehension varied with grade level...