This study investigated the kinds of knowledge and strategies beginning second-language readers used when reading texts to build their own consistent patterns of meaning and experience. Specifically, it looked at how readers' knowledge grew, where their ideas originated, and when and how their ideas were used. Subjects were five college students of Arabic, who were instructed in the think-aloud procedure and who then read four informative texts with varying text structures, styles, and subjects, thinking aloud as they read. Subject comments were categorized by reasoning operation and by monitoring concerns occurring during reading. Three additional analyses examined strategies used in meaning development, knowledge source used in making meaning, and timing of the comment in relation to the reading experience. Results indicate that subjects' primary concern during reading was with meanings they were developing, by using hypothesizing and schemata, formulating and refining ideas, focusing on specific content, and validating the text-model or text-world being developed. Behavior patterns differed somewhat at different points in the reading process, with more questioning and hypothesizing at the beginning and more knowledge use later. Behaviors generally focused on awareness rather than use. Meaning-construction strategies were consistent across texts. Contains 28 references. (MSE)