Showing papers in "Journal of Literacy Research in 1986"

Effects of Structural Guidance in Story Retelling on Children's Dictation of Original Stories

Abstract: The study sought to determine if frequent story retellings with structural guidance could improve kindergarten children's use of structural elements in dictations of original stories and increase the oral language complexity of the stories. Treatments were administered to children once a week for eight weeks. After a story was read, the control children (n = 44) drew a picture about it and the experimental children (n = 38) retold the story individually to a research assistant. Story dictation pre- and posttests were administered. Analysis of covariance indicated significant improvement for the experimental group in dictation of original stories and in oral language complexity. Retelling proved to be an instructional strategy capable of improving children's dictations of original stories and oral language complexity within those stories.

The Effect of Metacognitive Instruction in Outlining and Graphic Organizer Construction on Students' Comprehension in a Tenth-Grade World History Class.

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of graphic organizer instruction versus outlining on students' text recall in tenth-grade world history. Based on the hierarchical structure of graphic organizers depicting interrelationships among ideas, we hypothesized that students instructed in the use of graphic organizers would display significantly higher text recall than a group using outlines. Seventy-two tenth graders in three sections of world history participated in the study. Two sections received systematic instruction in the development of graphic organizers and a third section received parallel instruction in outlining. One of the two graphic organizer sections had previous instruction in summarization and question generation during an

The Role of Graphic Organizers and Social Structure in Content Area Instruction.

Abstract: This study investigated the effectiveness of three techniques for informing sixth-grade students of content area information. Students were taught content area information through either a graphic ...

Toward Understanding the Effects of Cross-Cultural Schemata and Discourse Structure on Second Language Reading Comprehension:

Abstract: Research on second culture and second language reading comprehension is reviewed to support the claim that second language reading is an interactive process, involving the interrelationship of cultural schemata and discourse structure. Studies on content schemata include investigations of the roles of cultural knowledge and second language proficiency in comprehension . Studies on discourse processing include linguistic descriptions of ethnolinguistic discourse patterns (contrastive rhetoric), as well as psycholinguistic comprehension studies on expository prose, story structure, and cohesion. This multidisciplinary review functions as an argument for the roles of cultural schemata and discourse structure in an interactive model of first and second language reading. It is a well-documented fact that native language reading comprehension involves the role of knowledge of the world and knowledge of native text structure (Langer & Smith-Burke, 1982; Spiro, Bruce, & Brewer, 1980). Reading is a complex interactive, hypothesis-generating psycholinguistic process which is tied intimately to the reader's language proficiency. While there are basic similarities in the fluent reading process in various languages (see Goodman & Goodman, 1978; Hudelson, 1981), it is natural to expect that nonnative language proficiency or language differences may influence reading and learning

Vocabulary Difficulty, Prior Knowledge, and Text Comprehension.

Abstract: In order to examine the relative importance of vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge to the comprehension of a narrative passage taken from a social studies text, 61 sixth graders were given either an easy vocabulary or a difficult vocabulary version of a text. They also were given either relevant or irrelevant preinstruction about the culture described in the text. Both vocabulary difficulty and type of preinstruction had significant effects on comprehension, but the two effects did not significantly interact, partially replicating the findings of Freebody and Anderson (1983b). The results indicate that knowledge-based preinstruction can significantly improve comprehension of a text written about an unfamiliar topic but cannot compensate for the effects of text difficulty in itself. Both vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge have repeatedly been found to influence comprehension of a passage. Measures of vocabulary knowledge have been found to correlate highly with measures of reading comprehension (Anderson & Freebody, 1981) and vocabulary difficulty has been found to be one of the best predictors of text difficulty (see Chall, 1958). Measures of prior knowledge have similarly had high correlations with text comprehension measures (e.g., Pearson, Hansen, & Gordon, 1979). However, when prior knowledge and vocabulary difficulty have been studied together, prior knowledge had not been shown to compensate for word difficulty (Freebody & Anderson, 1983b). It is the purpose of this study to reexamine the compensatory power of prior knowledge by looking at the effects of vocabulary difficulty and prior knowledge, both individually and interactively, on the comprehension of a social studies passage with unfamiliar subject matter. Anderson and Freebody (1981) suggest three hypotheses which might explain the relationships between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. The first, the instrumentalist hypothesis, suggests that vocabulary

The Influence of Metacognitive Aspects of Literacy on Job Performance of Electronics Technicians

Abstract: A major problem facing educators is the growth of higher level literacy demands required to compete in the workplace. This presents a problem for educators wishing to provide literacy training best suited to the literacy demands of the workplace. Several research studies have documented the nature of workplace literacy demands, but only a few have attempted to assess the relationship between literacy abilities and on-the-job performance. This study involved observing, interviewing, testing, and rating job performance of electronics technicians from three different employment levels (i.e., from training, experienced, and supervisory levels). Data were analyzed for differences between level of experience groups and the relationships of rated job performance to literacy-related factors. The subjects were 29 electronics technicians who volunteered from a technical school, a naval base, a major Fortune 500 electronics plant, and a small, local electronics plant. Job-related reading time averaged nearly two hou...

Effect of Rewritten Content Textbook Passages on Middle Grade Students' Comprehension of Main Ideas: Making the Inconsiderate Considerate.

Abstract: This study sought to determine if content area textbook passages could be rewritten such that middle grade students' main idea comprehension ability was enhanced. Excerpts from fifth-grade science textbooks were read by fifthgrade students in one of two versions: (a) an original (inconsiderate) version in which main ideas were frequently implicit, those main ideas that were explicitly stated in the text were not always prominent (i.e., placed initially) in paragraphs and passages, and there were few, if any, headings or typographical aids to cue main ideas, or (b) a rewritten (considerate) version in which all main ideas were explicit in the text and typed in italic, each main idea appeared at the beginning of the text unit, and headings cued main ideas. Several recognition and recall items assessed students' ability to identify and generate main ideas at both the paragraph and passage levels. Results revealed that after reading the rewritten text versions, some students were able to compose significantly more passage main ideas, and all students were able to compose significantly more paragraph main ideas. Groups did not differ on a main idea recognition task. Additional data from a series of questions which required the students to compare original and rewritten versions of the science texts tended to support the finding that content area selections rewritten to make them more considerate improves students' main idea comprehension. Although main idea instruction assumes an important place in educational curricula (Armbruster, Stevens, & Rosenshine, 1977; Baumann, in press; Hare & Milligan, 1984; Jenkins & Pany, 1980; Johnson & Barrett, 1981; Rosenshine, 1980; Winograd & Brennan, 1983), research with young and developing readers suggests that students are generally not facile at recognizing,

Understanding and Remembering Complex Prose Augmented by Analogic and Pictorial Illustration

Abstract: An experiment compared readers' use of analogic and pictorial illustrations for understanding and remembering complex instructional text. High school students (N = 102) read procedural texts under six analogic and pictorial illustration conditions and attempted to apply the texts' content in an applied performance task. Two weeks later students were evaluated on their attempts to perform the same task from memory. Pictures proved helpful for both immediate performance and delayed performance. Analogy was helpful for delayed performance but only slightly more helpful on immediate performance. Results are discussed in terms of apparent functions of analogies and pictures. To comprehend texts and learn from them, effective readers deploy the images they generate in reading with some deliberation, resorting to a number of strategies for increasing the meaning of the content and for remembering it as they find it necessary. By organizing images produced in response to a text, readers can create fictions to help them understand the text's content. These may take the form of direct or symbolic fictions and may turn upon highly imaginative creations which sometimes personify what is not human, sometimes animate the inanimate (cf. Gordon, 1961; Khatena, 1983). The fictions readers image occur primarily as incipient visual representations (Iser, 1972, Kosslyn, 1980; Sless, 1981). To form a fiction, readers structure images so that they cor

The Use of Orthographic Knowledge in Beginning Reading

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between word recognition ability, knowledge of orthographic structures, and use of orthographic knowledge in word recognition. Fifty-six first and second graders were administered a word recognition test, two tests of orthographic knowledge, and two search tasks. The results indicated that when searching for multiple word targets children with word recognition levels of less than 2-2 searched similarly through all fields, whereas children with word recognition levels of 2-2+ searched faster through pseudowords and nonwords than through words. When searching for members of a category, children with word recognition levels below 2-1 searched faster through nonwords and pseudowords than through words providing no evidence for the use of orthography in word search. Children with word recognition levels above 2-1 searched faster through nonwords than through pseudowords and words, demonstrating a generalized effect of orthographic structure. Rumelhart's (1977) interactive model of reading proposed that readers utilize several knowledge sources (featural, graphic, phonemic, syntactic, orthographic, lexical, semantic) in word recognition. In contrast to earlier serial processing theories, the interactive model suggested that the knowledge sources were operating simultaneously, independent of level. As such, semantic processes constrain alternatives at the feature analytic level but are themselves constrained by feature analysis. In an extension of the interactive model designed to accommodate individual differences in reading fluency, Stanovich (1980) proposed that a deficit in any knowledge source would result in a heavier reliance on other knowledge sources, regardless of the level in the processing hierarchy. For example, the model predicts that readers who have difficulty with feature extraction may rely more heavily on other sources of information in word recognition. Stanovich found

The relationship of headings, questions, and locus of control to multiple-choice test performance

Abstract: This experiment examined the effects of headings and adjunct questions embedded in expository text on the delayed multiple-choice test performance of college students. Subjects in the headings-present group performed significantly better on the retention test than did the subjects in the headingsabsent group. The main effect of adjunct questions was not significant, but there was a significant interaction of locus of control group and adjunct questions. For subjects with an internal locus of control, performance in the questions-present condition significantly exceeded performance in the questions-absent condition; however, adjunct questions did not significantly affect the performance of subjects with an external locus of control. The results support the view that headings may promote the organization of passage information so as to increase its general availability, and the results suggest possible differences in the organizational effects of adjunct questions in readers differing in locus of control. This paper reports the results of an experiment investigating the effects of headings in text, when used in conjunction with adjunct questions, on multiple-choice test performance. The issue of the possible interaction of headings and questions in influencing multiple-choice test performance is an important one, given the prevalent use of multiple-choice tests in educational settings as a means of assessing text memory. The beneficial effects of adjunct questions on memory for prose have been reported in a large number of studies (see, for example, review articles by Anderson & Biddle, 1975; Andre, 1979; Rickards, 1979). In particular, Anderson and Biddle report in their review that a number of studies have found that

The Effects of Reader Perspective and Cognitive Style on Remembering Important Information from Texts

Abstract: The effects of reader perspective and cognitive style on encoding, storage, and retrieval processes were investigated in two experiments. In both experiments, subjects read a story from one of two different perspectives or from no directed perspective, recalled the story from either the originally assigned perspective or the alternative perspective, and then took a recognition test on the story. In addition, subjects in both experiments were given an embedded figures test. In Experiment 1, subjects took the recall and recognition test immediately after reading the story and in Experiment 2, the recall and recognition tests were given four days later. In Experiment 1, subjects who read the story from either of the assigned perspectives (burglar or home buyer) correctly recognized more items that were important to the burglar perspective, but subjects who were not assigned a perspective showed no difference in recognition of burglar and home buyer information. It was suggested that perhaps assigning subjects a perspective induces them to think more about the passage and relate it to their world knowledge. The results of the immediate recall test suggest that readers use their knowledge associated with the assigned perspective as a retrieval plan. Individual differences in cognitive style had no effect on subjects' recall or recognition performance in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, subjects with either high or low scores on the embedded figures test who recalled the story from either of the assigned perspectives (burglar or home buyer) recalled more burglar than home buyer information. Subjects with intermediate scores, however, showed no difference in recall of burglar and home buyer information. These results, together with those of Ex

A Comparison of Analogy- and Rule-Based Decoding Strategies in Normal and Dyslexic Children.

Abstract: Use of two alternative decoding strategies, one based on spelling-soun d correspondence rules and one based on analogies, was investigated in fifth-sixthgrade dyslexic and normal children, as well as a group of younger normal readers matched on reading age to the dyslexics. Children pronounced nonwords (e.g., fody) constructed so that use of one strategy would produce a difference response from the other. Results indicated that dyslexic children lagged behind agematched normals in the use of both strategies, and behind reading-age matched normals in use of analogies but not rules. An analysis of decoding errors indicated that normals were more likely to notice and make analogies to real words embedded in the nonsense words than dyslexics. In addition, the likelihood of an analogy response to a nonword was found to increase in all groups as the frequency of the analogy word increased. The latter finding suggests that the mechanism by which analogy words are accessed in memory is similar across groups, although dyslexies produce analogy responses less often. Learning to identify printed words is widely regarded as an important

Direct instruction in processing metaphors

Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to explore the efficacy of instruction with third-grade subjects in processing metaphors based on the principles of the direct explicit teaching of reading comprehension and current metaphor theory. In Experiment 1, process instruction was validated. In Experiment 2, process instruction was compared to traditional basal instruction in the context of a unit on metaphor. Statistically significant differences were found in favor of process instruction. The psychological processes involved in metaphorical interpretation are discussed and directions for future research suggested. Metaphor has long been the subject of speculation and research in disciplines as diverse as philosophy, linguistics, literature, and cognitive psychology. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the relationship between the theory and practice of metaphor by employing the tenets of one theory of metaphor, the salience imbalance hypothesis (Ortony, Vondruska, Foss, & Jones, 1985), and the principles underlying the direct explicit teaching of reading comprehension (e.g., Pearson, 1984; Roehler, Duffy, & Meloth, in press) to see if young children could actually be taught to interpret metaphors.

The Influence of Reading Content on Students' Perceptions of the Masculinity or Femininity of Reading

Abstract: This study examined the effect of the content of reading material on students' perceptions of reading as masculine or feminine. Students in this study included 492 pupils (255 females, 237 males) from two suburban school districts. Students were enrolled in kindergarten, grades 2,4, 6, 8, and high school. Students were shown a slide presentation consisting of 60 slides depicting various children's activities including the following reading activities: reading a book, a TV Guide, a mystery book, the newspaper comics, a science book, a dictionary, an animal book, a running book, and a poetry book. The reading slides were interwoven among nonreading activity slides to mask the emphasis of the study. In the slides, only the hands of the children were shown to prevent identification of the child in each slide as male or female. As each slide was shown, students were directed to respond by circling either "boy" or "girl" on their answer sheets. The total responses of "boy"for each reading item were analyzed for male, female, and total students. The percentages of responses of "boy" were generated and chi square analyses were conducted to determine differences between "boy" versus "girl" responses. The data indicated that the content of the reading material affected students' responses. Depending on the sex and grade level of the students, some reading items were viewed as masculine, some as feminine, and one as equally masculine and feminine. The specific content of the reading materials influenced the way in which reading was perceived. During the last fifty years, reading research in the United States has indicated that there are sex differences in reading. In several reading readiness studies and reading achievement studies, sex differences favoring girls have been documented (Balow, 1963;Carroll, 1948;DykstraT Gates, 1961; Samuels, 1943). Further evidence of the existence of sex differences in reading has been found in the

Hemispheric Asymmetries in Developmental Dyslexia: Cerebral Structure or Attentional Strategies?

Abstract: Two experiments investigated visual processing asymmetries in normal and dyslexic readers, with unilateral tachistoscopic presentations. The experiments employed randomized or blocked presentations of verbal and nonverbal materials to determine whether previously reported differences between dyslexics and normals were due to structural hemispheric differences or to strategical processing differences. The results indicate that if dyslexics are unable to predict the nature of the stimulus, then they behave as normal readers. Their atypical laterality emerges only when they can adopt a strategy in anticipation of a specific type of stimulus. This leads to the suggestion that developmental dyslexia is associated more with inappropriate modes of thought than it is with hemispheric dysfunction. Reading disability has long been associated with atypical patterns of hemispheric specialization, and Orton (1937) suggested that the left cerebral hemisphere of very poor readers does not follow a normal course of dominance development. Recent studies of the lateralization of visual processing in dyslexic children have given empirical support to these views (Kerschner, 1977; Marcel, Katz, & Smith, 1974; Marcel & Rajan, 1975; Pirozzolo & Rayner, 1979; Witelson, 1977). The disturbance is most regularly found with the processing of verbal stimuli, however, in tasks involving letter and word identification. The general pattern is for normal readers to show a perceptual advantage for verbal stimuli presented in the right visual field (i.e., to the left cerebral hemisphere), and for dyslexic children to show either a reduced advantage or no advantage for stimuli in the right visual field. The difference between normal and dyslexic readers is not as clear when we consider the processing of stimuli other than words and letters.

Memory for prose: relational and lexical item-specific processing for intentional recall

Abstract: Two experiments contrasted processing manipulations designed to focus readers' attention on sequential and relational aspects of passages with processing activities presumed to focus readers' attention on individual lexical items and the propositions in which they were embedded. Employing an intentional recall paradigm, both experiments found recall to be superior when the readers engaged in sequential and relational processing to recall when they performed individual item-specific lexical processing. These results disagree with those of previous work on individual item-specific lexical processing conducted with an incidental paradigm but agree closely with a broad range of studies that have focused on relational and sequential processing. The results are discussed in terms of differences between intentional and incidental learning paradigms. In recent years, considerable work has indicated the importance of understanding the relational and sequential aspects of texts in memory for prose. Typically, processing activities, such as listing key terms, answering lower level factual questions, and copying parts of the text—activities that focus readers' attention on superficial or highly specific elements of text—have not been effective in enhancing readers' memory for prose (e.g., Andre & Womack, 1978; Glover, Plake, Roberts, Zimmer, & Palmere, 1981). For example, Glover et al. (1981) contrasted readers' memory for text in several conditions including a key word condition, in which subjects listed "key words" found in paragraphs; a model statements condition, in which subjects identified statements in each paragraph as fitting a model; and a logical inference condition, in which readers focused on the relational aspects of paragraphs in order to draw logical inferences. The results indicated that the key words and model statements conditions obtained recall scores highly similar to those of a control group, while subjects in the logical inferences condition recalled significantly greater amounts of text. Similarly, Andre and Womack (1978) found that highly specific, lower level questions

Journal of Reading Behavior Membership Survey and Results

Abstract: The 1984 Board of Directors of the National Reading Conference appointed an ad hoc committee (see note 1) to review the status of the Journal of Reading Behavior. One phase of that review was the creation, distribution, collection, and analysis of a membership survey. The purpose of this paper is to report the procedures followed in developing and conducting the survey study, the results of the survey, and the recommendations emanating from the survey results (see note 2).