The Effect of Specificity of Reading Purposes on Children's Reading Achievement

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Abstract
The effect of establishing purposes for reading upon reading comprehension was investigated. It was predicted that children's comprehension of prose material would be higher when purposes for reading were more precisely defined than simply asking children to read in order to be able to answer questions. This investigation attempted to replicate aspects of an earlier study (Rothkopf & Kaplan, 1972) and to extend other aspects of that study. Learning of intentional and incidental information was compared when purpose setting directions for reading were varied as to specificity. Children identified as reading at, above, or below the sixth grade level were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: “specific directions” which focused on single facts; “general directions” which focused on two or more facts; or a “read to be tested direction” which simply told children to read because they would be tested. Findings were: (a) significant differences in the performance of those reading at, above, and below grade level; (b) neither specific nor general reading directions appeared to affect performance; (c) purpose setting directions served to discriminate between intentional and incidental information only for above grade level readers.