Reading

Cmprehension

Reading is a process of constructing meaning from

written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the
coordination of interrelated sources of information
(Stanley, 2007)

Taken from: Stanley, S. (2007). An Analysis of Rx for Discovery ReadingRTM for Elementary Students Below Average in Reading.
The United States of America: ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

 Students carreer.
Language acquisition.
Students vocabulary knowledge.
Modeling English writing.
Introduce topics.
Stimulate discussions.

Taken from: Jeremy Harmer (2009). How to teach English. England: Pearson Education Limited

Is the process of extracting and constructing meaning

through interaction and involvement with written language.
Comprehension entails three elements
The reader who is doing the comprehending.
The text that is to be comprehended.
The activity in which comprehension is a part.
The socio-cultural context mediates students experiences,
just as students experiences influence the context
Taken from: Snow C. (2002). Reading for understanding toward an R&D program in reading
comprehension.

1. Discriminate among the distinctive

orthographic pattern of English.

graphemes

and

2. Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short term

memory.
3. Process reading at an efficient rate of speed to suit the
purpose.
4. Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order
patterns and their significance.

Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

5. Recognize grammatical word classes, systems, patterns,

rules, and elliptical forms.
6. Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in
different grammatical forms.
7. Recognize cohesive devices in written discourse and their
role in signaling the relationship between and among clauses.
8. Recognize the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their
significance for interpretation.
9. Recognize the communicative functions of written texts,
according to form and purposes.

Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

10. Infer context that is not explicit by using background

knowledge.
11. Infer links and connections between ideas, deduce cause and
effect, detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea,
new information, given information, generalization, and
exemplification.
12. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
13. Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a
context of the appropriate cultural schemata.
14. Develop and use a battery of reading strategies.
Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

1. Identify the purpose of reading.

2. Use graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up
decoding.
3. Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid
comprehension.
4. Skim the text for main ideas.

Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

5. Scan the text for specific information.

6. Use semantic mapping or clustering.
7. Guess when you arent certain.
8. Analyze vocabulary.
9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.
10. Capitalized on discourse makers to process relationships:
Enumerative, additive (reinforce, similarity, transition),
logical sequence (summative, resultative), explicative,
illustrative, contrastive (replacive, anthithetic, conversive)
Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

It is an active process of constructing meaning.

Interactive: Involves the reader, the text and the context in which
reading takes place.
Strategic: Readers have purposes for their reading and use a
variety of strategies as they construct meaning.
Adaptable: Readers change the strategies they use depending on
the text and on the purpose.

Taken from: Reading for Understanding: Toward an R&D Program in Reading. http://www.readingresource.net/teachingreading.html

Making connections: Text to self, text to text and text to world.

Creating mental images: Visualizing the written information.
Questioning: Asking themselves questions throughout the reading.
Inferring: Reading between the lines.
Evaluating: Determining importance.
Synthesizing: Ordering, retelling, and recreating into a coherent the
whole information.

Oral

Intensive

Linguistic
Content

Silent

Skimming
Extensive

Scanning
Global

Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

 Do not overlook instruction in reading skill.

Use motivating techniques.
Balance authenticity and readability in texts.
Encourage the development of reading strategies.
Include: bottom-up and top-down techniques.

Taken from: Brown, D. Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to language pedagogy.

 Reading is considered to be one of the process that promotes

language aquisition.
In the process of reading schemata, backgraund, affects and
culture, the type of reading, and the age of the learner play
an important role.
Learning goes beyond the simple process of decoding texts.
Students need to know how to read to get the information
required.
There are several estrategies to develop the reading skill.

Stanley, S. (2007). An Analysis of Rx for Discovery ReadingRTM for

Elementary Students Below Average in Reading. The United States of
America: ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
Jeremy Harmer (2009). How to teach English. England: Pearson
Education Limited.
Brown, D. (2007). Teaching by Principles. An interactive approach to
language pedagogy.
Snow C. (2002). Reading for understanding toward an R&D program in
reading comprehension. [Book in line]. From: http://books.google.co.ve/
books?id=R1t9btYnK_EC&pg=PA9&dq=definition+of+reading+
comprehension&hl=es&sa=X&ei=F53TT6e1BvCK6QGr7uTAg&sqi=
2&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20reading%
20comprehension&f=false. [Consulted: 2012, June 10]