Developing Reading Skills in Higher Education: Convincing students that an intervention is needed

Introduction 

The ability to read well is a key foundation of academic performance in first, second and foreign languages (Anderson, 2012; Don & Osman, 1987; Gaona & Gonzalez, 2010; Grabe, 2009). Despite the vital role they play, students often arrive at university with poorly developed reading skills (Lenong, 2020; Oliver & Young, 2016) and reading habits considered incompatible with effective study (Abdullah, 2004). However, students may not be aware of their underdeveloped reading ability or may feel that they can succeed anyway. Therefore, before introducing activities designed to help students develop reading skills, it may first be necessary to convince them that such an intervention is needed. 

The brief series of activities which follow have been used over several years with both native and non-native speakers of English who are beginning their studies at university. The aim of all activities is to highlight the need to think about reading skills and how they might need developing. Each activity has a specific objective relating to raising awareness of the need to develop reading skills.  Some of the possible activities are optional. Other activities can be adapted to be made simpler or more complex depending on the students involved.

 

1 ) Two Simple Questions

 

A good starter to capture the attention of a group, particularly if they are sceptical about the need to discuss reading skills, is to ask two simple questions: 

 

Do you sometimes find reading boring? 

Do you sometimes find that you cannot remember what you have been reading? 

 

Large numbers of students always respond affirmatively to both questions. The response to this needs to be that really successful, study at university requires a substantial amount of reading. Therefore, if the answer to the first question is, "Yes” then studying at university is not going to be enjoyable and if the answer to the second is also, "Yes" then reading is a waste of time! The hope is that by highlighting these points some are more likely to engage in the activities, if they think they are designed to help them overcome these issues. 

2) What is reading? 

 

In this activity the students begin by briefly reading definitions of reading. Unless the group is studying language or a related subject, a couple of the definitions can be displayed. For language students, the number of definitions of reading can be expanded. The ones that I generally use at this stage are: 

... an interaction with a printed message (Mar'ifah, 2010). 

... the process of deriving meaning from printed symbols (Mauer, 1991). 

... a reader interacting with a printed text (Galbert, 1989). 

 

The students are asked if they are happy with the definitions presented and without exception, they either agree or remain silent. There have never been objections. This then leads into the first main activity which is a slight adaptation of a paragraph used by Bransford and Johnson (1972). Bransford and Johnson used the text to demonstrate "that relevant contextual knowledge is a prerequisite for comprehending prose passages" (p.717). 

 

So, the paragraph is presented as shown below and the students are asked to read it to themselves. 

 
 

 

There is no need to continue until all have reached the end. The important thing here is that the students are confused, frustrated or have even given up. I usually stop them quite quickly and say that I can see quite a few confused faces, which is always true. I then ask them to read again from the top as I display the next slide, which is identical, but which includes a title. 

 
 

 

Again, I am not concerned that the students reach the end of the text. The important thing is that they have tried to read the text with no contextual knowledge and then have done so with contextual knowledge and have a sense of the difference. 

 

I then compare how they might have approached reading the text the first time and second time. There is generally plenty of agreement when I suggest there might have been a lot of stopping, thinking and re-reading, the first time but that the second time they were able to read smoothly without the need to stop.  

 

I then tell them that on the first occasion they were not actually reading despite the fact they were doing as the definitions previously shown suggested. They were interacting with the text, albeit unsuccessfully and they were getting meaning from the symbols but not the text as a whole. 

 

So, I now introduce definitions of reading that go beyond the previous ones and encapsulate the importance of deriving meaning from a text and of building on prior knowledge. 
 

"... reading may be defined as the reader’s prior knowledge, attitudes, experiences he/she has with the text in order to extract the meaning" (Bouredjoul & Merrouk, 2016). 

 

"... a process to understand the meaning of a written text" (Richards & Schmidt, 2010). 

 
 

3) How Reading Works (Northedge, 2005) 

 

The next activity builds on the previous one and uses material from Northedge (2005). The book includes a box entitled "How Reading Works." The students are instructed to read the text: 

 

When the students have completed reading the text, I ask them to identify one paragraph that they found easier to read than the other two. This uses Northedge's discussion of a "frame of reference" without actually mentioning the term. The vast majority of students identify the second paragraph as the easiest to read. As Northedge explains, this is most likely as a result of them being more familiar with reading novels, the topic of the second paragraph. I ask the students who indicated that the second paragraph was easiest to read if they often read novels and most indicate that they do. I then ask the same students if they had imagined themselves reading a novel while reading the paragraph and large numbers indicate that they did too. 

I conclude that there is no right or wrong answer but for most the other two paragraphs are likely to be more like the 'Washing Clothes" paragraph and that they probably found that they had to stop and think about what they were reading more often for those two paragraphs which can lead to them giving up. 

 

4) Cycles of Reading (Nuttall, 1996) 

The next activity is simply a brief presentation of Nuttall's (1996) Cycles of Frustration and Growth. In this Nuttall (1996) shows the frustrated reader as being in a vicious cycle of poor reading. She emphasises that we can start anywhere on the cycle but that unless the cycle is broken it will continue. 

   

Nuttall (1996) contrasts this with the virtuous cycle of the good reader. 

   

This brief consideration of Nuttall's cycles of reading is important in convincing more students of the need to think about their reading. However, it also serves as a link into the next activity which is pivotal to the approach. To this point, the activities simply serve to raise awareness of issues with reading. While the activities continue to do this, the students will now start to see solutions to the issues. 

 
 

5) Characteristics of Reading

 

The fourth activity attempts to help students think about how they read and tries to show them that they might be reading in the wrong way which might be causing them to be in a cycle of frustration. So, the activity focuses on three of the characteristics of reading and presents them as questions shown in the slide below. 

 
 

  

  

It argues that if there is a virtuous cycle of good reading then by changing one characteristic without changing the others, we will enter a cycle of poor reading. 

 
 

So, the activity poses the questions for different texts. It begins with a Novel: 

 

What is it? A novel 

Why do we read it? Entertainment/Enjoyment 

How do we read it? Linearly 

It is unlikely that students will offer this terminology and to make the point it is worth taking some time getting to the answer. So, I usually begin by asking what I do first with the novel. It gradually progresses to the need to look at the first page. This then progresses to the first word, then the second word and the third word ... linear reading. 

 

Before we move on, I ask the students if they ever turn the page and cannot remember what they were reading. This is a repeat of one of the questions at the beginning and I know the answer is going to be 'Yes' for many. However, on this occasion I follow up with, "Does it matter?" Most recognise that it does not matter since they are reading for pleasure. 

 

The next text which is the focus of the questions is a directory or dictionary. I have used a Yellow Pages for years. However, nowadays many students won't know what it is, so a dictionary performs a similar function. Having said that, after a brief explanation of the Yellow Pages it can be used to make the point very well.  

 

What is it? Directory 

Why do we read it? To obtain information 

How do we read it? Non-linearly 

For this last question I again take some time to get to the answer. I first say, "Don't worry! After the previous discussion we all know how to read." I then open the Yellow Pages at the first page and read, "Welcome to the fresh, bright, new look Yellow Pages. Here you will find ... Does anyone ever read that ... apart from me? By the way, I want to go to the zoo." This helps to make the contrast between the reading of the two texts more memorable. 

 

The final set of questions focuses on Academic Texts. 

What is it? Academic Text 

Why do we read it? To obtain information "I've heard that somewhere before." 

How do we read it? I begin addressing that question by asking them to consider the novel as one extreme (linear) and the directory as the other extreme (non-linear). Then asking where the academic text fits in. Usually, most students immediately see it as more like the novel. Eventually, I help them come to the conclusion that it is more like the directory. What I do underline is that any linear reading must be very short and that for most purposes, as there are a few, it is more like the directory. 
 

Conclusion 

 

The activities presented here form the first part of a session on reading at university. It is hoped, and it is generally true, that following this initial 15 to 20 minutes a greater number of students are ready to engage in the reading session than would have been the case if it was omitted. 

 

 
 

References  

Abdullah, S. (2004). Students in distance and open learning: The Asian experience. In Perraton, H. D., & Lentell, H. (Eds) Policy for Open and Distance Learning (Vol. 4) (pp. 82-91). Routledge. 

Anderson, J. N. (2012) “Reading instruction” in The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Language Teaching (A. Burns and J.C. Richards eds.), pp. 218-225, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  

Bouredjoul, I., & Merrouk, M. (2016). The relationship between learners' Motivation and the construction of their autonomy in reading: The case of license students majoring in English at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University, Jijel (Doctoral dissertation, university the jijel). 

Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall. Journal of verbal learning and verbal behavior, 11(6), 717-726. 

Don, F. H. & Osman, S. (1987) “Reading and National Development: What the Universities Can Do,” The English Teacher, vol. 16, pp. 73-74. Retrieved from http://www.journals.melta.org.my/TET/downloads/tet16_01_06.pdf  

Gaona, J. C. G. & Gonzalez, E. R. V. (2010) “Relationship between reading habits, university library and academic performance in a sample of psychology students,” Revista de la Educación Superior, vol. 40, no. 157, pp. 55-73. Retrieved from http://publicaciones.anuies.mx/pdfs/revista/Revista157_S1A3EN.pdf  

Galbert, J. L. F. (1989). An experimental study of reciprocal teaching of expository text with third, fourth, and fifth-grade students enrolled in Chapter 1 Reading. Ball State University. 

Grabe, W. (2009) Reading a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.  

Lenong, B. (2020). Engaging University students in reading projects to enhance their learning. IJAEDU-International E-Journal of Advances in Education, 6(16), 124-130. 

Ma’rifah, N. A. (2010). Giving Rewards and Punishment in Improving Students’ Reading Skill: A Classroom Action Research at VII Grade of SMP Dua Mei Ciputat. 

Mauer, D. M. (1991). Visual and phonetic influences on learning of novel phoneme-grapheme correspondence pairs. Memphis State University. 

Northedge, A. (2005). The good study guide. The Open University. 

Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language (2nd ed.). Oxford: Heinemann. 

Oliver, R., & Young, S. (2016). Improving Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Adult ESL Learners Using Bottom-Up and Top-Down Vocabulary Training. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 111-133. 

PDF version available from:

Ireland, C. (2023). Developing Reading Skills in Higher Education - Convincing students that an intervention is needed. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24571114.v1

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