Reading Comprehension

Reading / Reading Skill

● Reading skill is probably the most important of academic skills as it introduces
us to:
• New concepts
• New ideas
• Different perspectives / points of view on a topic
• New and updated vocabulary

• Reading can help us develop other three skills i.e. listening, speaking and
writing by reading how to improve other academic & language skills
What is Reading?
❑ Reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and
getting meaning from them.

❏ Reading is an interactive, problem-solving process of making/generating

meaning from text

❏ Reading is an act of communication in which information is transferred from a

transmitter to a receiver
What is Reading Comprehension?
● Comprehension is the essence of reading (essence = the most important
quality or feature of something)

● Reading Comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand

its meaning.

● Reading comprehension is the ability to read and process text, understand its
meaning and to integrate this meaning with what the reader already knows.

● A person’s ability to comprehend text depends on certain qualities and skills.

In this regard the most important quality is the ability to make inferences.
(inference = something that you can find out indirectly from what you already
know)
 Three levels of Reading Comprehension
● Literal level
○ Literal = the basic or usual meaning of a word

○ At this stage, a reader only goes through the text; text is treated on
its face value i.e. what is stated by the author

○ At this level a reader tries to get familiar with the text i.e. names of
different characters, places, dates or ideas mentioned in the text

○ At this stage, a reader is required only to identify important and

essential information or to distinguish between important and less
important information
 Three levels of Reading Comprehension
● Interpretive level (Interpretative level)
○ Interpret = to explain the meaning of something

○ At this stage, reader goes beyond the literal level i.e. beyond the
ordinary meaning of words.

○ At this stage, reader tries to find the connection between ‘what is

said and what is actually meant by it.’

○ So here readers make interpretations by making connections of the

given information with his/her previous (prior) knowledge.

○ Different readers having different prior knowledge and experience

interpret the same text differently
 Three levels of Reading Comprehension
● Applied level

○ Taking what was said (literal) and what was actually meant by what
was said (interpretive) and then relate (apply) the concepts or ideas
in other situations

○ At this level, readers analyse or synthesize information (synthesize=

to combine separate ideas, believes, styles etc.) and apply it to other
information.
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Poor vocabulary
● Poor memory skills
● Poor logical thinking skills
● Poor visualization
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Poor vocabulary
○ Vocabulary knowledge is the most important factor contributing
towards reading comprehension.

○ Vocabulary acquisition (development) is the process of learning new

words and serves as basis for learning a new language.

○ Thus, if a reader does not know the simple (literal) meanings of

words in a particular text, he/she will not be able to develop reading
comprehension of that text.

○ In order to achieve a higher level of reading comprehension,

students need to have reasonably good vocabulary of a language.
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Poor Memory Skills
● Different parts of memory having relevance with reading comprehension:

○ Short-term memory
○ Long-term memory
○ Working memory
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Short-term Memory
○ It is also called primary memory or active memory

○ Short-term memory has the capacity for holding, but not processing,
a small amount of information for a short period of time

○ Short-term memory holds information for 20-30 seconds. This period

can be increased by repeating the information.

○ Poor short-term memory causes poor retention of literal

understanding of the text

○ Reasons include lack of interest or motivation, unhealthy

environment, boredom, distractions etc.
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Working Memory
○ Working memory is that part of memory which is capable of briefly storing
and processing information involved in the performance of complex mental
tasks such as reasoning, comprehension and learning
○ It is the ability to hold (remember) and use relevant information while in the
middle of an activity.
○ Working memory is similar to short-term memory because both retain
information for short period of time. However, working memory is different as
it not only retains information but also process it whereas short-term memory
can only retain information.
○ Short-term memory is used to retain information and working memory is used
to complete tasks
○ Sentence comprehension largely depends on working memory.
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Long-term Memory
○ It is that part of memory that retains information over a long period of
time for example life experiences, how to properly speak in a specific
language, how to drive a car etc.
○ After processing of information, important information is put here for
storage
○ All the information stored in long-term memory is called prior
knowledge
○ A weaker short-term memory results in a poor long-term memory
Reasons for poor reading comprehension
● Poor Logical Thinking Skills
○ Reasoning (= the action of thinking about something in a logical/sensible
way)
○ Logical thinking is the process in which readers use consistent reasoning to
come to a conclusion
○ Problems or situations that involve logical thinking call for identification of
structures, establishing relationships between facts and for forming chain of
reasoning that makes sense
○ If a reader does not find logical reasoning while reading something it means
the reader is missing some essential information or fails to make logical
connections
○ Key factor is to pick important information and to ignore irrelevant
information. This helps readers to quickly establish relationships and reach a
conclusion
Reasons for poor reading comprehension

● Poor Visualization Skills

○ Visualization means to make a mental image of an idea or mental
map of a situation
○ Visualization is the ultimate stage (= final, something that happens at
the end of a process)
○ If a reader cannot visualise certain information, then he/she will not
be able to retain that information or recall that information and that
means the reader won’t be able to make connections
○ Improved Visualization can help retention of information