Investigating text comprehension in elementary school children

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Published: Dec 28, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/jret.20292
Keywords:
Monitoring of text comprehension Comprehension control Internal inconsistencies Elementary school children
Maria Sofologi
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Maria Efstratopoulou
Bishop Grossetesste University, UK
Abstract

Αim of the present study is to investigate comprehension monitoring in elementary school children. In the present study a total of 80 students from 5th grade of elementary school were examined. The participants were individually examined in two phases. In the first phase, their verbal comprehension ability and working memory were evaluated with the sub-scales of Vocabulary and Digit span from the standardized WISC-III for Greek population. The reading and text comprehension ability were also evaluated by administering the Test-A. In the second phase, all the participants were examined individually in text comprehension with the use of E-Prime. Three small texts with familiar context (life and habits of three animals) were presented, which included an inconsistent information. Results have shown that children had difficulties in monitoring their level of comprehension even in tasks with familiar context. A high percentage of answers in comprehension questions that contained the contradictory information were wrong as compared to the percentage of correct answers based on the texts information. The educational implications of the results are discussed.

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Author Biographies
Maria Sofologi, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Διδάκτορας Τμήματος Ψυχολογίας

Maria Efstratopoulou, Bishop Grossetesste University, UK

Senior Lecturer in Special Education Department

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