MULTI-COMPONENT MODELS OF READING COMPREHENSION: IMPORTANT FACTORS IN READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Abstract

Students with learning disabilities (LD) have more problems with reading comprehension than those without, and the literature consistently emphasizes this situation. The severity of reading comprehension problems increases even more for students with LD, especially during the reading period to learn. Studies show that reading comprehension in this period does not depend on a single component but includes more than one component.In this direction, multi-component reading comprehension models have been developed. The main components in generally reading comprehension models are: (1) reading fluency, (2) prior knowledge, (3) vocabulary, (4) reading comprehension strategies, (5) inference, and (6) motivation. These key components are present in most multivariate comprehension models. Multivariate studies aim to test the specific effect of each predictor variable on reading comprehension. This provides an advantage in determining each variable's effect on reading comprehension. To design effective educational interventions, researchers need to understand what young adolescents with reading comprehension difficulties struggle with. Accordingly, this study aims to comprehensively discuss multivariate reading models and the factors that affect the reading comprehension of secondary school students with LD. Thus, it aims to present a perspective to researchers and practitioners to show how the variables in multi-component reading models affect each other and understanding and to show the problems experienced by students with learning disabilities in the comprehension process.