Prior Knowledge, Vocabulary Acquisition, and Summarization Techniques in Reading Comprehension
Types of Prior Knowledge and Vocabulary Acquisition
Types of Prior Knowledge
1. General Knowledge About the World
1. Sociocultural Knowledge: This implicit knowledge reflects shared understandings within a group (family, community, etc.) and shapes how individuals perceive and interact with the world.
2. Behavioral Knowledge: This knowledge helps readers infer characters’ goals, plans, traits, emotions, and thoughts, facilitating the construction of a mental model of the text.
3. Valence or Polarity of an Action: Understanding the positive or negative implications of actions and their outcomes is crucial for comprehending the moral of fables.
4. Affectivity: Knowledge of emotions and personal experiences aids in understanding the emotional states of characters in a story.
2. Knowledge of Text Structure
2.1. Structure of Narrative Texts
a. Story Schema: This culturally acquired knowledge provides a framework for understanding the typical structure of stories, including the initial situation, goal, complication, and resolution.
b. Causal Knowledge: Readers use their understanding of causality, temporal relationships, and social norms to make sense of the sequence of events in a narrative.
2.2. Structure of Expository Texts
Expository texts rely on hierarchical organization. Meyer (1985) identifies five rhetorical predicates (comparison, response, causation, accumulation, and description) that signal the relationships between ideas.
3. Specific Knowledge
This encompasses declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge about a particular subject, acquired formally or informally. It plays a significant role in understanding both narrative and expository texts.
3.1. In Narrative Texts
Scripts, or knowledge structures related to specific events (e.g., a party), aid in organizing the story, providing missing information, and facilitating mental representation.
3.2. In Expository Texts
Specific knowledge influences the processing, storage, and retrieval of new information. It helps readers identify important aspects, consolidate information, and establish connections within the text.
3.3. Erroneous Preconceptions
Existing knowledge that conflicts with scientific understanding can hinder learning and conceptual change.
4. Vocabulary
1. Depth of Vocabulary: This refers to the extent of understanding a word, including its definition, multiple meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage.
2. Breadth of Vocabulary: This refers to the number of words a reader knows. Various factors, such as assessment methods and definitions of what constitutes a “word,” can influence estimates of vocabulary size.
5. Metacognitive Knowledge
This encompasses knowledge about oneself as a learner, the tasks involved in learning, and the strategies that can be employed.
1. Knowledge of the Subject: This includes self-awareness of one’s knowledge, expertise, and strategies for learning.
2. Knowledge About Tasks: This involves understanding the type of task, the strategies required, and the resources available.
3. Knowledge About Strategies: This refers to the understanding of how and when to apply specific learning strategies.
Vocabulary Acquisition
Vocabulary acquisition is crucial for reading comprehension. Three modes of learning are discussed: incidental, intentional, and eclectic.
1. Incidental Learning
This occurs when learning new words is not the primary goal of the interaction with the text. Factors that promote incidental learning include good comprehension skills, repeated exposure, conceptually explicit texts, and manageable word difficulty.
2. Intentional Learning
2.1. Contextual Education
This involves inferring the meaning of unknown words from the surrounding context. Effective contextual learning requires rich textual signals, such as synonyms, explanations, and analogies.
2.2. Direct Instruction
a. Dictionary: While dictionaries can be helpful, they have limitations. Readers may be reluctant to use them, definitions may be complex, and multiple meanings can cause confusion.
b. Keywords: This mnemonic strategy involves associating an unfamiliar word with a familiar keyword and creating a mental image or verbal description to link the keyword with the definition.
3. Eclectic Techniques
Eclectic approaches, which combine contextual and definitional instruction, are considered most effective. A three-phase model is proposed: before reading (pre-teaching vocabulary), during reading (encountering words in context), and after reading (reinforcing learning through activities).
Activation of Knowledge
Activating prior knowledge is essential for effective reading comprehension. Strategies include using titles, advance organizers, generating and answering questions, seeking relationships, and utilizing analogies.
Making Summaries
Procedures in the Realization of the Abstract
1. Search the Important Ideas and Textual Relations
1.1. Finding the Main Idea
Skilled readers identify main ideas by using textual cues and progressively developing the ability to distinguish important information. Instruction in finding the main idea should involve direct teaching, modeling, practice, and feedback.
1.2. Instruction in Textual Structures
Understanding the underlying structure of expository texts aids in comprehension and summarization. Resources for teaching textual structures include diagrams, concept maps, and explicit instruction on common organizational patterns.
2. Application of Rules to Reduce Information
Rules for condensing information include:
1. Abolition: Removing non-essential information.
2. Generalization: Replacing specific details with broader terms.
3. Construction/Integration: Combining multiple events or ideas into a single statement.
4. Selection/Invention of the Topic Sentence: Identifying or creating a sentence that summarizes the main point of a paragraph.
3. Finalizing the Summary
Finalizing the summary involves reviewing for accuracy, ensuring coherence, reflecting the hierarchical structure, and using appropriate language and formatting.
Variables that Affect the Realization of the Abstract
1. Subjective Variables
Factors related to the individual, such as prior knowledge, writing skills, experience with summarizing, cognitive abilities, and interest in the topic, can influence the quality of the summary.
2. Text Variables
Text length, genre, and complexity can affect the ease of summarization.
3. Task Variables
3.1. Chance of Rereading
The ability to reread the text can influence the cognitive processes involved in summarization.
3.2. Developing Individual and Group
Individual and group summarization may yield different results, with individual summaries often demonstrating greater personalization and accuracy.
3.3. Type of Summary
Summaries created for oneself (writer summaries) may differ in content and form from those intended for another reader (reader summaries).
Abstract Functions
Summaries serve as both cognitive and metacognitive strategies, aiding in comprehension, monitoring understanding, and assessing learning.