EFFECTS OF TWO COMPUTER-ASSISTED METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF ESL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two computer-assisted metacognitive strategies, the Tutorial-Direct Monitoring Strategy (TDMS) and the Schema-Direct Monitoring Strategy (SDMS), on the sequential reading skills and the cognition of semantic units and relations of ESL fourth grade students. The study also explored the relationship between the effects of the two metacognitive strategies and combined levels of language proficiency and reading ability. The population consisted of 68 randomly selected fourth grade Spanish-speaking students from a public school in a low socio-economic setting in Puerto Rico. Subjects were classified in combined language proficiency and reading ability levels and were randomly assigned to treatments. Both treatment conditions used computer-mediated texts as the instructional materials. The Tutorial-Direct Monitoring (TDMS) strategy consists of Palincsar and Brown's three-step monitoring technique and skill modeling reading texts and comprehension exercises, whereas the SDMS used reading texts, comprehension exercises and monitoring strategy in flowchart form. Differences between treatment included embedded skill modeling and monitoring comprehension strategy for the SDMS. The results of the study demonstrated significant differences in favor of the TDMS, between the mean posttest scores of subjects by treatment and subgroup classification on two dependent measures, the Sequential Reading Skills Test and the Cognition of Semantic Relation Test. However, it was also found that the SDMS helped to significantly increase subjects' posttest mean scores on the Cognition of Semantic Units Test. This finding can be directly related to the emphasis placed by the SDMS on developing monitoring comprehension at the world level, whereas the TDMS emphasized reading comprehension at the paragraph level. Additional research should be conducted using computer-mediated texts with embedded monitoring comprehension strategies focusing upon both the world level (semantic units) and the sentence or paragraph levels (semantic relation).
Subject Area
Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
NUNEZ, DULCINIA R, "EFFECTS OF TWO COMPUTER-ASSISTED METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES ON THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF ESL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS" (1987). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8725684.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8725684
