Evaluation of reading performance in students from 3rd to 7th grade levels, with different text types

Purpose: This study aimed to develop a reading profile of children from the third to seventh grade levels of elementary school. Methods: Fifty five children, between seven and 14 years of age, participated in the study. Four texts were previously developed by the researcher for reading evaluation — one composed of short words, another with long words, a third syntactically simple, and a syntactically complex text, which were read orally by the participants. After an evaluation of the results, the data were computed and the appropriate statistical analysis was applied. Results: There was a gradual decrease in the mean time necessary for reading according to the participant’s school grade level and a longer time for reading text containing long words in relation to texts containing short words. The same occurred for the reading of the syntactically complex text compared to the simple one, in all grade levels. It could be observed the higher rate of reading with the evolution of the grade levels, for each text, as well as a higher rate of reading for the text composed of short words in relation to the one with long words and for the syntactically simple text compared to the complex one. There was, in general, an increase in the percentage of words read correctly according to schooling. As for comprehension, very similar results were found, indicating good overall index of comprehension. Conclusion: It is important to develop reading instruments in relation to psycholinguistic parameters and cognitive demands, to better estimate the success in reading. 343 Avaliação de leitura em estudantes CoDAS 2013;25(4):342-50 INTRODUÇÃO A leitura consiste de dois componentes: a decodificação e a compreensão. A decodificação refere-se aos processos de reconhecimento da palavra escrita, enquanto a compreensão é definida como o processo pelo qual as palavras, sentenças ou textos são interpretados. Considerando esses dois aspectos, verifica-se que um processo de avaliação da habilidade de leitura deve incluir tudo o que possa averiguar de forma fidedigna a precisão e a fluência da decodificação grafofonêmica, bem como a compreensão do significado do texto lido, de forma a concluir o desempenho real de um indivíduo quanto à função da leitura. A leitura é uma atividade complexa que envolve a intervenção de diversos processos: identificação de letras, reconhecimento de palavras, acesso ao significado, integração sintática e semântica. Embora seja verdadeiro afirmar que a identificação das palavras é necessária para compreender um texto, ela poderia não ser suficiente. A leitura é uma das principais deficiências do estudante brasileiro. Dados publicados pelo Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais (INEP) – 2004 apontam que cerca de 55% dos alunos cursando o quinto ano do Ensino Fundamental apresentaram desempenho crítico ou muito crítico em língua portuguesa. Sabe-se que, na Bélgica, cerca de 15 a 20% dos alunos do Ensino Fundamental apresentam dificuldades importantes para a aquisição da competência de leitura. No Brasil, não há um consenso sobre os desempenhos em leitura e escrita esperados para cada ano escolar, além de existir uma grande diversidade de formas de avaliação dessas habilidades, cada qual enfocando diferentes aspectos específicos ou alguns deles. Não se utiliza um instrumento completo que seja capaz de analisar de forma ampla e irrestrita a leitura (principalmente) e a escrita de um indivíduo. A leitura e escrita em crianças e adolescentes também têm sido foco de pesquisas em áreas como a Psicologia do desenvolvimento, a Psicologia cognitiva, a Linguística e a Fonoaudiologia. Conhecer as estratégias de leitura e escrita utilizadas por crianças nos anos iniciais de escolarização é um requisito essencial para a prevenção, identificação e tratamento dessas dificuldades. A maioria dos estudos é feita na língua inglesa, dificultando generalizações seguras para a nossa realidade em função das diferenças entre os sistemas de escrita alfabéticos. Desta forma, justifica-se a necessidade de estudos com crianças e adolescentes brasileiros de diferentes anos escolares. Nos últimos 20 anos, as ciências cognitivas avançaram substancialmente na proposição de modelos teóricos capazes de explicar os processos mentais envolvidos na leitura. Atualmente, instrumentos para avaliar dificuldades de leitura que são derivados diretamente daqueles modelos teóricos estão começando a ser produzidos. Exemplos incluem a bateria BELEC (une batterie d’évaluation du langage écrit et de ses troubles) para avaliação da linguagem escrita e de seus distúrbios, a prova coletiva de competência de leitura silenciosa e sua adaptação, assim como a adaptação brasileira da Avaliação dos Processos de Leitura (PROLEC). Este último instrumento de avaliação é composto por quatro blocos para a avaliação de quatro processos de leitura, como: (a) a identificação de letras, que visa medir a capacidade dos escolares para identificar as letras e seus respectivos sons, (b) os processos léxicos, com quatro provas que comprovam o funcionamento das duas rotas de reconhecimento de palavras e seus subprocessos, (c) os processos sintáticos, com duas provas que verificam a capacidade de o escolar processar diferentes tipos de estruturas gramaticais, comprovar a dificuldade que se pode produzir ao utilizar diferentes estruturas sintáticas e utilizar os sinais de pontuação e (d) os processos semânticos, com duas provas que analisam, respectivamente, a compreensão de orações e a compreensão de textos. Além desses instrumentos, há também provas de leitura em voz alta de palavras e pseudopalavras, que são consideradas tradicionalmente como a forma mais adequada para avaliar a eficácia dos mecanismos de decodificação e de reconhecimento de palavras. Recentemente, diversos instrumentos vêm sendo criados, na tentativa de constituir meios fidedignos e mais completos de avaliação da habilidade leitora, levando em consideração os estudos atuais da área. Exemplos constituem também a Escala de Avaliação das Competências de Leitura, que avalia as competências de leitura ligadas aos processos de decodificação e de compreensão (conhecimento de letras e da relação fonografêmica, decodificação de itens isolados, fluência da leitura de texto e compreensão da leitura), e o Protocolo de Avaliação da Compreensão de Leitura (PACL), que se baseia na análise do reconto oral do texto lido silenciosamente e das respostas a questões de múltipla escolha (relacionadas a proposições explícitas e implícitas do texto). O jogo também tem sido utilizado em atividades de diagnóstico e de intervenção, tendo em vista as possibilidades de promover, por meio dele, o desenvolvimento e a aprendizagem. Diante da necessidade de continuar a busca por medidas de avaliação de fluência de leitura com base nas características psicolinguísticas do Português Brasileiro, de forma precisa e pormenorizada, este estudo pretendeu descrever um perfil de desempenho na avaliação de leitura em voz alta de crianças e adolescentes do terceiro ao sétimo anos do Ensino Fundamental, utilizando diferentes tipos de textos.


INTRODUCTION
The act of reading consists of two components: decoding and comprehension. Decoding refers to the processes of recognition of written words, while comprehension is defined as the process through which words, sentences, or texts are interpreted (1) .
Considering these two aspects, the procedures for assessing reading skills must include all elements that can accurately ascertain the precision and fluency of graphophonemic decoding, as well as the comprehension of the text read in order to evaluate an individual's actual reading performance.
Reading is a complex activity that involves the intervention of several processes: letter identification, word recognition, meaning access, and syntactic and semantic integration. Although it is true that word identification is necessary for the comprehension of a text, it may not be enough.
Reading is one of the main deficiencies of Brazilian students. Data published by the National Institute for the Study and Research on Education (Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais) in 2004 pointed that around 55% of the students enrolled in the fifth year of elementary school presented critical or very critical performance in Portuguese language (2) . In Belgium, it is known that around 15-20% of students in elementary school have difficulty with the acquisition of reading skills (3) .
In Brazil, there is no consensus about the reading and writing performances expected for each school grade. In addition, there are several ways of evaluating these abilities, each of them focusing on different specific aspects or only on some of them. A complete instrument, capable of analyzing an individual's reading and writing skills in a thorough and unrestricted manner is not yet used in the country.
Reading and writing skills in children and teenagers have also been the focus of research conducted in areas such as Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, and Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. The knowledge of reading and writing strategies used by children in the first years of school is an essential requisite for the prevention, identification, and treatment of these difficulties. The majority of studies have been published in English, which prevents generalizations that encompass the reality in our country because of differences in the alphabetic writing systems. The necessity for studies with Brazilian children and teenagers in different school years is thus justified (4) .
Over the last 20 years, cognitive sciences have significantly advanced in proposing theoretical models that can explain the mental processes involved in the act of reading (5) . Currently, instruments that evaluate reading difficulties and which derive directly from the aforementioned theoretical models have been produced. As examples, we mention the BELEC (une batterie d'évaluation du langage écrit et de ses troubles) (6) for evaluating written language and its disorders, the collective test of silent reading ability (5) and its adaptation (3) , as well as the Brazilian adaptation of the PROLEC (7) . The latter is composed of four parts that evaluate four reading processes: (a) letter identification, which has the purpose of measuring the ability of students to identify letters and their respective sounds; (b) lexical processes, with four tests that attest the functioning of the two routes of word recognition and their sub-processes; (c) syntactic processes, with two tests that verify a student's ability to decode different types of grammatical structures, and to attest the possible difficulty that arises from using different syntactic structures and punctuation marks; and (d) semantic processes, with two tests that analyze the comprehension of sentences and texts, respectively.
In addition to these instruments, there are reading tests of words and pseudo-words that are read aloud, which are traditionally considered the most adequate way of evaluating the efficacy of decoding and word recognition mechanisms (8,9) .
Recently, several instruments have been developed as an attempt to devise reliable and more complete ways of evaluating reading skills, taking into consideration current studies published in this area. We cite as examples the Scale of Evaluation of Reading Skills (Escala de Avaliação das Competências de Leitura), which assesses reading abilities linked to decoding and comprehension processes (knowledge of letters and phonographemic relations, decoding isolated items, fluency in text reading, and reading comprehension) (10) , and the Protocol of Reading Skills Evaluation (Protocolo de Avaliação da Compreensão de Leitura), based on the analysis of an oral retelling of a text read silently and the answers given to multiple-choice questions (related to propositions that are explicit and implicit in the text) (11) .
Considering the possibilities of promoting development and learning through playing, games have also been used in the activities of diagnosis and intervention (12) .
In light of the need to keep on searching for measures to evaluate reading fluency based on the psycholinguistic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese language in a precise and detailed way, this study aimed at describing a performance profile obtained through the reading assessment of different types of texts read aloud by children and teenagers from the third to the seventh grades of elementary school.

Sample selection
For the conduction of this study, we evaluated 55 students, ranging from 7 to 14 years of age, enrolled in two public elementary schools in the city of Piracicaba, São Paulo. For the selection of students without complaints about reading difficulties, we used reports given by the teachers responsible for each classroom prior to the evaluation, when the students were enrolled in the third, fourth, and fifth school grades. For the students in the sixth and seventh grades, the selection was based on the accounts provided by teachers of Portuguese language, given that, from the sixth grade onwards, there is one teacher for each discipline. Individuals with a reading development considered adequate to the school grade were included in the study, suggested by the teachers responsible for the groups.
All individuals read the four texts requested. Ten thirdyear students, 12 fourth-year students, 12 fifth-year students, 11 sixth-year students, and 10 seventh-year students participated in this study.
A letter that informed and clarified our research was sent to the participants' parents or legal guardians, as well as the Informed Consent, which was duly signed by the parents who authorized their children's participation in this study. The documents were kept under confidentiality (in accordance with article 16 of the Code of Ethics of speech-language pathologists and audiologists).

Material and procedures
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the institution where it was carried out (process number 268/08).
The selection of participants in the third, fourth, and fifth years of elementary school was based on suggestions made by the teachers responsible for each group. Participants in the sixth and seventh years of elementary school were selected with the aid of the Portuguese language teachers responsible for each year. We asked these professionals to appoint students with the best reading performances in each of the groups.
For the analysis of reading per se, four texts with the same number of words (175 words each) were previously elaborated by the researchers; Text 1 was composed of short words (monosyllables and disyllables); Text 2 was composed of long words (trisyllables and polysyllables, with the exception of connectors, such as conjunctions, pronouns, articles, and adverbs); Text 3 had simple syntactic structure, and, lastly, Text 4 had complex syntactic structure (Appendix 1-4, respectively). All texts were read aloud by the participants in individual sessions in the libraries of the schools where they studied, and recorded with the use of a digital Panasonic recorder-model RR-US450. In addition to the recordings, we used the researchers' observation of the act of reading, as well as the answers to five questions about the contents of each text as analysis criteria (Appendix 5). The pre-established parameters used for analyzing the reading performance in the four texts are displayed in Chart 1.
For the evaluation of comprehension, we elaborated five questions for each text, totaling 20 questions posed to the participants, and the answers were based on the literal content of the texts.
In this study, we sought to analyze reading in individuals enrolled from the third to the seventh years of elementary school, considering reading development and the chronological time of its occurrence (13)(14)(15)(16) .

RESULTS
In regards to the length of reading time registered by the participants (Figure 1), we observed a gradual decrease in the average time necessary to read all texts with the progression of school years. Through the statistical analysis performed, it is possible to observe that the "type of text" (F=20.348; p=0.011*), as well as "schooling" (third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh year of elementary school) (F=10.185; p=0.023*) influenced performance in relation to the length of time necessary to read the texts of short and long words. In regards to the syntactically simple and complex texts, the "type of text" also resulted in statistical difference in relation to the length of time spent with reading (F=42.741; p=0.002**), as well as "schooling" (F=292.265; p=0.000**). The interaction between the variables "type of text" and "schooling" was also statistically significant in relation to the length of time spent with reading the texts with short and long words (F=3.146; p=0.018*), but this interaction was not statistically significant to the length of time taken to read the texts with different levels of syntactic complexity (F=0.089; p=0.986).
As for the reading rate of the participants of this study, it is possible to observe a steady increase with the progression of school years for each text (Figure 2).
Concerning the evaluation of comprehension, we obtained values that are quite homogeneous in relation to the performances presented in each text and school year ( Figure 5). The number of correct answers out of the five questions asked by the researchers about each text is displayed in Figure 5.    In relation to the "reading rate", the variables "type of text" and "schooling" were also significant according to the statistical analysis ("type of text" -F=95.217; p=0.001** and "schooling" -F=28.547; p=0.003**, for the texts with short and long words; and "type of text" -F=33.298; p=0.004** and "schooling" -F=97.296; p=0.000**, for the syntactically simple and complex texts). On the other hand, the interaction between "type of text" and "schooling" occurred differently (F=1.053; p=0.384 for the texts composed of short and long words, respectively; and F=0.233; p=0.919 for the syntactically simple and complex texts, respectively).
Concerning the percentage of words read correctly by the participants, there was an overall increase as they moved from one school year to the next (Figure 3). The difference in the percentage of words read correctly in the texts composed of short and long words was statistically significant, and so it was in relation to schooling. However, the interaction between "type of text" and "schooling" was not relevant. It is possible to verify an increase in the number of words read correctly with the progression of years through numerical values; in other words, an average of three to four correct words per text was predominant in the initial years (third and fourth), while four to five correct words were more frequent in the final years (sixth and seventh). This average was not related to the complexity of the words.
In regards to the occurrence of syllabized reading, we observed a gradual decrease of this characteristic with the passing of school years (Figure 4).

DISCUSSION
Nowadays, the tests used for evaluating the act of reading specifically are scarce. Moreover, the ones that are available assess only a few aspects that could potentially lead to adequate therapy (3,5,(7)(8)(9) .
Considering the difficulty experienced in the area of speechlanguage pathology and audiology to conduct reliable and precise evaluations of reading performances, a study on the effect of psycholinguistic characteristics upon reading performances became necessary.
The evaluation of reading and writing in individuals enrolled in the initial years of school will only be complete when their teachers' perception of their abilities is taken into consideration, since the classroom provides a natural context in which to assess the students' written language, besides allowing for a continuous and longitudinal analysis of their progress (17) .
However, on the course of analyzing the results of the study in question, we verified that some participants read by syllables, thus presenting low reading rates and setting themselves apart from other participants enrolled in the same school year who were also suggested by their teachers. This finding led to a questioning of the actual reading performance of these students who were selected based on the suggestions offered by their teachers.
In another study (18) , similar to ours, the authors verified that the perception of teachers about the behavior of their students is a significant component in assessing the latter's academic abilities (arithmetic, oral language, reading, and memory, among others), but also highlighted the necessity of complementing the teachers' assessments with objective evidence of the students' academic performance anytime important decisions concerning them need to be made. In a study (19) conducted with a group of 20 fifth-year students, the authors observed a discrepancy between the teacher's evaluation and the reading assessment conducted from a cognitive perspective -according to the teacher, all the students presented normal reading development. Therefore, according to the author, the assessment made by teachers about their students' reading performances may fail when it comes to the identification of more specific shortcomings.
In this study, we observed a gradual diminution in the average time spent with reading texts as the school years progressed, which evidences the evolution of reading development in students who did not complain about reading difficulties as the school years advance. As it was previously verified in another study (20) through the classification of 24 students from the third to the fifth years of elementary school as good, regular, and bad readers, the reading process becomes faster as the school years go by. Likewise, in a well-known study in which children were evaluated in relation to their ability to read isolated words, comprehension, and length of time spent to read texts, and considering the school year they were enrolled in, the fourth-year students presented better performance than the third-year students. There was no difference in performance between the groups of readers on the test of question comprehension. The third-year students were significantly slower to read the texts than the fourthyear participants.
According to what has been found in our study, and also verified in another research project (21) , students enrolled in earlier years tend to read more slowly; however, as they gradually become fluent decoders and faster readers, they start reading more, and end up familiarizing themselves with the general visual shape of the words that they tend to encounter more frequently.
In a study carried out with individuals of both sexes ranging between 8 and 16 years of age, and attending classes in the third to the fifth year of elementary school, the highest average of correct reading of isolated words and pseudo-words was found among fifth-year students. The students enrolled in the fourth year followed in sequence when compared to the performance of third-year students (22) .
The difference in the average time taken to read is observable in the results of our study: Text 1, with short words, required a shorter reading time than the average time used to read Text 2, with long words, which evidences the influence of the length of words on reading time. It is also possible to verify an increase in the length of time used to read Text 4 in relation to Text 3 by students of all school years analyzed here, which shows the interference of the syntactic complexity of a text with how long students take to read it. Therefore, we verified that the simpler the syntactic structure, the shorter the time spent reading the text. Similarly, in a study (23) with words and non-words or pseudo-words, the authors concluded that the longer the pseudo-words and the more complex the syllables that composed them, the longer the reaction time and locutional duration.
This fact confirms that the texts constructed with shorter and syntactically simple words require less time to be read, and, when composed of long words and syntactic complexity, they demand more time. Likewise, readers who are enrolled in earlier years of school spend more time to read texts composed of long words, but there is no association between the longer time needed to read and the syntactically complex text in students in earlier years. Therefore, students spend more time to read texts with longer words than texts with shorter words, just as they need more time to read texts that are more complex syntactically.
In another study, the authors concluded that the factors that are generally manipulated during the task of reading actual words in a loud voice have the purpose of offering information about the effects of variation of the amount of letters (effect of word length) upon the act of reading, the effects of variation of familiarity levels with words upon reading and writing (effect of frequency), the involvement of semantic processes, and the process of converting graphemes and phonemes to correct pronunciation on the course of reading (24) .
In this study, we observed a linear improvement in the students' performance by school year through the analysis of reading rates, with one exception found between the fifth and sixth-year students, who presented a slight decrease in performance. Such decrease is explained by the change of schools (the transition from the fifth to the sixth year is marked by the mandatory transfer to another school; once the fifth year comes to an end, the next school will receive students from the sixth year onwards), as well as the proximity between these years in terms of reading development, which generally is not altered significantly from the fifth to the sixth year of elementary school.
On the other hand, the oscillations that occurred in the percentage of words read correctly by the students from the fourth to the seventh years can be justified by the fact that the evolution of reading development and fluency occur gradually, with individual variations and strong similarities between the performances shown from one year to the next. Another aspect observed was the prevalence of higher percentages of words read correctly in Text 1 in relation to Text 2, and in Text 3 in comparison to Text 4 as the participants advanced in their school years. This finding exposes that it is easier to read a continuous text of short words in comparison to a continuous text of long words, in the same way that it is easier to read a syntactically simple text than a syntactically complex one.
Drawing on revised studies, it is possible to perceive that reading fluency depends on essential elements, such as the reading rate, automatization, prosody, and comprehension. When all these factors operate in harmony, reading fluency is achieved. Given that this fluency depends on different pre-requisites, each one of them must be within normal standards, and the development of scientific investigation on reading fluency must be founded on the understanding of its particularities (25) .
Moreover, we experienced relative difficulties with interpretation and conclusion in regards to the evaluation of comprehension because of the marked homogeneity in the results obtained. The reduced number of questions for this task, besides the simple and straightforward answers (with emphasis only on short-term memory about details of the texts), can justify the homogeneity of the comprehension performance for all texts evaluated. Therefore, we cannot draw well-defined conclusions in regards to the pace of the participants analyzed by text or school year, since all presented adequate performance through answering the majority of the questions correctly. Likewise, in another study (26) , in which the authors evaluated text comprehension by third and fourth-year students, the sample presented overall good performance when answering questions about the story, reaching 81.71% of correct answers. The comprehension abilities of the sample studied were better when assessed through a questionnaire about the story.
Reading comprehension in children and teenagers is a topic broadly discussed in the literature, and there is no unanimous decision on the best way to analyze it that is also reliable and all-encompassing. Text comprehension by these students has also been analyzed by other Brazilian authors (27,28) .
Since studies on textual comprehension by children and teenagers frequently utilize two types of methodological investigative resources, namely reproduction (oral or written) of a text presented and answers to questions about a text that the individual listens to or reads, this study approached one of the most used ways of analyzing comprehension (29,30) .
The results point to a good comprehension performance in several individuals that presented slower reading, at times even reading by syllables. We also found that, even among the most capable readers, there was a wide range of reading speed, which is connected to a series of factors related to individual differences in devising cognitive strategies to process information. The magnitude of this correlation can be justified (3) by the fact that written comprehension is not reduced to word decoding. Other factors certainly influence the level of textual comprehension.
Some limitations were identified in this study, on the course of carrying out the experiments and in its finalization. A limiting factor that can be cited is the criteria adopted for the selection of the participants, considering that we relied on the suggestions offered by their teachers. In light of this, the selection of participants for future studies must be based on more precise tracking procedures, and not only on the subjective accounts provided by teachers.

CONCLUSION
In regards to the reading time taken by the participants of this study, the gradual decrease of the average time necessary for each school year evidenced the progress of the reading development of students without complaints about reading difficulties as the years progressed, as well as the influence of the length of words upon the time taken to read the texts. We also verified an increase in the time necessary to read the syntactically complex text in relation to the simple one, in all school years analyzed.
As for the participants' average reading rate, we observed a steady increase with the progression of years in relation to each text. The reading rate was always higher for the text composed of short words in comparison to the text with long words, and it was higher for the syntactically simple text in relation to the complex one.
Concerning the percentage of words read correctly by the participants, there was an overall increase as the school years advanced, remarkably through the comparison between the initial (third) year and the final (seventh) year investigated here.
In regards to the comprehension evaluation, we experienced relative difficulties to interpret the results and conclusion, which were markedly homogeneous throughout the school years studied.
Other studies that focus on detailed reading evaluations must follow our analysis with the use of different psycholinguistic parameters in individuals who complain about their development, with the purpose of establishing criteria for comparison.  A formiga, empolgada, sentia a crescente necessidade de encontrar afazeres, julgando-se por consequência uma formiga importante. Investiu fortemente em seu formigueiro, tornando-o um ambiente turístico, passando a receber valores de ingresso dos visitantes, agora proprietária e administradora de um negócio lucrativo, recebendo elogios e tornando-se extremamente popular.
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