What is Comprehension?

One of the earliest recorded studies of reading as reasoning was that of THORNDIKE in 1917. The first factoral study of comprehension in reading was made by DAVIS in 1941. A factoral study means that an attempt has been made to separate the component parts of reading in order to discover what the statistical values are of the various kinds of things one does that helps him to comprehend while reading. For example, it is obvious that one of the factors in reading would be vocabulary. What are the other factors? These are the kinds of questions that a factoral analysis of reading attempts to answer. DAVIS's study indicated that reading behaviour was related to the psychological aspects of reasoning as well as to the ocular and mechanical. DAVIS hypothesized nine variables but found that only five met his criteria, i.e., five were significant. They are given below:

1. Vocabulary-knowledge of word meanings
2. Verbal reasoning-being able to reason with words.
3. Sensitivity to implications-being able to understand implications, or what a writer implies.
4. Following the structure of passage-to know how it is structured and being able to follow the structure.
5. Recognizing the literary techniques of the writer.

In 1946, THURSTON reanalyzed DAVIS's data and concluded that DAVIS had no statistical claim for his findings and that only a single or general factor comprised reading ability. HALL and ROBINSON in 1945 identified comprehension accuracy, rate of inductive reading, word meaning, rate for reading unrelated facts and chart reading skills. Another team identified only two factors-semantic difficulty, i.e., the difficulty of the sentences, and word difficulty. In 1964, another team attempted factor analysis and they found only two skills that were statistically defensible, i.e., word knowledge and paragraph comprehension. In 1966, DAVIS did another factoral study using his original hypothesis. He found again that five skills were significant. The one that made up the greater part of the variance was again memory for word meanings. He found that vocabulary made up 32 percent of what we mean by reading comprehension. The second factor was drawing inferences 20 percent, i.e., to find out what the author is saying 'between the lines'. Being able to follow the structure of a passage was 14 percent. Being able to recognize the writer's purpose, attitude and tone, was 11 percent. Ability to find answers explicit or in factual questions 10 percent. This makes up 87 percent of the total comprehension, the remaining 13 percent was made up of the other three factors he studied. Another team, as late as 1969, reported a study of reading comprehension done in Iowa. This team investigated eight factors as possible 'building blocks' in comprehension, but found only four of these to be actually related to comprehension of reading.They were (1) speed of reading; (2) ability to listen; (3) ability to classify the words and (4) speed of noting details.A later study also found vocabulary to be very significant, as was ability to note rhyming sounds.

There are taxonomic analyses also of reading. A taxonomy is a listing of all the possible skills that are keen to exist in an orderly category of presentation. One researcher hypothesized four basic steps to be present and further reasoned that these four could be broken down into sub-factors. These four basic factors were-

1) literal comprehension with 15 sub-factors;
2) ability to re-organize with 13 sub-factors;
3) ability to evaluate with 5 sub-factors; and
4) ability to appreciate literature with 4 sub-factors.

Another area of interest has been in an attempt to define comprehension as that of building concepts. Words one hears or reads can help to give objects, dimensions or attributes for classification and this classification is a part of concept forming. One way of classifying is by defining a thing in terms of its operation. For example, a bicycle-it gets people from one place to another. If this is basic to comprehension, then a person comprehends by being able to classify, to identify, to recall and to re-order and relate that which he has read. Teaching for reading comprehension would then include training in identifying, recording and classifying.

To summarize, one way of defining comprehension is by seeing if there are certain factors which are analyzable as being separate and discrete by the statistical performance of factoral analysis. Reading can also be thought of as putting down in logical sequential order all of the steps which could possibly go in to making up comprehension or the way in which a person is able to get meaning from the printed page. This is listing in a taxonomic or in an outline form all of the steps in order and in sequence. A third way is to think of reading as a conceptual act or as building concepts. If a concept helps to give each finite or individual item within our environment a classification, then with them one is able to build various kinds of organizational systems. Then if reading is a part of being able to do this, as we learn to classify from our reading by learning to recall, identify, order and relate, we have learned to comprehend.

These are some of the ways people have looked at reading.

What are the implications of these research studies in the writing of textbooks on reading?

A study of the various workbooks on reading indicates that some writers write workbooks mostly after their own opinion and with little attempt to follow of what is known of research. But some writers of workbooks have relied on research very heavily, although they are in the minority.

Research on Rate of Reading and Comprehension

The facts from the research on the rate of reading and comprehension indicates that bright, fast readers do tend to comprehend better than bright slow readers. That is, brighter, or very intelligent people comprehend better if they learn to read faster. The duller student reverses this relationship. The faster he reads the less he comprehends, for a person who is not very intelligent cannot learn to read rapidly effectively. But the bright student can learn to read rapidly effectively. On the other hand, in the contents of mathematics and science a low negative relationship exists between the rate at which they are read and the amount comprehend. That is, if one is going to read something highly complex and technical such as science or mathematics, then one must read it slowly.

In other words, the more unfamiliar and complex a writing is, the more slowly it must be read.

Questions and Reading

Research has shown that the more questions that a person is able to ask relative to what he is reading or learning the higher his comprehension will be. This, as you know, is a part of our preview-skimming technique. That we teach previewing and questioning before reading was included from basic fundamental research which has shown that the more questions one is able to raise before reading the higher his comprehension will be.

To summarize, while research is not inclusive and we do not have a concluding statement on research in comprehension, we can say certainly that these studies indicate that vocabulary is important, the ability to understand the various details in a reading by answering questions is important, the ability to understand the interferences that may be picked up in a reading are important, and that the ability to read flexibly or with a fairly good rate in those kinds of readings which are relevant to read rapidly are all necessary skills. Being able to ask questions is also related to comprehension as is being able to understand the purpose of the writer.

There are a variety of other factors that aid comprehension. Factors generally considered under 'learning principles' are of great importance relative to what one learns and remembers from a reading. First of all, motivation and drive are fundamental, as is also the amount and nearness of reinforcement. Reinforcement suggests that the reader gains some tangible good from his reading, and that this positive effect follows fairly closely the reading act. In other words, the reader finds reading useful, or it brings pleasure in one way or another. He is thus reinforced to repeat the activity, in this case reading for meaning or comprehension.

Learning principles also show that one selects a task for learning that presents some challenge, that one prefers a goal that is not instantly achieved but welcomes a certain amount of frustration before the ultimate satisfaction of achievement. Thus a reader, if he sees purpose in it, enjoys learning to read and comprehend at increasingly more difficult levels. But again, he must feel rewarded for his extra work, and reinforcement must be clear. The relevance of the reading must be understood as helping him towards some clearly defined goal, helping him to perform some tasks, or just because he really enjoys it. But reading, as a learned act, must be seen as relevant and meaningful to the reader or he will not come to learn it well.