Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Martino, Marta Denise Wavra

Titel

The reading strategies of unskilled college readers: A look at the effects of prior knowledge and metacognition

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1990

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study used the think-aloud protocol method to examine the comprehension strategies of four nonproficient readers in order to describe their attempts to read passages on a standardized reading test and to read a longer college textbook passage as well as answer multiple choice questions based on information in the passages. Four students who repeatedly failed the reading assessment test of the City University of New York read two pairs of passages on the same topic with opposing points of view in order to determine if their prior knowledge from personal experience and print interfered with their attention to the texts. The textbook passage was used to compare their strategies when attempting a more realistic college task and it provided more information about what these readers did differently when they read for a test compared with what they did when they read and answered questions from an actual college textbook. This comparison provided some indication about how helpful the present reading assessment test is in determining a student's success in college. The resulting protocols were coded using an adaptation of Block's (1985) categories of strategies and analyzed in five parts--(1) background of participants, (2) their models of reading, (3) their strategy use, (4) their use of prior knowledge, and (5) their cognitive awareness. The data analyzed includes (a) transcripts of the recorded thoughts reported by subjects as they read and answered questions, (b) interviews, and (c) researcher observations and comments. The findings of the study were that these nonproficient readers had more strategic reading resources and more cognitive awareness than was expected, and prior knowledge did not interfere very much with their reading comprehension. The participants' models of reading and awareness of purpose seemed to determine reading comprehension.