期刊名称：International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education
印刷版ISSN：1307-9298
出版年度：2017
卷号：4
期号：1
页码：107-125
语种：English
出版社：International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education
其他摘要：In this study we examined the effects of syntactic and lexical complexity on third-gradestudents' comprehension of science texts. A total of 16 expository texts were designed to representsystematic differences in levels of syntactic and lexical complexity across four science-related topics(Tree Frogs, Soil, Jelly Beans and Toothpaste). A Latin-square design was used to counterbalance theorder of administration of these 16 texts. After reading each text, students responded to a post-testcomprehension measure (without access to the text). External measures of reading achievement andprior vocabulary knowledge were also gathered to serve as control variables. Findings show thatlexical complexity had a significant impact on students' comprehension on two of the four topics.Comprehension performance was not influenced by the syntactic complexity of texts, regardless oftopic. Further, no additional effects were found for English language learners. Potentially moderatingand confounding issues, such as the inference demand of syntactically simple texts and the role oftopic familiarity, are discussed in order to explain the inconsistency of the findings across topics.
