Readings (1)

Background Knowledge	Lesson 2: Readings (1)	-

Matthew Effects

Norma Dyck, Ed.D.

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." We see it in our lives every day. But what does that have to do with reading? Good readers become better readers and poor readers become poorer readers.

Are you serious? Do poor readers really become poorer readers? Yes, when compared to their peers on standardized tests, poor readers fall further and further behind as the years pass. Some researchers (Stanovich, 1986) coined the term "Matthew effects" to represent this theory. The term was based on a passage in the Bible from the Gospel according to Matthew: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath" (Matthew 25:29).

How the Theory Works

The Matthew effects work a bit like snowballs. Imagine rolling a snowball around in the snow. What happens? It picks up more and more snow, growing into a much larger snowball. With reading, vocabulary knowledge is like the snow. The more one reads, the more one "rolls around in the snow," collecting new vocabulary which in turn increases reading comprehension and understanding. Poor readers simply don't "roll around" and collect new vocabulary at the same pace as good readers, and so don't grow as quickly in their reading comprehension and understanding. Therefore, their achievement falls further below expectation for their age or grade level each succeeding year.

The vocabulary knowledge of a beginning reader develops long before a child enters school. During the preschool years, children develop vocabularies orally by listening and speaking. Homes or preschool environments that provide rich and extensive language experiences help children to enter school ready to learn to read. These children not only understand the meaning of the words they read but also use the meaning of words to figure out unknown words. They get an early start in reading and become good readers. Meanwhile, their peers who have less developed vocabularies struggle to learn how to read.

While all children start out dependent on listening for vocabulary development, poor readers remain heavily dependent on listening for learning new vocabulary and knowledge. Most researchers agree that reading is a significant contributor to the growth of children's vocabulary and knowledge. Some poor readers continue to develop their vocabularies and other language abilities without the benefits of reading; however, their number is much smaller than is commonly presumed (Stanovich, 1986).

Much vocabulary growth takes place through the inductive learning of the meanings of unknown words encountered in reading (Stanovich, 1986). Thus, students who do not learn to read independently at an early age are limited in this very important source of vocabulary development. This puts them at a significant disadvantage in intermediate and secondary level school, where reading is a primary means of imparting knowledge to students.

The gap widens even more as some children who learn to read independently choose reading as a leisure activity, thus reading more than their less able peers. According to some studies, skilled readers read about three times as many words as less skilled readers (Stanovich, 1986). This means they learn more word meanings and, as a consequence, comprehend even better than before. Readers with inadequate vocabularies, who read slowly and without enjoyment, read less, and so grow less in vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension.

What Schools Can Do about Matthew Effects

It almost goes without saying that schools want to encourage the positive aspect of the Matthew effects with good readers. In fact, schools tend to do a good job encouraging good readers to read more. But what can schools do to prevent the negative effects in early readers and to reverse them in students who have already experienced reading failure?

Schools can strive to help children avoid the long-term negative consequences of poor reading in several ways. Teachers can help children develop deep and rich vocabularies before they begin to read. They can provide direct and systematic instruction in phonological awareness as a prerequisite to reading instruction so the children can have early success with phonics or other code-breaking instruction. They can teach efficient mechanisms of word identification (phonics, sight vocabulary, etc.) as soon as possible so students can read independently and increase the possibility of developing deeper and richer vocabularies through reading. They can accompany phonics instruction with word meaning and vocabulary development instruction to avoid the potential for children to become "word callers".

Students for whom the Matthew effects have already set-in present a greater challenge for schools. Teachers need to look for ways to increase the amount of exposure to vocabulary and reading content without requiring the students to be totally reliant on reading the words. Allowing students to listen to tape-recorded text and asking peers to read to the student are common ways to address the problem. While rewriting text is an option for helping poor readers learn content, to do so may eliminate the very vocabulary the students needs to learn to reverse the Matthew effects. Finally, teachers need to be more intentional about teaching vocabulary to poor readers and providing frequent exposure to the words in meaningful contexts. Research (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982) indicates that from four to twelve exposures to a word must occur before it is learned to a great enough depth to affect comprehension.

Conclusion

In short, helping children to get an early start in reading seems to have long-term positive consequences for them. The sooner they can develop vocabulary from their reading the better the outcome for them. Clearly, all children will not become equally good readers, but if schools can help prevent poor readers from becoming poorer readers, while at the same time help good readers to become even better readers, they will have narrowed the gap between "rich and poor" readers.

References:

Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C. A., & McKeown, M. G. (1982). Vocabulary knowledge. In J. Guthrie (Ed.), Comprehension and teaching: Research reviews (pp. 77-117). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21 (4), 360-406.