THE EFFECTS OF SENTENCE COMBINING ON THE READING-COMPREHENSION OF 4THGRADE STUDENTS

Researchers have frequently examined the effects of sentence combining (SC) practice upon writing and found positive results. Researchers ha ve also investigated the effects of writing practice on reading compre hension. But these results have been mixed because of problems in desi gn, the measures used, instructional variables, and the lack of a theo retical base to explain divergent outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to identify effects of SC practice upon reading comprehensi on and to determine whether cohesion knowledge would be augmented and, if so, whether enhanced cohesion knowledge would affect comprehension . Sixty-five grade 4 students met with a researcher for 16 instruction al sessions. Students in the experimental group devised narratives fro m sets of cued and uncued kernel sentences, while the control group re ad compiled narratives developed by the experimental group and then co mpleted crossword puzzles, a 'placebo' treatment. The study found stat istically significant results on the Stanford Reading Test, positive r esults approaching significance on cloze passages with structure/funct ion word deletions, but no positive results on passages with content w ord deletions. These results indicate that SC practice may have enhanc ed cohesion knowledge and general comprehension. They also suggest tha t children may effectively learn to attend to semantic and syntactic r epetitions that form ''chains of cohesion'' following SC practice but not after merely reading the same texts.