On the basis of a validation study of a new test for assessing low-achieving adolescents’ reading comprehension skills – the SALT-reading – we analyzed two issues relevant to the field of reading test development. Using the test results of 200 seventh graders, we examined the possibility of identifying reading comprehension subskills and the effects of task specificity on test reliability. Regarding the former, we distinguished three subskills indicating different levels of understanding (‘retrieving’, ‘interpreting’, ‘reflecting’). However, confirmatory factor analyses did not support the presence of these subskills. Task specificity refers to the situation that different tasks within a test are not uniformly difficult for individual test takers, which constitutes a form of error negatively influencing test reliability. However, Generalizability Theory analysis showed that such task-specific effects did not occur: the reliability of the SALT-reading was primarily affected by error associated with the score variance within tasks.

Background: There has been an increasing interest in negative or ‘undermining’ motivations for reading. In this study, we aimed to strengthen knowledge on the validity of the distinction between affirming and undermining motivations. First, we examined whether the structure of a questionnaire based on this distinction could be confirmed. Second, we examined the predictive value of undermining motivations for reading comprehension. Third, we studied moderator effects of gender and age.Methods: We administered a reading motivation questionnaire and a reading comprehension test to 324 low‐achieving adolescents. The questionnaire included items on affirming and undermining motivations for school and leisure time reading: intrinsic motivation and avoidance, self‐efficacy and perceived difficulty.Results: Confirmatory factor analyses supported the assumed structure of the questionnaire. Undermining motivations, particularly perceived difficulty, explained unique variance in reading achievement. Gender and age did not moderate effects of motivational variables.Conclusions: Educators need to be aware of the role of undermining motivations. Future research should examine if interventions can lead to the reduction of such motivations.

This study examined how to improve students’ regulation of task-oriented reading (TOR). TOR encompasses reading and information processing needed to perform a specific task. Previous studies suggest students can benefit from a collaboration script to enhance socially shared regulation of TOR. The collaboration script elicits discussions about task perception, strategy selection, and strategy reflection. This study aimed to examine the depth and socially sharedness of metacognitive regulation when working with a collaboration script among 44 prevocational secondary school students working in groups of four. In addition, we examined the consequent improvement of individual task representation, strategy selection, and strategy reflection after working with the script. The analysis of group discussions indicated that the collaboration script facilitated mainly low-level metacognitive regulation of TOR. However, after working with the script, students did improve their ability to determine a correct representation of a high-level task and to reflect on the most appropriate reading strategy for these tasks. Hence, we concluded that the ‘Y-read?’ collaboration script did elicit shared regulation during TOR.

Prior studies suggest that teaching reading strategies promotes reading comprehension in adolescents who have difficulties with reading comprehension, yet the results of those studies are mixed. Individual differences in students’ vocabulary knowledge may explain these mixed results. This article examines to what extent vocabulary knowledge influences the effect of a two-year intervention program focused on teaching reading strategies to adolescents with low academic achievement in the Netherlands. We hypothesized that students (N = 310) with different levels of vocabulary knowledge would respond differently to the treatment, given that vocabulary knowledge is an important factor in reading comprehension. Results showed that vocabulary knowledge moderated the effect of the treatment, suggesting that low vocabulary knowledge negatively affected the impact of an intervention focused on reading strategies. Vocabulary knowledge, thus, emerges as a prerequisite for the successful leveraging of a reading strategy intervention. Students with low vocabulary knowledge may experience cognitive overload when attempting to apply newly learned reading strategies while simultaneously trying to find out the meaning of multiple unfamiliar words needed for successful application of reading strategies.