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Metacognitive strategies and reading comprehension in elementary-school students

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore comprehension monitoring and perceived use of reading strategies as factors of reading comprehension. Participants were elementary school students from the fifth to the eighth grade. Error correction and text sensitivity tasks from the Metacomprehension test (Pazzaglia, De Beni, & Cristante, 1994). and the cloze-task were used as measures of comprehension monitoring during reading. A Strategic reading questionnaire (Kolić-Vehovec & Bajšanski, 2001b) was applied as a measure of perceived use of strategies during reading. Girls had better results than boys on text comprehension, all measures of comprehension monitoring, as well as on the Strategic reading questionnaire. Significant developmental improvements in comprehension monitoring occurred after the fifth grade and between the sixth and the eighth grade. A similar change was evident in reading comprehension. All measures of comprehension monitoring were significantly related to text comprehension in all age groups. However, perceived use of reading strategies was significantly related to reading comprehension only in eighth-grade students.

Résumé

Le but de cette étude a été d’explorer le monitorage de la compréhension et l’usage des stratégies de la lecture perçu en tant qu’éléments de la compréhension lors de la lecture. Les participants dans cette recherche étaient les élèves de la cinquième à la huitième année de l’école primaire. Comme mesures de monitorage de la compréhension lors de la lecture on a adopté les devoirs de la correction d’erreurs et les devoirs pour examiner la sensibilité envers le texte, pris du Test de la méta compréhension (Pazzaglia, De Beni, et Caccio, 1999). Le Questionnaire de la lecture stratégique (Kolić-Vehovec et Bajšanski, 2001b) a été adopté comme mesure de l’usage des stratégies perçu lors de la lecture. Les filles ont eu de meilleurs résultats que les garçons sur les tests de la compréhension du texte, sur toutes les mesures du monitorage de la compréhension ainsi que sur le Questionnaire de la lecture stratégique. Des améliorations significatives dans le monitorage de la compréhension apparaissent après la cinquième année et entre la sixième et la huitième année. Des changements similaires sont visibles aussi dans la compréhension lors de la lecture. Toutes les mesures du monitorage de la compréhension étaient reliées de manière significative avec la compréhension du texte auprès de tous les groupes de différent âge. Toutefois, l’usage des stratégies perçu était significativement relié avec la compréhension de la lecture seulement chez les élèves de la huitième année.

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Correspondence to Svjetlana Kolić-Vehovec.

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Kolić-Vehovec, S., Bajšanski, I. Metacognitive strategies and reading comprehension in elementary-school students. Eur J Psychol Educ 21, 439–451 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173513

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173513

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