POLYTECHNIC ARMY SCHOOL

LANGUAGE DEPARTAMENT

Theme:

The lack of emphasis on the cognitive strategies and reading skills leads to a deficient reading

comprehension on students. An study on strategies to reduce these flaws.

TUTOR : Msc. LIilian Avalos C.

AUTHORS: Paolo Cedeño (0993027660)

Lester Peredo (0993025332)

Guayaquil-Ecuador

2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CHAPTER ONE: RESEARCH PROBLEM ............................................................................................ 4

1.1 Problem Identification: ......................................................................................................... 4

1.2. Problem-formulation ........................................................................................................... 4

1.3. Variables matrix .................................................................................................................. 5

1.3. Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 6

1.3.1 General Objective: ......................................................................................................... 6

1.3.2 Specific Objectives: ........................................................................................................ 6

1.4. Justification ......................................................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................ 7

2.1. Theoretical and Conceptual Focus ....................................................................................... 7

2.2. Structure: ............................................................................................................................ 9

2.3. Hypothesis system............................................................................................................. 10

2.3.1 Working Hypothesis:.................................................................................................... 10

2.3.2. Null Hypothesis........................................................................................................... 10

2.3.3. Alternative Hypothesis................................................................................................ 10

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN ............................................................................. 11

3.1. Research type and design: ................................................................................................. 11

3.2. Population and sample: ..................................................................................................... 13

3.3. Field work ......................................................................................................................... 14

3.4. Instruments for data collection: ......................................................................................... 14

3.5. Processing and analysis: .................................................................................................... 16

CHAPTER FOUR: ADMINISTRATIVE FRAME.................................................................................. 17

4.1 Material resources: ............................................................................................................ 17

4.2 Human Competence: .......................................................................................................... 17

4.3 Budget: .............................................................................................................................. 17

4.4 Chronological distribution: ................................................................................................. 17

4.5 Bibliography: ...................................................................................................................... 17

4.6 Glossary: ............................................................................................................................ 18

ANNEX 1: BUDGET.................................................................................................................... 21

ANNEX 2: CRONOLOGYCAL DISTRIBUTION ............................................................................... 21

TIMETABLE ............................................................................................................................... 21

APPENDIX SECTION .................................................................................................................. 22

Reading Test to evaluate .......................................................................................................... 22

Examples of Reading Assessments: .......................................................................................... 25

CHAPTER FIVE: TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS ................................................................................... 30

4.1. Graphical exposition of results: ......................................................................................... 30

4.2. Analysis of results: ............................................................................................................. 31

4.3. Conclusions: ...................................................................................................................... 33

4.4. Recommendations: ........................................................................................................... 34

CHAPTER SIX: THE PROPOSAL...................................................................................................... 36

4

CHAPTER ONE: RESEARCH PROBLEM

1.1 Problem Identification:

Psychologists interested in how individuals learn have devoted much

attention to the cognitive processes involved in encoding, storing, and retrieving

information of all types. According to the Simple View of Reading (SVR), reading

comprehension is a product of the joint effect of word-level reading skills

(decoding) and linguistic comprehension.

An examination of reading curricula of some English Academies and Public

Schools, reading assessment is an important ability every student must achieve

while they are studying a foreign language. However, when they have to apply their

reading ability, apparently previous learnt in daily activities or some special

situations, they demonstrate a deficient in reading comprehension, which reveals a

lack emphasis on the cognitive strategies and skills of reading.

1.2. Problem-formulation

Independent Variables

The lack of emphasis on the cognitive strategies and reading skills.

Dependent Variables

A deficient reading comprehension on students.

Formulation of the problem:

The lack of emphasis on the cognitive strategies and reading skills leads to

a deficient reading comprehension on students.

5

1.3. Variables matrix

Variables Conceptual definition

Dimensions Sub-dimensions

Independent Variables

A correct emphasis on cognitive strategies considers all mental processes that underlie the acquisition, storage, production and understanding of speech and writing.

Language acquisition

How learners acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language.

Cognitive strategies and reading skills.

Native language

How native language influences on reading second-language texts.

Second-language acquisition

Second-language acquisition refers to what learners do; it does not refer to practices in language teaching. Here we will identify what obstacles students should overcome while learning to read.

Variables Conceptual definition Dimensions Sub-dimensions

Dependent Variables

Recognition of words is not enough on its own to constitute reading. Understanding what we are reading is key and is certainly the main point of teaching reading in a class.

Language teaching

Methodology

Different reading

techniques.

Reading comprehension on students.

6

1.3. Objectives

1.3.1 General Objective:

Determine the possible main cause of deficiency in reading comprehension

and how to improve students´ reading ability.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives:

1. To verify the low expertise in reading English texts and corroborate which

reading ability has poor proficiency.

2. To demonstrate how incorporating strategic abilities to read in their curriculum

implies a high improvement in learners´ ability to read.

3. To determine which specific barriers students do overcome in acquiring reading

comprehension skills.

1.4. Justification

This Research clearly attempts to demonstrate specific barriers in acquiring

READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS as well as specific strategies to reduce

these flaws. It has established how reading is approached in both Public and

Private Schools in Guayaquil (Ecuador). It attempted to explore the field of study

and gather accumulative information on it. In order to do this exploration, data was

collected and assimilated from formal direct observation, field notes, references to

(researcher-written) profiles and reports. Even though the small sampling number

(up to 30). It is self-explanatory, in other words, this research clearly leads to

determine the actual origin of the problem as well as most necessary problem-

solving steps to be taken.

7

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. Theoretical and Conceptual Focus

In the last several decades, theories and models of reading have changed,

from seeing reading as primarily receptive processes from text to reader to

interactive processes between the reader and the text (cf., Adams, 1990; Eskey

and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; Samuels, 1994; Stanovich, 1992; and Swaffar,

1988). Approaches to the teaching of foreign language reading have attempted to

reflect this development through interactive exercises and tasks. The use of

questions is an integral aspect of such activities, and based on some language

teachers´ experiences we have seen that well-designed comprehension questions

help students interact with the text to create or construct meaning. We believe that

it is critical that teachers help their students create meaning. Having students

actively engaged in actual reading and writing through activities that involved

reading, writing, and doing things with the text improve their well-developed

comprehension questions and help our students to begin thinking critically and

intelligently.

Undoubtedly good reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading

instruction at all grade levels and for all students, including those with learning

disabilities. Accurate assessment of reading comprehension is necessary to know

if this goal is being met, to identify children who need remediation, and to help plan

future instruction. However, many scientific investigators of reading agree that

further work on measures of reading comprehension is essential, including

development of comprehensive systems of assessment that pinpoint key strengths

and weaknesses in individual learners.

In general, different measures of reading comprehension correlate

significantly, and quite substantially, with each other. That is, students who score

highly on one measure of reading comprehension also tend to score highly on

other measures, whereas those who do poorly on one test tend to have difficulty on

other measures as well.

8

However, there is evidence that different tests may tap the abilities that

underlie reading comprehension – such as word decoding, vocabulary, listening

comprehension, and speed of reading – to different extents, such that scores

sometimes can vary substantially in individual cases.

For instance, although all reading comprehension measures tap word

decoding, cloze format tests may tap word decoding skills relatively more heavily

than do question-answering tests, perhaps because children can rely on the gist of

a passage or background knowledge in answering many typical comprehension

questions.

Similarly, reading comprehension assessments that require students to write

answers to open-ended questions – as do some state-mandated assessments –

may be tapping components of writing as well as reading. And a test with stringent

time limits clearly will tap speed of reading more than does an untimed test.

Therefore, if only one measure of reading comprehension is given, as is

often true, the results can potentially be misleading in certain cases.

In addition, tests of reading comprehension are broad measures that, by

themselves, do not usually help teachers pinpoint difficulties in individual students.

Two children might obtain the same score on a measure of reading comprehension

but might arrive at that score in very different ways. If one child has a strong

vocabulary and strong oral comprehension skills coupled with weak decoding, and

the other decodes well but has an impoverished vocabulary, then instruction for

those two youngsters will need to differ in some important respects. Assessment of

key component abilities, such as those mentioned above, is essential in order to

interpret reading comprehension performance and facilitate instructional planning.

Finally, current measures of reading comprehension are not geared toward

distinguishing specific comprehension processes that might underlie poor

comprehension in both listening and reading. Measures identifying such processes

could be enormously helpful in diagnosing and remediating comprehension

problems. Developing these kinds of measures is currently an area of much

interest in the scientific community.

9

2.2. Structure:

CHAPTER ONE

COGNITIVE SKILLS

1.1.Language acquisition

1.2 Reading matters: What is reading?

CHAPTER TWO

WHAT CHALLENGES DOES THE LEARNER READER FACE?

2.1 Native language influences

2.2 Does reading in a foreign language differ from native language reading?

2.3. What obstacles should learners overcome to achieve reading ability?

CHAPTER THREE

HOW TO IMPROVE READING DEVELOPMENT AND OVERCOME READING

DIFFICULTIES

3.1 Types of reading comprehension

3.2 The importance of a correct methodology

3.3. Reading Assessment Techniques

3.3.1 Summarizing

3.3.2 Looking for important information

3.3.3 Determining word meaning

3.3.4 Reflecting

CHAPTER FOUR

EXPLORING THE MANIFESTATION OF COMPREHENSION

10

4.1 How should we asses reading comprehension

4.2 Monitoring reading strategies

4.3 Developing and Evaluating Reading Comprehension Questions

2.3. Hypothesis system

2.3.1 Working Hypothesis:

The teaching of reading strategies helps effectively in developing reading

skills and improving comprehension abilities in students from an intermediate level.

2.3.2. Null Hypothesis

The teaching of reading strategies doesn´t help effectively in developing

reading skills and improving comprehension abilities in students from an

intermediate level.

2.3.3. Alternative Hypothesis

The teaching of reading strategies and the methodology used by the

teachers are decisive to develop students‘ ability to read English texts, acquiring a

highest comprehension competence.

11

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN

3.1. Research type and design:

In today´s world the ability to read is valued and vital skill. People in the

developed world are surrounded by print and it is difficult to imagine a life in which

you did not interact with written text on a daily basis. Reading is clearly an

important skill. In fact, reading is much more than a single skill: it involves the

coordination of a range of abilities, strategies and knowledge.

As we have read in the theoretical framework, learning to read involves two

components: word reading and comprehension of what we read.

This project is concerned with assessing the abilities to read our teenaged

students have, then determining which reading ability they most lack by classifying

each ability with an specific task included in the exam and proposing some

feedback and recommendations that should be considered to improve or reinforce

their reading comprehension. Two main variables we want to analyze are:

The first concerns the nature of poor comprehension. In it, we´ll review the

characteristics of poor comprehenders in relation to their wider literacy skills, in

involves only literal meaning of the text.

The second examines which reading and reading-related skills cause

difficulties for poor comprehenders and the evidence that these difficulties area

causally related to their general reading comprehension problems. In this variable,

reading comprehension involves going beyond the literal meaning of the text,

making links between ideas within the text and between the text and general

knowledge, in order to construct a coherent representation of a text´s meaning.

This kind of research is considered to be explanatory. It is focused to

determine which of the main two variables described above influences more in

their poor reading comprehension: word reading and word comprehension.

12

Methods:

Consulting some teachers with experience for teaching a second language

who may contribute with their knowledge in finding some reading

methodology that should be implemented in student´s approach.

Carrying the reading tests prepared above, with a previous instruction

explaining how it is structured and how their answers will be scored.

Showing them which were the correct answers, to help them clarifying some

doubts they may have about the tasks and explaining why the answers

shown are the correct and only ones.

Providing some feedback to students when having the final results, we´ll

explain which reading abilities were tested and which ones should be

reinforced.

Explaining to students what involves each reading abilitiy and how it may be

improved giving some examples, exercises and resources.

Explaining to teachers what involves each reading abilitiy and how it may be

improved with a correct methodology, implementing some strategic reading

abilities teaching in student´s approach, giving some examples, exercises

and resources.

Techniques:

Scaling, which is a technique that allows researchers through their

respondents to categorize certain variables that they would not be able to

rank, focused on a topic or construct of interest, involving input from one or

more participants, that produces an interpretable pictorial view (concept

map) of their ideas and concepts and how these are interrelated.

Listening students´ doubts about tasks done and explaining why only some

options were considered as right.

Giving some tips for increasing their ability to read while giving examples

and exercises to support them.

13

Teaching some strategies to help them determining word meaning using

context and some known words.

Giving teachers enough material about reading abilities and how to improve

them, to start including in their classes at least twice a month.

Giving some demonstrative classes for teachers, so they can learn about

the methodology, how to use the resources given and how better to include

in their student´s approach.

Instruments:

Didactic materials.

Classroom observation direct

Register of Notes

Test of Abilities

Additional reading tests and resources

3.2. Population and sample:

This study is developed to a specific English academy: “Tnte. Hugo Ortiz

High School”. The scope of this project will only be intermediate level, which has

32 students. It means there will not be a sample because all the students

population on this level will be tested.

The purpose of this study is to reflect what reading abilities students lack

and propose an alternative methodology this academy may use to improve

students´ performance on reading comprehension depending on the results

obtained.

As was described before, it is a descriptive project which aimed at

discovering inferences or a specific problem. We decided to select only the

intermediate level. Some reasons to support this idea are: Firstly, they may

14

generally represent a student with all the abilities and skills acquired along their

educational formation in the academy. So their results may easily be extended for

the rest of the academy because all of them have learnt with the same curricula.

Secondly, they represent the 37% of students this academy has and where most of

them have started to study English in the same academy since the first level.

Thirdly, we would like to have the opportunity to improve their reading abilities on

their last level. This will increase their abilities to read before graduating from

teenager courses as we take them as reference from before and after methodology

applied.

3.3. Field work

The present research will be applied at “Tnte. Hugo Ortiz Academy”. It is

located in front of Samanes 6, in “Tnte Hugo Ortiz Military High School, at the north

of Guayaquil, Guayas Province; with all the students from the intermediate level of

the first term, 2013.

3.4. Instruments for data collection:

The instruments that are going to be employed to collect new facts and

different kind of information are: tests, interviews and questionnaire.

TESTS

As data gathering devices, tests are among the most useful tools of

educational research, for they provide the data for most experimental and

descriptive studies in education. These instruments assess variety of human

abilities, potentials achievements and behavior in our specific case we would focus

on reading comprehenssion tests.

READING COMPREHENSSION TESTS.

It includes one reading. The evaluation will asses three dimensions

15

while they are reading: literal comprehension which refers to an

understanding of the straightforward meaning of the text, making

inferences which involves more than a literal understanding, and

prediction which involves using both their understanding of the

passage and their own knowledge of the topic.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire is a self report data collection instrument that each research

participant fills out as part of a research study. These questionnaires would include

questions like: where did you learn English? Did you learn it in English-Speaking

Country? if the answer is yes... Where? How long did you stay in that country? Did

you learn English in Ecuador? Was it at high school? Was it at University?, etc .

FORMS/KINDS OF QUESTIONNAIRE

The researcher can construct questions in the form of a closed, open

pictorial and scale items.

1. Close form

Questionnaire that calls for short check responses as the, restricted

or close form type. They provide for marking a Yes or No a short

response or checking an item from a list of suggested responses.

INTERVIEW (FACE TO FACE)

The interview is in a sense, an oral questionnaire. Instead of writing the

response, the subject or interviewee gives the needed information verbally in a

face to face relationship.

Interview that are done face to face are called in person interviews; interviews

conducted over the telephone are called telephone interviews.

The four types of interviews are:

The closed quantitative interview.

The standardized open ended interview.

The interview guide approach.

16

The informal conversational interview.

These four types can be grouped into quantitative interviews (which include

the closed quantitative interview) and qualitative interviews (which include the

standardized open ended interview, the interview guide approach and the informal

conversational interview.

3.5. Processing and analysis:

The Reading Test has one text from B1 level. There are four types of

questions which will evaluate three dimensions: literal comprehension, making

inferences and prediction. All questions are objective with only one answer, all of

them with multiple choices. The test will be grade over twenty which scores are

categorized into three levels: excellent ability to read (from 20 to 18), medium

ability to read (from 17 to 15) and lack ability for reading comprehension (˂14). In

the result section, scores were shown as percentage in each category according to

the reading ability that was evaluated. It helps to determine which ability should be

reinforced.

Then, depending on the scores, problem formulation will be proposed and in a

scientific way confirm or deny the work hypothesis for this investigation.

For this research the ― with median, maximum and minimum grade- test

will be carried out as a model of a hypothesis test, which will enable to determine if

the pattern of frequency observed in the students of the intermediate level

corresponds or fits the prospective or expected pattern.

17

CHAPTER FOUR: ADMINISTRATIVE FRAME

4.1 Material resources:

Cassette recorder

CD

Video tapes

Photographic camera

Film camera

Computer

Printer

Copy Machine

Surveys

Presentation Cards

4.2 Human Competence:

English Teachers of Tnte. Hugo Ortiz Academy

Tutor appointed by Polytechnic School.

Directors of English Department.

Researchers

4.3 Budget: Please check the ANNEX 1 at the end of this work.

4.4 Chronological distribution: Please check the ANNEX 2 at the end of this work.

4.5 Bibliography:

Aaron, P. G., Joshi, R. M., & Williams, K. A. (1999). Not all reading

disabilities are alike. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 32,120-137.

Kate Cain, Reading: Development and difficulties, BPS Blackwell BPS

Textbooks.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel:

Teaching children to read:

An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on

reading and its implications for Reading instruction. Washington, D.C.:

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD),

18

National Institutes of Health [online] available:

www.nationalreadingpanel.org

RAND Reading Study Group. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an

R&D program in reading comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: author.

Taylor, B. & Pearson, P. D. (Eds.) (2002). Teaching reading: Effective

schools, accomplished teachers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum

Associates.

4.6 Glossary:

Here you will find some specialized terms, used during the project, in alphabetical

order

Anticipation/Prediction: to guess or forecast an idea depending on the

context presented.

Authentic Questions: Questions generated by learners in response to

natural curiosity about the content. Questions spontaneously asked by

learners without prompting by teachers.

Categorization: Thinking skill that allows students to sort objects or concepts

into categories according to a variety of criteria.

Central Idea: main idea in a reading.

Closure: Any activities which help students summarize key points learned

and how the new knowledge relates to the objectives to be learned.

Cloze Procedure: An activity created by the teacher to give students

practice with language usage. The teacher selects a passage of text, marks

out some of the words, then rewrites the text with blank lines where the

marked out words were. The result is a "fill in the blank" that should be

enjoyable for the student while at the same time giving the teacher informa

Curricula. - All the courses of study offered by an educational institution.

(Social Science /Education) A course of study in one subject at a school or

college. Any program or plan of activities.

Data Analysis: Having students gather and analyze data can connect them

to real-world problems and also improve their critical thinking skills.

Evaluating: A critical thinking skill involving judging to place a value on ideas

or work.

Guided Reading: Structured reading where short passages are read, then

student interpretations are immediately recorded, discussed, and revised.

Inductive Thinking: Analyzing individual observations to come to general

conclusions. Proceeding from facts to the "big picture." Inferential Strategy

Like DR-TA but occurs only before and after reading.

19

Inferring: A thinking skill, demonstrated when a student can make

conclusions based on reading or prior knowledge.

Intra-Act: Students' valuing of reading is expressed by students responses

to opinion questions and their predictions of classmates' opinions on a

"game sheet."

Meaningful Sentences: Given vocabulary terms, students can be shown

sentences in which the terms are used in a context that helps them to

understand the meaning of the terms, or as an assessment, students can be

asked to write meaningful sentences containing key words.

Oral Reading: Oral reading of existing texts can be used to scaffold learning

of vocabulary, pronunciation, and connections to related topics. During the

writing process, oral reading becomes a proofreading strategy.

One Sentence Summary: Students are asked to write a single summary

sentence that answers the "who, what, where, when, why, how" questions

about the topic.

Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing involves careful reading, then rewriting the

ideas of the author in your own words. Learning to paraphrase is critical to

understanding how to do research from texts, then properly cite those texts

without plagiarizing.

Partner Reading: Pairs of students read together and the listener corrects

the active reader. One special form of partner reading is called "Reading

Buddies." Reading buddies are pairs whose members are several years

apart.

Population. - All matter and energy, including the earth, the galaxies, and

the contents of intergalactic space, regarded as a whole. The entire

aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn.

Predict / Check / Connect: A reading strategy by Edwin S. Ellis encouraging

predictions based on the beginning of a text.

Problem-Solving: A Meaningful Use Task which centers on overcoming

constraints or limiting conditions

Process Writing: Students write following a model specified by the instructor.

Emphasis shifts from the nature of the final product, to the process used to

create the final product.

Questions Into Paragraphs (QuIP) A reading and writing strategy by Elaine

McLauglin in which students are taught how to use questions to research

answers from multiple texts and incorporate them into a coherent

paragraph.

Reading.- The skill or activity of getting information from written words

20

Reading for Information: A type of reading in which learners interact with

text to collect information, or to improve their understanding of specific

topics.

Recall, Summarize, Question, Comment, and Connect (RSQC2): A

summarization technique in which students Recall (list) key points,

Summarize in a single sentence, ask unanswered questions, Connect the

material to the goals of the course, and write an evaluative Comment.

Reflection: A metacognitive activity. Learner pauses to think about, and

organize information gathered from reading, discussions, or other activities.

Reinforcement: something added to provide more strength or support.

Sample. - A portion, piece, or segment that is representative of a whole.

Statistics A set of elements drawn from and analyzed to estimate the

characteristics of a population. A set of individuals or items selected from a

population for analysis to yield estimates of, or to test hypotheses about,

parameters of the whole population.

Scanning: By Reading or looking at material quickly to gain an overview of

the content.

Self-Correction: Students correct themselves during reading, speaking, or

performing skills.

Self-Selected Reading: Students select the materials to read. It Improves

motivation as students can select materials of interest to them.

Similarities and Differences: A form of comparison in which students first list

all the similarities they can find between the two objects or concepts being

compared, then they list all the differences.

Skimming: Reading or looking at material quickly to gain an overview of the

content.

Study aids: The teacher provides students with carefully constructed tools to

assist students in learning for specific structures or environments. For

example, the teacher may distribute a "Guide to Using the Library" before

taking students to the library to do research. Before a multiple choice test,

the teacher may provide test-taking tips or tips on how to study for the

upcoming test.

Syntax: The use of the structure of language, or knowledge about the

structure of language to solve problems or understand text.

Teaching for Understanding: The approach used by teachers in order to

make learning a smooth process.

21

ANNEX 1: BUDGET

DESTINY VALUES

Materials: brochures, cds, surveys, evaluation tests.

40,00

Transportation 15,00

Background: research and presentation cards.

10,00

Unexpected expenses 20,00

Total 85,00

ANNEX 2: CRONOLOGYCAL DISTRIBUTION

This research project starts on March 25th and ends on June 10th.

TIMETABLE

MONTH

ACTIVITIES

MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE

Planning and Project Presentation Approval

X

The beginning evaluation test X

Collecting of data analysis information

X X

Development final report elaboration

X

Final evaluation test X

Inform X

22

APPENDIX SECTION

Reading Test to evaluate

Helen Adams Keller was worn in Alabama in 1880 and in 1968. Helen became deaf

and blind after a short childhood illness when she was 19 month old. 1886, aged six, Helen

was introduced to Anne Sullivan, a twenty year old teacher who was partially blind. Ann

was the first person to teach Helen the meaning of words. The first words Helen learned

was `water’ which Anne taught her by running cool water over her palm. She also taught

her how to speak by touching the lips and throats of other people which is known as the

Tadoma method. Helen was very closed to Anne, and called her `Teacher’. They remained

close friends and companions for 49 years.

In 1894, they moved to New York to study at Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. In

1898 Helen entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in Massachusetts and in 1900

she was admitted to Radcliffe College. In 1903, she wrote an autobiographical book called

The Story of my Life. In 1904, Helen graduated from Radcliffe College becoming the first

deaf and blind person to graduate from college.

The Story of Helen Adams Keller

23

Helen became famous all over the world as an author and speaker and travelled to over

39 countries with Anne. Ann Sullivan died in 1936. Helen devoted the rest of her life to

raising funds for blind and deaf people of America. In 1960, she published another book,

entitled Light in my Darkness. She died in June, 1968 in Connecticut.

Helen Keller will always be remembered as an exceptional person who overcame her

blindness and deafness to achieve great things. As she always said, `The best and most

beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the

heart.’

I. Read the text and choose the correct answer (A-D) for questions 1-5

1. What is the author main purpose in writing the text? (2 p)

A. To present us with a short biography of Helen Adams Keller

B. To talk about the success a deaf and blind person can achieve in life

C. To explain why Helen Adams Keller is such an inspiring person.

D. To describe Helen Adams Keller’s personality.

2. What would a reader learn about Anne Sullivan from the text? (2 p)

A. She was like a sister to Helen.

B. She was Helen’s teacher and close friend.

C. She was very close to Helen.

D. She was an inspiration for Helen.

3. What did Helen do after she graduated from college? (2 p)

A. She went to Massachusetts.

B. She wrote The Story of my Life.

C. She travelled the world as an author and speaker.

D. She moved to Alabama.

24

4. Helen was an exceptional person because (2 p)

A. She managed to achieve great things.

B. She was the first blind and deaf person to write a book.

C. She was the first blind and deaf person to graduate from college.

D. She raised funds for blind and deaf person in America.

5. Which is the best description of Helen? (2 p)

A. An exceptional person who overcame blindness and deafness to achieve great things

B. A blind and deaf author who travelled over 39 countries.

C. An exceptional blind woman who was speaker and author.

D. A gifted blind and deaf speaker who wrote many books.

II. Match each word with a word or phrase that is similar to meaning: (6 p)

1. Remain ( par 1)________

2. Raising ( par 3)_______

3. Overcame ( par 4)_______

4. Blindness ( par 4)______

A. Collecting

B. The state of not being able to

see

C. To stay in the same condition

D.To defeat or succeed difficulties

What do these words refer to? (4 p)

1. She (par 1, line 5) : __________________

2. Her (par 1, line 6) : __________________

Reading: Level B1+

25

Examples of Reading Assessments:

26

27

28

29

30

CHAPTER FIVE: TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS

4.1. Graphical exposition of results:

68%

33%

Final Results

Correct

Lack of ability

31

4.2. Analysis of results:

Summarizing:

This ability is one of the hardest reading and comprehension skills to be

achieved as it requires a thorough evaluation of facts. It is required for learners to

provide a global or comprehensive judgment about some aspect of the text plus

inherent skill of summarizing main ideas. The figures show that 62 percent of

students could summarize properly which means that almost 4 out of ten learners

are still deficient in this area. It is also worth mentioning that these learners mostly

come from medium class families who can afford, to certain extent, private English

classes. It leads that the number of students with this lack of ability of summarizing

would considerably increase if students from poor areas would be surveyed.

Determining word meaning:

This type of comprehension is closely related to literal meaning, it also

deeply connected to the straightforward understanding of meaning of any given

62,5%

37,5% Summarizing

Correct

Lack of ability

67%

33%

Determining Word Meaning

Correct

Lack of ability

32

text, this includes: facts, vocabulary, dates, times, and locations. Under the latter

category we would also find those questions that are categorized as literal

comprehension, indeed they can be answered directly and explicitly from the text.

It seems these parameters need to be heavily reinforced as it seems learners still

do not have enough vocabulary that allows them to recognize words and phrases

properly. The figures, however, are not totally discouraging, almost 67% of learners

could identify word meaning. Regretfully our sample is small but experience has

shown that this amount would tend to get lower when it comes to deal with school

in deprived areas. Therefore, teachers should increase the amount of vocabulary

focusing on those words and expression which are really useful for their daily

interactions or careers rather than unnecessary one.

Reflecting:

It is well-known that reflecting on a passage of reading is a practical way of

connecting learners´ experiences, beliefs, and values, which in turn helps students

to remember the material better. Results are on the figure which appears to be on

an average of 62%. It is undoubtedly that this percentage would be less positive in

poor and rural areas.

63%

38%

Reflecting

Correct

Lack of ability

33

Literal comprehension:

Literal comprehension refers to an understanding of the straightforward

meaning of the text, such as facts, vocabulary, dates, times, and locations.

Questions of literal comprehension can be answered directly and explicitly from the

text. In our experiences working with teachers, we have found that they often

check on literal comprehension first to make sure that their students have

understood the basic or surface meaning of the text.

In our study, when we test children, all of them got the maximum grade of 2/2. This

means students don´t have enough problem looking for relevant or specific

information such as names, dates, reasons and some punctual information written

in the same way the question asks.

4.3. Conclusions:

Comprehension is a complex process that requires a number of skills from

recognizing individual words through to forming a coherent and cohesive

mental model of a text. In turn, these skills place demands on a variety of

linguistic and cognitive processes.

100%

0%

Looking for important information

Correct

Lack of ability

34

It was found that poor readers constituted four heterogeneous groups which

may be classified or identified depending on the deficiency in any of the

following skills: (a) decoding only, (b) comprehension only, (c) a combination

of decoding and comprehension, and (d) a combination of orthographic

processing and reading speed.

The criteria used in selecting poor readers influenced the distribution of the

ratio of the four types of poor readers within any given group. As it has been

stated throughout this research the conclusions are limited to this specific

group. However, teaching experience has shown that reading flaw seems

much bigger in other population segments.

It is also worth mentioning that these learners mostly come from medium

class families who can afford, to certain extent, private English classes. The

number of students would considerably increase if students from poor areas

would be surveyed.

4.4. Recommendations:

It is clear that Ecuadorian teachers need to deepen their preparation in all

areas, of course, reading cannot be exception. Ecuadorian teachers need to

embrace cutting edge techniques which encourage group activities. Those

activities establish and promote the discussion of the answers, even if this also

implies to deal with those that are wrong in order to have learners really involved in

creating useful meaning. Regretfully we have a weak reading culture and this is

reflected on the way our students see reading, therefore, these activities should be

interesting and useful to students´ interests.

In addition, some specific recommendations we would like to be considered for

teachers are:

35

Provide explicit instruction and practice in the use of comprehension

strategies

Begin with a text about a familiar topic in which the structure is easy to

identify.

Move on to a text on a less familiar topic and with a somewhat more

complex structure

Encourage students to make predictions, select a text in which many

outcomes are possible

Increase the amount and quality of open, sustained discussion of reading

content

Set and maintain high standards for text, conversation, questions, and

vocabulary

Increase students' motivation and engagement with reading

Teach essential content knowledge so that all students master critical

concepts rather than unnecessary.

Finally, we would like to mention that in the appendix section, you´ll find some

model of reading assessments to take as reference when evaluating student´s

performance. These ones could be applied after applying some reading strategies

described in the proposal chapter.

36

CHAPTER SIX: THE PROPOSAL

One of the most important treasures that human being has is the ability to

communicate with language. Good reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of

reading instruction at all grade levels and for all children, including those with

learning disabilities. Accurate assessment of reading comprehension is necessary

to know if this goal is being met, to identify children who need remediation, and to

help plan future instruction. However, many scientific investigators of reading agree

that further work on measures of reading comprehension is essential, including

development of comprehensive systems of assessment that pinpoint key strengths

and weaknesses in individual youngsters.

Start discussing why poor comprehenders fail to understand text will involve

designing another project with an explicative research design to determine its main

reasons. However, by some experience and investigation, we can generally

classify those problems into three broad categories: text-level processing,

exploring underlying language weaknesses and poor comprehenders’ memory

skills.

Our purpose is not to investigate deeply on each broad category. On the

contrary, bring teachers some functional tools to overcome those reading

obstacles. For this reason, as a strategy to reinforce students´ abilities for reading

comprehension, we have decided to share some material and strategies found on

the internet that may be inserted in student´s approach, without changing its

general structure.

Developing Reading Comprehension Strategies

Some teaching techniques that have been shown to be effective in promoting

reading comprehension are:

37

Comprehension monitoring

Graphic/semantic organizers (diagrams) for learning new vocabulary

Story structure training focusing on plots, characters and main events

Question answering

Question generation

Summarization (identifying and integrating details to create a coherent and

succinct summary of a text)

Multiple strategy teaching, based around discussion between children and a

tutor.

Some effective strategies that lead to better reading skills standards:

Active comprehension monitoring that leads to the use of fix-up strategies when

comprehension fails; use of graphic and semantic organizers, including:

Story maps

Question generation

Summarization and paraphrasing

Selective rereading.

Interventions for Poor Comprehenders

A number of small-scale training studies provide evidence that reading

comprehension can be improved in poor comprehenders. Strategies include

training in:

Inferencing and monitoring skills

Lexical inference resolution, question generation and prediction.

Mental imagery encouraging children to make representational and

transformational pictures in their minds.

Visualizing and Verbalising

38

Finally, we would like to share with you one interesting and amazing channel we´ve

found on the internet:

http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Reading_Comprehension_Strategies.ht

ml

The Balanced Literacy Diet presents literacy concepts using the familiar

terminology of a healthy diet. This channel is organized around 15 key "food

groups" for literacy. These are based on what is known from research and practice

to be essential for effective literacy instruction. Through hundreds of brief engaging

videos, educators can learn about the essential food groups for literacy and hear

from "classroom chefs" presenting "literacy recipes" in their own personal styles.

Here we will find hundreds of detailed lesson plans and Virtual Tours of the

classrooms of exemplary literacy teachers, who share insights on implementing

effective and engaging instruction in classrooms from Pre-K to 6th grade. However

some of these techniques may also be used with teenagers with hardly little

changes on methodology. In the Appendix, you´ll find come recommended videos

about how to improve students´ reading abilities and comprehension.