Abstract of

Does Negotiation of Meaning Promote Reading Comprehension? A Study of Multilingual Primary School Classes

Kris Van Den Branden

A study of multilingual primary school classes During the past decade, a body of empirical evidence has become available showing that negotiation of meaning promotes the comprehension of oral input. However, to what extent negotiation of meaning can be useful in reading instruction in order to make written input comprehensible remains an open question. A quasi-experimental study was carried out in 8 multilingual primary schools in Flanders. The participants were confronted with a difficult text in 4 conditions: unmodified written input, premodified written input, unmodified written input + oral negotiation with a peer, and unmodified written input + oral negotiation with the rest of the class. The results of the study show that negotiating the meaning of unmodified written input led to higher comprehension than premodifying the same input. In turn, meaning negotiation in which the teacher was involved was superior to peer negotiation. A further analysis of peer negotiation showed that comprehension scores were higher for students who had cooperated with a peer of a different level of language proficiency than for students who had cooperated with a peer of a similar level of language proficiency. The study also yields useful guidelines as to the role teachers should play and the actions they should take when the meaning of written input is negotiated in the classroom.

Abstract from Branden, K. (2000). Does Negotiation of Meaning Promote Reading Comprehension? A Study of Multilingual Primary School Classes. Reading Research Quarterly, 35(3), 426–443. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.35.3.6