Abstracts - Earli

B 1728 August 2007 17:30 - 18:50Room: 0.65Paper SessionReadingChair:Christa van Kraayenoord, The University of Queensland, AustraliaMotivation for reading comprehensionOistein Anmarkrud, University of Oslo, NorwayIvar Bråten, University of Oslo, NorwayMarit S. Samuelstuen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NorwayIn a sample of 104 Norwegian ninth-grade students, we examined whether perceived readingefficacy and reading task value uniquely contributed to the comprehension of social studies textafter variance associated with gender, achievement level, topic knowledge, and text-processingstrategies had been removed. Participants read a text about socialization for the purpose of taking atest. Before reading, participants’ motivation for reading comprehension and their prior knowledgeabout the topic of the text were assessed. Immediately after reading, participants reported on thetext-processing strategies they had been using while reading the text. Finally, participants’ readingcomprehension was assessed with a multiple-choice test. To analyze the data, we performedforced-order hierarchical multiple regression analysis with the reading comprehension measure asthe dependent variable. In step one, gender and achievement level were entered into the equation.In step two, we included scores on the topic knowledge measure as well as on measures of deepandsurface-level strategies. Finally, in step three, we entered measures of reading efficacy andreading task value. Results showed that even after removing variance from the variables entered insteps one and two, the motivation variables entered in step three accounted for additional variance.In step three, a statistically significant positive relationship was found for reading task value,whereas the relationship between reading efficacy and reading comprehension did not reachstatistical significance. Thus, students’ reading task value seems particularly important to studentreading comprehension because it may override the contributions of other important constructs. Interms of education, this suggests that an emphasis on cognitive constructs such as prior knowledgeand strategic text-processing should not make us overlook the specific importance of promotingmotivation for reading comprehension.Improving students’ reading comprehension by means of developing reading strategies. Resultsfrom a Hungarian experimentJános Steklács, Kecskemét College, HungaryCsaba Csíkos, University of Szeged, HungaryResearch on reading comprehension has revealed that one of the most important criterium of goodreaders is using effective reading strategies. (Almasi 2003, Pressley 2006) There is a generalagreement among researchers that one of the most important theoretical and –at the same time:practical – question is how to teach effective reading strategies in schools. Numerous publicationsshow and evaluate many kinds of strategies, but the most effective ones seem to be: activisation ofprior knowledge, prioritizing information, questioning the author and the text, evoking sensoryimages, drawing inferences, retelling, synthesizing, and using fix-up strategies. On the basis of theabove mentioned theory, we created an experimental training program which was based on– 104 –