Analysis of the Role of Syntactic Complexity in Students’ Reading Comprehension: A Teacher’s Perspective

This study examines the role of the syntactic complexity of the text in the reading comprehension skills of students.Utilizing the qualitative method of research,this paper used structured interview questions as the main data-gathering instruments.English language teachers from Coral na Munti National High School were selected as the respondents of the study.Finding of the study suggests that the syntactic complexity of the text affects the reading comprehension of the students.Students found it challenging to understand the message that the author conveyed if he or she used a large number of phrases and clauses in one sentence.Furthermore,the complex sentence syntactic structure was deemed the most challenging for students to understand.To overcome said challenges in comprehending text,various reading intervention programs were utilized by teachers.These interventions include focused or targeted instruction and the implementation of the Project Dear,suggested by the Department of Education.These programs were proven to help students improve their comprehension as well as their knowledge in syntactical structure of sentences.This study underscores the importance of selecting appropriate reading materials and implementing suitable reading intervention programs to enhance students’comprehension skills.

Linguistic knowledge and reading comprehension

The human beings can express the outside world and their mental feelings by languages, they know the materials＇ nature by comparing with their similarities. The languages are not only tools in understanding,communication and thinking, but also one element of the cultures. Thinking is a kind of abstract skill, and the language is the vehicle of thinking, through which people can understand the human beings＇ thinking methods and cultural characters. The languages are decided by the culture. Reading comprehension is the readers＇ own behavior, during which the schema plays a key role and readers must combine the new information with their former cultural knowledge, rebuilding the new information so as to understand the deep meanings of the articles.

Effective Use of 3S Strategies to Promote Reading Comprehension

This article intends to shed some light on effective use of three reading strategies: skimming,scanning and studying for non-English-speaking middle school students.The article also presents some advice for the teacher's consideration when designing and preparing reading materials.

The Correlation between Explicit Grammatical Knowledge,Implicit Grammatical Knowledge and Reading Comprehension Ability of Senior High School Students

The role of grammar in language teaching has always been the question that researchers debate.In recent years,grammar knowledge has been distinguished in the foreign language acquisition research,namely the implicit knowledge and the explicit knowledge(Dai Manchun 2005;Gu Qiyi 2005).As to the reaserch of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge as well as their measurement,it is easy to find that many scholars have studied the role of two different kinds of grammar knowledge in second language development.But the research on the role of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge in second language reading comprehension is too few,not to mention the research on the role of implicit and explicit grammar knowledge in English reading comprehension in the senior high school.The purpose of this study is to find the relationship between implicit and explicit grammatical knowledge and English reading comprehension ability of senior high school students.In addition,since the vocabulary is important to reading comprehension,this factor will also be considered in the study.

The Effect of Learning Strategies on Reading Comprehension

Learning strategies are usually regarded as one of the aspects of the cognitive psychology and reading is a cognitive process in which the reader engages in a conversation with the text or the author. Then is there any relationship between learning strategies and reading comprehension？ To explore this, an experimental study is conducted in this paper. The conclusion is thereafter reached that reading comprehension is closely related to and greatly affected by learning strategies, especially cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

A Correlational Study of Junior College Students' Achievement Test and Reading Comprehension Test Based on Students' Interests

The present paper is a correlational study of Junior college students' achievement test and reading comprehension test based on students' interests.Through the case study,students' interests should raw much attention while teachers choose textbooks or teaching materials or design teaching plan.

Function Words Analysis——A Reading Comprehension Aid for Chinese Engineers

Background Generally speaking. Chinese college graduates in the fifties and sixties took Russian as their second language, and those who graduated in the seventies had no second language to speak of. Now, in the years of our Open Door Policy, they find they have to learn some English and learn it quickly. They try to learn from radio and TV and many take English courses of 4 to 6 months, with varying degree of success. Their chief stumbling blocks

The Viewpoint of Categorization Theory on the Nature of Reading Comprehension

This paper is intended to reveal the likelihood that conceptual categorization can be used to understand a text by reconstructing the semantic categories through which the author＇s meaning is conveyed, and proposes an alternative way to look into reading comprehension. It is proposed that categorization can be taken as an alternative approach to second/foreign language reading instruction. That is, while reading comprehension is defined in terms of the ability to recognize the inclusion and membership properties of contextually determined semantic categories in a text, the learner needs to arrange the events, actions, or concepts into a structured unit, both horizontally and vertically. Categorization theory will be introduced in relation to Rosch famous studies （1973, 1975）, examples taken from a graded reader will be illustrated as how to identify items with category structure, and finally issues that are not addressed in this paper will be discussed.

Graphic Organizers and Reading Comprehension Ability： Evidence From Iranian EFL University Students

The present study investigated the impact from GOs （Graphic Organizers） upon reading comprehension ability. To this end, an OPT （Oxford Placement Test） was administered to a research population （N = 354） in order to homogenize it. On the basis of the test results, the population was sorted into three groups of reading-low, reading-mid, and reading-high students. Sixty participants with the lowest level of reading comprehension proficiency were randomly selected and assigned to an EG （Experimental Group） （N = 30） and a CG （Control Group） （N = 30）. Afterwards, a TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language） reading comprehension pretest was administered to both groups in order to determine their current level of reading proficiency. Then, the EG received 10 successive 90-minute sessions on GOs as post-reading strategies for expository text comprehension, while the CG received the same amount of treatment on other post-reading strategies. In the end, another TOEFL reading comprehension posttest was administered to the research groups to measure their reading comprehension performance level after the treatment. The results revealed that GOs were statistically more significant and effective for the low-skilled readers than other post-reading strategies.

Major factors influencing reading comprehension： A factor analysis approach

The present study attempts to identify the major factors influencing EFL reading comprehension by drawing on the data collected from questionnaire and tests. The findings indicate that reading comprehension is composed of three major components： ＂Schema＂, ＂Vocabulary＂, and ＂Motivation ＆ Purpose＂. These three components are made up of the following six factors respectively： ＂textual schema＂, ＂extra-textual schema＂, ＂vocabulary guessing＂, ＂vocabulary noticing＂, ＂motivation＂ and ＂purpose＂. Among the major components of reading comprehension, the four factors of ＂textual schema＂, ＂vocabulary guessing＂, ＂vocabulary noticing＂ and ＂motivation＂ are significantly correlated with reading comprehension.

Word-Guessing Ability in English Reading Comprehension of Non-English Major Students in Private University

In order to provide English as a foreign language students with effective English language learning approaches, this investigation is focused on how students deal with words when they are doing reading material. It is found that most students can use some skills to guess the unknown words in reading materials, such as explanatory analysis skills, syntactic analysis skills, and structural analysis skills, while they have overlooked how these words are organized metaphorically and metonymically. This investigation will provide students with the target language knowledge metaphors and metonymy, examining the impact on computer vocabulary guessing and reading comprehension through teaching the concept of metaphor and metonymy. In this research, the new word-guessing skill based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy was applied to word-guessing teaching in reading comprehension of computer material. The research question is studied in this experiment： Can the training of using ways of word-guessing base on the knowledge of metonymy and metaphor promote students＇ ability of word guessing in reading comprehension of computer material？ The results show that students have gradually paid attention to the word-guessing skill in reading process. The skills based on the knowledge of metaphor and metonymy have helped students get the right meaning of the unknown words in computer reading materials. It has really enlarged students＇ vocabulary and improved their confidence in finishing reading.

Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension Tests and English as a Foreign Language （EFL） Learners Answering Strategies

As far as we are concemed, one of the elements of assessing EFL/ESL （English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language） learners＇ language proficiency in institutions and universities in our country ＂lran＂ are multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. We also know that, it comprises one major section of the standard and TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language） tests. Taking into account its importance and the problems which EFL learners have answered them, I get motivated to uncover some of the test-taking strategies which they employ to answer multiple-choice reading comprehension questions when dealing with familiar versus unfamiliar topics. To get a better conclusion, I choose 20 advanced male and female candidates whose English proficiency is at an acceptable level and at least at the same age level, and they major in English language from different colleges and universities. They are given two reading comprehension passages （familiar and unfamiliar）, each one with five final questions and allotted time to answer the questions. Two main instruments in this study are a retrospective think-aloud protocol and a semi-structured interview. The results of the reading comprehension tests and interview part revealed that advanced learners＇ high scores in the familiar topic were not because of their strategy use but because of their high linguistic and background knowledge on the topic. I also concluded that the number, kind, and sequence of strategies employed, were greatly dependent on the degree of testees＇ familiarity on the topic. In other words, test-takers used more strategies to compensate for their lack of linguistic knowledge.

Importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension： An experiment in reading comprehension

For years, researchers as well as language teachers both at home and abroad have taken great pains to study the process of reading and try to find out what is the most related to a successful reading, therefore, a lot of reading theories have been proposed. Some people emphasize the importance of words and their quick identification. Others emphasize the important role of reading skills as well as background knowledge. Still others emphasize that reading comprehension is both a process of word processing and a process of information processing by means of one＇s background knowledge. The author here, through an experiment, thinks that vocabulary is the main contributor to reading comprehension and reading skills are very important for students to comprehend, especially in advanced reading comprehension.

Research on the role of attribution in reading comprehension among Chinese EFL learners

This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.

The Effect of Background Knowledge on EFL Learners＇ Reading Comprehension

Schema is known to play an important role in reading comprehension. The schema embodying the learners background knowledge of cultural familiar materials facilitates the understanding of the text （Pritchard, 1990）. Also Steffensen, Joag-Dev, and Anderson （1979） and Nelson （1987） proposed that the schemata embodying background knowledge influenced how well the text would be comprehended. However, Hudson （1982） and Carrell （1984） found there was no significant background effect in advanced level learners. From those studies, it seems that background effect is different at different language proficiency levels. Thus, the present study examines the interaction between background knowledge and language proficiency in reading comprehension. The participants were freshmen of National Chiayi University. They were divided into three language proficiency levels based on the General English Proficiency Test. Four reading comprehension tests were constructed to assess their reading comprehension： cultural familiar/unfamiliar text and topic familiar/unfamiliar text. The results of this study showed that participants had better performance on the culture/topic familiar text than the culture/topic unfamiliar text. Thus the findings suggest that the teacher can use teaching activities, such as pre-reading activities or vocabulary teaching to increase the background knowledge when teaching readings to EFL （English as a foreign language） learners

The Impact of Collaborative Reading on Iranian EFL Learners Development of Reading Comprehension

This research was carried out in Iranian EFL （English as a foreign language） reading comprehension classes in an attempt to answer three research questions： （1） Does collaborative reading lead to greater comprehension of a text than private reading？; （2） If so, what strategies are used by the students during collaborative reading？; and （3） In what ways might these strategies contribute to the higher level of comprehension？. A quasi-experimental design was used to answer the first question. The participants were pre-tested and streamed into two classes of equal reading comprehension abilities. The intervention consisted of four texts of equal length, comprising two rated in a pilot study as conceptually difficult/linguistically easy, and two rated as conceptually easy/linguistically difficult. The subjects in each class were involved in reading the two types of texts collaboratively and privately for four sessions. After reading the text, the subjects were asked to answer in writing 10 comprehension questions. Collaborative reading resulted in consistently and significantly higher scores than private reading for all four texts. Qualitative methods were employed to answer the last two questions. Group interactions during collaborative reading were tape recorded and transcribed, and 10 students selected at random from the two classes were interviewed in depth. Analysis of the group interaction transcripts revealed that the participants were using five major strategies in co-constructing meaning from the texts. These strategies included brainstorming, clarifying the language, summarizing, paraphrasing, and interaction management. Other minor （i.e., infrequent） strategies were also identified, such as making PCU/NCU （positive/negative claim to understand）, eliciting confirmation, and confirming.

Exploring EFL Learners Reading Comprehension Problems in Reading ESP Texts

By considering the fact that in EFL （English as foreign language） contexts learners need reading comprehension skill more than other skills in their academic studies, reading comprehension should be attached more importance especialy in ESP （English for specific purposes） classes in which reading ability plays a crucial role in the students＇ academic success. But in order to help learners in the best possible way, teachers need to identify their learners＇ problems in reading ESP texts. Detecting the problematic areas for the students will assist teachers better design and apply appropriate methods and strategies to solve their students＇ reading comprehension problems. Therefore, the following research was an attempt to explore the EFL learners＇ reading comprehension problmes in reading ESP texts in ESP classes. For the purpose of the study, five passages from their coursebook were selected and they were asked to underline the syntactically problematic parts in the passages. The subjects of the study were composed of 185 homogenous engineering students who were learning english as a foregin langauge. Chi-square analysis showed that 15 major syntactic categories are serious hurdle to reading comprehension of ESP texts. The results and implications are discussed in the light of TLA （teachers＇ language awareness）.

AB004.The dyslexia font OpenDyslexic facilitates visual processing of text and improves reading comprehension in adult dyslexia

Background:Proficient literacy skills and reading comprehension are crucial skills for participation and success in everyday life.One group that regularly falls short in demonstrating good reading skills are people with dyslexia.This group suffers from a range of visual deficits including the pattern of ocular movements,and distorted,blurred and reversed(or mirrored)vision of letters during reading.However,only recently designers started to develop affordable and easily implementable remedies that are supposed to reduce the visual symptoms of dyslexia such as specific dyslexia fonts.These fonts incorporate properties aimed at improving the visual and behavioural reading performance of people with dyslexia by using larger intra-and inter-word whitespace,unique letter shapes and no serifs.To date,empirical evidence about the efficacy of these fonts is contradictory,and their effects on adult dyslexics’eye movements and cognitive processing during longer reading tasks remains elusive.Methods:To bridge this gap,we measured the eye movements of adults with and without dyslexia during the reading of a set of standardised texts from the international reading speed texts(IReST;Trauzettel-Klosinski&Dietz,2012)reading battery coupled with validated comprehension questions.These texts and questions were presented either in the traditional font Times New Roman or the specific dyslexia font OpenDyslexic.Results:Here,we found that OpenDyslexic led to improvements in reading comprehension in dyslexics and non-dyslexics.These improvements were larger for dyslexics.Contrarily,participants’reading speed was unaffected by OpenDyslexic.Our eye-tracking data showed that OpenDyslexic resulted in a higher number of eye movements,reduced visual search intensity,and longer median fixation duration across participants.Particularly,median fixation duration,as a measure of cognitive load,was predictive of reading comprehension across groups.Among dyslexics,OpenDyslexic yielded increases in visual search intensity and visual ease in the form of decreases in median fixation duration and fixation to saccade ratio as well as a smaller number of falsely programmed forward saccades.Conclusions:Our findings illustrate that OpenDyslexic results in a different visual reading strategy.These findings provide empirical evidence for the efficacy of OpenDyslexic in longer standardised texts and suggest its use in everyday documents,education materials,and online sources.

The Influence of Morpheme Awareness on Junior Middle School English learners’ Reading Comprehension

According to the understanding of English learning process and the surrounding educational environment,it is found that most English learners have not received the training of morpheme awareness,and English teachers have hardly cultivated their students’morpheme awareness.In English learning,it is found that English morpheme awareness plays a role in promoting English learning.It can be seen from the relevant literature that the identification of English morphemes is very important for English learners’language acquisition and development,and has attracted the attention of researchers at home and abroad.This paper mainly studies the influence of morpheme awareness on junior middle school English learners’reading comprehension.

The Significance of Holistic-Analytic CognitiveStyle to Approach Reading Comprehension

Reading is a major way to learn a foreign language.In the past,reading is regarded as a passive process to receive information.The key point of reading is to comprehend.It requires learners to think,judge and reorganize the information according to one's own experience and to create meaning for the context.