The Text Structure Strategy for reading comprehension Insights through eye-movement monitoring

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The Text Structure Strategy for reading
comprehensionInsights through eye-movement
monitoring

• Li-Hao Yeh, Aaron Baule Ana I. Schwartz
• The University of Texas at El Paso

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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

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

• The steps
• Identify structure/signal words
• Use structure for comprehension
• Use structure for recall
• Example structures
• Problem/solution
• Comparison
• Cause/effect

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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

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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?

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Eye-movement monitoring

• How the eyes move reveal underlying cognitive
  processing
• Fixations
• Regressions

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The present study

• Prediction
• Eye-movement patterns will reflect increased
  time/attention/focus to key parts of text
• Parts that reveal text structure

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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)

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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

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Methods Design

• TSS group
• Pretest gt TSS training gt Posttest
• Control group
• Pretest gt No training gt Posttest

lt-FIVE WEEKS -gt
lt-FIVE WEEKS -gt
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Methods Training

• Practice identifying structures/plans
• Variety of authentic materials
• Practice recalling texts
• Collaborative work, highly- interactive
• Homework assignments

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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

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Result

• Off-line
• Pretest Posttest

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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