Using data from children in South Korea (N = 145, Mage = 6.08), it was determined how low-level language and cognitive skills (vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and working memory) and high-level ...cognitive skills (comprehension monitoring and theory of mind ToM) are related to listening comprehension and whether listening comprehension and word reading mediate the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension. Low-level skills predicted comprehension monitoring and ToM, which in turn predicted listening comprehension. Vocabulary and syntactic knowledge were also directly related to listening comprehension, whereas working memory was indirectly related via comprehension monitoring and ToM. Listening comprehension and word reading completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension.
Background
Writing involves multiple processes, drawing on a number of language, cognitive, and print‐related skills, and knowledge. According to the Direct and Indirect Effects model of Writing ...(DIEW; Kim & Park, 2019, Reading and Writing, 32, 1319), these multiple factors have hierarchical, interactive, and dynamic relations.
Aims
I examined the hierarchical relations of language and cognitive skills to written composition as well as the relation of topic knowledge to written composition, using DIEW as a theoretical framework.
Sample
One hundred thirty‐two English‐speaking students in Grade 4 were assessed on written composition, topic knowledge, oral language (vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, discourse‐level oral production), higher order cognitions (inference, perspective taking theory of mind, monitoring), domain‐general cognitions (working memory and attention), and transcription skills (spelling and handwriting fluency).
Methods
Structural equation modelling was used to compare hierarchical relations models with a direct or flat relations model.
Results
The hierarchical relations model was supported. Discourse oral language skills and transcription skills completely mediated the relations of the other component skills to written composition, and the included component skills explained 82% of variance in written composition. Substantial total effects were found for discourse language, transcription, attention, working memory, vocabulary, theory of mind, and grammatical knowledge. Topic knowledge was moderately related to writing, but this relation became weak once the other skills were accounted for.
Conclusions
Component skills have hierarchical structural relations and make direct and indirect contributions to written composition. Furthermore, the role of topic knowledge in written composition appears constrained by language and transcription skills for developing writers.
We aimed to determine the surveillance performance of alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP), lectin‐reactive AFP (AFP‐L3), des‐gamma‐carboxy prothrombin (DCP), and their combinations for the early detection of ...hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by using prospectively collected longitudinal samples in patients at risk. Among 689 patients with cirrhosis and/or chronic hepatitis B who participated in four prospective studies, 42 HCC cases were diagnosed, selected, and matched with 168 controls for age, sex, etiology, cirrhosis, and duration of follow‐up in a 1:4 ratio. Levels of AFP, AFP‐L3, and DCP at the time of HCC diagnosis, month −6, and month −12 were compared between cases and controls. Of 42 HCC cases, 39 (93%) had cirrhosis, 36 (85.7%) had normal alanine aminotransferase levels, and 31 (73.8%) had very early‐stage HCC (single <2 cm). AFP and AFP‐L3 began to increase from 6 months before diagnosis of HCC in cases (P < 0.05), while they remained unchanged in controls. At HCC diagnosis, the area under the receiver operator characteristic curves (AUROCs) for AFP, AFP‐L3, and DCP were 0.77, 0.73, and 0.71, respectively. Combining AFP and AFP‐L3 showed a higher AUROC (0.83), while adding DCP did not further improve the AUROC (0.86). With the optimal cutoff values (AFP, 5 ng/mL; AFP‐L3, 4%), the sensitivity and specificity of AFP and AFP‐L3 combination were 79% and 87%, respectively. The sensitivity of ultrasonography was 48.6%, which was increased to 88.6% and 94.3% by adding AFP and AFP + AFP‐L3, respectively. Conclusion: Among three biomarkers, AFP showed the best performance in discriminating HCC cases from controls; the AFP and AFP‐L3 combination, adopting cutoff values (5 ng/mL and 4%, respectively), significantly improved the sensitivity for detecting HCC at a very early stage.
Reading skills are foundational for daily lives, academic achievement, and careers. In this study, we systematically reviewed literacy interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and estimated ...their effects on children's reading skills using a meta‐analytic approach. A total of 67 studies (N = 213,464) from 32 countries found in various databases (e.g., PsycINFO, ERIC) and sources (e.g., United States Agency for International Development) met our inclusion criteria. The results revealed an overall effect of .30 across various literacy outcomes. Effects varied for different outcomes, such that largest effects were found in emergent literacy skills (e.g., .40) and the smallest effects in reading comprehension (.25) and oral language skills (.20). Effects also varied as a function of other features such as teacher training support.
Pathways of relations of language, cognitive, and literacy skills (i.e., working memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, inference, comprehension monitoring, word reading, and listening ...comprehension) to reading comprehension were examined by comparing four variations of direct and indirect effects model of reading. Results from 350 English-speaking second graders revealed that language and cognitive component skills had direct and indirect relations to listening comprehension, explaining 86% of variance. Word reading and listening comprehension completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive component skills to reading comprehension and explained virtually all the variance in reading comprehension. Total effects of component skills varied from small to substantial. The findings support the direct and indirect effects model of reading model and indicate that word reading and listening comprehension are upper-level skills that are built on multiple language and cognitive component skills, which have direct and indirect relations among themselves. The results underscore the importance of understanding nature of relations.
We investigated 2 hypotheses of a recently proposed integrative theoretical model of reading, the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER; Kim, 2017b, 2019): (a) hierarchical relations and ...(b) dynamic relations (or differential relations) of skills to reading comprehension. Students were assessed on reading comprehension, word reading, listening comprehension, working memory, attention, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, perspective taking (theory of mind), knowledge-based inference, and comprehension monitoring in Grade 2 and again in Grade 4. Structural equation model results supported the hierarchical relations hypothesis of DIER. When a nonhierarchical, direct relations model was fitted, primarily the upper level skills (i.e., word reading and listening comprehension) were statistically significant. When hierarchical, direct, and indirect relations models were fitted, lower level skills (e.g., working memory, vocabulary) and higher order cognitive skills (e.g., perspective taking) were indirectly related to reading comprehension via multiple pathways, whereas word reading and listening comprehension remained directly related to reading comprehension. Furthermore, the magnitudes of relations varied in Grade 2 versus Grade 4 such that perspective taking (as measured by theory of mind), vocabulary, and working memory had larger effects whereas comprehension monitoring and grammatical knowledge had smaller effects on reading comprehension in Grade 4 than in Grade 2. These results provide some support for the dynamic relations hypothesis of DIER, but also suggest the complex nature of the dynamic relations as a function of development and text characteristics.
Educational Impact and Implications Statement
As a complex construct, reading comprehension draws on numerous language and cognitive skills. The direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER) integrates extant prominent theoretical models and empirical evidence, and specifies structural relations among component skills-hierarchical, dynamic, and interactive relations. Findings revealed an emerging picture of structural relations, and support the importance of articulating, understanding, and examining structural relations among multiple factors.
We examined the dimensionality of oral discourse skills (comprehension and retell of texts) and the relations of language and cognitive skills to the identified dimensions. Data were from 529 ...English‐speaking second graders (Mage = 7.42; 46% female; 52.6% Whites, 33.8% African Americans, 4.9% Hispanics, 4.7% two or more races, .8% Asian Americans, .6% American Indians, .2% Native Hawaiians, 2.5% unknown; data from 2014–2015 to 2016–2017). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that oral discourse skills are best described as four related but dissociable dimensions of narrative comprehension, narrative retell, expository comprehension, and expository retell (rs = .59–.84). Language and cognitive skills had different patterns of relations to the identified dimensions and explained larger amounts of variance in comprehension than in retell.
Within the context of the Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Writing (Kim & Park, 2019), we examined a dynamic relations hypothesis, which contends that the relations of component skills, including ...reading comprehension, to written composition vary as a function of dimensions of written composition. Specifically, we investigated (a) whether higher-order cognitive skills (i.e., inference, perspective taking, and monitoring) are differentially related to three dimensions of written composition-writing quality, writing productivity, and correctness in writing; (b) whether reading comprehension is differentially related to the three dimensions of written composition after accounting for oral language, cognition, and transcription skills, and whether reading comprehension mediates the relations of discourse oral language and lexical literacy to the three dimensions of written composition; and (c) whether total effects of oral language, cognition, transcription, and reading comprehension vary for the three dimensions of written composition. Structural equation model results from 350 English-speaking second graders showed that higher-order cognitive skills were differentially related to the three dimensions of written composition. Reading comprehension was related only to writing quality, but not to writing productivity or correctness in writing, and reading comprehension differentially mediated the relations of discourse oral language and lexical literacy to writing quality. Total effects of language, cognition, transcription, and reading comprehension varied largely for the three dimensions of written composition. These results support the dynamic relation hypothesis, role of reading in writing, and the importance of accounting for dimensions of written composition in a theoretical model of writing.
Educational Impact and Implications StatementWritten composition is a multidimensional construct, and various dimensions of written composition draw on different language and cognitive skills. Higher-order cognitive skills such as inference, perspective taking, and monitoring as well as reading comprehension are important to the quality dimension of written composition. In contrast, lexical literacy and handwriting fluency were important contributors of writing productivity (or composition length) and correctness in writing, whereas vocabulary and grammatical knowledge made additional contributions to correctness in writing. These findings imply that dimensions of written composition should be carefully considered and calibrated in assessment and instruction and that systematic integration of reading and writing supports writing development.
The authors propose an integrative theoretical model of reading called the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER) that builds on and extends several prominent theoretical models of ...reading. According to DIER, the following skills and knowledge are involved in reading comprehension: word reading, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, background knowledge (content knowledge and discourse knowledge), reading affect or socioemotions, higher order cognitions and regulation (e.g., inference, perspective taking, reasoning, and comprehension monitoring), vocabulary, grammatical (morphosyntactic and syntactic) knowledge, phonology, morphology, orthography, and domain–general cognitions (e.g., working memory and attentional control). Importantly, DIER also describes the nature of structural relations—component skills are hypothesized to have (a) hierarchical relations; (b) dynamic (or differential) relations as a function of text, activity (including assessment), and development; and (c) interactive relations. The authors then examined the hierarchical relations hypothesis by comparing a flat or direct relations model with hierarchical relations (or direct and indirect effects) models. Structural equation model results from 201 Korean-speaking first graders supported the hierarchical relations hypothesis and revealed multichanneled direct and indirect effects of component skills. These results are discussed in light of DIER, including instructional and assessment implications for reading development and reading difficulties.
We investigated direct and indirect effects of component skills on writing (DIEW) using data from 193 children in Grade 1. In this model, working memory was hypothesized to be a foundational ...cognitive ability for language and cognitive skills as well as transcription skills, which, in turn, contribute to writing. Foundational oral language skills (vocabulary and grammatical knowledge) and higher-order cognitive skills (inference and theory of mind) were hypothesized to be component skills of text generation (i.e., discourse-level oral language). Results from structural equation modeling largely supported a complete mediation model among 4 variations of the DIEW model. Discourse-level oral language, spelling, and handwriting fluency completely mediated the relations of higher-order cognitive skills, foundational oral language, and working memory to writing. Moreover, language and cognitive skills had both direct and indirect relations to discourse-level oral language. Total effects, including direct and indirect effects, were substantial for discourse-level oral language (.46), working memory (.43), and spelling (.37); followed by vocabulary (.19), handwriting (.17), theory of mind (.12), inference (.10), and grammatical knowledge (.10). The model explained approximately 67% of variance in writing quality. These results indicate that multiple language and cognitive skills make direct and indirect contributions, and it is important to consider both direct and indirect pathways of influences when considering skills that are important to writing.
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