INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF WIDE READING ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Previous research on the relationship between wide reading and listening comprehension provided indirect evidence that wide reading may be impacting children's listening comprehension. In the present study we looked at growth in listening comprehension of 146 children from third grade to fifth grade and their fifth-grade estimate of accumulated wide reading as measured by an instrument using a checklist-with-foils logic, the Title Recognition Test. Employing hierarchical multiple regression, we isolated the relationship between wide reading and listening comprehension. The results indicated that individual differences in growth of listening comprehension from third grade to fifth grade were significantly related to wide reading. These findings imply that reading a lot may influence listening comprehension, thus adding support to the educational practice of providing time for children to read independently and encouraging more and varied reading outside of school.