The coverage comprehension model, its importance to pedagogy and research, and threats to the validity with which it is operationalized

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dc.contributor.author McLean, Stuart
dc.date.accessioned 2021-04-15T17:53:51Z
dc.date.available 2021-04-15T17:53:51Z
dc.date.issued 2021-04-15
dc.description.abstract When learners can comprehend 98% or more of the tokens within a text, the lexical difficulty of the text is unlikely to inhibit reading comprehension (Schmitt et al., 2011). This phenomenon will be referred to as the Coverage Comprehension Model (CCM). The CCM is present in countless articles that describe the percentage of tokens necessary to comprehend reading materials (e.g., Nation, 2006). Further, numerous studies operationalize the CCM to provide evidence that participants were able to comprehend reading materials (e.g., Feng & Webb, 2020) by estimating (a) the lexical difficulty of a text and (b) the lexical mastery level of a learner. However, the validity with which the CCM is operationalized is limited by the following four assumptions; (a) 26 out of 30 words on a levels test is an appropriate threshold for mastery of a 1,000-word band; (b) the word counting unit used when estimating the lexical difficulty of a text and the lexical ability of a learner is appropriate for the target learners; (c) the item format used in levels tests can appropriately capture the type of vocabulary knowledge necessary when reading; and (d) the number of items on a vocabulary levels test accurately represents the difficulty of the 1,000-word band. This paper applies the findings of research to evaluate the validity of the first two assumptions, and concludes that the validity with which the CCM is operationalized in research is limited.
dc.identifier.citation McLean, S. (2021). The coverage comprehension model, its importance to pedagogy and research, and threats to the validity with which it is operationalized. Reading in a Foreign Language, 33(1), 126-140. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/67396
dc.identifier.issn 1539-0578
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10125/67396
dc.publisher University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center
dc.publisher Center for Language & Technology
dc.subject Text coverage model
dc.subject lexical coverage
dc.subject reading comprehension
dc.subject vocabulary knowledge
dc.subject vocabulary learning
dc.subject validity
dc.title The coverage comprehension model, its importance to pedagogy and research, and threats to the validity with which it is operationalized
dc.type Feature
dc.type.dcmi Text
local.rfl.topic New Directions in Reading Research
prism.endingpage 140
prism.number 1
prism.startingpage 126
prism.volume 33
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