The inferential operations of mildly mentally retarded students reading at the intermediate level were investigated using methods based on discourse comprehension theory. We hypothesized that problems encountered in reading by these students are related to difficulties in generating logical inferences. Mildly retarded junior-high students and nonretarded third-grade students of the same reading comprehension level read and recalled a descriptive expository and a narrative passage. On the expository passage mildly retarded students generated the same quantity of inferences as did nonretarded students, but the inferences were qualitatively inferior. On the narrative passage the differences between the two groups were not significant. These findings were discussed in relation to the cognitive functioning of mildly retarded students.

Adolescent↗

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The effects of an interactive instructional strategy for enhancing reading comprehension and content area learning for students with learning disabilities.

This study investigated the effectiveness of an interactive vocabulary instructional strategy, semantic-feature analysis (SFA), on the content area text comprehension of adolescents with learning disabilities. Prior to reading a social studies text, students in resource classes either completed a relationship chart as part of the SFA condition or used the dictionary to write definitions and sentences as part of the contrast condition. Passage comprehension was measured on a multiple-choice test consisting of two types of items, vocabulary and conceptual. Comprehension was measured immediately following teaching and again 6 months after teaching. Prior knowledge for the content of the passage served as a covariate. Results indicated that students in the SFA instructional condition had significantly greater measured comprehension immediately following and 6 months after initial teaching. These results are discussed in relation to concept-driven, interactive strategies for teaching content and facilitating text comprehension.

Adolescent↗