UNIVERSITY OF GUAYAQUIL FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY,...
Transcript of UNIVERSITY OF GUAYAQUIL FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY,...
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UNIVERSITY OF GUAYAQUIL
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, LETTERS AND EDUCATION SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
EDUCATIONAL PROJECT
IN FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR OBTAINING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS DEGREE
TOPIC:
INFLUENCE OF THE USE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TO
IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION ACCOMPLISHMENT
PROPOSAL:
DESIGN OF A CRITICAL THINKING SKILL BOOKLET FOR THE
STRENGTHENING OF THE READING COMPREHENSION IN THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AUTHORS:
GARCÍA TENEMPAGUAY LOURDES VERÓNICA
VILLÓN MEZA ODALY DEL ROCÍO
ADVISOR
Msc. Heidi Marriott Toledo
GUAYAQUIL – ECUADOR
2018
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UNIVERSITY OF GUAYAQUIL
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, LETTERS AND EDUCATION SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
_________________________ ________________________
MSc. Silvia Moy-Sang Castro MSc. Wilson Romero Dávila
DEAN SUB- DEAN
__________________________ _________________________
MSc. Alfonso Sánchez Ávila Ab. Sebastián Cadena Alvarado
DIRECTOR OF THE CAREER GENERAL SECRETARY
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
Guayaquil, 29 de Junio del 2018
MSc. ALFONSO SANCHÉZ ÁVILA DIRECTOR (A) DE CARRERA FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN UNIVERSIDAD DE GUAYAQUIL Ciudad.-
De mis consideraciones:
Envío a Ud. el Informe correspondiente a la tutoría realizada al Trabajo de TITULACIÓN INFLUENCE OF THE USE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILL TO IMPROVE THE READING COMPREHENSION ACCOMPLISHMENT. DESIGN OF A CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS BOOKLET FOR THE STRENGTHENING OF READING COMPREHENSION IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE de los estudiantes GARCÍA TENEMPAGUAY LOURDES VERÓNICA-VILLÓN MEZA ODALY DEL ROCÍO, indicando han cumplido con todos los parámetros establecidos en la normativa vigente:
El trabajo es el resultado de una investigación.
El estudiante demuestra conocimiento profesional integral.
El trabajo presenta una propuesta en el área de conocimiento.
El nivel de argumentación es coherente con el campo de conocimiento.
Adicionalmente, se adjunta el certificado de porcentaje de similitud y la valoración del trabajo de titulación con la respectiva calificación.
Dando por concluida esta tutoría de trabajo de titulación, CERTIFICO, para los fines pertinentes, que los estudiantes están aptos para continuar con el proceso de revisión final.
Atentamente,
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UNIVERSITY OF GUAYAQUIL
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, LETTERS AND EDUCATION SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS
PROJECT
TOPIC: INFLUENCE OF THE USE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS TO
IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION ACCOMPLISHMENT.
PROPOSAL: DESIGN OF A CRITICAL THINKING SKILL BOOKLET FOR
THE STRENGTHENING OF THE READING COMPREHENSION IN THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
APPROVED
……………………………
Tribunal No 1
…..…………………… ….………………………
Tribunal No 2 Tribunal No 3
Lourdes Verónica García Tenempaguay Odaly del Rocío Villón Meza
C.I. 0924973274 C.I.0923237424
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EL TRIBUNAL EXAMINADOR OTORGA AL PRESENTE TRABAJO
LA CALIFICACIÓN DE: ______________
EQUIVALENTE A: ______________
TRIBUNAL
______________ _____________
______________
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DEDICATION
All this effort is dedicated to God for allowing me to continue with my
studies, which with great effort and dedication I have been able to
successfully complete.
This work was also dedicated to my husband Jefferson Vélez Zambrano,
for his continuous support. To my mother because her sound advice,
values, motivation, and blessings have helped me succeed in my studies.
Finally, to the teachers who marked each stage of my university path, and
who helped me overcome difficulties and doubts presented in the
preparation of my thesis.
Villón Meza Odaly del Rocío
I am proud to dedicate this project to my main guide, God, for giving me a
life full of health, love and faith, for guiding my steps and for always
staying on the right path. To my family that was an important pillar for me.
And above all to my beloved children Paulette and Yoel.
García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank First of all God who created the universe. To my
mother, for giving me the necessary strength in the difficult moments of my
life.
I am also grateful to my thesis supervisor MSc. Heidi Marriott Toledo, for
giving me the opportunity to draw on her scientific knowledge and ability,
and for her patience in guiding me throughout the development of the
thesis.
Villón Meza Odaly del Rocío
I would like to thank my MSc thesis consultant. Heidi Marriot, who was a
great support for me. Your patience and effort makes me perseverant.
Thanks to her experience, motivation and kindness.
I also thank all the teachers who made my learning process possible over
time, which made my knowledge grow.
García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica
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GENERAL INDEX
PRELIMINARY PAGES
COVER PAGE .............................................................................................i
BOARD OF DIRECTORS ...........................................................................ii
DOCUMENTS……………………………………………….…………...…......iii
LETTER OF APPROVAL............................................................................iv
INTELLECTUAL POPERTY RIGHTS..........................................................v
TRIBUNAL’S GRADE .............................................................................. vi
DEDICATION.............................................................................................vii
ACKNOWLEDGENT.................................................................................viii
GENERAL INDEX......................................................................................ix
CHAPTERS…………………………………………………….…….…...........x
INDEX OF TABLES ................................................................................xiii
INDEX OF GRAPHIC..............................................................................xiv
REPOSITORIO NACIONAL EN CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA..................xvi
NATIONAL REPOSITORY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.................xvii
RESUMEN............................................................................................ xviii
ABSTRACT............................................................................................ xix
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................1
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH............................................................. 3
RESEARCH PROBLEM ..........................................................................3
CONFLICT SITUATION........................................................................... 3
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SCIENTIFIC FACT .................................................................................. 4
CAUSES................................................................................................... 5
PROBLEM FORMULATION..................................................................... 5
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVESTIGATION................................................ 6
GENERAL OBJECTIVE........................................................................... 6
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES..........................................................................6
RESEARCH QUESTION..........................................................................6
JUSTIFICATION.......................................................................................6
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAME
BACKGROUND.........................................................................................9
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................9
PEDAGOGICAL FOUNDATION............................................................. 25
DIDACTIC FOUNDATION……………………………………….……....….29
PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION ........................................................32
SOCIOLOGICAL FOUNDATION.............................................................33
LEGAL FOUNDATION ...........................................................................35
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY, PROCESS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE
RESULTS
METHODOLOGICAL DESIGN ............................................................. 38
TYPES OF INVESTIGATION ............................................................... 38
OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE VARIABLES CHART...................... 39
POPULATION....................................................................................... 40
SAMPLE................................................................................................ 40
INVESTIGATION METHODS................................................................ 41
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TECHNIQUES AND RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS................................ 42
TECHNIQUES OF THE INVESTIGATION............................................. 42
INSTRUMENTS OF THE INVESTIGATION........................................... 43
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULT OF THE
INSTRUMENTS OF INVESTIGATION................................................... 44
ANALYSIS OF THE OBSERVATION RESULT .....................................44
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS OF THE SURVEY TO THE STUDENT... .... 45
ANALYSIS OF RESULT OF THE TEACHER INTERVIEW ...................61
CHI SQUARE TEST ..............................................................................62
CHAPTER IV
THE PROPOSAL
JUSTIFICATION.....................................................................................64
OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................65
GENERAL OBJECTIVE......................................................................... 65
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES....................................................................... 65
THEORETICAL ASPECTS.................................................................... 54
EPISTEMOLOGICAL FOUNDATION ………………………….…......…..65
PEDAGOGICAL FOUNDATION………………………………………...…65
FEASIBILITY OF ITS APPLICATION ....................................................66
FINANCIAL.............................................................................................66
LEGAL........................................................................................ ............66
HUMAN RESOURCES...........................................................................66
POLICIES...............................................................................................66
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSAL……………………………………66
THE PROPOSAL
COVER PAGE......................................................................................69
GENERAL INDEX OF THE PROPOSAL ……………..………........…..70
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INTRODUCTION OF THE PROPOSAL……………………….………....72
CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................127
RECOMENDACIONES……………………………………………….…...127
REFERENCES ....................................................................................128
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................129
ANNEXES
ANNEX 1……………………………………………………..……..….…..130
ANNEX 2 ………………………………………………………....…..……136
ANNEX 3…………………………………………………………….…..….139
ANNEX4………………………………………………………..….....….…143
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INDEX OF TABLES
TABLE 1: OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE VARIABLES………..……..39
TABLE 2: POPULATION & SAMPLE…………………….……….…………40
TABLE 3. ANALYSIS OF THE OBSERVATION RESULT………………..44
TABLE 4: ITEM 1. READING ACTIVITIS……………………………….…..45
TABLE 5: ITEM 2. ENJOYING READING………………………………….46
TABLE 6: ITEM 3. GROUP WORK………………………………….……...47
TABLE 7: ITEM 4. MODELING EXAMPLES……………………………...48
TABLE 8: ITEM 5. CHALLEGING EXERCISES…………………..………49
TABLE 9: ITEM 6. READING…………………………………………….…50
TABLE 10: ITEM 7. READING TOPICS…………………………….…...…51
TABLE 11: ITEM 8. GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS……………………..….....52
TABLE 12: ITEM 9. WARM–UP READING ACTIVITIES………..……....53
TABLE 13 : ITEM 10. READING MOTIVATION…………………..…….…54
TABLE 14: ITEM 11. THINKING DEEPLY…………………………..…….55
TABLE 15: ITEM 12. ENGLISH INSTRUCTIONS……………………..…56
TABLE 16: ITEM 13. READING INSTRUCTIONS……………………….57
TABLE 17: ITEM 14. READING STRATEGIES……………………...….58
TABLE 18: ITEM15. PARTICIPATION IN CLASS……………….……...59
TABLE 19: ITEM 16. SURVEY…………………………………………....60
TABLE 20: ITEM 17. CHIP SQUARE RESULT……………………...….62
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INDEX OF GRAPHIC
GRAPHIC 1: ITEM 1 READING CTIVITIES….……………………….…..45
GRAPHIC 2: ITEM 2 ENJOYING ACTIVITIES…………………..…….….46
GRAPHIC 3: ITEM 3 GROUP WORK……………………...……………...47
GRAPHIC 4: ITEM 4 MODELING EXAMPLES………………...….......…48
GRAPHIC 5: ITEM 5 CHALLENGING EXERCISES…………….....….…49
GRAPHIC 6: ITEM 6 READING……………………………. ..…. ……... ..50
GRAPHIC 7: ITEM 7 READING TOPICS ……………………………….…51
GRAPHIC 8: ITEM 8 GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS……..……………….…..52
GRAPHIC 9: ITEM 9 WARM-UP READING ACTIVITIES……….………53
GRAPHIC 1O: ITEM 10 READING ACTIVITIES…………….….………..54
GRAPHIC 11: ITEM 11THINKING DEEPLY……………….………….…55
GRAPHIC 12: ITEM 12 ENGLISH INSTRUCTIONS……….……………56
GRAPHIC 13: ITEM 13 READING INSTRUCTIONS…….……….……..57
GRAPHIC 14: ITEM 14 READING STRATEGIES…….………………….58
GRAPHIC 15: ITEM 15 PARTICIPATION IN CLASS………………….…59
GRAPHIC 16: ITEM 16 CHIP SQUARE RESULT………………………..62
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
LICENCIA GRATUITA INTRANSFERIBLE Y NO EXCLUSIVA PARA EL
USO NO COMERCIAL DE LA OBRA CON FINES NO ACADÉMICOS
Yo, García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica con C.I. No. 0924973274 y
Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío con C.I. No. 0923237424, certifico que los
contenidos desarrollados en este trabajo de titulación, cuyo título es:
“ Influence of the use of critical thinking skill to improve the reading
comprehension accomplishment. Design of a critical thinking skills booklet
for the strengthening of reading comprehension in the English language ”
son de nuestra absoluta propiedad y responsabilidad Y SEGÚN EL Art.
114 del CÓDIGO ORGÁNICO DE LA ECONOMÍA SOCIAL DE LOS
CONOCIMIENTOS, CREATIVIDAD E INNOVACIÓN*, autorizo el uso de
una licencia gratuita intransferible y no exclusiva para el uso no comercial
de la presente obra con fines no académicos, en favor de la Universidad
de Guayaquil, para que haga uso del mismo, como fuera pertinente
García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío
C.I. No. 0924973274 C.I No. 0923237424
C.I. No. 0924973274-C.I No. 0923237424
*CÓDIGO ORGÁNICO DE LA ECONOMÍA SOCIAL DE LOS CONOCIMIENTOS, CREATIVIDAD E INNOVACIÓN (Registro
Oficial n. 899 - Dic./2016) Artículo 114.- De los titulares de derechos de obras creadas en las instituciones de
educación superior y centros educativos.- En el caso de las obras creadas en centros educativos, universidades,
escuelas politécnicas, institutos superiores técnicos, tecnológicos, pedagógicos, de artes y los conservatorios
superiores, e institutos públicos de investigación como resultado de su actividad académica o de investigación
tales como trabajos de titulación, proyectos de investigación o innovación, artículos académicos, u otros
análogos, sin perjuicio de que pueda existir relación de dependencia, la titularidad de los derechos patrimoniales
corresponderá a los autores. Sin embargo, el establecimiento tendrá una licencia gratuita, intransferible y no
exclusiva para el uso no comercial de la obra con fines académicos.
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
REPOSITORIO NACIONAL EN CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA
FICHA DE REGISTRO DE TESIS/TRABAJO DE GRADUACIÓN
TÍTULO Y SUBTÍTULO: Influence of the use of critical thinking skill to improve the reading comprehension accomplishment. Design of a critical thinking skills booklet for the strengthening of reading comprehension in the English Language.
AUTOR(ES) (apellidos/nombres):
García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica - Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío
REVISOR(ES)/TUTOR(ES) (apellidos/nombres):
MSc. Heidi Marriott Toledo
INSTITUCIÓN: Universidad De Guayaquil
UNIDAD/FACULTAD: Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación
MAESTRÍA/ESPECIALIDAD: Lenguas y Lingüística
GRADO OBTENIDO: Licenciatura en Ciencias de la Educación, mención en Lengua Inglesa y Lingüística
FECHA DE PUBLICACIÓN: No. DE PÁGINAS: DE CLASIFICACIÓN
ÁREAS TEMÁTICAS: Lengua Inglesa
PALABRAS CLAVES/ KEYWORDS:
Reading, reading comprehension, thinking skills, reading strategies.
RESUMEN/ABSTRACT : This document is the result of an investigation at the Francisco Huerta Rendon high school related to the insufficient reading comprehension of the English language in the 8th grade students of General Basic Education. This research work was carried out to determine the influence of critical thinking skills in the development of reading comprehension. Since reading is a metacognitive process, there is a strong link with thinking skills. This research work has been carried out through theoretical, empirical and statistical methods following a mixed, qualitative and quantitative methodological approach and the application of different data collection instruments; as, an observation guide, surveys and interviews and after a thorough analysis.
ADJUNTO PDF: SI NO
CONTACTO CON AUTOR/ES: Teléfono: 0989904863 0987155141
E-mail: [email protected] [email protected]
CONTACTO CON LA INSTITUCIÓN:
Nombre: : Secretaría de la Escuela de Lenguas y Lingüística
Teléfono: (04)2294888 Ext. 123
E-mail: [email protected]
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
REPOSITORIO NACIONAL EN CIENCIA Y
TECNOLOGÍA
FICHA DE REGISTRO DE TESIS/TRABAJO DE GRADUACIÓN
TÍTULO Y SUBTÍTULO: Influencia del uso de la capacidad de pensamiento crítico para mejorar el logro de la comprensión lectora. Diseño de un folleto de habilidades de pensamiento crítico para el fortalecimiento de la comprensión lectora en el idioma inglés.
AUTOR(ES) (apellidos/nombres):
García Tenempaguay Lourdes Verónica- Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío
REVISOR(ES)/TUTOR(ES) (apellidos/nombres):
MSc. Heidi Marriott Toledo
INSTITUCIÓN: Universidad De Guayaquil
UNIDAD/FACULTAD: Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación
MAESTRÍA/ESPECIALIDAD: Lenguas y Lingüística
GRADO OBTENIDO: Licenciatura en Ciencias de la Educación, mención en Lengua Inglesa y Lingüística
FECHA DE PUBLICACIÓN: No. DE PÁGINAS: DE CLASIFICACIÓN
ÁREAS TEMÁTICAS: Lengua Inglesa
PALABRAS CLAVES/ KEYWORDS:
Lectura, comprensión de lectura, habilidades de pensamiento, estrategias de lectura.
RESUMEN/ABSTRACT : Este documento es el resultado de una investigación en la escuela secundaria Francisco Huerta Rendón relacionada con la insuficiente comprensión lectora del idioma inglés en los estudiantes de 8 ° grado de Educación Básica General. Este trabajo de investigación se llevó a cabo para determinar la influencia de las habilidades de pensamiento crítico en el desarrollo de la comprensión lectora. Dado que la lectura es un proceso metacognitivo, existe un fuerte vínculo con las habilidades de pensamiento. Este trabajo de investigación se ha llevado a cabo a través de métodos teóricos, empíricos y estadísticos siguiendo un enfoque metodológico mixto, cualitativo y cuantitativo y la aplicación de diferentes instrumentos de recopilación de datos; como, una guía de observación, encuestas y entrevistas y después de un análisis exhaustivo.
ADJUNTO PDF: SI NO
CONTACTO CON AUTOR/ES:
Teléfono:0989904863, 0987155141
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
CONTACTO CON LA INSTITUCIÓN:
Nombre: : Secretaría de la Escuela de Lenguas y Lingüística
Teléfono: (04)2294888 Ext. 123
E-mail: [email protected]
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
"Influencia del uso de la capacidad de pensamiento crítico para mejorar el logro
de la comprensión lectora. Diseño de un folleto de habilidades de pensamiento
crítico para el fortalecimiento de la comprensión lectora en el idioma inglés".
Autor: García Tenempaguay Lourdes
Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío
Tutor: : MSc. Heidi Marriott Toledo
Resumen
Este documento es el resultado de una investigación en la escuela secundaria
Francisco Huerta Rendón relacionada con la insuficiente comprensión lectora del
idioma inglés en los estudiantes de 8 ° grado de Educación Básica General. Este
trabajo de investigación se llevó a cabo para determinar la influencia de las
habilidades de pensamiento crítico en el desarrollo de la comprensión lectora.
Dado que la lectura es un proceso metacognitivo, existe un fuerte vínculo con las
habilidades de pensamiento. Este trabajo de investigación se ha llevado a cabo a
través de métodos teóricos, empíricos y estadísticos siguiendo un enfoque
metodológico mixto, cualitativo y cuantitativo y la aplicación de diferentes
instrumentos de recopilación de datos; como, una guía de observación,
encuestas y entrevistas y después de un análisis exhaustivo.
Palabras claves: Lectura, comprensión de lectura, habilidades de
pensamiento, estrategias de lectura.
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FACULTAD FILOSOFÍA, LETRAS Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN ESCUELA DE LENGUAS Y LINGÜÍSTICA
UNIDAD DE TITULACIÓN
“Influence of the use of critical thinking skill to improve the
reading comprehension accomplishment. Design of a critical
thinking skills booklet for the strengthening of reading
comprehension in the English language”
Autor: García Tenempaguay Lourdes
Villón Meza Odaly Del Rocío
Tutor: MSc. Heidi Marriott Toledo
Abstract
This document is the result of an investigation at the Francisco Huerta
Rendon high school related to the insufficient reading comprehension of
the English language in the 8th grade students of General Basic
Education. This research work was carried out to determine the influence
of critical thinking skills in the development of reading comprehension.
Since reading is a metacognitive process, there is a strong link with
thinking skills. This research work has been carried out through
theoretical, empirical and statistical methods following a mixed, qualitative
and quantitative methodological approach and the application of different
data collection instruments; as, an observation guide, surveys and
interviews and after a thorough analysis.
Keyword: Reading, reading comprehension, thinking skills, reading
strategies
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INTRODUCTION
Reading process and improve the skills of critical thinking as inference,
interpretation and reading is a vital component in each of the educational
spaces and requires adequate reflection for its execution. The present
research work seeks the design, constructions and subsequent
elaboration of reading comprehension workshops as an innovative tool
and facilitator of the critical reading process.
It has as population the students of Eighth grade of General Basic
Education at Francisco Huerta Rendón High School, located in Guayaquil-
Ecuador, in this population it is evident the need to strengthen the
evaluation through critical reading of short stories and that what is done in
the classroom can transcend beyond the classroom, since the students
recognize that the reading process is fundamental in all the ambits
CHAPTER I - THE PROBLEM: Describes the problem in context, scientific
facts and principal causes, objectives and questions of this research.
CHAPTER II - THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: which consists of
background information study, that is, relevant topics similar to the
research topic that is being carried out, consists of theoretical bases that
are based on the application of thinking skills, the process of teaching -
learning with their respective definitions, they are shown also the
foundations of the present investigative work, which are: philosophical,
pedagogical, psychological, sociological, etc. In addition, the contextual
frame and the legal basis, the same that mentions the main laws in which
this project is based on.
CHAPTER III - ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS: The
discussion of results; that is the methodology of the research, this chapter
includes the types of research, population and shows, the
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operationalization of the study variables, used in the investigative process,
describes the research methods, the techniques and instruments.
CHAPTER IV - THE PROPOSAL: Offers the proposal, its justification, the
objectives and the practicable application as well as its description and
conclusions.
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CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
This research work aims to solve the problem in reading
comprehension development found in students of Eighth grade of General
Basic Education (BGE) at Francisco Huerta Rendón high school. This is a
mid-level educational institution created in May of 1971; attached to the
Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Guayaquil.
Conflict situation
During the initial observations performed during five English
teaching practice periods with students of Eighth grade of BGE at
Francisco Huerta Rendón High School, the researchers noticed that most
of the students were getting low grades in reading comprehension class
activities and lessons.
After having revised, the materials and the strategies used by the
English teacher, as concrete evidence; authors have realized that the
origin of this problematic might be related to:
Students not following instructions; they have difficulty at reading
instructions, despite the teacher explanations and modeling. As a
result, they make many mistakes.
Students usually fail at doing exercises that require deeper level of
reasoning or abstract thinking like in comparing, describing, inferring,
justifying, or giving opinions.
Students were not able, most of the time, to accomplish some
exercises such as answering questions, and other tasks that involve
the use of higher order thinking skills like in analysis, synthesis and
evaluation into the reading process.
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Additionally, authors have realized, during this research work, that
the students were not used to apply strategies for reading comprehension;
in fact they are not trained. It was also observed that many of the reading
activities performed did not follow the appropriate curricular
recommendations for the development of this receptive skill.
Furthermore, it was evident that teachers did not put the necessary
emphasis in the development and improvement of reading comprehension
skills in general. On the other hand, the students did not receive
appropriate feedback when performing activities.
Therefore, the authors conclude that the conflict situation needs to
be addressed to restore a correct situation. Hence, it is urgent the
implementation of exercises and strategies to develop and strengthen the
critical thinking skills at the learners in order to improve their reading
comprehension in the English language.
Scientific fact
When asking comprehension questions, the students frequently
answer repeating the same words as in the readings. In consequence,
they did not make any type of reasoning processing that allowed further
understanding.
In addition to this, the students got confused to find the main and
the secondary ideas. They have difficulty at summarizing events and
drawing conclusions.
Overall, the authors noticed an insufficient level of reading
comprehension accomplishment in students of Eighth grade of BGE at
Francisco Huerta Rendón high school.
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Causes
After a conscientious analysis, authors conclude that the principal
causes of this problematic situation are the following:
Absence of an updated methodology for teaching reading
comprehension.
Scarcity of critical thinking exercises.
Inadequate types of reading activities.
Uninteresting reading topics for learners.
Problem formulation
What is the influence of the use of critical thinking skills to improve
reading comprehension accomplishment in students of Eighth Grade of
Basic General Education at Francisco Huerta Rendón High School located
at Guayaquil-Ecuador, school year 2016-2017?
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Research objectives
General Objective
To analyze the influence of the use of critical thinking skills to improve
the reading comprehension accomplishment through a literature review, field
study, and statistical analysis; in order to design a critical thinking skills booklet
for the strengthening of reading comprehension in the English language.
Specific Objectives
To determine the relevance of critical thinking skills in the reading process
through a literature review, field study, and statistical analysis.
To categorize reading comprehension accomplishment through a literature
review, field study, and statistical analysis.
To assess the aspects that should be considered for the design of a critical
thinking skills booklet for the strengthening of reading skills through the
application of a literature review, field study, and statistical analysis.
Research questions
1. What are the skills needed to strengthen reading comprehension?
2. What is involved in the critical thinking?
3. What is the relation between reading comprehension and critical thinking
skills?
4. What are the common critical thinking exercises?
5. What are the barriers to implement thinking skills into the reading process?
6. What are the approaches that enhance the critical thinking?
Justification
This research work is convenient because it will be helpful to determine
the actual causes the students usually have low grades and poor performance
to do reading comprehension activities and to evaluate the effectiveness of
including critical thinking skills into the reading process.
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This is also relevant because the direct beneficiaries will be the students
of Eighth grade of BGE at Francisco Huerta Rendón high school who will be
able to overcome their actual reading comprehension difficulties. Furthermore,
the investigation is valuable to prevent future scholar problems in English
language or other subjects.
Moreover, this research work is according to the policies and objectives
set by the Ecuadorian Constitution, in the section 5, and the Plan toda la Vida in
the objective 4.
Our research is also supported by the National Curriculum Guidelines for
the teaching of English as a foreign language that is based on the Common
European Framework of Reference for languages. Our country has decided to
modify the parameters according with our reality in the General Basic
Education. Therefore, the A-1.1 level for the Eighth grade corresponded to
Basic Users.
Finally, this research work will help to upgrade the students’ English
reading proficiency simultaneously with thinking abilities. At the end, students
will become in better readers and better thinkers.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAME
Background
According to Paul & Elder (2006) the human ‘thinking is biased and
distorted’, partial, or prejudiced and they conclude that the quality of our lives is
highly related to the quality of our thoughts. Therefore, human beings should
cultivate high quality in their thoughts. For this reason, teachers should
encourage students to develop their thinking skills during classes.
Likewise, reading comprehension is a mental and metacognitive process.
According to the researchers’ experience, the common difficulties in successful
reading comprehension are due to the scarcity of training in higher order
thinking skills. They also consider critical thinking gathers a series of skills and
sub skills that can and must be developed along the educational system as,
critical thinkers are rational problem solvers.
Many authors support that thinking skills must be developed in learners
even in the lower levels, and particularly in the teaching-learning of the reading
process. Consequently, the authors have focused this research in the students
of Eighth grade of General Basic Education (BGE) at Francisco Huerta Rendón
high school to enhance their reading comprehension.
With this work, the authors aim to provide an overview of a wide range of
studies related to the variables and the proposal theme, and some useful
background information and recommendation to validate the need for the
implementation of this proposal. For example, Echeverria (2011), in a study
performed in a high school in Colombia identified that students responded
better to the development thinking skills when they practiced reading strategies
and considered that the strategies and interactive reading activities allowed
them to improve the reading comprehension.
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Additionally, in an article by McNulty Ferri (2009) from Universidad de
Antioqua, about the development of critical thinking through reading
comprehension in intermediate level noticed that students responded better to
the development of the reading comprehension when critical thinking activities
were incorporated.
After a process of revising of all the available and updated literature,
promoting the development of critical thinking to improve reading
comprehension is an approach that fits the necessities of students of Francisco
Huerta Rendón high school to attain the language learning reading objectives,
especially enhancing reading comprehension for their level.
Theoretical – Conceptual Framework
Didactic Foundation
Thinking in the Educational context
Thinking is a purposeful, organized, cognitive process that the mind uses
to make sense of the world. Thinking is at the core of human life and human
problems. Therefore, thinking must be at the core of the curriculum. For this
reasons the authors consider pertinent to implement the proposal developing
thinking skills at the students of eight grade of BGE at Francisco Huerta Rendón
high school.
Types of thinking
The main are critical thinking and creative thinking. Additionally the
elements of thought are:
Purpose
Question at issue
Information
Interpretation and inference
Concepts
Assumptions
Implications and consequences
Point of view
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Thinking skills
As Einstein asserted “Education is not the learning of facts, but the
training of the mind to think.” Consequently, the thinking determines what we
learn, how we learn, the effort we expend, what is true or false, and how deep
or superficial is the learning.
Furthermore, the thinking skills are divided into Low Order Thinking Skills
LOTS and High Order Thinking Skills HOTS.
Higher order thinking skills include critical, logical, reflective,
metacognitive, and creative thinking. They are activated when
individuals encounter unfamiliar problems, uncertainties, questions, or
dilemmas. Successful applications of the skills result in explanations,
decisions, performances, and products that are valid within the context of
available knowledge and experience and that promote continued growth
in these and other intellectual skills.
After this research, authors consider that even in the lowest level of
language knowledge teachers need to start the training using higher order
thinking skills.
Critical thinking
It is a self-directed process by which human beings take deliberate steps
to think at the highest level of quality.
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and
skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or
evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation,
experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief
and action” (Scriven & Paul).
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Critical thinking skills
The types of critical thinking skills are reasoning, evaluating, problem
solving, decision-making, and analyzing.
Critical Thinking activities
Recognizing
Recalling
Distinguishing
Visualizing
Sequencing
Predicting
Inferring
Evaluating
Analyzing
Synthesizing
Drawing conclusions
Classifying
Critical thinking in EFL
There are multiple reasons for helping EFL learners improve their critical
thinking. First, they become better readers and critics of what they read
in English. Second, critical thinking can improve learners’ writing and
speaking abilities when they have to give their opinions and arguments in
the foreign language. Third, being a critical thinker is an advantage to be
successful, not only in academic contexts, but also when solving real life
tasks. Fourth, learning a foreign language implies using language within
communicative contexts in which learners can think critically in order to
achieve communicative goals. Otherwise, language could be seen as a
useless code to be learnt by force. Pineda (2003) states, “combining the
learning of a language with critical thinking may result in a more
meaningful learning experience” (p. 44).
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Pithers and Soden (2000) affirm that students are expected to learn not
only the specific contents of a discipline, but also, “to develop ‘generic’
abilities which can be deployed flexibly in a wide range of work and life
context” (p. 238).
Critical thinkers
They can do the following:
Distinguish between fact and opinion
Ask questions; make detailed observations; uncover assumptions and define
their terms; and
Make assertions based on sound logic and solid evidence
Focus on the most relevant information
Ask the right questions
Separate facts from opinions and assumptions
Make sound decisions
Set priorities
Learn quickly
Apply what they learn to new situations
Benefits of critical thinking
It is important to develop critical thinking to students as follows:
1. Personal and Public Life:
The critical thinking avoid falling for scams and making foolish decisions from
ignorance and help make better decision from verified information.
It also gives free one from unexamined assumptions, dogmas, and prejudices
and people can be better-informed citizens and voters.
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2. The Workplace:
The critical thinking help people to be better problem-solver and principally to be
better analyze information and draw appropriate conclusions.
It helps us to communicate a position logically and making good decisions
(based on data, not feelings).
Barriers to Critical Thinking
Among the most relevant they are: lack of relevant background
information, poor reading skills, prejudice, superstition, resistance to change,
rationalization, stereotyping, wishful thinking, egocentrism, mindless
conformism, narrow-mindedness, and closed-mindedness.
Critical thinking in reading comprehension
Four language domains: In relation to the theme, researchers advise that all
four domains should be activated, incorporated, and integrated during a lesson
as follow:
Reading, writing, listening, and speaking are naturally interrelated and
integrated. We read when we write, and we listen when we speak to
each other.
Practice in any one of the four domains we result in improvement in
the other three.
By the time young children begin kindergarten at the age of five, they
have generally become grammatically competent in their primary
language. Thus, the holistic development of the four language
domains makes more sense cognitively than developing them in
isolation of each other, particularly because they are not acquired
independently of each other.
Connecting abstract and concrete concepts is best accomplished
when students can incorporate and use all four language domains to
practice and apply the new learning (Carrillo, 2011, p. 103).
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Teachers need to provide many opportunities for students to engage in
the four domains in order to develop the critical thinking in students.
Fifth domain: Thinking: Critical thinking within the process of acquiring a
foreign language has a very important role as follow:
Many of us mistakenly believe that beginning-level ELLs have such
limited English skills that deep critical thinking cannot be required of them
or accessed. This is an erroneous notion, with the result that ELLs,
particularly those in the preproduction and early production levels, are
not being adequately challenged. This lack of rigorous instructional
expectations may lead to high levels of disengagement.
There is another surprising connection between critical thinking and two
of the other domains in language: reading and writing. Because reading
and writing are constructive processes and the outcome of both
processes is to construct meaning, both are considered highly cognitive
in nature. Due to the high levels of cognition involved in constructing
meaning, research has shown that students become better critical
thinkers when reading and writing are taught together (Carrillo, 2011, p.
106).
Reading
Reading is an active process in which we get meaning from looking at
written symbols. However, it is also a receptive language domain because we
receive information that communicate something to us; although reading
requires active processing skills in order for comprehension to take place.
This process requires that learners integrate word recognition,
comprehension, fluency, and motivation to make meaning. Sometimes reading
skills involve minimal processing like in invitations, ads or menus but sometimes
it involves higher levels of comprehension like in novels, science textbooks, or
fiction books.
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Authors consider that students need to learn:
Phonemic awareness, alphabetical principle, decoding, word study, and
sight vocabulary to foster word recognition.
Background knowledge, oral and print vocabularies, how the language
works, various kinds of texts, various purposes for reading, and strategies
for constructing meaning to develop comprehension.
Accuracy, rate, phrasing and expression, and automatic comprehension
skills to work out fluency.
To explore their interests, read for various purposes; be exposed to different
genres to maintain the motivation to read.
In the reading process, learners decode symbols to construct meaning; in
other words, they do reading comprehension. Reading is also a way of
language acquisition and communication; there is a real interaction between the
reader and the text. This process needs rigorous practice and development. In
brief, critical analysis and creativity are required in the reading process.
Authors conclude that the reading ability is not learned only by natural
exposure like in speaking skills. Learners need to be trained using a wide range
of strategies and techniques; all of them according with the pre-establish aims
following the appropriate pedagogical approach and taking into account the
level and age of students.
Teachers have the great task to immerse learners in the wonderful world
of reading, and whatever effort is valuable when motivating students is the goal.
They need to support students in different ways; providing glossaries,
scaffolding, modeling, with direct instruction and always relating the topic with
students’ experiences to do the learning experience more meaningful.
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Reading Models
Bottom-up model
In the reading context, bottom-up is decoding of meaning by the reader
encoded by the writer.
Top-down model
It is the inference of meaning on the basis of activating prior semantic,
pragmatic, syntactic and discourse knowledge.
It is necessary that students are able to use top-down or global
strategies, as well as bottom-up processes.
Reading Stages
Most of researchers suggest the following stages in the reading process:
Pre-reading activities;
Reading for gist and detail;
Focusing on linguistic structures and forms;
Rebuilding selected language forms to express personal views.
Pre-reading activities: Students must be prepared before being exposed to
written texts by predicting the content, applying world knowledge and word
associations with the help of headlines, titles, subtitles, visual aids and
pictures.
Reading for gist and detail: Once students have been familiarized with
linguistic items and structures with the content of the text, it is necessary to
make students to get an overall understanding of the text. Teachers can
promote students to do closer examinations of the text by questioning in a
graded and structured manner; from closer to open questions in order to
increase students’ participation.
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Focusing on linguistic structures and forms: After have reviewed the text for
meaning we can use it to draw particular attention to key language and
particular structure of the reading. Some activities pupils could do are gap-filling
exercises focusing on grammar, substituting some lexical items, jigsaw
readings, reconstruction of passages, and summarizing.
Rebuilding: Trainers always should use follow-up activities developing
speaking and writing skills assuming that students are familiar with the text.
Students can be asked to talk or write about his or her favorite character,
continue the story or produce an alternative one.
These kinds of activities are preferable to be personal and individual and
teachers always need to offer some modeling or reference material especially in
written activities.
Reading for pleasure
According to Krashen (2013) and research evidence the benefits of ‘free
voluntary reading’ by foreign language learners are the more positive effects on
reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition than in intensive reading.
Obviously, teachers need to enable students to discover the pleasure of reading
in a foreign language.
Teachers can upgrade the obstacles when planning extended reading
considering the following:
Avoiding material too simple or too difficult. It must be a balance.
Providing selecting material that learners will find interesting and pertinent.
Edited readers for young language learners.
Emphasizing cultural awareness.
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RED Model
They are useful keys to critical thinking:
Recognize assumptions
Evaluate arguments
Draw conclusions
The text
Reading text: Texts can be from a paragraph to a page or more in length and
they are usually used for intensive reading. Intensive means that the text is
studied in detail; by contrast in extensive the text is read or heard for pleasure
or for information.
A text is a piece of writing and speech which we use for learning
language. It can be study as a complete and autonomous unit: the reader
or listener can therefore understanding without necessarily knowing the
context, even if it was originally an extract from a book, a conversation,
etc. It is coherent, so it has a beginning, a middle and an end which
make a clear sequence of thoughts and events (Ur, 2012, p. 28).
Texts are generally aimed to improve language learning, comprehension
of content, and discourse analysis.
Language learning
Vocabulary. The main goal of intensive study of a text is vocabulary expansion
and review. In addition students need to comprehend all the words by explained
them and doing vocabulary-focused activities.
Grammar. The second goal is to study morphology and syntax because a text
provides different grammatical structures. Teachers need to select language
items.
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Comprehension of content
General gist. Firstly, language learners have to understand the general idea or
the purpose of different kinds of texts.
Detailed understanding. Secondly, learners need to comprehend different
parts of the text. Trainers should explain new words and concepts.
Reading between the lines. Learners will infer meanings that are not explicit in
the text; for instance the characters’ personality and motives or the approach
and prejudice of the writer.
Critical analysis. This means to judge a text according to reliance,
consistency, relevance, logic or about ideas and opinions.
Discourse analysis
It is an overall discussion of a text; not only isolated linguistic items. It
takes place after students have understood the total content. It is related to
style, function, structure, genre, and meaning.
Types of texts
The principal types of texts are descriptive, informative, instructive, and
persuasive.
Approaches to reading
There are several approaches for the developing of reading
comprehension.
Intensive reading (IR)
Extensive reading (ER)
KWL: Know, Want to know, Learned
SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review
ETR: Experience-Text-Relate
QAR: Question-Answer-Response
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DR-TA: Directed Reading and Thinking Activities
Reciprocal Teaching
Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)
Direct Explanation
Questioning the Author
Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI)
Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI)
Intensive reading (IR)
There are three approaches to teach intensive reading:
Grammar translation
Comprehension questions and language analysis
Comprehension work and strategies
In this research work, the authors have focused in the comprehension
work and strategies. Authors consider this is the most appropriate approach to
foster critical thinking.
Extensive reading (ER)
In the EFL context ER is an approach whose main objective is to get
students reading in the English language and enjoy it; in order to enhance
fluency rather than accuracy; and any language learning is incidental. ER
responds to several classroom needs such as it is a manner of extending
contact with English outside the classroom.
ER states that learners learn to read by reading. First they see the
language previous learnt in another context communicating things. Secondly, as
students choose the books that they want to read as well as the time to do read,
it is a personalized learning experience and make students autonomous. Then
students will be able to develop their writing skills because of reading
extensively. Finally, ER can be a pleasurable activity with great value in
education field.
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ER expands the reading comfort zone of students and according to
Bamford and Day it consists of some principles:
1. The reading material is easy.
2. A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available.
3. Students choose what they want to read.
4. The teacher is a role model.
Extensive vs. Intensive Reading
IR focuses on reading to learn rather than in learning to read; and put
especial emphasis in strategies and techniques to attain language or content
goals.
A lot of in-class reading work has traditionally been ‘reading for detail’ –or
‘intensive reading’ i.e. reading texts closely and carefully with the
intention of gaining an understanding of as much detail as possible.
Often this is so that the student can answer comprehension questions.
This is typically a stop/ start kind of reading, involving go back over small
pieces of the same text a number of times to find out more and more
about it, making sure that the words have been correctly interpreted
(Scrivener, 2011, p. 264).
ER increases the students reading speed. There are a large amount of
report of ER research, which states that learners improve in several areas such
as vocabulary knowledge, writing skills, positive motivation, speaking
proficiency, listening proficiency and grammar.
In everyday life, we tend to do much more extensive reading, ie fluent,
faster reading, often of longer texts, for pleasure, entertainment and
general understanding, but without such careful attention to the details.
When we don’t understand words or small sections, we usually just keep
going, maybe only coming back when there has been a major breakdown
in our understanding (Scrivener, 2011, p. 264)
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Strategies for reading
Because of reading is an essential skill to obtain English reading
proficiency, teachers must ensure that students develop and achieve effective
comprehension skills and it becomes a fundamental priority, regardless of level.
Teachers can use research and data as the basis for professional
decisions. Harris (1997) states some reading strategies:
Recognizing the type of text: poem, newspaper article, brochure.
Examining pictures, the title, etc. for clues.
Going for gist, skipping inessential words.
Using punctuation or clues; question marks, capital letters, etc.
Using knowledge of the world to make sensible guesses.
Substituting English words.
Analyzing unknown words, breaking a word/phrase down and
associating parts of it with familiar words.
Saying the text out loud and identifying ‘chunk boundaries’; how a
sentence breaks down and which part of it to work on at one time.
Identifying the grammatical categories of words (p.7).
Useful reading activities
It is fundamental to use authentic material like newspaper articles,
brochures, ads, etc; that is to say some material done for native people.
One test for useful reading (or listening work) might be to check how far
tasks reflect real-life uses of the same text. If a text is used in class in
ways that are reasonably similar to real life, it is likely that the task will be
effective (Scrivener, 2011, p. 266)
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Reading Comprehension
After further research, the authors conclude that comprehension is the
key to accessing content. Teachers should provide comprehensible input like
choosing topics that learners can relate to their background experience;
teachers should create a low-anxiety environment, and encourage pupils to
respond as frequent as possible in the target language. Furthermore using
these strategies trainers will help English learners at all levels to make
connections, visualize, infer, and predict when reading.
Researchers have concluded that exist six important elements that must
be present to reading comprehension; they are background knowledge, word
recognition, and the language of comprehension, text structure, comprehension
strategies, attention and motivation.
Comprehension Strategies
Background knowledge
It is a well-known fact that motivation has an important place in
education; teachers can increase the learners’ motivation to read a text
activating their prior knowledge about the topic. Useful strategies are making
connections and List-Group-Label, but these require direct instruction and need
to be modeled many times before students can apply this strategy fluently.
Making connections to Background Knowledge: It is a priority to include
topics that English learners have had experience with. When using this strategy
at elementary level teachers must ask students to remind similar events in their
own lives.
Teachers can provide scaffolding like this:
- This story makes me think about….
- I remember when…
- This part of the story reminds me of…
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List-Group-Label to Background Knowledge: It consists on brainstorming as
a manner of activating prior knowledge. This strategy is highly effective in
activating all four domains of language as well as thinking.
Motivation and attention
For most of the students, reading becomes a boring activity because of
the lack of reading purpose and scarcity of monitoring learners for
comprehension. We can use questioning and concept mapping strategies to
foster a purpose for reading and engage learners.
Teaching Questioning: This is not a natural skill so learners need explicit
direction. In order to establish a purpose for reading it is advisable that teachers
provide effective direct instructions so that students generate questions. This is
the key for successful outcomes.
This strategy will help students to construct questions, then they apply it
during their own reading after have practice it several times. Teachers can
scaffold students creating a chart like this:
- Our questions before we read the book
- Our questions while we read the book
- Our questions after we read the book
Reading Comprehension Strategies
The most useful are predicting, questioning, and summarizing. In relation
to this Grabe (2004) recommends to follow this individual text comprehension
strategies:
Prior knowledge activation;
Mental imagery;
Graphic organizers;
Text structure awareness;
Comprehension monitoring;
Question answering;
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Question generating;
Mnemonic support practice;
Summarization (p.51).
He also recommends the promotion of strategic reader, rather than to
teach individual reading strategies. In this proposal, authors have integrated all
of these strategies in each lesson.
Authors consider important to assess learners in the following areas to
provide diagnostic information in order to identify frequent reading problems:
reading vocabulary words, passage comprehension, accuracy, and fluency.
It is highly necessary to build a reading profile of students; that can be
used to develop English language proficiency. In this research work researchers
are going to include an assessment sheet in the end of each unit.
Pedagogical Foundation
Readers of research have to take into account that Foreign Language
(FL) learning and teaching are very complex fields influenced by a lot of factors
and variables. Therefore, all of these factors play an important role on the
learning field.
This research work is supported for uncountable researches like
Lightbown (2003) who argued that “ESL research is an important source of
ideas and ‘can help shape teachers’ expectations of themselves and their
students, and provide valuable clues to effective pedagogical practice” (p.10).
Consequently, authors have gathered all the updated studies related to
reading comprehension strategies as well as the link with the development of
the High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). At last, they have exposed the methods
and strategies that fit better in the accomplishment of the proposal.
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Theories of second language acquisition
The principal theories are the following:
Intuitive acquisition. (Krashen, 1982) We learn another language the same
way as we learnt our first: intuitive acquisition through lots of exposure to the
language in authentic communicative situations.
Habit-formation. (Skinner, 1957) Language is a set of habits: we mimic,
memorize, and drill the patterns of the language until we learn to produce
the correct forms automatically.
Cognitive process. (Chomsky, 1957) Language involves the understanding
of underlying rules: if we master these rules, we will be able to apply them in
different contexts.
Skill learning. (Johnson, 1996) Language is a skill. We learn it in school just
as we learn other skills: someone explains rules or words to us; we
understand and practice them until we master them and use them fluently
and skillfully.
The authors interpret that it exists a contrast among these four theories.
Intuitive acquisition and Habit formation theories are implicit teaching; in
consequence, they claim that students do not need to be taught grammatical
rules since the language learning is subconscious. On the contrary, Cognitive
process and Skill learning are explicit teaching theories; because of this, they
argue that pupils need to understand how the language works consciously.
Learning strategies
Learners have to be aware of the specific techniques they can use to
improve their performance in English language learning; as it was stated by
Chamot (2005) learning strategies are defined as ‘procedures that facilitate a
learning task’ (p.112).
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Additionally, learning strategies are very important because they allow
learners to gain insights into the metacognitive, social and affective processes
involved in language learning; in other words learning strategy instruction can
help students to be better language learners.
There are four main classes of learning strategies:
Cognitive strategies, involving the manipulation or transformation of the
learning materials/input (e.g. repetition, summarizing, using images);
Metacognitive strategies, involving high order strategies aimed at
analyzing, monitoring, evaluating, planning and organizing one’s own
learning process;
Social strategies, involving interpersonal behaviors aimed at increasing
the amount of L2 communication and practice the learner undertakes
(e.g. initiating interaction with native speakers, cooperating with peers);
Affective strategies, involving taking control of the emotional (affective)
conditions and experiences that shape one’s subjective involvement in
learning (Skehan, 2003, p. 608).
In order to develop an appropriate level of communicative competence in
FL, teachers need to recall that the learning process involves wide range of
aspects and strategies that must be integrated; if learners are human beings
with different personalities and many necessities.
Furthermore, some researchers have summarized the characteristics of
strategies:
1. They are active
2. They are conscious
3. They are chosen by the learner
4. They are purposeful
5. They are used by the learner to control or regulate their own learning
6. They are about learning the language
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Therefore knowing the importance of using strategies in EFL learning-
teaching most of the theorists advise that strategy instruction should be explicit
and teachers always must remind learners the wide range of available
strategies; apart from this, trainers have to provide many opportunities to
practice them.
Sheltered instruction: They are strategies used in content areas and can be
used in EFL too. ESL instruction should focus on four skills areas as follow:
1. The function of language. The purpose of language is communication,
which encompasses social conversation, asking questions, and
communicating ideas.
2. The form of language. Forms refer to the structure of English
language, such as its grammar, sentence structure, and syntax. The
form of the language represents its building blocks.
3. Fluency. Fluency refers to the ease with which we speak a particular
language. It takes an ample amount of time dedicating to learning
English in order to become fluent. Although ESL usually focuses on
speaking, fluency can also refer to reading.
4. Vocabulary. In order to become proficient, ELLs must develop a
broad and varied vocabulary. Research shows that they should be
taught the key vocabulary associated with a topic, referred to as brick
words, prior to a lesson in order to assist them in their language
development (Carrillo, 2011, p. 120).
Students should be taught the vocabulary words they will encounter in
the lessons in order to build background knowledge and associate this to their
experiences to provide comprehensible input during the lesson.
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Pedagogical Foundation
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
Hymes (1971) carried out the idea that grammatical knowledge is not
sufficient to know a language. At the same time, learners also need to develop
linguistic, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence; therefore, he proposed his
theory of ‘communicative competence’.
CLT states that the purpose of language is to communicate and we learn
best through natural acquisition. Pupils are exposed to language and
communication skills in order to use the target language effectively. In this
approach, fluency is estimate over accuracy and it is more learned-centered.
Some methodologies based on this approach are Task Based Instruction and
CLIL.
Content-Based Instruction
The main goal of this approach is to teach English language and
academic content simultaneously. That is to say, trainers use the content to
teach language goals.
Content-area learning succeeds when students have transitioned from
learning to read to reading to learn. The principal challenges using this
approach are:
An increase in the amount of content-specific vocabulary
Complex sentence instruction and syntax
Difficulty reading and understanding informational texts
Difficulty understanding what the teacher says
Use of higher-level thinking skills in reading and writing (Carrillo,
2011, p. 124).
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Task-based Learning and Teaching (TBLT): It is based on CLT approach. In
this TBLT pedagogical approach, the tasks are aimed to allow students to solve
problems and negotiate meaning achieving an objective in order to
communicate.
First we need to differentiate a task from an exercise. While exercises
are concerned with semantics (meaning of words and phrases); tasks are
associated with pragmatic meaning (the use of language in context).
Ellis (2003) claims the critical characteristics of a task:
A task is a work plan.
A task involves a primary focus on meaning and will incorporate some
forms of ‘gap’ in information that has to be filled.
A task will reflect real world processes of language use. Task
therefore suggests the need for some form of authenticity.
A task may involve any of the four language skills. This can be both in
writing and speaking, and reading and listening, although often the
literature on tasks is concerned purely with productive skills and
spoken outcome in particular.
A task engages cognitive processes. e.g. selecting, reasoning,
classifying information.
A task has a clearly defined communicative outcome (p.9-10).
According to Norris (2011) when using tasks we will have the following
advantages:
Involves ‘real’ communication;
Respects learners’ interests and is learned-centered;
Attends to learners’ interlanguage development;
Is motivating with relevance to applications outside the classroom;
Offers real outcomes (with tangible success criteria - you get what
you ask for outside the classroom);
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Allows for trial and error in the classroom (p.580).
The main components of a task-based lesson are:
Pre-task phase: In this first step is very important to motivate learners to carry
out the task; either reducing the linguistics demands by brainstorming or
predicting language they might need to use. In this phase, the trainer needs to
provide some essential input and modeling the task outcome.
During task phase: The teachers must to take a lot pedagogical decisions
about the materials, time, complexity, accuracy or fluency focus, and students
support in this stage.
Post-task phase: Ellis (2003) suggests three categories of adequate tasks:
“repeat performance; reflecting on the task; and focusing on forms”.
In relation to this, Norris (2011) argued:
It should be clear that much more goes on in the task-based classroom
than simply turning learners loose on tasks (or vice versa). Teachers play
an essential role throughout the task lesson cycle, motivating,
schematizing, scaffolding, monitoring, intervening, and so on (p.585).
TBL gives enough tools to develop critical thinking in a coherent and
useful form; thus, students are going to work with activities that motivate their
own leaning in the use of English and solve problems of daily life. Teachers and
researchers can become critical thinkers through TBL approach on their
classroom behavior, methodologies, materials, activities, and they can also
improve their weaknesses and increase their strengths on their professional
practices.
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Content and Language Integrating Learning (CLIL)
CLIL focuses on the use of English for the teaching of other school
subjects or specific content. As with task-based instruction, the
assumption is that learners will absorb the language best through using it
purposefully, and through understanding and creating meaningful texts
(Ur, 2012, p. 8).
Models of Content-Based Instruction
Content-Driven: Trainers have to work with content-area teachers
cooperatively to identify the grammar, vocabulary and text structure that
learners will encounter in the textbooks. In that way teachers construct
background; as a result, learners are aware of specific knowledge and they will
succeed in the content instruction.
Content-Based: In this model teachers teach the foreign language in
combination with the content according to learners’ level. In order to this model
to be effective trainers have to establish language aims as well as content
objectives.
Psychological Foundation
It is particularly difficult to increase motivation in young learners; but we
can use and adapt some research outcomes to influence in learners’ motivation
as follow:
1. By taking every opportunity to show them how important it is for them to
know English.
2. By fostering their self-image as successful language learners.
3. By ensuring that classroom activities are interesting.
It is fundamental the motivation when we pretend to enhance the reading
comprehension at students.
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Developmental stages
According to Piaget, there are four stages in the cognitive development
of children. In this theory the first stage is sensorimotor, and it goes from 0 to 2
years old; the second stage is pre-operational and starts at 2 and ends at 7
years; the third is concrete operations and goes from 7 to 11; and formal
operations start at 11 to the adult stage.
In this research work the students of Eighth grade of GBE are in the
beginning of formal operations stage. That is to say, they are developing their
abstract thinking.
Abstract thinking is less superficial than concrete thinking and involved
the use of higher order thinking skills. This is a manner of thinking in which
concentration is on conceptualization or generalization of things. An abstract
thinker can view a particular phenomenon from an angle that others might not
be able to view.
Sociological Foundation
Nowadays, teaching culture is necessary because the changes in our
society. Learners need to be aware of different ways of thinking; as well as
customs, rites and manners. It is very important to construct better citizens that
respect other ways of thinking.
Significant changes to society in recent decades as a result of
globalization, internationalization and migration have considerably
changed the linguistic and cultural make-up of many parts of the world, in
particular in urban areas, as well as the need of cultural knowledge,
understanding and skills. The increasing diversity of languages spoken,
and the related cultural practices being in evidence in many societies,
captured frequently through labels such as ‘multiculturalism’ and
‘multilingualism’, requires of us as FL teachers to review, and possibly
revise, our perspectives on the role of culture in the language curriculum
(Pachler, Evans, Redondo, & Fisher, 2014, p. 277).
http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-conceptual-and-vs-perceptual/http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-stereotype-and-vs-generalization/
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It is very important to construct better citizens that respect other ways of
thinking and this apprenticeship can be developed in the classrooms too.
Teaching culture. - The Council of Europe published in 2006 a document
called Plurilingual Education in Europe (p. 6). This document aim to promote:
Mutual understanding: The opportunity to learn other languages is an
essential condition for intercultural communication and acceptance of
cultural differences.
Democratic citizenship: Participation in democratic and social
processes in multilingual societies is facilitated by the plurilingual
competence of individuals.
Social cohesion: Equality of opportunity for personal development,
education, employment, mobility, access to information and cultural
enrichment depends on access to language learning throughout life.
Perry and Southwell (2011) mentioned that ‘intercultural competence’ is a
must in a globalized and multicultural world. And they defined as ‘the ability to
effectively and appropriately interact in an intercultural situation or context’
(p.453).
Porto (2013) states the dimensions of culture knowledge, skills and
attitudes:
Savoir être (for instance, attitudes of curiosity and inquisitiveness);
Saviors (knowledge of different aspects of life in a certain society,
such as work, education, traditions, etc.);
Savoirs comprendre (involving the skill of interpreting and related
those saviors);
Savoir apprendre/savoir faire (involving the skill of discoveryand
interaction);
Savoir s’engager (involving critical cultural awareness) (p.4).
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Contextual Framework
This research work is being developed at Francisco Huerta Rendón
high school, which is a public high school located at Guayaquil city, Tarqui
parish, Ciudadela Universitaria, Av. Las Aguas and Av. Juan Tanca Marengo; it
currently has more than 1,900 of students, which has technological
infrastructure, in accordance with her current rector Jacqueline Calero de Mora.
There are 82 students per classroom and 4 English teachers.
Finally, authors could notice that the majority of the students come from
low and middle level families in the areas surrounding the institution, the
classes take place in small classrooms where there is overcrowding of students,
there are resources such as libraries where there are materials such as reading
texts that they can use .
The problem in reading comprehension development was found in
students of Eighth grade of General Basic Education (BGE). Here, students do
not have adequate resources to work, the authors noted that the readings are
not appropriate to promote critical thinking engagement. The teachers only use
the material given by the ministry; furthermore, there is no additional material
that complements the reading part.
Legal Framework
The Art. 26 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, in the section
five declare that:
Education is a right of people throughout their lives and an unavoidable
and mandatory duty of the state. It constitutes a priority area for public
policymaking and public investment, the guarantee of equality and social
inclusion and the conditions for the good way of living. People, families
and society have the right and responsibility to participate in education.
(Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, 2011)
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According to the previous National plan of good living in the Objective 4:
Strengthening the capacities and potentialities of citizens. Thus, the authors
take out the following statements:
4.4.j. Creating and strengthening infrastructure, equipment and
technologies which, together with the human resources trained, promote the
development of creative, cognitive abilities and innovation throughout
education, at all levels, as well as 4.4.l to promote secular education, based on
the centrality of critical thinking, logical reasoning and creativity, in all
educational levels, adapting the mechanisms of evaluation for this purpose
likewise, 4.4.n. to design and implement tools and instruments which allow the
cognitive-holistic development in student population likewise, 4.4.d. to promote
quality bilingual intercultural education for children, adolescents and young
adults belonging to various communities, peoples and nationalities in all levels
and modalities and finally, 4.8.i to promote the learning of a foreign language
under the parameters of international accreditation, from early education to the
top level.
Moreover, the authors have gathered the pertinent statements that
support this research work from the Curricular Guidelines for Eighth grade of
GBE. According to this, the Eighth grade of GBE starts in level A.1.1, as English
subject was not a compulsory subject in the past school year. Therefore, most
students are not familiarized with the foreign language.
In addition to this, these guidelines align with the CEFR level A.1 that
corresponds to a Basic User which has been divided into A.1.1 and A.1.2 to
approach them to the Ecuadorian reality in other words to make sublevels.
“The CEFR is not a curriculum; instead it is intended to provide ‘a
common basis for the elaboration of language syllabi, textbooks,
curriculum guidelines, examinations, etc.” (Council of Europe, 2001,p.1).
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According to the curricular guidelines students from Eighth grade of
General Basic Education should read expository and transactional text
such us: nonfiction texts as descriptions and biographies.
In this teaching it is also important that teacher to provide the activities
for the development critical thinking skill, they will help in enriching the
development of skills.
Students should be able to start processes of development the abstract
thinking, critical thinking is important to development of thinking skills.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY, PROCESS, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSION OF RESULTS
In this section, the authors present an overview of the research
methodology that has been used to investigate the approaches and the
strategies that are being implemented to develop the critical thinking into the
reading comprehension process of students of Eighth grade of GBE at
Francisco Huerta Rendón high school. It contains an account of the procedures
used for this study, including research design, selection and description of the
population, the techniques and instruments used for data collection, data
analysis and trustworthiness criteria for the study.
Methodological Design
In the elaboration of the present work the authors will follow the scientific
approach. Indeed this educational research will also include empirical and
statistical methods. Therefore, this is a mixed method approach research.
Certainly, there are two main types of researches: qualitative and
quantitative therefore the authors have chosen the mixed methods approach as
the quantitative research and the theoretical review and content analysis in the
qualitative research will provide a better view of the problem and its possible
solution.
Types of Research
This research will implement different types of research as follow:
Descriptive: It is descriptive because describe the situation and the problem in
the institution.
Explorative: It explores many aspects concerned with the conflict situation and
the manner to overcome it.