Comparing Strategies of Good and Poor Comprehenders.

Abstract

emphasis in comprehension research has shifted from what pupils comprehend to how they comprehend. In the past, experts were concerned with identifying comprehension skills (Gray 1946, Davis 1941), while current researchers, influenced by linguistic and psycholinguistic theory, focus upon identifying strategies used in comprehending. This shift is an important step toward improving comprehension strategies. Investigators consistently find that good comprehenders are more flexible in interpreting and transposing information. Indeed, for over a decade linguists have stressed the flexible use of syntactical elements to extract meaning. As Kolers (1975) said, the reader does not try to respond to the structure of words, but uses language structure to anticipate the text's meaning. Gibson and Levin (1975) as well as Golinkoff (1975-76) point out that good readers can ignore information that has no utility in the task at hand; they are selective in the words they emphasize. As Pearson (1974-75) explains, Semantic chunks within sentences, such as