Reading with Comprehension - Essay Example

? Reading with comprehension Reading with comprehension refers to the understanding of written texts, upon reading. Readers should be able to construct meaning out of what they read. Comprehension entails interplay of all the elements of the reading process; texts should create a representation in the reader’s mind. This study will examine the concept of reading with comprehension. More specifically, the study seeks to emphasize on learning difficulties, which may be involved in reading with comprehension. The study will focus on these difficulties and the challenges they pose to the understanding of comprehension. Learning Difficulties in Reading with comprehension According to Callella (2000), learning difficulties comprise of the inability to make clear connections between the text read and its actual meaning. Readers may be confronted with a number of difficulties in an attempt to understand and comprehend any piece of writing, which they read. Most of the difficulties in learning affect children and hinder their understanding of written texts. It becomes extremely challenging for school going children to understand what they read, when they have difficulties in learning. Some of the learning difficulties in reading with comprehension include challenges in decoding, linguistic comprehension, and poor phonological and semantic skills. Other difficulties may be related to problems with visual word recognition, fluency, and problems with inference making and working memory. These difficulties will now be analyzed on the basis of how they influence reading with comprehension. The lack of proper decoding skills can act as a constraint on reading with comprehension. This may happen when decoding is slow and effortful; in such a case, resources may be dedicated to word level processing. On the other hand, when decoding in the reader is automatic, then the task of comprehension may be possible. Reading comprehension can be compromised when decoding in the reader is poor (Westwood, 2004). Decoding relates to the speed of word reading; children who have poor reading comprehension skills can be slower at reading words than students with excellent reading comprehension skills. The relationship between reading comprehension and efficiency in decoding continues in a person’s lifetime. Poor reading skills and non word reading in early childhood may predict learning difficulties in reading with comprehension in secondary school years and adulthood. Linguistic comprehension can also be a source of poor reading comprehension. The simple model of reading holds that apart from deficits in decoding, poor comprehenders may also have deficits in linguistic comprehension. Readers may have difficulties in understanding the language used in a comprehension (Westwood, 2004). For example, they may not understand the actual meaning of the words used. This learning difficulty presents a challenge to the understanding of written text. In order to make meaning out of written texts, the reader should understand the language used. Thus, difficulties in understanding the actual meaning of words, phrases, and vocabulary used can be regarded as a learning difficulty in reading with comprehension. According to Allington & McGill-Franzen (2000), poor phonological skills also pose significant challenges in reading with comprehension. Phonological skills have a correlation with the development of literacy in children as well as adults. Phonological deficits may usually characterize individuals with poor reading comprehension skills. Comprehension problems on the basis of phonological skills may emanate from the inability to sustain phonological representation of verbal information while reading. Phonological skills play an essential role in determining how the reader represents verbal information when reading. Thus, the inability of children to set up phonological representation leads to difficulties in reading with comprehension. Other difficulties related to phonology entail problems in word recognition. The inability to recognize words may pose immense challenges to the reader, therefore, leading to learning difficulties associated with reading comprehension. Apart from poor phonological skills, poor comprehenders also portray significant weaknesses in certain aspects of oral language. This comprises of poor semantic skills, a learning disability that may lead to problems in reading with comprehension. Poor comprehenders have difficulties in creating semantic judgments. For example, they may produce fewer exemplars than good comprehenders, in a task that involves semantic fluency (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2000). Difficulties may also be experienced in semantic priming as well as picture naming. Therefore, difficulties in communicating and verbal language can be regarded as potential learning difficulties in reading with comprehension. Individuals who cannot be able create semantic judgments can be regarded as having poor reading with comprehension skills. Poor comprehenders have considerable difficulties in understanding vocabulary and non literal language aspects (Westwood, 2004). Difficulties in visual word recognition may also accompany individuals with problems in reading with comprehension. The ability of the reader to make connections between phonology and orthography can be considered as a vital lexical processing skill in reading with comprehension (Callella, 2000). On this regard, therefore, the ability to identify words accurately allows readers to understand the comprehension. As noted, efficiency in decoding has an impact on reading comprehension. Therefore, the inability to recognize words presents a learning difficulty in reading with comprehension. Individuals with difficulties in reading comprehension can rarely recognize some words. As a result, they cannot understand what the words mean. Problems with working memory may also contribute to potential challenges in reading with comprehension. Reading comprehension places remarkable demands on such resources as working memory. While reading, representations, sentences and words have to be held in the memory. This way, background knowledge becomes activated and aspects of the text become processed. Students with low, working memory span attain lower scores in comprehension than those with high working memory spans. Moreover, students with low, working memory may have difficulties in some aspects of comprehension such as pronoun resolution (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2000). Therefore, low, working memory contributes to poor comprehension skills. Low memory implies that the reader will forget what they read. Callella (2000) contends that inference making can be a learning difficulty in reading with comprehension. In order to understand language, readers should be able to make inferences. They should go beyond what the text states; this way, they will get the intended message. Readers should draw inferences even in texts that seem to be straightforward. Failure to draw inferences may act as a serious impediment to comprehension. Studies indicate that poor comprehenders may encounter difficulties in drawing inferences when listening or reading. These difficulties have an implication on poor reading comprehension in children as well as adults. In conclusion, learning difficulties may have a considerable impact on reading with comprehension. Individuals with difficulties in decoding, linguistic comprehension, and poor phonological skills usually have poor performance in reading with comprehension. In addition, problems in semantic skills, difficulties in inference making, problems with recognition of visual words as well as low, working memory may also affect reading with comprehension. Learning difficulties imply that the reader has poor performance in reading with comprehension. References Allington, R. & McGill-Franzen, A. (2009). Handbook of Reading Disability Research. New York: Taylor & Francis. Callella, T. (2000). Reading Comprehension. Huntington Beach: Creative Teaching Press. Westwood, P. S. (2004). Learning and learning difficulties: a handbook for teachers. Victoria: Australian Council for Ed Research, ACER. Read More