Romy Gamba ENHACING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH LITERACY STRATEGIES INSIDE CBI

 ENHACING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH LITERACY STRATEGIES INSIDE CBI

RESEARCH PURPOSE

Enhance reading comprehension through literacy strategies at 11^th graders 

MAIN QUESTION 

How are EFL students’ reading comprehension skills, evidenced after using some literacy strategies inside content based instruction?

SUB-QUESTIONS 

How can students’ English reading comprehension be evidenced through the use of English literature?

OBJECTIVES

MAIN OBJECTIVE 

To describe how the student’s reading comprehension skills are evidenced after the implementation of a set of literacy strategies inside content based instruction.

SPECIFIC 

To stimulate students’ English reading and writing through the use of English literature.

To analyze students’ process and level of English reading comprehension through the implementation of literacy strategies.

INTRODUCTION

Some revolutions occur quietly: no manifestoes,

no marching and singing, no tumult in the streets;

simply a shift in perspective,

a new way of seeing what had always been there.

-Susan Suleiman, The Reader in the Text

Students are successful when have the possibilities to acquire information focus on the content more than language. It is relevant to build a real a meaningful communication in the classroom to break the gap that learners have in terms of exchange of information. 

As teachers we have the challenge of engaging students in the process of learning helping them to become self-sufficient, actives to interpret information, exploring learning strategies and sources of content. This paper will address the process of learning through CBI and the implementation of strategies that allows students being comfortable with their knowledge and at the same time to acquire information in easier way. Therefore, the challenges to overcome are related the need of identifying how the curriculum is written looking for methods to collect and utilize teacher and student feedback for designing success content.

This project presents a description of a practical with a group of 11^th graders who will be observed during a short period of time. Its main purpose is to analyze and evidence EFL students’ reading comprehension skills after using some literacy strategies inside content based instruction.  

The following is divided in six parts that exposes an introduction to the project, the rational stating the contribution that I expect, a problem statement defining the main problems and specifying an instrument, the literature review in which is describe the purpose and the theoretical concepts, the instructional design mentioning the concerns, strategies and pedagogical interventions, the data analysis and the conclusions and implications. 

RATIONAL

As teacher, I consider it is relevant to find the appropriate way for developing students’ proficiencies through the implementation of literature in class focus on the content that is interesting for them, in order to evidence their weakness in terms of educational and daily life vocabulary related to concepts that support them to know what they are reading and what is the importance to acquire content knowledge (Hart and Risley 1995).

This project expects to make an important contribution focus on the importance that is exposed in the vision and mission of the school of emphasizing on English learning and comprehensive training. In this way, this project pretends to overcome the students’ gaps in terms of communication and competences requires when you want to become successful in a growing world economy.

It is looking for challenging the national demands .Besides that, it contributes to the program of Bogota bilingual addressing the students’ knowledge to the need and possibility to communicate everything that they desire in a successful way, transforming the wrong idea that the school is not enough for starting to learn English. 

 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Many times I have seen some students’ difficulties to develop an activity after an explanation. I took notes in one of my journals, when we start our class; I explain the topic and the activity to be developed. When I gave the text to the students, I could observe that most of them translated most of the text due to lack of vocabulary even when the story was known, in this case Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare”. However, when I began to tell them about parts of the story I could notice that they knew about it but they didn’t understand what they were reading. Moreover, they had some difficulties when I asked them to write the ideas had about the story, because they didn’t know how to say some things in the correct way.

That’s the reason why I asked to the students develop a questionnaire as instrument to get information about their needs and main issues. I could observe that most of them consider uncomfortable when should read because of their lack of vocabulary and reading comprehension. Personality is just a breach when they try to practice English, because of the absence of confidence in their knowledge and fear of making mistakes whereby an absence of learning as a result occur. Besides that, some of them say that they don’t like to read. However, when they do it; tend to take into account the context to understand the idea of the reading.  It is evident the translation as strategy when students don’t understand a text. 

The idea of developing this research is to reinforce student’s previous knowledge though the use of some strategies in order to develop reading comprehension increasing their vocabulary. That is the reason what I chose literature seeking to improve student’s reading comprehension, vocabulary and at the same time to engage them with the English learning though the implementation of known plays, in this case, English literature.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to provide a broader understanding of the pillars of this study, this chapter presents a definition of the main constructs that guide my research project. I begin with a definition of content based instruction theory and its relationship with students’ process. Then I present a description about literacy strategies related to reading comprehension and writing skills. Finally, some considerations about reading comprehension are mentioned.

Content based instruction

Since the core of my research concerns the content based instruction (CBI), I will start by defining what it is and what it requires. Many authors refer to effective program effects as evidence of its success. Krashen’s (1982, 1985) comprehensible input suggestion provided an initial rational for the development of CBI in second language contexts. “Canadian immersion programs, us bilingual immersion programs , and the university of Attawa sheltered programs for second and for foreign languages learners provide a degree of support for the importance of comprehensive input for L2 development and L2content learning” (snow1993; wesche, 1993).  Students that are involved in CBI classes have the opportunity to increase their knowledge about contents different to English classes. Moreover, students in CBI have the possibility to develop cognitive proficiencies. The philosophy of content based instruction (CBI) aims at empowering students to become independent learners and continue the learning process beyond the classroom. Stephen B. Betty Lou 

The project focuses on the important implication of reading comprehension and at the same time the need to acquire some basic skill when you want to understand a text. It is important to take into account the students’ needs in terms of reading comprehension because it is a disadvantage the lack of information and vocabulary when you have the intention to understand a text through your available elements without possibility for doing it. As teachers it is difficult to know how to use literature to achieve students’ challenges, however through the use of literature inside a content based instructions, it is possible that students acquire better comprehension skills. When we talk about education is essential not just transfer information to the students as if were devices to abstract knowledge but to involve them in a meaningful process , that means, not just teach students to read but to engage them in the process of learning to read.

People learn a L2 when they used the language to acquire information more than acquire language because it motivates them. CBI makes an assumption that learners learns best when they are given in a meaningful, contextualized form with the primary focus on acquiring information. (Brinton et al., Weshe, 1989:17). It is successfully when students learn a second language, acquiring information and perceiving it as interesting, useful and guiding a challenge. All those things allow to the learners expose their knowledge but at the same time their experiences. In that way, to guide students through the use of literacy strategies inside content based instruction and different skills open the possibility to break the gap that students 

In a content based instruction the activities are focused on the subject to be taught more than language in order to stimulate students’ to learn through an experiential way in which is developed a concern topic in easy way. It requires that students organize ideas and facts .Snow and Wesche (1989).

Stoller argued that CBI offers good conditions to carry out a language learning process. Firstly, when students are engaged in a CBI they are exposed to the use of language while learning content that is relevant to their needs. In content based classrooms, teachers and students are betrothed in a contextualized learning that allows them to use language increasing the opportunity to use knowledge in real life. Secondly, CBI promotes students’ motivation because they are exposed to new information that is interesting for them.  Besides that, CBI supports learning approaches as cooperative learning and experiential learning as a way to practice varying content and learning tasks. Then, teachers have the opportunity to supply the concerns and need of both teachers and students. These specific points provide arguments to approval the content learning as language benefit. 

A good communicative competence can be achieved by students when the target language is use to communicate more than an examination object. (Geneses 1991: Larsen- freeman and long 1991). Talking about CBI implies:

The main objective is the use of the subject more than language as principle, in that way, language is use to communicate that information about the topic that teacher expect to be learn by students.

In CBI, students should have able to recognize content, not language; thus the focus is always that they will be tested on content, students will not be interested to review their grammar structures and memorize list of words, but rather will be careful to lectures, participate in discussions, carry out readings related to the specific topic, and acquire language during the whole the process (krashen 1991).

Cooperative learning research 

Research (e.g. Shaw 1997; Slavin 1995) suggest that cooperative learning allows to the students to be participant through the use of language. Cooperative learning related to content based instruction let students work together to carry out a task providing students the opportunity to interact with each other. ( Crandall1992; Shaw 1997).

Extensive reading research 

Elley and Manghubai (1983) and Elley (1991) that through reading and writing students become good readers and writers developing their skills due to the acquisition of vocabulary , grammatical and spelling tools. Students also increase their motivation and self-confidence because they feel comfortable recognizing their knowledge. (Krashen 1989, 1993)

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." Stephen Krashen 

"The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production." Stephen Krashen

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Stoller (1977) proposed classification categories:

Language skills improvement

Vocabulary building

Discourse organization

Communicative interaction

Study skills

Syntheses of content materials and grammar

LEARNER ROLES

Become autonomous

support each other 

Active interpreters of input.

Willing to tolerate uncertainty

Willing to explore alternative learning strategies and sources of content

And have a learn by doing attitude

Some students are not comfortable in this type of environment and may become frustrated due to: 

A good language teacher

Knowledgeable in the subject matter

Be able to draw out that knowledge from the students 

Stryker and leaver (1993) suggest essential skills for any CBI teacher:

Vary the format of classroom instruction

Use group work and teach- building techniques

Organize jigsaw- reading arrangements

Use process approaches to writing

Help students develop coping strategies 

Use appropriate error correction techniques

Develop and maintain high levels of students esteem

Literacy strategies

Skimming and scanning, sq4r strategy, pre reding-while reading- post reading

Introduction to reading strategies

As students’ progress through school, they are asked to read increasingly complex informational and graphical texts in their courses. The ability to understand and use the information in these texts is important to a student’s success in learning. Successful students have strategies to use them in different contexts. Struggling students need explicit teaching of these strategies to become better readers.

Struggling readers need:

• Knowledge of different types of texts and the best strategies for reading them.

• Multiple and meaningful opportunities to practice reading in subject-specific contexts.

• Opportunities to practice reading with appropriate resources.

• Opportunities to talk about their reading and thinking.

• Background knowledge in subject areas.

• Strategies for previewing texts, monitoring their understanding, determining the most important ideas and the relationships among them, remembering what they read, and making connections and inferences.

• Strategies for becoming independent readers in any context.

Common understandings about reading

“Effective readers use strategies to understand what they read before, during, and after reading.”

Before reading, they:

• use prior knowledge to think about the topic.

Students can be taught to be strategic and effective readers.

• Struggling readers benefit from a variety of instructional approaches that demonstrate reading skills as subject content is taught. Direct teaching, thinking aloud, modeling, discussion, and small-group support are only a few of the approaches teachers use to help students become more strategic and effective readers in different contexts.

Purpose

• Learn how to navigate subject-specific textbooks and resources.

• Examine the layout and features of a particular text, and how to use it.

Payoff

Students will:

• become familiar with different course texts and resources (print and electronic).

• use strategies for effectively previewing and locating information in different texts, using the table of contents, indices and/or navigation bar.

Tips and Resources

• Most informational texts use a variety of visual, graphic and text features to organize information, highlight important ideas, illustrate key concepts, and provide additional information. Features may include headings, subheadings, table of contents, index, glossary, preface, paragraphs separated by spacing, bulleted lists, sidebars, footnotes, illustrations, pictures, diagrams, charts, graphs, captions, italicized words or passages, boldface words or sections, colour, and symbols.

CLUES FOR FINDING ANSWERS IN THE TEXT

ON THE LINES

Some questions can be answered by “reading on the lines”; the answer is right there in the text. The question asks for literal information from the selection such as details, facts and information stated by the author. Some “question starters” that ask for literal knowledge are give, list, find, describe, tell, retell, and what. To answer a question “on the line”:

• Find the words used to create the question.

• Look at the other words in that sentence to find the answer.

AMONG THE LINES

The answers to some questions are to be found by “reading among the lines.” This type of question has

an answer in the text, but this answer requires information from more than one sentence or paragraph.

Some “question starters” that ask for literal knowledge are list, compare, how, and summarize. To

answer a question “among the lines”:

• Find the words used to create the question.

• Reread the sentences or paragraphs that contain the question words.

• Look at the other words in the sentences or paragraphs to find the answer.

BETWEEN THE LINES

Some questions ask you to “read between the lines”. This type of question asks the reader to make

inferences based on the ideas and information in the text. The answer might be found interpretively in

the reader’s own background knowledge, but would not make sense unless the reader had read the

text. Some “question starters,” that ask for inferences are why, how might, what do you think, explain,

predict, and what might. To answer a question “between the lines”:

• Look for key words and clues in the question.

• Re-read that part of the text in which the author gives the clues needed to construct the answer.

• Ask yourself:

- Is this what the author meant?

- Does this make sense?

BEYOND THE LINES

The answers to some questions are not in the text at all: they are “beyond the lines.” This means

searching for the answer in the reader’s own background knowledge. Some “question starters” that ask

for interpretations are what can you learn from, how might you, what if, and is it fair that. To answer a

question “beyond the lines”:

• Read the question and identify the key words.

• Identify your beliefs, experiences and knowledge that relate to the question.

• Ask yourself:

-     Would the author agree with this conclusion?

TIPS FOR READING INFORMATIONAL TEXTS

Before Reading

• Set a purpose for reading. Ask yourself why you are reading this particular text.

• Look over the text to see which elements appear (such as headings, subheadings, illustrations

and captions, etc.).

• Examine the titles, headings, and subheadings, and scan for words that stand out.

• Look for words and phrases that might give you clues about how the information is organized.

• Read any overviews, summaries or questions. In a shorter piece, read the opening and concluding sentences or paragraphs.

• Examine each illustration and read the titles or captions.

• Recall what you already know about the topic.

• Record some questions you might have about the topic

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING VOCABULARY AND READING COMPREHENSION? Demonstrate to them how to learn vocabulary before, during, and after reading (Greenwood, 2004); and stress to them that learning new words is not an end in itself but a tool to enhance reading comprehension (Harmon, Wood, Hedrick, & Gress, 2008)

vocabulary growth occurs when we “immerse students in words in a variety of ways and get them personally and actively involved in constructing word meanings” (Duke & Bennett-Armistead, 2003, p. 182).

http://littoolkit.pbworks.com/f/Middle%20School%20Vocabulary%20Strategies.pdf

During Reading

• Divide the reading task into smaller chunks (chunking the text into paragraphs, chunking sections by sub-headings, etc.). Read a chunk, pause and think about what you read, and write a brief one-sentence summary or brief point-form notes to help you remember important and interesting

information.

• Read quickly, then slowly. Skim the sections you think will support your purpose for reading.

When you find specific information you want, slow down and read it word by word. You may need to reread the passage several times.

• Read the selection and jot down thoughts, responses to your questions and new questions that occur to you.

After Reading

• Read the selection again to confirm the main idea and supporting details.

• Make connections to what you already know about the topic. How does the information you have read add to or alter what you knew about the topic?

• Record your thinking about and responses to the text. For example, write a summary, complete a graphic organizer, create a sketch, or orally retell to yourself or a friend.

RESEARCH OR INSTRUCTIONAL  DESIGN

Further Support

• Provide students with a copy of a course-related text that has all of the visual and graphic

features (e.g., diagrams, charts, illustrations, captions, maps, headings, titles, legends) removed or blanked out. Ask students to scan the text and suggest what the blanked-out sections might be.

Have students read the body of the text and summarize the information. Ask students to identify the parts of the text that they had difficulty reading, and suggest what additional features would help them to navigate and understand the text better. Alternatively, provide students with a copy of a course-related text showing the text features only, without the body of the text. Discuss what information they can gather from the features and what predictions they can make about the content. Note the connections among the features of a text, the words, and how they help readers

understand the content.

• Encourage students to preview the features of a text before they read the content. Have partners share their previewing strategies.

• Have students create text search prompts for other course-related materials.

WHAT TEACHER DO 

BEFORE

• Select a subject-related textbook, Website, or print or electronic resource.

• Create a text search handout. Use ten to twelve prompts to guide students to particular features of the text (e.g., “List the major topics in this textbook.” “Locate information about early trade unions.”

“Where do you find a summary of each chapter?” “What symbol tells you to

pause and think?” “What symbol tells you to complete a process or experiment?”)

Prompts for a Text-Features Search.                                  REFERENCES

• Read the prompts out loud, if needed.

DURING 

• Ask students to work in pairs to complete

the search within a specific time frame.

• Have partners share their findings with

another pair.

AFTER

Discuss which items were easy and

which items were challenging to find.

• Ask students to suggest which features

of text were very helpful and not very

helpful, and which features should be

added to the text.

• Ask students to use the text features to

complete a relevant reading task.

WHAT STUDENTS DO

BEFORE

• Ask clarifying questions about the prompts and the task.

• Read the task prompts and note the features of text that might be useful in

completing the task.

DURING 

Read and respond to the prompts.

Record findings.

• Share and compare findings. Use cooperative group skills to complete the

task.

AFTER

• Identify the easy and challenging prompts.

• Identify the features of text they used and explain how they helped or hindered their task.

• Use the text features appropriately to complete the reading task. Make connections between different texts, noting the features that are common to many texts and subject areas, and those that are unique to a particular text or subject area.

GETTING READY TO READ: ANALYZING THE FEATURES OF A TEXT

A well-designed textbook uses a variety of graphical and text features to organize the main ideas, illustrate key concepts, highlight important details, and point to supporting information. When features recur in predictable patterns, they help the reader to find information and make connections.

Purpose

• Familiarize students with the main features of the texts they will be using in the classroom, so that they can find and use information more efficiently.

• Identify patterns in longer texts.

• Create a template that describes the main features of the texts, and post it in the classroom so that students can refer to it.

Payoff

Students will:

• develop strategies for effectively locating information in texts.

• become familiar with the main features of the texts they will be using.

Tips and Resources

• Text features may include headings, subheadings, table of contents, index, glossary, preface,

paragraphs separated by spacing, bulleted lists, sidebars, footnotes, illustrations, pictures, diagrams, charts, graphs, captions, italicized or bolded words or passages, colour, and symbols.

REFERENCES

• See Student/Teacher Resource, How to Read a History Textbook – Sample.

Cross-Curricular Literacy: Strategies for Improving Secondary Students’ Reading and Writing Skills,

pp.20-21.

Cross-Curricular Literacy: Strategies for Improving Middle Level Students’ Reading and Writing Skills, Grades 6-8, pp. 28-29, 40-41.

Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who?, pp.16-18.

* See also Previewing a Text to provide students with another opportunity to look at text features.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Learners have some backgrounds related to the lack of general vocabulary, handling grammatical structure as well as the absence of motivation. In many cases, these things avoid the development of communication skills not only in terms of literacy but also in the conversational field. The idea of developing this research is to reinforce student’s previous knowledge though the use of some strategies in order to develop reading comprehension increasing their vocabulary. 

In this chapter readers can find the factors that conduct me to design this project in this way. Then I state the question and objectives that address the type of research that I used. Also, it describes in a detailed way the context, the participants and finally the instruments for data gathering   .

Research purpose

Enhance reading comprehension through literacy strategies at 11^th graders 

Research question

Main question 

How are EFL students’ reading comprehension skills evidenced after using some literacy strategies inside content based instruction?

Sub-questions 

How can students’ English reading comprehension be evidenced through the use of English literature?

Objectives

Main objective 

To describe how the student’s reading comprehension skills are evidenced after the implementation of a set of literacy strategies inside content based instruction.

Specific 

To stimulate students’ English reading and writing through the use of English literature.

To analyze students’ process and level of English reading comprehension through the implementation of literacy strategies.

Type of research

 The phenomenon specified in my research study refers to the relevance of using literacy strategies inside content based instruction (CBI) as approach to enhance reading comprehension covering an analysis of students’ responses to literacy when they are involved in CBI, in this case English literature.

This is a qualitative case study project that focuses on general circumstances of the phenomenon to be studied in a real life context taking into account criteria for interpreting the findings. As pointed out by Burns (1999), the aim of qualitative approaches is to provide descriptions, interpretations and clarifications about social contexts.

It is important to highlight that a case study consents to examine students’ process taking into account their progress as individuals. Merriam (1988) considered that, this type of research helps the researcher focus on individuals working and observe data dealing with the context. It allows having a detailed and deep examination of the participants in terms of reading comprehension skills and learning process to enhance this proficiency.

Its main purpose is to enhance and to evidence reading comprehension through literacy strategies at 11th graders. At the same time, its main objectives are to describe how the student’s reading comprehension skills are evidenced after the implementation of a set of literacy strategies inside content based instruction, looking for to stimulate their abilities in order to analyze their process.

Participants 

It is going to be carrying out in public school at 11^th graders. The participants’ ages ranged between fifteen and nineteen years old of both genders. The distribution per gender was twenty four men and seventeen women. They are middle level class; there are between thirty and forty five students for classroom. Most of the students come from Bogota. The majority of them have a low level of English, lack of vocabulary, absence of confidence in their knowledge and fault of motivation to read, this information was obtained through the implementation of a questionnaires and previous some activities that involved reading comprehension and writing production. 

Setting 

It study is conducted at public school. The school is located in Quirigua neighborhood .This is a middle level school that has emphasis on accountancy and English, however, there are not enough time to implement English as focus of the institution. The institute has priority in the creation of human values. 

The role of the students and the teacher is important because it allows identifying the participation that each one has into the research. On the one hand, students’ role is to be encouraged to become independent learners. This only means that the learning experience does not just depend on the teacher determinations but the students are engaged to learn by themself.

Teacher role, on the other hand, is as teacher researcher. According to Yancey (1976) the researcher becomes immersed in a community’s life and he/she is generally accepted as one of the group. Besides that there is a pedagogical intervention in which teacher is involved as a participant in the context observing oneself as well as others. Burns, A. (1999).

Instruments

The instruments for data gathering are the questionnaires, the portfolio and field notes. Firstly, the questionnaires because they are a good way of collecting certain types of information quickly as students process in order to verify what is the reading comprehension level to pilot the instrument depends on the results when analyzing . Planning, consulting and deciding exactly what you need to find out will help you to produce a well-designed questionnaire acceptable to your subjects and useful to analyze and interpret data. Bell, J (2005).

Secondly, students are going to construct a portfolio throughout the process in order to be observed their progress, advantages and disadvantages, weaknesses and strengths, during the development of literacy strategies. According to Freeman, (1998) portfolios belong to document collection because they are a set of documents relevant to the research context that reflect students’ work and assignments in class. 

Lastly, teacher is going to use field notes because it constructs an image of participants and interactions in the classroom. Besides that, it includes non-verbal information that is useful to observe, reflect and analyze events that occur in class. (Burns, 1994).

Additionally, it provides the possibility to carry out a permanent process in which you as teacher researcher are able to collect information to identify factors as soon as possible.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/colombia-english-eltconference-2009-kathleen-corrales-cesar-maloof.pdf

http://www.asia-u.ac.jp/cele/cele_assets/CELE%20Journal%202007%20Vol%2015/006%20CELE%20Journal%20Sandkamp%20&%20Brooks%20Final.pdf

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/files/Reading.pdf

Burns, A. (1999). Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers. Cambridge:Cambridge University Pres 

Cross-Curricular Literacy: Strategies for Improving Secondary Students’ Reading and Writing Skills, pp. 20-21.

Cross-Curricular Literacy: Strategies for Improving Middle Level Students’ Reading and Writing Skills, Grades 6-8, pp. 28-29, 42-43. Reaching Higher Video.

Elley, Warwich, and francis Manghubal 1983.” The impact of reading on second language learning” reading research quarterly 19; 53-67

Freeman, D. (1998). Doing Teacher-Research: From Inquiry to Understanding. Canada:Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Leaver ,1997, pag 3 Stephen B. Betty Lou Leaver 1997. Content based instruction in foreign language education: models and methods

Merriam, S.B. (1988). Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach. SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass

Yancey, K. (1992). Portfolios in the Writing Classroom: An Introduction. Urbana: NCTE

Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Science, and Math, pp. 266-269 Beyond Monet, pp. 94, 105