Second Language on-Screen Academic Reading Comprehension Models of Postgraduate International Students (Published)
This paper contributes to the existing body of research on L2 academic reading practices in the 21st century by focusing on on-screen reading in the technological age. The study offers an insight into the nature of on-screen reading, and reflects the authentic on-screen academic reading experiences of international postgraduate readers. A case study and interpretive qualitative approaches have been adopted in the present research study where process-oriented techniques, namely demographic questionnaires, think-aloud protocol, field notes, stimulated recall and interviews have been employed to collect the data. Thematic and content analysis; and a constant comparative method (CCM) has been applied to analyse the data. The results from this study have led to the proposal of suggested models for interpreting on-screen L2 academic reading interactions. A number of pedagogical practices are suggested and recommended for preparing L2 readers for further academic study; including teaching models and instructions to accommodate and meet the needs of reading comprehension practices in the technological age and promoting L2 learners’ digital academic strategy literacy (DASL).
Keywords: Comprehension, International Students, Models, Second Language, academic reading, on-screen, postgraduate
The Impact of Raising Phonological Awareness on Improving EFL Learners Reading Comprehension: A Case Study at Preparatory Year Najran University (Published)
The study utilized experimental and descriptive approach to identify the impact of raising phonological awareness on improving EFL reading comprehension skill among Preparatory Year students at Najran University (NU). Phonological Awareness is an applied linguistic term which refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language. It is an encompassing term that involves working with the sounds of language at the word, syllable, and phoneme level and contains many processes. The study is an attempt to identify the impact of phonological awareness training and gender on reading performance of preparatory year students at NU. The sample consisted of (160) students, (80) males and (80) females. Phonological Awareness Skills Test and Cronbach Alpha Coefficient utilized to measure progress in four phonological awareness skills including word identification, word deletion, word blending and word rhyming while a reading passage. Pre- and post-Cloze Test applied to identify the reading levels of the participants. In addition, simple percentage and T-Test utilized to statically analyze the data. The results revealed that training on phonological awareness skills significantly improved the reading performance of the students in the experimental group.
Keywords: Comprehension, EFL Learners’, Najran University, Phonological Awareness
Different Comprehension Strategies to Improve Student’s Reading Comprehension (Published)
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of all reading; that is, the ability to understand a text underlies all reading tasks. Thus, main-idea comprehension should be at the core of all reading instruction. In most classes, comprehension is tested as the class reviews post-reading comprehension questions. Instead of testing comprehension, we can help our students by teaching comprehension. Simply put, reading comprehension is the act of understanding what you are reading. While the definition can be simply stated the act is not simple to teach, learn or practice. Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing. Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading. The use of effective comprehension strategies that provide specific instructions for developing and retaining comprehension skills, with intermittent feedback, has been found to improve reading comprehension across all ages.
Keywords: Comprehension, Feedback, Instructions, Interactive, Reading, Teaching