Is reading prosody related to reading comprehension? A meta-analysis.

We examined the relation between reading prosody and reading comprehension, using a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the strength of the relation and to understand whether the strength of the relation varies by prosody feature (adult-like contour, F0 sentence-final declination, grammatical pauses, ungrammatical pauses, prosody scale), students' developmental phase of reading skill as examined by grade level, and orthographic depth. A total of 35 studies (K = 98; N = 9,349; Grades 1-9, 8 languages) met inclusion criteria. Overall a moderate relation (.51) was found between reading prosody and reading comprehension. Furthermore, the strength varied by prosody feature such that the relation was stronger for prosody rating scale than for pitch indicators such as adult-like contour and F0 sentence-final declination. However, grade and orthographic depth were not significant moderators. These results suggest that the relation between reading prosody and reading comprehension is not unitary and should consider specific aspects of reading prosody.