Strategies for Increasing Text-Based Interest and Students' Recall of Expository Texts

Abstract

RECENT RESEARCH has indicated that how interesting a text is will affect students' cognitive performance. This kind of interestingness, or text-based interest, was the focus of the study. More specifically, the authors attempted to develop strategies to create text-based interest in expository texts used in schools in order to improve children's recall. Three versions of a single text were constructed utilizing three interest-evoking strategies. All fourthand sixthgrade students in one suburban school were randomly assigned to study and recall one of the versions. Although overall recall was relatively high across the three text versions as compared with recall of standard texts in an earlier study, the strategies did not result in any significant difference in recall. However, children's interest ratings indicated that two of the three strategies resulted in increased subjective interest. A content analysis performed on the recall protocols showed that the interest-evoking strategies were most effective in increasing children's recall of concrete, specific, or personally involving information, and did not enhance the acquisition of more abstract, general, or scientific information.