Date of Award

5-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

English

Program

English (MA)

First Advisor/Chairperson

Dr. Wendy A. Farkas

Abstract

First-year college students are often unprepared for college-level reading, writing, and discourse. It is important to understand how various instructional practices affect students’ reading and writing abilities. The purpose of this study was to explore how reading and writing instruction grounded in a sociocognitive and combined-use theoretical framework affected participants’ reading and writing outcomes, and reading attitudes. The dependent variables were participants’ a) reading comprehension, b) summary and synthesis abilities, c) reading attitudes, and d) reading strategy application. Six participants were recruited from a first-year developmental reading course. How those participants (novices) approached academic texts compared to three English graduate students (apprentices) and three English professors (experts) was examined. Participants’ (n=4) quantitative measures increased, while their qualitative measures showed an increase in reading strategy application and verbalizations. A meta-analysis of quantitative and qualitative data showed that experts spent the least amount of time on the initial read through and the most amount of time writing and rereading. Additional outcomes were discussed.

Access Type

Open Access

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