Browsing by Author "Tuomala, Anniina"

Goals. The objective of this thesis is to study if poor language proficiency can be differentiated from reading disability by underlying cognitive processes. According to previous studies it is challenging for teachers to differentiate reading disability from poor language proficiency, and there are no tests for that in schools. The specific interest in this study is to examine if there are statistically significant relations between working memory, attentional capacity and reading skills among S1- (finnish as a first language) and S2-groups (finnish as a second language), and compare the groups' results for statistical differences. The native language teachers' assessments of S2-students' language skills are also examined. The hypothesis is that there is no statistical difference in attentional capacity between the S1- and S2-groups, but there is a difference in finnish reading skills between the groups. Methods. The participants consisted of 3rd graders from nine classes and four schools (N=159). Attentional capacity was measured by Attention Concentration Test and working memory by a computer-based test. Native language teachers' assessments were collected by a questionnaire. The results of ALLU-test, which measures reading skills, were received from the schools. The data was analysed by crosstabs, correlation and multivariate methods. Results and conclusions. According to the hypothesis, S1-group had statistically significantly higher results in reading skills than S2-group. S2-boys had the poorest results in ACT and working memory. S2-boys' ACT-results correlated positively with reading comprehension and S1-boys ACT-results correlated negatively with reading skills, so ACT-results aren't unambiguously related to reading skills. The varying results may imply the importance of process speed to reading skills. S2-boys seemed to benefit from slower working pace: the slower they were in Attention Concentration Test, the better reading comprehension results they got. S1-boys' high speed on the other hand related to higher results in decoding skills and high accuracy to higher reading comprehension results. In further studies the test measuring working memory should be more challenging for 3rd graders: in this study it wasn't difficult enough to separate pupils' working memory skills. S2-boys' native language correlated with working memory results and S2-girls' native language speaking skills correlated with finnish decoding skills. According to the regression analysis the variables predicting reading comprehension were ACT1, ACT2, native language and decoding skills.