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Reading is the process and ability of human beings to look at a series of written symbols and get their meaning. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. The process of reading requires the ability to speak, to be able to pronounce the words we read. Reading is also a productive skill since we are receiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves).

Reading makes our knowledge expand a lot and therefore we become more analytical, critical and wise people. For many people reading is a daily habit but for others, reading is something uninteresting and boring. For this reason, it is very important to encourage the love of reading from an early age, that is, childhood is the best stage to achieve the excellent habit of reading. Although it must be taken into account that it is not an easy process; therefore, certain strategies and techniques should be applied to help awaken the interest in reading.

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My name is Cindy Paola Martinez Betancourth, and I am 25 years old. I was born and raised in Choluteca but I moved to Tegucigalpa in 2018 to work and study. I am the oldest of 3 siblings and will be the first member of my family to graduate from university. I am an elementary school teacher, I decided to study that first because teaching was always something I liked. I am very passionate about languages, so Foreign Languages was always my first choice, but I would like to study Pedagogy as well and do a master's degree focused on teaching English because, as I mentioned before, teaching is my vocation. I am a very calm, patient and empathetic person, I like music and reading and in my free time, I enjoy getting to know towns. I am usually shy and somewhat asocial, but I'm pretty funny with my friends.

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Hello! My name is Marlon Miguel López Diaz, I am 22 years old  and I am from Intibucá. I come from a big and humble family from which I have learned many things such as respect for others. In this way,  I consider myself an optimistic, confident, and kind person; therefore I always try to help others as much as I can. However, sometimes I have had some insecurities about my decisions. On the other hand, since I was a child I have had many dreams and goals that I have been fulfilling throughout my years.  This is how currently, I am studying foreign languages with orientation in English at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. I have to say I love learning languages but my favorites are English, Italian and Portuguese. However, I like other studies like biology, quimestry and programming, so I always try to learn a little from each one.

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Hello! My name is Celeste Betzabe Cruz Barahona and I am 24 years old. I was born in Tegucigalpa, but I live in a town near El Porvenir,  F. M.

I must say that I consider myself an introvert and at the same time an extrovert person, since I like to spend time alone, but also to socialize and meet new people. I also consider myself a friendly, responsible, empathetic and curious person, because sometimes I like to get out of my comfort zone, live new experiences and learn new things.

On the other hand, I like to read books, that is my favorite hobby. I also love the idea of meeting new people, new languages and different cultures, that's why I decided to study Foreign Languages, I consider that knowing other cultures helps us to see the world from other perspectives.

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Hello! My name is Norma Nicoll Ramirez Arteaga. I am 21 years old and a student of Foreign Languages with orientation in English at the Universidad Autonoma de Honduras. The classes I am taking in this I Period of 2022 are: Seminario de Lectura Inglesa at 1400, Psicopedagogia Aplicada Inglesa at 1800, Fonética y Fonología Inglesa at 0800 and Literatura Inglesa II at 1500. I have always loved learning different languages, but that is not my only hobby, I also love drawing and painting, it relaxes me. I consider myself a very introverted person, but when I am with people that I feel close to I become very active and talk a lot. I always try to become a better person and try new things.

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Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading

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Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading

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Like Fortnite, the latest downloadable action game to dominate the gaming scene, captivate middle school and high school students across the globe, teachers may wonder, how can we compete for students’ attention in learning to read? How can we inspire a similar level of passion? How can we ensure that students are successful not only at learning to read but also at becoming as driven about reading as they are in their video games, sports, or other hobbies? There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but there is an instructional approach that produces results: giving students control over their reading lives through independent reading.

As the years progressed, more and more requirements were added to English language arts instruction and curriculum. Teachers could no longer provide time for everything and anything, so crucial decisions were required about what to include in daily instruction. Some decisions are made at the district level, whereas others are made at the teacher level. Depending on the ages and stages of the students, decisions about how to spend time require careful thought. The ILA literacy leadership brief The Power and Promise of Read-Alouds and Independent Reading identifies the following components of independent reading:

• Classroom time to self-select and read a large number of books and a variety of texts.

• Explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read.

• Teacher monitoring and support during the in-class independent reading time.

• Authentic conversation about what students are reading.

Each component instills student competence, confidence, and joy. Independent reading is a valuable use of time because of the many benefits students realize from reading practice and volume: Students develop reading stamina, their vocabulary and background knowledge increase, and they acquire reading habits. Just as independent reading offers benefits for students, it also offers benefits for the “teaching side.” Teachers who use the gradual release of responsibility model know that the independent work phase allows them to determine whether students can apply their learning independently. Independent reading allows teachers to seize upon students’ appropriate and applicable post-reading responses to extend inquiry and stimulate additional reading. Students are not expected to respond in a cookie-cutter fashion to texts. Differences in ideas are celebrated.

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Literacy Teaching and learning are the core responsibilities of teachers and schools. When reading with young children, teachers often use pointer sticks to call attention to each word as it is read. Young learners enjoy using pointer sticks to find and read labels around the classroom. For beginners, finding labels on familiar objects helps them to improve their phonological awareness and notice the letters for initial sounds. The following are new methods in teaching reading and their respective procedures:

Reading around the room: When reading with young children, teachers often use pointer sticks to call attention to each word as it is read. Young learners enjoy using pointer sticks to find and read labels around the classroom. For beginners, finding labels on familiar objects helps them to improve their phonological awareness and notice the letters for initial sounds.

Procedure:

1.    Write or print out labels and attach them to objects in the classroom.

2.    Demonstrate appropriate use of pointer sticks for pointing to the labels and reading the words.

3.    Allow the students to read around the room by pointing to the different labels and reading the words aloud.

Sorting by sound:  This activity combines sorting items and identifying the first sounds in the items’ names. It allows students to physically manipulate objects and group them according to their initial sounds.

Procedure:

1.    Divide the students into small groups. Each group should have a set of small boxes and a stack of picture cards.

2.     Instruct the students to divide the cards equally among the members of
the group. They should take turns naming aloud the item on one card and
placing the card into the correct box until all the cards are in boxes.

3.     Once all of the picture cards have been sorted by sound, students should
empty the boxes one at a time. They should repeat the names of the objects aloud to make sure that all of the pictures were placed correctly.

The Food Label Store: Students may be more motivated to learn if they become involved in their own learning and if they can generalize what they are learning in class to activities outside the classroom.

Procedure:

1.     Tell the students to bring to class food labels of any description (e.g., labels from cans, meats, bottles, jars; fronts of boxes of cereals, mixes, soap, milk containers; wrappers from loaves of bread, rolls).

2.      Place the students in whatever size group you think works best (anywhere from three to six students works well) and give each group a cardboard store.

3.      Have them glue their labels to their store.

4.      When the groups have finished creating their stores, ask a series of questions that the students can answer by reading the labels from their stores.

5.     You might also have the students do a variety of tasks.

Cooperative Vocabulary Building and Early Writing With ELL and Monolingual Students: This activity introduces house-related vocabulary and positional words to ELL students, and it encourages all students to practice phonetic spelling. As
ELL students learn to read, having a wider English vocabulary will help them better understand and connect to texts.

Procedure:

1.     Divide students into teams of three or four. Make sure ELL and monolingual students are represented in each group.

2.      Bring the first team to a table equipped with a box of small unit blocks.

3.      Explain to the students that they need to build a house and that they need to work together to do so.

4.     Discuss what working together looks and sounds like (e.g., talking to each other, watching each other, taking turns).

5.      Before they begin building, tell students that they need to take turns sharing ideas about building a house.

6.      When everyone has finished drawing and labeling, let students present their pictures and read the labels they have written.

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Effective practices for developing reading comprehension

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Effective practices for developing reading comprehension

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Reading comprehension research has a long and rich history. There is much that we can say about both the nature of reading comprehension as a process and about effective reading comprehension instruction. Most of what we know has been learned since 1975. Why have we been able to make so much progress so fast? We believe that part of the reason behind this steep learning curve has been the lack of controversy about teaching comprehension. Unlike decoding, oral reading, and reading readiness, those who study reading comprehension instruction have avoided much of the acrimony characteristic of work in other aspects of reading.

To borrow a term from the decoding debate, comprehension instruction should be balanced. By this, we mean that good comprehension instruction includes both explicit instruction in specific comprehension strategies and a great deal of time and opportunity for actual reading, writing, and discussion of the text. The components in our approach to balanced comprehension instruction are a supportive classroom context and a model of comprehension instruction. It is not enough just to offer good instruction. Several important features of good reading instruction also need to be present. Otherwise, the comprehension instruction will not take hold and flourish. These features include the following:

• A great deal of time spent actually reading.

• Experience reading real texts for real reasons.

• Experience reading the range of text genres that we wish students to comprehend.

• An environment rich in vocabulary and concept development through reading, experience, and, above all, discussion of words and their meanings.

• Substantial facility in the accurate and automatic decoding of words.

• Lots of time spent writing texts for others to comprehend.

• An environment rich in the high-quality talk-about text.

Other Teaching Considerations.

Choosing well-suited texts. Another important role for the teacher in implementing this model is in choosing the texts to use. At least some of the texts used during these different phases of comprehension instruction should be chosen to be particularly well suited to the application of the specific strategy being learned.

Concern with student motivation. The level of motivation students bring to a task impacts whether and how they will use comprehension strategies (Dole, Brown, & Trathen, 1996; Guthrie et al., 1996). Therefore, the model we suggest, in particular the independent practice portion, should be made as motivating to students as possible.

Ongoing assessment. Finally, as with any good instruction, comprehension instruction should be accompanied by ongoing assessment. Teachers should monitor students’ use of comprehension strategies and their success at understanding what they read.

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1. Children, when reading, construct their own meaning. Reading is comprehending, that is, the construction of meaning. Readers construct their meaning by interacting with the text on the basis of their existence or prior knowledge about the world. Because the text is not fully explicit, readers must draw from their existing knowledge in order to understand it. 2. Effective reading instruction can develop engaged readers who are knowledgeable, strategic, motivated, and socially interactive.  Until recently, reading instruction focused almost exclusively on cognitive aspects. However, teaching students to become literate involves much more. Literacy depends on a myriad of factors related to the context of literacy activities and the child’s personal attributes, including cognitive development. An engaged reader (1) uses prior knowledge to gain information from new material; (2) uses a variety of skills in a strategic way to gain information independently; (3) is internally motivated to read for information and for pleasure; and (4) interacts socially to make gains in literacy development. 3. Phonemic awareness, a precursor to competency in identifying words, is one of the best predictors of later success in reading. Phonemic awareness is an important predictor of success in learning to read (Juel 1988). It involves a child’s ability to hear the sounds in a word and to distinguish between words based on the different sounds. Studies have shown that phonemic awareness training improves children’s ability to read and spell.

4. Modeling is an important form of classroom support for literacy learning. In the literacy classroom learning is a constructive, interactive process. As children develop literacy skills, they need careful guidance and support within their reading, writing, listening, and speaking experiences during instruction. There are two types of modeling: implicit and explicit. Implicit modeling occurs as part of the literacy experience—for example, reading a fable aloud to children while also engaging them in the meaning of the story and conveying a purpose of reading. Explicit modeling entails demonstrating to students how to approach a task—such as how to use a table of contents. Both forms of modeling, implicit and explicit, have a place in the well-balanced literacy program. 5. Storybook reading, done in the context of sharing experiences, ideas, and opinions, is a highly demanding mental activity for children. Storybook reading is most effective for developing children’s ability to understand stories when it involves far more than reading aloud the words of an author. Children’s stories, both oral and written, have been the subject of important research on the development of children’s ability to construct coherent text. As children hear stories told and read, they learn the structure as well as the linguistic features of stories or narrative text. Children are engaged in their most intellectually demanding work when they share ideas and opinions about stories, and share experiences related to stories read or told to them (Dyson 1987).

6. Responding to literature helps students to construct their own meaning, which may not always be the same 6 for all readers. Responding is a natural part of the reading process. When students read a piece of literature, they respond to it by using their prior knowledge to construct meaning. That is their transaction with the text results in the construction of their own personal meaning. Responding helps students develop their metacognitive skills, which are important to constructing meaning. Students develop these self-monitoring skills by being encouraged continuously to think about and respond to what they read and write. Children who are schooled in response-centered classrooms where their responses to literature are valued develop a sense of ownership, pride, and respect with regard to learning (Hansen 1987). 7. Children who engage in daily discussions about what they read are more likely to become critical readers and learners. Classroom discussion is vital to student learning. Research shows that students’ verbal exchanges about content improve learning and increase their level of thinking (Marzano 1991). The social nature of learning implies that, because each context is different, participants must always evaluate what to say, when and how, consider options, and make choices. Given the importance of discussion for effective learning, effective teaching involves providing students with ample opportunities to engage in daily discussions with one another. Small group and peer-to-peer interactions are valuable in promoting academic and social learning.

8. Expert readers have strategies that they use to construct meaning before, during, and after reading. As students become proficient readers, they develop a set of plans or strategies for solving problems they encounter in their reading experiences. Although much remains to be done in this area of literacy research, at least five important strategies have been identified as critical to learning and therefore should be taught in a good literacy program (Cooper 1993). These strategies include; inferencing, identifying important information, monitoring, summarizing, and question generating. 9. Children’s reading and writing abilities develop together. Both reading and writing are constructive processes. While reading, readers reread and modify meaning accordingly. While writing, writers think about the topic, and the more they think the better developed their writing becomes. They also think about what they have written, reread it, and make revisions to improve it. When reading and writing are taught together the benefits are greater than when they are taught separately. Teachers can be most effective in helping students to become better readers, writers, and thinkers when they weave integrated reading and writing activities into their literacy instruction. 10. The most valuable form of reading assessment reflects our current understanding of the reading process and simulates authentic reading tasks. In the past, reading assessments focused on measuring students’ performance on a hierarchy of isolated skills that, when put together were thought to comprise “reading.” Now it is known that the whole act of reading is greater than the sum of its parts. Literacy assessments in the classroom that involve performance tasks provide valuable information for instructional decision-making.

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After a few short decades of resilience research, we are now beginning to look at children and their ability to bounce back in a different light (Benard 2004). In reality, children are much more invincible and able to recover from challenges when caring adults intentionally reduce the risk factors in their environment and provide protective factors to stop problems before they start (Masten 2001; Garmezy 1985). Through the use of children’s literature, caregivers can implement a resilience-building curriculum with minimum change and small effort. Some kids display more emotional hardiness than others, but all children possess resilience-building tools (Benard 2004). Using children’s literature, caregivers can help children bounce back by intentionally placing resilience-building experiences and skills in the curriculum that serve as protective factors.

Children’s literature has long been used to teach concepts. Stories are beneficial because they assist us in bringing attention to the challenges that young children face while providing ways to cope or even overcome them. Books that tell stories of characters faced with challenges or problems to solve are best because they can become the background for talks about the elements of resilience. Acquiring books to foster resilience is easy, and many that you already have on your bookshelf can be used. For an optimum experience, choose books that have the following attributes: Problem-solving messages, appeal, developmental value, availability, and reflect the Goldilocks rule.

Teachers can play an important role in fostering resilience by intentionally placing it at the forefront of the curriculum. Although we can’t prevent adversity or unpleasant experiences from happening to children, we can minimize the distress they feel by teaching them a vocabulary of emotions with the use of children’s books. Children as young as 3 years can understand challenges and think of positive ways to re-do a behavior or provide a new way to respond. Other attributes that children’s books should have when fostering resilience are: helping, coping and patience, problem-solving, responsibilities, and jobs, structure and rules, choices and decision making, making friends, opportunities to participate and contribute, setting boundaries and caring relationships and empathy.

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First of all, reading is a conscious and unconscious thinking process. The reader applies many strategies to reconstruct the meaning that the author is assumed to have intended. The reader does this by comparing information in the text to his or her background knowledge and prior experience. That is why, effective reading is essential for success in any field, which makes it a key part of any language curriculum.  On the other hand, reading occurs when the reader approaches a text with a huge baggage of prior knowledge and experiences, including preconceived ideas about the uses of spoken and written language. Furthermore, Literacy is a set of attitudes and beliefs about the ways of using spoken and written language that is acquired in the course of a person’s socialization into a specific cultural context. Language and culture cannot be separated. Language knowledge and thinking patterns are socially constructed within a cultural setting, and each language/culture fosters its own way of understanding the world.

That is why, in order to read well in English, then, students need to do the following:

1.    Develop a schema of the reading process that includes
the idea that reading is more than translating reading
is thinking.

2.     Talk about their reading, and explain how they make
sense of a text.

3.     Read extensively for pleasure in English, and discuss
their reading with someone who can model the
literate behaviors expected in an English-language
context.

4.     Break the habit of reading every word by reading
faster.

5.    Learn to vary their reading rate to suit their purpose
in reading.

6.    Employ top-down processes effectively by learning to
make connections between what they already know
and what they are reading.

7.    Learn reading and thinking skills that fluent readers of
English employ unconsciously to strengthen both top-
down and bottom-up processing abilities.

8.    Enhance bottom-up processing by acquiring the
most useful vocabulary and by learning strategies for
guessing meaning in context.

9.    Master the basic 2,000 words that constitute
approximately 80 percent of texts are in English.

10. Acquire specific reading comprehension skills they can
apply strategically.

In other matters, another important aspect is reading skills. Reading skills are the cognitive processes that a reader uses in making sense of a text. For fluent readers, most of the reading skills are employed unconsciously and automatically. When confronted with a challenging text, fluent readers apply these skills consciously and strategically in order to comprehend. Every language requires a different repertoire of reading skills, based on the structure of the language and the literacy habits of the native speakers of that language. ESL and EFL teachers, therefore, should train students in the skills that will give them the power to comprehend English.  Many teachers believe that they can teach reading skills by instructing students to read a text and then showing them how to apply a variety of skills to the text for better comprehension. It is more effective for students, however, to focus on one reading skill at a time and talk about their application of that skill in a number of text samples. Eventually, students will be able to apply the skill unconsciously so that they can call it up to consciousness and apply it strategically whenever they face a challenging
text.

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The Impact of Computer Use on Literacy in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Skills

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The Impact of Computer Use on Literacy in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Skills

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With the increased use of computers in both domestic and school environments, students have displayed more interest in the use of computers. Their vocabulary and comprehension skills appear to have shifted emphasis from reading the printed text to the use of the electronic medium. This shift has had a bearing on the development of literacy skills that may decrease the influence of printed text. There have been many attempts to define levels of literacy which have led to phrases such as functional literacy, information literacy, language literacy, cultural literacy, critical literacy and so forth, with an additional term of computer literacy (Diepenbrock 1999). Computer literacy is more apparent in contemporary society. The acquisition of computer skills is as important as language literacy to parents, students, scholars, educators, and industry.

The distinction between the two is that computer literacy involves the physical use of equipment (peripherals and software applications) and language literacy is a broad term used to indicate the importance and minimum ability of individuals to read and write in a designated language used in everyday life. In current usage, the term [language literacy] implies an interaction between social demands and individual competence. Literacy acquisition determines the relationship between cognitive skills (perception and memory) and reading skills (decoding and comprehension). This can range from ‘word identification, word recognition, and decoding to understanding the intent of the person who wrote the passage. The influence and impact of computers on children, according to Chandler (1985), is based on the regular availability of computers in domestic environments. Schools began to equip their classrooms with computers and gradually encouraged their use in all subject areas.

A pilot study revealed that 92% of students had access at home to a personal computer. No comparison was made between students who had home access to computers and those who did not. All students had access to school computers and to their friends’ computers when they were not at school. 43 % of students are using their personal computers for both schoolwork and games compared to 31% who were using them only for games. There is no comparison made of the amount of schoolwork output as measured against the amount of time playing games. Only 2% of students use their personal computers purely for schoolwork. This suggests that many students at this age are inclined to use their personal computers for amusement only. Students with no access to personal computers at home managed to use their friends’ computers when time permits. Another point was raised that computers are limited and do not allow for additional personal creativity in our work. The students also stated that they only used the features and tools included in the program for a work presentation. The computers process the information faster than we can. Therefore, the computer allows us to do our work quicker and easier

Some teachers are also finding their students are reading less than they used to. The students are more interested in playing games. One particular teacher commented. When I take them to the library for a research project, the student's preference is to use the computers rather than read books. Some teachers commented that computers have had an impact on reading comprehension and vocabulary skills. They are turning to computers when the opportunity arises, specifically, using the Internet. This leads students to comprehension problems. It is the lack of concentration the students are displaying in any comprehension activities. This study suggests that computers might have a negative impact on young people who are still in a process of learning and developing their basic language literacy skills. The important part of human life is when basic skill learning occurs in the early years. The emphasis of learning today has shifted from literacy to technology, based on the current trends in society and the global economy.

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Students Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies

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Students Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies

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Students’ reading practices and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies are rising concerns at all levels of education in almost all parts of the world. Students’ reading habits are either insufficient or they are not paying attention to what is being read; resulting in their inadequate skills to deduce information from the manuscripts, lack of critical thinking, and ability to use contextual clues the understand the meaning. Educational institutions give very little attention to developing the reading practices and MARS of their students. Flavell (1976) defined metacognitive awareness as individuals’ understanding or knowledge regarding their own mental procedures as well as the related outcomes, thus, MARS deals with readers’ own understanding of the reading strategies that they employ during reading. Usually, teachers provide reading comprehensions focusing on measuring the comprehension of a particular manuscript rather than metacognitive strategies for comprehending texts.

Furthermore, Flavell (1976) defined metacognitive knowledge as individuals’ understanding or knowledge regarding their own mental procedures as well as the related productions. Metacognition confirms that the pupils are able to construct meanings from texts as well as to react on these thought processes and recognize strategies related to reading using their intellectual activities, actions, aims, and experiences. It largely includes awareness or beliefs about the contributing factors and the ways of interaction that influence the progression as well as the cerebral enterprises’ results.

Flavell (1979) additionally discussed three forms of metacognitive knowledge: person, task, and strategy. Person knowledge contains an individual’s beliefs for others as well as his own nature as mental procedures. Task knowledge deals with readers’ information about the objectives, demands, and type of learning tasks and strategy knowledge comprises effective strategies in accomplishing sub-goals as well as the objectives in diverse types of cognitive activities (Wenden, 1998). Metacognitive knowledge offers a foundation of awareness related to a learner’s s own mental processes while reading. According to Garner (1987), metacognitive experiences are found in three phases of reading: before, while, and after. The first phase belongs to an individual’s own information, the second belongs to strategy information, whereas, the third one belongs to task information.

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The ability to read fluently is, in fact, quite miraculous. Our brains were not designed to be reading brains. But we have learned, from one generation to the next, to take graphic forms on a page and mentally interpret them into our own language, no matter what language. As fluent readers, we do this at a rate that is even faster than our fluent listening abilities. What is more remarkable, we can do this for hours at a time if we choose to, and we often do this for enjoyment! So what is it we do when we read, and how do we do it? I will address this large question but do so in the context of academic reading because that is the key concern for educators.

Reading can simply be defined as a complex ability to extract, or build, meaning from a text. However, this definition, by itself, is not very informative. The most commonly accepted way for researchers to explain the above definition is to identify the key component abilities and skills that allow reading comprehension to emerge. Reading comprehension involves abilities to recognize words rapidly and efficiently, develop and use a very large recognition vocabulary, process sentences in order to build comprehension, engage a range of strategic processes and underlying cognitive skills (e.g., setting goals, changing goals flexibly, monitoring comprehension), interpret meaning in relation to background knowledge, interpret and evaluate texts in line with reader goals and purposes, and process texts fluently over an extended period of time. These processes and knowledge resources allow the reader to generate text comprehension to the level required. The identification of these skills and resources has been the outcome of many research studies, and it remains the source of much ongoing research.

There has been a growing debate on the extent of the differences between L1 and L2 readers. Drawing on the arguments made by Koda (2005), and Genesee et al. (2006), a number of statements can be developed. First, beginning and intermediate L2 reading abilities are more distinct from L1 reading than advanced L2 reading abilities will be. As an L2 reader becomes fluent and highly skilled in reading comprehension, the reading processes involved become more similar (though perhaps never the same). Second, the extent of the linguistic differences between L1 and L2 (e.g., the linguistic differences between Spanish and English vs. Chinese and English) will have an impact on L2 reading. This impact of L1/L2 differences will diminish with increasing L2 reading proficiency (but will not disappear). Third, higher-level skills relate to comprehension skills more generally and are not constrained by limited amounts of linguistic knowledge, so they will be essentially the same in both L1 and L2 contexts.

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Reflections about - The Impact of Computer Use on Literacy in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Skills.

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Reflections about - The Impact of Computer Use on Literacy in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Skills.

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Norma’s reflection

This type of issue whether it is good or not for children to have and use a computer is a very complicated matter, because there are pros and cons to it. The use of computers for kids may be important for such things as homework, but I believe it is also affecting that they don’t want to read a book anymore, and that can affect their comprehension and their knowledge of new topics. It should be a balance on have the kids should spend their time, personally I think if we don’t want our kids to forget about the importance of reading, we should start implementing this more often in their lives.

Marlon’s reflection

It is fascinating how the technological advance has had a great boom in the last decades; this same progress has also achieved that the methods of education are updated and virtualized. However, this has brought good and bad consequences. In this article, I could read research about what is the impact of computer use on literacy and really the data are incredible because the use of computers by children in industrialized countries is very significant.

Betzabe’s reflection

Certainly, reliance on surface reading can interfere with the development of deep reading skills, such as reflection, critical analysis, and inferential thinking. Excessive computer use has a major impact on the neurological connections necessary for deep reading, such as the brain areas involved in visual processing and phonological processing, which may not occur in those who learn primarily through surface reading.

Cindy’s reflection

Technology has become part of almost every activity we do, it often facilitates tasks of all kinds, although in the educational context, the use of technology, especially computers, has been very controversial. Although most of the studies used in this article show the negative impact that the use of computers has had on reading comprehension, from my point of view, this is due to the numerous distracting elements that are present, however, used in the right way, computers can be resources that facilitate the expansion and effectiveness of the teaching of reading

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Reflections about - Using books to foster resilience.

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Reflections about - Using books to foster resilience.

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Norma’s reflection

This is very important for children, taking into consideration that the books to foster resilience are going to help kids, not only for entertainment. Choosing books that are appropriate for their age and their knowledge. Also, I think is important to take into consideration choosing books that are going to teach them something important, not only to make them laugh, this way children will learn important values from a very young age.

Marlon’s reflection

I really loved this article because it explains that the use of children’s literature in education helps build resilience in a child. Generally, in many children’s books, there are stories that relate to self-improvement and personal success. Obviously, this is an incentive for a child to overcome any adversity, challenge, or bad event of the past. Certainly reading is something too wonderful and that is within reach of all people.

Betzabe’s reflection

Books that foster resilience in children can give them a foretaste of the wisdom they will gain from life experiences.  Books are a great way to show children that emotions come and go, that bad days turn around, and that they can find ways to bounce back and build resilience. To give them the wisdom they will gain from life experience, but until then, they can learn from the characters in the books that they can have the courage to stand up for themselves as well as others.

Cindy’s reflection

For many years, books have helped many people to overcome different situations. Although children are more predisposed to overcome tragic situations and to be more resilient, this is also something that can be taught and reinforced through books. From a very early age, children should be exposed to books whose themes, implicitly or explicitly, help them realize that difficult situations are normal and sometimes necessary, but that they can all be overcome and that they have the strength to do so.

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Reflections about - New Ways in Teaching Reading.

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Reflections about - New Ways in Teaching Reading.

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Norma’s reflection

In this article, I can see that there are a lot of activities the teacher can implement in the class to teach students better and easier ways of reading. With these activities students can understand and get to know the story they are reading in a more personal way; they can understand what the characters are trying to do or say throughout the story. I think that way the students can get in the habit of reading without any problem, by being a fun and active way of reading.

Marlon’s reflection

I really like the NEW ways to teach reading that this article lists because it focuses on children. It is at the toddler age that reading skills can most easily be developed because a child's mind is like a blank page on which many ideas can be written. In my personal case, I have taken my attention to the following; cooperative vocabulary building and early writing with ell and monolingual students; since this strategy is very new to me and I believe that it would achieve good results in children.

Betzabe’s reflection

Teaching reading is an evolving, non-linear process that works differently for each young learner.  Teaching reading involves teaching letters, sounds, and vocabulary, but beyond this, it also involves strategies such as guided reading and building prior knowledge. Learning to read should include exposure to a wide variety of interesting books and different types of texts, such as content from online and interactive apps and websites so that the process will be a success.

Cindy’s reflection

Something very important that we must always be aware of is that no matter if it is in a purely educational context or outside of it, reading should always be an enjoyable activity, especially for children, so sometimes, going beyond the traditional and implementing new activities will not only result in something innovative, but will attract students, as well as making them more active participants. There are many new ways to teach reading to children.

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Reflections about - Students' Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies.

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Reflections about - Students' Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies.

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Norma’s reflection

In this document, we can see how a group of people of Spanish speakers were a part of an investigation to know their knowledge of reading in English. I believe this project was very interesting and important to make because in that way we can see the strengths and weaknesses that people have. So, in this way teachers can know how to start teaching their students. With this activity, we can find how much we can understand and how much we lack in information and comprehension of reading in English.

Marlon’s reflection

Honestly, I had never heard about the term cognitive awareness but thanks to this article I could discover it and it is really very interesting. It is said that a reader is metacognitive when he/she is aware of what is reading and when the lector does not understand, will look for ways to understand it.  In other words, a reader has a metacognitive awareness when he or she has mastered what is reading and is able to discern every sentence in a text.

Betzabe’s reflection

Metacognitive reading strategy awareness plays a significant role in reading comprehension and the educational process. In spite of its importance, metacognitive strategy has long been an ignored skill in English language teaching, research, learning, and assessment. This lack of good metacognitive reading strategy skills is exacerbated by the central role of reading comprehension in education success. One solution to the problem of poor reading comprehension is the learning of metacognitive reading strategy skills. Metacognitive reading strategy ability needs to be focused on language learning and teaching.

Cindy’s reflection

Metacognition, in pedagogy, suggests that the student is aware of his own learning process, when this is taken or applied to activities such as reading, the result is that we have students aware of how the process of reading and comprehension is developed, that is to say, that we have students able to recognize and apply those strategies that work best not only to understand what they read, but also to identify their literary styles and preferences.

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Reflections about - Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension.

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Reflections about - Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension.

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Norma’s reflection

This is a very important part of reading because we cannot be able to read anything if we don’t understand what it says. With this method, students can understand their own knowledge and what they are learning in the process. In my perspective, one of the most important aspects of this method is to have a large vocabulary, that way students can understand and know what is important in what they are reading.

Marlon’s reflection

Reading this article I have been able to discern that reading comprehension is very important. It is not only reading but understanding what you are reading. There are many techniques to achieve reading comprehension, one of them is to summarize information or the text; although the article gives to understand that this strategy is difficult for children so we must take into account how and when to apply it so that in this way we can achieve better results.

Betzabe’s reflection

Comprehension is important for every student. It is the fifth principle of reading. Comprehension brings together the principles of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and vocabulary. This makes it so that you can read and understand quickly. This also aids both in your use of and understanding of words, sentences, and paragraphs quickly. When you are able to read quickly, comprehend, categorize, and use what you have read, true learning happens.

Cindy’s reflection

When it comes to reading, it is not enough to know how to interpret the letters and signs that make up the words, but it is also necessary to understand what is being read, so that the reading will be meaningful. As teachers, our task goes beyond teaching our students to read, we must also teach techniques that allow them to develop effective comprehension skills to create strong readers.

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Reflections about - Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading.

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Reflections about - Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading.

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Norma’s reflection

These principles for teaching reading are important to develop with the students, which way the teacher can understand better how the students learn and how they think. With these principles, teachers can start implementing some activities or information in the classroom to make students aware of reading and make discussions in the classroom while exchanging ideas about the books they have or are reading. I think this is something all schools should start implementing with the students.

Marlon’s reflection

The principles described in this article to teach reading have seemed to be very interesting since they are very well foundedt. It seems to me that this text should be in the hands of a teacher, whose teaching area should be literature since also, it describes aspects that encompass even phonetic consciousness. In my case, I really liked point 4, which has as name Modeling is an important form of classroom support for literacy learning.

Betzabe’s reflection

Students need a careful introduction to extensive reading. Teachers can explain that reading extensively leads not only to gains in reading proficiency but also to overall gains in language learning. The methodology of extensive reading can be introduced, beginning with a choice: students choosing what to read is an essential part of the approach. Teachers can reassure students that a general, less than 100%, understanding of what they read is appropriate for most reading purposes.

Cindy’s reflection

When you read, you acquire or construct meaning. The construction of this meaning will often also depend on prior knowledge and how it relates to the newly acquired knowledge. There are many aspects to take into account when looking for reading effectiveness, such as the strategies used, constant evaluations, self-knowledge of the processes behind reading, motivation, among others. All these aspects work together to help the teacher not only teach reading but also to make the reading take hold in the students.

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Reflections about - Key Issues in L2 Reading Development.

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Reflections about - Key Issues in L2 Reading Development.

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Norma’s reflection

By understanding and identifying these issues, students will be able to understand that reading development is a process. Students will develop the fluency to read with time and a lot of practice. That is why I consider this to be an important aspect in students, mostly when they are kids, so they will develop this habit and put it into practice from a very young age.

Marlon’s reflection

Reading this article, I can conclude that in L2 acquisition, the first thing we face is the new vocabulary, which we will integrate into our knowledge to later build our first phrases and sentences. This will be very necessary when reading our first books in L2 since the ability to understand a text requires a reasonable knowledge of basic grammar, the ability to identify the main ideas of the text, and of course the knowledge of our vocabulary.

Betzabe’s reflection

Developing L2 proficiency can be thought of as a gradual increase in skills related to the ability to comprehend and express oneself in the L2, both orally and in writing, in everyday contexts and in academic contexts. A variety of receptive and expressive skills need to develop. They include familiarity with the phonology of the L2, its vocabulary (both everyday vocabulary and more academic vocabulary), its morphology, and grammar.

Cindy’s reflection

Reading in a second language can often represent a major challenge since sometimes the problems or obstacles presented when reading in the native language have not even been solved or helped. The main challenge in both languages is to know how to extract and interpret whatever is being read, which is why, as in Language 1, different techniques can be implemented to enhance and make reading in Language 2 more effective. As teachers who teach the second language, we must identify the problems that may be hindering the purpose of reading, which are often related to the time of exposure of students not only to reading itself but also to the second language.

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Reflections about - Teaching Reading in a Second Language.

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Reflections about - Teaching Reading in a Second Language.

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Norma’s reflection

In the article, we can see some tips to be able to read in English. One of these tips that caught my attention is to think in English, which I believe is a very important one because in my experience while learning a second language, in this case, English, thinking in another language at first was very hard and almost impossible, but I could tell the difference since the moment I started doing it, I was getting better in my pronunciation and at reading more fluently. So I believe this is a very important step to make while we are learning how to read in another language.

Marlon’s reflection

I have read this article and learned quite relevant things. One of them is that reading in acquiring a second language is very essential because it is one of the main along with writing, talking. On the other hand, in this article, it is important to highlight some educational aspects that are aimed at improving the teaching of L2, one of them is; the development of vocabulary. This aspect is important because it is primordial in reading comprehension, and is that if we do not have an advanced vocabulary the words of a book will be mostly unknown

Betzabe’s reflection

The importance of teaching reading in a second language lies in the fact that reading, even at a slow pace, exposes students to more new phrases, grammar and vocabulary per minute than the average short lecture, television program or song. That's why students who read foreign books are able to speak more fluently than those who don't, despite having done the same number of classes. Reading offers students a greater variety of vocabulary and grammar, basically supports and feeds the brain with the correct linguistic structures.

Cindy’s reflection

Reading plays a fundamental role when it comes to learning a second language. All the knowledge one has in the first language will be transferred or at least serve as a basis for the second language when reading in that language. Elements such as extensive reading, comprehension skills, reading fluency, and vocabulary development are components that are part of a comprehensive process that will help the efficient development of reading in a second language.

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Reflections about - Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading.

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Reflections about - Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading.

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Norma’s reflection

Independent reading is a very useful method that can help us in things such as our reading habits, by choosing a book that caught our attention and that we love, this way we can find more people with the same taste in books, and that way we start to get into reading more books. This method can be put into practice at any time and any place, with a small group of people, that way the teacher can have more access to the students. Personally, this is one of my favorite methods to use, because it helps the students and the teacher in a very interesting and fun way.

Marlon’s reflection

In my opinion, it is important that independent reading be implemented in schools, that is, that reading must be something that the student is passionate about and not something imposed. Something important to highlight from this article is the following: "sometimes reading seems to be connected to life, but other times, reading seems to be connected to external factors such as educational evaluations". Therefore most of the time reading is an obligation and is only part of assessments.

Betzabe’s reflection

Independent reading plays a key role in the development of reading fluency (speed and ease of reading), vocabulary, background knowledge, and even spelling. Not surprisingly, motivation also is associated with independent reading. Independent reading is never a substitute for focused remediation and interaction with a teacher in key skill areas, such as word decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Nevertheless, encouraging independent reading for pleasure in youngsters with LD is important for developing habits of reading, interest in reading, and practice of learned skills.

Cindy’s reflection

Creating student readers whose passion for reading goes beyond the classroom is a challenge that teachers have faced. Today, the challenge is greater, as the distractions for younger students seem greater. As teachers, we must take up that challenge and look for strategies to implement reading in children, so that it not only serves to reinforce their skills and competencies in the classroom but, also so that the student can develop the habit and become an independent reader.

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The habit of reading can bring many benefits such as curiosity to know more things, increases the capacity of reasoning and analysis of a person, increases concentration, can create ties or links with other people, etc. So, reading is not something boring but something that opens a door to a new world where countless ideas flow; and that will undoubtedly make you question why and how things happen. We can all develop the ability to read, it is only a matter of proposing it.

In the field of second language acquisition, reading plays a very important role because through it a student can increase or expand his vocabulary, and of course, he will have a clearer idea of the grammatical structure of the second language that she or he is learning. In this way, writing and speaking skills will also be improved, therefore, reading can be the most fundamental aspect at the time of learning a second language.

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Duke, K ., Pearson, D (2002). Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension. International Reading Association. http://faculty.washington.edu/smithant/DukeandPearson.pdf

English Club. (n.d). what is reading? Retrieved from https://www.englishclub.com/reading/what.htm

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Heath, Andrea. (2021). Teaching Reading: Strategies & Methods to Encourage Learning. ClicView. https://www.clickview.co.uk/blog/teaching-strategies/reading/

International Literacy Association (2019). Creating Passionate Readers Through Independent Reading. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-creating-passionate-readers-through-independent-reading.pdf

Mikulecky, B. (2009). Teaching Reading in a Second Language. Pearson. http://longmanhomeusa.com/blog/teachingreading-in-a-second-language/

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http://www.childcarequarterly.com/pdf/fall12_resilience.pdf

Radi, O. (n.d.). The Impact of Computer Use on Literacy in Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Skills. Crpit.Scem.Westernsydney.Edu.Au.  https://crpit.scem.westernsydney.edu.au/confpapers/CRPITV8Radi.pdf

Sheikh, I., Soomro, K., Hussain, N. (2019).  Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies, Reading Practices and Academic Attainments of University Students. Journal of Education and Educational Development. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1216772.pdf

Sweet, A. P. (2000, March 31). ERIC - ED447441 - Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading., 2000-Apr. eric.ed.gov. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED447441