Addressing challenges on acquisition of reading comprehension to second language English speakers. Where does the gap lie?
Background to the study
In our country, South Africa, we know that we are faced with so many socio-economic issues Some of these issues are poverty, high crime, HIV/AIDS epidemic, child-headed families, abuse in the family, illiterate parents and alcoholic parents just to name a few. These social make it even harder for us as teachers, how do you teach learners when they are hungry, the parents are employed and there’s no food in the house. We are also faced with educational issues which unskilled teachers, non-parental involvement, lack of motivation from teachers, the ever changing curriculum. Let me put emphasis on the issue I feel that if we as teachers were to work harder, we would be able to help diminish such issue. It is the issue of teaching reading comprehension.
We are very aware that in our schools we get diverse learners who teachers need to be trained for to cater for those students. The most of the learners in the school are multilingual; well it is my job as a caring teacher to adapt your lessons and curriculum for those students.
Almost all of the learners that are in our schools, do not have English as Home language, you find that English is a third or fourth language. We need to better equip ourselves with reality, when we get to tertiary English is the means of communication and medium of instruction between students and lecturers. The study materials are written in English and media like laptops and tablets are operated in English. Why must we let our children suffer because we want to show the world that we can integrate 11 eleven languages in the curriculum. I am not saying p...
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...so receive training on how explicitly teach reading comprehension. To avoid teachers being unmotivated about teaching it, this can often lead to learners not having any interest on the subject. Therefore I plan to use learning aids and regularly and frequently assess the learners.
References
Baumann, J. F. (1984). The effectiveness of a direct instruction paradigm for teaching main idea comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 93-115.
Beck, I., Omanson, R., & Mckeown, M. (1892). An instructional redesign of reading lessons: effects on comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 17, 462-481
Patterson, C. J., & O’Brien, R. G., (1980). Nonverbal indicants of comprehension and non-comprehension in children. Developmental Psychology, 16, 38-48
Pearson, P.D. (1985). Changing the face of reading comprehension instruction. The Reading Teacher , 38(8), 724-738
Fountas, I., C., & Pinnel, G. S., (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The purpose of this study is to figure out which ways experienced teachers work best with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study illustrates which strategies experienced teachers have found to work best. The diversity in school in the United States has increased each year. This means that there are an increasing amount of students who are learning English, English language learners (ELLs). This article comes from the perspective that each child should be taught to their specific needs. All students deserve a fair chance to learn. Fair means that every student is treated differently, not equally. Every student learns differently. In order to give every student a fair chance at learning, you must teach them according to their needs. An experienced teacher, Tiffany, describes her experiences working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study watches her methods and discusses what works based on data analysis of the success of her students.
She understands what she has read when she uses her classroom reading strategies Danica continues to struggle with reading fluency, finding specific details, identifying the main idea, understanding the meaning of a text, making inferences, predicting what may happen next and drawing conclusions for the regular education curriculum These difficulties in language arts/reading has negatively impact Danica ’s ability to perform grade level text independently within the regular education
Gunning, Thomas G. "Chapters 1 & 2." Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students: International Edition. Boston, Mas.: Pearson, 2013. N. pag. Print.
...ed by most, and how dyslexia can cause problems with reading comprehension. It also discussed ways that we can mitigate these problems for dyslexic people, but these skills can and should be used by all learners. Reading comprehension is a perishable skill, one that if you don’t work on increasing your reading ability by building your vocabulary, learn to read effectively, or using the correct reading strategies for the type of reading material being studied will diminish. Even with the largest vocabulary, if the words are not understood literacy cannot be achieved. Literacy is the key to comprehensive reading. It also gave some of the tools for reading and understanding different types of literature and how to get the important information out of each one. Edmund Burk said “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting” (Gallagher, 2003, p. 11).
When visiting just about any school across America, students who attend come from all over the globe. This raises the question across America about bilingual education. This can create many challenges in and out of the classroom. The classroom should be a safe place for all students regardless of what native language they speak. In the essay Lost in translation written by Eva Hoffman, describes a foreign student who tries hard to fit in. Instead, Eva begins to feel angry, hurt and confused because people laugh at her. In Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education by Elizabeth R. Howard, Julie Sugarman, Donna Christian Center for Applied Linguistics Kathryn J. Lindholm-Leary San José State University David Rogers Dual Language Education of New Mexico. Guiding principles gives great ideas to educators to stop kids from making other students feel the way that Eva felt. After reading several articles about bilingual education, it is evident that all children in school should learn English but never lose their native language. When all the students speak one language, students will be less likely to make fun of each other. A good educator should learn enough foreign languages to aid them in effective communication in their classroom although; if an educator does not speak a foreign language, they should recruit within the classroom students to be peer mentors. However, a teacher should be willing to listen and encourage the students. Above all a good educator should be a good role model to their students by respecting their heritage and their language.
As the human race continues to become progressively more intelligent, countries are becoming more and more competitive in a “race to the top.” Our society, and others alike, have placed increasing demands on citizens in an effort to ensure they go on to be productive, intelligent contributors. While this is a natural progression of the human race, those who were previously struggling to succeed are now fighting to close an even larger gap. When it comes to education, this is a clear and present concern for many educators and students. Teachers are being held accountable for raising the bar and ensuring that each student performs successfully, in accordance with the national (Common Core) standards. A big concern regarding these increasing demands of an every changing society, are students who are already struggling to succeed, such as those with learning disabilities. One of the primary targets of the Common Core is reading, as reading ability is considered to strongly predict whether or not a student goes on to be successful in the education system and in society. In order to service these children, educators have experimented with many research-based interventions in an effort to get struggling students up to grade level and prevent them from being taken out of the general education classroom. The following articles discuss various aspects of a popular research-based intervention, Fountas and Pinnell, and how this interventions benefit students with learning disabilities, specifically in the area of reading comprehension.
I have seen my students trying very hard to make sense what they read and use it to construct their new knowledge. I have seen their frustration for not achieving the demands of reading at a college level. I have also seen them overwhelmed by “big” textbooks which were not meant to be read. The experience I have gained during these years as a case manager has made me realized that the reading challenges of college students are sometimes underestimated. It is my responsibility to enlighten my students’ reading challenges, to reflect on them, and to provide the support and guidance they deserve to overcome their reading
...ents to make a good reader. Therefore, without a certain piece of reading students skills the scaffolding is unstable. Due to a student’s faulty scaffolding, reading does not work cohesive to make the end product a successfully understood story. This concerns me. If I feel like they are falling behind on these skills and their other teachers, my colleagues, are not teaching them these skills, I will and do my best at making it appropriate for my class. Without reading skills, they will be faced with horrible ramifications from their problems to comprehend and understand the vocabulary words they see in their textbooks.
Most administrators and educators, if asked what is the area that needs the most improvement in schools today, would answer reading. Children seem to battle with reading at almost every grade level. As reported by Trelease (2006) students do not read very much. In one reported study, 90% of the students studied devoted only 1 percent of their free time to reading and 30% to watching television. Fifty percent of the students read for an average of four minutes or less per day, 30% read two minutes per day, and 10% read nothing at all (p. 1). These statistics only serve to worsen the fear of students low reading abilities. Educators have developed a myriad of programs to improve students’ comprehension, retention, and higher level thinking skills. These skills are especially important in the improvement of scores on the state mandated assessments.
That is the goal of being a fluent reader. Mrs. Baughman uses the components of a story to teach comprehension. The components of the story are the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. If students can easily pick out the answers for the components of a story then their comprehension is growing. Another way to teach comprehension is by using graphic organizers like Venn-diagrams, story maps, and cause and effect charts. Teachers can also ask questions to make sure students understand the text. Not only does the teacher need to ask questions, but so do the students. If a student can ask questions, and with guidance answer it themselves they understand the material. The same goes with summarizing texts. A good way to check comprehension is to see how well the students summarized the texts. Doing so, can show if they really understand the material or they are just reading without thinking about it. Group work is a good way for students to share their thoughts on texts and help explain it to others in an easier way. If students do not comprehend text then their reading skills for the future will not be good. Teaching comprehension is not by just asking questions. There are many ways to check it that give a better view on how students are
Language plays an important in our lives, for children this is a critical time for them to learn how they can use language to communicate effectively from the when they learn through school and into adulthood. While a child goes through school they are exposed to Standard English, but there are diversities that appear in the classroom for example culture plays a part in language development. Gee and Hayes (2011) stated that there are many things that language can be including; a set of rules, a cognitive experience, a social tool or an object, but overall language is something that changed based on culture and social context. Acknowledging and accepting diversity in the classroom in relation to language and language learning is important
comprehension instruction: A comparison of instruction for strategies and content approaches ―[Electronic version]. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(3), 218–253.
Many students have a hard time when it comes to reading. There are many reading inventions that can help students out. Reading inventions are strategies that help students who are having trouble reading. The interventions are techniques that can be used to assist in one on ones with students or working in small groups to help students become a better reader. Hannah is a student who seems to be struggling with many independent reading assignments. There can be many reasons that Hannah is struggling with the independent reading assignments. One of the reasons that Hannah can be struggling with is reading comprehension while she is reading on her on. Reading comprehension is when students are able to read something, they are able to process it and they are able to understand what the text is saying. According to article Evidence-based early reading practices within a response to intervention system, it was mentioned that research strategies that can use to help reading comprehension can include of activating the student’s background knowledge of the text, the teacher can have questions that the student answer while reading the text, having students draw conclusions from the text, having
Just, M.A., & Carpenter, P.A. (2010). The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.