Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att utifrån ett lärarperspektiv, belysa möjligheter och problem i läsförståelseundervisningen och att bidra till en fördjupad kunskap om elever i behov av särskilt stöd i sin läsutveckling. Det empiriska materialet består av en enkät som har vesvarats av 64 lärare som undervisar i svenska i år 1-6. Studien är kvalitativ och inspirerad av enomenografin. Resultaten visar att lärarna i studien har erfarenhet av flera olika typer av lässvårigheter. Läsförståelsesvårigheter upptäcks på flera olika sätt: läsförståelse, avkodning, muntlig fömåga, svårigheter med andra uppgifter, arbetsminne, ordförråd, strategier för att inte läsa samt känslomässiga reaktioner. Flera av informanterna har mött elever i år 3-4 som kan avkoda bra men ändå inte förstår innehåller i en text. En del av lärarna menar att deras utbildning inte påverkat deras undervisning i läsförståelse. Andra menar att utbildningen har gjort det och att extra utbildning i läsförståelse innebär en skillnad. Det finns många olika orsaker till bristande läsförståelse och det finns en grupp elever som har specifika läsförståelsesvårigheter. Dessa elever kan vara svåra att upptäcka. För att de ska få adekvat hjälp krävs att lärare förstår vad som gör att svårigheterna uppstår och att de pedagogiska insatserna anpassas efter elevernas behov.

Reading from paper-based materials has been a major way for people to acquire knowledge. However, paper-based materials are constricted in presenting abstract and complex knowledge or concepts. Recent development of smartphone makes it a device not only for interpersonal communication, but also for accessing rich digital resources over the Internet. Because both paper-based materials and smartphone are mobile and portable, we can make use of the networking capability of smartphone to access digital materials from the Internet to enrich conventional paper-based reading activities such that students¡¦ reading comprehension can be enhanced. The present study came up with an innovative paper-based reading system integrated with digital materials delivered from the smartphone. QR codes were employed to automatically link the content of the print material with relevant digital resources. Also, questions were given to students along the reading process to scaffold the reading activity in order to help students comprehend the essence of the reading pieces. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning system in improving students¡¦ reading comprehension. The results suggested that whether or not using QR code to automate linking digital and print materials does not significantly influence student reading comprehension; however, using questions to scaffold the reading process significantly improves students¡¦ reading comprehension. The survey conducted in the experiment suggested that most of the students agreed that the integrated learning system benefits English reading comprehension. The implication of the results and suggestions to system design and future studies were then addressed.

Mobile devices are more and more popular in recent years. As a result, many educational applications were developed to support learning activities on mobile devices. The portability of e-book readers allows learners to read anytime and anywhere they like to read. Because of these features, an e-book reader can be an ideal reading environment for supporting learners¡¦ reading activities. However, there is still a lack of proper instructional designs for making an e-book reader such a reading environment. In this study, we integrated the reading strategy of SQ3R into the reading environment of e-book readers to support learners¡¦ reading processes. Earlier studies showed that SQ3R is an effective strategy to improve learners¡¦ reading comprehension. But we have to consider whether learners are able to follow the steps of SQ3R when they are new to this strategy. If learners were not aware of the reading strategy when reading, the effect of applying SQ3R would be limited. Therefore, we proposed a SQ3R guiding mechanism to support every stage of SQ3R and embedded it into the reading environment of e-book readers. Learners could follow the guidance of SQ3R to read effectively and improve reading comprehension. A quasi-experiment and survey were conducted to evaluate the effect of the SQ3R guiding mechanism. The results showed that, given no guidance, there was no significant difference in learners¡¦ reading comprehension scores whether they read with SQ3R or not. However, if the SQ3R reading strategy was implemented together with the guiding mechanism, this combination of guidance and strategy positively and significantly contributed to learners¡¦ reading comprehension. Relevant issues and future research to improve this study was then suggested.

The current state of much research on written patient education materials (WPEM) suggests that they are written in a manner that is too difficult even for educated patients to understand and remember. Much of the research in this area is focused on modification of the readability of WPEM, which has shown to be relatively ineffective. In this study, an attempt was made to determine if a theory-based method in revising WPEM for improved comprehensibility and memorability was effective. The effectiveness of three versions of WPEM regarding breast self-exams (BSEs) was examined; the original version without illustrations obtained from the American Cancer Society website, a version that was written at a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, and a version with a lower readability level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula and the increased use of concrete language as suggested by Dual Coding Theory. The researcher compared the percentage of recall of idea units recalled by 76 participants at two time periods: immediately after reading the randomly assigned version of WPEM and seven days after the initial reading. The WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language was most recalled by participants both at immediate recall and delayed recall. In fact, the delayed recall of the WPEM that contained the lower readability level and concrete language after the seven-day period was almost equivalent to the immediate recall of the participants in the other two groups. A significant main effect was found for the forms of WPEM, F(2, 73) = 27.69, p = .00, n2 p = .43 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant main effect was found for time, F(1, 73) = 161.94, p <.00, n2 p = .69 with an observed power of 1.00. A significant interaction of WPEM and time was found, F(2, 73) = 5.07, p = .01, n2 p = .12 with an observed power of .80. Reported levels of frequency of performing BSEs and levels of confidence in performing BSEs were also analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test in relation to the three WPEM versions over time. Reported frequency was significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = .32; WPEM B, p = 1.00; WPEM C, p = .74). Levels of confidence were significantly greater after seven days, regardless of form of WPEM (WPEM A, p = ..02; WPEM B, p = .00; WPEM C, p = .00). Overall results indicate that combining reduced readability and increased concrete language is beneficial. The writing of WPEMs in a way that patients can understand should be supported by a theory, and infusing Dual Coding Theory in the writing of selected WPEMs may be beneficial for patients.

Dictionary use has played an important role in English learning. Researches showed that dictionary has facilitating effects on vocabulary learning, writing and reading comprehension. However, not all dictionary users can benefit from the use of dictionaries. In fact, dictionary use is not as easy as what we thought, but dictionary skills instruction does not receive much attention in spite of the prevalence of dictionaries. The purpose of this study is to carry out dictionary skills instruction in English classrooms and to assess the effects of dictionary skills instruction on reading comprehension of junior high EFL students in Taiwan. The subjects in the study were 40 second-year junior high students of two classes from Tainan Municipal Cheng-gong Junior High School. Each class was randomly assigned to the experiment group or the control group. The experiment group received dictionary skills instruction in English classes, and the control group did not. First, the 40 subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their dictionary use backgrounds. Then, they were asked to take a pre-test on their dictionary skills and local reading comprehension. After the pre-test, the experimental group received dictionary skills instructions during each class time for about 20 minutes. The instruction lasted about 3 weeks in the beginning of the second semester. Finally, the 40 subjects were asked to take a post-test on their dictionary skills and local reading comprehension. The major findings of the current study were summarized as follws: 1. Generally speaking, among the ten dictionary skills investigated in the current study, junior high EFL students in Taiwan encounter problems more or less. The problems include understanding short forms, labels, and grammar codes of the dictionary, getting familiar with the alphabetical orders, making use of guide words, scanning a dictionary page, distinguishing a homograph, removing regular inflections, removing affixes of derivatives, scanning nearby entries or seeking in the addendum, recognizing compounds or idioms, and finding the right meaning of a polysemous. 2. In addition to these problems, the frequent application of ¡¥Kidrule strategy¡¦ made the situation worse. The participants were very likely to pick any Chinese fragments ¡¥near¡¦ the target words (or other words with similar spellings.) and misinterpret the fragments as the meanings of the target words. 3. Most of the above mentioned problems could be reduced after receiving dictionary skills instruction from their English teacher in a short time. Only the ability to distinguish a homograph can not be improved merely through the teacher¡¦s instruction in a short time. It seems that, to distinguish homographs, the participants¡¦ grammatical knowledge played a more important role than the dictionary skills instruction. As for the using of guide words and the removing of inflections, these two skills can be improved without the teacher¡¦s instruction. 4. According to the study, the use of dictionaries with proper dictionary skills instruction and enough practice could make a significant difference in the performance of local reading comprehension tasks.

This research study examines the effects of varied text structures and response formats on Turkish university students&rsquo / reading comprehension test performance. More precisely, it deals with investigating the effects of awareness of rhetorical organization on reading comprehension and on testing of comprehension through different procedures. First, a short review of the relevant research on the text structure and response formats and their effects on reading comprehension is presented. Then, the results of a reading experiment are given. In this experiment, four groups of upper-intermediate level EFL students (100 students) read two English passages written in &ldquo / description&rdquo / and &ldquo / cause-effect&rdquo / rhetorical organization formats. Then, their comprehension of the texts was tested through a cloze procedure and a multiple choice test. The tests were carried out on first year university students from different departments at the English Language Department of BaSkent University during the 2006-2007 Academic Year Fall Semester. After the research period finished, the data collected throughout the research period were transferred into MS Excel and SPSS spreadsheets and analyzed using the statistical procedure of the paired samples t-test. Relying on the analysis of the data, the hypotheses formulated for the study were weighed against the results in order to see if they were confirmed or rejected. The study showed significant difference between the varied text structures and subjects&rsquo / reading comprehension test performance. However, there was not any significant difference between the different response formats and the subjects&rsquo / reading comprehension test performance. Finally, the thesis ends with an interpretation and discussion of the results of the study.

This study aimed to examine the relationship of background knowledge in relation to topic interest and reading performance of English language learners at TOBB University of Economics and Technology. For that, a reading interest questionnaire and three reading comprehension tests, which were accompanied with a 2-item background &amp / interest questionnaire, were developed by the researcher. These instruments were implemented on 75 English language learners studying at TOBB ETU Preparatory School. The results obtained from the instruments were analyzed through SPSS 15.0. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics as average and standard deviation besides inferential statistics as one-way ANOVA and Spearman&rsquo / s correlation test were used. The results of the study revealed that there is a significant difference among the three reading performance scores of the language learners. Besides, the correlation of topic background knowledge and interest is highlighted for each of three reading comprehension tests, so are the significant relationships of (a) background knowledge and reading performance as well (b) topic interest and reading performance also among the results for the moderate-interest &amp / background knowledge and high- interest &amp / background knowledge tests.

The Effect of Comparative Tests Between Self-questioning Strategy And Cooperative Learning (Group Discussion) on Junior High School Students' Chinese Reading Comprehension Abstract The main purpose of this study was to discuss the effect of comparative tests between self-questioning strategy and cooperative learning (group discussion) on junior high school students' Chinese reading comprehension. The questions explored here were: 1. How did self-questioning strategy influence reading comprehension ability? 2. How did self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning improve and influence reading comprehension ability? 3. How did self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning affect the levels of question types? The study used experimental research method. The subjects were 50 second grade students of junior high. According to the scores of the prior test on "reading comprehension ability," students were divided into an experimental group and a control group, and each one was composed of 25 students. The instrument was "test of reading comprehension ability," and the information acquired was dealt with statistical testing on the basis of t-test. The results were as followings: 1. After receiving the teaching of "self-questioning strategy," students' reading comprehension abilities were improved. 2. After the students in the experimental group received the co-teaching of self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning, their scores of the posttest on "reading comprehension ability" were superior to the scores of the students in the control group. 3. After the students in the experimental group accepted the co-teaching of self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning, their scores of the posttest on "high-level question type" were superior to the scores of the students in the control group. Finally the study discussed the above results in more detail, and provided suggestions and references of further research concerning teaching of the reading comprehension.

This quantitative study derived from an on-going federal experimental research project targeting Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) receiving services in four program models: control/experimental transitional bilingual education (TBE) and control/experimental structured English immersion (SEI). The purpose of my study was (a) to capture the growth trajectory and rate of oral English acquisition, (b) to investigate the role of oral English development in acquiring English reading skills, and (c) to compare program models in order to identify practices that promote ELLs’ English oral and reading competency at the early elementary level. Structural equation modeling was utilized. Participants consisted of 534 Spanish-speaking ELLs who started at kindergarten and continued through first grade in their respective models. Striking similarities were found among the four instructional models that English oral proficiency improved significantly (p < .05) in a linear fashion over two years. However, the magnitude differed in that the experimental TBE demonstrated a steeper growth (p < .025) than that of the control group that started at the same level. Even though experimental SEI group started at a much lower level in oral English, they progressed at a rate significantly higher (p < .05) than that of the control group. In relation to English reading comprehension, for experimental SEI groups, the initial level of English oral proficiency is of great concern in reading achievement (p < .05). For both TBE groups, effective intervention is desired because the growth of English oral proficiency strongly impacts reading achievement (p < .05), and, in addition, initial level strongly predicts reading comprehension. The intervention was successfully implemented so that students advanced to a substantial amount in academic English oray. It is also evident that first language (L1) instruction did not impede the learning of a second language. On the contrary, for those students receiving a larger proportion of L1 instruction, alterations in program models are needed to nurture English oracy at a faster rate of growth, which in turn facilitates English literacy acquisition. Findings also indicate that without effective English intervention, students placed in control TBE classrooms remain below all the students in oral English proficiency.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-126). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.