TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

 TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION

What is Reading Comprehension ?

Reading comprehension is:

*       The ability to successfully generate meaning from text.

*       Reading comprehension is a very active, dynamic process in which the reader is actively involved in comprehending the meaning of the message; interacts with the text and combines information from the text with other sources of knowledge in order to make meaning.

 

 

Reading Comprehension skills

1.    Decoding: Ability to use letter-sound relationships to decipher words.

2.    Fluency: Automatic, appropriate reading rate.

3.    Vocabulary knowledge: Breadth, and depth, of vocabulary knowledge is important, i.e., not just the number of words students  know, but the depth of their understanding.

4.    Background knowledge: A conceptual framework, or context, into which students can fit new ideas.

5.    Knowledge of comprehension strategies.

Models of reading

1- Bottom up model Reader builds meaning from the smallest units of meaning to achieve comprehension.

Example: letters > letter clusters > words > phrases > sentences > longer text > meaning = comprehension.

2. The Top-down Model: Reading is regarded as a process of “decoding”, which moves from the bottom to the top of the system of language.

Teaching reading comprehension according to:

1. In the Bottom-up Model: the teacher teaches reading by introducing vocabulary and new words first and then going over the text sentence by sentence. This is followed by some questions and answers and reading aloud practice. A bottom-up teaching approach begins with the component parts of a subject, and gradually builds up to the whole.

 2. The Top-down Model: in the Top-down Model, not only linguistic knowledge but also background knowledge is involved in reading. A top-down teaching style focuses on providing students a large view of a subject, immersing them in the big picture without explaining the components that make up the subject.

 

Planning a Reading Lesson

when the teacher starts to plan for a listening comprehension lesson, he/ she has to consider the following whats: 

1. What teachers will do with the students before the reading.
2.  What teachers and the students will do while (during) the reading is going on 
3. What teachers will do after the text has been read.

Before reading FL teachers should do the following:

1. develop an interest,
2. motivate students,
3. activate the students’ background knowledge / schemata
4.  introduce key vocabulary
5. give purpose for reading

The Stages of Teaching Reading Comprehension 

1. Pre-reading stage

1. This stage is used to prepare student for the reading. It aims to activate students’ schematic and language knowledge and to ensure that reading is purposeful.
2. Students need to begin thinking about the text before they begin reading the text. This time is brief, leaving the majority of the time for actual reading.
3. Pre- reading activities should always aim to develop knowledge related to the overall meaning of the text. They are not meant to deal with every potential difficulty.

Types of Pre-Reading Activities

1. brainstorming.
2. talking about pictures accompanying a text.
3. predicting content from title.
4. answering a set of questions or a quiz.
5. discussing the topic.
6. Identifying genre.
7. Learning key vocabulary.

The while reading stage

1. The aim of this stage is to encourage learners to be active, flexible and reflective readers. This stage is used to practice and develop a range of reading strategies.
2. The purpose of while reading activities is to model good reading strategies and to examine how the text achieves its purpose.

In this stage students can be encouraged to:

1. Follow the order of ideas in a text.
2. React to opinions in a text.
3. Confirm expectations or prior knowledge.
4. Predict the next part of the text from various clues.
5. Distinguish fact from opinion.
6. Distinguish major from minor ideas etc.

Types of While-Reading Activities

1. Multiple choice.
2. Fill in the blanks.
3. True-false.
4. Matching.
5. Sequencing.
6. Completing a table.
7. Sorting/grouping.
8. Answering questions.
9. Writing a reflection.

The post reading-stage

1. Post-reading tasks should provide the students with opportunities to relate what they have read to what they already know or what they feel.
2. Tasks in this stage should encourage students to check and discuss activities done while reading so that students can make use of what they have read in a meaningful way.
3. In addition, post-reading tasks should enable students to produce language based on what they have learned.
4. They provide an excellent opportunity to integrate skills.

After-Reading Activities

In post reading phase students can:

1. Evaluate comprehension and strategy use,
2. Discuss questions
3. Reproducing the text
4. Role Play; for example: Acting out the conversation between gap-filling
5. Retelling: The teacher provides the students the key words and phrases and students retell the story according to these words.
6. Writing: based on what the students have read, e.g. producing similar passages.
7. Analyze critically and evaluate.
8. Summarizing /paraphrasing.

How To Teach A Perfect Reading

1. Lesson 1 warm-up

Since students will mostly be sitting at their desks during a reading lesson, use warm up period to get students moving and speaking. One way to do this is to have students stand in a circle and ask them to tell you what they know about a certain topic. This can be as simple as giving you some related vocabulary.

2. Introduce

Your introduction may have been made quite easy by the warm up activity. Now, while students are seated, ask them to use some of the vocabulary they came up with in sentences and add any key vocabulary to the list. Now you can ask students to read the reading passage silently to become acquainted with the new material.

3.   Practice

Practice reading the material aloud. You can do this through a series of steps. First You should read the passage aloud pausing where appropriate.  Now you can have students read the passage by repeating sentences after you and then call on students to read one sentence at a time. If students struggle with the pronunciation of certain words, take this opportunity to practice pronouncing them too. You may wish to have students read the passage again silently to focus on its meaning before moving on.

4. Practice More 

With reading lessons it is important to ensure that students understand the material as well as any new words. To check vocabulary you can ask students to match synonyms, antonyms or pictures or ask them to complete sentences with the correct vocabulary words.

To check overall comprehension, you can start with some true or false questions. Be sure to ask students why a particular statement is true or false when checking the answers. You can also have fill in the blank sentences or basic comprehension questions in this section.

5. Production

Prepare some discussion questions related to the reading and some that require students to use key phrases in their answers. For beginners, discussions will be quite challenging but intermediate and advanced students will gain a lot from discussing their thoughts and opinions.

In smaller classes there will be more opportunities for students to share their viewpoints while with larger classes you may simply have to ask who agrees or disagrees with a particular statement and then call on three or four students to express their opinions.

6.    Review

Ask students to summarize the reading or what they learned in class. If you have not already done so, you can also have students search for the topic sentence and discuss why students chose certain sentences whether they chose correctly or not.

Reference: 

Summery of Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdulammer.