A mutual explanation technique in teaching to read academic texts

Abstract

There is a growing need to foster high-level literacy,such as reading academic texts. The author reports on the authorʼs implementation of an instruction schema for reading academic texts. Specifically, this paper provides an outline of the instruction schema and presents results from an instruction class employing this schema. Sophomores participated in the instruction class(n＝10). At first,intrinsic and practical aspects of motivation were highlighted in the class and the instructor explicitly taught some reading strageties and encouraged their use. Then,the instructor implemented the mutual explanation framework. The participants were grouped into pairs and they took turns in explaining and asking questions about the content of the text. The instruction was given for nine days during daily 70-minute sessions. The comprehension test results and the mutual explanation protocols for the four students who participated in all nine days of the instruction course were subjected to analysis. The results indicate that after receiving the instruction,these participants were able to grasp the main ideas of the text better than before receiving the instruction.

Also,the analysis of the mutual explanation protocols revealed that these participants asked more questions relating to content they did not understand,and they summarized their partnerʼs explanations more than before the instruction.　These results suggest that the instruction fostered the participantsʼmetacognitive awareness of their comprehension.