Feasible ways of vocabulary development in comprehensive reading

Studies prove that there are strong relationships between vocabulary development and reading comprehension. In English, there is a relatively close relationship between the vocabulary size and English language proficiency. Reading represents the primary way that ESL learners in China can learn on their own beyond the classroom. But vocabulary size in reading comprehension strongly limits the sorts of texts that they can read with ease. First, the problems Chinese EFL learners and teachers confront in comprehensive reading are revealed. And then some feasible ways of helping learners build word size in real teaching practice are demonstrated.

Text Difficulty,Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering During Chinese EFL Learners’Reading

This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.

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.

The Effect of Self-Questioning Strategy on EFL Tenth-Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension

This study investigated the effect of the self-questioning strategy on English as a Foreign Language(EFL)for tenth-grade students’reading comprehension.A quasi-experimental design with two groups was employed.The researcher randomly assigned two whole sections of grade 10 from Al Samtt Secondary school for Boys,a public school,Directorate of Education in Irbid(AL Kora Directorate of Education).First,the experimental group of 25 students selected and second the control group of 25 students was selected.To achieve the purpose of the study,a pre-/post reading comprehension test was designed.In addition,self-questioning strategywas used to teach the experimental group,whereas a control group was taught by the conventional teaching strategies,as suggested in the Teacher’s Book.Results showed that there were significant statistically differences between the control and the experimental groups in favor of the experimental group.Considering the research results,the researcher recommended to use self-questioning strategy on different EFL skills and different levels of students.Teachers also should enroll in in-service training courses that provide more information about the curriculum revisions and programs that focus on improving their questioning abilities.

The Effect of Inquiry-Based Learning Strategy on EFL Tenth-Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension

This study examined the potential effect of Inquiry-Based Learning Strategy(IBL)on the tenth-grade students’reading comprehension.Two groups and a quasi-experimental design were used.Two complete sections of grade 10 students from a public Secondary School for Girls in Irbid was randomly assigned by the researcher.The experimental group of 30 students was chosen first,and then the control group of 30 students.A pre-post reading comprehension test was designed before and after the study in order to fulfill its goals.Additionally,the experimental group was taught using the IBL strategy,whereas the control group was taught using the traditional teaching methods recommended in the tenth-grade Teacher’s Book.According to the findings,there were significant statistical differences favoring the experimental group over the control group.In light of the findings,the researcher recommended employing the IBL strategy to students with various levels and EFL 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.

Study on the relationship between the reading anxiety and the reading strategy in foreign language learning

This study is concerned with the possible relationship between language anxiety and language learning strategies in reading process among the students of English as a foreign language （EFL）. Participants consist of a volunteer pool of 120 sophomore non-English majors. Versions of previously published measurement scales, the Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scales （FLRAS） and the Survey of the Reading Strategies （SOR）, were administered to the subjects as measures of foreign language anxiety and foreign language learning strategy preferences. Based on the collected data, the statistics descriptions were performed to investigate the students＇ anxiety state and strategy use level. The analyses suggest that most of students have the anxiety level above the mean, and the anxiety regarding the reading confidence is mainly responsible for the students＇ reading anxiety, and meanwhile, students use more cognitive strategies in their reading and the level of their language learning strategies are relatively low. Results indicate no significant differences between males and females on their anxiety level, as well as their strategy use. Furthermore, a Pearson correlation analysis reveals that, for the most learners, the anxiety state do hinder them from choosing effective strategies in their reading. The study explores the relationship between the reading anxiety and the reading strategy, demonstrates the effects of the anxiety reduction training on the strategy use, provides the implications for foreign language teachers that in reading comprehension teaching they should focus more on students＇ anxiety, especially their reading confidence anxiety, and encourage them more.

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.

Question-Generation Reading Strategy of Iranian EFL Learners

This paper tries to explore the effect of question-generation reading strategy on the reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners. Since the researchers did not have any control over randomization of students and it was considered as one of the features of experimental method, this study is not a true experimental method. This method is called Intact Group Study. In this research there were experimental and control groups. The age range of the learners in both groups was between 19 to 22; the age range difference was so limited that we could neglect the difference concem. The number of students in both groups was closely the same. One of these groups received question-generation reading strategy instruction and the other group---control group--did not receive this instruction. Participants in both groups studied a task-based course book called New Interchange 3 by Richards （2005）. They studied the last eight units of this book during a whole term. The instruction was the same for both groups except for the reading parts. Participants in experimental group were taught how to generate questions as being linked to the main ideas of the text they were reading. They were also given feedback on the correctness of the questions they generated. Then they answered the follow-up questions However, participants in control group received a traditional method of reading for comprehension; they read the text on their own and answered the follow-up questions. Of course both groups enjoyed a warm-up before reading each text. The statistical independent group T-test of the reading comprehension posttest showed that participants in the experimental group performed better than the students in the control group

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 Effect of a Proposed Training Program Based on the Reflective Model on the Teachers＇ Reading Practices in Mafraq

This study aimed at investigating the effect of a proposed EFL （English as a Foreign Language） training program on the teachers＇ reading practices in Mafraq. This program was developed by the researcher according to the ninth-grade EFL teachers＇ needs. The participants of the study were 20 ninth-grade females EFL teachers who represented the experimental and control groups （10 teachers in each group）. They were randomly chosen from 10 schools in the Northwestern Badia Directorate of Education. To achieve the purposes of the study, the researcher designed a needs analysis questionnaire, a training program, a pre and post observation checklist, and a pre and post received knowledge test for teachers. Proper statistical analysis was used to analyze the results of the research questions. The results of the study showed that teachers were in need to be trained on 20 reading comprehension practices to be able to teach reading comprehension effectively. Besides, there were statistically significant differences at the level of （a = 0.05） between the means scores of the ninth-grade teachers＇ performance of the control and experimental groups on the post observation checklist and on the post received knowledge test in favor of the experimental group due to the training program.

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.

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.

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.

Utilizing Electronic Reading Device （Kindle） in English as Foreign Language Reading Class

With the evolutionary change in information and communication technologies （ICT）, the definition of literacy has undergone substantial change to include the skills and strategies required to successfully adapt to the rapidly changing ICT contexts. This new definition presents an urgent need to acknowledge the gap between the types of reading experiences students come across at school and those they regularly practice outside the school. One way to bridge such gap is to expand the reading instruction to incorporate electronic reading device, like Kindle, to engage students in electronic reading. Many e-books feature multimodal functionalities, including audio, video, hyperlinks, and interactive tools. Research on this form of reading is still in its infancy in spite of some positive prospects for fostering literacy development and reading comprehension. Therefore, adopting a mixed method approach with 36 college freshmen in central Taiwan, the current study intended to fill in the void by investigating any difference in readers＇ reading comprehension and reading motivation, between the Kindle group and the print-based group. The results indicate that embedding aspects of technology into a traditional reading instruction boosted the participants＇ motivation to read. Nevertheless, the novelty-driven enthusiasm for electronic reading might not sustain students＇ reading motivation long enough to cultivate long-lasting reading habits. The results indicate that there was no significant difference in reading comprehension between two groups. Implications for utilizing electronic readers in EFL classes are also provided.