Strategies to improve reading comprehension in ESL readers

CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARMENT OF ENGLISH GRADUATION PROJECT ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION IN ESL READERS Instructor: Student’s name: Nguyễn Hồng Thu Lưu Bích Ngọc, MA Student code: 7116881 Class: XH11Z8A1 INTRODUCTION The objective of learning English is to develop the ability to use English with various skills, especially in listening and speaking skills, so that the learners are able to exchange information effectively through both spoken and written channels in the future work and social interactions However, a good reading ability is also necessary for students to learn English well Reading is an important way to gain information in learning a foreign language It is also a basic skill for a foreign language learner They learn reading to solidify, extend basic knowledge and develop the lingual basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing So, fostering good reading ability is a leading task of learning English The key of reading is comprehension Reading comprehension means extracting the required information from the material as efficiently as possible In order to get the information the learners need from what they read, they must be able to read accurately and quickly A good reader is an accurate and fast reader But which strategies to become a good reader and how its effectiveness is Starting from these issues above, I have chosen the theme “Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension Skills in ESL Readers” as my project paper in which I have summarized 10 previous studies to give an overview about this SUMMARIES Glen berg, A.M (2011) How reading comprehension is embodied and why that matters International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, (1), 5-18 Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://www.iejee.com/4_1_2011/1_IEJEE_4_1_Glenberg.pdf According to Glen berg, in all cases, comprehension is the ability to take effective action on the basis of affordability, related to the body, the physical world, personal goals and cultural norms Reading comprehension is embodied much like comprehension of situations and comprehension of oral language It is mentioned in nine main points with clearly analysis of the author The first main point is understanding situations and language Understanding is not just a cognitive state, but it is also the case that in any particular situation, most actions are inappropriate However, the author argues further that the ability to act appropriately does not just reveal understanding, but constitutes understanding The second main point is reading comprehension The author considered learning to read Instead of frequent and immediate indexing of linguistic symbols to objects and experiences, when learning to read indexing is slow, unreliable, and rarely practiced The next is the moved by reading intervention This is a two-stage reading comprehension intervention designed for the immediate readers The moved by reading enhance reading comprehension dramatically; so, we need implement the moved by reading one-on-one if there is necessary because their long-term benefits and effective special to populations However, the moved by reading training have to transfer so that it can bring useful to user At the end of this study, the author investigated the suitable of moved by reading and reading in abstract domains That is, while moved by reading is suitable for children, reading in abstract domains is suitable for adults From these above arguments, the study indicated the reason why so few readers understand centripetal force and other scientific concepts When understanding the text, the words and phrases are indexed to embodied experiences to create a simulation of the content of the text because this simulation is in a format intimately related to the body, it can be used to guide action Through the way that language is embodied, the learner can create successful educational interventions as the moved by reading Liao, G (2011) On the development of reading ability Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/tpls/article/download/0103302305/2698 In this brief study, Liao indicated that English reading skill is one of the important language skills which readers have to master Therefore, in order to improve readers’ reading ability, teachers should particularly focus on the development of effective reading skill as using the context, using a dictionary, scanning skill, skimming skill, making inferences and using the title, but it is more important than ever to have effective reading skills The context is known the sentence and paragraph in which a word occurs To decide the meaning of a word by using the context, readers have to use knowledge about grammar, understand the authors' ideas and use the word analysis because they can indicate the relationships among parts of the sentence and the paragraph and the meanings of parts of words If there are some cases in which you can find very few context clues to use or there are too many new words to guess, the readers may rely on a dictionary because a good dictionary provides some information about a word as spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, definitions and something like that In addition to role of a good dictionary, the process of consulting a dictionary is a very helpful way to develop scanning ability which involves moving your eyes quickly down the page seeking specific words and phrases The third effective reading skill is the skimming skill This skill used to quickly identify the main ideas of a text, done at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading People often skim when they have many materials to read in a limited amount of time The fourth skill in the whole skills above is making inferences It is used when the readers want to accurately understand an article and it has to make correctly The last one is using the title It is sometimes useful for the readers to make quick decisions based on only the title and try to understand it well On the development of reading ability, the readers also concern to reading habits, extensive reading, basic conditions for increased reading rate and comprehension knowledge There are different styles of reading for different situations; so, the technique the readers choose will depend on the purpose for reading As long as the readers insist on using scientific skills, reading every day and summing up continuously, the effective reading ability is not difficult to be achieved Kari, K (2003) First language (L1) influence on second language (L2) reading: The Role of Transfer Retried September 2, 2014, from http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/WPLC/article/view/5164 This paper assesses the role of transfer on the influence of L1 to L2 reading and focus on three aspects: nature of L1 and L2 reading processes, the influence of L1 on L2 reading and transfer as a contributing factor in second language reading while studies of transfer have mainly dealt with its effects on either speaking or writing, but the effects on reading and listening have been neglected (Ringworm, 1992) In the first aspect, the author indicates that foreign learners may transfer their first language knowledge or skills while reading or writing in the second language They use first language knowledge and various strategies to facilitate their learning of target language It is believed that overt transfer may be transfer of forms, especially lexical items It can also be phonological and morphological forms, grammatical patterns or even procedures In the next aspect, the author demonstrates on the positive or negative role of reading in a second language The study of language transfer strategies may help us to better understand the positive influence of the first language knowledge in foreign language reading comprehension process The review of the research literature displayed the following cases of transfer in L2 reading context: phonological awareness/processing skills, orthographic strategies for word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, comprehension and cognitive skills In the last aspect, the authors persuaded that in a second language learning context, it is vital to investigate whether the learner is transferring L1 knowledge or skills and if so is it facilitating or creating constraints on the way of successful reading Based on the positive or negative role of transfer, effective instructional methods can be designed for students of different age groups To sum up, the author indicates further and more extensive, there is a correlation between L1 and L2 reading ability and L2 learners transfer prior linguistic and cognitive skills from L1 to facilitate their reading ability in L2 Through investigating and understanding reading transfer strategies, the learners will be better understand the influence first language knowledge on reading and writing second language This research is also a stepping stone for the topic “Strategies to improve reading comprehension skill in ESL readers” Akbar, Z (2014) EFL Dictionary Users’ Skills and Their Reading Comprehension Skills: A Mutual relationship International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, 6(3) Retrieved August 26, 2014, from https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/1420#toc_1 This research was done by Akbar about the mutual relationship of EFL Dictionary Users’ skills and reading comprehension skills At the beginning of the research, the author indicated that the learner can determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and multiple meaning words by using context clues, glossaries and dictionaries (Hamilton, 2012) However, many types of dictionaries are necessary for learners work on the other language development and a bilingual dictionary is often the first dictionary that a foreign language learner encounters With these above reasons, the author invited 35 first-year students in Iran to take part in this study By some instruments as the student's translation exercises, the bilingual lists as well as the oral reading activities in the classroom, the author showed the relationship between the student's dictionary problems and their reading comprehension problems; that is whether or not dictionaries should be used, how their reading problems originate from using bilingual dictionaries, how monolingual dictionaries are used, how they develop and facilitate reading comprehension and how to use the rich potentials inherent in them To sum up, the finding of this paper will be of great use to EFL learners, foreign language teachers and textbook designers This research also is of significance to textbook designers to embed dictionary skill studies along with other reading comprehension skills and develop intimacy between the dictionary and the user and reveals the significance of mastering reading skills in enhancing reading comprehension Through this research, we can recognize that using dictionary is also a skill lead to effective reading comprehension Elemi, M & Beady, S (2010) The Effects of Pre-reading Activities on ESP Reading Comprehension Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jltr/article/view/3221 In this study, the authors sought the effects of pre-reading activities on reading comprehension of L2 learners of science and technology and divided into five parts According to the introduction part of the authors, the study will indicate the effects of prereading activities on comprehension of engineering students through the scores made by subjects of the two experimental and control groups In the literature review part, eight sections about important of reading as one of the most important skills for educational and professional success (Alderson, 1984), the most important activity in any class (Rivers, 1981); interactive view of reading and its relationship with ESP as interactive process (Carrel, Devine & Esker 1988; Grabbed, 1991; Rumelhart & Ortony 1977), a simultaneous perceptual and cognitive process (Rumelhart & Orton, 1977); general views on prereading activities as to active the student's knowledge of the subjects, to provide any language preparation (Celce-Mucia, 1991), to provide a reader with the necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material (Tudor, 1989); pictorial context as an integral part of ESP courses, to visual support for the avoidance of problems in the comprehension (Wilson, 1986); pre-questioning as to make students aware of the way language is used to convey meaning; vocabulary pre-teaching as only one of the possible ways in which the ESP teacher can assist in the activation of appropriate content schemata so as to improve the student's comprehension of texts (Tudor, 1982; subtechnical vocabulary and ESP reading comprehension as were showed It helps students extract meaning from texts by using note-taking skill, solving problems set up in the texts and similar methods In the design part, these pre-reading activities were carried out five sessions for experimental group, each activity lasted 10 minutes and was carried out immediately before the reading task when participants in the control group received a passage, they began reading task immediately after receiving their constructions for a full account of practical employment of these pre-reading activities The results of this study paved the way for acceptance of the belief that giving related information of the text through restoring to pre-reading activities can have large impact on reading comprehension So, we will come up with some guidelines for ESL teachers and syllabus designers regarding reading pedagogy in the final section of the study Diaz, S & Lag ado, J.C (2013) Improving Reading Skills through Skimming and Scanning Techniques at a Public School: Action Research Retried August 28, 2014, from http://revistas.unipamplona.edu.co/ojs_viceinves/index.php/OWD/article/download/2 40/230 In this study, the authors show that skimming and scanning techniques play an important role for improving reading skills with the theoretical framework of the study based on the primary foundation of communicative approach, reading and reading comprehension, skimming and scanning techniques The authors use data from a survey at a public school located in Pamplona Colombia and try to find out the role of skimming and scanning techniques for improving reading skills through that survey The data collection instruments in the study consist of participant and non participant observations and semistructured interviews because it is able to extract real data from real situations After that, they analyze the data by several steps: get the data by understanding and re-checking the data collected, read and reread the data several times in order to get familiar with them, focus on the analysis by reviewing the purpose and the key research questions to be answered, and keeping these in mind while we read once again the data, classify the information, by identifying themes or patterns and organizing them into coherent categories, identify patterns and connections within and between the categories, assess the relevance of each category, capturing similarities between the categories and creating super categories if necessary, give rich and detailed descriptions of the findings by attaching significance and meaning to the analysis Through collecting and analyzing data from the survey, two authors indicated the techniques to change student's perceptions when reading, motivation increases the effectiveness of skimming and scanning techniques, student's inclination towards one of these techniques, students improvement through reading comprehension techniques This study seems to suggest that the participants preferred to use the skimming technique to the scanning one It was observed that the students interacted more when working with the skimming technique, which did not occur when using the scanning one since some of the participants thought that the scanning activities were more complex and longer, making them lose interest However, both skimming and scanning technologies are useful for improving reading comprehension in ESL readers Rokni, S.A & Niknaqsh, H.R (2013) The Effect of Context Clues on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension ELT voices-India, Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://eltvoices.in/Volume3/Issue_6/EVI_36_7.pdf In this short article, the authors designed to investigate the effects of context clues on learners' reading comprehension According to reading comprehension specialists, reading is not actually a skill, but a process reading consists of many different skills Although reading comprehension is an essential part of exams, students may be not instructed about reading skills which necessary to read some complicated texts in their educational life Therefore, the authors took this study to give a clearly strategy for readers That is the context clues and the effects that they may have on reading comprehension in EFL learners Clues play an important role in dealing with reading comprehension and they are the important factors for comprehending a text and learning new words They are significant since there is a small chance of learning a new word from a context The context clues help explaining the meanings of difficult words by giving an explanation in the preceding or very next sentence in simple language Moreover, guessing from the context is one of the most useful skills learners can acquire and apply inside and outside classroom The participants in this study were 60 EFL female students at Goleta University in Groan, Iran during the academic year 2012 After surveying, this study suggests the necessity of studying some issues such as context clues involved in comprehending English texts This investigation may help educators understand some of the major causes behind reading habits of many Iranian and EFL learners in private and of many readers in general Davoudi, M (2005) Inference Generation Skill and Text Comprehension The reading matrix, Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/davoudi/article.pdf In this article, Davoudi indicated that inferences is an essential part of reading comprehension process After that, the functions of inference, the factors affecting inference making and some instructional techniques, strategies for the development of inferential skill is provided Firstly, some reading theorists and researchers accepted that making inferences is necessary for reading comprehension, is a cognitive process used to construct meaning Inference in reading comprehension is also a constructive thinking process with expanding knowledge of the readers through proposing evaluating competing hypothesis about the meaning of the text in an attempt to progressively refine understanding Secondly, inference may serve different functions through a review of research on inference generation In the first generation of research, the inference has been recognized as a crucial aspect of language However, in the second generation of research, it is focused on the balancing act that the readers must perform, both making inferences in order to comprehend the text and having a limited attention or working memory sources available to so The third generation of research is the development stage of inference with the purpose is to integrate the online and offline aspects of reading Thirdly, the author indicates five factors affecting inference making, concerned to reader's background knowledge, working memory capacity, reading ability, reader's goal and their interest Then, inference training is researched It is not an inherently and applied to most children Finally, the strategies for the development of inferential skill of reading comprehension as rebinding, questioning a default interpretation, shifting of focus, analyzing alternatives, assigning an alternative case, confirming an immediate prior interpretation, confirming a no immediate prior interpretation, assuming a default interpretation and transforming information, withholding or reiterating information and emphasizing with the experiences of others were provided to understand the text Abdullah, S et al (2012) Reading for pleasure as a means of improving reading comprehension skills Asian Social Science, Retrieved August 26, 2014, from http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/download/21670/14133 In this short study, the authors proved the role of reading for pleasure in improving reading comprehension skills through step-by-step as literature review, methodology, results and discussion The experiment group of this study was exposed to reading for pleasure for five weeks while the other group was not In the literature review, the author group mentioned to three main points The first one is reading comprehension and reading strategies Reading does not merely mean decoding the text into words as it involves certain strategies and behaviors (Pressly, 2000) To comprehend a reading text, learners 10 should integrate the skills and apply certain strategies in doing so The next one is reading pleasure, they should have reading ability, positive exceptions of the activity and correct book selection The last one is reading motivation and reading interest Reading motivation refers to a person's personal goals, values and beliefs on reading topics, processes and outcomes (Guthrie and Wigfield, 2000) It may come from internal and external factors Besides motivation, reading interest plays an important role in reading for pleasure, refers to the selection of reading materials according to one's preference or interest There are two methodology chose in this experiment study, included selection of subjects and procedure with total 48 students from two groups of Art and Design Faculty at UiTM Perak They spend three periods: at the beginning of the semester, at the reading project progressed and at the end of the reading project After these three periods, the control group showed better improvement of comprehension skills in the post -test while the pretest scores results were nearly the same The reason is that reading for pleasure would help the readers to understand the text better and would pursue reading for pleasure The recognition of the value of these advantages suggests that teachers, policy makers and curriculum designers should promote reading for pleasure and not perceive it as an activity without merit or a separated skills CONCLUSION To improve reading ability efficiently, the learner should develop some good reading skills in the first place Secondly, they must have good reading habits Thirdly, they need to know well about the questions of reading comprehension and enlarge your English knowledge Finally, there are different styles of reading for different situations The technique the learner choose will depend on the purpose of reading For example, the learner might be reading for enjoyment, information or to complete a task If they are exploring or reviewing, they might skim a document If they are searching for information, they might scan for a particular word The learner need to adjust their reading speed and technique depending on those purposes As long as they insist on using scientific skills, 11 reading every day, and summing up continuously, the efficient reading ability is not difficult to be achieved 12 ... the influence first language knowledge on reading and writing second language This research is also a stepping stone for the topic ? ?Strategies to improve reading comprehension skill in ESL readers? ??... learners'' reading comprehension According to reading comprehension specialists, reading is not actually a skill, but a process reading consists of many different skills Although reading comprehension. .. learn reading to solidify, extend basic knowledge and develop the lingual basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing So, fostering good reading ability is a leading task of learning