Intervention in comprehension and memory strategies: Knowledge and use of text structure

A reading comprehension instructional programme was analyzed in two complementary studies. This programme was designed to improve knowledge and use of the text structure as a comprehension strategy. In the first empirical study, intervention was carried out through an instructional programme applied to a group of high school students (aged 14–15) at two different reading ability levels. The performance of good and poor readers was contrasted with the results obtained from two control groups. In general, the study indicated that the readers trained in this programme benefitted from improved text comprehension in comparison with their counterparts in the control groups. The aim of the second study was to determine if this improvement could be maintained with a different text structure. Thus, the question addressed was if the participants in the instructional programme transferred their newly acquired knowledge to a text with a structure which had not been previously taught. The results indicate that this is the case.