Running head: The Importance of Reading Comprehension

The Importance of Reading Comprehension Ashtin Renne College 100 American Military University Karine Blackett

The Importance of Reading Comprehension

The Importance of Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the most important skill ever learned. Without reading comprehension people miss out on a great deal of information that that only comes in print format. Reading comprehension is a solid base for other learning skills. By learning to comprehend what they read, people improve their vocabulary and learn more about how to put words together in a way that makes sense. People with fully formed complex vocabularies that understand what to do with words and how to say something in a way that anyone can understand it is an indicator of personal and social success. People who can understand what they read tend to be better at writing and that is an essential skill in almost any job. This paper will talk about what reading comprehension is, the differences in reading comprehension between different groups, why it is so important and how reading comprehension can be improved through practice and hard work. Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language (Snow 2012). In other words, reading comprehension is not just passive understanding. To truly understand what is written, people need interact with the text and use their own background knowledge to come up with the correct meaning of the text. Several related skills contribute to reading comprehension including vocabulary, relations between words and making inferences to something outside the text to help explain the text. Vocabulary is very important in reading comprehension. If a person has an inadequate or very small vocabulary they will be limited in what they can understand just by the fact they do not know what a word means. On the other hand, someone who

The Importance of Reading Comprehension has an extensive and complex vocabulary will likely find it easier to understand the meaning of text because they know what the words mean and that can help to find the

relations between words. An experienced reader easily connects words and sentences together to get an understanding of the meaning. This is important because if a person cannot find the connections between words all they will have is a list of words. For example, if someone were to read the words of a story one by one without taking the time to put the words together they would not understand the story because finding the connections between words is what truly lets people understand the meaning of any text. Finally making inferences and comparisons is very helpful for people trying to understand a passage. Based on the connections between words and the order of the words, people can deduce what the meaning of the text is. This is especially helpful when the meaning is not obvious. Comparisons are also helpful because people take what they know and compare it to something in the text that is similar, and in that way come up with a meaning. Reading comprehension is the most valuable learning skill people learn because people use it all the time in learning and even in everyday life. When you are in school the majority of learning is done through books and other text. If a person doesnt comprehend what they are reading they are failing to learn a large portion of the knowledge available. Reading comprehension is also highly related to a persons skills with oral language. According to the academic journal Canadian Psychology The ability to understand what is read becomes highly correlated with listening comprehension with age (Johnston, Barnes & Desrochers, 2008) which means that as a child gets older their ability to understand what they read is highly related to how well

The Importance of Reading Comprehension

they understand the spoken word. In general people with better reading comprehension are more successful in life. According to the International Dyslexia Association, people in the United States who are illiterate represent: 60 percent of prison inmates, One third of mothers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children, 75 percent of the unemployed, 85 percent of the juveniles who appear in court (Richland). These statistics show that living with poor reading comprehension skills is a huge disadvantage when it comes to success in life. There are ways to help improve reading comprehension and all they take is effort. Teaching reading comprehension to someone is not as easy as it seems because people who are experience, fluent readers do not think about the processes they use to understand the written word. If they do not know what they are doing to understand what they are reading then how can they teach it to others? Since all readers are different and have a different background and educational knowledge, strategies to improve reading comprehension must be adjusted to fit each individual. One of the best ways to improve comprehension in all readers is to improve vocabulary. The more words someone understands, the easier it is to understand the meaning of what they read. One technique readers can use to improve their understanding of a passage is to read it several times. Even experienced readers benefit from repeated readings because the more a person reads something the more they understand about the meaning of the text. Another way to boost comprehension is to discuss what you are reading with other readers. Since different readers come from different backgrounds they will likely have different interpretations of the same text. Discussing different views of what a passage or book means leads to a more complex

The Importance of Reading Comprehension understanding of not only the basic meaning but can also lead to an understanding of what the message behind the text is. Understanding the authors message or theme is

an advanced reading skill and is useful when analyzing all types of literature. One thing to keep in mind is that testing your reading comprehension is not learning how to comprehend. It is often the case that learning reading comprehension is supposed to be done through reading a passage and answering questions on it. However, that is not an effective way to teach reading comprehension and can leave some people even more confused. The internet is a fount of information that is super convenient and is very helpful for people trying to understand any piece of literature. Reading comprehension is one of the most valuable skills a person ever learns because it is so important in everyones life. Very often a person is taught complex skills in school that they wont use in their everyday life. Unless you have a career in history knowing about the Ottoman Empire is not going to be useful in anyones everyday lives. Reading comprehension is an important skill for obtaining success and not having that skill is a huge disadvantage. However along with the ever expanding knowledge base that is the internet there are many techniques to improve reading comprehension skills for people that put forth the effort.

The Importance of Reading Comprehension References Charles, J., & Charles, L. (2008). K12reader.com. Retrieved from http://www.k12reader.com/ Grimes, S. (2006). Reading is our business how libraries can foster reading comprehension. Chicago: American Library Association. Johnston A., Barnes M., Desrochers A., (2008). Reading comprehension: Developmental processes, individual differences, and interventions. Canadian Psychology, 49(2), 125132, http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1037/0708-5591.49.2.125 Richland, K. (n.d.). How important is reading comprehension | Special Education & IEP Advisor. SpecialEducationAdvisor.com: Special Education Laws, Special Education Right, and IEP Goal Ideas. Retrieved from http://www.specialeducationadvisor.com/how-important-is-reading-comprehension/ Snow, C., (2012). Reading for Understanding. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Science and Technology Policy Institute. Seip, R., (2012). Train your brain for success: read smarter, remember more, and break your own records. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Wihelm, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/understandingreading-comprehension