Reading Comprehension Strategies

An efficient reading comprehension requires an array of strategies. It is highly required from learners to make use of certain reading strategies. So, to sharpen one’s understanding of the concept of reading comprehension strategies one should know first about the word ‘reading strategies’. To start with, Guthrie, et al (2003) claimed that reading strategies are very important tool used by the students in order to understand the written text.

Moreover, Guthrie et al (ibid) highlighted the importance of reading strategies saying that:

“Students must be able to use […] strategies easily. They need to be able to tap into background knowledge, ask questions, and summarize frequently and appropriately” (p 4) In other words, learners who follow certain strategies are more likely to have that learning make an impact on their reading comprehension by making reference to their prior knowledge, response to different questions and make recapitulations to their readings.

2.2.1 Previewing and Predicting

Learners can call for some ‘pre-reading’ strategies such as previewing the material be it a book, an article, or a text, and making predictions to draw their objective behind reading the material in question.

Previewing helps to collect information through an overlook on the cover of the material. This means that previewing involves examining the cover of the book, the title, the authors’ name and the pictures if there is any. Previewing the material enables the learner to decide about the relevance of the material and its level of difficulty. After previewing the material, the learner can anticipate the coming content of the text before detailed reading.

Hence, prediction has the potential of clarifying the purpose for reading an extract for learners. Following this line of thoughts, Mikulecky & Jeffries (1996) added that:

Previewing and predicting before you read can make a big difference. You can get some ideas about what you will read that way you will begin to process

information the information far more quickly. You will also be able to follow the writer’s ideas better. Though it takes a few minutes to preview and predict, those few minutes are well invested. You will find that later you save reading time and gain comprehension. (P. 35)

2.2.2 Using background knowledge

The reader’s background knowledge is of a high importance in building and understanding any information included in any sort of text. Most of the time learners call for their prior-knowledge and past experiences because it contributes highly in the comprehension. McNamara (2007) mentioned that: “nearly all adults have trouble comprehending technical expository text at deep levels even though they are skilled readers.

Deep comprehension of technical text is a difficult challenge, because the reader has minimal knowledge of the technical terms […] and other forms of background knowledge.” (p 5) So, the reader’s familiarity with the world, language and type of text ease up the process of comprehension.

Moreillon (2007) stated that some researchers use a type of charts which called the K-W-L, and it is stand for the abbreviation of (What do we already know? What do weWonder about? What did we Learn?). These charts are used to evaluate the students’ background knowledge. Keen & Zimmermann (1997) as cited in (Moreillon, 2007) propose that when readers use background knowledge they split it into three types or categories of connection:

text- to-self it means, the relationship between the text and the reader’s personal experience, text-to-text, it means the relationship between the text being read and the already read text, and text-to-world it means, the interrelation between the text being read and what truly happen in the reader’s real world.

Chart 02: K-W-L Chart 2.2.3 Questioning

It is worth mentioning that reading strategies are interlinked and prepare the ground for a full comprehension. For example, previewing, predicting and relying on background knowledge facilitate the understanding of the paragraph. Hence, the learners can generate questions once they encounter a new text, or feel a need to sharpen their understanding about the context they are confronted with. In this respect, Guthrie et al (2004) stated that:

“background knowledge refers to previous experience or past learning, whereas questioning points toward what might be learned through reading in the immediate or more distant future.” (p 13)

According to Moreillon (2007) using this strategy starts firstly at home with students’

parents and the environment around them, the students ask questions, and their parents answer. Since the progression of the students, the questioning strategy will be changed, the teacher asks questions and the learners are supposed to answer those questions. To promote a deeper comprehension, and widens their consciousness about a particular point in the text;

good readers should ask and answer questions each time.

2.2.4 Summarizing

Guthrie et al (2003) stated that “Summarizing refers to recognizing the main idea and supporting details without including less important information.”(p 12) Therefore, a good summary includes only main ideas that surrounds on the same topic. It is apparent that the summary needs to be as short as possible, and it must keep the ideas of the original text.

K W L

What I already know? What I wonder to know about?

What I learnt from?