Advances in reading science since 2000 offer important contributions to our understanding of how children learn to read and how adults teach children to read. We have more high-quality empirical studies about how different parts of reading interact with each other and contribute to reading comprehension. One area that we know much more about today is the important role of listening comprehension.
Consider the differences in these two quotes 20 years apart:
There is little research at the K to 2nd grade level on teaching reading comprehension. One important topic at this level is the relationship between listening comprehension and reading comprehension.
Researchers now estimate that 95 percent of all children can be taught to read by the end of first grade, with future achievement constrained only by students’ reasoning and listening comprehension abilities.
The major difference between listening comprehension and reading comprehension is the presence of oral or written text (Kim, 2023). What we think of as “comprehension skills” are fundamentally language skills. Here are some relevant research findings:
The Reading for Understanding Initiative was a 10-year, $120 million effort focused on improving reading comprehension from Pre-K through twelfth grade (Pearson et al, 2020). One of the key findings of this multi-team effort was the critical importance of listening comprehension – and its component language and cognitive skills – to reading comprehension (Pearson et al 2020; Cervetti et al 2020; Justice and Jiang, 2023). Longitudinal studies inside and outside of the Reading for Understanding Initiative find that word-reading skills have the greatest impact on reading comprehension in the earliest phases of reading development.
As children develop automatic word reading skills, however, the impact of decoding on reading comprehension attenuates. Listening comprehension eventually becomes the greatest predictor of reading comprehension. By third grade, children’s language skills are estimated to explain 60% of the variance in children’s reading comprehension (LARRC, Jiang and Logan, 2019). This is not to suggest, however, that we should first teach decoding skills, and then focus on listening comprehension. Both need to be developed simultaneously in order for children to have strong reading comprehension skills by the end of third grade and beyond.
As of early 2024, there is a plethora of resources available to educators and practitioners to support instruction in word reading skills. And there are many resources to support vocabulary building and reading comprehension. But there appears to be a need for a comprehensive set of resources to support instruction in listening comprehension. Listening comprehension is at once part of the developmental process of reading comprehension and a strategic focus area for building comprehension skills. This has implications for helping students meet expectations across state English Language Arts standards – Reading: Literature (RL), Reading: Information (RI), Speaking and Listening (SL), and Language (L).
Although we focus heavily on empirical research published over the past 15 years, researchers have examined the role of listening comprehension for much longer. Listening comprehension was mentioned multiple times in a 1998 report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, by the National Academy of Sciences (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998). Although the quote by Louisa Moats at the beginning of this section is from an article published in 2020, the original version of this article, with the exact same quote, was published in 1999 (Moats, 1999).
As an unconstrained skill, listening comprehension requires more time to develop than word reading skills. Thus, early focus on listening comprehension is absolutely vital to close achievement gaps and improve overall reading comprehension by third grade and beyond (Heubeck, 2023).
The Knowledge Base offers a curated set of recent evidence-based research findings intended to help practitioners better understand listening comprehension and its connection to other literacy skills (such as word reading, reading fluency, background knowledge, and reading comprehension). The Materials Directory offers a set of practical resources for use by educators and practitioners in classroom settings aligned with current reading science and state standards. As an unconstrained skill, listening comprehension requires more time to develop than word reading skills. Thus, early focus on listening comprehension is absolutely vital to close achievement gaps and improve overall reading comprehension by third grade and beyond (Heubeck, 2023).
Popular models of reading such as the Simple View of Reading, Scarborough’s Rope, and the Active View of Reading recognize the importance of language skills to reading comprehension. Sometimes these skills are referred to as listening comprehension and other times as language comprehension. Whether you prefer “listening” or “language” the key is comprehension.
We use the term “listening comprehension” to clearly focus on student comprehension of oral text using their ears. Examples of oral text include read-alouds, podcasts, and audiobooks. Activities, such as peer-to-peer conversations, that students can engage with through listening and speaking are also examples of oral text. This distinction is important for assessment and instruction.
Cervetti, G. N., et al. (2020). How the reading for understanding initiative’s research complicates the simple view of reading invoked in the science of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 55, S161-S172. Available online here.
Gough, P. B., Hoover, W. A., & Peterson, C. L. (2013). Some observations on a simple view of reading. In Reading Comprehension Difficulties (pp. 1-13). Routledge.
Heubeck, E. (2023, December 12). A Missing Link in the ‘Science of Reading’ Conversation. Education Week. Available online here.
Hogan, T., Bridges, M. S., Justice, L. M., & Cain, K. (2011). Increasing higher level language skills to improve reading comprehension. Focus on Exceptional Children, 44(3): 1-20. Available online here.
Justice, L.M. and Jiang, H. (2023). Language is the basis of skilled reading comprehension. Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 131
Kim, Y.S. (2020). Simple but not simplistic: The simple view of reading unpacked and expanded. The Reading League, May/June, 15-22. Available online here.
Kim, Y. S. G. (2023). Simplicity Meets Complexity. Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 9-22. Available online here.
Kim, Y.S. & Snow, C. (2021). The science of reading is incomplete without the science of teaching reading. The Reading League, September/October, 5-13. Available online here.
Language and Reading Research Consortium, Jiang, H., & Logan, J. (2019). Improving reading comprehension in the primary grades: Mediated effects of a language-focused classroom intervention. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(8), 2812-2828.
Mancilla-Martinez, J. (2023). Prioritizing Dual Language Learners’ Language Comprehension Development to Support Later Reading Achievement. Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy, 32.
Moats, L. C. (2020). Teaching reading “is” rocket science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do. American Educator, 44(2), 4. Available online here.
National Reading Panel (US), National Institute of Child Health, & Human Development (US). (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.
Pearson, P. D., Palincsar, A. S., Biancarosa, G., & Berman, A. I. (Eds.). (2020). Reaping the Rewards of the Reading for Understanding Initiative. Washington, DC: National Academy of Education. Available online here.
Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young
Children. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
Search the directory for instructional resources such as activities, strategies, practices, student platforms, supplemental curricula, and interventions as well as assessments to target listening comprehension in the classroom.
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