scholarly journals Rethinking How We Teach and Assess Reading Comprehension

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh William Catts
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Mental Activity

Reading comprehension is not a skill that can be easily assessed and taught but rather is a complex mental activity that relies heavily on background knowledge and higher-level cognitive functioning. This paper addresses the multifactorial nature of reading comprehension and the implications for instruction and assessment.

scholarly journals Predictors of Successful Reading Comprehension in Bilingual Adults: The Role of Reading Strategies and Language Proficiency

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Deanna C. Friesen ◽  
Bailey Frid
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Dominant Language ◽  
Analysis Strategies

The current study investigated the type of strategies that English–French bilingual adults utilize when reading in their dominant and non-dominant languages and which of these strategies are associated with reading comprehension success. Thirty-nine participants read short texts while reporting aloud what they were thinking as they read. Following each passage, readers answered three comprehension questions. Questions either required information found directly in the text (literal question) or required a necessary inference or an elaborative inference. Readers reported more necessary and elaborative inferences and referred to more background knowledge in their dominant language than in their non-dominant language. Engaging in both text analysis strategies and meaning extraction strategies predicted reading comprehension success in both languages, with differences observed depending on the type of question posed. Results are discussed with respect to how strategy use supports the development of text representations.

scholarly journals Role of Content Schema in Reading Comprehension Among Saudi EFL Students: EFL Teachers’ Perspective and Use of Appropriate Classroom Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
AbdulRahman Al Asmari ◽  
Choudhary Zahid Javid
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Reading Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Classroom Strategies ◽  
English Language Teachers

This empirical survey investigates the perceptions of English language teachers towards the role of content schemata in reading comprehension among Saudi EFL learners. Furthermore, it also attempts to explore the use of appropriate classroom strategies employed by English language teachers to activate content schemata to enhance learners’ reading comprehension. A modified Likert-scale strongly-agree to strongly-disagree questionnaire was administered to 61 male and female EFL faculty from English Language Center (ELC), Taif University to generate data. The findings have reinforced that background knowledge of Saudi EFL learners help them significantly in reading faster with better understanding. It has also been reported that pre-reading strategies of brainstorming, classroom discussions about the topic and questioning are the most favored ones to activate Saudi EFL learners’ background knowledge. It has also been learnt that while-reading strategies of directing the students’ attention to signal words, main idea, important phrases, titles, subtitles and effectively linking the target text to their students’ cultural and social experiences also contribute towards reading comprehension. The findings have also revealed that English language teachers consider low English language proficiency and poor reading skills of Saudi ELF leaners as well as the lack of appropriate teaching aids as the major obstacles in activating the content schemata. Several recommendations have been forwarded which have significant pedagogical implications in materializing much sought-after goal of effective ELT in the KSA by ensuring better reading skills among Saudi EFL learners.

Background Knowledge, Linguistic Complexity, and Second-Language Reading Comprehension

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mienke Droop ◽  
Ludo Verhoeven
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Second Language Reading ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Linguistic Complexity ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Reading Efficiency ◽  
Second Language Reading Comprehension

In the present study, the role of cultural background knowledge on the reading comprehension of third graders acquiring literacy in Dutch as a first and second language is examined while the children read noncontrived texts from the reading curricula. Children were given three types of texts: texts referring to Dutch culture, texts referring to the cultures of immigrants from Near Eastern countries (i.e., Turkey and Morocco), and neutral texts. Within each type of text, a distinction was made between two levels of linguistic complexity. By means of reading-aloud protocols, retelling and questioning the children's reading performance on the distinguished types of texts was analyzed. A facilitating effect of cultural familiarity was found for both reading comprehension and reading efficiency. For the minority children, this effect was restricted to linguistically simple texts, because of their limited knowledge of the target language, Dutch.

scholarly journals THE EFFECT OF USING SENSORY IMAGES AND QUESTIONING STRATEGIES ON THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN READING COMPREHENSION

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-38
Author(s):  
Yani Lubis
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Significant Aspect ◽  
Questioning Strategies

Abstract Sensory images strategy talks about experience, experience is significant aspect for background knowledge. So, sensory images strategy guides the students to represent of their experience in their memories. The Questioning Strategy is a way of forming questions as you read in order to deepen understanding and enjoyment of the text. The Questions have many deals with clarifying the meaning or a phrase or passage, exploring important themes, considering the author’s technique, or learning more about something you find that interesting. The second part of the Questioning Strategy is finding an answer, either on your own or with the help of a teacher or friend. The Aims of Study were to know Students’ Understanding to the text when taught with Sensory Images strategy and Students’ Understanding to the text when taught with Questioning strategy. To know differences the students’ ability in reading comprehension when taught with Sensory Images and Questioning strategies.

scholarly journals Reading comprehensión among college students

SATHIRI ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Edison Boanerges Peñafiel Arcos
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
College Student ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Peer Teaching ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Text Understanding ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
At Home

The understanding of a text should be interpreted at different levels: literal, inferential and critical-evaluative. A literal level is to understand everything that the author explicitly com- municates through a text; understanding a text at an inferential level means to interpret everything that the author wants to communicate, but that sometimes he does not explicitly say or write; understanding a text at a critical- evaluative level means to value, project and judge both the content of what one author states in his writing as well as the inferences or relationships that can be established from what appears in the text produced by an author. Some researches consider that college student graduates are not necessarily good readers even though they read advanced academic material, for this reason they do not always com- prehend the information. Many strategies have been proposed to be developed both in class and at home, to improve reading comprehension. Instructors can improve comprehension through non-reading related information such as background knowledge or experiences, ho- mework and class work, and learning aides. Instructors can also teach students how to use other strategies including the SQ3R method, peer teaching, encoding, and reading flexibility.

scholarly journals Activating Background Knowledge: An Effective Strategy to Develop Reading Comprehension Skills

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shubhada Kedar Deshpande
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
First Year ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Teacher Researcher ◽  
The University ◽  
Reading Comprehension Skills

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The present paper is a report on a small classroom based research study. The researcher has tried Activating Background Knowledge as a strategy to improve reading comprehension skills of the students in the First Year B.Com. Classroom in a degree college affiliated to the University of Mumbai. The teacher-researcher assigned two passages dealing with two different social issues and set in two different contexts, i.e., foreign and local, for comprehension to the students in the classroom. The classroom experience indicated that activating and building on the students’ background knowledge did help in facilitating their reading comprehension skills. The paper thus recommends it as an effective strategy to develop the students’ reading comprehension skills. </span></p>

scholarly journals DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF ENGLISH MAJORED SOPHOMORES AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY, CANTHO, VIETNAM / KHÓ KHĂN KHI HỌC MÔN ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC TÂY ĐÔ, THÀNH PHỐ CẦN THƠ, VIỆT NAM

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nga H. T. Nguyen ◽  
Tu K. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Viet Nam ◽  
Attitude And Motivation

No one denied the important role of reading comprehension in learning reading because reading becomes meaningless without comprehending the texts. So, the research “Difficulties in reading comprehension of English majored sophomores at Tay Do University, Cantho, Vietnam” was conducted to help sophomores recognize their problems in reading. The participants of the study comprise 90 English majored sophomores from Bachelor of English 10 (2015-2019) at Tay Do University. All of them still have some difficulties in linguistic causes as vocabulary, grammar structures, background knowledge and in some strategies, such as guessing meaning from the context, skimming, scanning and also in psychological causes as attitude and motivation. The research was divided into 2 stages. The former was delivering questionnaire to participants. Then, students were chosen to do interview paper. The paper also finds out some obstacles to help students to get over their difficulties. Không ai phủ nhận vai trò quan trọng của đọc hiểu đối với học môn đọc hiểu vì việc đọc sẽ trở nên vô nghĩa nếu không hiểu nội dung. Vì vậy, nghiên cứu “Khó khăn khi học môn đọc hiểu của sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên ngành Ngôn Ngữ Anh tại Trường Đại học Tây Đô, Thành phố Cần Thơ, Việt Nam” được thực hiện nhằm giúp sinh viên năm hai nhận ra vấn đề của họ khi học môn đọc hiểu. Đối tượng nghiên cứu bao gồm 90 sinh viên năm thứ hai Cử nhân tiếng Anh khóa 10 (năm học 2015-2019) tại Trường Đại học Tây Đô. Tất cả sinh viên gặp một số khó khăn về ngôn ngữ như từ vựng, cấu trúc ngữ pháp, kiến thức cơ bản và một số chiến lược đọc hiểu như đoán nghĩa từ theo ngữ cảnh, đọc lướt, đọc lấy ý chi tiết và cả nguyên nhân tâm lý như thái độ và động lực học tập. Nghiên cứu được chia thành 2 giai đoạn. Đầu tiên là gửi bảng câu hỏi cho những người tham gia. Sau đó, chọn người tham gia trả lời phỏng vấn trên giấy. Bài nghiên cứu cũng tìm ra một số trở ngại để giúp sinh viên vượt qua khó khăn khi học môn đọc hiểu. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0779/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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