CONTRIBUTION OF TEXTUAL COHERENCE TO COMPREHENSION AND LEARNING

Abstract

This study investigated primarily the contribution of more coherent texts to students' comprehension in a content-area subject. It also examined whether more coherent texts would contribute to retention of information, and whether the effects of textual coherence on comprehension and retention might differ among students with varying levels of proficiency in the language of the text. A total of 107 third-year secondary school students in Singapore participated in the study carried out over two sessions held a week apart. In the first session, the students were randomly assigned to read one of two versions of a physics text: an original passage from a textbook used in some Singapore schools, and a revised, textually more coherent, version of the original. The students performed a written free recall protocol (FRP) and responded to short-answer questions (SAQs) on the topic of the texts. At the second session, they performed the same two tasks, but without the benefit of reading the texts again. These tasks provided the measures of the dependent variables. In addition, a post-session questionnaire was administered and interviews with selected students and teachers were conducted to obtain, among other things, a qualitative assessment of the effects of reading a more coherent or a less coherent text on comprehension and retention of textual information. Findings were that greater textual coherence did not seem to have contributed to the students' understanding and retention of key specialised terms and key concepts used in the text. It even appeared to hinder recall of readily accessible text information. Language proficiency might have compensated for a less coherent text, enabling the students to recall readily accessible text information from such a text; however, it seemed unhelpful to retention of such information. Language proficiency might also be related to the students' recall and retention of key specialised terms in the more coherent text.