Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:6) further state that vocabulary is very important in reading comprehension, since readers cannot read with understanding without knowing what most of the words mean.
Poor readers are sometimes inefficient in reading because they have been taught to look carefully at each word, and this results in poor comprehension, because the readers are so focused on individual words that they forget what they have read before, and this has to be re-read in order to get any understanding (Broun and Oelwein, 2007: 12).
Bursack and Damer (2007:255); Broun and Oelwein (2007:89) and Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:4,221) state that poor readers are far behind in vocabulary development and in the strategies for understanding what they read. They further state that learning information about a topic before reading the story influences comprehension. The learners need at times this “prior knowledge” that prepares them for a better understanding and appreciation of upcoming stories or passages. The teacher can talk about the happy, sad, exciting and scary parts of the story.
According to Wearmouth, Soler and Reid (2002:237), one theory for poor
comprehension suggests that accurate word recognition is not sufficient for efficient
comprehension, but words must also be recognized quickly and automatically. Wearmouth, Soler and Reid (2003:248) further state that comprehension of text is a particular area of difficulty for some learners. Many learners who experience barriers to reading will never move past the fourth grade, unless they receive explicit instruction in using comprehension strategies (Bursuck and Damer, 2007: 261).
Duffy (2009:156-157); Mckennna and Stahl (2009:172-173); Haager, Dimino and Windmueller (2007:262-264); Broun and Oelwein (2007: 99-100); Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:214-216); Tyner and Green (2005:68-69) and Rhyder and Graves (2003:147) all recommend the following techniques to increase the instructional efficiency of comprehension and to determine the learners‟ comprehension abilities.
Select a story in which the sentence structure, vocabulary demands and background knowledge are needed in order to understand the story.
Preview the story to determine the vocabulary, figurative language or the background knowledge that the learners need to understand the story.
Highlight these concepts, ideas or information.
Read the story a few times. During the readings, incorporate a variety of questions, and ask the learners to make predictions.
Teach learners how to describe what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of a story over an extended period, by making use of the listen, read and discuss method.
The teacher reads the beginning of the story again, and then asks questions about it. For example: Who was the story about? (character). Where does this story take place? (setting). What happened to____? or what was ____ trying to do? (problem).
The teacher summarizes what happened at the beginning of the story. The learners are now asked to recite what happened at the beginning of the story, including information about the character, setting and problem. If the learner leaves out any important information, the teacher can ask a question to recall the information.
The teacher then reads the middle of the story, and follows the same basic procedure of asking questions, summarizing the information, and then asks a few learners to retell these events. The same procedure is followed after reading the end of the story.
The teacher now asks the following questions: What happened at the beginning of the story? What happened in the middle of the story? What happened at the end of the story?
Simple story maps with boxes to indicate the sequence of story events can be use by the learner and teacher.
Example of a story map.
To comprehend successfully sometimes means to be able to read fluently.
3.2.5 Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly and with expression. Learners who read word-by-word are so focused on getting the words right, that they are unable to focus their energy on finding out what the text actually means (Duffy, 2009:223); (Mckenna and Stahl, 2009:148) and (Bursuck and Damer, 2007:8). Learners who struggle to read often experience difficulties in fluency, and without fluency their ability to comprehend is compromised (Gaskins, 2005:155). Fluent reading is an important milestone in reading development. This might be because word-by-word reading does not provide any personal fulfilment (Allingtton, 2006:107).
The struggling reader might come to school with adequate general language ability, but with cognitive weaknesses that are limited to a literacy-related skill. The reader‟s primary problem in learning to read involves learning to translate from the printed page to oral language. Such learners experience difficulties in accurately and fluently reading printed words (Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann, 2006:3).
A lack of fluency may be defined as reading in a slow halting pace, frequent mistakes made by the learner, as well as poor phrasing and inadequate expressions.
If the readers cannot read the words in a given text automatically and with expression, then they cannot focus on the meaning of the text. The goal of reading is to understand and learn from the text (Tyner and Green, 2005:8; Rasinski, Blachowicz and Lems, 2006:65; and Haager, Dimino and Windmueller, 2007:13). Furthermore, Tyner and Green (2005:40) argue that evolving readers generally lack the fluency needed to comprehend the text.
Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:6), further argue that despite the importance of fluency as a component of skilled reading, it is often neglected in the classroom by the teacher who is listening to the reader experiencing difficulty with reading.
In addition to the above, Rasinski, Blachowicz and Lems (2006:46) state that the following factors have an impact on a child‟s ability to read fluently:
The degree of speed with which sighted words can be processed. Speed of processes that are needed to recognise new words. Use of context to increase word identification.
Speed with which word meanings are identified.
The quantity of words in a text that are identified as having the correct spelling. Inexperienced teachers often tolerate less-fluent reading than experienced and
effective teachers (Rasinski, Blachowicz and Lems, 2006:276).
Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:171) and Haager, Dimino and Windmueller (2007:13) and Johnson (2006:70) further state that fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. Fluent readers recognise words automatically, group words quickly – to help them gain meaning from what they read; they read aloud without any effort and with expression.
When learners can read with expression they pause at times and at punctuation marks, divide the text into meaningful chunks, emphasise the appropriate words, reading quotations and reflect the mood of the character speaking.
In this regard, Dally, Chafouleas and Skinner (2005:74) further point out the reason why fluency is so important is because building fluency can be a rewarding experience and could increase the opportunities that learners will choose to read on their own. Building fluency can make reading less effortful and less frustrating for learners. Teaching fluency can improve the learners‟ reading (Bursuck and Damer, 2007:8).
In this regard, the following method can be use to assess fluency (Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann 2006:175; and Dally, Chafouleas and Skinner, 2005: 33,135).
The teacher times the learner for one minute and notes any errors the learner makes while reading.
Words read correctly in one minute and the percent of total words read correctly are recorded.
If the learner reads 53 words and reads 51 words correctly, the learner‟s accuracy percentage would be 96%.
Errors of repetitions and correcting oneself are not counted errors.
Errors of misidentifications, word substitutions, omissions and hesitations (after 3 seconds tell the learner the correct word) are counted as errors.
For each reading, the teacher records the date, the passage read, the number of words read correctly, the number of errors made and the percentage accuracy. The learners‟ reading rate can be put on a graph.
Learner’s Name__________ Class__________
Record of Performances
Psg. =Passage WRC= Words read correctly Err. = Errors % = Percent correct (Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann, 2006:174)
In addition, Carnine, Silbert, Kame‟enui, Tarver and Jungjohann (2006:179) recommend the following steps that teachers can use to encourage home reading, which can also help to improve fluency in reading:
The teacher explains the importance of extra reading to the parent, and asks the parent to fit in daily a minimum of 5 minutes, in which the child has to read a hundred-word passage taken from a book three times to the parent.
The teacher can send books on the learner‟s individual level home, so that the child can read silently or to the parent.
The parent writes down each day how many minutes the child has read. The learner brings the calendar once a week to school on a specific day given by the teacher.
To motivate the learners, the teacher can put the minutes read by each individual on a chart. Date Psg WRC Err %
A goal with a special event can be planned. For example, “When the class reached the 10,000 minutes at home, the class can have a free fun period outside the class, as a special award.”
Individual motivation systems might be needed for some children.
The following activities can help when practising fluency in the classroom. The teacher tapes one letter on a plastic bottle (using a few plastic bottles). The learners use bean bags to knock over the bottles. One point is earned for knocking over a bottle, one point for naming the letter, one point for saying a word that starts with a particular letter (Broun and Oelwein, 2007:110-111).
Furthermore, Mckenna and Stahl (2009:154-155); Allington (2006:99-100); and Mckenna (2002:28) suggests the following instructional strategies that might help develop oral fluency: The learners get individual roles which they rehearse by reading the lines over and over again. They read these lines aloud in the class. The learners can also make use of echo reading, where the learner repeats what the teacher reads aloud, for example, a sentence or a phrase at a time.
In addition to the above-mentioned, Bursuck and Damer (2007:314) suggest the following activity to improve fluency:
The teacher asks individual learners to read one to three sentences of the story. The other learners follow with their fingers.
When the learners make an error, let the learners read several more words, then say “stop”. By waiting, the learners are given a chance to correct themselves. Point out the errors the learners have made, and indicate which mistake was
made, for example, they might have misidentified a word, or skipped a line. The teacher can use the list of story errors for extra word reading practice,