Unraveling Difficult Sentences

Update: What does the research tell us about language & literacy?
Research Spotlight: Zipoli, R. P. (2017). Unraveling Difficult Sentences. Intervention in School and Clinic,52(4), 218-227. 

A prominent feature of literate language is the longer and more advanced syntactic structures found in decontextualized academic discourse and written text, including sentence structures that appear with relatively low frequency during casual conversation, such as verbs with a passive voice, subordinate clauses, and sentences with multiple layers of embedding (Benson, 2009; Scott, 2009; Snow & Kim, 2010). Not surprisingly, an understanding of sentence structure, or syntax, is generally recognized as making a substantial contribution to students’ comprehension of written text (Moats, 2000; RAND Reading Study Group, 2002; Scott, 2009; Snow & Kim, 2010; Spear-Swerling, 2015; Van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983)  

Unfortunately, many educators and clinicians appear to lack the syntactic knowledge and instructional skills needed to support students’ comprehension of difficult sentence structures (Justice & Ezell, 2002; Moats, 2000; Moats & Foorman, 2003; Roth, 2014; Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005; Steffani, 2007).
Key Findings:

1. Four sentence structures students find difficult to comprehend:
   1.  passive verb construction
   2. adverbial clauses with temporal and causal conjunctions
   3. center-embedded relative clauses
   4. sentences with three or more clauses
2. Comprehension problem with passive verb construction: Over reliance on the “word order” strategy and/or “probable event” strategy  The cat was chased by the dog. Students will incorrectly conclude “cat chased dog.”

​      3.  Comprehension problems with adverbial clauses with temporal and causal conjunctions:

• Over-Reliance of “order of  mention” strategy Snape had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him.” Students will assume that whatever is read first in the sentence is what happened first, or whatever is read first in the sentence is the cause of an action, not the effect.
• Over-reliance on  “independent-clause-as-first-event” strategy  - After the storm hit the coast, the Red Cross arrived.  Students will conclude incorrectly that the first independent clause is the first event. 
• Over-reliance on “probable-order-of-event” strategy  - Before you eat dinner, wash the dishes. - Students will conclude incorrectly that dishes are washed after the dinner if that fits into their background knowledge and schema.  

      4. Comprehension problems with center-embedded relative clauses occur because the greater the distance between related parts of the sentence, the more difficult it is to comprehend. Students who over rely on “word-order” strategy will have difficult processing the meaning of the sentence. These kind of clauses occur regularly in late elementary, middle and high school.
The boy who lost the dog walked home. Students will incorrectly conclude “the dog walked home.”
      5. Comprehension problems with multiple clauses or with producing sentences with multiple clauses occur in particular with students with working memory, processing speed issues and with English learners We lost the game // because our running back fumbled the ball // after he was hit. Students will only be able to identify 1 or 2 clauses and/or leave out key details of the sentence.  

Erickson’s Big Takeaways:
This is a fantastic article detailing 4 major syntactic structures that affect reading comprehension. It also provides excellent pedagogical strategies and techniques teachers can use to teach these structures to students.
 
Click here to download an adaptation of 2 of these strategies here. 
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