Thinking Aloud in Reading Research: Still Controversial but Still Valuable

• In Event: 75.053 - Strategic Approaches to Literacy Development

Abstract

Attention in this paper is on thinking-aloud, a process-tracing approach used to investigate the nature of reading. Like other approaches, it has limitations. Criticisms include possible reactivity and questionable veridicality as well as lack of attention to social/sociocultural factors. This paper (1) reviews complications in think-aloud research, (2) shows the kinds of insights that think-aloud approaches can provide, including social and sociocultural aspects of reading, and (3) shares findings of an inquiry employing think-alouds to investigate online academic reading. The latter, by means of case studies, provides detailed portrayals of graduate students’ reading that combine think-alouds with data from other sources, including discourse-based interviews and observations. The paper shows how, despite ongoing controversy, thinking-aloud continues to be a valuable approach.

Authors

• Lois Ann Knezek, University of North Texas

• Nancy J. Nelson, University of North Texas