The Role of Metatextual Knowledge in Text Comprehension

We investigated the acquisition of metatextual knowledge in children from grades 3 and 5 (Study 1) and in college students (Study 2). Metatextual knowledge is defined as the knowledge a person possesses about texts and text comprehension activities. We found that metatextual knowledge evolves from superficial to semantic characteristics of texts and situations. Metatextual knowledge was significantly related to comprehension performance. We also found individual differences in students’ metatextual knowledge, especially on items related to advanced text features and regulation strategies. The educational implications of these findings are briefly discussed.