THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A METACOGNITIVE APPROACH TO TEACHING WORD IDENTIFICATION SKILLS TO UPPER PRIMARY POOR READERS

This study assessed the effectiveness of a metacognitive approach to developing word identification skills in upper primary poor readers. Subjects in one group were given instruction in metacognitiveword identification strategies, within a reciprocal teaching format. Subjects in the other group used traditional methods of word identification within a reciprocal teaching format. There werefour instructional groups involved (twofor subjects in study group one and two for subjects in study group two), with seven to ninestudents in each group. The subjects were32 poor readers in Years 5 and 6 who had discrepancies of /8 months or more between their chronological ages and their reading ages. Resultsindicated that a combination of metacognitive word identification strategies and a reciprocal teaching format was clearly more effective than traditional methodsofword identification within a reciprocal teaching format.