Date of Award
1984
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
This study investigated the influence of writing instruction on the reading comprehension of tenth-grade students. Although research has shown that instruction in the recognition of text structure can increase reading comprehension significantly and although it has been assumed that improvement in writing skill would improve reading skill as well, there has been little empirical research concerned with the actual influence of writing instruction. Thus, this study combined both ideas by attempting to determine the effect of writing instruction in text structure on reading comprehension. This study employed eight classes of tenth-grade students taught by four teachers in two high schools. From these classes students were randomly selected to achieve even numbers of higher ability and lower ability readers within each class group. Each teacher taught one experimental and one control group, with the designation of each group determined randomly. The experimental treatment consisted of a lesson in writing comparison/contrast essays while each control lesson consisted of a reading comprehension lesson using comparative materials. All students received the same two-part posttest, which required them to write free recall statements of main ideas as well as answer multiple choice items. A series of t tests was used to compare mean scores of the experimental and control groups of higher and lower ability readers. Although no statistically significant differences were found between experimental and control groups, the mean scores for experimental groups were higher in every case, with the greatest differences being found between the scores of the lower ability readers for the free recall statements of main ideas and between scores of the higher ability readers on the multiple choice questions. Thus, the study suggested the beneficial tendencies of the experimental treatment and indicated the need to replicate the research over a longer period of time with more than one lesson devoted to treatment and with more classes assigned to each treatment.
Recommended Citation
Baker, Catherine Anne, "Effects Of Comparison/Contrast Writing Instruction On The Reading Comprehension Of Tenth-Grade Students" (1984). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 801.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/801