Think‐Aloud Strategy: Metacognitive Development and Monitoring Comprehension in the Middle School Second‐Language Classroom

Twenty‐seven middle school English learners participated in a study to determine the efficacy of the Think‐Aloud Strategy, one of several metacognitive strategies created to help students strategically negotiate appropriate meaning from text. Students were grouped by level of English‐language proficiency and were administered a reading comprehension pretest. They were then taught how to use the Think‐Aloud Strategy and were administered a posttest to assess the strategy's effect on their reading comprehension. Use of the Think‐Aloud Strategy was expected to improve comprehension of expository text among all three groups. However, each group presented different results, with only the intermediate group exhibiting benefits from using the strategy. The findings suggest English learners with varying levels of native‐language proficiency have unique instructional needs in reading. No single reading strategy may exist that will improve comprehension in all English learners.