Reading Comprehension Analysis

2.2 Reading with understanding strategies used to teach reading understanding skills that might influence poor reading understanding

Almasi and Hart (2011) defined reading with understanding strategies as “deliberate, goal oriented, attempts to control and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand words and construct meaning of the text” (p. 252). A study carried out by Collins et al. (2007) on the teaching of reading comprehension concluded that teachers emphasise more on text interpretations when teaching reading comprehension rather than on the process of reading comprehension. This simply means that some teachers do not teach learners strategies they can use to read with comprehension, instead they only focus on comprehension

This means that teachers spend most of their time assessing learners on comprehension rather than on teaching them how to read with understanding. It is therefore the responsibility of teachers to teach learners how to use a variety of reading comprehension strategies because if learners are not properly taught they would never know how to read with understanding (Boling, C. J., & Evans, W. H. 2008). Many researchers (e.g. Scanlon, et al, 2010; Tompkins, 2011; Morrow & Gambrell, 2011; Collins, et al, 2007) have identified various comprehension strategies that are functional in teaching learners to improve their reading comprehension skills. A discussion of these strategies follows in the next sub-section of this

This strategy involves the reader in thinking about their own thinking and emphasises the reader’s responsibility to determine if the text makes sense and to take steps to clarify when comprehension fails (Scanlon et al., 2010). For example, teacher will monitor learners’ comprehensive when reading by asking them to interpret or summarize information presented to them in the text. Teachers need to think about the questions that learners are asking and noting which parts of the text do not seem to be