Active Strategies to Develop Comprehensive Reading in an EFL Classroom with Children of Seventh Year of Basic Education

1. ARMY POLYTECHNIC SCHOOLDEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN ENGLISH CAREER THEME: ACTIVE STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP COMPREHENSIVE READING IN An EFL CLASSROOM WITH CHILDREN OF SEVENTH YEAR OF BASIC EDUCATION AT “UNIDAD EDUCATIVA EXPERIMENTAL LA LLAMA DEL VALLE”, DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR 2010-2011. By Susana A. Andrade P. ADVISORS:  DIRECTOR: MSc. María Eugenia Arcos CODIRECTOR: Msc. Olga Cárdenas

2. The lack of Reading comprehension of children of seventh year of B.E. at the “U.E.E. La Llama del Valle” led to design some strategies which will help them improve this skill. Furthermore, it has been developed upon the modality of a feasible project, which was developed in two facets. • The diagnostic and • The pedagogical proposal SUMMARY

3. ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF THE PROBLEM Students continually use the dictionary to translate into their L1 the words that they don’t understand. Not enough opportunities for reading practice in class. Contact with English texts just in class time. Teachers know mostly traditional strategies for reading comprehension. CAUSES LACK OF STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILL IN CHILDREN OF THE SEVENTH YEAR OF BASIC EDUCATION FROM THE “UNIDAD EDUCATIVA EXPERIMENTAL LA LLAMA DEL VALLE” PROBLEM Teachers don´t apply innovative reading strategies. Students don´t progress in their reading comprehension skill. EFFECTS Students are not prompted in the comprehension and interpretation of written pieces. Low development of the comprehension process of reading.

4. How does the applying of reading strategies in the classroom affect reading comprehension in the students of seventh year at Basic Education of “UnidadEducativa Experimental La Llama del Valle? PROBLEM SETTING Main problem

5. How does the limited contact with adequate English texts affect students of seventh year of B.E. in their reading comprehension? Secondaryproblems • How does the lack of opportunities for reading practice obstruct the Reading Comprehension of these students?

6. To determine the incidence of applying active teaching strategies in order to improve the reading comprehension skill of the seventh year of Basic Education at “UnidadEducativa Experimental La Llama del Valle” OBJECTIVES GENERAL OBJECTIVE

7. To characterize some teaching strategies on reading production that facilitate to get the best benefit from English classes and improve reading comprehension in the students of seventh years of B.E. at “U.E.E. La Llama del Valle” Specific objectives • To provide appropriate activities in order to attain as many opportunities as possible for reading practice

8. The goal : resolvetheproblem Tools: strategiesfortechingreadingaccordingstudents’ ages Focuson: readingcomprehension Alternative: to promote the students motivation to read JUSTIFICATION

9. THEORETICAL FRAME

10. STRUCTURE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE ACTIVE STRATEGIES READING COMPREHENSION PROCESS Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading Assessing Reading Proficiency Strategies to develop reading skills Reading methodology Lesson plan Developing Reading Activities Using Textbook Reading Activities RELATION BETWEEN INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES

11. Components for the Teaching of Reading Comprehension (before, during and after reading strategies) INDEPENDENT VARIABLE Goals and Techniques for Teaching Reading To help students acquire the necessary language skills Conditions for the teaching of reading skill How do you teach reading comprehension strategies? What are the key principles of reading instruction? Reading mechanic: • Physiology • Psychology • The clinical • Pedagogy Process of reading: • Visualization • Phonation • Hearing • cerebration

12. Strategies to develop reading skills A visual display helps readers understand, organize, and remember thousand words. Using picture clues Using prior knowledge to understand a text Predicting Using prior knowledge Making sense of our learning experience Guessing words form context. Finding new words

13. Developing Reading Activities It helps children develop thoughtful interpretations of what they read Get involved in Reading Fundamental Categories Questioning Create Connections Visualization Make Inferences Construct Information Confidence The activities help children exercise their brain’s mental skills

14. To select the appropriate materials Using Textbook Reading Activities Textbooks play a fundamental role A source of information To choose a textbook, we must take into mind that it works to promote all kinds of reflection To use interesting texts

15. DEPENDENT VARIABLE Assessing Reading Proficiency It is provided by the teacher with immediate feedback A tool for diagnosing areas of strength or areas where improvement is needed with the core reading strategies. • Diagnostic assessment • To measure how much progress has been made Evaluation criteria

16. Reading methodology Reading Comprehension Ability and Metacognitive Awareness Reciprocal Teaching Main Strategies Generating questions Summarizing Attempting to clarify words meaning predicting Explicit Instruction Guided practice Explicit modeling Teacher supports and gradually transfers leader’s role to students Social Interaction Teacher and students, and among students themselves

17. Enabling objectives reading skills • Check up of materials and equipment before class time. • The instruction was divided in three stages • pre-reading • while-reading • post-reading Lesson plan

18. Classes Teaching methods Observations

19. Working Hypothesis The active strategies applied to get a good comprehensive reading in the EFL classroom will improve the level of reading comprehension to children of the seventh year of basic education of the “UnidadEducativa Experimental La LLama del Valle” Null Hypothesis The active strategies applied to get a good comprehensive reading in the EFL classroom won’t improve the level of reading comprehension to children of the seventh year of basic education of the “UnidadEducativa Experimental La LLama del Valle” HYPOTHESIS SYSTEM

20. Research Type and Design Quasi-experimental design • Population and Sample 56 studets divided in two groups: Control Group, 29 students (Parallel A) Experimental Group, 27 students (Parallel B) • Fielding Two different questionnaires Pre- Test and Post-Test METHODOLOGY

21. 4. Instruments for Data Collection Questionnaire technique 5. Processing and Analysis It was processed and analyzed by the descriptive statistics and the graphic representation

22. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONs

23. Results of thePre-test and Post-Test

24. GRAPHICAL EXPOSITION OF RESULTS

25. Comparation between the students’ SCORES before and after the test CONTROL GROUP EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

26. t- student calculation tobs < ttab it is accepted the H0 tobs> ttab it is accepted the Ha

27. Control Group It is accepted the null hypothesis using t- students test by Tobs < Ttab A slight increase of 0.35 points and the standard deviation decreases by 2.67 Experimental Group It is accepted the working hypothesis using t-student test being Tobs> Ttab An increase in the average of 5,26 points and the standard deviation decreased with 0,47.

28. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

30. pRoposal A HANDBOOK BASED ON ACTIVE STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP THE READING COMPREHENSION SHARING AMONG ENGLISH TEACHERS IN A SEMINAR AT “UNIDAD EDUCATIVA EXPERIMENTAL LA LLAMA DEL VALLE” • DESCRIPTION • JUSTIFICATION • THEORETICAL FOUNDATION • OBJECTIVES • OPERATIVE MODULE

31. To let teachers be aware of the importance of applying innovative reading strategies • To have practical experience in learning/teaching according to this approach • To gain knowledge in the approach of English reading teaching/ learning based on appropriate strategies for all students’ levels OBJECTIVES

32. 1. Reading Competence • Introduction of the Seminar • Goals of this Seminar • A review of approaches for EFL teaching • Analysis of the three types of language learning Principles: Cognitive, Affective and Linguistic. 2. Reading Comprehension Teaching Approach • Characteristics and Objectives of Applying Active Teaching strategies • Developing of the active strategies • Brief Description of each Strategy Approach • Comparison among the different types of strategies 3. Cooperative learning • Selection of Methods to elevate the Reading comprehension level • Teachers’ Role • Techniques and Activities 4. Interactive Classroom activities • Teachers’ Role and Application • Practice through demonstrative classes • Techniques and Activities 5. Developing of Classroom activities • Reading zone • Reading game • Samples of Active Techniques and Strategies • Application of Active Techniques • Assessment DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROGRAM TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR READING COMPREHENSION

34. Thanks.