A critical approach to reading comprehension in english: teaching intervention with group of teenagers at a non-formal education institution [recurso electr?nico]

The following paper is an action research made with a group of 6 teenagers aged 11-13 from the city of Cali. The project was carried out at a non-formal education institution and basically describes the process of a teaching intervention in which the concepts of Critical Pedagogy and Task-Based Learning were the protagonists. The results show first, that students really need to feel motivated in order to accept a critical approach; second, that the role of the teacher in the achievement of the objectives is extremely relevant; it is necessary for them to have a critical perspective before working on this field besides the constant seeking of information in order to innovate in their classes; third, that the TBL (Task Based Learning) and the critical pedagogy are processes that need some time in order to bear fruits; and fourth, that a needs analysis is essential for the quality of the intervention.

Online and Offline Gaming as Support for English Education in Swedish Upper Elementary Schools with Focus on Reading Comprehension Online and Offline Gaming as Support for English Education in Swedish Upper Elementary Schools with Focus on Reading Comprehension : A literature review about online and offline gaming as a resource for developing English reading comprehension in Swedish schools in year 4-6

The aim of this degree thesis is to see what research says about the use of computer and video games to support upper elementary pupils’ development in English reading comprehension in Swedish schools. Other goals are to see how online and offline gaming can be integrated in the Swedish schools and what attitudes teachers have towards gaming. The method used is a systematic literature review and the purpose is to analyze chosen articles and to find relevant content that answers the research questions. Five articles were chosen from different databases and were systematically analyzed in this thesis. The results show that online gaming as support for education can be rewarding for some upper elementary pupils in English learning. However, in English reading comprehension there is not much research found which means that more research needs to be made within this area. Moreover, involving online gaming in English language learning seems to be a challenge for teachers mostly because of their lack of knowledge about the subject, even though they are positive to gaming. The lack of knowledge about the subject could be altered with more education and courses in the area.

Critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability

This paper argues for the need for critical reading comprehension in an era of accountability that often promotes reading comprehension as readily assessable through students answering multiple choice questions of unseen texts. Based upon a 1 year study investigating literacy in Years 4–9 the ways strong-performing primary schools develop serious and in-depth reading for learning are explored. School and teacher features which allow for the development of sophisticated pedagogical repertoires and space for critical reading comprehension, without losing the complexity of curriculum offerings, are outlined. How one experienced middle primary teacher operates strategically, ethically and critically in supporting her ESL students to learn to read is illustrated. The teacher’s work is situated within the complex accountability demands faced by classroom teachers. This was accomplished by a teacher whose pedagogical repertoire has been assembled across a career teaching in low-SES high ESL communities in a school with a balanced literacy program and high level of collegial support. Risks for schools and teachers whose circumstances work against their capacities for prioritisation and strategic decision-making are identified and discussed.

Morphological awareness and reading development in bilingual English-Chinese children in Singapore

Addressing two aspects of morphological awareness – derivational and compound, this study investigates the relationships between morphological awareness and vocabulary and reading comprehension in English-Chinese bilingual primary 3 children in Singapore (N = 76). Comparable tasks in Chinese and English were administered to examine the children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The results show that morphological awareness is highly related to vocabulary and reading comprehension, with higher correlations between morphological awareness and reading comprehension than between morphological awareness and vocabulary. This indicates that morphological awareness may have direct influence on reading comprehension beyond the mediating effect of vocabulary. Furthermore, the results indicate that children displayed more compound than derivational morphological awareness for Chinese due to the dominance of compound morphology in Chinese. However the children also displayed similar levels of derivational and compound morphological awareness for English despite far more derivatives than compounds in English. The robust cross-linguistic correlations suggest that Chinese compound morphological knowledge plays a facilitating role not only in learning English compounds, but also in learning transparently derived words that do not involve phonological or orthographic shifts.

Towards a Computational Theory of Definite Anaphora Comprehension in English Discourse

This report investigates the process of focussing as a description and explanation of the comprehension of certain anaphoric expressions in English discourse. The investigation centers on the interpretation of definite anaphora, that is, on the personal pronouns, and noun phrases used with a definite article the, this or that. Focussing is formalized as a process in which a speaker centers attention on a particular aspect of the discourse. An algorithmic description specifies what the speaker can focus on and how the speaker may change the focus of the discourse as the discourse unfolds. The algorithm allows for a simple focussing mechanism to be constructed: and element in focus, an ordered collection of alternate foci, and a stack of old foci. The data structure for the element in focus is a representation which encodes a limted set of associations between it and other elements from teh discourse as well as from general knowledge.

The effects of computer assisted interactive fiction on the development of reading comprehension in grade five students

This study was undertaken in order to determine the effects of playing computer based text adventure games on the reading comprehension gains of students. Forty-five grade five students from one elementary school were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, and were tested with regard to ability, achievement and reading skills. An experimental treatment, consisting of playing computer based interactive fiction games of the student's choice for fifteen minutes each day over an eight-week period, was administered. A comparison treatment engaged the control group in sustained silent reading of materials of the student's choice for an equal period of time. Following the experimental period all students were post-tested with an alternate form of the pre-test in reading skills, and gain scores were analysed. It was found that there were no significant differences in the gain scores of the experimental and control groups for overall reading comprehenSion, but the experimental group showed greater gains than the control group in the structural analysis reading sub-skill. Extreme variance in the data made generalization very difficult, but the findings indicated a potential for computer based interactive fiction as a useful tool for developing reading slin the same vein was highlighted in the conclusions.

An analysis of the problems Magisterio Students of English have when reading texts in English.

Este estudio analiza el tipo de errores que los estudiantes españoles del primer año de magisterio cometen al leer y entender diferentes artículos de revistas y periódicos en inglés. Los resúmenes hechos por los estudiantes después de leer los textos son un buen instrumento para medir el tipo de problemas que ellos tienen. Los errores más frecuentes son los que tienen que ver con la gramática y con la cohesión del texto, más que con el léxico del artículo.

An analysis of the problems Magisterio Students of English have when reading texts in English.'Un análisis de los problemas que tienen los estudiantes de inglés de magisterio cuando leen textos en inglés'.

Se analiza el tipo de errores que cometen los estudiantes españoles de primer curso de Magisterio (Lengua Extranjera) cuando leen artículos de periódicos y revistas en inglés. Se demuestra que el análisis de los resúmenes hechos por los estudiantes después de leer el texto es un buen instrumento para detectar el tipo de problema que tienen en la lectura.

A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students

Resumen tomado de la publicación

Research review: reading comprehension in developmental disorders of language and communication

Background: Deficits in reading airment (SLI), Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: In this review (based on a search of the ISI Web of Knowledge database to 2011), the Simple View of Reading is used as a framework for considering reading comprehension in these groups. Conclusions: There is substantial evidence for reading comprehension impairments in SLI and growing evidence that weaknesses in this domain are common in DS and ASD. Further, in these groups reading comprehension is typically more impaired than word recognition. However, there is also evidence that some children and adolescents with DS, ASD and a history of SLI develop reading comprehension and word recognition skills at or above the age appropriate level. This review of the literature indicates that factors including word recognition, oral language, nonverbal ability and working memory may explain reading comprehension difficulties in SLI, DS and ASD. In addition, it highlights methodological issues, implications of poor reading comprehension and fruitful areas for future research.

Reading comprehension in autism spectrum disorders: The role of oral language and social functioning

Reading comprehension is an area of difficulty for many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). According to the Simple View of Reading, word recognition and oral language are both important determinants of reading comprehension ability. We provide a novel test of this model in 100 adolescents with ASD of varying intellectual ability. Further, we explore whether reading comprehension is additionally influenced by individual differences in social behaviour and social cognition in ASD. Adolescents with ASD aged 14-16 years completed assessments indexing word recognition, oral language, reading comprehension, social behaviour and social cognition. Regression analyses show that both word recognition and oral language explain unique variance in reading comprehension. Further, measures of social behaviour and social cognition predict reading comprehension after controlling for the variance explained by word recognition and oral language. This indicates that word recognition, oral language and social impairments may constrain reading comprehension in ASD.

Reading comprehension in primary school: textbooks, curriculum and assessment

This study describes the reading comprehension processes present in the most widely sold textbooks at the fourth grade level in Portugal and discusses how they compare to international assessments of reading literacy. We adopted the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study framework to categorize the questions in the textbooks. Our analyses revealed that they focus heavily on the retrieval of explicitly stated information to the detriment of higher level comprehension skills. Portuguese fourth grade textbooks rarely challenge students to make connections between their knowledge and the ideas in the texts and to adopt a critical and evaluative reading stance. This is in sharp contrast to what students are asked to do in the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study, conducted every five years since 2001, and it may help explain the poor results Portuguese students have in national assessment and in PISA. The findings are discussed in light of the curriculum frameworks currently adopted in Portugal and suggestions are made as to how we can improve reading literacy achievement.

Reading comprehension in nacional and internacional programs of educational assessment

El principal objetivo de este artículo es identificar distintos programas de evaluación educativa, tanto nacionales como internacionales, y describir sus características generales. Asimismo, analiza el modo en que se conceptualiza y evalúa la competencia lectora. Finalmente, este trabajo presenta los resultados que ha obtenido Argentina en esta área. Los programas analizados son: el Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de Alumnos (PISA, Programme for International Student Assessment) , el Segundo Estudio Regional Comparativo y Explicativo (SERCE) y, específicamente en nuestro país, el Operativo Nacional de Evaluación (ONE) y el Programa de Evaluación de la Calidad Educativa de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Estos diferentes estudios sitúan la importancia de la lectura comprensiva en tanto "competencia para la vida" necesaria para la realización de otros aprendizajes, para el logro de una participación activa en la sociedad y ligada a la posibilidad de proyectar un futuro mejor. Los informes muestran la existencia de diferencias entre los resultados de distintos países y al interior de los mismos. El desarrollo de competencias desiguales aparece como un desafío a nivel nacional e internacional, ya que constituye un importante indicador de la situación crítica en la que se encuentran un número significativo de niños y adolescentes.

Reading comprehension in nacional and internacional programs of educational assessment

El principal objetivo de este artículo es identificar distintos programas de evaluación educativa, tanto nacionales como internacionales, y describir sus características generales. Asimismo, analiza el modo en que se conceptualiza y evalúa la competencia lectora. Finalmente, este trabajo presenta los resultados que ha obtenido Argentina en esta área. Los programas analizados son: el Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de Alumnos (PISA, Programme for International Student Assessment) , el Segundo Estudio Regional Comparativo y Explicativo (SERCE) y, específicamente en nuestro país, el Operativo Nacional de Evaluación (ONE) y el Programa de Evaluación de la Calidad Educativa de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Estos diferentes estudios sitúan la importancia de la lectura comprensiva en tanto "competencia para la vida" necesaria para la realización de otros aprendizajes, para el logro de una participación activa en la sociedad y ligada a la posibilidad de proyectar un futuro mejor. Los informes muestran la existencia de diferencias entre los resultados de distintos países y al interior de los mismos. El desarrollo de competencias desiguales aparece como un desafío a nivel nacional e internacional, ya que constituye un importante indicador de la situación crítica en la que se encuentran un número significativo de niños y adolescentes.