Reading Purpose and Comprehension

Reading is an activity that must contain a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to review and critique a writer’s thoughts or writing style. A person may also read for pleasure, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader’s selection of text.

The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to understand the name of every appetizer that might be listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are composed, but does not need to identify main idea and the supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.

Reading research shows that good readers

• Read extensively
• Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
• Have a flexible reading style, depending on what material they are engaging
• Are usually self motivated
• Rely on different skills for interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
• Read for a purpose; reading serves a specfic function

Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, which results in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that dictate meaning. The reader uses previously taught knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

• Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences
• Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another
• Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content
• Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies, as well as knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific acquired knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.

When most people start to read a magazine, newspaper or book — they just open it and start to read!

You can have better speed, comprehension, recall and retention if you “layer” in the information in the following three steps instead of trying to get it all at once.

1. Overview: Decide What You Want & Find Out What It’s About

This is like the “trip tik” you get from AAA before you go on a journey. It gives you a plan for where are you going, how to get there and things to watch for on the way. It makes the trip easier if you know where you are going ahead of time.

Use the Table of Contents in a magazine to decide which articles you want to read and look at the headlines in the newspaper to choose what interests you.

Survey All The “Extras” — side bars, headings and all of the things “you usually skip”.

2. Preview: This step is like a preview of a movie–you’ll decide whether you want to see read) the whole thing and you will be able to look for what you’ll need.

• Get the Big Picture – The “Gestalt”
• Go fast–straight down the page.
• Look for Content Words.
• Look For Questions To Answer.

3. Read It: Accomplish Your Reading Purpose.

Spend only the time necessary to accomplish this purpose.

• Look for answers to your questions from the Preview.
• Read in phrases.
• “Surf The Line”.
• Look For W.I.I.F.M.’s* & Use Them!
  (*That means: What’s In It for Me.)

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