Developing Reading Com PDF
Developing Reading Com PDF
Developing Reading Com PDF
Introduction
Reading comprehension skills are important for students to become effective
readers (Grabe & Stoller, 2002). Reading begins with the decoding letters,
letter groups and the sounding out of words. Later, learners begin to read words,
sentences, picture books, short stories and other texts. Reading aloud helps
learners to develop their decoding skills which can be a valuable diagnostic
aid. This process concentrates on the development of fluency. The movement
from passive to active reading involves the development of reading
comprehension skills (Machado, 2010).
Literature Review
Concepts of reading comprehension have changed dramatically over the
decades. Theories of language learning have again shifted dramatically during
the latter part of the 20th century (Crain, 2011). We have moved from a
behavioural perspective, which dominated the field from the turn of the century
to the seventies and eighties to a holistic or interactive approach, which began
in the late eighties, and continues to shape our thinking about reading
comprehension today. Some researchers view reading as a cognitive,
developmental, and socially constructed task that goes beyond understanding
the words on a page (Hedgcock and Ferris, 2009). In the past, reading was
considered a relatively static activity. General meaning was imbedded in the
text, and the readers job was to understand what was being transmitted via the
words on the page. Current research views reading as a more dynamic process
in which the reader constructs meaning based on information s/he gathers
from the text. Katherine Maria (1990) defines reading comprehension as:
holistic process of constructing meaning from written text through the
interaction of (1) the knowledge the reader brings to the text, i.e. word
recognition ability, word knowledge, and knowledge of linguistic conventions;
(2) the readers interpretation of the language that the writer used in
constructing the text; and (3) the situation in which the text is read. (p. 14-15)
University-level reading is much more sophisticated than at high school, and in
a special course load, students may encounter and face many more literary
genres than ever before. They may be asked to read, comprehend, and apply
them in a meaningful way. Understanding these texts are essential for academic
success, yet in an average class, attention will not be given to reading strategy
training which may be important for the language learning tasks.
Metacognition involves several elements in the reading tasks. They are: (1) the
ability to recognize errors or contradiction in text, (2) the understanding of
different strategies to use with different kinds of text, and (3) the ability to
distinguish important ideas from unimportant ones (Nist and Mealey, 1991).
While research suggests that many university level students lack metacognitive
skills (Baker, 1985), intervention studies also show that university students can
try to learn and understand their level of text comprehension by using different
strategies. Studies also reveal that university-age students are highly motivated
to use different strategies than younger, less experienced students. Older
students seem better able to regulate and control their understanding than do
younger children as children become older, their capacity to use
metacognitive skills increases, and their reasons for not using these skills
change (Nist and Mealey, 1991). There are a number of reading strategies,
which can help university students to improve both comprehension and
metacognition.
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According to reading specialist John McNeil (1992), schemata are the readers
concepts, beliefs, expectations, processes virtually everything from their
past experiences are used in making sense of reading. In reading, schemata are
used to make sense of text; the printed word evokes the readers experiences,
as well as past and potential relationships (p.20).
Effective reading comprehension requires not only accurate reading skills but
also automatic and fluent reading ability. Many struggling university level
students have difficulty moving to a level of automaticity and fluency that
allows them to comprehend what they are reading. Automaticity is the ability
to identify, at the single word level quickly, accurately and effortlessly. The
speed and accuracy with which single words are identified is taken as a
predictor of text comprehension (Wallace, 2010), however, reading fluency
involves not only automatic word identification, but also the application of
prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and phrasing. Wood, Flowers, and
Grigorenko (2001) suggest that fluency involves the prediction of what comes
next in the text. They also say that reading speed and practice are not enough to
promote fluency and comprehension. The ability to predict what comes next
improves reading speed and is important for text comprehension.
five most important areas of current research: Schema theory, language skills
and automaticity, vocabulary development, comprehension strategy training,
and reading writing relations (p.375).
Methodology
In this study, data collected from two sets of tests were used. The first tests
were carried out during the period from September 2011 to December 2011,
and the second series of tests were carried out from February 2012 to May
2012. Although the work taught progressed, the same test was used to evaluate
the students. The students were evaluated on four occasions, twice for each
period. In this study, the first and last test is used to establish whether the
students progressed over the study period of eight months.
The greater the standard deviation, the more widely the scores are scattered;
the smaller the standard deviation, the smaller the deviation of the scores from
the average.
Participants
The research participants are members of two classes of first year students at a
general university located in the northern part of Taiwan.
Class A is the experimental group and Class B is the control group. Both
classes are at the same university and both classes consist of 61 students.
According to the raw score data, there was some improvement, as the
difference between the highest score and the lowest score, narrowed from 60 to
38. These scores also show that the lowest score in the first test was 20% and
the highest was 80%; the mean was 61.73%. The lowest in the second test was
59% while the highest was 97% and the mean was 81.36%. The difference
between the highest and lowest scores diminished, as did the distribution
around the mean. The difference in the first test is 16 and in the last test 38.
This indicates a significant drop in the difference between the highest and
lowest scores, suggesting an improvement in the weaker scoring students. It is
apparent, then that, according to the raw scores, the experimental group
improved and benefited by the work done during the experimental period.
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The raw scores indicate a lower set of scores in the first test. The first test
indicated a low of 26% and a high of 72% with a difference of 46 and a mean
of 56.206%. In the final test, the lowest score 45%, with a highest of 84%. The
difference is 39, with the mean 66.81% as shown in Figure 2. As with the
experimental group, the raw scores indicate an apparent improvement.
Data Analysis
After collection, the data was analysed using the standard deviation and Z-
value, as mentioned above. The table below shows the mean Z-Values arranged
in descending order.
Test Z-Value
Experiment test four 61.8
Control test one 61.50
Experimental test one 61.27
Control test four 61.005
These values indicate that the experimental group actually improved. The
fourth test gained a mean Z-value of 61.8, while the first test gained a mean Z-
value of 61.27. There is a positive difference of 0.53, indicating an
improvement.
The control group, declined on their Z-values. The fourth test indicates a mean
Z-value of 61.005, while the first test indicates a mean Z-value of 61.50. There
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Findings
The results, using the Z-Value, indicate that the experimental group performed
better than the control group. It is apparent that the control group declined in
their over-all performance, an indication that is cause for concern, especially as
it appears that the students actually lost ground, given that the same test was
used in the pre-test and the post-test.
These findings indicate that the methods used by the researchers in the
experimental group actually benefited the class.
Recommendations
The control group, as shown by the Z-Value, declined in their performance
over the term, while the result for the experimental group indicates an
improvement. This suggests that there is value to be accrued in reading-
comprehension type teaching.
Further research is necessary to show why the control group declined and to
understand the gains made by the experimental group.
Conclusion
As shown in the findings, the Z-Value calculations show that the experimental
group improved over the period of the experiment. The use of reading and
reading comprehension can, therefore, be a valuable aid to language teaching.
Such methods appear to help students gain understanding, as they are able to
see the language in context. This is in keeping with the theoretical review and
recent research, as shown in the literature review.
It is apparent that being able to understand the text (Maria, 1990), as tested in
the two tests, comprises a number of reading skills, including prediction and
schema (McNeil, 1992), as discussed in the literature review, above.
During the tests, the students were given a time limit, which means that they
had to work quickly and as efficiently as possible. Those who had been taught
using reading comprehension methods, were clearly, more able to read and
work efficiently than the control group who were not taught using these
methods. Being able to make inferences and predictions is clearly important in
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University level students often perceive the great importance of reading as well
as the escape provided by reading. Therefore they develop personal
approaches to reading development, combining useful instruction, individual
and personal persistence for learning and extended practice. In other words,
they develop their own content-based language instruction.
We are encouraged by the fact that many students learn to read well and many
develop a reading habit and read for pleasure. In spite of the fact of the
dilemmas that teachers encounter, the difficulties that learners face and the
many unanswered problems that emerge from research findings, many students
become proficient readers. Thus, it is essential to explore how learning and
teaching can be carried out more effectively and to find ways to make
instruction work better in future.
References
Agresti, A & Finlay, B. (2009). Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th
Edition. New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall.
Appendix