Two Crucial Components for Expository Text Comprehension: Knowledge About Connectives and Metacognitive Knowledge

• In Event: Content Area Reading Comprehension and Writing in European and American Schools

Abstract

In this talk I will report on two studies that stress the importance of knowledge of connectives (words like although, because, nevertheless) and knowledge about text structure and reading strategies (metacognitive knowledge) for school book text comprehension in secondary school. The first study was set up in order to test whether knowledge of connectives might be a particularly important domain of vocabulary knowledge for school book text comprehension. Although several theories about reading comprehension, such as Kintsch’ construction integration model (1998; 2005) and Perfetti’s framework for reading comprehension (1999; 2005) have acknowledged the importance of vocabulary knowledge for text comprehension, these theories have not specified vocabulary demands for specific text types. Knowledge of connectives was expected to play a special role for expository text comprehension, however, its role was assumed to depend on metacognitive knowledge. Readers with more metacognitive knowledge were expected to employ connectives strategically to a greater extent than their peers with less metacognitive knowledge, for example to infer the overall structure of expository texts (cf. Meyer, Brandt & Bluth, 1980). 171 eighth graders were tested on their reading fluency, general vocabulary size, metacognitive knowledge, knowledge of connectives and their expository text comprehension. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that knowledge of connectives explained substantial unique variance in text comprehension accounting for reading fluency, general vocabulary size and metacognitive knowledge. Furthermore, knowledge of connectives interacted significantly with metacognitive knowledge: knowledge of connectives was beneficial for all readers, but for those with more metacognitive knowledge the positive association with text comprehension was more pronounced.
Findings from the second study, an intervention study, also stress the importance of knowledge of connectives and metacognitive knowledge. The intervention method combined two approaches that have been shown to be successful for improving text comprehension skills in secondary school: collaborative reading (e.g., Vaughn et al., 2013; Guthrie et al., 2006) and text structure training (e.g., Meyer & Ray, 2011). Students from six (experimental) classes from three secondary schools schools read expository texts in small groups for 24 hours in their biology, geography and history classes, and received instruction about text structure for eight hours in their language art classes. Students took pre- and post-tests that measured their expository text comprehension, linguistic knowledge (vocabulary size, knowledge of connectives), metacognitive knowledge, reading motivation and reading fluency. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that the intervention method was more successful in improving text comprehension compared to business as usual, but only for some readers: only skilled readers and girls (irrespective of reading skill) benefited from the intervention. These subgroups also improved their knowledge of connectives and metacognitive knowledge. Other subskills were not affected by the intervention. Based on these findings I argue that the girls and skilled readers increased their expository text comprehension due to the effects of the intervention on their knowledge of connectives and their metacognitive knowledge. I will discuss implications for educational practice based on the results from these two studies.

Author

• Camille Welie