Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012

Reading Comprehension: Helping ELLs Grasp the Full Picture When learning a language, there is implicit the development of certain skills that assure or prove that certainly the language is being learned; such skills are listening, speaking, writing and reading, from which the last one is considered by some the most complex one. Within these skills or abilities, a certain number of micro skills are attached, and reading is not the exception; its micro skills involve processes that are more personal compared to the other abilities. Nevertheless, reading besides being a complex subject, it is also a very interesting one since it tends to emancipate a persons proficiency in almost all areas of performance academically and socially speaking. Therefore, knowing all these factors, and knowing as well that reading and its implications are of highly importance in the teaching field, I will show my reflections about it, and of the video Reading Comprehension: Helping Ells Grasp the Full Picture as well. Since reading comprehension is the main topic of this paper, a definition of it is required. Brummitt-Yale defines it as an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing. Dr. Cynthia Lundgren, one of the specialists starring the video, gave a clearer explanation of it, saying that reading comprehension is the ability to make meaning out of a text. I think Dr. Lundgren meaning summarizes in a simple way what reading comprehension is about; and for me it is about understanding the text, its meaning, how to apply it and with what. Having these concepts in mind of what it is reading comprehension, we can notice that it indeed is a very complex topic

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 since comprehension in individuals is not that easy to check, however, it is of crucial importance because it let us know that the text has been processed. Since reading comprehension involves a performance that is more delicate than others, it requires some abilities that assure a proficient comprehension. Dr. Lundgren mention that some of those abilities that are within the reading comprehension and that help to have a truly comprehension when reading are making personal connections, that is relating the text with ones life; knowing the test structure, that means that if we know how a text is structured, then our understanding of it will be better for we know how it was constructed or in what way; and also the purpose of reading, which gives the reader awareness of what to wait when reading, or why reading it, what to expect of the text. These micro skills promise to improve in a significant way the outcome of reading that is reading comprehension. Other factors that influence reading comprehension, as mentioned in the video are decoding, fluency when reading, and also vocabulary. Dr. Kristina Robertson, another expert on the field and also one of the experts invited to the discussion in the video, said that vocabulary is important. I do agree with her because if readers do not know the meaning of the words they are reading, they will not know what the phrase, sentence, and paragraph and lastly text is about; they need to know the meaning of the words. With the inclusion of these with the so called micro skills mentioned in the antecedent paragraph, reading comprehension must have a noteworthy and noticeable score. Besides the before mentioned factors and abilities to accomplish a better reading comprehension, there are some strategies that help to achieve this. These strategies, said Dr. Robertson, are the ones that are characteristics of the good readers. Those are: to reread

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 when the text is confusing; looking for synonyms or antonyms or the words meaning in a dictionary; looking for cognates if the learner or reader has a native language like the example the video presented of the first school; or by just asking the teacher for example, what that means. With these strategies, said the experts in the video, reading comprehension will be achieved. And even better, that comprehension will not only be in the reading subject, but in any, for example, in Math or Science. One topic which I found really interesting and that was mentioned in the video was about intentionality and being specific. Sometimes teachers expect of their students something that was not even explained to them, and if it was explained, it might not was in the appropriate way; being specific and having an intention when doing something is better that going around or having deceptions at the end of a task. The experts invited to the discussion advised us to use L1 in some occasions to explain things, even the meaning of words. I understood it as having more interaction with students, and also being clear and simple. And in my experience, when instructions are given, but not understood, and when something is expected and the result it is not what was supposed to be, there is a bad reaction in both sides: teacher and students. So I think that for avoiding that, the advice of Dr. Lundgren and Dr. Robertson is of great value. One aspect that was emphasized many times during the video was about vocabulary. As stated before, vocabulary is of highly importance because texts are composed of words, so the understanding of the words texts bring, will assure the understanding of the whole text. What is difficult about it is the teaching of it; when teaching vocabulary, Dr. Robertson recommended using activities such as Index Cards, in order to make vocabulary meaningful in a way that students will make words their own and will have a relationship with them. That has

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 to be done before getting to the book or text to not give students a hard time processing the material. Related to vocabulary, are the cognates. Cognates are words in two languages that have a common etymology and thus are similar or identical. (Erichsen, 2012). Using cognates to boost reading comprehension is an excellent way to improve it in ELLs as shown in the first school presented in the video. These similar words tend to make easier the process of comprehension when reading and it is understandable since there are up to 10,000 to 15,000 cognates in Spanish and English. Definitely, being aware of cognates when reading will make a big difference to have success on these skill, and therefore the result that are wanted will be reached. Having the previous knowledge of reading comprehension, what it involves, and what it needs, therefore, we can say that certainly it is something complex and some might say hard to accomplish, but teaching it to ELLs is not that bad. Dr. Lundgren and Dr. Robertson stated that reading, improves the two languages proficiency when the learner has a L1 and is learning the L2. They also said that skills are transferred to one language to another, which means, for example, that if a learner knows what is cause and effect in Spanish then he or she will know what it is in English. This is something really admirable, to know that through our work as teachers, we are helping to develop not one, but two languages proficiency gives us the courage to keep going on that not easy labor. And something that Dr. Lundgren said and that really caught my attention was this: The strongest they are in their mother tongue, the better they are going to learn English. That gives me the confidence to say that if I as a teacher am helping my students to reinforce their mother tongue, then that way their L2 learning is going to be, and that is really great to know.

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012

Throughout the video, besides vocabulary, intentionality and other topics, one that was many times mentioned was about comprehension strategies. Comprehension strategies are conscious plans set of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. (Adler). They help students to understand in a better way. Dr. Robertson mentioned some of those strategies, some of them are: rereading, reading out loud, making predictions, analyzing, relating to ones experience, among others. When it comes to making predictions, it involves a stronger connection with ones background, personal experiences will be brought into mind, and in other words it will bring schemata in action. I see this as a very important thing since it is related to the students feelings towards the reading; teachers have to take that into account always: the fact the students are living beings, and therefore, they have lived and have gained experiences that might foster their learning. Another thing that goes together with the comprehension strategies, and more with the analyzing strategy, is that of improving the academic proficiency. In the video was said that when analyzing and when relating reading to ones life, the academic proficiency will be improved. Those are characteristics of good readers, and because they go deeper than just reading, there is a crossover from Basic Interpersonal Communication skills to Cognitive Language Academic Proficiency skills. Making that transition will be hard, I think, but will be worthy. Continuing with the advices for reading comprehension, the experts in the video remarked many times about intentionality and also the teachers role. Dr. Lundberg said that intentionality is a key strategy for ESL/EFL teachers; that way we can really obtain a desired

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 result, and they said that telling students what we really want and why we want it will make things not hard. Dr. Lundgren and Dr. Robertson also mentioned that teacher has to give some specific instructions when students are reading, and help them to do what teachers are advising. An example would be that in order to understand better a text, teachers advise their students to use graphics, linking maps, or some kind of categorization activity to organize and process information. Another example is scaffolding; Dr. Lundgren said that teachers should start from the very basic and then move to the more complex letting students go by their own. This will follow a model that goes like teacher do, teacher explains and then students do, but always from the easier to the more difficult. One advice that they also gave in the video was referred to the comprehension check. Apparently teachers tend to check comprehension of a text until the end of the reading event, and that is not good since many things about the reading might not were understood and therefore there is missing of understanding or even an incomplete understanding of the text. To avoid this, experts said, comprehension checks must be in the middle of the reading, every time they move from one page to another, or every three pages, there must be a comprehension check that will assure a truly understanding of the reading. They also mentioned about asking yes/no questions; experts said that these types of questions should be avoided when checking comprehension because they not allow students to expand what they feel, or what they know about what they have read. A theory or technique that allows students to really comprehend texts in an interactive way is the Reciprocal Teaching in Reading. Since ESL/EFL should not be about working individually this technique is of great value. The Reciprocal Teaching consists in asking questions about the reading, defining meanings of undefined words, summarizing and finding

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 main ideas, and predicting what is next in the reading. These steps will lead to the final purpose of reading, which is finding the meaning. Interaction with the text and with other readers will help students comprehend the text. The second school presented in the video uses this technique to help students comprehend the text. Watching the video has definitely proved me that reading comprehension can be achieved, and that teachers can assist students in a very positive way so they accomplish it. Working with bilingual students is hard, and besides that, cultural differences affect comprehension when reading, but that can be succeeded. Something that Dr. Lundgren said is that if students love it, they will do it, and that is what it is about. Teachers have to work hard to make students love what they are doing; they have to be able of making academic activities so delightful that students will enjoy doing them. Another aspect that I think is of noteworthy mention is Dr. Robertsons advice about integrating comprehension with content. In the reading class, comprehension is essential, but in the other classes too. In any subject there is reading involved, so the way comprehension is used in the reading class, that way it has to be used in others. That will bring a noticeable result in all the classes, not only in reading. And I totally agree with this, because sometimes the content of the classes are difficult, but once students know how to deal with difficulties in texts, then they will know how to work with that. Reading comprehension being the final result of reading seems to be difficult to achieve. In my experience, it has been. Nevertheless, without knowing all these, I have had some characteristics of a good reader because if I did not understand the text, I read again; if I did not understand a word, or I guessed its meaning or I looked at it in a dictionary, and so

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 many other things that are mentioned in this paper to achieve reading comprehension. Now I know what I have to do to reach more successful in teaching reading to my students. And more that teaching reading comprehension, I think that what has to concern teachers is achieving it because reading comprehension is not only used in academic tasks, but real life situations too. At work, at home, at any place, if a person does not understand what a text is about, then that person in going to be in problems. I must say then, that reading comprehension is a skill need to live in this demanding world, and that it will be used at any time of a person life. Reading comprehension, the ability to make meaning out of a text is not an easy labor, nor for teachers, nor for students. But it is not that bad, there are plenty of activities and techniques that help students and teachers to achieve it, in the Internet, libraries, and videos like the one assigned and of which this paper is about, we can find that help needed to reach this objective. So many things can be done, and better yet is that those things are not difficult, from index cards, to discussion in groups about a text are the possibilities that we can use to facilitate reading comprehension. In sum, I can say that reading comprehension is of great relevance and that in can be achieved by many ways; teachers just have to be creative or look for help, but more important, take into account students and even letting them know about what the teacher wants, that way, reading comprehension can be fostered, no matter how complex it is.

Theories and Methods of TESOL Jaime Fabricio Mejia Mayorga March 23th, 2012 Bibliography

Adler, C. (n.d.). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension. Retrieved March 23, 2012, from Reading Rockets: Teaching Kids to Read and Helping those Who Struggle: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3479/

Brummitt-Yale, J. (n.d.). What is Reading Comprehension. Retrieved March 22, 2012, from K12 Reader: Reading Instruction Resources for Teachers & Parents: http://www.k12reader.com/what-is-reading-comprehension/

Erichsen, G. (2012). Cognate. Retrieved March 23, 2012, from About.com Spanish Language: http://spanish.about.com/cs/vocabulary/g/cognategloss.htm

Reading Rockets: Teaching Kids to Read and Helping those Who Struggle. (n.d.). Comprehension: Helping ELLs Grasp the Full Picture. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from Reading Rockets: Teaching Kids to Read and Helping those Who Struggle: http://bcove.me/hmp1f71l