Reading Comprehension Strategies Research Articles

Utilizing Nonfiction Texts to Enhance Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary in Primary Grades

Many primary grade students are not afforded nonfiction-rich opportunities, with fiction comprising the majority of books read aloud in classrooms. With the Common Core Standards recommending that half of the texts made available to students be nonfiction, educators are increasing their use of informational text. The present study explored the impact of explicitly teaching reading comprehension and vocabulary strategies with nonfiction text compared to fiction text in primary-grade classrooms. Two first-grade (n = 39; 25 male, 14 female) and one second-grade class (n = 20; 13 male, 7 female) participated in the quantitative study that followed a repeated measures design in which the students alternated every 2 weeks between fiction-based instruction and nonfiction-based instruction for a total of 8 weeks. Vocabulary and use of comprehension strategies were assessed at the end of each 2-week period. Overall findings indicated that students were better able to apply the comprehension strategies and define vocabulary following nonfiction-based instruction; they also were more motivated to read informational text. The authors recommend that teachers use more nonfiction texts in the primary grades to support students’ reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

Fortaleciendo la Motivación Mediante Estrategias de Comprensión Lectora en Estudiantes de Educación Primaria

Uno de los mayores problemas que tienen las escuelas es encontrar métodos que ayuden a sus alumnos a mejorar su aprendizaje y rendimiento académico. El propósito de esta investigación es proponer una forma de ayudar a los estudiantes con pobre rendimiento académico a mejorar sus notas mediante su involucramiento en un programa de lectura independiente significativa. Las hipótesis del estudio son: que la falta de lectura independiente significativa en los alumnos contribuye a su pobre rendimiento académico y que la asimilación de estrategias de comprensión lectora en los alumnos genera motivación hacia la lectura. Para aumentar la comprensión lectora se creó un Programa Instructivo de Lectura (PIL) y se midió la motivación de los estudiantes hacia la lectura antes y después de usar el PIL mediante el uso del Instrumento de Motivacion Intrínseca (IMI), diseñado por Ryan y Deci (2000). Se corroboró que existe una fuerte correlacion entre el rendimiento académico y la lectura independiente significativa, así como que el uso del PIL aumenta el nivel de motivación de los alumnos hacia la lectura independiente.Innovare. Vol. 3, Núm. 2 (2014) 11 - 25

Reading Comprehension Instruction for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: A Reality Check

Reading comprehension is a significant concern for adolescents with learning disabilities (LD), particularly in secondary schools in the United States (US) where content is taught primarily through textbooks. Surprisingly little is known about the actual reading instruction for students with LD in secondary classrooms. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the reading comprehension instruction in US secondary special education classrooms. Eight special education teachers in urban high schools were observed and interviewed. Findings showed that teachers implemented a number of reading comprehension practices, not all were considered “best practice”. The most frequently observed practices included reading aloud, questioning, seatwork, activating prior knowledge, and using graphic organizers. Explicit instruction in how and when to use reading comprehension strategies, however, was not observed. This study reveals the extent to which evidence-based reading comprehension practices are not making their way into secondary reading classrooms and offers insight into factors that teachers state as influencing their instruction for students with LD.

Semantic and syntactic reading comprehension strategies used by deaf children with early and late cochlear implantation

Deaf students have traditionally exhibited reading comprehension difficulties. In recent years, these comprehension problems have been partially offset through cochlear implantation (CI), and the subsequent improvement in spoken language skills. However, the use of cochlear implants has not managed to fully bridge the gap in language and reading between normally hearing (NH) and deaf children, as its efficacy depends on variables such as the age at implant. This study compared the reading comprehension of sentences in 19 children who received a cochlear implant before 24 months of age (early-CI) and 19 who received it after 24 months (late-CI) with a control group of 19 NH children. The task involved completing sentences in which the last word had been omitted. To complete each sentence children had to choose a word from among several alternatives that included one syntactic and two semantic foils in addition to the target word. The results showed that deaf children with late-CI performed this task significantly worse than NH children, while those with early-CI exhibited no significant differences with NH children, except under more demanding processing conditions (long sentences with infrequent target words). Further, the error analysis revealed a preference of deaf students with early-CI for selecting the syntactic foil over a semantic one, which suggests that they draw upon syntactic cues during sentence processing in the same way as NH children do. In contrast, deaf children with late-CI do not appear to use a syntactic strategy, but neither a semantic strategy based on the use of key words, as the literature suggests. Rather, the numerous errors of both kinds that the late-CI group made seem to indicate an inconsistent and erratic response when faced with a lack of comprehension. These findings are discussed in relation to differences in receptive vocabulary and short-term memory and their implications for sentence reading comprehension.

Learners' Gender, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Strategies in Descriptive and Narrative Macro-genres

This study investigated whether learners’ gender could make difference in their reading comprehension and use of reading strategies in descriptive and narrative macro-genres. To this end, six short macro-genre-based reading passages with the same readability and length were prepared from which appropriate reading tests were constructed and administered to a total of 50 EFL intermediate male (n = 21) and female (n = 29) students. This was followed by administrating reading strategies questionnaires to explore the learners’ use of reading strategies in the descriptive and narrative macro-genres. Results of the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female students’ reading comprehension in these macro-genres. It was also shown that there was no significant difference observed between male and female learners in the overall use and employment of reading strategies in the descriptive and narrative macro-genres. The findings of the study hold implications for language teaching and testing, teacher training, and curriculum design.

The Impact of Multimedia Graphic and Text with Autistic Learners in Reading

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a groups of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges .This pauses several characteristics that subject a child to problems such social communication, difficulty relating to people, things and events, and repetitive body movements or behaviors .In the academic setting as well, the learners who suffer from (ASD) encounter various problems. As an instance of academic skill reading, Reading is required to be learn but not on the way it done in traditional classroom. An intervention which yielded better results in learning reading skill, based on (Iman and Fouad, 2010) (1) organizing the memory lead to paying attention to relevant information ,Thus this research, attempts to use utilize multimedia elements aimed to find out the impact of multimedia elements (graphic and text) in reading comprehension. And to ascertain how multimedia, especially graphic helps children with autism in reading comprehension. This systematic review attempts to address three specific research questions: the teaching reading comprehension to children with autism (1) can graphic with the texts help young children to improve their reading skills? (2) Can colors lead to better attention with autistic learners? (3) Does the computer-based intervention program increase and improve autistic learner's abilities to read? Results indicate that children with autism can benefit from the strategies of reading comprehension when they used graphic and text together.

Investigating the Impact of Collaborative and Static Assessment on the Iranian EFL Students’ Reading comprehension, Critical Thinking, and Metacognitive Strategies of Reading

This study was aimed at investigating the effect of collaborative assessment, as compared to that of static assessment, on the EFL learners’ reading comprehension, metacognitive strategies, and critical thinking. In this mixed-methods research design study, 62 intermediate EFL learners out of a population of 79 English language learners, were randomly selected and divided into two groups of experimental and control with 31 participants in each group. They were both female and male, who were administered a meta-cognitive strategy and critical thinking questionnaire and a reading comprehension test at the pretest and posttest stage of the study. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants and six sessions of the course were picked for observation. A multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) test was run and the obtained results revealed that the students in the experimental group showed statistically significant gains on the reading comprehension and metacognitive strategy as compared with the participants in the control group but did not show any significant difference on their critical thinking. Similarly, the analysis of the interviews and classroom observations provided important themes which revealed that the students found collaborative assessment a very fruitful and practical way of promoting their reading skills and strategies mainly metacognitive strategies.

Self-Regulated Reading Comprehension Strategy Selection Through Diagnostic-Prescriptive Instruction: A Case Study

Self-Regulated Reading Comprehension Strategy Selection Through Diagnostic-Prescriptive Instruction: A Case Study

The Effect of Text Summarization as a Cognitive Strategy on the Achievement of Male and Female Language Learners' Reading Comprehension

<p>This study aims at investigating the effect of teaching the summarization of text as a cognitive strategy on achievement of male and female students’ reading comprehension. 60 English undergraduates studying at the University of Tonekabon participated in this study. The participants were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups. A series of treatment were provided for the participants in the experimental group. Two reading comprehension tests, as the pretest and posttest, were given to the students of both groups to observe their reading comprehension ability at the beginning and at the end of the treatment sessions. A Two-way ANOVA was run on the obtained data. The results revealed that the instruction of summarization strategy had a significant effect on the participants reading comprehension. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that teaching summarization strategy empowers students’ reading comprehension ability<strong>.</strong></p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Reading comprehension strategies, Cognitive strategy, Summarization

Building Preservice Teachers' Ability to Think Aloud in Literacy Methods Courses

An essential element in teaching children to effectively comprehend text is the use of teacher-led think alouds. The overarching objective of this study was to explore how to better prepare preservice teachers to conduct think alouds in their future classrooms. Data from 97 preservice teachers consisted of several sources: (a) questionnaires, (b) lesson plans, (c) lesson transcripts, and (d) written reflections. Preservice teachers made significant growth in the quantity and quality of reading comprehension strategies they incorporated. Discussion focuses on the challenges that participants encountered when thinking aloud. Finally, suggestions for supporting preservice teachers in effectively thinking aloud are provided.

Beyond Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How: Preparing Students to Generate Questions in the Age of Common Core Standards

Using a case study design, our research explored question generation as a reading comprehension strategy, focusing on the types of questions 4th- and 5th-grade students posed before, during, and after reading narrative text. The authors aimed to determine whether their participants are ready to pose the higher-level questions expected of them by the U.S. Common Core State Standards (2010). The results indicated that students asked mainly memory-based and convergent thinking questions, with far fewer divergent thinking and evaluative thinking questions. Instructional implications for classroom teachers include teacher modeling and demonstration of how to ask divergent and evaluative thinking questions through explicit instruction, mentorship, and more teacher use of language related to deeper thinking comprehension questions. These findings are explained in connection to the Common Core State Standards.

Strategies and shoes: Can we ever have enough? Teaching and using reading comprehension strategies in general and vocational programmes

ABSTRACTThis qualitative study examines a reading comprehension strategy use in English as a second language in upper-secondary schools one year after teachers participated in a professional development course. The data comprises observations, teacher narratives, and student interviews. A key finding is that the teachers used a repertoire of strategies from the course, suggesting an impact of the course. A second finding was a clear difference between how students in general and vocational programmes used the strategies taught: the vocational students used them in ways that indicated their relevance to them as learners, while the students in general programmes did not. The findings also suggest how and why students employ strategies. The article discusses implications for strategy instruction and how to enhance the reading proficiency of adolescent readers.

Improving Reading Comprehension for Students with ADHD

<p><em>Students with Attention Deficits Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) have difficulties in reading comprehension. This paper reviews literature on how deficits in three types of attention (coming to attention, selective attention, and sustain attention) affect reading comprehension. In addition, the paper reviews three strategies for reading comprehension that follow Self-Regulation Strategy Development </em><em>(</em><em>SRSD</em><em>)</em><em> model (RQ, TWA, and TWA-WS). The strategies are designed for students with ADHD. The paper argues that TWA is more effective than RQ because it helps students with ADHD use the three types of attention more effectively while reading. Finally, the paper calls for more research that examine the effect of TWA strategy using SRSD model in the Arab world. This is because students who speak Arabic as a first language are different from students who speak English as a first language in terms of the structure of the two languages (i.e. there are two versions of Arabic: Dialect and Standard). </em></p>

중학교 영재학생의 미성취 문제 해결을 위한 중재방안으로서의 읽기 이해 전략 프로그램 개발

본 연구의 목적은 중학교 미성취 영재학생의 미성취 문제 해결을 위한 읽기 이해 전략 프로그램을 개발하고 그 효과성을 탐색함으로써, 미성취 문제 해결을 위한 교육 원리와 교육 방안을 제안하려는 것이다. 이를 위하여 본 연구는 읽기 이해 구성주의 모형과 읽기 이해 전략 모형에 따라 미성취 영재학생들을 위한 교육 프로그램을 개발하였다. 연구대상으로는 미성취 영재의 조작적 정의에 근거하여 36명의 미성취 영재학생을 판별하였다. 판별된 학생을 대상으로 개발한 읽기 이해 전략 프로그램을 적용하고, 프로그램 전 후 읽기 이해 능력, 읽기 메타 인지 능력, 학교 성적 등의 변화 추이를 분석하였다. 또한, 읽기 이해 전략을 이외의 다른 미성취 요인들로 인한 미성취 발생 여부를 확인하기 위하여 모든 미성취 영재 학생과 그들의 선생님을 면담하였다. 연구 결과, 읽기 이해 전략 프로그램은 중학교 미성취 영재학생의 읽기 메타인지 능력과 읽기 이해 능력을 신장시켰으며, 그들의 학업 성취를 향상시킬 수 있었다. 특히 미성취 영재로 판별된 36명의 학생들 중 3분의 1에 해당하는 12명이 읽기 이해 전략 프로그램을 통하여 미성취 수준에서 벗어날 수 있었다. 본 연구 결과에 근거할 때, 중학교 미성취 영재학생들에게 읽기이해 전략을 습득하게 함으로써 효과적으로 학습전략을 체득하도록 하는 것은 그들의 미성취 문제를 해결하는데 상당한 도움이 될 것으로 판단된다. This study handled underachievement issue of gifted students by developing and validating educational programs as a solution, or relief, of their academic underachievement problems. The proposed educational program was designed to enhancing reading comprehension ability of gifted students with underachievement. Based on comprehensive literature review, this study found that key issues of underachievement have to do with learning strategy, and also that learning strategy was established as 'reading comprehension strategy.' Considering diverse reading comprehension models and strategies suggested by preceding studies, the reading comprehension strategy program in Korean was customized for underachieving gifted students on the middle school level. The effectiveness of the reading comprehension strategy program as a solution to underachievement of gifted students was explored by applying the developed program to 36 identified students after school twice a week for 6 weeks, conducting pre- and post-tests that were selected to measure their reading comprehension abilities, collecting their academic achievement data before and after the intervention by this study, and interviewing students. As the results of this study, reading metacognition ability, reading comprehension skills, and school grades of gifted students with underachievement were meaningfully improved as a group. On the individual level, 12 identified students, exactly one third of the whole group of underachieving gifted students, showed so improved academic achievement as we can say they overcame underachievement based on the Supplee's definition.

FAKTOR DAN STRATEGI PENGEMBANGAN BUDAYA BACA MELALUI MEMBACA PEMAHAMAN MAHASISWA

A reading habit can be defined as one’s attitude, behaviour, and mind-set patterns in reading which has been strongly rooted and unchangeable. Indonesians’ reading habit is still low. According to the 2009 research conducted by the Economic Co-operation Developing Organization [OPKE], the reading interest index of Indonesian people is the lowest among that of 52 East Asian countries. Similarly according to the 2012 data from UNESCO, the Indonesians’ reading index is 0,001, which means that there is only one out of 1000 Indonesians who is interested in reading. This study aims to describe many different factors affecting the reading comprehension skills and strategies which are in line with those efforts to develop the student’s reading habit. The subjects of the research are the fifth semester students of 2015/2016 academic year of the Department of Language (Indonesian) of USD and UST Yogyakarta. The data are the questionnaire results on the factors of reading comprehension competency and reading habit strategy developing model. The findings reveal that there are two factors which affect one’s reading comprehension competency, namely, internal and external factors, and the appropriate reading habit strategy developing models are K-W-L (Know-Want-Learnt) and MURDER (Mood-Understand-Recall-Digest-Expand-Review).

Estrategias de comprensión lectora para estudiantes de Magisterio

Se presentan en este trabajo los resultados de varias experiencias llevadas a cabo durante<br />los tres últimos cursos con alumnos de Magisterio de la Facultad de Educación de Ciudad Real consistentes en estrategias de comprensión lectora aplicadas a textos expositivos propios del ámbito académico. El objetivo es que los estudiantes automaticen los mecanismos cognitivos que<br />conducen a dar con el tema y las ideas principales de un texto sin necesidad de plasmarlo por escrito a través de herramientas de estudio como el subrayado, el esquema, el mapa conceptual, etc., que se deben trabajar en Educación Primaria y en Secundaria, junto con la rúbrica de autoevaluación con el propósito de mejorar su competencia lectora.

Differences between monolinguals and bilinguals/males and females in English reading comprehension and reading strategy use

The present study aims at finding the differences between bilingual and monolingual learners across gender in the use of cognitive, metacognitive, and total reading strategies, as well as reading comprehension ability. To this end, 50 Persian–Turkish bilinguals and 36 Persian monolinguals participated in the study. A standard test of reading comprehension and two questionnaires were employed for data collection: a background questionnaire to determine if the subjects were bilingual or monolingual and a standardized Likert scale questionnaire to identify the reading strategies used by bilinguals and monolinguals. To analyze the data, four factorial ANOVAs were conducted with an alpha set at .05 for each effect. The results showed that bilinguals and females outperformed monolinguals and males, respectively, in reading comprehension. Moreover, bilinguals and monolinguals differed in their use of metacognitive strategies but not cognitive ones. Interestingly, there was no difference between males and females in using cognitive and metacognitive strategies, but they differed in total strategy use. The results which are discussed in the light of previous research can provide some useful insights into syllabus design and English language teaching.

Making sense of it: a brief programme to improve reading comprehension in adolescents with language impairments in main stream school.

Children with language impairment show academic outcomes that are consistently poorer than those of their typically developing peers. A contributor to this is difficulty with reading comprehension. Although these difficulties are reported to continue well into adolescence, this population is generally underserved with regard to therapy. The efficacy of interventions for reading comprehension is well established in the research literature, but whether the same effects are achievable within a reasonable time reflecting available resources in real-life circumstances is less clear. Efficacy trials may significantly overestimate how strong an effect will be when the treatment is used under more natural conditions and within local constraints. The aim was to discover whether a short classroom intervention would be effective in improving reading comprehension in adolescents with the heterogeneous profiles of general or specific learning disabilities, additional diagnoses and behavioural and socio-emotional problems found in mainstream schools today. Twenty-eight adolescents with heterogeneous language and reading profiles were recruited from a mainstream school. The intervention programme comprised eight sessions of instruction in multiple reading comprehension strategies, held over 4 weeks. Experiment 1 had 10 participants. Experiment 2 had 18 participants who underwent the same programme, plus the addition of a session dedicated to decoding skills. Efficacy was evaluated within a pre- and post-study design, with baseline and post-therapy measures taken using the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC). Both experiments showed a significant group difference pre/post-intervention, with similar large effect sizes. Experiment 2 also showed a significant group difference in decoding ability pre and post the single intervention session. This short intervention programme proved effective in a population with heterogeneous profiles, and fitted well with delivery in a mainstream school setting. It showed significant gains can be attained for this client group with relatively few resources.

Effects of an Inconsistency-Detection Training Aimed at Improving Comprehension Monitoring in Primary School Children

Grounded within the situation model framework, this study investigated the effectiveness of a reading comprehension strategy training aimed at improving children's comprehension monitoring strategies. Sixty-four third and fourth graders received a 4-week training targeted at situation model updating, evaluative and self-regulatory strategies, and metacognitive awareness. A group (n = 51) following the school's regular reading comprehension curriculum served as the control group. The inconsistency-detection training was expected to show a pretest-to-posttest enhancement in comprehension monitoring strategies (measured with the inconsistency-detection paradigm), general reading comprehension, and reading motivation. Results showed that, compared with the control group, fourth graders' inconsistency-detection performance significantly improved after the inconsistency-detection training. Third graders did not show a significant gain. General reading comprehension and reading motivation scores were promising for children receiving the inconsistency-detection training. In summary, our inconsistency-detection training was an effective means to enhance children's use of monitoring strategies required for constructing and updating a coherent situation model and to transfer these strategies to novel texts.

Developing reading comprehension with moving image narratives

This paper reports the findings from a small-scale exploratory study that investigated how moving-image narratives might enable children to develop transferable reading comprehension strategies. Using short, animated, narrative films, 28 primary-aged children engaged in a 10-week programme that included the explicit instruction of comprehension strategies in small-group settings. Baseline and final data relating to children’s reading accuracy, rate and comprehension of written texts were gathered using a standardised reading assessment. Findings show that children’s reading comprehension scores showed significant improvement after the programme. Furthermore, reading accuracy scores also improved beyond expected levels even though no decoding of written words had occurred in the programme. While further research is needed, these findings offer a challenge to models of reading that potentially over-simplify the complex relationship between the word recognition and comprehension. More importantly, the findings point at the importance of using alternatives to written texts within the reading curriculum.