Teaching Reading Comprehension Processes in Expository Prose

Teaching Reading Comprehension Processes in Expository Prose

Reading is closely related to many other cognitive processes including: attention, concept formation, imagery, language, memory and perception. Educators need to have an understanding of the theories behind reading comprehension as well some strategies that can be used in the classroom to increase reading comprehension. Since presently there are so many reading based theories, I will briefly discuss the most commonly mentioned ones. I will focus on theories such as; the Schema Theory, Mental Models, The Propositional theory and The Functional Context Theory (T. Sticht).

Expository prose, however, is very different from narrative prose. Expository prose presents facts, theories, and dates, and the information is largely unfamiliar to the reader (Cook, 1983). The organization and structure of the text is inconsistent and unpredictable, and for the first time, children are required to “read to learn.” Children need to independently read textbooks and obtain information that they will later be responsible for on a test or exam. They are required to study textbooks to acquire information—a very difficult task for children. Why is it so difficult? The difficulty comes from the textbook itself. Expository textbooks often have inadequate structure and poor organization. Children are not familiar with the different types of text structures, and this unfamiliarity impedes their comprehension of the to-be-learned material (Bakken, Mastropieri, & Scruggs, 1997; Cook, 1983). Because the structure of expository prose varies greatly from that of narrative prose, students need explicit training in strategies that teach them to identify different types of text structure and apply appropriate structure-specific strategies.

Over the past two decades, the amount of reading comprehension research has increased substantially (see Talbott, Lloyd, & Tankersley, 1994, for a recent meta-analysis). Research has emerged that provides some useful techniques for facilitating reading comprehension in students with LD. Generalizations from this research indicate that students with LD who are trained to use specific cognitive strategies such as self-questioning techniques using summarization or paragraph restatement strategies, cognitive behavioral strategies such as self-monitoring components (e.g., Graves, 1986), packages of strategies such as multipass, or text enhancements such as visual spatial displays (e.g., Darch & Carnine, 1986) significantly improve performance. These studies have revealed effective instructional strategies; however, many studies have been implemented using narrative prose passages. Therefore, the utility of these strategies for learning from expository passages is less clear.

Moreover, upon closer examination, findings also reveal that over 75% of the reading comprehension studies have been conducted with elementary or middle school students with LD; less than 25% have been conducted with secondary-age students with LD (Talbott et al., 1994). Even fewer studies have taught secondary-age students with LD to increase reading comprehension for expository prose. Available studies have assessed the efficacy of study guides (Horton & Lovitt, 1989); prereading activities that incorporate self-questioning and structured overviews (Billingsley & Wildman, 1988; Snider, 1989); packages of study strategies such as survey, question, read, recite, and review (SQ3R; McCormick & Cooper, 1988); multipass (Schumaker et ...