Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka hur läsförståelsestrategier kommer till uttrycki två läromedel för ämnet svenska i årskurs 4–6 genom en läromedelsanalys. För attundersöka detta studeras utvalda läsförståelsestrategier från En läsande klass:Spågumman, Detektiven och Konstnären. Tidigare forskning definierarläsförståelsestrategier som mentala redskap som används av läsaren för att förutspå,förklara och föreställa sig en texts innehåll. Forskningen är samstämmig kringläsförståelsestrategiernas positiva effekter på elevers läsförståelse och läsförmåga. Ivår läromedelsanalys har resultatet sammanställts genom en analys av ett utvalttextstycke med tillhörande uppgifter i respektive läromedel. Dessa har sedan förts ini en tabell (se bilaga 1) för att strukturera resultatet och få en överblick. Resultatetvisar att båda läromedlen tar upp samtliga av de utvalda läsförståelsestrategierna, menmed varierande uttrycksformer och frekvens. I läromedlet Aktiv läsning varfördelningen mellan läsförståelsestrategierna jämn. I ZickZack var fördelningen mervarierande då de flesta uppgifter fokuserade på läsförståelsestrategin Konstnären.Resultatet visar även att placeringen för uppgifterna i relation till texten varierade, dåvissa strategier kom till uttryck före läsningen i ett läromedel respektive under ochefter läsningen i det andra läromedlet. I diskussionen problematiserasläsförståelsestrategierna i förhållande till lärarens roll samt till elevers olikaförutsättningar för att lära. Slutsatser som kan dras är att kontexten utgör en väsentligdel i undervisningen om läsförståelsestrategier, där faktorer somgruppsammansättning och förutsättningar för samtal spelar stor roll. En annan slutsatssom dras är att läromedel bör inkludera läsförståelsestrategier för att främja eleversläsförståelse.

What is the role of reading comprehension strategy practices in Grades 4 and 5 learners’ reading literacy achievement in the South African Progress in International Literacy (PIRLS) 2006 study? Herein lies the main question of this study. South Africa’s participation and perpetually poor performance in more than one international study highlights literacy as a serious problem in South Africa. The results of literacy studies such as SACMEQ II 2000, the 1999 MLA study, and in particular, the South African PIRLS 2006 study, revealed the predicament in which South African primary education finds itself. The results of these studies emphasise the consistently poor reading literacy achievement by South African primary school learners. The findings that emanated from the South African Progress in International Literacy (PIRLS) 2006 study, showed considerable differences between the various groups of learners in South Africa. The following examples will indicate the differences in reading literacy achievement. The South African Grade 4 learners achieved an average score of 253 (SE=4.6). The Grade 5 learners achieved an average score of 302 (SE=5.6). Both these scores fall far below the fixed international average of 500 (Howie et al. 2007, p. 23). However, in an analysis of the eleven official languages in the PIRLS 2006 study, learners from the Afrikaans language group achieved the highest scores with the Grade 5 girls achieving an average of 427 (SE=11.6). The aim of the study was to identify the effective reading comprehension strategies used at a primary school where the highest scores in South Africa were achieved, then to determine the role that reading comprehension strategies played in literacy achievement as uncovered in the PIRLS 2006 study. This research was conducted at an Afrikaans speaking school in Gauteng where the learners achieved the highest scores in PIRLS 2006. Based on a review of the literature, the study focused on five reading comprehension strategies, namely, identifying main ideas; making inferences; questioning; mental imagery and summarising. These reading comprehension strategies were underpinned by the processes of comprehension outlined for PIRLS 2006 and the PIRLS 2006 model of Contexts for the Development of Reading Literacy was used as a conceptual framework for this study. A profile of Afrikaans Grade 4 and 5 teachers was compiled based on the analysis of the PIRLS 2006 Afrikaans teacher questionnaire data. Teacher profiles consisted of teachers’ biographical information such as age and gender, and their academic and professional background. The practice of reading comprehension strategies was tested on data from a case study of one Grade 4 and one Grade 5 Afrikaans teacher. The findings of the study showed that the use of teaching reading comprehension strategies are essential for learners to achieve any standard of reading literacy. A high standard of reading literacy mainly stems from teachers who perform reading comprehension strategy practices that will mirror the orchestration of instructional strategy activities and comprehension assessment activities. It appears that effective teachers of reading comprehension operate as conductors to guide learners during the reading comprehension process into a constant reader-text-activity dynamic, which enables readers to bring vocabulary and strategy knowledge to the act of reading. The role that reading comprehension strategy practice plays on learners’ reading literacy achievement is illustrated in PIRLS 2006. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Increasing students' reading comprehension involves the use of targeted strategies and effective instruction. Previous research has shown that instruction in individual skills such as vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency, writing, and story mapping help increases students' reading comprehension. However, few studies have explored combining these skills and their cumulative effects, if any, on reading comprehension. The purpose of this quasi-experimental secondary analysis study was to examine the effects of adding a reading comprehension instruction package (RCIP), which includes vocabulary acquisition, reading fluency, and writing, to instruction in story mapping alone. Constructivist theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 8 students with low reading achievement as indicated by their performances on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The single-case, multiple-probe design across subjects was used to intermittently collect data, which were the correct responses per 3 minutes using the Curriculum Based Measure-Reading Maze. The data were visually analyzed by looking at data points and trend lines directionality using the percentage nonoverlapping data along with the Cohen's d effect size. Although this study showed mixed results and were not statistically significant, it could still contribute to positive social change. The findings have a small to medium effect size impact on students' reading comprehension; 3 out of 4 students who completed the study surpassed their expected goal. The results from this study may provide teachers with tools for improving the foundational reading skills of struggling readers, thus enabling their students to succeed in school and become productive members of society.

Att elever kan läsa och förstå innehåll i texter är avgörande för att elever ska vara en del av samhället. I skolan och i vardagen möts elever av olika texttyper vilket medför att det ställs krav på elever att kunna läsa och förstå texter. Det ställs därför krav på lärare att ge elever strategier att använda sig av vid sitt läsande och vid arbete med olika texter för att bidra till att elever utvecklar läsförståelse. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att bidra med ökad kunskap om lärares beskrivningar om hur de hjälper elever att utveckla sin läsförståelse. Det sociokulturella perspektivet ligger till grund för studien då läsförståelseutveckling kan förklaras genom att mening skapas i en social kontext. Den metod som studien grundas på är kvalitativ metod och semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med fem legitimerade lärare som arbetar i årskurs 4-6. Studiens resultat visar att olika strategier för att elever ska utveckla sin ordförståelse utgör en central del i lärarnas läsförståelseundervisning. Att tillsammans samtala om texter på olika sätt är även ett vanligt förekommande element i lärarnas undervisning. Lärarna beskriver att de på olika sätt arbetar med att elever ska utveckla en förmåga att kunna läsa och att svara på frågor som finns mellan och bortom raderna för att utveckla en djupare förståelse för texters innehåll. Lässtrategierna som ingår i undervisningsmodellen Reciprocal Teaching beskrivs av några lärare som en del av läsundervisningen och dessa lässtrategier är: att förutspå, att reda ut oklarheter, att ställa frågor på texten och att sammanfatta. Samtliga lärare arbetar på olika sätt för att tydliggöra för eleverna att ta sig an en text och detta görs genom modellering, att lärarna påminner eleverna om sin lässtrategianvändning, att få en översikt över texter och att ge elever en förförståelse för texters innehåll och struktur. Resultatet visar även att elever får arbeta tillsammans i arbetet med lässtrategier och läsförståelse för att stötta och hjälpa varandra, vilket kopplas till det sociokulturella perspektivet. Slutligen visar studiens resultat att de lässtrategier som är effektiva för elevers läsförståelseutveckling är en kombination av flera. Att läsa mellan raderna, att göra förutsägelser, att läsa om och att ta reda på svåra ord är de lässtrategier som av lärarna beskrivs som effektiva för elevers läsförståelseutveckling. Slutsatsen med föreliggande studie är att lärare i årskurs 4-6 på olika sätt undervisar om lässtrategier för att bidra till elevers läsförståelseutveckling och att lässtrategier utgör en central del i lärares svenskundervisning. / That students can read and understand the contents of texts is critical for students to be a part of the society. In school and in everyday life, students encounter different text types, which means that students are required to be able to read and understand texts. As a result, teachers are required to provide students with strategies to use when reading and when working with different texts to help students develop their reading comprehension. The purpose of this study is to contribute to increased knowledge about teachers' descriptions of how they help students develop their reading comprehension. The sociocultural perspective forms the basis of the study as reading comprehension development can be explained by the creation of meaning in a social context. The qualitative study is based on semi-structed interviews with five licensed teachers who work in grades 4-6. The result of the study shows that different strategies for students to develop their vocabulary comprehension form a central part of the teachers' teaching of reading comprehension. Discussing texts together in different ways is also a common element in teachers' teaching. The teachers describe that they work in different ways with students to develop an ability to be able to read and to answer questions that are between and beyond the lines, to develop a deeper understanding of the content of texts. The reading strategies included in the teaching model Reciprocal Teaching are described by some teachers as part of reading teaching and these reading strategies are: predicting, clarifying ambiguities, asking questions about the text and summarizing. All teachers work in different ways to make it clear for the students to deal with a text and this is done through modeling. The teachers remind the students of their reading strategy use, to get an overview of texts and to give students a pre-understanding of the content and structure of texts. The result also shows that students can work together using reading strategies and reading comprehension to support and help each other, which is linked to the sociocultural perspective. Finally, the result of the study shows that the reading strategies that are effective for students' reading comprehension development are a combination of several. Reading between the lines, making predictions, re-reading and figuring out difficult words are the reading strategies described by the teachers as effective for students' reading comprehension development. The conclusion of the present study is that teachers in grades 4-6 teach reading strategies in different ways to contribute to students' reading comprehension development and that reading strategies form a central part of the teachers' teaching of Swedish.

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Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur sex mellanstadielärares undervisningssätt och metoder har påverkats och förändrats av innehållet från det uppmärksammade och delvis kritiserade projektet En läsande klass. Ett antal utvalda lärare intervjuades och deras svar undersöktes med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Intervjusvaren analyserades utifrån befintlig teori angående läsförståelse och läsförståelsestrategier. Resultatet av studien visar att lärarna hade en positiv syn på projektet och att de i varierande utsträckning har applicerat innehållet på undervisningen. Sammantaget upplevde lärarna att projektets innehåll kompletterade och förbättrade deras undervisning med kunskaper som de inte fått med sig från sin lärarutbildning. De intervjuade lärarna visade på förmågan att anpassa materialet till sin egen yrkesutövning och elevgrupp. Kritiken mot projektet upplevdes därmed till viss del missriktad.

The aim of the study was to examine whether an intervention with the Rydaholms method leads to better decoding skills, improved reading comprehension and increased interest in reading. The participants were the third grade primary school children. A five-week training with the method was performed and children's results in reading speed, decoding and reading comprehension were compared to the pretest results. The interest in reading was measured with a questionnaire prior and after the invention was done. The results showed that the children had improved their decoding but not their reading comprehension. All the children reported a higher level of reading interest after the intervention. The results are discussed in relation to the research favoring training in spelling and decoding as a primary method to improve both decoding and reading comprehension and methods that combine training in spelling and comprehension. The study could show that improved decoding skills do not automatically lead to better reading comprehension due to a short-term memory advantage but training in comprehension strategies is needed. The finding that improved decoding lead to increased interest in reading gives support for the research that claims that decoding skills are fundamental for children's own view on reading.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Richard Jackson Harris / In recent years, Baddeley (2010) has added a new component, the episodic buffer, to his Working Memory (WM) model. The episodic buffer binds information from long-term memory (LTM) to the central executive but has been researched very little, especially with respect to its use with a second language. In fact, Juffs and Harrington (2011) stated, “To date there has been no research on the possible role of the episodic buffer in L2 learning and use” (p. 140). One goal of this study was to do just that. Domain knowledge (DK) in baseball (Experiment 1) and English proficiency levels (Experiment 2) were used as proxies for difficulty level to study how inference processing under different conditions of domain knowledge and cognitive load in native (L1) and non-native (L2) English readers contribute to understanding the episodic buffer. In Experiment 1, 67 participants varying in domain knowledge about baseball read stories related to baseball with or without a concurrent cognitive load task of responding to tones while reading; they then answered comprehension questions of varying degrees of inferential difficulty. In Experiment 2, three groups varying in English reading proficiency, split into groups based on their lexical decision task scores (72 native, 40 intermediate, 40 beginner readers) read general stories with or without cognitive load and answered comprehension questions requiring varying degrees of inferential difficulty. Accuracy and Reaction Time (RT) were differentially affected by working memory (OSpan), cognitive load, and inferential complexity. In Experiment 1, greater DK explained variance in effectiveness (accuracy) and efficiency (RT) as inferential complexity increased. In Experiment 2 OSpan was needed even at lower levels of inferential complexity for beginning readers. Surprisingly, for both experiments, participants responded faster under cognitive load conditions, although not at the expense of accuracy. This suggests that the episodic buffer is important for different levels of DK and proficiency, especially as the task becomes more difficult. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The goal of this research study was to determine whether extensive reading, supported by the instruction and use of appropriate strategies, would a) improve learners' comprehension achievement b) increase academic achievement in English, and c) promote higher achievement in general academic performance. One hundred and twenty-one learners participated in this project. Three groups of learners: extensive readers, less extensive readers and non-extensive readers were identified and studied. The result indicated that extensive reading not only leads to improved achievement in comprehension, but that it also leads to improvement in general academic performance in all subjects across the curriculum; while lack of extensive reading has an adverse effect on both reading comprehension achievement and general academic performance as a whole. / Teacher Education / M.Ed. (Didactics)

In this dissertation it is argued that literary theories have traditionally extended abundant attention on authors and texts, neglecting, with very few exceptions, the impor- tant role of the READER. To address this imbalance, par- ticular attention will be paid to the view of Wolfgang Iser, that a literary text can only elicit a response when it is read, and that it is virtually impossible to describe this response without also analysing the READING PROCESS. I share this view as it makes logical sense: a literary text remains meaningless, a mere 'paper and ink' production without the involvement of the reader. It is also the reader's own com- petence, his sense of aesthetic perception which enables him to make sense of the, in the literary text embedded message, hence the title: "The Nature of Aesthetic Perception in Literature. The Interaction between Text and Reader in the Process of Perceiving Literary Texts." / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / M.A. (Theory of Literature)