Assigning Pronoun Antecedents: The Implications for Middle School Disabled Readers

AbstractThis study compared three groups of readers on their ability to comprehend cohesive relations of the pronoun reference type in both listening and reading comprehension. Subjects were eighth-grade normal readers, fourth-grade normal readers, and eighth-grade disabled readers reading on a fourth-grade level. A Pronoun Antecedent Test consisting of 80 syntactically determined pronoun reference items was administered. Results were analysed by ANOVA. Findings indicated that the disabled readers were significantly less competent in comprehension of these cohesive relations in either mode than either their age-level-peers or their reading-level-peers. Results were discussed in terms of strategies for teaching cohesion comprehension.