Teaching students strategies for reading comprehension in the gcse examination

Teaching students strategies for reading comprehension in the gcse examination 1 PART A INTRODUCTION I Rationale of choosing the theme The reading comprehension section in the general education examin[.]

PART A - INTRODUCTION

I Rationale of choosing the theme.

The reading comprehension section in the general education examination contains two passages of approximately 200-450 words each A reading passage is usually followed by seven to eight questions

Most students who take the final examination say that they are unable to finish all the questions There are many reasons why they can not complete this part

in the exam

First, they do not have strategies for reading comprehension and are not well trained to cope with the types of reading comprehension questions

Second, time is limitted so they can not complete all the questions Therefore, students need to make the most efficient use of their time in this section to get highest score

Third, they don’t know how to deal with the words they don’t understand,and have not got enough vocabulary to understand the passage

Being a English teacher, helping students master their reading skills is very important because it is one of the four skills in teaching English Moreover, teachers have to teach students this skill so that they can understand the knowledge

in English book and high score in the exam

To students , about 30 percent or even more than 30 percent of the questions

in the final exam are to test their reading skills So students have a good reading skill , they can easily complete the test well

Moreover, it is said that “ A good reader makes a good writer” so students are good at reading of course, they are good at wrting, speaking, and listening

In sum, how to teach students to solve reading skills is very essential and it is

a challenging that requires the efforts of both teachers and learners From the reasons mentioned above, I choose this theme for my research

II The aims of the study.

Firstly, studying this strategy helps me to find some solutions to prolems of reading Understanding how students deal with reading passage can be great help

to teachers who teach reading as a skill The knowledge of a proper reading approach will give me more confidence in making my lessons better organised and easier for my sudents to learn

Secondly, studying this strategy is to help my students improve their reading skill Students can distinguish different types of questions in the exam and use different skill to read effectively

Last of all, I would like to choose this strategy with a view to sharing my teaching experience with my colleages Moreover, if this strategy is applied to teaching reading, personally I think that students’ reading skill will be improved

III The objective of study.

IV The limitation of the reading strategy.

- Studying the process approach

- Finding out the difficulties and suggesting solutions to the problems

- Classifying types of reading questions

- Applying skills to each reading passage in the final exam

V The methods of study

- Studying documents dealing with the strategies for reading

- Discussing with other teachers

- Applying the study in teaching process

- Observing and drawing out experience

PART B CONTENTS

I Teaching students to deal with the words they do not understand

*All reading passages in the GCSE examination contain a number of words that most test-takers would not understand When students see these words, they sometimes attemt to figure out their meaning or they think these words so long that they lose precious time

- A great deal of research has been carried out to learn how people read their first and second language and how much information they need in order to understand the text The result of many studies show that readers need less information than the text provides to understand the meaning In fact, experts have concluded that readers do not read every single word in a sentence or text but omit

a large number of words because they can guess the meaning of the text without them For example , when you reading a newspaper article in your native language,you probably skip out half of the words in it whether you are aware of doing so or not

- Students often feel, however, that they should read every words in an

English text and look up in a dictionary the words they do not know There are two resons why many second language learners have this view

First of all, this is the way they may have been taught to read in English Second, they may believe that, if they do not read every word, they may miss some important information and misunderstood the text.This may be true of beginning learners who are attemting to read material that exceeds their reading skill Intermediate and advanced learners, however, do not need to read every word

in the passage For experieced learners, this stratery does not substantially improve their comprehension of a text In fact, when readers concentrate on the meanings of individual words and use a dictionary to look up every unfamiliar word, they frequently lose track of information in the passage and have to read it This aproach

is definitely not the best one to use when reading for the text in exams.Also when students look up words during their preparation for the test, they become dependent

on their dictionary and do not develop the skills necessary to figure out the meaning of words in context Furthermore,such students may not even attempt to guess the meaning of a sentence if they do not understand one or more words in it

So teaching students to deal with the words they do not understand is very essential

* There are ceitain key words that you must understand in order to understand a sentence or a passage reasonably well.while you are answering the questions try to guess the meaning of the words you do not know and then skip altogether any that you can not guess.For exmple, consider the following sentence: The mayfly is a dainty insect with lacy wings and a slender, forked tail that trails behight it in flight

In this sentence, there are several words you may not know: dainty,lacy, slender, forked, and trail However, the number of words that you do understand

is sufficient ( enough) for you to understand what the sentence is about:

The mayfly is a……….insect with………wings and a………….tail that……….

Behigh it in flight.

This sentence is a description of an insect that can flight and has a tail

The same technique can also help you figure out meanings of mor complex sentences by looking at the meanings of words parts, for example:

Coastal areas dilute and filter out large amouts of waterborne pollutants, protecting the quality of waters used for swimming and fishing and

as wildlife habitats.

With this sentence, if you simply skip over the words or parts of words that you do not understand, you may have:

water……….pollut…s,protectingthe……of water used for swimming and fishing and as wildlife…

Even with several important words in this sentence omitted, it is still possible

to figure out that “ coasts(take) out large amounts of water pollution, protecting the water used for swimming, fishing and wildlife.” This is the basic idea of the

sentence However, there are several key words that you must know to understand

the sentence: coast, pollution, protect, and possible, wildlife.

II Teach students to deal with types of reading comprrehension questions.

1 Give students Sample reading passage and ask them to classify types

of reading comprehension questions.

Sample reading passage

Although “ lie detectors” are being used by government , police departments, and businesses that all want guaranteed ways of detecting the truth, the results are not always accurate Lie detectors are properly called emotion detectors, for their aim is to mesure bodily changes that contradict what person says The polygraph machine records changes in heart rate , breathing , blood pressure, and the electrical activity of the skin (galvanic skin rresponse, or GSR) In the first part of the

polygraph test, you are electronically connected to the machine and asked a few neutral questions ( “ what is your name?” “ where do you live” )

Your physical reactions serve as the standard ( baseline) for evaluating what

Comes next Then you are asked a few critical questions among the neutral ones

“when did you rob the bank? ) The asssumtion is that if you are guilty, your Body

will reveal the truth, even if you try to deny it Your heart rate, respiration, and

GSR will change abrubtly as you respond to the incriminating questions

That is the theory ; but psychologists have found that lie detector are simplely not reliable Since most physical changes are the same across all emotions, machines can not tell whether you feeling guilty, angry, nervous, thrilled,

or revved up from an exciting day Innocent people may be tense and nervous about the whole procedure They may react physiologically to a certain word ( bank) not because they robbed it , but because they recently bounced a check In either case the machine will record a “lie” The reverse mistake is also common Some practiced liars can lie without flinching, and others learn to beat the machine by tensing muscles or thinking about an exciting experience during neutral questions

1 According to the passage, polygraph tests

A record a person’s physical reactions

B alway reveal the truth about a person

C measure a person’s thoughts

D make guilty people angry

2 Which of the following is not mentioned as something that ise measured by a polygraph machine?

A blood prressure B heart rate

C breathing D eye movement

3 Where in the passage does the author first mention how the test is given?

A line 3 B lines 3-4 C Lines 5-6 D lines 6-8

4 The word “it” in the line 12 refers to

A the question B the assumption C the truth D your body

5 In line 11, the word “assumption” could be best replaced with

6 What is the main idea of the passage ?

A physical reactions reveal guilt

B How lie detectors are used and their reliability

C Lie detectors distinguish different emotions

D Lie detectors make innnocent people nervous

7 Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A Lie detectous are very reliable

B Innocent people are never found guilty

C Psychologists never argue about anything

D Most people cannot control their bodily reactions

8 It can be concluded from the passage that a polygraph test

A is the best way to determine a person’s guil

B can read a person ‘s thoughts

C is the only evidence needed in a court of law

D works in principle but not in practice

9 What is most likely the subject of the paragraph preceding this passage?

A using lie detectors in the hipe that machines will do better to discover the truth

B how achievement and aptitude tests measure ability and intelligence

C The role of psychologists in fighting crime

D an analysis of the criminal mind

10 The passage was probably written by a specialist in

A sociology B anthropology

C mind reading D criminal psychology

11 The author would most probably agree with which of the following statements ?

A Polygraphs have no place in our society

B Physical reactions are not connected to thoughts

C Machine are no match for psychilogisrs

D Polygraph tests should not be used as the sole evidence of guilt

12 Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the last paragraph ?

A Several generalizations are made from which several conclusions are drawn

B A general concept is defined and examples are given

C Suggestions for the use of lie detectous are given

D Persuasive language is used to argue against a popular idea

2 Ask students to match each question with type of reading comprehension question:

-“Reading for main idea”

“ Reading for detail”

“Reading for reference”

“Reading for inference”

“Reading for vocabulary”

“Additional reading skill”

-Question 1 to 3 : “ Reading for detail”

-Question 4 : “Reading for reference”

-Question 5 : “Reading for vocabulary”

-Question 6 : “Reading for main idea”

-Question 7: “Reading for inference”

-Question 8,9,10,11,12: “Additional reading skill”

3 Instructing students to deal with types of reading comprehension question: reading for main idea

Almost every reading pasage test will have a question about the main idea of a passage Such a question may be worded in a variety of ways, you may, for example, be asked to identify the topic, subject, title, primary idea, or main idea These questions are all really asking what primary point the author is trying to get across in the passage Since passages are generally writen in a traditionally organized manner, it is not difficult to find the main idea by studying the topic sentence, which is most probably found at the beginning of a paragraph

If a passage consists of only one paragraph , you should study the beginning

of that paragraph to determine the main idea

In a pasage with more than one paragraph , you should be sure to read the first sentence of each paragraph to determine the subject, title, or main idea

This is the key information that you should remember about main idea questions:

How to identify

The question

What is the topic of the passage ? What is the subject of the passage ? What is the main idea of the passage?

What is the author’s main point in the passage?

With what is the author primarily concerned ? Which of the following would be the best title?

How to answer

The question

1 Read the first line of each paragraph

2 Look for a common theme or idea in the first lines

3 pass your eyes quickly over the rest of the passage to check that you really have found the topic sentences

4 Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices

The sample passage

In the philosophy of John Dewey, a sharp distinction is made

between “ intellidence” and “reasoning” According to Dewey,

intelligence is the only absolute way to achieve a balance bbetween

realism and idealism, between practicality and wisdom of life

Intelligence involves “ interacting with other things and knowing

them,” while reasoning is merely the act of an observe, “ … a mind

that beholds or grasps objects outside the world of things……”

With reasoning, a level of mental certainty can be achieved, but it

is through intelligence that control is taken of events that shape

one’s life

The question

What is the topic of the passage?

A The intelligence of John Dewey

B Distinctions made by John Dewey

C Dewey’s ideas on the ability to reason

D How intelligence differs from reasoning in Dewey’s works

How to instruct students to deal this this question

The first sentence of this passage discusses a distinction between the ideas of

“inteliigence” and “reasoning” in the philosophyof John Dewey, so this is probably the topic A quick check of the rest of the senteces in the passage confirms that the topic is in fact the difference between “inteliigence” and “reasoning” So the best answer is therefore (D)

*If a passage consists of more than one paragraph, you should study the beginning

of each paragraph to determine the main idea

reading for details

Detail questions

Many questions in the Reading Comprehension section of the test will require answers that are directly stated in the passage This means that you should be able

to find the answer to this type of question without having to draw a conclusion The

common questions of this type are stated detail question and unstated detail

question

A stated detail question asks about one piece of information in the passage rather

than the passage as a whole The answers to these questions are generally given in order in the passage , and correct answer is often a restatement of what is given in the passage , This means that the correct anwer often expresses the same idea as what is written in the passage , but the words are not exactly the same More often they are restatements of the information and require that you know synonyms and related words The following chart outlines the key information that you should

remember about “stated detail questions”

Stated detail question

how to identify the

question

According to the passage,………

It is stated in the passage………

The passage indicates that………

The author mentions that…………

Where to find the anwer The answes to these questions are found in order in the

passage

How to answer the

question

1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for the key word or idea

3 Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

4 Look for the answer that restates an idea in the passage

5 Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices

The sample passage

Williamsburg is a historic city in Virginia situated on a

peninsula between two rivers, the York and the James It was

settled by England colonists in 1633, twenty-six years after the first

permanent English colony in America was settled at Jamestown In

the beginning the colony at Williamsburg was named Middle

Plantation because of its location in the middled of the peninsula

The site for Williamsburg had been selected by the colonists

because the soil drainage was better there than at the Jamstown

location, and there were fewer mosquitoes

The question:

1 According to the passage, Williamsburg is located

A on an island

B in the middle of a river

C where the York and the James mee

D on a piece of land with rivers on two sides

2 The passage indicates that Jamestown

A was settled in 1633

B was settled twenty-six years after Williamsburg

C was the first permanent English colony in America

D was originally named Middle Plantation

3 The passage states that the name Middle Plantation

A is more recent name than Wiiiamsburg

B derived from the location of the colony on the peninsula

C refers to the middle part of England that was home to the colonists

D was given to the new colony because it was located in the middle of several plantations

Detail questions about “What is not in the passage”

“unstated Detail questions”

You will sometimes be asked in the Reading Comprehension section test to find an

answer that is not stated or not mentioned or not true in the passage This type of

question really mean that three of the answers are stated, mentioned , or true in the passage, while one answer is not Your actual job is to find the three correct answers and then choose the letter of the one remaining answer

You should note that there are two kind of anwers to this type of question: (1) there are three true answers and one answer that is not discussed in the passsage, or (2) there are three true answers and one that is false according to the passage

The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember

about “unstated detail questions”

Unstated detail question

how to identify the

question

Which of the following is not stated………?

Which of the following is not mentioned………?

Which of the following is not discussed………?

All of the following are true except …………

Where to find the anwer The answes to these questions are found in order in the

passage

How to answer the

question

1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Scan in the appropriate place in the passage for the key word or related idea

3 Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

4 Look for the answer that are definitely true according

to the passage

5 Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage

The passage:

In English There are many different kinds of expressions that

people use to give a name to anything whose name is unknowm or

momentarily forgotten The word gadget is one such word It was

first used by British sailors in the 1850s and probably came from

the Frech word gachette, which was a small hook In everyday use,

the word has a more general meaning Other words are also used to

give a name to something unnamed or unknown, and these words

tend to be somewhat imaginative Some of the more commonly

used expressions are a what-d’ye-call-it , a whatsis, a thingamabob,a

thingamajig, a doodad, or a doohickey.

The questions:

1 Which of the folowing is not true about the word” gadget” ?

A It is used to name something when the name is not knowm

B It was used at the beginning of the nineteenth century

C It most likely came from a word in the Frech language

D Its first known use was by Brtish sailors

2 Which of the foolowing is not metioned in the passage as an expression for something that is not knowm?

A A thingamabob B.A gadget

C A doohickey D A what-is-it

Locating Details

Sometimes the question in a reading passage will ask you to determine where in the passage a piece of information is found The answer choices will list possible locations for that information The best way to approach this type of question is to study the question to determine the information that you are looking for and then to

go to the lines listed in the answers and skim for that information

Question about where in the passage

how to identify the

question

Where in the passage…… ?

Where to find the anwer The answes can be in anyof the lines listed in the answer

to the question

How to answer the

question

1 Choose a key word or idea in the question

2 Skim the lines in the passage that are listed in the answers to the question You should skim for the key word or idea

3 Choose the answer that contains the line numbers of a restatement of the question

The passage:

Meteor Crater, a great crater approximately 40 miles east of

Flagstaff, Arizona, is generally thought by scientists to have formed

as a result of the impact of a 60,000 ton meteor about 50,000 years

ago The meteor, made of nickel and iron, disintegrated on impact

and spread half a bilion tons of rock over the surface of the land

The massiveness of the meteor can only be imagined from the

mammoth size of the crater, which measures a mile in diameter

and three miles around the top The rim of the rater rises more

than 150 feet above the plain where the meteor impacted and is

visible for more than te miles on a clear day

1 Where in the passage does the author discuss the composition of the meteor?

A Lines 1-4 B.Lines 4-5 C.Lines 6-8 D.Lines 8-10

2 Where in the passage does the author mention the distance from which the crater can be seen?

A Lines 1-4 B.Lines 4-5 C.Lines 6-8 D.Lines 9-10

Reading for Reference

In the Reading Comprehension section of the test, you will sometimes be asked to determine which noun a pronoun refers to In this type of question it is important to understand that a noun is generaly used first in a passage, and the pronoun that refer to it comes after Whenever you are asked which noun a pronoun refers to,you should look before the pronoun to find the noun

The following chart outlines the key information that you should remember about pronoun referents

Pronoun referents

how to identify the

question

The pronoun “…… ” in line X refers to which of the following?

Where to find the anwer The line where the pronoun is located is generally given

in the question The noun that the pronoun refers to is