Abstract
The objectives of the study are to (1) explore the process of how elementary school students integrate information from text and illustration, and (2) investigate how reading ability influences their strategy when they read an illustrated text. The participants were 32 sixth graders grouped into high- and low-ability subgroups based on their performance on a reading comprehension test. To explore the strategies adopted by students, they were asked to ”think aloud” when they read the illustrated text. The results indicated that both groups of students frequently activated prior knowledge to assist their comprehension. Students in the high-ability group often had prior knowledge related to the main concepts, while students in the low-ability group were more inclined to focus on previously unrelated knowledge or experience. Additionally, when analyzing students' reading behaviors, the results showed that students in the high-ability group were more likely to inspect the illustration carefully to study the detailed features and they also spent more time reading the corresponding text. Students in the low-ability group tended to detract their attention depending on the colors and layouts of the adjunct illustration.