Dear List:
 
I want to test a technique involving grammar for its effectiveness in improving reading comprehension.  Please let me know what you think of my design and if you have any suggestions for related research.
 
I want to test the whether breaking prose into grammatical chunks and arranging those chunks on the page to show their relationships improves reading comprehension.  The basic idea is that if students can see the pattern of phrases and clauses in sentences, then they will better understand the passage.  
 
Using brief passages with multiple choice questions, each student will read some passages in normal prose and others in what I call "graphic syntax," text with the phrase and clause structure made clearer.  Half the students will do one set, the odd numbers, say, in normal text and the evens in graphic syntax; the other half will do the evens in normal text and the odds in graphic syntax.  Thus, every passage and question will have a control group, but the students themselves don't have to be controlled.  I will compare the error rate on each set to see if there is any large difference.  
 
The group would be 112 seventh graders whose median reading percentile is 91 and median language arts percentile is 95.
 
I did this experiment last year and found a slight difference in favor of the experimental condition, but I let students take as much time as they needed and refer back to the text.  This time, I will have them read the passage under timed conditions, then turn the page and answer the questions under timed conditions.  This should more closely mimic the real conditions of normal reading, where one does not go back to the text to find information to specific questions.  Time pressure highlights the difference between solid performance and superior performance.
 
A related experiment would include a control group which does not know much about formal grammar and a group which does, that is, which has studied and can name and create the phrases and clauses into which the text is divided.  This condition would test the utility of teaching students to name and create phrases and clauses as an aide to reading comprehension.
 
Any suggestions for changes, clarification, sources?
 
Thanks, 
Scott Woods


      

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