Running head: REDING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 1 What Strategies Can Teachers Employ To Help ESL Struggling Learners With Reading Comprehension? Abigail Muchazyi Concordia University A Research Report Presented to the Graduate Program in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Education Concordia University – Portland 2016 READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 2 What strategies can teachers employ to help ESL struggling learners with reading comprehension? It is the desire of every teacher to produce `A` students in his class, and what makes all this possible is the comprehension of instruction, because without comprehending instructions, the results can be disastrous. Whose role is it then to help students with reading to understand? Students that take English as a second language tend to struggle with understanding texts even the very simplest texts. Every child should be able to read during his first three years in school. To support this fact, Gambrell & Morrow states, “A primary goal of an early literacy is to help young children comprehend and enjoy stories…prior to reading or listening to stories, prereading activities build young children`s background knowledge and strengthen their vocabulary, both to which contribute positively to text comprehension” (p. 88). So then where did these teachers go wrong? Why can`t these children comprehend even a simple text? How can teachers help these students to read to understand? Review of the Literature Baier, (2005) states that reading is fundamentally important for success and that it opens the door to personal freedom or shuts the door to opportunity. A research conducted by Greanleaf, Schoenbach, Cziko, and Mueller (2002) shows the majority of inexperienced readers need opportunities and instructional support to read many and diverse types of texts in order to gain experience, build fluency, and develop a range as readers (Lucksdorf, 2008). The idea of having all teachers across all subjects instill reading skills in students as expected in some schools is far-fetched. This is evident from the progress made by some students that go for reading support programs. READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 3 Understanding a reading passage is not a matter of just memorizing the details of the author`s message. It rather a combination of “interpreting, evaluating, drawing on prior experience, and drawing on interactions with other readers and writers” (Temple, et al., 2005, p.209, as cited by Lucksdorf, 2008). In the article Can Struggling Readers Succeed? The author points out to say that reading aloud is among other strategies that can help learners to comprehend texts. He states, “Reading aloud is important because it benefits children`s growth as readers. It also helps children develop important language skills that will help them learn to read on their own.” Most studies show that struggling readers can overcome comprehension problems by practicing solid reading strategies. Research mentions of strategies that appear in Put Reading First that have a firm scientific basis for improving text comprehension. By monitoring comprehension, using graphic organisers, answering questions, generating questions, recognizing story structure, and summarizing (Lucksdorf, 2008 &Mudiziewana, 2013). Using these suggested strategies, students will be able to become comprehensive readers. In the article Research-based comprehension strategies: bridging the gap (2013, p.323), the author wrote, “Literature confirms that primary grade teachers fail to teach learners strategies for becoming proficient readers.” One would be forced to deduce that this is the reason that some secondary schools have got learners that struggle with reading, and these are just pushed to high school causing a risk to their future. Mudizielwana, (2013), states, “A rationale for teaching comprehension strategies is that readers derive more meaning from a text when they engage in intentional thinking. That is when people run into difficulties in understanding what they have read; the application of specific strategic cognitive processes will improve their comprehension. This indicates that students can only apply these strategies when they are familiar with them, and they can only be familiar with these only when taught. Literature shows that some of the students as reviewed in the studies READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 4 struggled with reading comprehension because the above mentioned strategies were not taught to them. It is clear that during reading comprehension, teachers must provide a clear explanation of the structure of the strategy to be learnt and explain why those strategies are to be used. In the article A Synthesis of Research on Informational Text Reading Interventions for Elementary Students With learning Disabilities, the authors mentions to say cognitive strategies are associated with improved learning, but only when they are taught to students. Wessels, (2010, as cited by Mudzielwana) emphasizes that it is important for teachers to model good behaviour of reading and the strategies before reading so that learners may use them during independent reading and when they experience problems. Also, the importance of modeling strategies is that learners get opportunities to learn and see how strategies should be incorporated by watching expert comprehenders modeling the strategies. Literature shows that comprehension strategies should be taught and learned. This therefore calls for teachers to be competent. Lucksdorf, (2008) points out the importance of instructional support for struggling readers. He mentions that readers of different levels can use strategies such as demonstration and immersion, attention to detail, guided practice as well as application and extension. He states that by using these strategies during reading activities, struggling readers can learn to apply prior knowledge and pick out important information within a passage, and all this is possible with additional support (Lucksdorf, 2008, Mudzielwana, 2013, Faust, 2009 & Baier, 2005). Research also shows that these strategies should be made explicit. Research proves that reading materials have a significant role in the students` comprehension. Teachers need to find materials that are appropriate to reading levels, as this contributes to struggling readers` success. Literature further shows that struggling readers who are given reading level appropriate reading materials in READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES content area classes are more likely to engage in reading without apprehension and comprehension difficulties. The authors of the article Reading interventions for Struggling readers in the upper elementary grades: A synthesis of 20 years of research states that students are more likely to succeed if provided ample opportunities to practice and receive corrective feedback during instruction. To teach these strategies successfully, the authors of the article, Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction and Attribution Retraining for Secondary With Learning and Other Mild Disabilities lists what teachers need to do to help struggling readers with reading comprehension. 1. The teachers need to state the objectives to the students. 2. There must be a specific sequence of teaching that should be followed (i.e. state the purpose of the lesson and provide explicit instruction with modeling, guided practice, corrective feedback, independent practice, and generalization practice). 3. Inform the students the purpose of the strategy 4. Monitor student progress 5. Encourage the students to think about the text and strategies 6. Encourage appropriate attributions and 7. Teach for generalized use of strategies. Conclusions Research shows that every child is capable of comprehending a text. When teachers are honest and accommodating with struggling readers, the readers become more receptive to new strategies that may aid their comprehension and vocabulary skills. Materials given to students during reading activities should be presented at reading level, as this can contribute to the 5 READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 6 learners` success. One of the strategies that help to develop and improve literacy skills has been identified as reading aloud. For students to be effective readers, instruction need to be thorough in elementary school. Educators need to provide instruction to students in elementary and middle school to improve their reading and comprehension abilities before reaching high school. A review of literature demonstrated that students who use comprehension strategies in their reading activities, demonstrate strong reading comprehension skills, thus teachers need to employ these strategies to help their low ability learners to succeed. It is very evident from the review of literature that there are many different reading strategies to teach children to read, but that there is not `one` best strategy to use because individuals integrate information differently using each strategy. Although research has shown that instruction of strategies is an effective way to improve the reading comprehension of students with mild disabilities, strategy instruction does not automatically create strategic learners who consistently approach tasks planfully and strategically. READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 7 References Mudzielwana, N. P. (2013). Research-based comprehension strategies: bridging the gap. Retrieved from: http://library.cportland.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?v Baier, R. J. (205). Reading comprehension and reading strategies. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5066651.pdf Wanzek, J, Wexler, J, Vaughn, S & Ciullo, S. (2010). Reading interventions for Struggling readers in the upper elementary grades: A synthesis of 20 years of research. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles /PMC2975107/ Reading comprehension skills for English language learners (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/reading-comprehension-skills-english -language-learners Berkeley, S, Mastropieri, M.A, &Scruggs, T.E. Reading comprehension strategy instruction and attribution retraining for secondary Students with learning and other mild disabilities READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES 8
