Exploring the Relationship between Reading Comprehension and Text Genres in Fifth and Sixth Grade

Abstract

This research examines reading comprehension as regards the two main text genres, narrative and informational, differentiated in terms of content, in relation to the students’ prior knowledge. At the same time, it also examines the difficulties students face at the different levels of reading comprehension, i.e. the vocabulary, literal, intratextual and intertextual level. Our sample consists of 1614 students of the two upper classes of the Greek elementary school; the students are proficient in decoding, have been taught the characteristics of the corresponding textual structure, and had not been identified with any particular difficulties in reading comprehension during previous years. Research findings showed that students’ reading comprehension was influenced more by the occurrence of unfamiliar content in the narrative text, than by the linear structure of the informational text. Moreover, the differences between the levels of comprehension in both text genres are statistically significant, with the students of the sixth grade performing better at all levels of comprehension compared to the students of the fifth grade; in the contrary the vocabulary comprehension, the difference is considered statistically insignificant.