The study was concerned with the variable of staging which is
a component of text structure. Staging is known to affect the
comprehension process of proficient readers.
Two passages developed and analysed for staging by Clements
(1976) were used in this study to investigate the effects staging
has on the readers' comprehension of the passages. The two passages
were identical in content and different only in the staging level
at which information occurred.
Ten experimental texts were developed from Clements' two
passages. The texts enabled (i) the comparison of the effects of
supplying high, medium or low staged information to the readers
on their ability to replace cloze deletions in the rest of the
text: and (ii) the comparison of the effects of supplying intact
the staging categories Old Topic, New Topic, Old Comment, or New
Comment on the readers' ability to replace cloze deletions in the
rest of the text. The cloze replacement scores were taken as
measures of the readers' comprehension of the text.
The subjects used in this study were a mixture of male and
female, undergraduate and postgraduate students at Riverina College
of Advanced Education.
The height of staged information and the staging category of
the information were found to have no significant affect upon the
readers' comprehension of the texts. However, it is suggested
111
that this may be an artifact of the use of cloze procedure as the
measure of comprehension.
Suggestions are made for further research to clarify the
usefulness of cloze as a research tool in this area and to support
or reject the conclusion of this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218775 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Bailey, John A., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright John A. Bailey |
Page generated in 0.0025 seconds