Justification for the Research Study
There are several reasons why explicit instruction in metacognitive strategies for children with language learning disabilities should be explored.
- Many students with LLD exhibit language based deficits that impact reading comprehension skills (Westby, 2005). This means that the speech and language pathologist is responsible for ensuring that students with LLD develop the necessary skills and strategies to effectively construct meaning from classroom lectures and texts.
- Researchers have demonstrated improvements in students’ reading comprehension skills when students with and without learning disabilities received explicit instruction in one or more of the following areas: metacognition (including comprehension monitoring), strategies, and text structures. Therefore, students with LLD may benefit from explicit instruction in these areas as well.
- Students with LLD exhibit deficits in listening comprehension and word recognition that impact reading comprehension. It has been assumed that students who receive explicit metacognitive strategies instruction using either listening or reading comprehension tasks will make improvements in both their listening and reading comprehension skills. The transfer of skills has not been extensively studied with students, who exhibit language based reading difficulties, warranting studies with this population.
- Strategies instruction and metacognition and text structure instruction and metacognition have been studied separately as two different intervention approaches, with benefits being observed in listening and/or reading comprehension skills (Garner & Bochna, 2004; Mason, Snyder, Sukhram, & Kedem, 2006, Newby, Caldwell, & Recht, 1989). Few studies have examined the benefits of instruction in all three areas.
- The benefits of strategies instruction, metacognition, and text structure knowledge have been examined with the use of either fiction or nonfiction text. None of the studies in the literature review explored the benefits of explicit instruction in both areas.