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Perspectiva
Print version ISSN 0102-5473On-line version ISSN 2175-795X
Abstract
VAZQUEZ, Alicia. Prior knowledge as mediator of reading and writing strategies employed by university students. Perspectiva [online]. 2018, vol.36, n.3, pp.1094-1117. Epub July 29, 2019. ISSN 2175-795X. https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-795x.2018v36n3p1094.
The main objectives of this research, based on cases study, were to identify and describe text interpretation and production strategies activated by undergraduate students to accomplish a task which required them to produce a written report. Our interest was to investigate the differences in strategies used by students with higher and lower levels of prior knowledge about the subject and about strategic behavior, and to reveal the ways in which the difference affects the process of text production. We also wanted to estimate the level of adequacy of the reading and writing strategies used by both groups and to examine the degree of consistency between the strategies they reported using and those effectively activated. The participants of the study were students attending an undergraduate course in the Psychopedagogy Program at the National University of Rio Cuarto (Argentina). Empirical data were collected through: a) interviews and questionnaires administered to the students about the strategies they employed; b) some evidence on the use of those strategies in the study materials, namely, underlining, diagrams, comments on the margin of the texts, note-taking; and c) intermediate texts: sketches, outlines, drafts. Two, one and zero points were assigned to differentiate between adequate, inadequate and insufficient strategies, respectively. The data collected allowed to account for the mediating effect of previous knowledge: students with a higher level of prior knowledge showed not only a tendency to use more adequate strategies but also a slightly higher propensity to increase the degree of adequacy.
Keywords : Previous knowledge; Strategies; Academic reading and writing.
