For many years, language researchers have been using retelling (free oral retelling) and recall (free written recall) tasks as both measures of reading comprehension and teaching aids. However, no research has yet directly compared these two tasks and some studies have just mixed the two tasks. The purpose of this study is to reveal both commonalities and differences between these two tasks. Attempts were made to examine (a) whether or not the quality and quantity of information reproduced differ between the two tasks, (b) which task facilitates reading comprehension more, and (c) how the two tasks influence readers' metacomprehension. The results for 69 undergraduate students showed that the quality and quantity of information produced by these two tasks did not differ, indicating that the levels of task difficulty were identical; in addition, they indicated that retelling facilitated reading comprehension more than recall. Furthermore, an investigation using a questionnaire revealed that retelling prompted readers to use more various strategies than recall. The reconstruction process as well as the various strategies that were used in the retelling condition is considered as the reason for the gains in deeper understanding. The empirical evidence supports the claim that retelling should be used as a teaching aid and recall as a measure of comprehension.
