Mostly used reading comprehension strategies
4.4 ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEW DATA
4.4.2 Reading comprehension challenges experienced by first entering English language students at HBUs in SA
This theme reviews comprehension challenges experienced by first entering English language students at HBUs in South Africa as they are likely to impair RC and affect the levels of reading competencies. Below is a discussion of the sub-themes that emerged from the students’ responses to an open-ended question.
Inability to decode and interpret the passage
This sub-theme reveals the inability by English language learning students on RC. The students stressed their inability to capture the message being conveyed in the passage by the writer. This was evident from some of their responses. One learner said: “Not understanding the message conveyed in a comprehension…” and another one said: “It is difficult to find meaning or the idea of the comprehension” and another one said: “Sometimes I read the comprehension and fail to understand what it is about”.
Below are some comments relating to the sub-theme above: “When reading a comprehension, I sometimes fail to make sense of my reading, which makes it hard for me to answer questions”.
o “Poor decoding and word recognition skills...”.
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o “How to take out few important ideas from the passage”.
o “Sometimes I am unable to find the relevant answers from the passage”.
o “…meanings to some of the words I don't know or understand and sometimes figurative words”.
o “Unable to understand some of the words used”.
o “Failing to understand the writer's style of writing until someone explains it to me quite a number of times”.
o “The meaning of certain words that I find them difficult to break down”.
o “I am sometimes unable to understand the passage that I am reading”.
Lack of concentration
o “I sometimes experience lack of concentration by thinking of something else…”.
o “I have a short attention span and often bored by some passages”.
o “Sometimes reading comprehension that are too long is a challenge”.
o “Sometimes I lose focus if the comprehension is too long and not interesting”.
o “I get lost when I read so I have to re-read the comprehension maybe twice”.
o “I experience difficulties when I have to carry on reading when I did not understand a certain word”.
o “…I don't take enough time to read it well”.
Poor word/language processing ability
o “Difficulty following basic direction and difficulty pronouncing or recognising words”.
o “Bombastic words are hard to pronounce and to understand”.
o “When they use big words making the sentence difficult to understand”.
o “Having to encounter bombastic words and not knowing the meaning”.
o “Perhaps a first encounter with a word, will require me to look it up…”.
o “Comprehension have big words that we sometimes don't know the meaning”.
Lack of understanding
o “Not understanding the passage, you are reading”.
o “Failing to understand some word in a sentence, failing to summarise”.
o “I struggle to understand some words that the writer might have used”.
o “Not understanding a certain phrase particularly idioms or a complicated word”.
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o “Sometimes the passage might hold little words which makes it hard to quickly find answers or understand it better”.
o “…you have less time and finding words that may be hard for you to understand the meaning”.
o “Sometimes I don't understand the comprehension easily”.
o “I experience difficulties when I have to carry on reading when I did not understand a certain word”.
o “I sometimes find it difficult to understand the comprehension…”.
o “Well, coming across difficulties words, in not knowing the meaning…”.
Table 4.12: Themes and sub-themes emerging from students’ RC challenges
Themes Sub-Themes
Factors that impair reading comprehension
Switching from mother tongue instruction to English instruction (Translanguaging) Poor teaching and learning standards Limited resources
Low self-esteem Lack of motivation Attitude
Reading comprehension challenges experienced by first entering English language students at HBUs in SA
Inability to decode and interpret the passage
Lack of concentration Lack of understanding
Poor word/language processing ability Reading comprehension strategies Re-read
Identify the main idea Summarising
Visualising Questioning
From the lecturers’ interview, it can be concluded that there is a common problem of poor reading comprehension amongst students at HBUs as depicted in Table 4.12
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above. There are several factors that the lecturers indicated to have contributed to this problem, such as inadequate teaching of reading comprehension at basic level, teacher incompetency, lack of resources, poor vocabulary and poor parental support.
The unsmooth transition from learners’ native language in the FP to the English language when a learner enters the Intermediate Phase (IP) was also highlighted as one of the main contributing factors. Lecturers concur that it is very important to teach RC because it is the basis on which academic success is dependent. As such, RC should be given sufficient time so that it is taught well. They highlighted that poor RC affects students’ learning, class participation as well as the pass rate. The lecturers also mentioned that they do not really have enough time to teach RC themselves as they dealt with a large number of students in one group. As such, they could not pay adequate attention to individual students. This may lead to the conclusion that students that come with the challenges of RC comprehension from school level are likely to exit with them at the university level despite the ‘support’ offered by departments that teach English at universities.