| The ability to understand complex language, including syntax and semantics, is acknowledged to be an important component of reading. However, metalinguistic awareness training has not traditionally been a component of reading comprehension instruction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of instruction in metalinguistic awareness for improving reading comprehension. An active learning program utilizing riddles and other ambiguous texts was taught to twenty-three third-graders. They learned that words, phrases, and sentences can sometimes have more than one meaning, and that meaning is dependent on context. In addition, they were taught how to determine the meaning intended in the text. A control group, made up of twenty-three participants matched for comprehension ability, received reading comprehension lessons without a metalinguistic component. The objectives were to determine (1) whether or not metalinguistic awareness is trainable in a simple and fun school-based program, and (2) whether training in metalinguistic awareness transfers directly to reading comprehension. It was found that a short period of training was effective in teaching the treatment group how to identify and define homonyms and ambiguous sentences. Furthermore, trained students improved significantly more than the control group in their reading comprehension as measured by a standardized cloze task, as well as in their comprehension monitoring. The implications for the use of language-based methods of reading comprehension in the classroom are discussed. |
