some strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for students of english faculty, hanoi open university

Hanoi open university Faculty of english and modern languagesGraduation paper B.A Degree in English Some strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for student

Hanoi open university Faculty of english and modern languages

Graduation paper

B.A Degree in English

Some strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for students

of English faculty, Hanoi open university

Supervisor : Le Phuong Thao, M.A Student : Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy

Date of birth : 29/09/1988 Course : 2006 – 2010

Hanoi, May 2010

Title: Some strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for students of

English faculty, Hanoi open university

(Graduation Paper submitted in Partial Fulfillment for B.A Degree in

English)

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied and reproduced

by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that thereport is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

Date submitted: May 15th, 2010

Student: Supervisor:

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy Lê Phương Thảo

Acknowledgements

I am so glad to have a good opportunity of doing this graduation paper Ithelps me much in collecting and classifying my knowledge which I have studied.

To finish paper, I have worked under extremely high responsibility I receivedmany supports from teachers and friends I cannot accomplish this task withouttheir help

First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to all the teachers ofEnglish faculty, Hanoi Open University for teaching me to be a well-educatedstudent I have learnt so many things from what they taught me They have madefavourable conditions for me to study at school during my precious four yearshere

Secondly, I would like to give special thanks to Ms Le Phuong Thao, mysupervisor, for both her positive response to my ideas for this paper and heradvice that helped me to complete it I would not complete my graduation paperwithout her enthusiastic instructions and correction

Besides, I also would like to thank my friends and all the students whohelped me implement my study

Finally yet important, I am very thankful to my family and my boyfriendfor their spiritual and financial supports to help me finish my course in HanoiOpen University

Hanoi, May 2009

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thủy

Chapter I: Introduction

1.1 Rationale:

Reading is an important tool for people of many societies allowing them

to access information or knowledge Everyone needs reading skills for variouspurposes as survival, broadened knowledge and pleasure Reading is a basic skillnot only every school requires but every job expects It is the fact that skills ofreading and analyzing documents or a variety of data sources are major factorswhich affect a person’s work results and his salary as well Therefore, improvingreading skill is very important for undergraduate students of English in generaland English faculty at Hanoi Open University in particular

Reading is not just pronouncing words but requires understanding.However, the first thing students learning English as a foreign language meetwhen they are reading is the vocabulary Many students probably consider thattheir main problem in reading is not having a big enough vocabulary Moststudents who meet an unfamiliar word they cannot interpret are first likely to askwhat it means If they do not find out the word’s meaning, they cannot go onreading and comprehending the text College material contains unfamiliar wordsand specialized or technical vocabulary that students must learn Also, collegetextbooks in general are written at a higher level than other materials, so someeffective strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehensionare necessary

In studying process, the author of this paper and other students of Englishfaculty at Hanoi Open University have met many difficulties made by unfamiliarwords in reading comprehension Therefore, the author would like to presentsome reading compehension and unfamiliar word knowledge and propose someeffective strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehensionfor students of English faculty at Hanoi Open University

1.2 Aims of the study:

It is obvious that reading plays an important role in our life No workercan work well without reading documents and no student can study withoutreading books Yet, we always have trouble with unfamiliar words in reading.The objective of the study is to bring out some strategies which are helpful indealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for students of Englishfaculty, Hanoi Open University In this study, the author would like to focus onfinding what difficulties students usually meet when encountering unfamiliarwords in reading and from that point, the author would like to bring out someeffective strategies to help students learning English as a foreign language ingeneral and the students of English faculty at HOU in particular to overcometheir difficulties To help students deal with unfamiliar words in readingcomprehension, this study focused on the following main points:

 Overview of basic knowledge on reading comprehension and unfamiliar words in reading

 Difficulties made by unfamiliar words in reading comprehension for students

 A survey to get what exactly students find hard in encountering unfamiliar words in reading comprehension and their habit of dealing with this

 Proposed effective strategies of dealing with unfamiliar words in reading comprehension based on the result drawn from the survey.

Hopefully, this research will be a good source for students in general,especially the students of English faculty at HOU in particular

1.3 Scope of the study:

English reading comprehension is a wide field for research In the scope

of this study, due to the limited time and knowledge, the author mainly focuses

on difficulties made by unfamiliar words in reading comprehension and someeffective strategies for dealing with it The research aimed at English learners,especially students at Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University

1.4 Method of the study:

In order to accomplish this thesis systematically and adequately, theauthor has acquired all the literature resources from many sources of data such asthe internet, newspapers and linguistic books in the Library of Faculty of Englishand Modern Languages, HOU and the Vietnam National Library The authorimplemented a survey with subjects who are students of English faculty, HanoiOpen University Personal observation consulted and discussed by the supervisor

in the process of researching also contributed much to the completion of thisthesis

1.5 Design of the study:

The study is divided into five chapters:

 Chapter I: Introduction

 Chapter II: Literature Review

 Chapter III: The study

 Chapter IV: The finding and discussion

 Chapter V: Conclusion

Chapter II:

Literature review

2.1 Reading Comprehension:

2.1.1 Definition of Reading:

Joe Cortina and Janet Elder (2000) defined reading as a form of thinking

in Opening Doors – Understanding college reading: “It is your brain that does the reading, not your eyes Your eyes merely transmit images to the brain for it

to interpret” (12,75) To understand this, we consider a blind person reading

Braille, a system of printing for the blind, in this case, the finger – tips transmitinput to the brain Thus, Joe and Janet highly preciate the importance of brain orthinking in reading It also means that meaning resides in the reader’s mind, not

in symbols printed on a page It is the readers who construct meaning byassociating their knowledge and experience with what is on the printed page.Different readers, therefore, with their own knowledge and experience havedifferent understanding about the written text

In Deanne’s view (2000), reading term is defined as follows: “Reading is

a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning (reading comprehension) and/or constructing meaning” (6,65).

According to Deanne, reading is a process of getting a message from a writtentext The writer encodes his thought or ideas as language and the reader decodesthe language to understand author’s message This can be understood that readingrefers to receiving the writer’s knowledge and thought It is an activity thatconnects the reader and the written material or the writer When reading,obviously, readers interact with the writer in some ways and this will be influent

on the reading effectiveness of readers

Another noticeable definition on reading given by John, L (2002) is that:

“Reading is the motivated and fluent coordination of word recognition and comprehension” (14,89) In his study, he shows that “Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency and motivation”.

Reading is making meaning from print It requires: identifying the words in print(word recognition), constructing an understanding from it (comprehension),coordinating identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automaticand accurate (fluency) Reading in its fullest sense involves weaving togetherword recognition and comprehension in a fluent manner These three processesare complex, and each is important Leipzig, also, gives a considerable idea on

reading: if reading is not pleasurable or fulfilling, readers will not choose to read,and they will not get the practice they need to become fluent or efficient readers.Therefore, reading also means developing and maintaining the motivation toread.

In general, reading, like other terms, is defined in many different waysdepend on each person’ view and his/her study purpose Hence, it is not easy togive a completely exact definition on this term However, a definition can besummarized basing on above definitions is that: Reading is a complex process inwhich written or printed material is decoded by readers in order to get writer’smessage

2.1.2 Definition of Reading Comprehension:

The term “comprehension” is offered in Webster’s College Dictionary (2008) is “the capcity of the mind to perceive and understand” or “power to grasp ideas” from the written text In other words, reading comprehension is a

highly interactive process that takes place between a reader and a text Individualreaders will bring variable levels of skills and experiences to these interactions.These include language skills, cognitive resources and world knowledge Any act

of reading occurs within a particular sociocultural and emotional context Thisconsists of elements such as the readers’ home culture, their previous experiences

of reading and being read to, their expectations that reading should carrymeaning, their motivation, their view of themselves as a reader, the purpose forreading the text, the cultural value placed on reading and the readingenvironments the reader experiences

According to Hulstijn (1993), the word comprehension has its roots

in Latin: comprehendere means to seize In the Latin derived language of French, from which many English words come, the verb comprendre means to

understand Thus, reading comprehension denotes the ability to read words andgrasp (seize) the meaning of these individual words as well as to understand themeaning of the groups of these words.While many students can read aloud,calling out the individual words with the correct pronunciations, some of them donot comprehend what they read That is, they can say all the words, but they do

not understand what the combined words all mean On the other hand, those whocan read aloud or silently and understand what they have read, have reading comprehension Reading comprehension, therefore, can be defined as

“the level of understanding of a writing”

Reading comprehension can be known as the result of effective reading aswell as the ability to understand and interact with the written materials in ameaningful way For students, comprehension refers to understanding collegetextbook by reading for ideas Reading comprehension is the crucial link toeffective reading, a strong factor in our educational and professional lives.Reading comprehension can be known as the heart and goal of reading, since thepurpose of all reading is to gather meaning from the printed page

2.1.3 The importance of Reading Comprehension:

One of the main benefits of reading is that it helps to build our vocabulary.When reading books, magazines, websites, etc we sometimes encounter newwords Even if we do not completely understand the word, we will be able tofigure it out through association or the use of a dictionary This not only allowsour vocabulary to grow but deepens our level of understanding We see andremember new words and are given examples of how they are used, this meansthat vocabulary is expanded through reading process Reading keeps our brainworking and keeps us up to date with language and modern vocabulary andslang It is well – known fact that too many people today don’t read regularly andthey also suffer difficulties from their limited vocabulary in communication.Each person’ vocabulary is the foundation of his ability to think and his ability toshare his thought with other people The more we read the more effectively weuse language in daily life

Another great benefit of reading is that it provides us a wonderful time torelax and de-stress for both children and adults Reading can transport people todifferent countries and cultures, or it can take us on a great adventure Readingshould be viewed as a pleasurable activity – as a source of entertaining tales anduseful and interesting factual information If we need a few moments to relaxafter a hard day, reading is a wonderful way to do so Through books, besides,

children can also learn about people and places from other parts of the world,improve their understanding of and concern for all of humanity Reading canprovide children with endless hours of fun and entertainment Stories can free upimaginations and open up exciting new words of fantasty or reality They allowchildren to dream and may give them a good start on the road to viewing reading

as a lifelong source of pleasure

It is also found that another reading benefit that shows the importance ofreading is that reading can actually help to enhance our brain power Not only isreading a required skill to complete school and then university it is also a neededskill in adult hood The ability to read and learn new things through out our lifekeeps our brain young and health As we read, we stimulate the brain, and thereare some studies that even show that people who read on a regular basis are lesslikely to end up dealing with problems like Alzheimer’s Disease It is alsoobserved that children and teengagers who love reading have comparativelyhigher IQs The ability to learn about new subjects and find helpful information

on anything from health problems to more academic research into science or thearts depends on the ability to read Recent researches has shown that goodreaders stand out from the rest because of their improved cognitive abilities.They can think creatively It improves their grasping power It makes themanalyse and solve problems better Reading helps a person be successful in life

Reading on a regular basis can also have the added benefit of improvingour spelling as well The more we read, the more we see the proper spelling and

it will help us to make sure that we are spelling things correctly as well, which isdefinitely very important People who start reading from an early age areobserved to have good language skills, and they grasp the variances in phonicsmuch better Especially, for children, reading out loud exposes them to propergrammar and phrasing It enhances the development of their spoken languageskills, their ability to express themselves verbally, clearly and concisely

After all, there are many great benefits of reading and they all show theimportance of reading today There are so many ways in which reading continues

to be both a vital skill for students to master, and an important source ofknowledge and pleasure Reading is like providing the mind with nourishment

Knowledge is the food for the mind and soul Apart from giving us the basicinformation about the world around us, it also encourages us to think Therefore,the key to improving weak reading comprehension is to promote our readinghabbit and skills through understanding main benefits of reading completely.

2.1.4 Types of reading and Reading rates:

Scanning type of reading: This type is used to look for some printedmaterials quickly or find a particular piece of information such as a name, date,

or phone number.Take an example, we read a telephone book, we know exactlywhat we are searching for (key words and names) We “see” every item on thepage, but we don’t necessarily read the pages We ignore anything we are notlooking for Thus, when we discover the key words being searched for, we will

be unable to recall the exact content of the page Approximate rate of scanningtype of reading is 1,500 wpm (words per minute) or more

Skimming type of reading: Skimming is a reading skill used to get anoverview of the highlights of the material We read the material quickly to gain ageneral impression and it is not necessary to search for a specific item and keywords Skimming method is useful to look at chapter/section headings,summaries and opening paragraphs The two purposes of skimming are: checkingrelevance of text and settting the scene for the more concentrated effort that is tofollow, if the text is useful A person who uses skimming type of reading has thereading speed at between 800 to 1,000 wpm

Light type of reading: Reading for leisure tends to be light reading Thisrefers to reading at a pace which feels comfortable, reading with understanding,and skimming the boring, irrelevant passages An average light reading speed is

100 – 200 words per minute This form of reading does not generally requiredetailed concentration

Word by word type of reading: This type of reading is time consumingand demands a high level of concentration Some material is not readilyunderstood and so it requires a slow, careful and analytical reading People usethis type of reading for unfamiliar words and concepts, scientific formulate Itcan take up to an hour just to read a few lines of text

Reading to study type of reading: The aim of the method of reading forstudy is to understand the material some depth The method involves five simplesteps: Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review The first, readers skimthrough to gain an overview and not key points Then, they devise questions wehope the text will answer and read slowly and carefully The forth step isrecalling from memory, writing down the main points made by the chapter Finalone is reviewing readers’ questions, comparing these to their recall andestablishing how well the text has answered the questions, and filling in any gaps

by further reading and note-taking

Obviously, people read for many different purposes There are differentstyles of reading for different situations The technique reader chooses willdepend on the purpose for reading For example, he might be reading forenjoyment, information, or to complete a task If he is exploring or reviewing, hemight skim a document If he is searching for information, he might scan for aparticular word To get detailed information, he might use a technique such asSQ4R Readers, moreover, need to adjust their reading speed and techniquedepending on their purposes Our reading speed should fit our purposes forreading We read for many different purposes, and our reasons for reading anyparticular material affects our reading speed For example, we approach toreading a newspaper article or a letter from a friend will be different from ourapproach to reading and studying a college textbook Reading rates and their usesare shown in this following table (12, 79) :

Table 2.1: Flexible reading

Reading rates Approximate rate

(wpm)

Uses

Rapid reading 300 – 500 For relatively easy

material, when readerswant only importantfacts or ideas or forleisure reading

Average reading 200 – 300 For textbooks, complex

magazines and journalsand literature

Studying reading 50 – 200 For new vocabulary,

complex concepts,technical material, andretaining details (such aslegal documents,material to bememorized and material

of great interest orimportance)

2.1 5 Reading comprehension strategies:

The term “strategy” refers to “a particular plan for achievement of a goal”(18, 257) A lot of reading strategies are adopted by the speed reader toaccomplish reader’s goal of fast reading Reading is not only just pronouncingwords but requires understanding Most experienced readers use a variety ofstrategies to understand text Five main strategies suggested to ensure good

reading comprehension are: prediction, questioning, clarifying, imagining andsummarisation.

Prediction: Predicting means anticipating or making educated guesses

about what is coming next as reader reads Predicting is a natural part of readingand the first step to successful comprehension, but we may not always do it when

we are reading college textbooks It could be believed that the ability to predictwhat a text entails is the first step to successful comprehension A reader obtainsthe first clues to what a text is about via its title Together with the openingsentences this can help the reader decide if the text is appropriate to their purpose(in the case of non-fiction) or to activate a story schema (in the case of fiction).The good reader then actively looks for cues to enrich their mental model of thetext as reading proceeds In turn, the developing representation of the text can beused to set up expectancies at the word, sentence and text levels This willfacilitate reading fluency and deepen understanding

Questioning and clarifying: An actively engaged reader can use

self-questioning to monitor their reading comprehension and to help clarify pointsthat they fail to understand Closely related to this is the use of the look backstrategy to find information that is needed to resolve ambiguities A successfulcomprehender knows how to generate pertinent questions, and can fall back ontheir mental model of the text to know where to locate relevant information

Imagining: Imagining refers to the use of mental imagery to enhance text

comprehension by enriching the mental model of a text Many successfulcomprehenders translate the story they are reading into a series of images, almostlike a film that can be replayed during story recall Children who do not do thisspontaneously can be taught to use the strategy to incorporate the details of whatthey read around a central theme

Summarisation: The process of summarisation is perhaps most closely

allied to the development of the situation model Summarisation involves theextraction of the gist and main themes of what is read (while putting aside theirrelevant details), and integrating the details into a coherent whole Additionalprocesses may include the evaluation of style and mood and making

generalisations Summarisation depends on basic language skills, inferentialabilities and knowledge and engagement with texts.

2.1.6 Effective reading and proficient readers:

Effective reading is active and interactive process Effective readingrequires that readers interact with the material they are reading Reading activelyalso means being aware of how the material is organized Finally, active readingmeans that readers monitor their comprehension as they read and that they takesteps to correct the situation when they are not comprehending

Most of people think of reading as a simple, passive process But reading

is actually a very complex process that requires a great deal of activeparticipation on the part of the reader Here are some ideas which experts in thefield have said about the reading process:

“What do we read? The message is not something given in advance – or given at all – but something created by interaction between writers and readers

as participants in a particular communicative situation” (Roy Harris in

Rethinking Writing, 2000)

“Reading is asking questions of printed text And reading with comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered” (Frank

Smith in Reading without nonsense, 1997)

“Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game It involves an interaction between thought and language Efficient reading does not result from precise perception an identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening” (Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist, 1967)

“Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction, values, and beliefs” (James Gee in Social Linguistics and Literacies, 1996)

According to above ideas, reading is a process requires many complexskills and a proficient reader is a reader who knows how to use them logically.For example, proficient readers recognize the purpose for reading, approach thereading with that purpose in mind, use strategies that have proven successful tothem in the past when reading similar texts for similar purposes, monitor theircomprehension of the text in light of the purpose for reading, and if needed adjusttheir strategy use Proficient readers know when unknown words will interferewith achieving their purpose for reading, and when they won't When unknownwords arise and their meaning is needed for comprehension, proficient readershave a number of word attack strategies available to them that will allow them topoint out the meaning of the words to the extent that they are needed to achievethe purpose for reading Reading is also a complex process in that proficientreaders give to the text as much as they take They make meaning from the text

by using their own prior knowledge and experiences Proficient readers areconstantly making predictions while reading They are continuously anticipatingwhat will come next Their prior knowledge and experiences with texts as well aswith the world around them allow them to do this It is this continuous interactionwith the text that allows readers to make sense of what they are reading

Hussain (2005, p.110) writes that a proficient reader who comprehendsEnglish language has the following capabilities:

 He can read at normal speed

 He is able to understand the lexical and the structural meanings of thewords, phrases and sentences

 He can take in complete phrases or groups of words at once and whenreading aloud, use appropriate sounds, juncture, stress and intonationpattern

 He can guess the meaning of unfamiliar words while reading a text

 If he is unable to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word, he can findout it in a dictionary

 He can skip unnecessary information while skimming

 He is able to read silently without moving his lips

 He is able to differentiate between opinion and facts.

 He can locate the topic sentence in a paragraph

 He can make a summary of important points

 He can distinguish between various moods of the writer

 He can recognize the meanings of various graphic signals such aspunctuation marks, etc

This is shown clearly through the following figure:

Figure 2.1: Reading activities performed by skilled readers

Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly andeffortlessly A proficient reader is a person who “does not have to interrupt his

reading and open the dictionary all” (Deanne Milan).

2.2 Unfamiliar words:

2.2.1 Definition of word:

In Webster’s College Dictionary, a word is known as:

“a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning, is typically seen as the smallest such unit capable of independent use, is separated from other such units by spaces in writing and is often distinguished phonologically, as by accent or pause” (18, 412)

A word is the smallest free form or an item that may be uttered in isolationwith semantic or pragmatic content in a language, in contrast to a morpheme,which is the smallest unit of meaning A word may consist of only one

morpheme (e.g car), but a single morpheme may not able to exist as a free form (e.g the English plural morpheme –s) Typically, a word will consist of a root or

stem, and zero or more affixes Words can be combined to create other units oflanguage, such as phrases, clauses, and sentences A word consisting of two ormore stems joined together form a compound A word combined with an alreadyexisting word or part of a word form a portmanteau (Internet source No.)

Another remarkable definition on word which Leonard Bloomfieldintroduced the concept of “Minimal Free Forms” in 1962 is that “Words arethought of as the smallest meaningful unit of speech that can stand bythemselves This involes phonemes – units of sound and lexemes – units ofmeaning” However, he also approves that some written words are not minimal

free forms, as they make no sense by themselves (e.g the and of)

A word in English is a basic central unit in the language It may consist ofone or more morphemes as a morpheme is the smallest unit that has meaning,either lexical or grammatical

Lexical words are called Open class items which convey content wordsinclude Nouns, Adjectives, Adverbs and Verbs The number of this class is

unlimited because its members can go together to create a new word with new

meaning (e.g new is an adjective combines with born – a verb to create a new adjective new – born) By adding affixes to a member, a new member can be

formed For instance, act (Verb)  active (Adjective)  actively (Adverb)  actor(Noun)  action (Noun)

In contrast, grammatical words is known as Closed system items whichconsist of function words such as Articles, Demonstratives, Pronouns,Prepositions and Conjunctions This type of word has some features differentfrom Open class items The number of grammatical words is limited because itsmembers can not go together, in the other hand, the members of this class

exclude each other For example, a car is accepted but a my car is not available.

As the result, it can never create new members

Basic knowledge of word is shown clearly in the following diagram:

Diagram 2.1 : Word structure.

Open class

Noun, Verb, Adjective,

Adverb

2.2.2 Definition of unfamiliar words:

Reading in its fullest sense involves weaving together word recognitionand comprehension in a fluent manner However, the fact shows that wordcomprehension is not always easy The first thing students meet when they arereading is the vocabulary Many students probably consider that their mainproblem in reading is not having a big enough vocabulary Most students whomeet an unfamiliar word cannot interpret are first likely to ask what it means Ifthey do not find out the word’s meaning, they can not go on reading andcomprehending the text So, what is an unfamiliar word in reading?

A word which is an “unaccustomed” or “unusual” word to readers is

called an unfamiliar word (18, 190) It is unlikely that a student will know everyword in a text and even if he thinks he has seen every word before, it is unlikelythat he will has seen a particular word in its present context It is thereforenecessary to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words in context and, perphaps,familiar words in new contexts

Reading in college refers to reading academic materials with manydifficult words Students cannot read college textbooks, however, without alsofacing with unfamiliar words An unfamiliar word can be a new word or afamiliar word in new contexts For example:

“Nutrient levels have risen sharply in many parts of the bay, causing

algal blooms and oxygen depletion Levels of heavy metals and toxic organic

chemicals have increased in the water and in the bottom sediment, and some of

this toxic contaminants have been biologically amplified in food webs.”

In above example, “algal blooms”, abundant seaweed-type plant, isconsidered a new word for many students because it is a technical term Studentshardly meet it in other contexts so they cannot figure out its meaning The nextword “amplified” is probably a familiar word means “to enlarge by addition ordiscussion” But in this context, its meaning is “increased, made greater” Ittherefore is also considered an unfamiliar word which students cannot identifythe exact meaning of word

For these reasons, unfamiliar words can cause frequent interruptions instudents’ reading concentration If there are too many unfamiliar words in thetext, this can be a substantial stumbling block for further progress in reading anytext Furthermore, students who do not have a means of dealing with thesedifficult words, their sustained reading will be much more disrupted, less wordswill be encountered.

2.2.3 Difficulties made by unfamiliar words in reading comprehension:

In college or university, studying requires certain reading comprehensionskills so that college students may be able to ready fluently textbooks, specialistdocuments or other academic papers Even reading comprehension is also one ofthe most important skills required in tests and examinations Yet, the fact thatreading comprehension is not easy and comfortable for students due to unfamiliarwords in the page

Whenever students encounter the unfamiliar words, their reading iscertainly interrupted Most of them feel confused and worried because of thesewords Generally, their reading habit is reading word-by-word They cancomprehend the sentence only when every word of the context is familiar withthem Understanding individual words is vital for them to understand the wholesentence Students who is not available to understand such sentences definitelystruggle with the whole text’s meaning

Moreover, the first reaction of encountering an unfamiliar word in readingcomprehension is that students immediately stop to ask other people (friends,teachers or nearby people) for helping or look it up in the dictionary This, ofcourse, makes their reading speed slow This means students do not save theirtime when reading or not gain their reading goal Slow reading speed also affect

on finishing students’ scores at school

Another difficulty made by unfamiliar words is lack of interest to readingcomprehension Reading is not only just pronouncing words but requiresunderstanding so understanding what is being read is very important for students

in studying or researching Reading process interrupted by unfamiliar wordsmeans that reading is not pleasurable or fulfilling Students will not choose to

read, and they will not get the practice they need to become fluent or efficientreaders Therefore, developing and maintaining the motivation to read is alsoaffected by unfamiliar words in reading comprehension.

2.3 Some strategies for dealing with unfamiliar words in

reading comprehension:

2.3.1 Ignoring the unfamiliar words:

When students first meet unfamiliar words in reading, they should ignorethem by using skimming and scanning skills if the unfamiliar words don’t affecttheir reading These two skills are useful for students to understand the general of

a sentence or a passage as a whole without knowing what every word means

2.3.1.1 Skimming skill:

Skimming is used to gain a quick overview in order to identify the mainidea or general information of a text, students just past over the text lightly andhastily When students are skimming, their eyes begin to slide down a column ofwords, names, figures, or phrases they do not actually read each entry A word,name, figure or phrase students should look for can:

 Appear as a title, subtitle, heading or subheading

 Appear in bold print, italics or color

 Be repeated throughout the paragraph

 Appear once at the beginning and is then referred to throughout theparagraph by pronouns or by other words

It is clear that a paragraph does not have all of these clues, but allparagraphs have at least one of them The following example illustrates lookingfor a word, name, or phrase in the paragraph that appears in special print:

“The explosive growth of the World Wide Web is due largely to the

development of graphical browsers, software that allows you to move easily

among the millions of Web sites By far the most popular browsers is Netscape,which is employed at most colleges and universities, through it is facing a stiff

challenge from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Commercial on-line services such

as CompuServe, Prodigy, and America Online offer their own browsers.” (14,93)

The word in italics indicates the topic: browsers The entire paragraph discusses browsers, a way to move easily among millions of web sites One or

more of the four clues described above will always help students determine thetopic of paragraph Determining the topic is the starting point in comprehending

as students read It is also a key to reading comprehension without understandingevery word appears in context

Furthermore, they should consider reading the first or last sentence of eachparagraph is useful when they are seeking the general idea rather thanunderstanding individual words (19, 34) because the first sentence or last one ofeach paragraph is often where the introduction or the summary is located Thefollowing excerpt is from a health textbook:

“Bulimia, a disorder characterized by eating followed by vomiting, may occur with anorexia nervosa or as a separate illness with different psychological roots According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, the symptoms of bulimia are found in 40 to 50 percent of people with anorexia nervosa As with anorexia, the majority of bulimia victims are women, typically in their early twenties, college-educated, single, and white Unlike those with anorexia, the victims of bulimia tend to be of nearly normal weight and have healthy, outgoing personalities The greatest difference is that a person with anorexia turns away from food while a person with bulimia is obsessively drawn to it It is obvious that there are important similarities and differences between the eating disorders bulimia and anorexia.” (14,129)

The topic of paragraph which is bulimia and anorexia is located at the last

sentence As students read the paragraph, they must ask themselves, “What is the

most important point the authors want me to understand about bulimia and anorexia?” In spite of lots of unfamiliar technical words, students can find out

the answer to this question, the last sentence, is the stated main idea sentence.This sentence contains the topic and it is a general statement that tells about the

author’s most important point – bulimia and anorexia.

2.3.1.2 Scanning skill:

While skimming skill is used to know general information, scanning is thespecial technique students should use to find detailed information withoutunderstanding every word’s meaning Skimming refers to the process of quicklysearching reading material in order to locate specific bits of information

Scanning involves moving reader’s eyes quickly down the page seekingspecific words and phrases Reader does not actually read but move the eyesacross the page and by using vertical section of the recognition span is able tocover three or four lines of print at a movement When reader reaches theinformation he needs, he reads it thoroughly

Reader probably scan when he searches for a phone number in a telephonebook, goes through the TV guide looking for a program to watch or looks up anunknown word in the dictionary If reader searches for a date, he should move hiseyes down the page looking for numbers If reader looks for a person’s name, heshould use the inevitable capital letter as an aid In other situations, usingquotation marks, hyphens, or italics is also helpful

To sum up, when first meeting unfamiliar wors in reading, studentsshould be keep calm and decide whether they need to understand the exactmeaning of the unfamiliar words in order to understand the general sense of thesentence or passage If not, they had better use skimming and scanning skills toidentify the neccessary information It is clear that, when students use these twoskills, they would not only accelerates your reading speed and flexibility, but also

be more confident in reading activity

2.3.2 Recalling the word’s meaning by pronunciation:

When readers encounter an unfamiliar word or a familiar word withoutremembering its meaning in reading, they should first sound it out or decode theword Reading decoding skills are critical component in the ability to read In

Reading in a foreign language (Alderson, J.C., 1984), reading decoding skills is defined as “the ability to make sense of printed words This involves recalling and recognizing the spoken word that is represented by the printed word.” In

other words, reading decoding skills is the ability to understand that a printedword represents the spoken word, and that this printed word is made of asequence of phonemes

Barnett, M (1988) give the definition: “Decoding skill is the ability to apply readers’ knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words” Understanding these

relationships gives students the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and tofigure out words they haven't seen before

In English, there is a good deal of regularity between the letters and thesounds (phonemes), but there are also quite a few exceptions There are very fewletters in English that always correspond to a single sound, and there is no onesound that always corresponds to a single letter English, it is said, has a “deeporthography”, which basically just means that there are a lot of words that are notspelled the way they sound (e.g “colonel” or “choir”) This is illustrated by thefollowing table that shows the one-to-many relationship that exists betweenletters and sounds (phonemes):

Table 2.2: Letter-sound relationships

Letters Words that represent different sounds each letter can make

A APPLE, AUTHOR, AUTHORITY, ANY, SAID, SAY, ALGAE

G GIANT, GRUNT, RING, REIGN, SIGN, ENOUGH

H HOLE, PHONE, SHINE, CHORE, CHOIR, HOUR, EXHIBIT

I FINE, LID, CEILING, WEIRD, GOITER

L LOVE, TORTILLA

O BOY, BOOT, FOOT, BLOOD, COYOTE, OUNCE, ONCE, PEOPLE, AMOEBA

P PAT, PHONE, PSYCH, PNEUMATIC

S SAND, SUGAR, EASY, AISLE

T TAN, THAN, THIN, LATCH, OFTEN

U UNDER, POUND, UNIQUE, TULIP, POUR, AUTHOR,

AUTHORITY, CHURCH, BUSY, DIALOGUE

W WON, WREN, COW, LOW, AWFUL, FEW, WHICH, WHOLE, TWO

X RELAX, LUXURY, EXECUTIVE, XENON

Y YES, PSYCH, THEY, SAYS, VERY, PYGMY

Letter

Clusters

AU AUTHOR, AUTHORITY, LAUGH, BUREAU, RESTAURANT, DINOSAUR, BEAUTY, GAUGE

EA EAT, CREATE, GREAT, IDEA, DEAF, HEAR, HEARD,

HEART, BEAR, BUREAU, BEAUTY

OU OUT, YOU, YOUR, COULD, YOUNG, JOURNEY,

ENOUGH

IE PIECE, PIE, QUIET, FRIEND, SOLDIER

OO FOOD, FOOT, BLOOD, FLOOR

AI TRAIN, SAID, AISLE, AGAIN, AIR

OUGH COUGH, THOUGH, THROUGH, THOROUGH,

THOUGHT, ENOUGH

Good readers do not depend primarily on context to identify new words.When good readers encounter an unknown word, they decode the word, name it,and then attach meaning Here is 3-step method for recalling the word’s meaning

by decoding the word:

 Start with the first letter, and say each letter-sound out loud

 Apply knowledge of letter – sound relationships, devide the word intosyllables and try to say the word

 Try to use simple phonics to say the word in a couple of ways If theword does not “sound right”, or it is hard or awkward to say, change theaccent or the pronunciation (or both) slightly until it does sound right tospeaker’s ears

After this 3-step method, readers might recognize and recall the meaning

of the word when they hear it

2.3.3 Guessing the word’s meaning:

Guessing the word’s meaning is also an useful advice for students whenfacing with the unfamiliar word Most of students lack vocabulary, which makesthem find reading difficult As a result, they often fail in giving a correct word’smeaning (Huckins et al., 1993, p.101) One way to overcome this problem is toguess There are two most popular ways to guess the word’s meaning, they are:analyzing structural information and making use of clue context

2.3.3.1 Analyzing structural formation:

The ability to use structural formation to assign meaning to a word is one

of the most useful word attack skills Two kinds of formation are relevant: thegrammatical function of the word: its place in the sentence and the morphology

of the word: its internal structure

The grammar function of the word:

By looking at the position of a word in a sentence, students can establish

at least its grammatical category (whether it is a noun, verb, adjective, etc) Thistells us the kind of meaning to look for and is thus a first step on the road tounderstanding It is useful for students to be able to label the gramaticalcategories In any case, it ensures that inappropriate meanings can be dismissedand, when an appropriate meaning is established, it can be slotted straight into itsplace.

Different words, depending on where they are in the sentence, or whatendings we attach to them, perform different functions in a sentence Simplifiedfor the purpose of the grammar, these functions are:

 Subjects: The subject is the “doer” or “actor” (eg My mother cooks dinner.)

 Verbs: The verb is the action being done (eg I finished my homework.)

 Direct Objects: The direct object is the receiver of the action (eg She bought a new bike)

 Indirect Objects: The indirect object is the secondary receiver of the

action (eg He gives me a book or He gives a book to me)

 Modifiers: Modifiers describe subjects, verbs and objects Adjectives

describe subjects and objects; adverbs describe verbs (eg With his old sword, Peter quickly killed the king In this sentence, “old” is an adjective that modifies “sword” describe the condition of the sword, and “quickly” is an adverb that modifiers “killed” explains how the

killing was done.) An adjectives describe subjects and objects; adverbsdescribe verbs and adfectives

The morphology of the word (Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes)

Although grammar function of the word should be reader’s effectivestrategy in determining the meaning of unknown words, examining the structure

of words can also be extremely helpful The morphology or internal structure of aword may also offer valuable clues to its meaning (1,33) In English, thisinvolves the study of affixation and bases i.e roots Students need to know which

affixes and suffixes can combine with the bases, which affixes can co-occur,what changes in spelling or pronunciation occur when affixes or suffixes are

added, and so on “An analytical approach to morphology pays big dividends in enabling students to work out the meaning of new words” (15,99) Many English

words are made up of component parts that have meanings of their own Aknowledge of these word parts and their meanings will enable students to definemany English words

Word parts, or combining forms, are generally divided into threecategories: prefixes, suffixes and roots To use word – structure clues, studentsmust examine an unfamiliar word to see if it has any of the following word parts:

 Root: base word that has a meaning of its own

 Prefix: a word part attached to the beginning of a root that adds itsmeaning to the meaning of the root

 Suffix: a word part attached to the end of a root word and alsocarries its own meaning

Prefixes and suffixes are also called “affixes” since they are “fixed”(attached or joined) to a root or base word Words may consist of:

 Root only (such as graph)

 Prefix and root ( such as telegraph)

 Root and suffix (such as graphic)

 Prefix, root and suffix (such as telegraphic)

Roots are powerful vocabulary – building tools because whole “families”

of words in English come from the same root For example, if students know that

the root aud means to hear, then they will understand the connection between audience (people who come to hear something or someone), auditorium (a place where people come to hear something), audit (enrolling in course just to hear about a subject, rather than taking it for credit), auditory (pertaining to hearing,

as in auditory learner), and audiologist (a person trained to evaluate hearing).

Knowing the meaning of a word’s root also makes it easier to remember themeaning of the word

Prefixes change meaning of a root by adding their meaning to the meaning

of the root For example, adding the prefix “tele” (distant or far) to the root word

“scope” (to see) creates the word “telescope” a device that lets you see things that

are far away

However, that although a word may begin with the same letters as a

prefix, it does not necessarily contain that prefix The words: malt, mall, male, and mallard (a type of duck), for example, have no connection with prefix “mal” (wrong/ bad) as in words such as: malnourished or maladjusted.

Suffixes are word parts that are attached to the end of a root word.Suffixes, on the other hand, modify the meaning of a word and frequentlydetermine its function within a sentence Other suffixes change a words’s part of

speech or inflection For example, consider these forms of the word predict: prediction, predictability, predictor (nouns); predictable (adjective); predictably

(adverb)

Suffixes are not as helpful as roots or prefixes in determining the meaning

of unfamiliar words because many suffixes have similar or even the samemeanings Also, some roots change their spelling before a suffix is added For

instance, when suffixes are added to happy, the y becomes an i: happier, happiness, happily Some common roots, prefixes and suffixes are introduced

sufficiently in Appendix 4, 5 of this paper

Obviously, understanding the meaning of various word parts can helpreaders determine the meaning of many unfamiliar words, especially in context.Students can figure out meaning of an un familiar word more quickly andlogically by learning its roots One root can be the foundation of many words, sostudying a root means studying a lot of words at the same time

2.3.3.2 Making use of context clues:

Writers want you to understand what they have written When they usewords that they think might be unfamiliar to their readers, they often help thereaders by offering various clues in the rest of the sentence so that the reader can

deduce (reason out) the meaning of the word Such clues are called context clues The word context refers to the sentence and the paragraph in which the word

appears In this case, it refers to the rest of the sentence and the paragraph inwhich the unknown word appears Using context clues means that reader reasonout the meaning of an unfamiliar word from clues provided by the surroundingwords and sentences

Kinds of context clue:

The most common types of context clues are summarized in the tablebelow The table not only explains what to look for when readers encounter eachtype of context clue but also presents example sentences that illustrate it

Table 2.3 : Kinds of context clues

Example Type of clue What to look for

The psychological term

interiority is defined as

a tendency toward

looking within during

middle age

Definition Clue Phrases that introduce a

definition, such as: is defined as, is called, is,

is known as, that is, refers to, means, the term ; a term that is in

bold print, italic, or

color ; or certain punctuation marks that set off a definition or a term

The garden was

redolent, or fragant,

with the scent of roses

Synonym Clue Phrases that introduce

synonyms, such as: in other words, or, that is

to say, also known as, by this we mean, that is.

I did the physical Contrast Clue Words and phrases that