Statement of Research Question
Does explicit instruction in metacognitive strategies for intermediate-grade students with language learning disabilities result in improved listening comprehension and reading comprehension of fiction and nonfiction text as measured by pre and posttest scores? The formal and informal measures used to assess reading and listening comprehension skills included the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) (Beaver & Carter, 2003), the Informal Reading Inventory-7th Edition (B/RIRI-7) (Roe & Burns, 2007), informal oral retelling rubrics adapted from Harp (2006), and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4th Edition (CELF-4): Understanding Spoken Paragraphs subtest (Semel, Wiig, & Secord, 2006). Metacognitive strategies awareness and application were assessed pretest and posttest using the Metacomprehension Strategy Index taken from Harp (2006) and the metacognitive awareness subtest on the DRA. Additionally, a Metacomprehension Strategies Checklist, adapted from Harp (2006), served as an ongoing assessment for knowledge and application of strategies throughout the study. Two samples were obtained for analysis.