Reading
comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability to read text,
process it and understand its meanin. An individual's ability to comprehend
text is influenced by their traits and skills, one of which is the ability to
make inferences. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of
their processing capacity to read individual words,
which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read. There are a
number of approaches to improve reading comprehension, including improving
one's vocabulary and reading strategies.
Contents
- 1 Definition
- 2 History
- 3 Teaching reading comprehension
- 3.1 Vocabulary
- 3.2 Reading strategies
- 3.2.1 Reciprocal teaching
- 3.2.2 Instructional conversations
- 3.2.3 Text factors
- 3.2.4 Visualization
- 3.2.5 Multiple reading strategies
- 3.3 Assessment
- 4 Difficult or complex content
- 5 Professional development
- 6 See also
- 7 References
- 8 Further reading
- 9 External links
Definition
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.[1][2] Comprehension is a "creative,
multifaceted process" dependent upon four language skills:
phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.[3] Proficient reading depends on the
ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly.[4] 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.[5]
There are specific traits that determine how successfully an individual
will comprehend text, including prior knowledge about the subject, well
developed language, and the ability to make inferences. Having the skill to
monitor comprehension is a factor: "Why is this important?" and
"Do I need to read the entire text?" are examples. Lastly, is the
ability to be self-correcting to solve comprehension problems as they arise.[6]
Reading comprehension levels
Reading comprehension involves two levels of processing,
shallow (low-level) processing and deep (high-level) processing. Deep
processing involves semantic processing, which
happens when we encode the meaning of a word and relate it to similar words.
Shallow processing involves structural and phonemic recognition, the processing
of sentence and word structure and their associated sounds. This theory was
first identified by Fergus I. M. Craik
and Robert S. Lockhart.[7]
Brain region activation
Comprehension levels can now be observed through the use of a fMRI,
functional magnetic resonance imaging. fMRIs' are used to determine the
specific neural pathways of activation across two conditions, narrative-level
comprehension and sentence-level comprehension. Images showed that there was
less brain region activation during sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a
shared reliance with comprehension pathways. The scans also showed an enhanced
temporal activation during narrative levels tests indicating this approach
activates situation and spatial processing.[8]
History
Initially most comprehension teaching was based on imparting selected
techniques that when taken together would allow students to be strategic
readers however in 40 years of testing these methods never seemed to win
support in empirical research. One such strategy for improving reading
comprehension is the technique called SQ3R:
Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review that was introduced by Francis
Pleasant Robinson in his 1946 book Effective Study.[9]
Between 1969 and to about 2000 a number of "strategies" were
devised for teaching students to employ self-guided methods for improving
reading comprehension. In 1969 Anthony Manzo designed and found empirical
support for the ReQuest, or Reciprocal Questioning
Procedure, it was the first method to convert emerging theories of
social and imitation learning into teaching methods through the use of a talk
rotation between students and teacher called cognitive modeling.[citation needed]
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.[10] 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.[citation needed]
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.[11]
Instruction in comprehension strategy use often involves the gradual
release of responsibility, wherein teachers initially explain and
model strategies. Over time, they give students more and more responsibility
for using the strategies until they can use them independently. This technique
is generally associated with the idea of self-regulation
and reflects social cognitive
theory, originally conceptualized by Albert Bandura.
Teaching reading comprehension
2009 summer reading program for children ages 5 to 12. "One of our
goals is to help the children maintain their reading comprehension skills
during the summer," said Belinda Pugh. "If they just read 15 minutes
a day, it really will help them maintain that comprehension level."
There are differing viewpoints about how to best teach reading
comprehension in the United States. One, for instance, is based upon understanding the text through reading and other
is learning first to decode the words, or phonics.[citation needed]
Vocabulary
Reading comprehension and vocabulary are inextricably linked. The ability
to decode or identify and pronounce words is self-evidently important, but
knowing what the words mean has a major and direct effect on knowing what any
specific passage means. Students with a smaller vocabulary than other students
comprehend less of what they read and it has been suggested that the most impactful
way to improve comprehension is to improve vocabulary.[12]
Most words are learned gradually through a wide variety of environments:
television, books, and conversations. Some words are more complex and difficult
to learn, such as homonyms, words that have multiple meanings and
those with figurative meanings, like idioms,
similes, and metaphors.[13]
Three tier vocabulary words
Several theories of vocabulary instruction exist, namely, one focused on
intensive instruction of a few high value words, one focused on broad
instruction of many useful words, and a third focused on strategies for
learning new word etc.......
Broad vocabulary approach
The method of focusing of broad instruction on many words was developed by
Andrew Biemiller who argued that more words would benefit students more, even
if the instruction was short and teacher-directed. He suggested that teachers
teach a large number of words before reading a book to students, by merely
giving short definitions, such as synonyms, and then pointing out the words and
their meaning while reading the book to students.[14] The method contrasts with the approach
by emphasizing quantity versus quality. There is no evidence to suggest the
primacy of either approach.[15]
Morphemic instruction
The final vocabulary technique, strategies for learning new words, can be
further subdivided into instruction on using context and instruction on using morphemes, or meaningful units within words to
learn their meaning. Morphemic instruction has been shown to produce positive
outcomes for students reading and vocabulary knowledge, but context has proved
unreliable as a strategy and it is no longer considered a useful strategy to
teach students. This conclusion does not disqualify the value in
"learning" morphemic analysis - prefixes, suffixes and roots - but
rather suggests that it be imparted incidentally and in context. Accordingly,
there are methods designed to achieve this, such as Incidental Morpheme
Analysis.[16]
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