Self-development in terms of reading comprehension in a second foreign language is often practiced
to a small extent in foreign language education. In the L2 (German language) educational process, the
teacher focuses mainly on teaching basic grammatical phenomena and vocabulary. The development
of reading comprehension in L2, as to text genres and forms, provides a new dimension in terms of
self-development, as it mainly supports metacognitive processes and thus self-efficacy and success
in a foreign language text understanding.
The goal of the presented research was to find out connections between students success in reading
comprehension with regard to different categories of text genres (adventure books, historical novels,
fairy tales, poems, legends, and science fiction, and others) and text forms (either printed – magazines,
newspapers, books, textbooks or electronic – e-books, websites, e-textbooks, and others). We were
interested in whether a particular (concrete) genre or form of text does (or does not) contribute to
the success in L2 reading comprehension or whether reading of any genre or form of text does (or
does not) contribute to the success in L2 reading comprehension. The research was carried out in
secondary vocational and grammar schools in Slovakia on a sample of 126 respondents. Statistically
significant correlations were found between specific (concrete) genres and forms of texts and success
in reading comprehension. It turns out that short stories, legends and books about nature predict
better understanding of texts in the German language, and reading of printed books and magazines
promotes success in L2 reading comprehension.
Keyword(s) : reading comprehension
Intervention Reading Comprehension Program in French Language
One of the priorities of European language policy is to maintain linguistic diversity, cultural identity
and, last but not least, to promote effective foreign language learning. French language has a long
tradition in the Slovak geographical area, whether in a historical, cultural or economic context. In
the educational context over the last decade, however, it has become a second foreign language,
which has begun to be reflected in particular in the declining numbers of pupils studying French.
Quantitative indicators in the form of statistical yearbooks show a sixty to seventy-five percent
decrease in the number of pupils learning French at different levels of education. The lower numbers
of lessons, normally allocated for a second foreign language, affects the quality of the knowledge and
language skills that the pupil has to acquire in order to be able to communicate at the required level
in French.
Based on the current position of French language in the Slovak school environment and the
requirements that are placed on the language level of students, our goal was to design an effective
tool that would take into account the various factors affecting the acquisition of foreign language
competence of students in French. The main aim of our contribution is to present to the professional
public a tool in the form of an intervention program, which specifically focuses on the development
of one of the key language skills included in the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages, namely reading comprehension in French language. The degree of difficulty of its
acquisition depends on several factors. The mastery of the linguistic, sociolingual and intercultural
specifics typical for French language plays an important role in this process. In a broader sense,
however, it is a much more complex process, which is also conditioned by cognitive, social and
personality variables. These variables can also be called predictors or factors that significantly affect
the understanding of a foreign language text.
The overall concept of the intervention program is based on pre-research associated with
measuring the level of reading comprehension and determining the predictors affecting students’
comprehension of the text. Considering the pre-research carried out to determine the achieved
level of pupils in reading comprehension, the proposed intervention program can be regarded
as a preventive, but also a corrective tool for the development of language competence in French
language. The compilation of an intervention program in the form of ten model intervention units
for the development of reading comprehension in French has a precise structure and takes into
account the ontogenetic specifics of the target group (third-year students of secondary education).
The ambition of the intervention program is to include various possibilities and ways of working
with text in French with regard to the development of the relevant predictor, and thus contribute to
improve the quality of language education of students and last but not least to be an inspiration for
teachers (as well as future teachers) of French language in a new original way.
Incorporating Mindfulness into EFL Literature Courses to Foster Critical Reading
Recently, educators are becoming interested in exploring the use of mindfulness-based approaches
to learning and teaching a foreign language. Through these approaches they tend to reduce stress
(for teachers and students alike), enhance and improve classroom atmosphere, and help students
to focus their attention, and even think more clearly (Tregenza, 2008; Yager, 2009; Collins et al.,
2011). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of mindfulness techniques on
the development of critical reading abilities of EFL learners in literature courses. Although much
research has been conducted in the realm of mindfulness and positive effects are reported on stress
reduction, relaxed environment, and so forth, research on the role of mindfulness in students’
critical reading performance is scarce. To this end, a quasi-experimental study was undertaken
with the participation of 35 BA students (both male and female) majoring in English language
and literature. The participants were divided into two groups of mindful and less mindful students
based on their scores on Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). Data were collected while
students were engaged in some mindfulness techniques before they performed different forms of
critical reading activities. A critical reading test was used as pre and posttest to investigate the gain
in critical reading ability, if any, after the treatment. Paired-samples T-test through SPSS software
was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the
mean scores of pre-test and post-test of all the participants. However, since both meditative and
socio-cognitive mindfulness practice was utilized in this study, further research is required to shed
light on the nature of mindfulness in some new ways and explore the differential effects of these
two approaches. Overall, the findings of this study will be beneficial for teachers to be aware of
some mindfulness techniques and use them in their classes in order to give students the opportunity
of learning in a more relaxed and focused environment.
Exploring Literature Reading Classes in Terms of Types of Feedback Provided by EFL Teachers: Does Teaching Experience Play a Determining Role?
eading comprehension is thought to be a very challenging skill for L2 (second language) learners, and definitely the role that feedback has in enhancing reading achievement is undeniable. To shed more light on the issue, this study aimed to investigate the types of feedback utilized by EFL teachers in L2 reading comprehension classes at the intermediate level. The study took a step forward and explored the role of years of teaching experience in the provision of feedback. The study also examined the frequency of different types of errors that EFL learners committed in reading comprehension classes. To this end, an observational and descriptive study was conducted. Six EFL teachers along with their L2 learners at the intermediate level participated in the study. Three of these teachers were novices and the other three were experienced. The data were drawn from transcripts of audio recording of the selected teachers’ reading comprehension classes. Following the analysis, the corrective feedback types and the errors were coded using the coding categories identified in Lyster and Ranta’s (1997) model. Two other corrective feedback types were added – translation and multiple feedback. The frequency count and percentage were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that recasts were the most frequently used feedback type in both groups of teachers. Moreover, both experienced and novice teachers preferred to use varied corrective feedback types at different distributions which may suggest that there is a significant difference between novice and experienced teachers’ use of corrective feedback types. Regarding the error types, the analysis of the data showed that among four types of errors, the phonological errors were the most commonly errors committed by EFL learners in reading comprehension classes. The implications are discussed in the study.
Learners’ success and self-esteem in foreign language reading comprehension
Demands for a high-level development of foreign language reading comprehension skills and competences are now escalating and processing of foreign language text information is a matter of course. Pupils and teachers are faced with the need to work with textual information in more complicated ways, in which self-esteem plays an important role. This paper analyses learners’ success of reading comprehension in foreign language and real self-esteem in acquiring those skills. Self-esteem helps to promote language self-confidence, the learner’s level of aspiration, and adjustment to perception of foreign language structure. As long as the learner does not really perceive themselves (real “self”), it is difficult to talk about understanding lexical meanings and their real perception of grammatical structures in the text. The research goal was to find differences in self-esteem and success in foreign language reading comprehension skills with respect to categories of comprehension (specifically: I always understand everything; I have a lot of problems with text understanding; specifically: I experience difficulties with understanding unknown words; problem with understanding long sentences; difficulty with understanding the unfamiliar topic of the text; pictures help me in understanding; guiding questions help me in understanding). The research question was whether the self-image of learners in relation to the skill of foreign language reading comprehension is realistic given their real success in this skill. The research was carried out in the Slovak Republic on a sample of 327 respondents and found differences in subjective perception of understanding and success in reading comprehension skills. The research showed a low real self- image of learners especially in categories of global character in respect to the average understanding of foreign language texts.
Do changes in instructional time, professional development and age explain changes in reading comprehension at the country level? An exploration of PIRLS 2006 and 2016
Several international large-scale assessments in education take place every 3 to 5 years. PIRLS (the
Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) takes place every 5 years. If data from only one
moment are considered, it is difficult to explain differences in achievement between countries. But
we can also consider data from two (or more) years and focus on changes over time within each
of the participating countries. Following countries over a certain period in such a longitudinal approach
facilitates causal inferences on the effects of characteristics of educational systems.
In this study, we investigate the effects of instructional time for language and reading and of amount
of professional development of teachers on reading comprehension in Grade 4. We also study the
effect of changes in the average age of students. By accounting for the effects of age and schooling
we come to a slightly different ranking of countries in PIRLS. We use a difference-in-difference approach
with correlation matrices. One of our conclusions is that professional development of teachers
has an effect on the achievement level of students.