The aim of this paper was to show the effect of studying punctuation
marks on comprehension with students learning English as a foreign language.
An experiment was carried out with two different groups of subjects
and a Pretest-Posttest design. There were two tasks related to punctuation:
one was done after reading an unpunctuated text, and the other
was done once the subjects had written the punctuaction marks in the
text. It was hypothesized that the subjects in the experimental group would
understand better, a text punctuated by them or with no punctuation marks,
than the ones in the control group. Results show that the study of punctuation
marks is a critical factor on comprehension.
