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The Role of Vowelization in Reading Comprehension of Different Arabic Genres

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Title: The Role of Vowelization in Reading Comprehension of Different Arabic Genres
Language: English
Authors: Abu Rabia, Salim, Hijjazi, Ekhlas
Source: Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. Dec 2020 49(6):935-954.
Availability: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 20
Publication Date: 2020
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Grade 7
Junior High Schools
Middle Schools
Secondary Education
Grade 5
Intermediate Grades
Descriptors: Vowels, Reading Comprehension, Arabs, Semitic Languages, Literary Genres, Foreign Countries, Age Differences, Grade 7, Islam, Written Language, Newspapers, Poetry, Reading Improvement, Grade 5, Teaching Methods, Reading Instruction, Reading Materials
Geographic Terms: Israel
DOI: 10.1007/s10936-020-09696-6
ISSN: 0090-6905
Abstract: The present study explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of different texts, different genres and on different levels, among students of different ages. It explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of texts from the Koran, informative texts, newspaper articles and poetry, by examining the influence of short vowelization on different levels of understanding among students from three cities and three Arab villages in the northern district of Israel. The results from the mixed design indicated that short vowelization improved the level of reading comprehension among the readers in each level of understanding and for each kind of text. The results indicated a greater improvement in reading comprehension among the young readers as compared to the older readers. The findings also showed that short vowelization improved the performance of the fifth graders, more so than for ninth graders. Furthermore, short vowelization did not influence the performance of the seventh graders.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2020
Accession Number: EJ1276418
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0146972894;41p01dec.20;2020Nov16.04:05;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0146972894-1">The Role of Vowelization in Reading Comprehension of Different Arabic Genres </title> <p>The present study explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of different texts, different genres and on different levels, among students of different ages. It explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of texts from the Koran, informative texts, newspaper articles and poetry, by examining the influence of short vowelization on different levels of understanding among students from three cities and three Arab villages in the northern district of Israel. The results from the mixed design indicated that short vowelization improved the level of reading comprehension among the readers in each level of understanding and for each kind of text. The results indicated a greater improvement in reading comprehension among the young readers as compared to the older readers. The findings also showed that short vowelization improved the performance of the fifth graders, more so than for ninth graders. Furthermore, short vowelization did not influence the performance of the seventh graders.</p> <p>Keywords: Arabic orthography; Arabic short vowelization; Different levels of understanding; Different genres; Reading comprehension</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-2">Introduction</hd> <p>This study examined the role of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of texts from the Koran, informative texts, news articles and poetry, using Bloom's taxonomy ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref1">25</reflink>]) as its basis. It was interesting to see if the short vowelization would influence the chronological reading process of readers from lower to higher grades. Specifically, the study aimed to examine where the greatest impact would be, at what chronological age this impact might decrease and at what level of understanding of text and genre. Would one kind of genre require more, less, or no short vowelization, and if so why? The research design used in this study can teach us about the development of the reading process when there is short vowelization, when taking different kinds of texts and genres into consideration.</p> <p>The issue of short vowelization characterizes Semitic orthographies, such as Arabic and Hebrew. Lack of vowels leads to ambiguity. Arabic orthography, without vowels, is considered deep writing; when it includes vowels, it is considered transparent writing. As a result, short vowelization is important in the process of reading, in general, and in the process of acquiring the first steps in reading in pre-school ages, in specific (Abu-Rabia and Taha [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref2">18</reflink>]). It is further interesting to note that research has shown that short vowelization influences reading comprehension at older ages as well (Abu Rabia [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref3">10</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref4">14</reflink>]; Abu-Rabia and Abu Rahmoun [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref5">15</reflink>]; Al-Samawi [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref6">20</reflink>]; Al-Shidufat [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref7">21</reflink>]).</p> <p>Scientific research has examined the influence of short vowelization on reading accuracy and reading comprehension among different age groups and different genres. The results have consistently found that short vowelization makes a significant contribution in all reading conditions (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref8">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref9">9</reflink>]; Abu-Rabia and Taha [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref10">18</reflink>]). Therefore, it was interesting to examine the influence of the short vowelization as a chronological process among students from lower to higher grades.</p> <p>The research questions, posed in this study, are relevant to the field as they could have significant theoretical and practical. The research questions were: How does short vowelization influence the high levels of understanding—analysis and synthesis—as well as lower levels of understanding—knowledge and identification of information—within different kinds of texts and different genres? How does short vowelization influence children's comprehension of different age groups? Theoretically, this study adds to the body of literature on Arabic reading acquisition. This study also has practical implications for Arabic reading instruction.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-3">Literature Review</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0146972894-4">The Reading Process</hd> <p>Reading is considered a complex process, unlike speaking, which is acquired at a young age, in a natural manner. In broad terms, systematic and explicit formal instruction of reading begins in grade 1.</p> <p>The opposite is true: reading involves cognitive and environmental processes and requires the construction of a systematic, consistent and rational learning process in all writing systems (Adams [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref11">19</reflink>]; Perfetti and Rieben [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref12">35</reflink>]).</p> <p>Word identification depends upon acquisition of the orthographical representation of the specific word. This must connect to the phonological, semantic, morphological and syntactic information (Share [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref13">42</reflink>]). The need to invest a high level of attention in the process of deciphering decreases the level of attention invested in the process of understanding (Persson [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref14">36</reflink>]). Therefore, deciphering skills and automatic skills, involved in this process, are considered necessary conditions for accurate reading comprehension (Abu-Rabia and Siegel [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref15">17</reflink>]; Shimron [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref16">43</reflink>]; Yovanoff et al. [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref17">50</reflink>]). Over time, skilled readers begin to read automatically; that is, they read according to the visual traits or the orthographic representation of a specific word. This representation is accurately mapped and stored in the long term area of visual memory and only in lexical memory (Abu-Rabia and Siegel [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref18">17</reflink>]; Frost et al. [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref19">31</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref20">32</reflink>]) when the sound of the words is aroused in the memory after the meaning of the words has been identified.</p> <p>Ayari ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref21">22</reflink>]) asserted that Arab children learn literary Arabic, almost as if it were a second language, since some of the short vowels are syntactic vowels that children only begin learning in the fourth grade. By the time, students are in grade 11, some would have become skilled in mastering the syntactic short vowels, but not all students acquire this skill.</p> <p>Short vowelization has a syntactic function, since they are signs for ending and relationship signs. Placing these signs requires high syntactic ability. Moreover, in Arabic, there is a relatively large number of homographs. This means that many words are written in the same way, even though they have different meanings and different pronunciations. When there are no vowels and the words do not appear in a specific context, it is possible to read and understand them in different ways. The short vowels, which are represented by punctuation, give these words grammatical meaning.</p> <p>In addition to the studies noted above that, reinforce the assertion that short vowelization improves reading accuracy and reading comprehension, there are other findings, which show that short vowelization does not make a significant contribution to accurate Arabic reading. Ibrahim ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref22">33</reflink>]) examined short vowelization on reading accuracy in Arabic orthography among eighth graders. The results showed that the words that were presented without short vowels were read faster and with more accuracy than the words with vowels. Ibrahim, who asserted that these findings were surprising, concluded that the eighth grade Arab reader uses a strategy for reading that is based on the entire word and its direct lexical accessibility. In other words, reading does not depend on sub-lexical phonological processes. In addition, Seraye's studies ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref23">38</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref24">39</reflink>]) and Abu-Leil et al.'s work ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref25">2</reflink>]) did not find that vowelization improved reading Arabic among regular readers (Taha [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref26">46</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-5">Bloom's (1956) Taxonomy</hd> <p>This taxonomy relates to educational objectives, and not to specific content areas. All of the objectives connect to the development of intellectual abilities and skills. The taxonomy includes six levels and these are:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> <emph>Knowledge</emph> remembering and identifying specific components of an area that has been learned and retrieval of facts, phenomena, ideas and principles. In other words, a goal that can be achieved by remembering, without need for having a higher level of understanding.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Comprehension</emph> a level of thinking that makes it possible to ensure the ability to use knowledge. It is described in three different operations that range from the lowest level of translation, via interpretation through the highest level, which is the application of the understanding in the content area.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Application</emph> the ability to use principles, generalizations, ideas, laws and different methods in situations that are new for the student (the degree of understanding the idea that will be expressed)</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Analysis</emph> the ability to analyse a situation or a problem (a message), breaking it into its basic elements. The relationship between the ideas/concepts becomes clear.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Synthesis</emph> the ability to combine, to organize and to connect elements and components in order to create a holistic structure that was not clear beforehand. For example, proposal of a research design, the planning of a learning unit for a certain topic, formulation of research hypotheses and/or construction of a rationale for research.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Evaluation</emph> the ability to judge the value of ideas, facts, solutions, methods, learning materials and more. The student uses criteria to determine accuracy, effectiveness, and advantages and disadvantages.</item> </ulist> <p>Bloom's taxonomy is very relevant for this study, for the following reasons. (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref27">1</reflink>) The genres differ in terms of difficulty and level of literary language, since the texts differ in terms of new, uncommon words that appear in the texts. It is interesting to examine the influence of short vowelization when children of different ages read texts with different levels of difficulty. (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref28">2</reflink>) This study examined reading achievements of more complex genres, such as poetry and texts from the Koran, versus easier, more modern genres, such as newspaper articles or informative texts. The study asked if short vowelization would influence the level of reading comprehension of these texts that differed in terms of genres and language. (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref29">3</reflink>) Bloom's levels of knowledge offer a graduated scale from easy to difficult; therefore, using the scale in this study makes it possible to learn about the influence of short vowelization on different levels of questions.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-6">Research that Supports the Positive Contribution of Short Vowelization</hd> <p>Abu-Rabia ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref30">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref31">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref32">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref33">6</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref34">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref35">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref36">9</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref37">11</reflink>]) examined the impact of short vowels on reading accuracy and reading comprehension in Arabic. He explored the influence of Arabic orthography on the reading process in a chronological order. The research examined the influence of short vowelization on reading Arabic and on a combination of other factors, such as context (with or without), reading skills (skilled reading process: word identification (reading accuracy) and comprehension (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref38">12</reflink>]). Moreover, Abu-Rabia ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref39">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref40">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref41">5</reflink>]) examined if the context, in and of itself, and the vowels, in and of themselves, help very skilled readers read better, in a study in which 16 high school students, between the ages of 17–18, participated (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref42">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref43">5</reflink>]).</p> <p>The aim of the study (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref44">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref45">5</reflink>]) was the same as the previous research, that is, "to examine the possibility of applying Stanovich's ([<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref46">45</reflink>]) approach to Arabic orthography, concerning the impact of the context, and to examine the function of vowels as one variable in the process of reading Arabic" (p. 634).</p> <p>Each participant was asked to read alone and aloud sections of texts and lists of words, with and without short vowelization. The results showed that the vowels and the context helped when reading Arabic texts aloud. The main findings were that in the conditions of short vowelization alone or context alone, there was a significant reduction in number of reading errors. Furthermore, the combination of short vowelization and context decreased errors even more.</p> <p>Additionally, Abu-Rabia and Taha ([<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref47">18</reflink>]) examined the development of Arab students from the first to ninth grade, in terms of their ability to spell and write. They found that phonology has an important role in acquisition of Arabic orthography, and that the phonological stage exists among all levels of reading. The importance of phonology highlighted the importance of short vowels in the process of the development of reading and writing in the Arabic language.</p> <p>Abu-Rabia ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref48">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref49">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref50">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref51">6</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref52">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref53">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref54">9</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref55">11</reflink>]) asserted that full vowelization fulfils two functions in the skill of reading Arabic. It significantly contributes to reading accuracy and comprehension when reading single words and connected texts. Another conclusion was that the context makes an important contribution to both poor and skilled Arabic readers of all ages.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-7">Counter View on Vowelization</hd> <p>Alongside the research cited above, which reinforces the assertion that short vowelization improves accuracy and reading comprehension, there is another body of research that demonstrates that short vowelization does not make a significant contribution to reading in Arabic orthography (Abdelhadi et al. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref56">1</reflink>]; Abu-Leil et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref57">2</reflink>]; Ibrahim [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref58">33</reflink>]; Seraye [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref59">38</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref60">39</reflink>]; Taha [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref61">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>Seraye's ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref62">38</reflink>]) and Abu-Leil et al. ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref63">2</reflink>]) studies of Arabic speakers did not find that short vowelization significantly improves the speed of Arabic reading. Seraye ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref64">38</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref65">39</reflink>]), who examined the topic among adult Arabs, asserted that the reason for this finding might be derived from the fact that word identification is a process that begins with compilation of each letter, moves to a combination of syllables, to the processing of words. Therefore, since these graduated steps develop over time, it can be assumed that Arab adults, who have been heavily exposed to writing for many years, have constructed knowledge in orthographic areas, the structure of words and the morphological system of their language.</p> <p>Moreover, wide exposure makes it possible to automatically and holistically process words. In order to reach an automatic identification of words, the individual needs to be exposed to writing and reading for a long time. The length of the word, its frequency in the language and its morphological structure influences the automation of reading. Therefore, even the skilled reader might pause when reading a new word or a less common word, or a word that has a condensed morphological structure (Seraye [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref66">38</reflink>]).</p> <p>In a similar fashion, Ibrahim's ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref67">33</reflink>]) results from his study on the impact of Arabic short vowelization on eighth grade students' reading achievements found that when children were asked to read single words or pseudo-words, with or without vowels, the vowels did not improve their reading, but actually interfered with their fluent reading of single words. The children read more accurately and faster when they read real words that did not have vowels (Abdelhadi et al. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref68">1</reflink>]).</p> <p>Hermrna et al. examined the influence of short vowelization on reading sentences and homographic words among Arabic readers. In one condition, the sentences had full vowelization; in another condition, the vowels were added when there were homographic verbs; and in the third condition, the homographic ambiguity was erased by adding auxiliary verbs to the sentence context. The findings revealed that the participants did not improve their reading when they had full vowelization or when the homographs had full vowels (Ibrahim [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref69">33</reflink>]; Ibrahim et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref70">34</reflink>]).</p> <p>Taha ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref71">46</reflink>]) also found similar results in his research that examined the influence of short vowelization on fluency and reading accuracy among 146 poor readers, Arab speaking children, in the second, fourth and sixth grades. The research participants read two lists of single words, one with vowels and the other without. The findings showed that the words without the vowels were read faster and more accurately than the words with the vowels.</p> <p>It is important to note that the research that has been reviewed here did not take into consideration the levels of complexity. The current research explores the levels of knowledge and comprehension, based on Bloom's ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref72">25</reflink>]) taxonomy among students from the fifth, seventh and ninth grades. This can teach us about the influence of short vowelization on reading comprehension, among children of different ages and different levels of understanding.</p> <p>Therefore, the study aimed to answer: How does short vowelization influence higher levels of comprehension—analysis and synthesis—and lower levels of comprehension—knowledge and identification—levels from Bloom's taxonomy, when children of different ages read different styles of texts?</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-8">Hypotheses</hd> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Short vowelization will improve the level of reading comprehension among regular readers, in all levels of texts and kinds of genre.</item> <p></p> <item> Short vowelization will improve the reading comprehension of the older children more than for the younger children.</item> <p></p> <item> Short vowelization will improve reading comprehension of the more literary texts—from the Koran and poetry—than the informative texts and newspaper articles—in all levels of comprehension, among all readers.</item> </ulist> <hd id="AN0146972894-9">Method</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0146972894-10">Participants</hd> <p>The study was undertaken in three cities and three villages in the Arab sector in northern Israel. Two schools were chosen from each of the villages and cities—one elementary school and one middle school. The students came from the fifth, seventh and ninth grades. Each of the six schools had six age groups; each grade level had four classes of 30 students—half were boys and half were girls. Each of the middle schools had three grade levels and seven classrooms in each level. Each class had 30 students. Most of the students lived in the areas near their schools.</p> <p>In each of the elementary schools, 80 students were randomly sampled, 40 males and 40 females from each grade level. The mean age of the classes was 10. From each of the middle schools, 80 children were randomly sampled from each grade level, 40 males and 40 females. The mean age of the seventh grade participants was 12 and 14 for the ninth graders. Every week, the children have 9–10 h in Arabic language and literature.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-11">Instruments</hd> <p>Different texts with short vowelization—newspaper articles, informative texts, text from the Koran and poetry—were given to each grade level. The first time, the texts were given to one group with vowels; the second time, the same texts were administered without vowels to a group similar to the first one, in terms of age and level. Both groups in each grade level were similar and randomly divided into two groups. <emph>Reading condition 1</emph>: The text, and the questions and answers had full vowels. Students were required to choose the correct answer from the four possibilities. <emph>Reading condition 2</emph> The text, questions and answers did not have short vowels. The students were required to choose the correct answer from four possibilities.</p> <p>The questions were constructed on the basis of Bloom's taxonomy. Twenty multiple-choice questions were asked about each text. Some of the questions presented to the students in order to identify information appearing in the text (the level of identification and knowledge). Some questions required the student to make inferences, which required the students to evaluate and think. Here, the student had to understand a message in the text and change it, turning it into a different form (comprehension). When evaluating, the reader organizes, plans, proposes, develops, evaluates and criticizes (evaluation). Each level had at least five questions.</p> <p>The construction of the instruments was based on booklets on the Arabic language and subjects that are taught in the schools, at every grade level. The Israeli Ministry of Education had approved these booklets. A team of 10 judges comprised of Arabic teachers who teach these grade levels, they examined the texts and the questions asked about them. In addition, a pilot study was undertaken among one class from each grade to help the team of judges revise the questions and learn about the students behaviour while reading and answering questions about these texts. Twenty multiple comprehension questions were asked about each text. As to scoring, five points were given for each correct answer and 0 points for a wrong answer. Maximum score is 100.</p> <p>As noted above, four texts of different genres were chosen for students from the fifth, seventh and ninth grades. The texts were relevant for the level and ages of the students, in terms of their length and difficulty. The newspaper articles were sampled from a weekly Arabic newspaper published in Israel. The informative texts were sampled from a number of the subjects taught in the school—history, science, Israel, and geography. The texts from the Koran were chosen from a school curriculum that has been approved by the Israeli Ministry of Education. The questions written for each text, reflected different levels: knowledge, comprehension and evaluation. One text and questions with short vowelization was given to one class while the identical text and questions without vowels was given to another class. The same was repeated with the poetic texts.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-12">Procedure</hd> <p>Each participant received a booklet with the texts and questions. The evaluation took place in four stages, for each participant. The texts were not arranged in a uniform manner, in order to minimize the effect of tiredness. Therefore, the children did not receive the texts in the same order for counterbalancing purposes. The study was administered in the children's classrooms. Research assistants were hired. They received training in testing and how to behave during the tests. The tests were administered in groups, and each day students read and answered one reading condition (text). At the end of each meeting, the booklets were collected and distributed again at the next meeting. The booklets and the tables were numbered, in order to ensure anonymity and research consistency.</p> <p>The team of teachers who judged the texts and questions also scored the students' tests.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-13">Results</hd> <p>This section is divided into two main sub-sections. In the first sub-section, a preliminary statistical analysis is presented. In the second sub-section, the main analyses are presented that examined the study's hypotheses.</p> <p>The study combined independent variables that differentiated between the participants, such as grade level (fifth, seventh, ninth) and short vowelization of the text (yes, no). There were also within group independent variables, such as level of comprehension (knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and kind of text. Therefore, the results present different analyses of the mixed design, which include the relevant between-subjects independent variables and the relevant within subjects' independent variables. The dependent variable was the percentage of success among all of the students in each of the conditions, in answering the questions that tapped reading comprehension. In addition to the means, analyses that pinpointed simple effects were also carried out.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-14">A Priori Analyses</hd> <p>The a priori analyses examined the variables of age, level of comprehension and type of text across all of the different levels of the other independent variables. A mixed design analysis was performed, in which the grade level (fifth, seventh, ninth) was the between subjects independent variable and the variables of comprehension (knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and kind of text (narrative, informative, newspaper article, poetry, Koran) were the within subjects' independent variables. The dependent variable was the percentage of success in answering the questions.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-15">Main Effect: Grade Level</hd> <p>The data analysis found a main effect for grade (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref73">2</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib477" id="ref74">477</reflink>)</subs> = 109.11, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001). The Bonferroni post hoc analysis for identification of the source of the variance found that all of the differences between the grades were significant (<emph>p</emph> < 0.05). The students in the ninth grade demonstrated the best achievements (M = 76.16, SD = 11.50), followed by the students in the fifth grade and then the students in the seventh grade.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-16">Main Effect: Kind of Text</hd> <p>The analysis showed that there was a main effect for the kind of text (F<subs>(4,1908</subs>)—120.96, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001). The Bonferroni post hoc analysis for identification of the source of the variance found that all of the differences between the kinds of text were significant (<emph>p</emph> < 0.05), except for the percentage of success for the informative text and newspaper articles. There were no significant differences between percentages of success for the poetry and Koran texts. Across all of the study variables, therefore, the students did best in answering the questions about the narratives (M = 72.85. SD—18.73), followed by the informative texts (M = 67.88, SD = 17.72), newspaper articles (M = 67.54, SD = 18.16), poetry (M = 60.21, SD = 20.90) and lastly the texts from the Koran (M = 59.39, SD = 19.77).</p> <p>This finding reinforces/supports one of the study's assumptions that the poetry and Koran texts are the hardest Arabic texts to read, more so than the other three kinds.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-17">Main Effect: Level of Comprehension</hd> <p>The analysis showed a main effect for comprehension (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref75">4</reflink>,1908)</subs> = 403.29, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001). The Bonferroni test for identification of the source of the variance showed that all of the differences between the levels of comprehension were significant (<emph>p</emph> < 0.05). The level of comprehension with the highest mean was knowledge (M = 80.09, SD = 15.60), followed by analysis (M = 66.31, SD = 18.97), comprehension (M = 63.51, SD = 17.35), synthesis (M = 61.59, SD = 20.29) and lastly by evaluation (M = 56.35, SD = 18.00). Except for the interchange between the levels of analysis and comprehension, these findings match the levels of comprehension proposed by Bloom ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref76">25</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-18">Summary of the A-Priori Findings</hd> <p>In this section, the three main effects of the research design were examined: the influence of grade level, kind of text and level of comprehension on ability to correctly answer questions, based on the students' readings. In the case of kind of text and levels of comprehension, the results matched the study's assumptions: the narrative text reflected the easiest level for the participants, the informative texts and the newspaper articles were at the medium level and the poetry and texts from the Koran were the hardest for the students. This finding connects to the third hypothesis that stated that poetry and texts from the Koran are the highest level of texts. Moreover, a clear hierarchy was found when the percentages of success were divided according to level of comprehension, according to Bloom's taxonomy ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref77">25</reflink>]). This supported Bloom's theory, except for the interchange between analysis and synthesis.</p> <p>The last finding was that there is a difference between percentages of success according to grade level. That is, there were gaps in the levels of difficulty of the texts for each of the grade levels.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-19">Examination of the Study's Hypothesis</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0146972894-20">The First Hypothesis</hd> <p>The first hypothesis was that short vowelization would improve reading comprehension among regular readers in each level of comprehension and in each kind of text and genre. In order to examine this hypothesis, a mixed design analysis was carried out, in which the variable of short vowelization was between-subjects and the variables of type of text and level of comprehension were within subject.</p> <p>The analysis found a main effect for short vowelization, as expected from the hypothesis: The percentages of success in answering the questions when vowels were provided (M = 67.93, SD = 15.96) were significantly higher (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref78">1</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib478" id="ref79">478</reflink>)</subs> = 11.12, <emph>p</emph> < 0.05) than percentages of success when reading texts without vowels (M = 63.21, SD = 15.04) across levels of comprehension and type of text. No significant interactional effect was found (F < 1) between short vowelization and type of text (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref80">4</reflink>,1912)</subs> = 1.27, n.s) or between short vowelization and level of comprehension.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-21">Influence of Vowelization on Type of Text</hd> <p>In order to understand the role of vowelization in each text genre a MANOVA test was carried out, when the variable of short vowelization was the between-subject variable and percentages of success, according to type of text was the dependent variable. The results appear in Table 1.</p> <p>Comparison of percentages of success, with and without vowels according to kind of text</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1, 478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>74.67 (18.89)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>71.04 (18.43)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.53*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>70.63 (17.00)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>65.13 (18.02)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>11.83***</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.024</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News Article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>70.23 (18.25)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>64.85 (17.69)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>10.73**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.022</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.90 (21.73)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>57.52 (19.73)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>8.05**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.017</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>61.25 (20.02)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>57.52 (19.37)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.30*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>*<emph>p</emph> < 0.05; **<emph>p</emph> < 0.01; ***<emph>p</emph> < 0.001</p> <p>Table shows that there is a significant difference in each one of the texts; the vowelized texts had higher percentages of success than the non-vowelized texts. The highest percentage was found for the informative texts.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-22">The Influence of Vowelization on Levels of Comprehension</hd> <p>In order to understand how short vowelization influences each level of comprehension, a MANOVA test was carried out. The variable, short vowelization, was the between-subject variable, and percentages of success, according to levels of comprehension, were the dependent variables. The findings appear in Table 2.</p> <p>Comparison of percentages of success with and without vowels according to level of comprehension</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Level of understanding</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Knowledge</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>81.77 (14.81)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>78.42 (16.22)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>5.60*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.012</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Understanding</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>65.96 (17.34)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>61.06 (17.47)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>9.73**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.020</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Analysis</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>68.33 (19.13)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>64.29 (18.63)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>5.50*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.011</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Synthesis</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>64.60 (20.92)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>58.58 (19.21)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>10.78**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.022</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Evaluation</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>59.00 (19.51)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>53.71 (15.97)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>10.57**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.022</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>*<emph>p</emph> < 0.05; **<emph>p</emph> < 0.01</p> <p>Table 2 shows a significant difference between each level of comprehension: students who read the vowelized texts scored higher percentages of correct answers than those who did not have vowelized texts. It was further found that the strongest influence was in the levels of synthesis and evaluation.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-23">The Second Hypothesis</hd> <p>The second hypothesis was that short vowelization would improve reading comprehension more among regular readers in the higher grades than in the lower grades. In order to examine this hypothesis, a two-factor analysis of variance was carried out in which the independent variables were grade level and short vowelization and the independent variable was percentage of success on the task. The results showed that there was a significant interaction (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref81">2</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref82">474</reflink>)</subs> = 8.22, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001) between grade level and short vowelization on success. The post hoc analyses, which examined the interactional effect, appear in Table 3.</p> <p>Percentages of participants' success on the reading task according to grades and non/vowelized text</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Grade</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,158)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Fifth</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>71.41 (14.47)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>60.35 (13.31)</p></td><td align="left"><p>25.33***</p></td><td align="left"><p>0.138</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Seventh</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>54.66 (11.19)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>54.70 (13.48)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td align="left"><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Ninth</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>77.73 (12.18)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>74.59 (10.62)</p></td><td align="left"><p>3.07*</p></td><td align="left"><p>0.019</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>*<emph>p</emph> < 0.05; ***<emph>p</emph> < 0.001</p> <p>In contrast to the hypothesis, the source of the interaction was that short vowelization actually significantly improved the performance of the fifth graders, more so than in the other grades. While, short vowelization was also found to improve the performance of the ninth graders (though to a lesser degree), it did not improve the performance of the seventh graders at all.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-24">The Third Hypothesis</hd> <p>This hypothesis asserted that short vowelization would improve reading comprehension, at each level of comprehension, in texts that had a high literary level, like poetry and the Koran, more than it would improve comprehension of informative texts and newspaper articles. The statistical test used to examine this hypothesis demonstrated a significant triple interactional effect (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref83">16</reflink>,7648)</subs> = 1.91, <emph>p</emph> < 0.05) between short vowelization, kind of text and level of comprehension. In order to examine this hypothesis, we examined the triple interactional effect via a series of MANOVA tests, which looked at the influence of short vowelization on each one of the levels of comprehension in each kind of text.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-25">The Influence of Short Vowelization on Knowledge Levels in Different Kinds of Texts</hd> <p>A MANOVA test was used to explore the independent variable of short vowelization and the dependent variables of percentage of success on comprehension questions about five different texts. A low general significant effect was found (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref84">5</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref85">474</reflink>)</subs> = 1.99, <emph>p</emph> < 0.1). Table 4 presents details.</p> <p>Comparison of percentages of success on knowledge, according to texts with and without vowels</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>87.60 (16.49)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>82.50 (27.08)</p></td><td align="left"><p>6.22*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.013</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>88.33 (18.98)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>85.00 (20.68)</p></td><td align="left"><p>3.38<sup>†</sup></p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.007</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>88.85 (19.49)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>87.50 (22.64)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.001</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>74.38 (25.97)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>72.81 (29.07)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.001</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>69.69 (26.97)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>64.27 (30.46)</p></td><td align="left"><p>4.25*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p> <sups>†</sups> <emph>p</emph> < 0.1; *<emph>p</emph> < 0.05</p> <p>In contrast to the expectation, the results did not find that short vowelization improved the knowledge level of more literary texts to a greater degree than they improved the knowledge level of less literary ones. Short vowelization improved the knowledge level of the narrative and informative texts, and texts from the Koran.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-26">The Influence of Short Vowelization on the Comprehension of the Different Texts</hd> <p>A MANOVA test was carried out in which the independent variable was short vowelization and the dependent variables were percentages of success in comprehension tasks of the different kinds of texts. A significant general effect was found (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref86">5</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref87">474</reflink>)</subs> = 4.29, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001). See Table 5 for details.</p> <p>Comparison of percentage of success in reading comprehension of texts with and without vowels</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>81.35 (24.82)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>77.81 (26.07)</p></td><td align="left"><p>2.32</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.005</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>69.06 (24.71)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.71 (26.86)</p></td><td align="left"><p>7.27**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.015</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.19 (27.73)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>52.71 (23.50)</p></td><td align="left"><p>16.33***</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.033</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>55.00 (31.79)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>50.83 (30.93)</p></td><td align="left"><p>2.12</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.004</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.19 (27.25)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>61.25 (25.74)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.000</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>**<emph>p</emph> < 0.01; ***<emph>p</emph> < 0.001</p> <p>The texts that high a high literary level did not benefit more from short vowelization than the texts with a lower literary level. Short vowelization improved comprehension of the informative texts and the newspaper articles.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-27">The Influence of Short Vowelization on the Level of Analysis of the Different Texts</hd> <p>A MANOVA text was undertaken in which the independent variable was short vowelization and the dependent variables were percentages of success on analysis, in each of the different texts. A general significant effect was obtained (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref88">5</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref89">474</reflink>)</subs> = 2.24, <emph>p</emph> < 0.05). Table 6 presents the details.</p> <p>Comparison of percentages of success on analysis of texts with and without vowels</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>75.94 (31.47)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>73.02 (31.00)</p></td><td align="left"><p>1.05</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.002</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>69.79 (26.94)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>67.81 (28.06)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.001</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>65.52 (31.63)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>63.54 (26.45)</p></td><td align="left"><p>< 1</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.001</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>66.25 (26.11)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>58.44 (28.82)</p></td><td align="left"><p>9.69**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.020</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>64.17 (27.96)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>58.65 (28.85)</p></td><td align="left"><p>4.53*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>*<emph>p</emph> < 0.05; **<emph>p</emph> < 0.01</p> <p>As expected, short vowelization improved the level of analysis in the texts that were more literary than the texts that had a lower literary level. Short vowelization improved the level of analysis only in the texts that that had a high level—poetry and the Koran.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-28">The Influence of Short Vowelization on the Level of Synthesis in Different Texts</hd> <p>A MANOVA test was carried out in which the independent variable was short vowelization and the dependent variables were percentage of success on the level of synthesis on questions regarding the five kinds of texts. A significant general effect was found (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref90">5</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref91">474</reflink>)</subs> = 2.47, <emph>p</emph> < 0.05), which is detailed in Table 7.</p> <p>Comparison of percentage of success on synthesis, according to texts with and without vowels</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>65.63 (30.09)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>60.52 (29.49)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>3.52<sup>†</sup></p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.007</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.29 (31.52)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>54.06 (31.55)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>8.17**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.017</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>74.17 (26.36)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>68.85 (27.75)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.62*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.010</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>59.27 (27.44)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>53.44 (26.99)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>5.51*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.011</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>61.67 (30.67)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>56.04 (29.20)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.24*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>*<emph>p</emph> < 0.05; **<emph>p</emph> < 0.01</p> <p>Contrary to the hypothesis, short vowelization did not improve comprehension on the level of synthesis, in the case of the texts with the higher literary level. Short vowelization improved success in synthesis in all of the kinds of text. However, short vowelization improved success in the level of synthesis in the informative texts more so than in the other kinds of text.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-29">The Influence of Short Vowelization on the Level of Evaluation in the Different Texts</hd> <p>In the MANOVA test, in which the independent variable was short vowelization and the dependent variables were percentages of success on questions related to the level of evaluation in the different texts, the results showed a significant general effect (F<subs>(<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref92">5</reflink>,<reflink idref="bib474" id="ref93">474</reflink>)</subs> = 4.53, <emph>p</emph> < 0.001). Table 8 presents the details.</p> <p>Comparison of percentage of success on evaluation according to texts with and without vowels</p> <p> <ephtml> <table frame="hsides" rules="groups"><thead><tr><th align="left"><p>Kind of text</p></th><th align="left"><p>With vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>Without vowels</p></th><th align="left"><p>F<sub>(1,478)</sub></p></th><th align="left"><p>ETA<sup>2</sup></p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td align="left"><p>Narrative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>65.63 (30.09)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>60.52 (29.49)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>3.52<sup>†</sup></p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.007</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Informative</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>62.29 (31.52)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>54.06 (31.55)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>8.17**</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.017</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>News article</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>74.17 (26.36)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>68.85 (27.75)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.62*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.010</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Poetry</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>59.27 (27.44)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>53.44 (26.99)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>5.51*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.011</p></td></tr><tr><td align="left"><p>Koran</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>61.67 (30.67)</p></td><td char="(" align="char"><p>56.04 (29.20)</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>4.24*</p></td><td char="." align="char"><p>0.009</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>**<emph>p</emph> < 0.01</p> <p>As opposed to the hypothesis, evaluative comprehension of the texts characterized by a higher literary form did not benefit more from short vowelization than the texts with the lower levels. Short vowelization improved evaluation in the informative texts, the newspaper articles and the poetic texts.</p> <p>In summation, the results showed the following. The first hypothesis was fully confirmed: Short vowelization improved all the levels of reading comprehension in all the kinds of texts. The results concerning the second hypothesis showed a mixed pattern: Short vowelization improved the performance of the children from the fifth grade to a greater degree than it improved the performance of the older children—a finding which contradicted the hypothesis. The ninth graders showed less improvement than the fifth graders and short vowelization did not improve the performance of the seventh graders at all. The third hypothesis was partially supported: while it was hypothesized that short vowelization would improve all levels of comprehension in the texts with high literary value—poetry and the Koran—improvement only occurred at the level of analysis among these two kinds of texts.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-30">Discussion</hd> <p>The results of this study indicated the following.</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> Short vowelization in Arabic orthography facilitates reading comprehension among typical readers of all ages, at all levels of comprehension and in all kinds of texts and genres. This was the first hypothesis of the research.</item> <p></p> <item> The source of interaction was that short vowelization improved the performances of the children from the fifth grade, more so than in the higher grades. Furthermore, while short vowelization also improved the performances of the ninth graders, it did not improve the performances of the seventh graders at all. These findings contradicted the hypothesis, which averred that short vowelization would improve reading comprehension of the older students more than it would improve comprehension of the younger ones.</item> <p></p> <item> Short vowelization improved reading comprehension in the texts with a lower level of literary form, more so than in texts with a higher level. Short vowelization improved reading comprehension of the narrative, informative and Koran texts.</item> </ulist> <p>The discussion will first focus on each hypothesis, and then be followed by a general discussion.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-31">Discussion of the First Hypothesis</hd> <p>Short vowelization in Arabic writing helped readers in all of the areas that were examined—the regular readers and the poor readers—who were sampled from regular classrooms that included all types of readers. It is not surprising that short vowelization helped comprehension, because, in Arabic morphology, a word in Arabic is comprised of two parts: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref94">1</reflink>) the root, which usually has three consonants, provides the literal definition of the word and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref95">2</reflink>) word pattern, which is comprised of the vowels that give the word its grammatical meaning. Therefore, in contrast to alphabetic languages that are comprised of consonants and vowels, which are part of the specific word, in Arabic (and, similarly, in Hebrew and Persian), there are no "independent" vowel letters, but rather vowels and signs that are paired with the consonants. The location of each vowel, thus, determines the meaning of the word and its pronunciation, which is crucial particularly in the case of homographs as noted earlier.</p> <p>Arabic is based on 25 consonants and six vowels—three long vowels and three short vowels. The short vowels, <emph>fatha</emph><bold>دَ</bold> and <emph>kasra</emph><bold>دِ</bold><emph>and dama</emph> دُ, in Arabic are presented as a sign above or underneath the consonant. The consonants serve as the root that is abstract and bound morpheme. However, every change in place, or form, of the vowel creates a different word. As a result, one could aver that the results of this study demonstrated that short vowelization helped readers, which is in accordance with an earlier study (Shalhoub-Awwad [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref96">40</reflink>]) who showed that it is difficult to read accurately when vowels are removed.</p> <p>There are additional factors that influence reading accuracy and comprehension. A few different studies have examined these factors, such as sentence context, reading skill, in general, and of genre (narrative vs. classic text from the Koran). Abu-Rabia ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref97">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref98">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref99">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref100">6</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref101">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref102">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref103">9</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref104">12</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref105">13</reflink>]) undertook a series of studies that explored the influence of short vowelization on reading and reading comprehension under different conditions: in diverse populations, from elementary school children through adults who were skilled readers of different kinds of genres (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref106">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref107">9</reflink>]). He found that when there are no vowels, the sentence context also significantly influences reading comprehension, even among more skilled readers. In all of these studies, short vowelization facilitated reading.</p> <p>Abu-Rabia consistently showed that his results contradicted experiments carried out on Romance language orthography. He noted that, firstly, Arabic orthography is unique and secondly, Arabic has a unique linguistic structure, especially its morphological structure (for review, see Tibi and Kirby [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref108">48</reflink>]).</p> <p>In addition, the Abu-Rabia's studies ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref109">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref110">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref111">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref112">6</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref113">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref114">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref115">9</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref116">11</reflink>]) found that the combination of sentence context and/or textual context also strengthen and verify the results concerning the importance of short vowelization in the process of reading comprehension in all of Bloom's ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref117">25</reflink>]) categories. The results clearly show that readers comprehend better. This is because short vowelization and the context complement one another. This makes it possible for the reader to use reading skills and thought to combine the context of the text with the correct phonological representation, which is retrieved later, after identification of the orthographic unit, during the reading process.</p> <p>Furthermore, this finding showed that even the skilled, mature reader could benefit from vowelization. When the context is provided and there are no vowels, the reader can correct him/herself (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref118">12</reflink>]; Badry [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref119">23</reflink>]; Boudelaa and Marslen-Wilson [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref120">26</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref121">27</reflink>]).</p> <p>Moreover, the fact that the skilled reader is accustomed to reading without vowels, while completely and correctly understanding the text, does not necessarily mean the reader is accurately reading each word. This is because the force of habit is also a factor in mistakes in pronunciation. Shimron and Sivan ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref122">44</reflink>]) explained how short vowelization in the Semitic languages helps reading comprehension, even among good, skilled readers. Short vowelization is the phonological contribution to the word. The phonology of the word, or its phonological representation, is saved in the working memory as an additional storage place for the other forms. This strengthens the memory of the reader, and leads him/her to a deeper understanding of the ideas raised in the text.</p> <p>As noted earlier, other studies have averred that short vowelization confuses the reader and does not facilitate reading comprehension, especially in the younger ages. This stream of research opposes the idea that Arabic short vowelization is effective and does not see it as contributing to comprehension. The topic was noted above (Abdelhadi et al. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref123">1</reflink>]; Abu-Leil et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref124">2</reflink>]; Eviatar et al. [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref125">30</reflink>]; Ibrahim [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref126">33</reflink>]; Ibrahim et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref127">34</reflink>]; Taha [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref128">46</reflink>]), in the literature review. It is important to note that the review also presented the reasons that could explain these findings that contradicted the contribution of short vowelization in Arabic orthography.</p> <p>In summation, short vowelization helps readers at all levels of understanding, since the shading or phonological representation is inscribed in working memory and this strengthens reading and concentration on ideas raised in the text. As a result, the readers gain a better comprehension of the text. The findings matched the results obtained by Shimron and Sivan ([<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref129">44</reflink>]) in Hebrew as well as the author's results in his/her long series of studies, which were discussed in the literature review of the present study.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-32">Discussion of the Second Hypothesis</hd> <p>The second hypothesis assumed that short vowelization would help the older readers more than it would help the younger readers. This hypothesis was not confirmed: The results showed that it was actually the children in the fifth grade who had the best results, followed by the ninth graders. However, short vowelization did not help the seventh graders perform better.</p> <p>Most of this discussion will focus on the issue of the younger readers, who benefitted much more from short vowelization than the older readers did, in spite of the fact that the ninth graders had more years of exposure to literary texts, providing them with time to practice reading literary Arabic. It appears as if the fifth graders had not yet succeeded in developing a rich orthographic-morphological lexicon, which could help them decipher and identify words (Abu-Rabia and Saliba [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref130">16</reflink>]). The assumption is that these young Arab students had not yet managed to deal with the complexity of Arabic orthography, morphology, roots, templates, and diglossia. The young readers are still struggling with the visual complexity of the Arabic writing system. This complexity heavily involves short vowelization in all of the layers described above.</p> <p>The phonological stage is a beginning stage in the process of reading acquisition, coming after the visual process. In this beginning stage, the reader is still coping with translation of letters and orthographic units into phonological representations (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref131">3</reflink>]; Share [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref132">41</reflink>]). This is the reading process in most of the languages in the world, especially in the alphabetic languages. There are, of course, exceptional cases, such as in the logographic languages.</p> <p>In the present study, short vowelization significantly contributed more to the reading comprehension of the fifth graders, in all of the levels of understandings, in all of the kinds of text than to the comprehension of the older students. If we return to the obstacles in reading Arabic, we find orthographic, morphological, root, template, diglossic, and homographic complexities, as noted above. This complexity requires knowledge and control of short vowelization in order to read accurately. It helps readers correctly decipher the words and understand the sentences and the ideas in the text (Shalhoub-Awwad [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref133">40</reflink>]). As a result, the younger readers are in great need of short vowelization in order to stabilize their reading and reach a good level of accuracy.</p> <p>The Arabic writing system has high visual complexity (Eviatar et al. [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref134">30</reflink>]). It is written in a cursive style, which makes it difficult to identify the borders of each letter. Furthermore, six letters in Arabic are not connected to the letters on either side. The lack of connection creates a space and breaks the flow of the letters in a word (Elbeheri and Everatt [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref135">29</reflink>]). This is in addition to the lack of consistency that is derived from the location of the letter in the word—the beginning, middle and end—and the erasure of connection of the letters that appear before and after it (Shalhoub-Awwad [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref136">40</reflink>]).</p> <p>The Semitic root is a sub-lexical need; it is comprised of an abstract chain of three non-sequential consonants that do not form a word and cannot be pronounced. The roots serve as shaped/formed, semantic cores of Arabic and Hebrew words (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref137">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref138">5</reflink>]; Blau [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref139">24</reflink>]). In standard Arabic, there are over 6000 different roots (Boudelaa and Marslen-Wilson [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref140">26</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref141">27</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref142">28</reflink>]).</p> <p>Based on the discussion of the study's results concerning the fifth graders and the complex Arabic orthography, the same logic can explain the ninth graders' results. That is, the teenagers are more skilled at reading; therefore, they have developed a rich orthographic-morphological lexicon, which helps them read accurately and decipher words without needing to decipher all of the visual complexity. The years of exposure have helped enrich their orthographic-morphological lexicon (Eviatar et al. [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref143">30</reflink>]).</p> <p>The seventh graders did not benefit from short vowelization. Perhaps this result can be explained by identification of a sampling problem. In other words, it appears as if the population of the seventh graders, who were sampled, included poor readers who have not used vowels to help improve their reading and comprehension. It appears as if their reading ignored the short vowelization because they did not have the skills to use short vowelization in their reading. This could explain why it did not help their reading comprehension.</p> <p>These results match results of other studies that have averred that short vowelization visually and cognitively demanding, such a condition may cause reading fatigue. In this case, it seems that readers did not benefit from the addition of the short vowels, especially in the younger ages. This stream of research opposes the idea that Arabic short vowelization is effective and does not see it as contributing to comprehension (Abdelhadi et al. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref144">1</reflink>]; Abu-Leil et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref145">2</reflink>]; Ibrahim [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref146">33</reflink>]; Ibrahim et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref147">34</reflink>]; Taha [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref148">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>In summation, the complexity of Arabic orthography requires beginning readers, even those in the fifth grade, to depend upon short vowelization in order to read accurately and to understand texts. The younger students depend more on the vowels than the older students, who have already developed their orthographic-morphological lexicon.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-33">Discussion of the Third Hypothesis</hd> <p>The third hypothesis stated that short vowelization would improve reading comprehension to a greater degree in the texts that had a higher literary form, such as poetry and the Koran, in comparison to texts with a lower literary form, such as informative texts and newspaper articles. The results showed that the texts that had a higher literary form did not benefit as much from short vowelization. The addition of the short vowelization improved the comprehension of the narrative and informative texts; in the complex texts, the vowels only improved comprehension of the texts from the Koran. It appears that when there is more complex writing, the vowels facilitate reading when the writing is less complex and makes it easier for the reader to read correctly, improving the quality of the comprehension.</p> <p>Visual complexity interferes with the reader's ability; as a result, s/he depends on the vowels, the orthography and the morphology of the writing during the process of word identification. Therefore, while the addition of the vowels can improve the quality of comprehension of classical literature, it does not do so contribute more to comprehension of texts that have less morphological complexity, such as informative texts and newspaper articles. Due to the morphological complexity (the morphological density), which is characteristic of poetry, the impact of short vowelization on reading comprehension of these texts was more modest, in comparison to the less morphologically dense and literary texts (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref149">14</reflink>]).</p> <p>Few studies have examined the issue of the contribution of short vowelization to different levels of comprehension of different kinds of texts. The few studies that have explored the issue support the findings from the third hypothesis, in general, while lacking a clear direction concerning the level of comprehension that can benefit more from short vowelization. This section will end with a quote from Abu-Rabia's research ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref150">8</reflink>], p. 117):"Reading in Arabic orthography by poor and skilled readers needs to be understood as a simultaneous visual-orthographical process for the identification of the root of the word and as a processing of vowels for phonological coding. Therefore, we need to be cautious when explaining the differences in the reading process of vowelized and non-vowelized texts, unconnected to the kind of text: narratives, informative, poetic and from the Koran. These two processes add important information concerning word identification during the reading process (Seidenberg and McClelland [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref151">37</reflink>]). These bits of information accumulate and facilitate the process of word identification, including the vowels that provide phonological information, the roots, the sentence context and the additions." ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref152">8</reflink>], p. 117)</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-34">General Discussion</hd> <p>Short vowelization facilitates reading comprehension among regular readers of all ages and at all levels of understanding of all kinds of texts. The short vowelization makes a phonological contribution to the text units; in this way, it stabilizes the reading process. The reading becomes more automatic as time passes (Shimron [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref153">43</reflink>]; Shimron and Sivan [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref154">44</reflink>]). Moreover, this result has been supported by a series of studies (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref155">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref156">4</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref157">5</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref158">6</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref159">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref160">8</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref161">9</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref162">11</reflink>]). The complexity of Arabic orthography requires the use of short vowelization, as was presented in the discussion of the first hypothesis, and this is not only important for the first phonological stage in the reading process (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref163">14</reflink>]; Abu-Rabia and Abu Rahmoun [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref164">15</reflink>]). Arabic is characterized by its dense morphology (Tibi and Kirby [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref165">47</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref166">48</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref167">49</reflink>]), and requires the reader to continuously engage in composition and decomposition processes of Arabic words.</p> <p>Moreover, the results of this study showed that short vowelization helped younger students more than older ones. The discussion of this result emphasized the "ongoing phonological stage" in the process of reading in Arabic orthography (Abu-Rabia [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref168">14</reflink>]), noting that Arabic readers continue to benefit from short vowelization, even when they are considered to be skilled. This is part of the uniqueness of Arabic orthography. After all, when there are non-vowelized texts, this requires reading aloud the last vowel in the word. Hearing the vowel of the last letter reflects high syntactic ability. This is a skill that beginning and young readers do not have, because it requires syntactic analysis at a very high level. Therefore, the mistakes in reading accuracy are common because the reader does not always know the correct final vowel which has a grammatical function of a specific word is in the sentence. The pronunciation of the vowel of the last letter in the word will be a "complete guess," which leads to common errors and to a low level of reading accuracy.</p> <p>In addition, the results of the study concerning the third hypothesis were contradictory: the short vowelization did not improve the reading of the texts with higher literary form, such as poetry, but rather contributed more to the reading of the texts with the lower level—the texts from the newspaper, and the narrative and the informative texts. This finding might be due to the visual burden that is accumulative and becomes complex (Abdelhadi et al. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref169">1</reflink>]; Abu-Leil et al. [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref170">2</reflink>]; Ibrahim [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref171">33</reflink>]; Ibrahim et al. [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref172">34</reflink>]; Taha [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref173">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>In the present study, short vowelization made the reading of the poetry more difficult and complex, while facilitating the reading of newspaper, narrative and informative. The visual burden slows down the reading and, thus, also the comprehension (Eviatar et al. [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref174">30</reflink>]; Shalhoub-Awwad [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref175">40</reflink>]).</p> <p>The surprising result is that short vowelization was more helpful for comprehension of the less complex texts than it was for the more complex texts, from the linguistic aspect.</p> <hd id="AN0146972894-35">Practical Implications</hd> <p>There are some practical implications based on findings from the current study.</p> <p>Short vowelization should be used as a tool that contributes to reading comprehension at every reading level and for all ages. Moreover, in order to overcome the visual burden, it is important to increase the use of literary Arabic from a young age and to recruit all of the relevant parties for this endeavor: The schools, the parents, the educational departments, the pedagogical secretariat and the local council. This requires a major revision of Arabic reading curriculum and policy related to teaching literary Arabic from early on. 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  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The Role of Vowelization in Reading Comprehension of Different Arabic Genres
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  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Abu+Rabia%2C+Salim%22">Abu Rabia, Salim</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Hijjazi%2C+Ekhlas%22">Hijjazi, Ekhlas</searchLink>
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  Label: Source
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Journal+of+Psycholinguistic+Research%22"><i>Journal of Psycholinguistic Research</i></searchLink>. Dec 2020 49(6):935-954.
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  Data: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 20
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2020
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Audience
  Label: Education Level
  Group: Audnce
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Elementary+Education%22">Elementary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Grade+7%22">Grade 7</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Junior+High+Schools%22">Junior High Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Middle+Schools%22">Middle Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Grade+5%22">Grade 5</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Intermediate+Grades%22">Intermediate Grades</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Vowels%22">Vowels</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Comprehension%22">Reading Comprehension</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Arabs%22">Arabs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Semitic+Languages%22">Semitic Languages</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Literary+Genres%22">Literary Genres</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Age+Differences%22">Age Differences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grade+7%22">Grade 7</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Islam%22">Islam</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Written+Language%22">Written Language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Newspapers%22">Newspapers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Poetry%22">Poetry</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Improvement%22">Reading Improvement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Grade+5%22">Grade 5</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teaching+Methods%22">Teaching Methods</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Instruction%22">Reading Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Materials%22">Reading Materials</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Geographic Terms
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Israel%22">Israel</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1007/s10936-020-09696-6
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0090-6905
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: The present study explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of different texts, different genres and on different levels, among students of different ages. It explored the influence of short vowelization in Arabic orthography on reading comprehension of texts from the Koran, informative texts, newspaper articles and poetry, by examining the influence of short vowelization on different levels of understanding among students from three cities and three Arab villages in the northern district of Israel. The results from the mixed design indicated that short vowelization improved the level of reading comprehension among the readers in each level of understanding and for each kind of text. The results indicated a greater improvement in reading comprehension among the young readers as compared to the older readers. The findings also showed that short vowelization improved the performance of the fifth graders, more so than for ninth graders. Furthermore, short vowelization did not influence the performance of the seventh graders.
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  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2020
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1276418
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RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1007/s10936-020-09696-6
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 20
        StartPage: 935
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Vowels
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Comprehension
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Arabs
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Semitic Languages
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Literary Genres
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Age Differences
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Grade 7
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Islam
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Written Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Newspapers
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Poetry
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Improvement
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Grade 5
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Teaching Methods
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Instruction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Materials
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Israel
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The Role of Vowelization in Reading Comprehension of Different Arabic Genres
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            NameFull: Hijjazi, Ekhlas
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              Y: 2020
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            – TitleFull: Journal of Psycholinguistic Research
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