UNIT 5- LANGUAGE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM-Developing Proficiency in Written Comprehension and Production - Part 1-BEd notes
Prepared by
Sabarish P
Contents
- Reading with comprehension
- Levels of reading
- Reading across different subjects
Developing Proficiency in Written Comprehension and Production
Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading.
Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyse it, make sense of it, and make it their own.
When learners comprehend, they interpret, integrate, critique, infer, analyse, connect and evaluate ideas in texts.
When comprehending, learners strive to process text beyond word-level to get to the big picture.
Comprehension takes the learner to a new level of active understanding and insight. It enhances language and vocabulary knowledge.
Good learners use a variety of comprehension strategies simultaneously and they know how to deliberately apply specific strategies to aid their comprehension, particularly with regard to challenging texts/information.
Comprehension is an active process between the reader and a text, a process that is both ‘intentional and thoughtful’.
Students should be able to locate and recall information, draw on the knowledge of text structures and text organisers, write short reflective responses, complete multiple choice questions, think deeply and express ideas verbally, complete descriptions, recognise causal relationships, make logical connections, interpret graphics and images and identify multiple points of view and specific details.
It has been found that less able comprehenders usually focus more on word accuracy rather than comprehension monitoring and generally have weak metacognition skills.
Students with weak comprehension generally are poor at making inferences and integrating text information, as they tend to read superficially, are less likely to participate in constructive processes and are unsure of when to apply their prior knowledge during reading.
Learners who struggle with comprehension possess inefficient strategies and use them inflexibly. They are usually unaware of what good comprehenders do and need to be shown how and when to apply a small repertoire of comprehension strategies.
Providing students with explicit instruction in comprehension strategies can be an effective way to help them overcome difficulties in understanding texts.
The more explicit the comprehension strategy and self-regulatory instruction, the higher the likelihood that the learner will make significant gains in comprehension.
As learners become more competent and confident of their comprehension, the less support they require from the teacher.
Comprehension strategies are the cognitive and metacognitive strategies readers use to strategies accomplish the goal of comprehension. Comprehension strategies are interrelated and will rarely be used in isolation.
Teaching ideas are the activities and practices that teachers use with students to help them learn how to use comprehension strategies.
The six comprehension strategies are :
Making connections : Learners make personal connections from the text with: something in their own life (text to self), another text (text to text), and something occurring in the world (text to world).
Predicting : Learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate what will be read/ viewed/heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading/viewing/listening.
Questioning : Learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote deeper understanding of the text. Questions can be generated by the learner, a peer or the teacher.
Monitoring : Learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote deeper understanding of the text. Questions can be generated by the learner, a peer or the teacher.
Visualising : Learners create a mental image from a text read/viewed/heard. Visualising brings the text to life, engages the imagination and uses all of the senses.
Summarising : Learners identify and accumulate the most important ideas and restate them in their own words.
Reading with comprehension
Reading is cognitive which develops throughout a reader’s life.
Reading comprehension constitutes a foundation for further studies, many occupational skills and satisfaction from life and it also enhances mental perception.
The following processes influence reading comprehension:
phonology,
acquisition of graphic-phonetic principle,
morphology,
syntax,
relations between words that comprise a sentence,
semantics,
contextual knowledge,
vocabulary,
understanding,
motivation and
worldly knowledge.
Researchers assume that verbal linguistic development runs parallel to the child’s meta-cognitive development.
Two situations of verbal linguistic mediation have been discerned by researchers:
Talking aloud – a situation wherein the reader processes thought into verbal symbols, and then in turn processes these symbols into sounds.
Thinking aloud – internal thought in verbal symbols. This is a method for the structuring of meanings using strategies, by means of inspection and control processes. It improves comprehension and learning ability and reflects the meta-cognitive behaviors of the readers in the problem solution processes.
Verbal linguistic ability which accompanies the meta-cognitive awareness process refers to the term “thinking aloud”.
The acquisition of language during school years is characterized by three main fields of development:
acquisition of a new and extensive linguistic variety of items, categories and syntax structures;
development of new ways of connecting between items and systems in order to create more complex and richer language patterns; and
acquisition of more effective and explicit means of representation and thinking about the language.
Linguistic acquisition is performed with mutual support of one another of its various components, so that the acquisition of each knowledge dimension is affected by and affects other knowledge dimensions, and the complex linguistic system evolves on its own.
Levels of reading
Students should be proficient in the four levels of reading – Careful Reading, Usual Reading, Accelerated Reading, and Selective Reading.
Careful Reading may also be described as critical, analytical or thoughtful to detail, reflective, and evaluative. This type of reading is usually employed in studying or reading thoughtprovoking material.
Usual Reading, the most habitual manner of reading, applies in a wide variety of situations— reading newspaper articles, novels, or magazines in which the reader usually does not have a clearly defined purpose that demands either detailed comprehension or rapid completion.
Accelerated Reading is the type of reading most often attempted when time is limited. The reader is alert, reads aggressively, and attempts to cover material sacrificing comprehension. To do this, the reader must, of course, expend extra energy.
Selective Reading, in order to benefit from selective reading, students should be proficient in the first three levels of reading.
Reading across different subjects
Language is taken as both an end and a means.
Students should be taught skills to cope with reading for learning purposes.
Teaching of language skills is not the responsibility of language teachers only.
Pupils should be taught in all subjects to express themselves correctly and appropriately and to read accurately and with understanding.
Pupils should be taught strategies to help them read with understanding, to locate and use information, to follow a process or argument summarise, and to synthesise and adapt what they learn from their reading.
Pupils should be taught the technical and specialist vocabulary of subjects and how to use and spell these words.
Reading is a skill to be mastered and through which knowledge is acquired by pupils.
Pupils should also be taught to use the patterns of language vital to understanding and expression in different subjects. These include:
the construction of sentences, paragraphs and texts which are often used in a subject, e.g. language to express causality, chronology, logic, exploration, hypothesis, comparison, and how to ask questions and develop argument.
