Facilitate Reading Comprehension Research Articles

The Application of Transfer-Appropriate Processing for Enhancing Reading Comprehension of Chinese High Schoolers

Improving reading comprehension via proper reading skills is crucial to English learning. Nevertheless, the dearth of educators on reading strategies and other factors poses a challenge to the long-range development of high school students’ ability of reading comprehension. Transfer-appropriate processing (TAP) is highly consistent with advancing high schoolers’ comprehensive application of English, but its introduction into practice has been an under-investigated domain. In light of this, the present study offers some TAP-based pedagogical recommendations for learning and teaching to facilitate reading comprehension. It is broken down into vocabulary memorization and text understanding. TAP states that three factors--the level of processing and the uniformity of activities and situations during memory encoding and retrieval--will modify memory performance. Generating questions involving intensive contemplation boosts the grasp of reading resources; employing initial tests (retrieval practice) and engaging in congruent physical activities during encoding and retrieval aid in nurturing enduring vocabulary retention. Educators and learners may integrate the aforementioned strategies into practice.

Word Segmentation in Sentence Reading by Learners of Chinese

This study adopted an experimental approach to compare two groups of third-year students learning Chinese in sentence reading comprehension with and without a word segmentation exercise at a southwestern American university. The t-test showed that the experimental group, which received a word segmentation task followed by immediate feedback before reading, outperformed the non-experimental group, which received no treatment before reading. The correlation analysis confirmed that four types of word segmentation errors were moderately correlated with four types of translation errors. This study concluded that introducing word segmentation exercises could facilitate reading comprehension. Based on the findings, pedagogical implementations were suggested.

Improving Reading Comprehension in English for Nusantara: A Case Study

This research investigates the effectiveness of using the textbook "English for Nusantara" for grade 7, to improve reading comprehension skills among students at Al-Amin Middle School in Palangka Raya City, Indonesia. This research uses a qualitative approach, utilizing questionnaires and student interviews to analyze how textbooks facilitate reading comprehension. This research focuses on a sample of 10 students and aims to identify the strengths and the content of "English for Nusantara" textbook in improving reading comprehension. This analysis will explore four main aspects: general attributes, teaching-learning content, vocabulary development, and grammatical understanding. The findings from this research will provide valuable insight the potential to be an effective tool for enhancing reading comprehension and the content of the book "English for Nusantara" from the views of Al-Amin Palangkaraya Middle School students and contribute to the ongoing dialogue about effective teaching of reading comprehension in secondary schools in Indonesia.

Exploring the multifaceted influence of affective factors on English reading comprehension among senior high school students

Existing research has emphasized the significance of cognitive factors in facilitating reading comprehension. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding of how affective factors contribute to this aspect of English learning, particularly within the Indonesian context. This study examines the contribution of affective factors (learning motivation, academic self-efficacy, and self-concept) to English reading comprehension among senior high school students. Adopting a correlational research design, it analyzed data from 136 eleventh graders using multiple regression analysis. The data was collected using the Reading Comprehension Test, Learning Motivation Scale, Academic Self-Efficacy Scale, and Self-Concept Scale. The analysis revealed a significant positive contribution of learning motivation to reading comprehension, accounting for approximately 8.9% of the variance (t-value of 3.626, p-value of 0.000), while academic self-efficacy explained about 4.4% (t-value of 2.484, p-value of 0.014). However, self-concept was found to have no significant effect on reading comprehension (t-value of -0.022, p-value of 0.982). Collectively, learning motivation and academic self-efficacy explicated around 11.9% of the variability in reading comprehension scores, as evidenced by an F-statistic of 9.021 and p-value of 0.000. The study concludes that affective factors are crucial in reading instruction. It suggests educators integrate strategies fostering motivation and self-efficacy to enhance reading comprehension.

The effects of NMT as a de facto dictionary on vocabulary learning: a comparison of three look-up conditions

Many language learners have reported using Neural machine translation (NMT) such as Google Translate as a reference tool for writing production or as a dictionary substitute to facilitate reading comprehension. Although increasing evidence has suggested that editing with NMT can help learners make improvement on the vocabulary level, no study has explored how consulting NMT for unknown vocabulary may impact the retention of word meaning compared to more conventional look-up conditions. Using a 3 × 3 quasi-experimental design, this study investigated the extent to which the use of NMT to learn unknown target words during reading comprehension activities yielded vocabulary retention compared to that of an online dictionary and how the findings varied by learners’ proficiency levels. The research questions focused on the comparison of the outcomes of three different look-up conditions: (1) NMT word search, (2) NMT sentence search, and (3) online dictionary search. ANOVA results showed that learners who performed online dictionary search and NMT sentence search demonstrated significantly higher levels of word retention than those who carried out NMT single-word search, and the same pattern was observed regardless of their proficiency levels.

Effect of contextual diversity on word recognition in different semantic contexts.

Efficient word recognition is important to facilitate reading comprehension. Two important factors influence word recognition-word frequency (WF) and contextual diversity (CD)-but studies have not reached consistent conclusions on their role. Based on previous studies, the present study strictly controlled the anticipation of sentence context on target words. In the context of the semantic incongruence of Chinese sentences-that is, when the context is equivalent and low in anticipation of the target noun-CD effects were found on late processing indicators of the eye movement data of parafoveal words, and the CD feature of parafoveal words led to a significant parafoveal-on-foveal effect. However, none of these results were found in the semantically reasonable (semantic congruence) context. The results suggested that high CD words are better at adapting to unexposed or learned contexts, which was not the case for high WF words.

The roles of prosody in Chinese-English reading comprehension

BackgroundDespite being an essential component of children's oral reading fluency, prosodic reading, which involves expressive changes in pitch patterns and pause durations, has not been explored in Cantonese-English bilingual children, whose first language (L1) is tonal, non-alphabetic, and whose second language (L2) is non-tonal, alphabetic. AimsThis study examined the development of prosodic reading and its within- and cross-language associations with reading comprehension among Cantonese-English bilingual children from second to third grade. SampleOne hundred and twenty-one 7-to 8-year-old Cantonese-English bilingual children completed initial testing in grade 2, with 52 tested in grade 3. MethodsProsodic reading was assessed using one Chinese and one English passage, each comprising six types of syntactic structures: declaratives, clause-final commas, yes-no questions, wh-questions, complex adjectival phrases, and quotatives. Word-reading efficiency, oral passage-reading fluency, and reading comprehension in Chinese and English were also measured. ResultsSpectrographic analyses revealed that these children were aware of language-independent functions and language-specific manifestations of pitch and pause cues within and across their L1 Chinese and L2 English. Wh question pitch contours emerged as the most robust link to reading comprehension across both languages, while a crossover effect occurred from Cantonese pitch to English reading comprehension. Shorter pauses for English declarative quotative sentences and phrase-final commas were concurrently associated with greater English reading comprehension. ConclusionsThese findings are interpreted within a new reading framework, the Prosodic Catalysing Hypothesis (PCH), which proposes that pitch and pause production can bridge prosody and syntax to facilitate reading comprehension.

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MASTERY BY USING WORD SQUARE MEDIA COMPARATIVE STUDY OF USING KWL AND QAR STRATEGIES ON STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

Reading is a complex activity. Through reading activities, readers have responses like rejection, acceptance, and criticism of what they have read. Therefore, appropriate strategies are needed in reading learning activities for students to facilitate reading comprehension. This study aims to determine significant differences in using KWL and QAR strategies on students' reading comprehension abilities.This study used an experimental method with a post-test-only design. The population in this study were students of class VIII SMPN 5 Banjarmasin. The sampling technique used in this study was using a saturated sampling technique for as many as 261 students. The instrument used was multiple choice questions in the form of a post-test. The data analysis technique in this study was the t-test at a significance level of 5%.The results showed that the student's reading comprehension who were taught by using the KWL strategy was 52.09 lower than those of the students taught by using the QAR strategy of 57.09 with a tcount of 2.251 and a p of 0.025 (p < 0.05 ). The difference in the post-test mean of reading comprehension skills in the KWL strategy group and the QAR strategy group was 5.00. This shows that there is a significant difference in the use of KWL and QAR strategies on the reading comprehension skills of eight grade students at SMPN 5 Banjarmasin.

PowerAR: A Tool for Improving ESL Year Six Pupils’ Reading Comprehension

There is a growing concern about the level of reading skills in the English language, specifically among primary school pupils in Malaysia. The integration of technology in language learning had proven to facilitate the reading process and indirectly enhance reading comprehension. This study intends to investigate the integration of technology, specifically, Augmented Reality (AR) combine with PowerPoint (i.e., PowerAR) as a learning tool to improve reading comprehension among primary school pupils. A total of 17 primary Year six pupils participated in this study. An intervention was designed to focus on reading lessons that used PowerAR as a learning tool to facilitate reading comprehension among pupils. According to the data analysis of the pre-test and post-test, the PowerAR intervention has somewhat improved the pupils’ reading comprehension skills. The results also showed that the participants had reaped many technological benefits, but some of them needed more assistance and collaborative learning to be implemented in reading classrooms. Theories that emphasised active learning, constructivism, and self-directed learning were key elements of the PowerAR intervention. Reading comprehension improves when students make sense of the reading material by connecting it to prior knowledge and building connections to it. PowerAR demonstrates the versatility of using technology in the language classroom that amplifies language learning. The findings provide insights to teachers, academics, and other interested parties with information on how to employ technology, particularly augmented reality (AR), to enhance reading comprehension and other language skills.

The Role of Executive Functions in Lexical Processing During Reading Comprehension

AbstractRobust relation has been revealed previously between the components of executive function (EF) and reading comprehension performance. However, the specific role of EF in the reading processes remains relatively underexplored. Within the framework of the lexical quality hypothesis (LQH), this study examined the contribution of EF to the lexical processing of words, and how this eventually supports reading comprehension. A total of 262 Grade 3 students in Hong Kong were assessed using multiple measures of EF, lexical processing skills (i.e. orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, and receptive vocabulary knowledge) and reading comprehension, respectively. Our findings indicate significant associations between EF and lexical processing skills, which, in turn, contributed to better reading comprehension. The results demonstrate how EF supports Chinese reading comprehension through the mediating effects of a reader's mental operation in obtaining meanings of individual words. The findings support to the notion that peripheral skills facilitate reading comprehension through more central skills.

Relations Between Reading Motivation and Reading Efficiency—Evidence From a Longitudinal Eye‐Tracking Study

AbstractStudies on the relation between children's reading motivation and early developmental stages of reading competence are rare and have neglected on‐line measures of reading skill (e.g., eye movements indicating word decoding). For this reason, we investigated the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation on the efficiency of reading processes based on eye‐movement data. Moreover, we examined reading efficiency as a mediator of the relation between motivation and comprehension. German elementary school students in Grades 1–3 (N = 131) were tested on three measurement occasions. Specifically, we assessed reading motivation, reading amount, and sentence comprehension at Time 1, reading efficiency at Time 2 (2 months after Time 1), and all of the variables again at Time 3 (10 months after Time 2). Reading efficiency was assessed while children read age‐appropriate sentences and comprised measures of first‐fixation duration, gaze duration, total reading time, forward‐saccade length, and refixation probability. Linear and cross‐lagged panel models showed significant favorable relations between intrinsic reading motivation (operationalized as involvement and enjoyment of reading), but not extrinsic reading motivation (operationalized as striving to outperform one's peers), and most measures of reading efficiency, while controlling for gender, grade level, and reading amount. The reverse effects of reading‐efficiency indicators on intrinsic reading motivation were all significant. Moreover, the test of the mediation model revealed a significant indirect effect of Time 1 intrinsic reading motivation on Time 3 sentence comprehension mediated by Time 2 reading efficiency. We concluded that intrinsic reading motivation, in contrast to extrinsic reading motivation, facilitates reading comprehension through its effect on reading efficiency, independent of variations in reading amount.

Effect of Culturally Familiar Text on Low-Proficiency Reader’s Reading Comprehension

The study examines the effect of culturally familiar text on the reading comprehension of low-proficiency readers in Indonesia. There were sixty-two second-year college students involved in the study as participants. The study used reading comprehension tests to gather the data. The results revealed that students with culturally familiar text had outperformed those with culturally unfamiliar text in reading comprehension. It is also found that these low-proficiency readers’ reading comprehension has improved significantly by using culturally familiar text in their reading practices. Interestingly, the students showed good engagement after being taught text that contained familiar culture. Finally, it can be concluded that the research results provide important insights, particularly for EFL educators, researchers, and learners, on the impact of culturally familiar contexts in facilitating reading comprehension achievement for low-proficiency readers in Indonesia.

The associations between child and item characteristics, use of vocabulary scaffolds, and reading comprehension in a digital environment: Insights from a big data approach

Scaffolding features that provide multimodal support for the pronunciation and meaning of words are increasingly common in digital reading environments. These vocabulary scaffolds are intended to aid the accurate pronunciation and understanding of individual words in context, thus supporting both vocabulary development and comprehension of text. However, the evidence on their efficacy remains inconclusive. The present study adds to the evidence base by examining: 1) whether child characteristics predict the use of vocabulary scaffolds; 2) whether the use of vocabulary scaffolds is associated with reading comprehension performance; and 3) whether the association between the use of scaffolds and reading comprehension is modulated by child and/or item characteristics. A large cohort (N ∼ 120,000) of 5- to 8-year-old children in the United States interacted with a gamified digital reading environment with embedded vocabulary scaffolds, thereby generating a large observational dataset of user log files. Confirmatory analyses with Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) indicated that children with lower literacy skills, beginning readers, girls, and bilingual students were more likely to use the scaffold. Overall, the use of scaffolds was associated with better reading comprehension performance. The association between the use of scaffolds and reading comprehension was modulated by both child and item characteristics. We conclude that vocabulary scaffolds may be promising tools to facilitate reading comprehension and reduce performance differences amongst diverse learners in digital reading environments. Educational implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

EFL Learners Interaction with Feedback Presented through a Computer-Assisted Reading Program

This article examines the interaction patterns of second language (L2) learners when engaging with different types of feedback presented through a computer reading program. There were 12 EFL learners who were asked to complete reading exercises in the program, and the way they interacted with the feedback provided was examined through interviews, observations and think-aloud exercises. The qualitative analyses explored participants' experience of the reading feedback and how EFL learners of different language levels behaved when presented with knowledge of correct response (KCR), elaborated feedback (EF), and no feedback. The results showed limited use of the EF, and most students relied on KCR to guide their reading. In addition, many of the participants commented on the complexity of the EF, which presented as a barrier to facilitating reading comprehension. From the interviews, it was discovered that feedback could negatively influence the reading experience for low-level learners as the feedback was not accessible enough to help in the reading comprehension process.

Collaborative Concept Mapping: A Study of Group Work Satisfaction in Vocational Higher Education


 
 
 
 
 
 Collaboration is gaining traction in today's educational environment. Thus, teachers' primary concern is assisting students in experiencing group knowledge collaboration. As online education continues to grow in popularity, there is an increasing need to promote and understand collaborative learning processes. Its success is contingent upon implementing online collaborative learning strategies that foster critical thinking abilities while also providing meaningful collaborative learning opportunities. Collaborative concept mapping is one tool that could be used to foster student collaboration. Rather than creating and visualizing ideas individually, collaborative concept mapping involves two or more students working collaboratively to create one or more concept maps. In collaborative learning, interactions between learners are critical sources of idea generation. The purpose of this study is to examine students’ satisfaction with implementing the strategy in Second Language Reading class. The recent study advances our understanding of how to effectively use collaborative teaching tools in the classroom and improve student learning through group collaboration. The study's findings indicate that students demonstrated positive attitudes toward group collaboration, as evidenced by collaborative concept mapping. In addition, the collaborative learning processes embedded in concept mapping learning platforms support and facilitate reading comprehension achievement, resulting in successful foreign language learning for higher education students. The interaction in collaborative concept mapping, lacking in individual concept mapping, has facilitated individual and group knowledge building. As a result, implementing this strategy may benefit both group and individual learning. 
 
 
 
 
 

How does word knowledge facilitate reading comprehension in a second language? A longitudinal study in Chinese primary school children learning English

How does word knowledge facilitate reading comprehension in a second language? A longitudinal study in Chinese primary school children learning English

Role of visual awareness on semantic integration of sequentially presented words: An fMRI study

Reading comprehension requires the semantic integration of words across space and time. However, it remains unclear whether comprehension requires visual awareness for such semantic integration. Compared to earlier studies that investigated semantic integration indirectly from its priming effect, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to directly examine the processes of semantic integration with or without visual awareness. Specifically, we manipulated participants’ visual awareness by continuous flash suppression (CFS) while they viewed a meaningful sequence of four Chinese words (i.e., an idiom) or its meaningless counterpart (i.e., a random sequence). Behaviorally, participants had better recognition memory for idioms than random sequences only when their visual awareness was interfered rather than blocked by CFS. Neurally, semantics-processing areas, such as the superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, were significantly activated only when participants were aware of word sequences, be they meaningful or meaningless. By contrast, orthography-processing areas, such as the fusiform gyrus and inferior occipital gyrus, were significantly activated regardless of visual awareness or word sequence. Taken together, these results suggest that visual awareness modules the functioning of the semantic neural network in the brain and facilitates reading comprehension.

The Effect of Content Schemata on EFL Moroccan Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Role of the Pre-Reading Activities

This study examined whether content schemata activation facilitate reading comprehension or not. It is motivated by two research questions: (1) does content familiarity facilitate reading comprehension? And (2) do teachers activate learners background knowledge? To examine these questions, the study used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect and analyse data. It was hypothesized that content schema activation facilitates reading comprehension. This article has two goals: (1) to identify the effects of pre-reading activities on Moroccan EFL students’ reading comprehension through content schema activation, and (2) to translate the research findings into suggestions and guidance for textbook designers, teachers, and policy makers. Previous research has shown that providing learners background knowledge enhances their comprehension. Our most important contribution is to provide useful guidelines for actions and practice implications related to schema activation at the pre-reading stage in Moroccan EFL context. An experimental research study was conducted to test our hypothesis using students test score data to measure and compare the performance of the treatment group and the control group. The findings from the research show that the impact of content schema activation on reading comprehension is positive as assumed. The results, implications for teachers, and future research were discussed.

Predicting and Reading Together: the Role of Collaborative Learning in Facilitating Reading Comprehension

Predicting and Reading Together: the Role of Collaborative Learning in Facilitating Reading Comprehension

Unraveling Contradictions: Which Glosses Facilitate Reading Comprehension Among ELLs, and Why?

This critical literature review provides study details for 36 studies examining the effect of glossing for language acquisition among English language learners (ELLs). Useful tables include specificity of participants, gloss types, target vocabulary items and text information about all studies. An analysis of these studies reveals that glossing is an effective means to enhance reading comprehension among ELLs. However, gloss language—whether L1 or English, may depend on learner factors. Other findings include the importance of proximity of gloss to text and the need for glosses that do not require readers to leave the text to access meaning. Considerations such as text genre, text length, targeted items for glossing, number of items to gloss, and gloss presentation are also examined and discussed, including which gloss types may result in trade-offs when glossing is used as a means to promote incidental vocabulary acquisition through independent reading. Several recommendations for further research are offered.