STRATEGY USE ON STANDARDIZED READING-COMPREHENSION TESTS

Strategy use and its impact on standardized reading test performance w ere investigated. High school students were randomly assigned to 2 gro ups, standardized test and main idea, with separate control and think- aloud conditions. In the standardized think-aloud group, students thou ght aloud while taking a portion of a reading test, consisting of pass ages accompanied by several questions each. In the main idea condition s, students read the same passages with the lower level questions remo ved and answered a single multiple-choice question about the main idea of each passage, having been told that the task was not a test. Both groups used strategies, and students in the standardized test conditio n made significantly greater use of strategies than students in the ma in idea condition. Significant between-group differences were found in use of rereading. In comparisons between the think-aloud and control conditions, thinking aloud was found to have a significant detrimental effect on students' ability to identify passage main ideas.