...Extensive Reading: Why? and How? Timothy Bell timothy [at] hsc.kuniv.edu.kw Kuwait University ------------------------------------------------- Abstract An extensive reading program was established for elementary level language learners at the British Council Language Center in Sanaa, Yemen. Research evidence for the use of such programs in EFL/ESL contexts is presented, emphasizing the benefits of this type of input for students' English language learning and skills development. Practical advice is then offered to teachers worldwide on ways to encourage learners to engage in a focused and motivating reading program with the potential to lead students along a path to independence and resourcefulness in their reading and language learning. ------------------------------------------------- Introduction: The Reading Program An extensive reading program was established at the British Council Language Center in Sanaa, Yemen. An elementary level class of government employees (age range 17-42) was exposed to a regime of graded readers, which was integrated into normal classroom teaching. Students followed a class reader, had access to a class library of graded readers, and had classes in the British Council library, which gave them access to a collection of 2000 titles. Questionnaires were used to examine students' reading interests, habits and attitudes, both prior to, and following the program. The class library contained 141 titles in the published readers of some major publishers...
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...What factors affect reading? | | | | | | * A non-encouraging reading home environment * A non-encouraging reading classroom environment * Vision problems * Lack of interest in the book * Hearing - Speech impedement, Hard of Hearing, or deafness * Lack of background knowledge * Lack of strong vocabulary base * Gender * Intelligence with the ability to 1) learn, 2) problem solve, or 3) see relationships in reading * Language differences/Dialect/Cultural difference | | In Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Snow, Burns, & Griffin (1998) presented a synthesis of research on the conditions that contribute to successful reading. The authors identified the following factors as predictors of success and failure in reading: Physical and Clinical Factors | Predictors of School Entry | Acquired Knowledge of Literacy | Family-based Risk Factors | Neighborhood, Community, and School-based Factors | Cognitive deficienciesHearing problemsEarly language impairmentAttention deficit/hyperactivity disordersVision problems | Acquired proficiency in languageVerbal memoryLexical and syntactic skillsOverall languagePhonological awarenessOral Vocabulary | Reading readinessLetter identificationConcepts of printPhonemic awareness | Family history of reading difficultiesHome literacy environmentOpportunities for verbal interactionHome language other than EnglishUse of a nonstandard dialect of English in the homeSocioeconomic status | Environmental...
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...Reading comprehension involves two levels of processing, shallow (low-level) processing and deep (high-level) processing. Deep processing involves semantic processing, which happens when we encode the meaning of a word and relate it to similar words. Shallow processing involves structural and phonemic recognition, the processing of sentence and word structure and their associated sounds. There are two elements that make up the process of reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. In order to understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in the piece of writing. If the individual words don’t make the sense then the overall story will not either. Children can draw on their prior knowledge of vocabulary, but they also need to continually be taught new words. The best vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need. Parents and teachers should pre-teach new words that a child will encounter in a text or aid her in understanding unfamiliar words as she comes upon them in the writing. In addition to being able to understand each distinct word in a text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of what it is trying to say. This is text comprehension. Text comprehension is much more complex and varied that vocabulary knowledge. Readers use many different text comprehension strategies to develop reading comprehension. These include monitoring for understanding, answering and generating...
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...Reading Reading, like writing helps come to ‘know’, to compose meaning. In college, reading assignment assume that you have to read critically. A critical reader reads with a questioning mind, open to new ideas but careful to recognize when information is distorted because it is incomplete. A critical reader also recognizes when material is slanted to manipulate the reader improperly, or is based on incorrect information. If you understand the reading process, you can effectively meet the demands of critical reading. Did you ever ask yourself the question “Why is reading important?” but I can sure that your heart have answered in favor on reading. Reading is like providing the mind with nourishment. Knowledge is the food for the mind and soul. Apart from giving us the basic information about the world around us, it also provides us with the food for thought. It encourages us to think. It increases our hunger for knowledge and our thirst to learn more. During the archaic, reading was limited to books. But for nowadays, encompasses reading on the web. We have some very good sites providing their readers with reliable information. . Reading from the Internet is an easy option for one and all. Reading from the web does not undermine the cheerful one can get from reading books. We are introductory to the thought of reading at a very early age. It remains with us in different forms throughout our life. School-life starts with books. Books are our close companions in the youth....
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...WHAT IS READING At a very tender age, when I first learned to read words, I was excited because I was now a reader but was I really reading or just lifting words off paper? Even though this is necessary for reading, reading is more complex than just recognizing words. The reader has to make sense of the words base and their context. While engaged in reading, the prior knowledge is activated along with personal connection, ideas, and opinions. Unfortunately, children will develop reading problems if they do get the necessary stills that will allow them to function on a higher level and succeed in life. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) mentioned that it is said that “Children must learn to read so that later they can read to learn” (pg. 4). Therefore reading is the foundation that children need to be successful in life. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) advised that to help children read better and develop a love for reading, fall on the laps of the teaching professionals since they are the planner and implementation of instructional services (pg. 3). It is understandable that even though there are different levels of readers, the ultimate goal is for teachers to create good readers in children. Jennings, Caldwell and Lerner (2010) iterate that reading is making sense of text. The reader generates his or her own mental version of what is been read (pg. 13). In my field experience, I have seen children who could read any word off paper but had no opinion of what is going...
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...Reading comprehension involves two levels of processing, shallow (low-level) processing and deep (high-level) processing. Deep processing involves semantic processing, which happens when we encode the meaning of a word and relate it to similar words. Shallow processing involves structural and phonemic recognition, the processing of sentence and word structure and their associated sounds. There are two elements that make up the process of reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension. In order to understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in the piece of writing. If the individual words don’t make the sense then the overall story will not either. Children can draw on their prior knowledge of vocabulary, but they also need to continually be taught new words. The best vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need. Parents and teachers should pre-teach new words that a child will encounter in a text or aid her in understanding unfamiliar words as she comes upon them in the writing. In addition to being able to understand each distinct word in a text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of what it is trying to say. This is text comprehension. Text comprehension is much more complex and varied that vocabulary knowledge. Readers use many different text comprehension strategies to develop reading comprehension. These include monitoring for understanding, answering and generating...
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...(Post graduate) Language Testing Testing Reading Comprehension Prepared by : Ahlam Alghrarri Supervised by : Dr. S. Balhoug Spring 2012 1.1 Introduction Reading is one of the major skills involved in language learning, usually conceived of a solitary activity in which the reader interacts with the text in isolation, and is a most important activity in any language class, not only as source of information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one`s knowledge of the language; such reading presented to the student is designed primarily to strengthen one`s control of the oral /aural skills. Readings are generally based on the grammatical structures and lexical items, and content of the material is regarded as acquiring culture by comprehending the content of the text. Reading comprehension is the process of deriving meaning from a connected text. It involves word knowledge (vocabulary) as well as thinking and reasoning. Therefore, comprehension is not a passive process, but an active one. The reader actively engages with the text to construct meaning. This active engagement includes making use of prior knowledge. It involves drawing inferences from the words and expressions that a writer uses to communicate information, ideas and viewpoints, which can be done by testing the reader his comprehension that is what this paper will discuss. 1.2 What is reading? It is one of main skills of language system...
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...Reading with Reid Reid Davis December 9, 2013 Bullard 4th Block 5th Year IBMYP Davis 2 Table of Contents Title Page…………………………………………………………………...................1 Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………..2 Thesis Statement/ Introduction………………………………………………………..3 Background Information……………………………………………………………....4 Research/ In-Text Citations……………………………………………………………5 Introduction of Project………………………………………………………………...6 Steps of Personal Project………………………………………………………………7 Interviews…………………………………………………………………….…...8 & 9 Product ………………………………….…………………………………………...10 Conclusion/ Reflection…………………………………………………………11 & 12 Davis 3 Reading With Reid Thesis Statement My primary goal for this project is to bring happiness and a better education to the students at Turning Point Academy. I did this by buying and collecting books to donate to the libraries that serve Turning Point Academy students in order to increase their reading opportunities and their learning environment. This project has reminded me that reading is a joy that belongs in every one’s life and should be considered a privilege more than as a right. Reading is amazing. In fact, amazing doesn’t even begin to describe how unbelievably valuable reading is in one’s life. The dictionary definition of reading is “the action or skill of reading written or printed matter silently or aloud,” (Webster’s Dictionary). This definition doesn’t adequately describe reading because it does not fully portray the valuable benefits...
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...EJELE BSE-I Cognitive Factors That Affect Reading Comprehension Reading comprehension refers to the ability of a reader to construct meaning from text. Expected levels of reading comprehension vary throughout a reader's lifespan. When children first learn to read, the emphasis is on understanding the meaning of words and how they form sentences to communicate simple ideas. As children grow into adults, reading comprehension grows to include semantic and symbolic understanding of written text. 1. Decoding and Word Recognition Speed * One cognitive factor that can affect reading comprehension is the speed at which the reader decodes and recognizes words. Decoding refers to the reader's ability to make sense of letter-sound relationships, including proper word pronunciation and noticing common letter combinations, in order to quickly recognize familiar words. Readers who experience difficulty with decoding and recognizing words read at a much slower pace and find it more difficult to comprehend the meaning of reading passages than their peers without decoding difficulties. Vocabulary * Vocabulary breadth can also have an impact on reading comprehension. Readers use decoding skills to figure out the pronunciation and approximate meaning of words they haven't seen before, but this process takes far more time than recognition of a familiar word. Individuals with a wider vocabulary can interpret the meaning of reading passages faster and more thoroughly than individuals...
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...Project I chose to do a segment on reading comprehension and reading fluency. I felt that many teachers get these two mixed up and it affects the students learning. Reading comprehension is one of the largest problems most students face and cause them to fall behind in school. I have taught general education and special education; and many students struggle to comprehend what they have read. Also many teachers work on fluency and once a student is reading fluently, they assume that their comprehension is there. Also just completing a running record does not determine the student’s ability to comprehend. This last year, I worked in the 6th grade teaching language arts. I worked with two other general education teachers and they were using fluency sheets to determine the students reading level and comprehension. What is reading comprehension? “Reading comprehension assessments are the most common type of published reading test that is available. The typical type of reading comprehension assessment involves asking a child to read a passage of text that is leveled appropriately for the child's age or grade, and then asking explicit, detailed questions about the content of the text. An example of a common reading comprehension assessment is the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI), also known as the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI)”. (Reading Rockets, http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3412/) There are several different types of reading comprehension assessments. The student...
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... Part Five, Definition of Terms, aims to provide the readers with the basic terminologies that are important to understand the paper. Part Six, Scopes and limitations of the Study, discusses the coverage of the study. Part Seven, Significance of the Study, cites the institutions and persons that might benefit from the results of this research. Background of the Study Every day is an adventure for learning new things. According to Alejandro S. Bernardo “We live in the world of print”. From newspapers, magazines, books, reading plays a vital role in every child, and they have their own style or way in digesting knowledge. Language Instructors are frustrated by the fact that students have the difficulty in decoding message. “The ability to read and the ability to choose good reading materials characterize the man just as much as do his appearance and his speech. Our reading habits are just as much a part of us as is our ability to hold our own in a...
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...3-12 Reading Strategies 3-12 Reading Strategies __________________________________________________________________________________ VIRGINIA P. ROJAS Language Education Consultant (732) 940-1860 VPRojas@aol.com 3-12 Reading Strategies Anticipation Guides (Barton & Heidema, 2000) - Anticipation guides have two columns labeled ‘me’ and ‘text.’ Before reading the text, students place a check next to any statement with which they agree. After reading the text, students compare their opinions with information contained in the text. Examples: An example for a math anticipation guide on statistics might look like the following: Me ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Text ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 1. There are several kinds of averages for a set of data. 2. The mode is the middle number in a set of data. 3. Range tells how far apart numbers in a data set can be. 4. Outliers are always ignored. 5. Averages are always given as percentages. An example for a science anticipation guide on matter might look like the following: Me ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Text ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Matter is made up of elements. An element is made up of many different atoms. An element is the same thing as a compound. Most compounds are made up of molecules. Elements are represented by chemical symbols. Check Those Facts! (Stephens & Brown, 2005) - This strategy serves a dual purpose: to help students become better judges of internet information and to allow students to explore an area of interest related to...
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...The fourth day of observation, the children had to read their required books from school again. I went from child to child and asked if they wanted to read to me their books and most of them said yes. I sat and listened to them read and would help them sound out words that they didn’t know. There were many times when I would stop the child and ask them questions about the reading. Sometimes the child had no clue what the answer was which told me that they weren’t comprehending what they were reading. I would have them go back and we would re-read the pages to find the answer to my questions. A lot of times I would ask the child if they read the book yet or not and if they haven’t then I’d have them make predictions. They seemed to like...
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...Student Reading Attitude and Interest Inventory Candace L. Young Grand Canyon University: 553 June 3, 2014 Students Reading Attitude and Interest Inventory The attitude that students have about reading has changed and involved with every generation. Even though being able to read and specifically being literate is necessary to success in today’s society, many students have negative attitudes in regards to reading. In addition to their negative attitude, today’s student also has a plethora of other activities available for them to do rather than pick up a good book. As we continue to grow as a society in our educational and work endeavors, students now more than ever, need to change their attitude in regards to reading. This paper outlines the trends and attitudes of fifteen ninth grade students in rural West Virginia. Why Attitudes? The word attitude can be defined in a number of different ways and everyone has an attitude towards most things in their life, including reading. Alexander and Filler (1976) proposed a definition for read-specific attitudes. Their definition stated that a reading attitude is a system of feelings related to reading which causes the learner to approach or avoid a reading situation (Alexander & Filler, 1976; Verhoeven & Snow, 2001). It is important to understand the attitudes students have towards reading for two major reasons. One, attitude can affect the level of reading ability that a student eventually achieves. One’s attitude...
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...Reading A particular interpretation of a text or situation. Reading is a basic life skill. It is a cornerstone for a child's success in school, and, indeed, throughout life. Without the ability to read well, opportunities for personal fulfillment and job success inevitably will be lost. Skilled reading is constructive, fluent, strategic, motivated and lifelong pursuit. Reading is a receptive skill - through it we receive information. But the complex process of reading also requires the skill of speaking, so that we can pronounce the words that we read. In this sense, reading is also a productive skill in that we are both receiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves). Importance of Reading Through reading, we expose ourselves to new things, new information, new ways to solve a problem, and new ways to achieve one thing. Exploration begins from reading and understanding. Through reading, we begin to understand the world more. Through reading, we begin to have a greater understanding on a topic that interests us. Advantages of Reading Reading has many benefits and a book can serve more than one useful purpose at the same time. It is a form of relaxation while at the same time it can stimulate your mind. Reading can help you to feel better. Books can be our teachers, mentors and inspirations. Reading increases your vocabulary and improves your spelling. We can even improve our memory power...
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