Effects of the Instruction in Inferring Meanings From Context on the Comprehension of Middle School Students at Frustration Reading Level

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the context clue instruction program to infer meaning from context as a way to enhance reading comprehension. Participants were fifth-grade middle school students (four boys) who were at a frustration reading level (initial comprehension score range = 40%-48%) at their grade level. In addition, one student served as a control participant and did not any receive instruction in this study. A multiple-baseline across-students design was used. All the instruction for the three experimental participants was one on one using the direct instruction method. Maintenance of treatment effects was probed at 2, 4, and 6 weeks following the intervention for Participants 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The results demonstrated that the instructional program produced increases in all three experimental participants’ comprehension scores to above 70% (range = 75%-82%) as measured by the short-answer questions; thus, they found they achieved an instructional level score in their comprehension after the instruction. The social validity results confirmed that participants enjoyed the intervention, and had a better understanding of what they read through individual experience on the strategy of learning from context. The information gained from this study suggested that a strategy instruction concerning the use of context clues may be a useful component (Tier 2 setting) of response to intervention (RTI) model for students who struggle with reading comprehension.