| Abstract: | Readers may experience difficulty because they lack sociocultural experiences assumed by authors of texts. Such difficulty lies not with decoding print but with constructing cohesive representations of the meaning of text. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic codes for signifying meaning are briefly reviewed, and data are presented from a study of students at three age levels (10, 12 and 14 years). Both syntagmatic and paradigmatic aspects were important for creating coherent text representations. Underlying comprehension problems was a lack of prior experience of text topics. Ways are suggested in which teachers can prepare students through developing shared meanings in various classroom activities. |
