What is it like to read something you do not understand?
When you cannot understand 20% of the words on a page can you follow what is
happening? I found this article extremely eye-opening, I would encourage you to
go and read what the author has put together.
I have never fully learned a second language, only a few
German and French classes when I was little. Because of this, I cannot pretend
to know what it feels like to learn a new language in its entirety. Reading
these examples of what it is like to read a text without understanding the many
of the words surprised me how difficult it was to follow the flow of the text.
Although sometimes when I read my textbook I feel like I understand only 80% of
the words, I can often figure out the meaning of words based on my other
knowledge of English. When first learning English (or any other second language
for that matter) the task of learning vocabulary is endless, truly endless.
Reading strategies begin to become very important when
learning a second language and you are trying to comprehend a text in that
other language. Even if you can sound out a word and speak it ten times over,
the meaning of that word is not actually learned until you hear a definition or
see the meaning within a context. In the article “Reading Comprehension
Strategies for English Language Learners,” it talks about teaching vocabulary
explicitly. Clear definitions need to be provided when learning new vocabulary,
pictures and using the word in different scenarios help with this.
Sometimes, instead of looking up every single unfamiliar
word it is more beneficial to look up the most common unfamiliar word. When we
gain an understanding of most words we can infer and predict the meaning of
some of the smaller or less significant unfamiliar words. Learning how to
follow a text according to the rhythm of the words that the student does know
is also key to understanding and inferring the unfamiliar words. Punctuation,
sentence lengths, etc. clue a reader into what is going on purely based on the
format.
Scanning is one strategy that the article “6 Super
Strategies for Improving ESL Reading Comprehension for Beginners” talks about.
This allows students to review the text before diving completely in. This way
they can gain the gist of the text and can combine the details to the general
knowledge later.
Speaking out loud what is being read can also help students
to comprehend what is being portrayed in the text. Students who ask questions
also gain understanding. Asking questions of the text to peers or teacher cause
students to think critically about what is going on and increase their
knowledge. The article “Reading Comprehension Skills for English Language
Learners” lists a number of comprehension skills such as summarizing,
problem-solving, distinguishing between facts and opinions and finding the main
ideas in a text.
I recall once trying to read the book “Pride and Prejudice”
by Jane Austen. I gave up probably one chapter into reading. The book was
wordy, the language difficult and I just could not keep up. Later, I watched
the movie with my sister and loved it. I went back to the book and this time
because I knew the general gist of what was supposed to be happening I could
get past the wordy, difficult language. I could comprehend the language the
family used because I had seen them and heard them use it in the movie. At
times, when learning to comprehend text, technology and video can aid in
getting a point across.
There are many different ways to learn and teach how to
read. Something that is important for teachers to remember is that reading can
be very overwhelming. Even when you can comprehend 80% of the words of a text
there is still so much that the reader misses out on. As teachers, we must be
gentle, patient and helpful as we lead our students toward success.
Bibliography
A.(2018, July 20). Reading Comprehension
Skills for English Language Learners. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/reading-comprehension-skills-english-language-learners
Breiseth, L. (n.d.). Reading Comprehension Strategies for
English Language Learners. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol5/511-breiseth.aspx
Reading Comprehension Skills for English
Language Learners. (2018, July 20). Retrieved from
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/reading-comprehension-skills-english-language-learners
S. (2018, August 05). 6 Super Strategies for Improving
ESL Reading Comprehension for Beginners. Retrieved from
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-reading-comprehension-for-beginners/
No comments:
Post a Comment