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READING COMPREHENSION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
© Paluanova H.1
Uzbekistan State University of world languages, Uzbekistan, Tashkent
This article deals with the study of one of the languages skills as reading comprehension and its development, role and importance in teaching foreign languages.
Keywords: reading, comprehension, pre-reading, while reading, stages, comparison, organizer, memorizing.
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text / message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text / message. Comprehension is a «creative, multifaceted process» dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. It is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is «the construction of thought processes». Some people learn through education or instruction and others through direct experiences.
Since the turn of the 21st century, comprehension lessons usually consist of students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or both. The whole group version of this practice also often included «Round-robin reading», wherein teachers called on individual students to read a portion of the text. In the last quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that the read-test methods were more successful assessing rather than teaching comprehension. Instead of using the prior read-test method, research studies have concluded that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching novice readers a bank of «reading strategies», or tools to interpret and analyze text.
When a student can relate a passage to an experience, another book, or other facts about the world, they are «making a connection». Making connections help students understand the author's purpose and fiction or non-fiction story.
Visualization is a «mental image» created in a person's mind while reading text, which «brings words to life» and helps improve reading comprehension. Asking sensory questions will help students become better visualizers.
There are a wide range of reading strategies suggested by reading programs and educators. The National Reading Panel identified positive effects only for a
1 Кафедра Фонетики и фонологии английского языка.
subset, particularly summarizing, asking questions, answering questions, comprehension monitoring, graphic organizers, and cooperative learning. The Panel also emphasized that a combination of strategies, as used in Reciprocal Teaching, can be effective. The use of effective comprehension strategies that provide specific instructions for developing and retaining comprehension skills, with intermittent feedback, has been found to improve reading comprehension across all ages, specifically those affected by mental disabilities.
Reading different types of texts requires the use of different reading strategies and approaches. Making reading an active, observable process can be very beneficial to struggling readers. A good reader interacts with the text in order to develop an understanding of the information before them. Some good reader strategies are predicting, connecting, inferring, summarizing, analyzing and critiquing. There are many resources and activities educators and instructors of reading can use to help with reading strategies in specific content areas and disciplines. Some examples are graphic organizers, talking to the text, anticipation guides, double entry journals, interactive reading and note taking guides, chunking, and summarizing.
The use of effective comprehension strategies is highly important when learning to improve reading comprehension. These strategies provide specific instructions for developing and retaining comprehension skills. Implementing the following instructions with intermittent feedback has been found to improve reading comprehension across all ages, specifically those affected by mental disabilities.
Assessments. There are informal and formal assessments to monitor an individuals comprehension ability and use of comprehension strategies Informal assessments are generally through observation and the use of tools, like story boards, word sorts, interactive writing, and shared reading. Formal assessments are district or state assessments that evaluates all students on important skills and concepts. Two examples are the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and Accelerated Reader programs.
In interpreting these results, it may be useful to note that the studies mentioned were all performed in closed content environments, not on the internet. That is, the texts used only linked to a predetermined set of other texts which was offline. Furthermore, the participants were explicitly instructed to read on a certain topic in a limited amount of time. Reading text on the internet may not have these constraints.
The National Reading Panel noted that comprehension strategy instruction is difficult for many teachers as well as for students, particularly because they were not taught this way and because it is a very cognitively demanding task. They suggested that professional development can increase teachers / students willingness to use reading strategies but admitted that much remains to be done in this area. The directed listening and thinking activity is a technique available to teach-
ers to aid students in learning how to un-read and reading comprehension. It is also difficult for students that are new. There is often some debate when considering the relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension. There is evidence of a direct correlation that fluency and comprehension lead to better understanding of the written material, across all ages. However, it is unclear if fluency is a result of the comprehension or if this a separate learned task [1].
General information about teaching strategies. Remember the adventures that lived and breathed between the pages of a really good book when, as a young reader, you slipped away undiscovered into your own magical world? My favorite works were Charlotte's Web, Arabian Nights, Huckleberry Finn, Arthurian Legends, and, later, the timeless tragedy of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It is no surprise that many of us who loved such adventures grew up to become today's English teachers and writers. The surprise comes when we discover how many of our own students are struggling readers.
But surprise need not lead to a permanent state of frustration. By scaffolding reading instruction with various strategies, you will improve the reading abilities of most students, and you will begin to hear struggling readers say things like «I remember every part of that story!». The key is to apply reading strategies persistently and imaginatively. Speaking of imagination, let me ask you to indulge for a moment in a bit of guided imagery. Picture a beautiful, majestic cathedral soaring upward. Then visualize restoration experts at work on that architectural wonder, identifying the problems that need correcting and building a scaffold next to the structure so that they can interact with it at different heights. In a similar way, English teachers build a scaffold for struggling readers so that they can interact safely and securely with the text.
Most effective strategies. Theoretically speaking, if the daily reading curriculum uses research-proven methods, students should develop skills for comprehending the text. But you may be wondering which strategies are the most beneficial. That question was answered in 1997 by a 14-member panel appointed by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The results of their research, published under the title Teaching Children to Read (see resources below), revealed that the eight most effective strategies are as follows:
Comprehension monitoring. Reading activities can be divided into three categories, depending on when they take place: pre-reading, reading, and post-reading.
Pre-reading: Collecting and defining vocabulary terms from the text will assist students in understanding words that otherwise may interrupt their reading. It will also help them increase their vocabulary in a meaningful, relevant way. Students can record the terms in a notebook or on flash cards. Another strategy in-
volves having students preview comprehension questions so that they can focus on answering those questions as they read.
Reading: Teachers can guide students' interaction with the text by asking questions about literary elements, having students present oral summaries of the plot, or asking them to collect details or write observations on post-it notes. If students have previewed comprehension questions, they can answer these questions as they read.
Post-reading: Summarizing (see below) is an effective strategy that can take many different forms.
Cooperative learning is a strategy that maximizes student engagement, reduces class tensions, and promotes student learning. Typically, students work in groups of four. If you plan to use cooperative learning frequently in classes, consider arranging your classroom to facilitate learning in small groups.
Comparison / Contrast: These organizers can help students consider the similarities and differences between stories, plots, themes, and characters. An example of such an organizer is a Venn diagram (PDF), which consists of interlocking circles or ellipses. The area common to both circles shows similarities between two items, while the areas unique to each circle show differences between the items.
Hierarchy Diagram: This graphic organizer can assist students who are reading informational texts of all kinds, whether related to language arts or to other content areas. The hierarchy diagram (PDF) offers the opportunity to apply literary terms to the reading, make connections between the parts of a concept, or analyze the author's craft. For example, consider placing characterization at the top of the graphic organizer as the overarching concept. The next level of this graphic organizer can then be assigned to characters, and the last level can deal with methods of characterization, including the use of dialogue, author description, and action.
Matrix Diagram: This organizer is effective in representing comparisons and contrasts. For example, students can use the matrix diagram (PDF) to compare and contrast the styles of various authors by entering key elements of style at the top and then filling in the lower cells with the similar or different approaches of the authors they are considering.
The typical approach to question answering is to answer comprehension questions upon completion of the selection, but questions can be a part of a reading lesson at many points. As mentioned before, previewing questions can help students focus their reading. In addition, story stems that prompt students to complete a question can organize a cooperative learning experience as students read. Partners can take turns using story stems to quiz one another on the reading.
Following are examples of typical story stems:
Explain why....
Explain how.
How does...affect...?
What is the meaning of.?
Why is .important?
What is the difference between ... and .?
Question generating
Students can write questions about the story as a post-reading exercise. These questions can then be integrated into formal tests or informal questioning games. You might want to suggest that students generate questions by adapting sentences from the text. Students can also generate questions to identify their own uncertainties about the text. They can then try to answer these questions by consulting you or other students.
Summarizing. This is an effective strategy for readers who have difficulty remembering and writing about what they have read. A summary can take many forms, including travelogues, journals, double-entry journals, and letters. For example, students can create a travel itinerary that summarizes the action of a narrative, can write a journal from a particular character's point of view, can set up a double-entry journal about the theme of a work, or can summarize events in a letter that one character writes to another.
Multiple Strategy. This strategy addresses individual learning styles by having students use different media-such as text, images, or video-to analyze or comment on a work of literature. For example, readers can follow a procedure like this one:
Begin analyzing a story by using a worksheet listing the elements to be identified.
Use word processors and instructional software to create and fill in graphic organizers with clip art and fields of text.
Refer to worksheets for definitions to be added to electronic graphic organizers.
If students have access to video cameras and editing software, they can also create videos that offer commentary on a literary work.
Scaffolded learning experiences can support and improve the performance of students before, during, and after reading. Such experiences help students develop essential skills for understanding and extracting meaning from text and boost their performance on reading comprehension assessments. In addition, students who benefit from scaffolded learning are better able to function as independent readers and to express ideas in a variety of ways.
References:
1. Chard D.J., Simmons D.C., Kameenui E.J. Word Recognition: Curricular and Instructional Implications for Diverse Learners. - Eugene: National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators, University of Oregon, February, 1995. - P. 216.
