CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
2.7 READING STRATEGIES
Pearson and Fielding, in Henia (2003), describe strategies as conscious and flexible plans that readers apply to particular texts and tasks. McNamara (2007, p.6) define reading comprehension strategies as “a cognitive or behavioural action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions, with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension.” Cekiso and Madikiza (2014, p.1) view reading strategies as “specific actions, behaviours, steps or techniques that learners use to improve their progress in comprehending, internalizing and using a second language.” These strategies are what Li and Munby (1996) refer to as important for the development of metacognitive reading.
McNamara (2007, p.4) supports Li and Munby’ (1996) when he states that they help readers in deepening their understanding of the content being read. For readers to develop deep comprehension strategies, they require inferencing skills (the ability to link ideas coherently, and the ability to scrutinize motives behind authors’ writings). Cekiso and Madikiza (2014, p.2) agree with McNamara (2007) that strategic awareness and monitoring of comprehension process are critical aspects of skilled reading.
For the purpose of this study, the researcher aims at developing the academic reading strategies among students which they can apply at universities. These academic reading skills are important when students go up the education ladder (Cekiso &
Madikiza, 2014, p.2).The fact remains that students need to be aware of these strategies and how to use these strategies in different academic reading situations. The following are the reading strategies classified into three types:
2.7.1 Pre-reading strategies
Pre-reading strategies are described as helping students in identifying their reading demands, activating what they already know about the topic and anticipating what will be read (Cekiso & Madikiza, 2014, p.2; Ajideh, 2003, p.6). It is during the pre-reading stage that students activate their background knowledge relating to their science
content. Students get motivated and can predict what to expect in their reading based on background knowledge. Pardede (2010, p.4) clarifies more on the pre-reading strategies by stating that students should “employ techniques such as prediction, semantic mapping, and reconciled reading.” Again, he argues that pre-reading activities are important in academic reading since they are:
devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’s schemata.” Pre –reading activities actively involve students in the themes, concepts, and vocabulary of the text before they even pick up the article, textbook passage, or piece of literature.
Pre-reading strategies are aimed at activating students’ background knowledge. In applying prediction, the student should be questioning his or her schemata and eliminating the ones not relevant to his or her reading. This is what Smith, in Pardede (2010, p.5) view as the elimination of unlikely alternatives. This means that the reader would be engaged in a selective process of aligning his or her schemata with the content for meaning-making to take place. The researcher agrees with Smith, in Pardede (2010, p.5), who states the importance of prediction in pre-reading stage as:
bringing potential meaning to texts, reducing ambiguity and eliminating in advance irrelevant alternatives. Thus, we are able to generate comprehensible experience from inert pages of print.
It is on the basis of the argument presented above that it is important to develop or activate students’ pre reading strategies, since these strategies help in developing their schema on the content taught in science. It is important to activate student’s background knowledge, and to check the relationship between this knowledge and text content. The development of strategies during the pre-reading stage help to prepare students for the during–reading stage.
2.7.2 During-reading strategies
During-reading strategies are described as the ones which deal with the main reading of the text. At this stage, the students should be able to identify the main ideas of the
texts. In sciences, this refers to the application of the inferencing skills in deciphering meaning from the text. Students’ knowledge of scientific words (vocabulary development) is very much relevant during the application of these strategies and developing note-taking strategies which can help them in making meaning from the texts (Pardede, 2010, p.5).
2.7.3 Post-reading strategies
These are the reading strategies which help students to deepen their understanding of texts (Cekiso & Madikiza, 2014, p.2; McNamara, 2007, p.34). Students build further connections and expand their prior knowledge of the subject matter. The critical is that students are given opportunities to draw conclusions, make judgements on the issues read, and to apply their generalization to current issues or problems.
In addition to inferencing skills, students require the following strategies to successfully navigate through academic texts:
2.7.4 Use of background knowledge
This refers to the utilization of background knowledge in both L1 and L2 reading. The discussion on the use of background knowledge is more related to the debate on the schema theory. Henia (2003, p.205) argues that background knowledge of the content material is a necessary component of academic competence. Krashen (2007, p.2) also views the use of the background knowledge as being necessary for academic reading.
Van Wyk and Greyling (2008, p.4) add to the above importance of background knowledge by arguing that the background knowledge helps to scaffold new textual encounters which help to enhance understanding that then become reinforced to form part of knowledge. Ozuru, Dempsey and McNamara (2008, p.1) relate the background knowledge with a topic relevant to prior knowledge. They describe the topi- relevant- prior knowledge as the pre-existing knowledge related to the text content that is often measured with open-ended and /multiple choice questions on vocabulary and factual information. This means that students should have knowledge about the content they
are reading for them to understand the text. The prior knowledge of the text facilitates and enhances text comprehension.
2.7.5 Self-questioning
Self-questioning is a strategy that involves readers asking questions about their own reading to find out whether they understand or not. It involves metacognition as the questioning part normally engages the mind. Based on the above, Henia (2003) indicates the relevance of self-questioning as an academic reading strategy. Self- questioning therefore involves the interrogation of the text as one reads through. Tracey and Morrow (2006, p.79) view self-questioning as a strategy applied mostly in critical reading which applies to academic reading; this means that students must have this skill in order to evaluate academic texts critically whenever they come across them.
2.7.6 The use of prediction and contextual cues
Pardede (2010, p.6) views prediction as a good strategy in the pre-reading activities because “the brain is always anticipating and predicting as it seeks order and significance in sensory inputs’.
Reading has to be accessible in content and appropriate genre (Parkinson et al., 2008, p.15).The ability to read depends on whether the reader is conversant with the content and the genre of his reading. The discussion that follows focuses on the different theories of reading in academic reading.