Making Meaning and Not Just Sounds in Reading

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 93 - 100, 27.12.2017

Athena Tılıacos

Abstract

The
purpose of this study in order to obtain efficacious material to try and answer
my research question I have chosen to use the protocol analysis and verbal
reports on thinking as a research method. This research generates verbal
reports of thought sequences as a source of data about thinking. The relevance
of this investigation in my own professional practice is of great importance as
the school I work in has a vast majority of students whom are non-native
English speakers and therefore the issue in reading without comprehension has
arisen many times over the years. According to the findings, although the
research was small scale the results have overall been very satisfying. The
student reached understanding through various models. First by understanding
through performance as he was able to think and act flexibly with what he knew
(Perkins p.42) and therefore recognize the word night on the flash card.
Moreover, by following the constructive model of understanding, the student was
able” to construct and perfect his own performance through problem solving.
recognizing….’what sounds right’ he has a target against which he can measure
and evaluate his own performance” (Wood, p136). Wood’s description of the
student’s meaning construction has similarities with Piaget’s theory of assimilation
and accommodation where by assimilation the student uses the external
environment, in this case the teacher and flash cards, to increase his previous
knowledge (Piaget, 2013). As a result, the importance of the teacher’s role in
being a facilitator for the student through this process towards understanding,
because as stated by Wells, ” children are born with a drive to make sense of
the world. They are active seekers of meaning” (1986,Wells cited in Arizona
Department of Education, 1990, p.7) and we as teacher have the responsibility
to insure students have all the necessary 
tools to be able to understand and make sense of this world.

Keywords

student; teacher; language

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