READING AND COMPREHENSION

Awadesh K. Mishra
EFL University, Shillong Campus, Shillong 793022 akmishraeflu@yahoo.com

Reading Reading, which is a receptive skill, is a process of decoding a written input. The acquisition of the knowledge depends largely on reading skill. Through reading, one can have access to the worldwide libraries, the huge storage of printed materials. Reading everyday materials like newspapers, magazines and websites make the readers aware of the science and technology, the changing economy of the world, the present political situations, and the news of the world of entertainment. These reading materials also give us an insight into the life-style and culture of other people or of other countries. Reading also ensures professional competence. Agreeing with Fries (1962), Shuman (1974) states, in our world, literacy is demanded, and those who do not possess it are virtual cripples. Ours is a print- oriented society and to minimize the importance of being able to read and write would be dishonest (p. 221). Reading has received various definitions from different researchers. Harris (1975) believes that reading is to interpret meaningfully the written or printed verbal symbols. Gray (1937) states, Any conception of reading that fails to include reflection, critical evaluation, and the clarification of meaning is inadequate .... reading is also a form of experience that modifies personality. (pp. 26-27) Gates (1949) points out that reading is not a simple mechanical skill: nor it is a narrow scholastic tool .... it is essentially a thoughtful process [which] can and should embrace all types of thinking, evaluating, judging, imagining, reasoning, and problem-solving ( p. 3). Strang (1955) says, Reading is many-sided. It is a visual task involving sensation and perception. Reading is a psychological process; it involves fusing symbols with their meanings, to comprehend an authors thought. Reading is a complex and unique experience involving the organism as a whole. It is a pattern of activities which varies with the readers purpose and the kind of material which he is reading. (p. 62)
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So far, the focus has been on defining reading skill along with the definitions by some experts. The next section will give us a brief introduction on comprehension. Comprehension Comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. It can also be defined as the process of deriving meaning from 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. Instruction can improve comprehension by focusing on concepts and the vocabulary used to express them. Comprehension can also be enhanced by building on students background knowledge, e.g., by having a group discussion before reading. We can guide students by modelling the actions they can take to improve comprehension. These actions include asking questions about a text while reading, identifying main ideas, using prior knowledge to make predictions. Having an introduction on reading and comprehension, the following section will briefly present different purpose of reading, as cited by different experts. Purpose of Reading Broadly speaking, one reads in order to get information from a written text. White (1981) establishes the correlation of three different purposes, and three different types of reading materials. Firstly, one reads referential material in order to obtain factual information with which one works on a particular situation e.g. a set of instructions to use a particular machine. Secondly, one reads cognitive material in order to develop the intellectual skills. It helps people to operate their ideas more effectively. By doing so, one can influence the behaviour of others or can determine the result of a series of operations. Making proposals for a work or apologising
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may cite a relevant example. Thirdly, one needs affective material for emotional satisfaction or for spiritual knowledge or pleasure. A reference may be made to Wallace (1992) to gather some more specific reasons for reading. They are discussed below. Reading for survival: It serves immediate needs or wishes and involves an immediate response to a situation. A stop sign for a driver, a sign of danger or exit etc. are some of the examples of survival reading. Survival reading is common among both young and adult users of a language. Young consumers choose to buy specific brands of ice creams, burgers, pizzas and other food items by reading the advertisements on street signs, newspapers, and magazines and even on television. Similarly, survival reading also involves parents to read important instructions on baby care products and the safety regulations on toys. Reading for learning: In most occasions, reading aims at learning the unknown. It is a means of finding out information or extending the readers knowledge of the world. It is goal oriented and it mainly takes place in academic contexts. Reading for pleasure: Reading for pleasure is done for the readers own interest. Readers read thrillers, romantic fiction or comics, mainly for pleasure and enjoyment. Rivers and Temperley (1978) as cited by McDonough and Shaw (2003) point out some of the reasons, for which L2 learners may read or want to read: to obtain information for some purpose or because we are curious about some topic to obtain instructions on how to perform some task for our work or daily life to keep in touch with friends by correspondence or to understand business letters to know when or where something will take place or what is available to know what is happening or has happened (as reported in newspapers, magazines, reports) for enjoyment or excitement (p. 90) White (1981) points out that one needs to adopt different reading types in order to fulfil different purpose of reading. The next section will discuss different types of reading. Types of Reading
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Skimming: In skimming, the reader goes through the text quickly to gather the gist or the central idea of the text. The reader does not look for details but frame an overall impression of the text. While skimming, it is not essential for the reader to understand each word in the text. For example, in the morning, one quickly glances through the whole newspaper to get the general news of the day or skims through a magazine to discover which article one would like to read in detail.

Scanning: Scanning helps readers in locating a specific piece of information in a given text. While scanning a text, one quickly runs through the reading material without pondering over any issue, other than the one, relevant for their pursuit. In this context, Lewis and Reinders (2003) brilliantly compare scanning with the action of a bird that flies over the garden looking for its food. Here, the bird glances over the garden looking for a specific thing i.e. worm and when it sees the worm, it flies down without noticing the leaves and the flowers. Looking at a telephone directory to find a particular name or number or consulting a dictionary to find the meaning of a particular word, are some of the examples of scanning.

Extensive Reading: Extensive Reading helps us to obtain a global understanding of a text or a subject. Reading a novel or a play for pleasure or reading some business books to improve the general knowledge of business procedures, are some of the suitable examples to define extensive reading. Here, it is not essential for the reader to understand each word in the text.

Intensive Reading: Intensive reading involves a profound and detailed understanding of the text. This type of reading is done slowly and intensively to grasp the minute textual details. Here, it is necessary that one understands each word, number or fact in the text. Reading a play or a novel for examination purpose or reading an advertisement on the newspaper or on internet to extract information regarding a particular job may cite as relevant examples.

As noted earlier, White (1981) points out that one needs to adopt different reading types in order to fulfil their different purpose. However, to comprehend a text, one needs to use a variety of reading sub skills. The next section will focus on various sub skills of reading as proposed by researchers.
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Sub Skills of Reading The ability to comprehend a text at certain levels can be termed as reading sub skills. Alderson and Lukmani (1989) point out that the researchers have developed many different lists, taxonomies and even hierarchies of skills. Lunzer and Gardner (1979) mention that the New York City Board of Education identified thirty-six different sub skills of reading. Davis (1968) as quoted by Alderson (2000) points out eight sub skills. They are listed below 1) recalling word meanings 2) drawing inferences about the meaning of a word in context 3) finding answers to questions answered explicitly or in paraphrase 4) weaving together ideas in the content 5) drawing inferences from the content 6) recognising a writers purpose, attitude, tone and mood 7) identifying a writers techniques 8) following the structure of a passage (pp. 910) Munby (1978) also talks about some of the important sub skills of reading. They are mentioned below Recognize the organisation of a text Understand the conceptual meaning Understand the communicative value of sentences Guess the meaning of the words in the passage from the context Understand relations within the sentence Understand relations between different parts of a text through lexical and grammatical cohesion devices Predict what will come next in the text Interpret the text Identify the main point or important information in a discourse Distinguish the main idea from supporting details in the text Extract salient points to summarise
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Extract selectively the relevant points from a text Skim to obtain the gist of the text Scan to locate specifically required information Analyze, interpret and infer the ideas in a text

So far, the discussion has been only on the features of reading skill. The following sections, however, will focus on the teaching or methods of developing reading skill. The discussion begins with approaches to the teaching of reading. Approaches to the Teaching of Reading Different educationists list different approaches to the teaching of reading. White (1981) points out two approaches to how reading should be taught. One approach is pedagogical approach and the other one is communicative approach. Pedagogical approach pays little or no attention to reading, as a part of the process of communication. In communicative approach, on the other hand, reading is set in the context of the communicative use of language. Shuman (1974) says, There are as many approaches to the teaching of reading as there are teachers of reading (p. 237) and in support of his statement, he mentions different lists of approaches, proposed by different writers. Wallen (1972) as cited by Shuman (1974) lists six approaches to the teaching of reading, namely, basal, phonic, linguistic, programmed, individualized and language experience, covering the usage of programmed texts and designed texts building phoneme-grapheme correlation. Karlin (1972), as Shuman mentioned, lists three approaches. They include developmental, corrective and remedial areas and are rather popular with teachers of English, who are focusing on the development of reading skill. The following is a brief discussion on these three approaches. Developmental reading is concerned with teaching the reading skills from the simple to the complex level; from the relatively easier skill, for example, word recognition in a text to the most difficult skill such as interpretation, appreciation of styles, and recognition of literary devices. In their order of difficulties, Karlin lists six areas in the developmental reading: word recognition, meanings, study skills, flexibility, appreciation and interests.

Corrective reading takes place in a regular classroom and is concerned with helping students individually. It is also a remedial reading. Corrective reading instruction works best with those learners who are able to read but their only problem is how to read a new style of writing or a new vocabulary. Remedial reading suggests that students work better in pairs than working alone. Karlin believes that pair work is necessary to protect the learners self-image and to minimize their tension of getting adapted to a new learning situation. Cohn (197071) states, When two students are involved in such a program, their interaction can relieve anger and hostility, ease tension, elevate the self-image, and stimulate learning through competition.(p. 112). Along with approaches, strategies are also important for developing reading skills. The next section will throw light on the strategies for developing reading skill. Strategies for Developing Reading Skill Wallace (1992) states, Strategies involve ways of processing text which will vary with the nature of the text, the readers purpose, and the context of situation (p. 57). In this regard, Souchon (2004) proposes various strategies for developing reading skill. He stresses the importance of the active role of the reader in the interactive reading comprehension process. Readers need to try to relate information from one part of the text to the next, through lexical and grammatical cohesive devices. Making contextual guessing is also one of the effective reading strategies, acknowledged by Souchon. Instead of stopping to consult a dictionary for every unknown word, the learners should be encouraged to use their prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text, to guess the meaning of the unknown words. Another strategy, pointed out by Souchon, demands teacher to discourage an intensive lexical and phrasal decoding of the text. By filtering the important points along with the supporting details from the passage, a reader may skip the difficult parts yet may get the outline of the text. Previewing the titles, section headings and photo captions is also a good strategy to get an idea of the structure and the content of the text. Souchon (2004) further maintains a combination of bottom-up and top-down process constitutes a good reading strategy to collect textual information. Good readers, according to him, think that their guesses are often more accurate than the textual information obtained
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through translation. In this regard, he gave an example; while reading, the readers not only try to imagine what the characters in the story are thinking but also imagine what they would think or act if they swap places with the characters. Through this vicarious reading, learners get actively involved in the stories and thus it proves to be an effective reading strategy. Tovey (1976) gives ten practical suggestions for involving children in reading. They are listed below1) Help children select books they can read. 2) Help beginning readers to have successful reading experiences through the use of dictation. 3) Help children develop an understanding of the purpose and nature of reading. 4) Encourage children to read high interest material. 5) Encourage children to read books with content that is familiar to them. 6) Help children avoid meaningless oral reading. 7) Emphasize reading as communication. 8) Provide children who have comprehension problems with many short selections of high interest. 9) Extend childrens interests and thinking related to books they have read. 10) Motivate children to read, read, read! (pp. 288-292) Undoubtedly, different approaches and strategies facilitate the promotion of reading skill. However, in order to motivate the reluctant readers to learn to read, one needs to use a variety of attractive and innovative teaching aids. The next section will explore, from the inventory of the teaching aids, what can be used for developing the learners reading skill. Teaching Aids for Developing Reading Skill Attractive teaching aids are likely to encourage the learners to learn to read or to improve their poorly developed reading skill. Through these teaching aids, the teacher can make the learners realize the importance and joy of reading. Shuman (1974) states that in most cases, learners are more likely to read road signs, memos, newspapers, magazines, comic books, how8

to-do-it books etc. The teachers need to use similar realistic and practical materials as teaching aids to improve their learners reading skill. Newspapers and magazines are also effective teaching aids to promote reading. Shuman (1974) says, Reading classes might have a unit on the newspaper in which students learn to differentiate between fact and opinion, between biased reporting and straight reporting, between the headline and the whole story. They might, as a first lesson in comprehension, scan the classified ads looking for items they wish to buy or they might hold job interviews based on help-wanted ads in the newspapers. (p. 228) Comic books can work as a very useful teaching aid for young learners. These books are very popular. They engage the learners in reading and eventually enable them to read materials that are more difficult. Another teaching aid is paperback. Every reading classroom should have a paperback library with a large collection of books. Shuman (1974) states that those who have a poorly developed reading skill should be encouraged to read paperbacks rather than reading from anthologies that are heavy and uncomfortable to hold. Shuman also suggests some free reading materials such as drivers handbook, catalogues of automotive, hi-fi equipment, farming equipment and sports equipment which are easily available free of cost and are very effective for reading classroom. He says that for such practical materials the interests of the learners are generally high. One may consider adapting such materials for using in similar context.

Bibliography
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