How to Improve Reading Comprehension?

Throughout our educational life, we face various goals that we must achieve, starting with learning to hold a pencil or deciphering our first words in a book. Each skill we develop, no matter how small, helps us attain more complex ones. Learning to read is one of them, but it is not sufficient if we are unable to understand what we read. Thus, reading comprehension is a pillar in education and in life.

Reading comprehension in words and numbers

Answering an exam, following a prescription, assembling the instructions for a piece of furniture, or even knowing the documents required for a procedure, means we need to understand what we read. Reading comprehension is a linguistic skill that enables us to interpret written texts; in simple terms, it is the ability to know what we read. However, this skill extends beyond recognizing individual words in the text; it also involves understanding the broader meanings of the text and content.

Reading is a complex activity that involves cognitive and psycholinguistic processes, such as decoding and comprehension (Braslavsky, 2005). Decoding consists of recognizing and pronouncing printed words. Still, this skill alone does not ensure comprehension, which is defined as the ability to extract and construct meanings when reading a text (Snow, 2002), integrating what has been read with the reader’s previous knowledge and sociocultural context.

However, a 2022 UNICEF study projected that, as a result of the pandemic, four out of five sixth-grade students in Latin America and the Caribbean would not attain the minimum level of reading comprehension established by UNESCO. This was especially alarming, considering the pre-existing educational crisis in the region, which also indicated a possible decrease of up to 12% in the future earnings of these students when they enter the labor force.

In the same vein, a study conducted in the Mexican state of Sonora by Amavizca and Álvarez-Flores (2022) found that university students in the area had a lower level of comprehension than expected. Although the results varied depending on the field of knowledge to which they belonged, they still presented a bleak panorama for higher education.

Emilia Ferreiro, in her book Literacy: Theory and Practice (1998), explained that reading difficulties must be overcome with initial literacy. But what happens to university students who do not understand what they read or to those who cannot analyze or interpret a text?

What does reading comprehension involve?

Strengthening reading comprehension is a complex challenge, as it involves not only linguistic factors but also various cognitive processes, including concentration, attention, observation, analysis, interpretation, and the integration of prior knowledge.

Van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) define reading comprehension as the ability of individuals to grasp and interact with different elements of written texts. They describe three levels:

1. Microstructure recognition: This involves identifying the meaning correlations between individual sentences and clauses in the text, ensuring that they are connected logically and coherently, and building meaning at the sentence or paragraph level.
2. Macrostructure recognition: This involves capturing the general information of the text, meaning its overall semantic content. This ability enables the reader to identify the main ideas and comprehend the overall meaning of the text coherently.
3. Superstructure development: This refers to the organizational scheme of the text, which varies according to the type of discourse and defines the global structure of the content, establishing the hierarchy and the correlation between the parts that comprise it.

On the other hand, three levels of reading comprehension are traditionally recognized:

1. Literal comprehension: At this level, the reader identifies ideas, key words, and the basic structure of the text, understanding only what is expressed explicitly; it does not require deep intellectual processing. Literal reading can occur on two levels: a basic one, focused on recognizing information, and a deeper one, which involves understanding the progression of ideas and the central theme of the text.
2. Inferential comprehension: This level involves interpreting information that is not explicitly stated. The reader “reads between the lines,” connecting the content to their previous knowledge, formulating hypotheses, and drawing conclusions. This requires a higher level of abstraction and favors connecting the text with other knowledge.
3. Critical comprehension: At this level, the reader evaluates the text, accepting or rejecting it based on well-founded arguments. It involves analysis, reflection, and a personal stance on the content. It represents active and reflective reading, which is ideal for educational processes.

Likewise, Monash University highlights essential points in the process of developing reading comprehension. These favor note-taking for learning in academic environments:

• Decoding: Decoding is an essential stage of reading. It consists of relating symbols, words, pronunciation, and meaning. To understand a text, one must observe the words accurately, especially when starting to study in a new discipline with unknown terminology, so it will sometimes be necessary to consult books, dictionaries, or encyclopedias.su
• Fluency: Reading fluency is based on word recognition, which speeds up the reading and comprehension of the text. Fluent readers read with rhythm, grouping words to make sense of them. They discern the author’s voice, picking up on their attitude or personality. To develop fluency, one must practice reading consistently and purposefully, since it requires seeing a word between 4 and 14 times to recognize it automatically.
• Vocabulary: To understand a text, it is necessary to know the meaning of most of the words. A good vocabulary is key, especially in specialized areas where specific terminology is learned through teaching and reading. The more exposed a person is to these terms, the more their vocabulary and fluency grow.
• Sentence structure and cohesion: Understanding sentence structure and how ideas are connected within and between them (cohesion) is not only a writing skill, but also a reading skill. Understanding how ideas are linked at the sentence level facilitates the interpretation of paragraph and text meanings, thereby contributing to content consistency and coherence. If you have difficulties with the structure of your writing, it probably affects reading comprehension as well.
• Reasoning and prior knowledge: Most readers relate what they read to what they already know, so it is helpful to call on previous knowledge when reading, as well as learning to read between the lines to grasp implicit meanings. Critical reading involves analyzing new ideas in conjunction with prior knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of them.
• Attention and working memory: Reading fluently is not enough; it requires maintaining attention and retaining information. Attention enables the absorption of content, and working memory facilitates its processing and knowledge building.

As can be seen, reading comprehension is a complex and multidimensional competency that goes beyond merely decoding words. It requires the activation of various cognitive processes and the progressive development of skills. This brings us to the next point:

How can I improve my students’ reading comprehension?

As explained above, reading comprehension is a fundamental skill in the learning process because it enables students to access, process, and build knowledge from texts. However, many teachers face the daily challenge of getting their students not only to read, but actually to understand what they read; failure to do so affects academic performance in all areas, limits critical thinking, and hinders the development of intellectual autonomy.

Here are some strategies that will help you address this area of opportunity in the classroom.

Reading strategies

One of Solé’s proposals, as cited in Montoya Álvarez et al. (2016), highlights three primary moments: before, during, and after the reading.

Pre-reading strategies: The pre-reading activities should prepare the reader to understand and accept the text, considering both its language and cultural content. They should define clear objectives and purposes to guide this stage and make the reader ask themselves: Why, what, and what is the purpose of this reading? In virtual environments, these activities can be enriched with resources such as videos, audios, animations, simulators, interactive objects, chats, and social networks.

Strategies during reading: Next, various methods are applied, linked to modalities such as guided, commented, shared, or independent reading, which facilitate interaction with the content and encourage different levels of participation. Among these are sampling, which selects relevant information; the use of schemas, which connect the text with previous experiences; and prediction, which allows for anticipating the content. These strategies also promote self-control and self-correction skills, essential for critical and self-reflective reading.

Post-reading strategies: These strategies focus on the global comprehension of the text and the application of knowledge gained during reading; in this way, it is possible to elaborate a summary or synthesis, in addition to expanding on what has been learned through reading.

Prioritization of information

This strategy emphasizes the importance of having sufficient information to construct substantial knowledge, linking the new to existing knowledge. This context includes implementing techniques such as concept maps, which visualize the relationships between general and specific concepts, facilitating the understanding and organization of knowledge. These maps comprise concepts, propositions, and linking words that reflect the theory of meaningful learning.

On the other hand, mind maps allow ideas to be represented visually and strikingly. They start from a central idea, from which subtopics connected by keywords or images emerge. These types of graphic organizers simplify complex information, stimulate creativity, and enhance critical thinking.

In both cases, the teacher plays a crucial role, utilizing these tools to promote abstraction, integration, and meaningful knowledge transmission.

Assisted scaffolding

Assisted scaffolding is a pedagogical approach in which a teacher or tutor offers provisional help to a student, assisting them in performing a task or understanding a concept that they have not yet fully mastered, and accompanying them until they can develop autonomously in their learning.

Martínez-Díaz et al. (2011) exemplify it in reading comprehension as follows:

1. Use of scaffolds that facilitate the learning of implicit skills, such as encouraging the use of “keywords” (who, what, when, where, why, how) to ask questions after a reading.
2. Strategy modeling, where the teacher demonstrates how to generate questions from a text.
3. Thinking aloud, through which the teacher exposes their mental processes to solve problems, guiding the student.
4. Anticipating difficulties, identifying possible errors during instruction, and addressing them preventively.
5. Visual support with signage cards, which serve as a reminder of procedures, until students no longer need them.
6. Partially solved examples, which allow students to determine what is missing.
7. Graduated difficulty, beginning with simple tasks and progressing to more complex ones.
8. Reciprocal teaching involves alternating roles between the teacher and students to encourage active participation.
9. Checklists help students evaluate their answers and develop critical thinking.

Life Skills

Remember that selecting didactic strategies to implement in the classroom must respond to both the educational objectives and the specific characteristics and needs of the students. However, given the importance of university students developing reading comprehension, teaching staff must adopt relevant pedagogical methodologies that attain this purpose. Thus, opt for approaches that not only stimulate students’ active participation but also promote the strengthening of cognitive skills, such as analysis, inference, and critical reflection.

Luisa Guillermina Ramírez Mazariegos, a professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey, explains that the reading comprehension skills of a higher education student are the following:

Reading comprehension develops at different levels, since each reader interprets the text in a particular way. Therefore, both teachers and students must identify the level achieved in each reading to apply strategies that favor progressive improvement. This process depends on several factors, including the reader, the text content, prior knowledge, and the methods employed during reading.

Additionally, it requires deliberate pedagogical planning, in which learning objectives are coherently integrated with active learning methodologies and appropriate teaching resources. Only through this articulation is it possible to transcend a merely literal understanding of the text, orienting reading towards a formative function that enables the construction of knowledge, the development of autonomous thinking, and greater academic involvement. In this way, it will significantly contribute to the training of critical and competent readers, capable of facing the intellectual challenges of higher education and a constantly evolving social environment with confidence.

Translation by Daniel Wetta

Andrea Cristina Alvarez Pacheco

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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0