Differences Between Expository and Narrative Items in a College-Level Reading Comprehension Assessment

Location

Literacy Assessment and Instruction - Boston 2/3

Proposal Track

Research Project

Session Format

Presentation

Abstract

The MOCCA-C assessment is designed to identify patterns of poor reading comprehension in college students. In the current study, we sought to identify possible variables that may explain why expository texts are typically more difficult for comprehension than narrative texts. We recruited college students across the country to complete MOCCA-C. We coded the items for text features based on the Graesser-McNamara levels of text comprehension and conducted exploratory analysis on our items (Graesser et al., 2014; Graesser & McNamara, 2011). We found that expository items are indeed more difficult and had higher readability than narrative items and that these differences persisted even after controlling for multiple text features, including single main characters, explicit emotion, technical vocabulary, Flesch-Kincaid level, explicit goal, avoidance goal, and completed goal. These text features could be grouped into general categories of intentionality (i.e. character goals) and text complexity. Because of these various features, readers may have difficulty identifying causal information in expository texts. These findings inform interventions for college-age students that could focus on locating causal information in expository texts and building connections to create a coherent mental model.

Keywords

reading comprehension processes, item-writing methodologies, narrative text comprehension, expository text comprehension

Professional Bio

Heather Ness is a second-year doctoral student in the Educational Psychology program in the Department of Learning Sciences at Georgia State University. She assists her advisor Dr. Sarah Carlson and the development of the MOCCA-C reading comprehension assessment for college students. Her research interests focus on comprehension of visual narratives, including comics and graphic novels, animation, film, and video games.

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Oct 4th, 10:30 AM Oct 4th, 12:00 PM

Differences Between Expository and Narrative Items in a College-Level Reading Comprehension Assessment

Literacy Assessment and Instruction - Boston 2/3

The MOCCA-C assessment is designed to identify patterns of poor reading comprehension in college students. In the current study, we sought to identify possible variables that may explain why expository texts are typically more difficult for comprehension than narrative texts. We recruited college students across the country to complete MOCCA-C. We coded the items for text features based on the Graesser-McNamara levels of text comprehension and conducted exploratory analysis on our items (Graesser et al., 2014; Graesser & McNamara, 2011). We found that expository items are indeed more difficult and had higher readability than narrative items and that these differences persisted even after controlling for multiple text features, including single main characters, explicit emotion, technical vocabulary, Flesch-Kincaid level, explicit goal, avoidance goal, and completed goal. These text features could be grouped into general categories of intentionality (i.e. character goals) and text complexity. Because of these various features, readers may have difficulty identifying causal information in expository texts. These findings inform interventions for college-age students that could focus on locating causal information in expository texts and building connections to create a coherent mental model.