Les capacités inférentielles en situation de compréhension de récits : l’importance de s’adapter aux niveaux scolaires considérés
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.5861Keywords:
inferences, narrative comprehension, grade level, assessment method, children’s literatureAbstract
This study examines the practices of assessment of young children’s inferential abilities during the comprehension of narratives. The objective is to question the presence of developmental differences that are classically reported between different ages assessed using the same story. Rather than only following this same perspective, this study proposes to investigate the relevance of adjusting to the students’ school level to accurately assess their inferential abilities. The inferential abilities of 348 students aged five to eight years old were surveyed, by either using a story that corresponded to their grade level, or using a story from a grade level different from theirs (i.e., higher or lower). The results show that when students at different grade levels are assessed using the same material, they show differences in achievement. However, when students are assessed with a grade-adjusted narrative, no differences are observed between the age groups studied.
References
Bianco, M., Pellenq, C., Lambert, E., Bressoux, P., Lima, L. et Doyen, A.-L. (2012). Impact of early code‐skill and oral‐comprehension training on reading achievement in first grade. Journal of Research in Reading, 35(4), 427–455. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01479.x
Blanc, N. (2010). Lecture et habiletés de compréhension chez l’enfant. Dunod.
Blanc, N. (2014). Using televised and auditory stories to improve preschoolers’ inference skills: An exploratory study. L’Année psychologique, 114(4), 799–819. https://doi.org/10.4074/S0003503314004096
Blanc, N. (2022). Emotion in storybooks: A key component to explore children’s comprehension processes. Dans Proceedings of the 2nd SFERE-Provence/AMPIRIC, 30–31 March 2021, Marseille, France. Learning, strategies and educational policies. What interdisciplinary, methodologies and international perspectives (p. 16–21). Sciendo. https://doi.org/10.2478/9788366675841-003
Blanc, N. et Quenette, G. (2017). La production d’inférences émotionnelles entre 8 et 10 ans : quelle méthodologie pour quels résultats ? Enfance, 4(4), 503–511. https://doi.org/10.3917/enf1.174.0503
Boisclair, A., Makdissi, H., Sanchez Madrid, C. P., Fortier, C. et Sirois, P. (2004, 26 août). La structuration causale du récit chez le jeune enfant [Communication]. Actes du 9e colloque de l’AIRDF, Québec, Canada. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242164211_La_structuration_causale_du_recit_chez_le_jeune_enfant
Cain, K. et Oakhill, J. (2006a). Assessment matters: Issues in the measurement of reading comprehension. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(4), 697–708. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905X69807
Cain, K. et Oakhill, J. (2006b). Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(4), 683–696. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905X67610
Cain, K. et Oakhill, J. (2014). Reading comprehension and vocabulary: Is vocabulary more important for some aspects of comprehension? L’Année Psychologique, 114(4), 647–662. https://doi.org/10.4074/S0003503314004035
Cain, K., Oakhill, J. V., Barnes, M. A. et Bryant, P. E. (2001). Comprehension skill, inference making ability and their relation to knowledge. Memory & Cognition, 29(6), 850–859. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196414
Calvo, M. G. (2005). Relative contribution of vocabulary knowledge and working memory span to elaborative inferences in reading. Learning and Individual Differences, 15(1), 53–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2004.07.002
Causse, L., Syssau, A. et Blanc, N. (2022). Assessing inference production in 5 to 7-year-olds: Benefits of using a pictorial task. European Review of Applied Psychology, 72(4), article 100761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2022.100761
Causse, L., Syssau, A. et Blanc, N. (2023). Les capacités inférentielles des élèves de GS, CP et CE1 : quel impact de la fermeture des écoles en France au printemps 2020 ? ANAE- Approche Neuropsychologique des Apprentissages chez l’Enfant, (182), 1–10.
Creissen, S. et Blanc, N. (2017). Quelle représentation des différentes facettes de la dimension émotionnelle d’une histoire entre l’âge de 6 et 10 ans ? Apports d’une étude multimédia. Psychologie française, 62(3), 263–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psfr.2015.07.006
Currie, N. K. et Muijselaar, M. M. L. (2019). Inference making in young children: The concurrent and longitudinal contributions of verbal working memory and vocabulary. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(8), 1416–1431. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000342
Deconti, K. A. et Dickerson, D. J. (1994). Preschool children’s understanding of the situational determinants of others’ emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 8(5), 453–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939408408952
Desmarais, C., Archambault, M.-C., Filiatrault-Veilleux, P. et Tarte, G. (2012). La compréhension d’inférences : comparaison des habiletés d’enfants de quatre et de cinq ans en lecture partagée. Revue des sciences de l’éducation, 38(3), 555–578. https://doi.org/10.7202/1022712ar
Ferrand, L., Bonin, P., Méot, A., Augustinova, M., New, B., Pallier, C. et Brysbaert, M. (2008). Age-of-acquisition and subjective frequency estimates for all generally known monosyllabic French words and their relation with other psycholinguistic variables. Behavior Research Methods, 40(4), 1049–2054. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.4.1049
Filiatrault-Veilleux, P., Bouchard, C., Trudeau, N. et Desmarais, C. (2016b). Comprehension of inferences in a narrative in 3- to 6-year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59(5), 1099–1110. https://doi.org/10.1044/2016_jslhr-l-15-0252
Filiatrault-Veilleux, P., Desmarais, C., Bouchard, C., Trudeau, N. et Leblond, J. (2016a). Conception et qualités psychométriques d’un outil d’évaluation de la compréhension d’inférences en contexte de récit chez des enfants âgés de 3 à 6 ans. Canadian Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 40(2), 149–163. https://cjslpa.ca/files/2016_CJSLPA_Vol_40/No_02/CJSLPA_2016_Vol_40_No_2_Filiatrault-Veilleux_149-163.pdf
Freed, J. et Cain, K. (2017). Assessing school‐aged children’s inference‐making: The effect of story test format in listening comprehension. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 52(1), 95–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12260
Freed, J. et Cain, K. (2021). Assessment of inference‐making in children using comprehension questions and story retelling: Effect of text modality and a story presentation format. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 56(3), 637–652. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12620
Guéraud, S. et Royer, C. (2016, 18–20 juillet). On-line investigations of inference production in skilled and less-skilled ten years old children [Communication]. 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse, Kassel, Germany.
Gygax, P., Garnham, A. et Oakhill, J. (2004). Inferring characters’ emotional states: Can readers infer specific emotions? Language and Cognitive Processes, 19(5), 613–639. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960444000016
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2006). Le jour où mon frère viendra. Pocket.
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2009). Une poule tous, tous poule un. Pocket.
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2011). Pitikok et la forêt enrhumée. Pocket.
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2012). Pitikok et le bébé bison. Pocket.
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2013). Les p’tites poules et la grande casserole. Pocket.
Jolibois, C. et Heinrich, C. (2018). Les p’tites poules et la famille Malpoulie. Pocket.
Kaefer, T., Pinkham, A. M. et Neuman, S. B. (2017). Seeing and knowing: Attention to illustrations during storybook reading and narrative comprehension in 2‐year‐olds. Infant and Child Development, 26(5), article e2018. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2018
Kendeou, P., Bohn‐Gettler, C., White, M. J. et van den Broek, P. (2008). Children’s inference generation across different media. Journal of Research in Reading, 31(3), 259–272. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.00370.x
Kendeou, P., van den Broek, P., White, M. J. et Lynch, J. S. (2009). Predicting reading comprehension in early elementary school: The independent contributions of oral language and decoding skills. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(4), 765–778. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015956
Kim, Y.-S. G. et Pilcher, H. (2016). What is listening comprehension and what does it take to improve listening comprehension? Dans R. Schiff et M. Joshi (dir.), Interventions in learning disabilities: A handbook on systematic training programs for individuals with learning disabilities (p. 159–173). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31235-4_10
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. Cambridge University Press.
Kraal, A., Koornneef, A. W., Saab, N. et van den Broek, P. W. (2018). Processing of expository and narrative texts by low-and high-comprehending children. Reading and Writing, 31(9), 2017–2040. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9789-2
Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC), Jiang, H. et Davis, D. (2017). Let’s know! Proximal impacts on prekindergarten through grade 3 students’ comprehension-related skills. The Elementary School Journal, 118(2), 177–206. https://doi.org/10.1086/694220
Lepola, J., Lynch, J., Kiuru, N., Laakkonen, E. et Niemi, P. (2016). Early oral language comprehension, task orientation, and foundational reading skills as predictors of grade 3 reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 51(4), 373–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.145
Lynch, J. S., van den Broek, P., Kremer, K. E., Kendeou, P., White, M. J. et Lorch, E. P. (2008). The development of narrative comprehension and its relation to other early reading skills. Reading Psychology, 29(4), 327–365. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702710802165416
Mira, W. A. et Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2013). The impact of reading expressiveness on the listening comprehension of storybooks by prekindergarten children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 44(2), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2012/11-0073)
Neale, M. D. (1999). Neale analysis of reading ability: Reader. ACER Press, Australian Council for Educational Research Limited.
Oakhill, J. (2020). Four decades of research into children’s reading comprehension: A personal review. Discourse Processes, 57(5-6), 402–419. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2020.1740875
Oakhill, J. (2021). Children’s text comprehension: From theory & research to support & intervention. Pedagogical Linguistics, 4(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.21015.oak
Oakhill, J., Cain, K. et Elbro, C. (2019). Reading comprehension and reading comprehension difficulties. Dans D. A. Kilpatrick, R. Malatesha Joshi et R. K. Wagner (dir.), Reading development and difficulties (p. 83–115). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26550-2_5
Paris, A. H. et Paris, S. G. (2003). Assessing narrative comprehension in young children. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 36–76. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.38.1.3
Potocki, A., Ecalle, J. et Magnan, A. (2013). Effects of computer-assisted comprehension training in less skilled comprehenders in second grade: A one-year follow-up study. Computers & Education, 63, 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.011
Rodrigues, B., Cadime, I., Viana, F. L. et Ribeiro, I. (2020). Developing and validating tests of reading and listening comprehension for fifth and sixth grade students in Portugal. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, article 610876. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.610876
Silva, M. et Cain, K. (2015). The relations between lower and higher level comprehension skills and their role in prediction of early reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(2), 321–331. https://doi.org /10.1037/a0037769.supp
Sterpin, L. F., Ortiz, S. S., Formoso, J. et Barreyro, J. P. (2021). The role of vocabulary knowledge on inference generation: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Language and Communication, 25(1), 168–193. https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2021-0008
Tompkins, V., Guo, Y. et Justice, L. M. (2013). Inference generation, story comprehension, and language skills in the preschool years. Reading and Writing, 26(3), 403–429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-012-9374-7
Van den Broek, P., Kendeou, P., Kremer, K., Lynch, J. S., Butler, J., White, M. J. et Lorch, E. P. (2005). Assessment of comprehension abilities in young children. Dans S. G. Paris et S. A. Stahl (dir.), Children’s reading comprehension and assessment (p. 107–130). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410612762
Van den Broek, P., Kendeou, P., Lousberg, S. et Visser, G. (2011). Preparing for reading comprehension: Fostering text comprehension skills in preschool and early elementary school children. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 4(1), 259–268. https://www.iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/223
Van der Linden, S. (2008). L’album, le texte et l’image. Le français aujourd’hui, 161(2), 51–58. https://doi.org/10.3917/lfa.161.0051
Zucker, T. A., Justice, L. M., Piasta, S. B. et Kaderavek, J. N. (2010). Preschool teachers’ literal and inferential questions and children’s responses during whole-class shared reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25(1), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.07.001
Zwaan, R. A. et Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Situation models in language comprehension and memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123(2), 162–185. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.123.2.162
Zwaan, R. A., Langston, M. C. et Graesser, A. C. (1995). The construction of situation models in narrative comprehension: An event-indexing model. Psychological Science, 6(5), 292–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.1995.tb00513.x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Canadian Society for the Study of Education

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The Canadian Journal of Education follows Creative Commons Licencing CC BY-NC-ND.