Genre effects on higher education students' text reading for understanding

Abstract

This study provides empirical support for the proposalthat student learning in higher education is affectednot only by prior subject knowledge and by approachesto learning but also by ability to deal with textgenre. It first explores how 22 higher degreestudents on a course in education understood selectedtext extracts from different genres when reading attheir own pace under conditions expected to promotethorough understanding. After reading a text eachstudent wrote answers to a set of questions abouttheir reading and understanding of the text. Intape-recorded discussion with another reader of thesame text they then looked for similarities anddifferences between their responses. They laterreported on their feelings about the task and text. Understandings were found to vary between readers ofthe same text, difference being largely attributed bythe students to difficulty with the language andstructure of the texts in terms which pointed to thegenre. Considerable anxiety about difficulty anddifference in understanding was partly allayed throughdiscussion, but understanding was not much furthered. Most students felt that more work on the texts wouldbe fruitful.

In a second part of the study a further 39 studentsfrom a new intake to the same course were asked abouttext types in their recommended and actual coursereading. The types they reported as most frequentlyrecommended were also felt to be the most difficultfor reasons to do with text genre. They were alsothose from which the earlier text extracts had beendrawn. Theoretical and practical issues arediscussed.