The Role of Explicit Moral Points in Fable Reading

Using a qualitative methodology and 2 authentic fables, the aim of this study was to describe the role of explicit moral points in fable reading. Previous research on ex-plicit summarizing statements has defined 3 potential functions of these statement types: activation of prior knowledge, enhanced integration of textual content, and refocusing of attention. Traditionally, explicit moral points in fables have been de-fined as having the additional function of persuading readers to accept a socially supported interpretation of human behavior. Ninety-nine adult readers read the nar-rative section of a fable and then gave written interpretations before and after read-ing the explicit moral point. The analysis of the written data revealed 7 different progressions of written categories, 4 of which can lead to a convergence of re-sponses toward the authorized explicit moral point. Results show that the explicit moral point fulfills the function of offering enhanced integration and refocusing of attention on new information. One of the earliest issues to be investigated within the field of reading research was the role of theme in text comprehension (Bransford & Franks, 1971; Brans