Theme: Working with texts

Theme: Working with texts

Reading skills are fundamental to English language learners’ academic success. Proficient readers have access to a wide range of information, which empowers them to excel academically, professionally, and socially. They accomplish all of this by using effective reading strategies to form extratextual connections, such as relating reading materials to themselves, to other texts, and to the world.

And they use these same strategies to make intratextual analyses of the rhetorical features of their readings through drawing inferences, distinguishing main and subordinate ideas, synthesizing main ideas, monitoring their comprehension, asking and answering questions, creating sensory images, and evaluating content and their responses to it. Because most reading research has focused on activating schema or the readers’ prior knowledge, an application of the full range of read- ing strategies might help teachers improve reading education by using reading materials more effectively.
Based on a previous study (Kim, 2005), in this chapter I define and illustrate these reading strategies and offer ways in which they could be applied in reading classes in different English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) contexts.

CONTEXT

I discuss ESOL reading strategies in the context of second- and third-grade language arts/literature classrooms, but these could be implemented in other settings as well. My analysis is based on my study of the ways that ESOL learners use while-reading strategies to construct meaning and make sense of new input from texts that may or may not be culturally relevant (Kim, 2005). Overall, my study was informed by findings that emphasize the importance of ESOL reading

strategies as learning tools that promote comprehension, improve language performance, and increase student autonomy and learning ability (Oxford, 1990). To understand their reading, I also followed Rosenblatt’s (1978) view of read- ing as an event occurring in a particular environment at a particular moment in the life history of the reader as well as Goodman’s (1984) definition of reading

as meaning making in which readers use their prior experiences and background knowledge simultaneously. To assist learners in the process of meaning making, I considered Burke’s (2000) and Ladson-Billings’s (1994) suggestion of the impor- tance of selecting culturally relevant texts that have the potential to empower all, and especially minority, students. I also acknowledged the fact that not all texts are culturally relevant, and students need strategies to approach them all.
I propose 10 reading strategies that emerged as significant learning tools when students vocalized their responses to questions such as “What comes to mind when you read this?” while reading a story (Kim, 2005):

1. 
   relating text to self
   
2. 
   relating text to other texts
   
3. 
   relating text to the world
   
4. 
   making inferences from the text
   
5. 
   creating mental images of what is read
   
6. 
   transferring first language (L1) rhetorical skills to second language (L2) text interpretation
   
7. 
   identifying main ideas in a text
   
8. 
   monitoring text comprehension
   
9. 
   summarizing and synthesizing texts
   
10. 
    responding to texts
    

These while-reading strategies emerged in my study of four English as a second language (ESL) students from four different countries. Of these, three were second graders and one was a third grader; two were at the beginner level, one at intermediate, and one at advanced. In observing them as they vocalized their thinking-while-reading stories, I noticed that they used strategies differently depending on the materials at hand, the level of the task, their language profi- ciency, and their cultural background. They also used different strategies depend- ing on the cultural relevance of the selected readings. Overall, these students identified with the stories based on their experiences and beliefs, cultural schema and heritage, social and ethical values, and L1.
The first three strategies lead students to seek connections outside the text, that is, in themselves, in other texts, and in the world. Everyone’s favorite, Strat-
Working With Texts to Develop ESOL Reading Strategies

egy 1, relating text to self, involved the learners’ connecting to their prior experi- ences and to their cultural and background knowledge in order to comprehend and evaluate new information by relating it to their own stories. With Strategy 2, relating text to other texts, students linked the current reading to other texts, thus building a mosaic of intertextual references. Using Strategy 3, relating text to the world, students incorporated their understanding of the world by interpret- ing the text in the context of their knowledge of the outside world, especially of their native countries.

The remaining strategies focus on intratextual analyses of the text’s rhetorical features. Students applied Strategy 4, making inferences from the text, to draw conclusions, make critical judgments, and form unique interpretations of the text (Keene & Zimmermann, 1997). The beginners used this strategy sparingly. With Strategy 5, creating mental images of what is read, students visualized what they read to enhance their meaning making. All students invoked this strategy.
Strategy 6, transferring L1 rhetorical skills to L2 text interpretation, helped them apply their L1 literacy skills (e.g., awareness of plot structure, character and genre analysis, author’s attitude, purpose, setting). Strategy 7, identifying main ideas
in a text, helped students grasp essential ideas and important information at the word, sentence, and text levels. With Strategy 8, monitoring text comprehen- sion, students monitored comprehension by determining the author’s intention and purpose and by questioning the significance or veracity of the information presented in the text. Strategy 9, summarizing and synthesizing texts, helped students, on the one hand, combine the main ideas in a cohesive and coher- ent summary of the text and, on the other hand, add an evaluative component through the synthesis of the main ideas from various texts. Beginning-level students summarized stories very simply; intermediate- and advanced-level stu-
dents synthesized stories critically. With Strategy 10, responding to texts, students evaluated the information from their readings (Revelle, Wellman, & Karabenick, 1985). They expressed opinions based on their sociocultural perspectives and moral values. They also justified their judgments of the text in discussions with others (e.g., peers, teachers, family), which may be referred to as socioaffective strategies in responses to texts.
Most students identified with the stories that were based on their cultural experiences and social values, that is, with culturally relevant materials (Bishop, 1993). In particular, synthesizing and responding to texts invoked references to their cultural heritage, L1, moral values, and beliefs. Beginning-level students favored culturally relevant texts, mostly relating the text to their experience, identifying main ideas, monitoring their comprehension, and responding to the text. In contrast, intermediate- and advanced-level students used more advanced strategies to interpret their texts; they favored relating their assigned text to other texts, making inferences from the text, monitoring text comprehension
through questioning, synthesizing texts, and offering evaluative and socioaffective responses to texts. They used these strategies to interpret materials that were

not related to their native cultures before, during, and after reading in order to demonstrate their dialectical thinking skills (Freire, 1970).