Role of Text Structure Awareness in the Recall of Expository Discourse

This study examined the role of text structure awareness in the recall of information of four expository text types: description/collection, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/solution. One hundred nine university‐bound students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) participated in the study. Data collection and analysis focused on the participants' written recalls of information organized into the text structures under investigation. The results revealed that the participants were most aware of the comparison/contrast, less aware of the problem/solution, and least aware of the description/collection and cause/effect structures. Furthermore, the results showed that text structure awareness was positively related to recall of information across all text types studied. However, the results did not indicate a statistically significant difference between high‐and low‐proficiency readers in their awareness of various text structures at the p < .05 alpha level. Recommendations for further research are made.