Understanding Strategies for Reading Comprehension

1424 Words3 Pages

Reading comprehension is more than just being able to read a text. It’s about being able to also understand, interpret, connect and analyse the ideas in texts. Comprehension helps improve one’s linguistic skills as well as vocabulary. When a learner has difficulty with comprehension there are a few strategies that the educator could use to help learners overcome their problems.

In comprehension there are two strategies, the cognitive and metacognitive strategy. These are the strategies that learners can use to accomplish the goals of comprehension. Both of these strategies are interrelated and are hardly used in isolation. Cognitive strategies refer to the mental processes that help in achieving something whereas metacognitive strategies are the mental processes that help us think about how we are doing in completing the task. So one strategy makes sure you follow the steps in order while the other one checks that a step hasn’t been missed. Both strategies can …show more content…

Learners create a mental picture from a text they read or heard. Visualising helps bring the text to life, it involves one’s imagination and uses all of the senses. An activity the learners can do is to draw their visualisations as a story is read. In groups the learners can share their drawings and discuss their reasons for their interpretations of the story. This activity will help the learners remember the text that they have read/seen or heard. It will also create a memory so when something is referred to the text they will be able to use the picture as a reminder of what its about.

There are a few strategies to help a learner with comprehension difficulties. As an educator one has to keep in mind that the learners are adults and have prior knowledge so when teaching them the material used must be relevant to their lives. The strategies mentioned can be used on little ones all the way up to adults. It just depends on the material being

Open Document