Abstract
The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension. Results from think-aloud protocols indicated that text genre affected the way the readers processed the texts. When reading narrative texts they made more text-based and knowledge-based inferences, and when reading expository texts they made more comments and asked more questions, but also made a higher number of invalid knowledge-based inferences. Furthermore, low- and high-comprehending readers did not differ in the patterns of text-processing strategies used: all readers used a variety of comprehension strategies, ranging from literal repetitions to elaborate knowledge-based inferences. There was one exception: for expository texts, low-comprehending readers generated a higher number of inaccurate elaborative and predictive inferences. Finally, the results confirmed and extended prior research by showing that low-comprehending readers can be classified either as readers who construct a limited mental representation that mainly reflects the literal meaning of the text (struggling paraphrasers), or as readers who attempt to enrich their mental representation by generating elaborative and predictive inferences (struggling elaborators). A similar dichotomy was observed for high-comprehending readers.
Highlights
Reading is a vital skill in daily life, in work, and in education
The present study investigated comprehension processes and strategy use of second-grade low- and high-comprehending readers when reading expository and narrative texts for comprehension
The data for the think-aloud experiment were analyzed in a multivariate Repeated Measures (RM) ANOVA, with Text Genre as withinparticipant factor, and Reading Proficiency
Summary
Reading is a vital skill in daily life, in work, and in education. At school, a significant amount of the knowledge is transmitted by texts, so to be successful children need to be able to understand and learn from the texts they read (e.g., Slavin, Lake, Chambers, Cheung, & Davis, 2009). Children who have trouble comprehending texts may suffer the consequences in several domains. These problems can hinder them in learning the required content at school, which may lead to poor results on important tests. They can lead to low self-efficacy, and even to behavioral problems (e.g., Hall, 2004). Given these far-reaching consequences, it is important that we understand why these children experience problems in reading comprehension
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