The relationship between reading ability and expectations for story structures∗

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between reading achievement and readers' predictive abilities for narrative text structure. Ninety‐six fourth graders and 70 sixth graders completed two tasks: (a) Subjects silently read incomplete stories and then told the rest of the stories orally; and (b) subjects silently read stories that had parts deleted and then orally gave information they thought could fit in the blanks. The degree to which readers expected particular story structures was revealed by the extent to which their responses matched the story parts predicted by the Mandler and Johnson grammar. The major finding was that, on the whole, at each grade level, there was a positive relationship between reading achievement and ability to anticipate narrative text structures during reading. The relationship was consistent across grades. Also, there was no significant difference between fourth and sixth graders in the extent to which particular story structures were expected.