Think-Aloud Protocol Analysis: An Investigation of Reading Comprehension Strategies in Fourth-and Fifth-Grade Students

Abstract

School assessments too often ignore the process of individuals' cognitions. As part of a systematic effort to develop an assessment procedure focused on the tactics used to facilitate reading comprehension, this research investigated Lytle's (1985) approach to think-aloud protocol analysis. Data are presented for fourth- and fifth-graders that show the degree to which they used reasoning, elaboration, signaling understanding, analysis, judging, and monitoring doubts while they were reading three fictional passages. The percentage of each move used by individual subjects was stable across the three stories that were administered. Significant correlations were obtained between comprehension of the passage used to obtain the think-aloud protocols and two of the six categories of moves: Reasoning and Signaling Understanding. These students used Elaboration, Signaling Understanding, and Reasoning most frequently; they used Monitoring Doubts less frequently; and they rarely used Analysis and Judging. Unique contributions of this research include the extension of previous work with this method to elementary school students, demonstration of stability in the use of moves across the three stories, and detection of correlations between this system and comprehension of the passage used to obtain the think-aloud protocol. Suggestions are made for future research that concerns the validity of think-aloud protocol analysis as a diagnostic technique and an approach to facilitate comprehension skills.