Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2001

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

German

Major Professor

Hiram Maxim

Committee Members

Chauncey J. Mellor, Dolly J. Young

Abstract

This work examines the effect of rereading a text as a group effort and individually on beginning German students. The study included eleven participants, all in their second semester of learning German. All participants read a text written in German. The text selected is from the textbook (Kontakte-4th edition) used at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After reading the text once and writing an individual recall, the participants were divided into two main groups: One group individually reread the text while the other group was divided into two subgroups where the text was discussed instead of rereading it individually. All participants then had to write a second recallBoth recalls were scored. The scores were then normalized, since the study focused on determining the percentages of improvement in the students' performance. The scores were then analyzed by running a t-test on the normalized scores of the two main groups. The t-test indicated that statistically there was no significant difference between the individual rereading group and the discussion group. The results showed however that rereading, both in groups and individually improved the students' reading comprehension.

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