Text Structures
Knowledge
of text structures has been determined to improve listening
and reading comprehension skills (Garner & Bochna, 2004;
Mason, Snyder, Sukhram, & Kedem, 2006; Newby, Caldwell, &
Recht, 1989). Mason, Snyder, Sukhram, and Kedem
incorporated thinking about the authors' purpose to allow
students to select the appropriate text structure to
facilitate reading comprehension skills. A more
thorough review of the research conducted by Mason, Snyder,
Sukhram, and Kedem is provided in the strategies instruction
section. Students with LLD
possess deficits in text structure knowledge, which causes
them to struggle with identifying the main idea and details
of information and conveying text related information to
others (Westby, 2005). This impacts the student’s ability
to independently identify the purpose when reading and to
extract critical information from text,
affecting comprehension.
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Stewart
(1991) identified deficits in metacognition as the cause of
decreased awareness and use of organizational strategies.
These skills are necessary for knowledge and successful application
of text structures. The research has found that instruction
in the understanding and use of text structures, in
conjunction with metacognitive instruction, improved
students’ ability to construct meaning from oral or written
text (Garner & Bochna, 2004; Newby, Caldwell,& Recht,
1989). The Garner and Bochna study was described
previously in the transfer of skills in both listening and
reading comprehension section. The results of this study
confirmed that explicit instruction in story grammar
concepts enhanced students’ awareness of text structures,
which was demonstrated through their ability to recall the
events of a story during a prompted
recall task (Garner & Bochna). It was also found that
improvements in listening comprehension and reading
comprehension skills were achieved when instruction in story
grammar concepts was paired with daily listening
activities. “The study indicates that beginning readers
benefit from direct instruction that draws from best
practices in strategy instruction, such as explicit
reference to procedural and conditional aspects of
knowledge, use of teacher modeling, guided practice, and
cumulative review” (Garner & Bochna, 2004, p. 73).
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Newby,
Caldwell, and Recht (1989) explored the benefits of
differentiated instruction on text comprehension of
narratives for children with dysphonetic and dyseidetic
dyslexia. This single-subject experimental study consisted
of 5 children (2 dysphonetic, 3 dyseidetic), ages 8 to 10,
who were from middle class backgrounds. Subjects were
randomly selected to begin experimental treatment after 2,
4, or 6 baseline sessions. Students received instruction in
content vocabulary, story grammar strategies, and word
identification. Students who were dysphonetic
were taught story grammar concepts using pictographs,
without regard to sequential order, whereas dyseidetics were
given a sequentially based program (Newby, Caldwell, and
Recht). Teaching to the strengths of each dyslexic type was
expected to enhance the learning and internalization of
story grammar concepts. Instruction emphasized metacognitive
awareness about the parts of a story and how this knowledge would
benefit recall of important details. No treatment effect was revealed for oral
reading and vocabulary measures. Quantitative comprehension
recall was determined to have an ambiguous treatment effect.
Qualitative measures revealed a treatment effect in
recall of ideas between baseline and experimental scores for
4 out of the 5 subjects. These findings suggested that
students with dyslexia can demonstrate greater recall of the
events in a story qualitatively when given explicit
metacognitive strategies instruction in story grammar
concepts. This supported Garner & Bochna’s (2004)
study, which determined that explicit metacognitive
strategies instruction in story
grammar concepts improved recall of main ideas, when given
questions, from narratives
in students with and without disabilities. Therefore,
students who do not demonstrate awareness and application of
text structures, to identify the main
idea or other components of a narrative or expository text, would
benefit from explicit instruction in this area.
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Given
that many students benefit from instruction in text structures
and students with LLD exhibit deficits in text structure
knowledge, intervention that includes metacognitive
instruction in text structures is expected to enhance listening and reading comprehension skills. It
is important to note that only Garner & Bochna (2004)
observed a transfer of skills from listening to reading
comprehension given explicit instruction in
story grammar elements. Since children with LLD also
demonstrate listening comprehension difficulties, studies
that examine the effects on both listening and reading
comprehension skills should be completed. In addition, the
effects of text structure instruction on both narrative and
expository text comprehension have not been studied
extensively. This study will focus on listening and reading
comprehension of both fiction and nonfiction text. Hence,
explicit instruction regarding the selection of different
types of text structures as they relate to fiction and
nonfiction text and activities will be explored.
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