Text comprehension and learning from text

210 Pages·1992·26.803 MB·English

by  Hout Wolters, Bernadette H. A. M. van, Schnotz, Wolfgang

Text COIllprehension
and Learning from Text
Bernadette van Hout-Wolters
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Wolfgang Schnotz
University of Tiibingen, Germany
(editors)
@
Taylor& Francis
~
Taylor&FrancisGroup
LONDONAND NEWYORK
Library of Congress CaltJloging-in-Publiealion Data
Text comprehension and learning from text I [edited by] Bernadette van Hout-Wolters,
Wolfgang Schnotz.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 90265 1283 X
1. Textbooks--Readability. 2. Learning, Psychology of. 1. Hout-Wolters, Bernadene
H.AM. van. II. Schnotz, Wolfgang.
LB304S. T49 1992
370.1S'23--dc20 92-34188
CIP
CIP-gegevens Koninklijke Bihliotheek, Den Haag
Text
Text comprehension and learning from text / Bernadene van Hout-Wolters, Wolfgang Schnotz
ed. - Amsterdam [etc]: Taylor & Francis
ISBN 9O-265-1283-X
NUGI724
Trefw.: tekstwetenschap.
Published by Taylor & Francis
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
Layout: Jan van den Berg, Goirle
Cover design: Rob Molthoff, Amsterdam
Copyright © 1992 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 90 265 1283 X
NUGI724
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this
reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original
may be apparent
Acknowledgments
Without the assistance of several specialists we would not have been
able to finish all the work necessary for the publication of this book.
We would like to acknowledge the great efforts of the following
reviewers of the chapters:
Cor Aarnoutse, University of Nijmegen,The Netherlands,
Marianne Elshout-Mohr, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
Joan Peeck, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands,
Ulrich Schiefele, University of Munich, Germany,
Bernd Weidenmann, University of Munich, Germany.
We are also very grateful to Jan van den Berg for his linguistic editing
and his lay-out of the manuscript.
Bernadette van Hout-Wolters Wolfgang Schnotz
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tiibingen, Germany

Contents
INTRODUCTION
1. Bernadette Van Hout-Wolters and WolfgangSchnotz
Text comprehension and learning from text: An introduc-
tion 9
PART I: TEXT STRUCTURES
2. Joachim Grabowski
Expository text and propositional text processing 19
3. Eduardo Vidal-Abarca
Important information in expository prose: The role of
awareness of textual structure and of the skill in ranking
ideas in a text 35
4. Ala Samarapungavan and Jos Beishuizen
Hypermedia and knowledge acquisition from non-linear
expository text 53
5. Pietro Boscolo, Lerida Cisotto and Albina Lucca
Text comprehension and typographical features of ele-
mentary school text books 71
6. Egbert Woudstra and Cees Terlouw
A procedure for the design of illustrated texts 85
PART II: LEARNER ABILITIES ANDATTITUDES
7. Rachel Rimmershaw
Pragmatic knowledge in expository text comprehension: A
recall study with young readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. 107
8. Christiane Spiel
Comprehension of story content in adolescents: Influ-
ences of age and cognitive competence . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. 125
9. Huub van den Bergh and Gert Rijlaarsdam
Affect, reading behaviour and reading achievement 137
PART III: PROCESSING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES
10. Lucia Lumbelli
Uncertainty in text comprehension: Clues and effects 153
11. Anna Aventissian-Pagoropoulou
The development and the usage of some particular cogni
tive strategies concerning text processing in physics and in
history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. 169
12. Juan Garcia Madruga, Jesus Martin Cordero, Juan Luque
and Carlos Santamaria
Teaching active text processing strategies: Some experi-
mental results 183
13. Ottavia Albanese and Carla Antoniotti
The influence of an educator's interactive style on the
process of comprehension in preschool-age children 201
1
Text comprehension and learning from text:
An introduction
Bernadette Van Hout-Wolters
University ofAmsterdam (The Netherlands)
Wolfgang Schnotz
University of Tiibingen (FederalRepublic ofGermany)
In the past years the domain of text comprehension has been an object
of intensive research endeavours. Although that development has been
reflected by a great number of publications, the situation in Europe is
characterised by the fact that researchers from different countries work,
relatively independently from one another, on common problems with
out being sufficiently informed about their colleagues' activities. A
reaction to that situation is the establishment of the Special Interest
Group "Text Processing"! within the European Association for
Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLl). The objective of the
Special Interest Group is to intensify scientific exchange of theoretical
concepts and empirical results, to support an increasing integration of
existing approaches, and to show perspectives for a more intertwined
international co-operation. This book is one of the results of this co
operation.
The contributions in this book are concentrated, with differing empha
ses, on three major topics. First, they deal with the significance of
different text structures and its cognitive processing in learning from
texts. Secondly, they treat the effect of learning abilities and attitudes
1 In 1991 the name of this group was reformulated and became "Comprehension of
Verbal and Pictorial Information".