COMPREHENSION STRATEGY TRAINING: IMPROVING THE L2 READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF A LOW PROFICIENCY L2 LEARNER

THROUGH A PURPOSEFUL SCHEMA-BUILDING READING REMEDIATION PROGRAM

The Philippines used to be referred to as “the second English speaking country in the world”, and Filipinos lived up to the distinction. Sad to say, but such is no longer the case. Filipinos are now generally incompetent users of the English language and many expert educators put the blame on the bilingual system of education that was put in place about three decades back.

Recognizing the lamentable state of the present educational system glaringly evident not only in the students’ but more alarmingly so in the teachers’ lack of proficiency in the English language, the present government instituted an immediate shift back to the use of English as the medium of instruction. This is indeed a significant step but definitely not a wholesale solution to the problem. The 30 years of bilingual education has created a situation wherein the teachers need to be equipped with English as a Second Language pedagogy.

One such product of the bilingual system is then nine-year-old Katherine “Kae” Fronda, the participant chosen by this writer for a case study in a graduate school course. The class was Case Studies in Reading and the project involved designing and implementing a 20-hour remediation program for an elementary student diagnosed with a reading problem. The case study was assigned not for research purposes but rather to give the graduate school student, now taking the role of a case worker, a chance to put into practical use, the principles of reading remediation.

The child turned out to be a proficient reader both in decoding and comprehension in the first language but was having difficulty understanding English language texts. Her low proficiency in the second language or L2 accounted for this reading deficiency. This then led to the question of whether this was a reading problem or a language problem.

Alderson (as cited in Taillefer, 1996) saw L2 reading as being both but with firmer evidence of it being a language problem for people with low levels of foreign language competence. This supported Clarke’s (p. 461) view that language proficiency determines reading ability in the second language. He formulated this assumption into what is now popularly known as the Short Circuit Hypothesis. Although it appears that the most logical solution to the problem of L2 reading is a language-based one, further research on the subject by Hudson (as cited in Barnett, 1989) concluded that induced schemata (vocabulary words, pictures) can override the effect of the second language threshold on comprehension (p. 55).

Other studies conducted on the use of schema likewise proved that a high degree of background knowledge can overcome linguistic deficiencies (Grabe, 1991). In other words, there is a reading-based approach in dealing with the problem of reading comprehension in the L2 caused by low proficiency. Second

language pedagogy has developed comprehension strategies that focus on the use of the reader’s own background or prior knowledge known as schema, rather than on linguistic knowledge.

In place of research questions, the case worker made decisions regarding choice of teaching approach, materials, activities and assessment procedures. Guided by the knowledge gleaned from a review of current reading research, the case worker put together a reading remediation program centered on comprehension strategy use which was then adapted to fit within the basic framework provided for the assignment. Taking into consideration Alderson’s early point regarding the language issue, English language lessons were also incorporated in the design.

The case worker put together a remediation program that was meant to help the student manage her L2 handicap, through strategic reading techniques that would allow her to read and understand L2 texts. The goal was to enable the student to demonstrate successful use of the techniques and at the same time evaluate the remediation program itself in order for other case workers to better design programs of a similar kind. The student’s success in this case study would certainly be an encouragement to other Filipino children struggling with the same language/reading dilemma

The Research Problem

Presenting the case study project in the form of a formal researchpaper, the case worker translated the design-related concerns into the following questions:

General:Does strategy training improve the L2 reading comprehension of low language proficiency readers?

Specific:1. How will the program affect the student’s use of strategies when

reading texts in the L2?2. How will the different aspects of the program contribute to the student’s

learning of L2 reading comprehension strategies?3. What non-linguistic factors affect the learning of reading

comprehension strategies of the student in the study?

Theoretical Framework

In 1979 Clarke introduced the Short-Circuit Hypothesis which attributes reading comprehension problems in the second language (or L2) to the lack of proficiency in the same language. According to him “limited control over the language ‘short circuits’ the good reader’s system, causing him to revert to poor

reader strategies when confronted with a difficult or confusing task in the second language” (as cited in Barnett, 1989, p. 54).

Further research into the same area by Hudson in 1982 (p. 55) came up with the finding that induced schemata or the use of pictures and vocabulary pertaining to the text topic, can override the effect of L2 proficiency on comprehension. His findings show that such readers can improve their comprehension through schema activation. Furthermore, Hudson determined that linguistic knowledge was just one determinant of reading comprehension. He concluded that the use of schema as an aid to comprehension is more consistent among advanced readers and that choice of strategy changes across levels of reading and language proficiency.

Hudson’s study gives credence to the Schema Theory developed by Anderson that emphasizes the paramount role that schema plays in reading comprehension (McCormick, 1995). Schemata refers to a reader’s knowledge of the world and his existing concepts of it. The theory assumes that a text does not itself carry meaning, but readers can put meaning into it by setting it in the context of their own knowledge, according to Clark and Silberstein, (as cited in Brown, 1994) “by assigning it membership to an appropriate group of concepts already stored in their memories (p. 284). Thus the meaning-making process involves the active participation of the reader who harnesses the information, knowledge, emotion, experience and culture already in his memory to make sense of the text he is reading. Arieta (2001) identifies the three types of schemata that reading teachers emphasize and these are:

(1) knowledge of the concepts and processes that pertain to subject matter, i.e. science, math, humanities, etc.

(2) general world knowledge, i.e. social relationships, causes and effects

(3) knowledge of rhetorical structures, i.e. patterns, rules, structures for organizing text and cues to the reader

This concept of schema is particularly important for second language readers who must use other means to compensate for their limited linguistic language of the L2. The diagnosed reading problem of the student in the present study was her poor comprehension of English language or L2 texts. Using the idea of “induced schema” as proposed by Hudson, the case worker designed a program to purposely establish a schema for reading second language texts that the student could draw from when reading L2 materials. In other words, the “induced schemata” in this case was the procedural knowledge involved in strategic that falls under the first classification -- the knowledge of concepts and processes. Helping the student create a schema for reading L2 texts therefore meant the teaching of strategic reading comprehension skills as well as other fix-up strategies which she could use whenever comprehension breaks down.

Barnett (1988) outlined a basic format to a reading lesson designed to guide the students in activating particular schemata needed to process a reading

text. This is accomplished through different exercises that correspond to the three stages of the lesson. The outline is presented below:

I. Pre-readingThis includes activities meant to activate schema and arouse interest in the text enabling them to approach the text in a more meaningful and purposeful manner that introduce student to a particular text. Activities include: discussing author or text type, brainstorming, reviewing familiar stories, considering illustrations and titles, skimming and scanning (for structure, main points, and future directions).

II. During/While reading In this segment students are taught and encouraged to use reading strategies to improve their control of the second language, and successfully decode problematic text. Such practice exercises might include guessing word meanings by using context clues, word formulation clues, or cognate practice: considering syntax and sentence structure by noting the grammatical functions of unknown words, analyzing reference words, and predicting text content; reading for specific pieces of information; and learning to use the dictionary effectively.

III. Post reading Includes integrative activities (those that use text language and ideas in second language listening, speaking, and/or writing). These include such activities as students reacting to texts with summaries, new endings, or pastiches; re-enacting texts; dramatizing interviews based on text; carefully listening for key words or phrases in authentic video or audio tapes; and creating role-play situations or simulations of cultural experiences.

The program designed for the student made use of this three-part reading lesson prescribed by Barnett. Through a series of lessons that concentrated on schema activation activities, the student was taught an alternative approach that would enable her to comprehend texts in the L2 despite her limited L2 knowledge. The case worker used modeling and scaffolding to facilitate the learning of the procedure involved. The goal of the program itself was to help the student construct a general schema for reading L2 texts which consisted of a comprehension reading technique, the Directed Reading and Thinking Activity, and other comprehension fix-up strategies during actual reading.

In other words, the aim was to equip the student with strategic reading skills which she could use when tackling reading tasks in the L2.

The Reading Remediation Program

The student in this study was already a proficient reader in the technical sense, however her low proficiency in the L2 caused her to experience difficulty in comprehending texts in the same language. In designing the reading remediation program, the case worker focused on the use of strategic reading techniques rather than on language-based approaches that deal with vocabulary and grammar. The student needed to develop the skill that would enable her to fill gaps in her language knowledge of English by drawing from her own knowledge of the world and more importantly, from new procedural knowledge of reading strategies, to facilitate her comprehension of L2 texts.

All reading remediation programs begin with an assessment of the student’s general reading level. In the case of 9-year-old student Kae Fronda, the case worker used a series of informal assessment materials and one standardized test. The intervention was designed based on the results of the aforementioned tests.

The first test that was given was the Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation which determines the level of phonemic awareness of young children. Phonemic awareness refers to the understanding that spoken words consist of a sequence of sounds. Although the test was designed for younger and emergent readers, it was included as an assessment tool to make sure that the student did not have any problems relating to the more basic skills required in reading such as word recognition and word identification.

The Fry Instant Word list was used to determine the extent of the student’s sight word vocabulary or level of word recognition ability. The automaticity of reading high frequency words and words that do not conform to the regular rules of phonics, serves as prerequisite to word identification. It is particularly useful for beginning readers by helping them facilitate the processing of such words in a text and giving them time to concentrate in decoding more difficult and unfamiliar words and in meaning-making.

To determine the student’s general reading level as well as her independent, instructional, and frustration levels, two sets of reading inventories were given: the Ekwall Reading Inventory and the Analytical Reading Inventory. An informal reading inventory or IRI is a series of short reading texts followed by a comprehension check. These are used to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses in the use of reading strategies. An individually administered test, an IRI allows a case worker to closely observe a student while working on a reading task. Two IRIs were used in this case because the case worker felt doubtful about the results from the first IRI that was given (Ekwall Reading Inventory), Certain factors may have significantly affected the performance of the student such as the culture-specific content of some of the reading passages, the student’s mood while taking the test, and the case worker’s lack of experience in administering a reading inventory. The Analytical Reading Inventory was also administered to verify the findings of the Ekwall Reading Inventory.

The only standardized test administered was the Gates-MacGinite Reading Test to find out the student’s vocabulary knowledge and comprehension ability. Being a survey test, its main purpose is to evaluate how an individual student’s reading performance compares against a norm group. The test was included as another diagnostic test to verify the results of the IRIs as well as to determine the strategies the student used in handling English vocabulary and comprehension tasks.

A spelling test was included to find out at what developmental stage the student was in and whether it was appropriate to her age and grade level in school In this case the results showed the student’s lack of sufficient knowledge of English vocabulary and her inability to use context clues.

Finally, the Assessment of Reading Attitude and Interest was administered to gain an insight into the personality of the student as a reader. The information gathered was used to determine the details of the program such as what reading materials and activities to include. A good program must be tailored to meet the student’s learning needs and personalized according to his tastes and interests. In this way the program becomes interesting making the learning process engaging and enjoyable.

The student’s low proficiency level in the English language was shown to be the main cause her reading difficulties as manifested in her inability to fully comprehend L2 texts. The case worker decided to approach the language-based problem through the teaching of reading strategies combined with explicit English grammar and vocabulary instruction.

The program design included fluency lessons, writing activities, use of graphic organizers, word games, and writing activities. All throughout the program the case worker collected the student’s output and compiled these in a portfolio. She also kept a journal to document each session including details on how the session went, an analysis of the student’s performance of the tasks, a discussion of problems encountered and how these were handled, and plans for the following session.

The remediation program was conducted over a period of one month from November to December 2001 with the twenty hours of instruction divided into ten two-hour sessions. A case report was written based on the posttest findings and analysis combined with the informal data collected in the case worker’s journal and student’s portfolio. A true and fair evaluation in a case like this could only be achieved through a combination a both a product and process oriented approach.

Discussion

Does strategy training improve the L2 reading comprehension of low L2 proficiency readers?

Comprehension strategy training improves the comprehension potential of low L2 proficiency readers but not reading comprehension itself. The case study shows that improved comprehension of L2 texts depend on several factors such as the level of the material being read, use of other strategies not necessarily based on schema use (e.g. rereading, dictionary use), nature of the reading task (reading for pleasure versus reading for study), and text content (whether or not the topic is of interest to the reader or not).

Furthermore, linguistic knowledge was found to play a major role in the effectiveness of comprehension strategy training. For a low L2 proficiency reader, the strategies may prove useless or even counterproductive because the meaning-making process can be hampered by the lack of language-knowledge. Without the use of the strategies learned, the reader may not come up with any meaning at all, whereas when they use the strategies, the meaning derived might be a distorted one or a misinterpretation of the text. This problem however, can be managed through the use of a bilingual dictionary, provided the material is within the reader’s instructional reading level.

How did the program affect the student’s use of L2 reading comprehension strategies?

In the reading comprehension segment of the Gates-MacGinite test, the student reverted to her poor reading strategies. She picked her answers according to the similarity of its words to the given question. She did try to draw inferences but the language level proved to be well beyond her proficiency, thus the meanings she constructed were entirely different from what the passage was about. Her unfamiliarity with English language idioms, usage, and Western culture, all worked against her being able to effectively use an otherwise good reading strategy.

The student learned how to use the reading-predicting-confirming technique but did not utilize this during the posttest. The student needs more positive experiences in the use of strategic reading skills for her to fully grasp its usefulness and use it when reading L2 materials.

How did the different aspects of the program contribute to the student’s learning of L2 reading comprehension strategies?

Reading texts on topics on which the she already had readily available schema positively influenced the student’s learning of the strategies. Being able to utilize her own knowledge in completing the different learning tasks enabled the student to experience a measure of success which is very important aspect of reading remediation instruction.

The use of graphic organizers which is an important element in the program proved very helpful. The student consistently performed well in comprehension activities that required her to complete a graphic organizer.

The writing component comprised of reader-response activities. As an enrichment activity, writing proved to be stimulating to the student, however when it incorporated lessons in English grammatical forms and structures, she became obviously tense. This is one aspect of the program that had an unmistakably negative effect on the participant.

The incidental approach to vocabulary learning and the word games worked well with the student. She made use of certain vocabulary words in some of the activities without being instructed to do so which indicated her interest in the new word knowledge she was gaining through the program. Providing students with a glossary of possible problematic words which they can refer to during actual reading proved to be very helpful. For Filipino students, a translation of the word and its equivalent meaning would even better facilitate the vocabulary learning process.

The student took particularly well to the fluency instruction. It inspired her and it boosted her self-confidence. The Hoffman Reading Lesson which consisted of several parts and concluded with a storytelling session with other children, was successful. The word identification and pronunciation lessons which were provided on a “as needed” basis were also learned well.

Prior to the program, the student was given John’s Assessment of Attitude and Interest (1982). Her answers revealed that she was confident of her ability as a reader, that she preferred to read rather than watch television, and that she believed she did not need any help in the area of reading. She was given the same questionnaire after the reading program and her answers were exactly the same ones she had given when she first took it. This simply showed that the student equated reading with decoding skills and did not see comprehension as a part of reading. This concept of reading as a skill is one of essentially two basic views of the reading process. One being the bottom-up concept in which the reader’s foremost role is being able to decode the symbols on the printed page and eventually arrive at a meaning based on the accumulated information processed while reading; the other one being the top-down concept which considers the process as a whole experience with comprehension as its main goal. The student’s view corresponded with the former, a framework that considers decoding skills as the main prerequisite to effective reading.

The overall effect of the program on the student’s affective development was undeniable positive. She maintained a cooperative attitude throughout the entire remediation period and hardly needed coaxing to do what her tasks even if was clear that she was already exhausted or that she found it difficult. This was something in stark contrast to her behavior during the posttest.

What non-linguistic factors affected the learning of reading comprehension strategies of the student in the study?

The student’s L2 reading difficulty is directly due to her low level of L2 proficiency, however aside from this, there are other factors that contribute to the problem and these include: the student’s cultural orientation, home environment, and personal beliefs about the reading process. Informal interviews and the one-on-one dealings with the student during the sessions afforded the case worker an insight into the life of the student enabling her to identify these non-linguistic influences that affected the student’s development as a reader in the L2.

Aebersold and Field (1997) contend that cultural orientation, aside from being one of the major factors that influence L2 reading, also has the most far-reaching effect. Being aware of this, it is easy to understand why the student, despite her good decoding skills, has a second language reading difficulty. When we speak of “cultural” in this sense however, we do not refer to its strictly traditional meaning but to the socio-economic subculture (the so-called “masses”) that predominates Philippine society. Apart from the language proficiency problem, the subculture to which she belongs is one which does not encourage L2 reading.

During the time of the study, the student was attending a school where the medium of instruction was Pilipino (the native language of the country) and sometimes the hybrid “Taglish”. Until recently, the educational system in the Philippines had downplayed the role of English in instruction. There appears to be a low demand for second language in this system thus many students have to limit themselves to the basic decoding skills when handling English texts. The student’s lack of knowledge about L2 reading comprehension skills led the case worker assume that such skills are not being taught in many schools. Clearly this illustrates how cultural orientation influences the types of reading skills and strategies that need to be taught in the L2. The student has been educated in this system where she has learned very good decoding skills, the only strategy she uses when reading English language texts.

The student’s home environment is another factor that contributes to the student’s comprehension problem. Only the Pilipino language is being spoken in her home. The family’s financial situation has limited her access to books and is very likely one of the reasons why she was never read to by her parents when she was a small child. Except for her textbooks, the Holy Bible is the only reading material of worth in the house and it is read regularly by the student’s mother solely for the purpose of prayer and meditation. However inadvertently, her mother’s reading behavior tacitly set the purpose for reading in the student’s mind and that is to prepare oneself for religious and spiritual activity. This is of course not at all a bad thing, however her example has set a limit to the usefulness of reading as perceived by the student. With a very limited choice of reading materials, it is unsurprising that the student has very little knowledge of the world or content schema to draw from whenever she tackles a reading task in the L2.

Content schema is built not only from vicarious experiences acquired through reading and film viewing, but from actual experiences as well. Absence or lack of schemata about particular topics can oftentimes be due to the cultural differences between the reader and the text content. Aebersold and Field point out that cultural orientation directly influences background knowledge (p. 32). Comprehension can be hindered by a cultural barrier whereby a reader is unable to relate what is being read to anything within his sphere of existence as a member of another culture. This was particularly evident when the student failed to make sense of some of the reading passages in the IRIs despite their low level of difficulty. As a young Filipino girl unfamiliar with American culture, she does not possess the necessary background knowledge to understand what was being talked about in the text. This further emphasizes the importance of schema-building and schema activation when designing L2 reading programs for low level proficiency students.

Teaching Implications

Low level proficiency L2 learners would benefit much from strategy training to improve their comprehension of L2 texts. The activation of available schema is one important key in enabling learners to connect with the text without necessarily incorporating language knowledge lessons. Making them aware of the usefulness of their own prior knowledge about the subject of a given text tends to wean them from the inhibitive practice of being word-bound when trying to create meaning. Equally useful is the purposeful building up of schema dealing with concepts and processes, in this case, the procedural knowledge needed to enhance comprehension of L2 texts. The Directed Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA) is one such activity. The student in present study easily learned it and used it successfully. Other strategic reading techniques such as the use of graphic organizers and semantic maps also proved to be very helpful.

Testing materials to be used during the implementation of a program and as assessment tools should be teacher prepared. These should be highly individualized and must only include the knowledge gained within the program. Standardized tests are not appropriate tools because most of them are designed for an entirely different learner population and may thus yield faulty and unreliable results. Monitoring and determining student progress is better achieved through the evaluation of the student’s output during the program and through the case worker’s reflective daily journaling of the student’s performance.

Being procedural and not linguistic in nature, L2 reading comprehension strategies may be taught using a bilingual approach . In this manner, the learning of strategies is better facilitated. Providing translations whenever necessary and allowing students to use the L1 encourages participation particularly during the initial stages of a strategy training program. Moreover, this approach tends to reduce the learner’s language anxiety therefore promoting early success, which in turn translates to increased motivation in learning the principles being taught.

Finally, comprehension strategy learning for low proficiency L2 students require a lot of work in terms of adapting course materials not only to the student’s level of proficiency but also to the culture to which the student belongs. Teachers need to be sensitive to the culture-specificity of texts as this may interfere with the learning process and the application of the strategies learned. The same holds true with the diagnostic and assessment materials which should be modified, or better yet, designed specifically to suit the cultural profile of the learners.

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