Effects of text structure instruction on foreign language readers' recall of a scientific journal article

Intermediate-level college students of French were randomly assigned to a condition in which they received information on the organization of a journal article or to a control condition where they did not receive this training. Half the students from each of these groups were assigned to read a scientific article in French which used canonical organization while the other half read the same article in a coherent form which did not. Afterwards, the students completed a free recall task in English, and the written recalls were scored for number of idea units recalled. Results indicated a significant main effect for instruction in text structure. This effect obtained only, however, when the text was in canonical experimental report order (problem, description of the investigation, results and conclusion). The discussion addresses how knowledge of structure gained through instruction may be used in comprehension and recall in the case of foreign-language readers.