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An experiment examined whether beginning readers can successfully learn to detect and define homonyms, and whether this ability correlates with vocabulary and/or phonological awareness. First graders received ambiguity instruction involving homonyms in isolation, in riddles, and in text. A control group received reading lessons without a metalinguistic component. Results showed that a very brief training program was effective in teaching students to identify multiple meanings of homonyms in isolation. No correlation existed between the ability to learn about homonyms and pretest oral language ability, indicating that this instruction is appropriate for all learners. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

While it is generally acknowledged that metalinguistic awareness plays a role in decoding ability (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), less is known about the role metalinguistic awareness plays in comprehension. In the present study, structural riddles and ambiguous sentences differing in the source of linguistic ambiguity were used to study the importance of metalinguistic awareness in reading comprehension. One hundred sixth and seventh graders were tested on 25 structural riddles and 40 ambiguous sentences. Performance was correlated with scores on the reading comprehension and vocabulary subtests of the GMRT4 (MacGinitie, MacGinitie, Maria, & Dreyer, 2000). It was found that both tasks correlated significantly with reading comprehension and vocabulary. A multiple hierarchical regression found that riddle solving explained unique variance in the reading comprehension scores, after vocabulary was statistically controlled. This is interpreted as evidence that metalinguistic awareness is an ability separate from general linguistic intelligence, which contributes to reading comprehension. The implications for instruction are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)