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How does understanding text features benefit reading
comprehension?
Included
in the five main focuses of the English achievement
objectives in the New Zealand Curriculum (2007: 18) are:
language features that enhance texts and the
structure and organisation of texts. These refer
to the characteristics or features of texts, and how
those characteristics or features are arranged. The
ability to visualise the features of a text type, and
how those features are arranged, is vital to the construction
of meaning when reading.
When
a student is able to visualise in this way, they understand
texts at a much deeper level, and so have real control
over them. This control comes about because a student
who can visualise a text type understands how writers
construct meaning through the features they choose to
use and the way they arrange those features. It is this
understanding that is fundamental to reading comprehension.
Crucially,
when a student has this understanding, language is perceived
not as a set of rules but as a set of options available
for constructing a variety of meanings. So, through
learning about various types of text, students learn
not about discrete and isolated forms of writing but
instead about the construction of written texts in general:
it is through the analysis of particular forms that
students begin to learn about the writing system as
a whole.
It
is important you make sure your students appreciate
they are learning about particular text types not as
ends in themselves but as a means of learning about
the writing system. Simultaneously focus their thinking
on the features and organisation of a particular text
type and on how they can use what they know about
that form in order to learn about other forms, about
the writing system, and therefore about language in
general.
Students
who understand writing at the system-level are not deterred
when they meet texts with atypical features and/or organisation.
Instead, they thrive – confidently exploring how
the writer has made use of conventional and less conventional
writing techniques in order to express ideas.
The
following are descriptions of visualisations of typical
narratives and science reports; they are based on those
described by Vellutino (2003).
Narratives
Students
who understand the features and organisation of narrative
texts will know that they have a main idea/theme, and
will comprise a beginning section introducing the main
characters, a middle section where some sort of connection/
conflict arises between characters, developing to a
crisis point, and an ending section where the connection/
conflict comes to some kind of resolution. They will
also know that the story will be set in a particular
place/s, cover a period of time, and will probably contain
dialogue. As they gain expertise, students will learn
that writers of narratives make use of tools such as
material
processes (action verbs), mental
processes (sensing verbs), verbal
processes (saying verbs), metaphors, similes, allegory,
and symbols.
Because
a student has knowledge about the features of narrative
texts, they will be able to organise and process the
text in ways that facilitate comprehension. Consider
the example of a story about a girl named Teresa and
her next door neighbour Mr Boyd. After reading, "Teresa's
next door neighbour was old Mr Boyd", the student who
is familiar with narrative text will expect to be presented
with a story having Teresa's neighbour as central to
the action, and will be focused more on Mr Boyd than
Teresa when reading what follows. When they go on to
read, "Mr Boyd tried to squirt a stray cat with the
hose, but he missed", the student will expect to read
text explaining why he missed, and perhaps some discussion
about how Mr Boyd felt about missing, how Teresa felt,
and how the cat reacted. And when they read that Teresa
calls Mr Boyd an "old toad", they will not be thrown
by the metaphor, but will appreciate the comparison
of Mr Boyd to a toad, and how the writer's use of this
tool helps illuminate the meaning of the story. These
expectations and understandings help focus the reader's
processing of the text in ways that aid comprehension.
Science
reports
In
contrast to narrative texts, students who understand
the features and organisation of science
reports will know they have an opening general
statement, and that each paragraph has a topic sentence,
with meaning built up step by step. They will know that
they are concerned with facts, contain language used
to compare and/or contrast, language that classifies,
and technical language. They will know such texts are
usually set in no particular time, will not include
characters or individuals, and will be written in an
objective style. As they gain expertise, students will
learn that writers of science reports make use of material
processes (action verbs), relational
processes (linking verbs), and tools (such as nominalisation)
to condense language.
Again,
because a student has knowledge of the features and
organisation of science reports, they will be able to
organise and process such texts in ways that facilitate
comprehension. Consider the following excerpt which
gives a factual description of the adaptations of wading
birds. After reading, "Each species has adapted to a
particular zone between the high and low tide lines.
The length of their legs is a clue to whether they only
feed at the edge or can venture some way into the water",
the student who is familiar with this type of text will
expect to go on to read a detailed description giving
examples of particular wading birds' legs and where
those birds feed. And when they read "Each species has
adapted to." and "The length of their legs is
a clue to." they will recognise has and is
as relational processes used by writers to express
the link between two pieces of information. They will
not, however, expect to learn about two wading birds
called "Jack" and "Tane", or to be told how "Jack" and
"Tane" feel about being wading birds. The expert reader
of science reports will organise and process these texts
in ways that are quite different from the ways they
organise and process narrative texts.
Key
competencies most exemplified by this support material:
| Key
competencies |
| Managing
self |
Relating
to others |
Using
language, symbols, and texts |
Participating
and contributing |
Thinking |
References
Ministry
of Education (2006). The New Zealand curriculum:
Draft for consultation 2006. Wellington: Learning
Media Limited.
Schleppegrell, M. J. (2004). The language of schooling:
A functional linguistics approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Vellutino,
F.R. (2003). Individual differences as sources of variability
in reading comprehension in elementary school children.
In Sweet, A. P. & Snow, C. E. (Eds.). Rethinking
reading comprehension. London: The Guilford Press.
ARB
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