The Text Structure Strategy for reading comprehension

Insights through eye-movement monitoring

Li-Hao Yeh, Aaron Baule & Ana I. Schwartz

The University of Texas at El Paso

The Text Structure Strategy (TSS)(Meyer, Young, & Bartlett, 1989)

Strategy to improve Comprehension Recall

How? Use of “signal words” Use of text structure or “plan”

The steps Identify structure/signal words Use structure for comprehension Use structure for recall

Example structures Problem/solution Comparison Cause/effect

The Text Structure Strategy (TSS)(Meyer, Young, & Bartlett, 1989)

Documented success Over 20 years of testing

(e.g., Meyer, Young, & Bartlett, 1989; Meyer & Poon, 2001;

Meyer, Talbot, Poon, & Johnson, 2001; Meyer et al. 2002) Various age groups Second language readers

English-French bilinguals ESL college students

The Text Structure Strategy (TSS)(Meyer, Young, & Bartlett, 1989)

The present study

TSS effectiveness primarily shown through Off-line recall of text Only one, global measure (macro level)

But, what specific reading behaviors are changed? How?

Eye-movement monitoring

How the eyes move reveal underlying cognitive processing Fixations Regressions

The present study Prediction:

Eye-movement patterns will reflect increased time/attention/focus to key parts of text

Parts that reveal text structure

Methods: Participants

Total N = 9 Two groups

TSS group N= 4 Education majors (upper-level)

Control group N= 5 Psychology majors (first and second- year students)

Methods: Participants

Language background

Most (8 of the 9) bilingual in Spanish and English Early, simultaneous bilinguals

Learning English by age 5 Most report dominance in English, though Spanish

acquired first

Methods: Design

TSS group Pretest => TSS training => Posttest

Control group Pretest => No training => Posttest

<-FIVE WEEKS ->

<-FIVE WEEKS ->

Methods: Training

Practice identifying structures/plans Variety of authentic materials

Practice recalling texts Collaborative work, highly- interactive Homework assignments

Methods: Procedure

Pre and Post-test procedures Read article on infectious arthritis while eye-

movements monitored Read another article (off of tracker); recall that

article Complete Language History Questionnaire

Only at Pre-test

Result

Off-line

Pretest Posttest

Interests areas data: Infectious arthritis refers to the arthritis that some people develop as a

complication of another disease caused by a virus, bacterium, or fungus. The infectious agent first causes one disease but then spreads into one or more joints, causing arthritis. For example, one common cause of infectious arthritis is the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. In some people, this bacterium escapes from the genital organs and gets into the bloodstream, which carries it into the joints and leads to arthritis.

Drug treatment to get rid of the infection usually clears up the arthritis completely, if it is begun soon after the joint symptoms began. After the swelling has gone down and the infection is gone, some people may need special exercises to rebuild strength in the affected area.

T h e p r c e n t a g e o f t o t a l f ix a t io n s s p e n t o n s ig n a l w o r d s

9

9 . 5

1 0

1 0 . 5

1 1

1 1 . 5

1 2

E x p e r i m e n t a l C o n t r o l

C o n d i t i o n

per

cen

tag

e

p r e t e s t

p o s t t e s t

Main sentences data:

Infectious arthritis refers to the arthritis that some people develop as a complication of another disease caused by a virus, bacterium, or fungus. The infectious agent first causes one disease but then spreads into one or more joints, causing arthritis. For example, one common cause of infectious arthritis is the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. In some people, this bacterium escapes from the genital organs and gets into the bloodstream, which carries it into the joints and leads to arthritis.

Drug treatment to get rid of the infection usually clears up the arthritis completely, if it is begun soon after the joint symptoms began. After the swelling has gone down and the infection is gone, some people may need special exercises to rebuild strength in the affected area.

Percent of fixations made on second pass reading times of target sentence areas

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Experimental Control

Condition

Pe

rce

nt

of

tota

l fix

ati

on

s

Prettest

Posttest

T o t a l s e c o n d p a s s d w e l l t i m e i n t a r g e t s e n t e n c e a r e a s

2 0 0

7 0 0

1 2 0 0

1 7 0 0

2 2 0 0

2 7 0 0

3 2 0 0

3 7 0 0

4 2 0 0

E x p e r im e n t a l C o n t r o l

C o n d i t i o n

To

tal

tim

e (

ms

)

P r e t e s t

P o s t t e s t

Conclusions

This is the first study demonstrating effects of the TSS through changes in eye-movement patterns

Eye-movements More detailed More precise …record of what readers are doing

Emerging finding… Effects of training occurring through 2nd pass

reading behaviors