The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between lesson interaction patterns and fourth-grade Guamanian students' reading comprehension. In the last decade, a variety of new approaches have emerged in the field of education that extend our ability to better understand the teaching-learning process. These approaches allow close and detailed examination of how teachers and their students interact in creating classroom settings, particularly as they refer to reading lessons. The present study continued the investigation of classroom participation structures and their relationship to reading comprehension in a multilingual and multicultural setting. Three reading discussion lessons were observed and audio- and videotaped in four, fourth-grade classrooms in Guam during the months of November 1989 to April 1990. Of the three discussion lessons, one was selected for in depth analyses. Students were in the Level 11 reading group of the Silver Burdette-Ginn Basal Reader Series. Teachers were instructed to teach their lessons according to their usual procedures. No attempt was made to alter delivery of instruction. From transcriptions of the audio- and videotapes, Mehan's (1979) procedures were used to describe turn-allocation and speech act procedures. In addition, retellings were analyzed utilizing the retelling profile developed by Mitchell and Irwin (1991). Although the study was conducted in schools with bilingual, multicultural and multilingual teachers and students, the participation structures found in these Guam classrooms appear no different from the participation structures found in most American classrooms. In terms of the questions being explored in this dissertation, sensitivity to the linguistic and cultural background of Guamanian students was not evident. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data pointed to three major findings. First, variability existed in the participation structures found in the four, fourth-grade reading discussion lessons. Second, there were minimal differences in participation structures when teachers who adhered closely to basal reader material and instruction were compared with teachers who did not adhere as closely to basal reader material and instruction. Third, the study suggests that the participation structures found in the four, fourth-grade reading discussion lessons were related to the reading comprehension of these fourth-grade Guamanian students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/185534 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Salas, Marilyn Camacho |
| Contributors | Allen, Adela A., Moll, Luis C., Goodman, Yetta M., Mitchell, Judy N. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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