Date of Award

1990

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Education Honours

School

School of Education

Faculty

Western Australian College of Advanced Education

First Supervisor

Dr Peter Sloan

Abstract

The effects of the instruction of report text structure on students’ comprehension of expository material with familiar m1d unfamiliar topics was investigated in both the short and long term. Two comprehension measures were used (ability to restructure an unstructured report text through written composition, and written recall of facts). Forty two Year Three students were matched in comprehension ability based on initial general comprehension performance in a standardized test, and were assigned to either an Experimental group which received text structure instruction, or a Control group which received no special instruction. Results indicated that the instruction and practise in report text structure enhanced students’ comprehension in terms of organizing and restructuring unstructured expository report texts using both the short and long term. Similar results were not found in written recall of facts. Analysis revealed that text structure instruction di not enhance the number of facts recalled using either familiar or unfamiliar material, in either the short or long term.

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