Reading comprehension

Reading skills (English reading literacy, and reading ability or reading comprehension ) is the ability to single words, sentences and whole texts fluently read and understand out of context. Reading literacy is one next to the writing skills and the arithmetic of the basic skills that should be acquired already during the primary school years and expanded by visiting secondary schools.

The OECD defines reading literacy as the ability (from: PISA 2000, p.23) " to understand written texts to use and reflect on them in order to achieve one's goals, to develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate in social life. "

Reading skills depends inter alia on the read speed, and thus a high degree of storage of the reading of the short person. Other determinants of reading competence are knowledge, ability to lexical access, the presence of vocabulary (reading) motivation and attitudes towards reading, as well as knowledge of text features, reading strategy knowledge and basic cognitive skills.

Levels of reading literacy

The graduation takes place for the ability to solve tasks of varying difficulty. The degree of difficulty of a task is, inter alia, the complexity of the text, the familiarity of the students with the topic, the clarity of references to the relevant information and the number and conspicuity of elements that could distract from the relevant information. The distinction is in the three categories of " retrieving information ", " interpreting texts " and " reflection and evaluation " instead. The number of stages and their allocation to different sub- skills of reading depends on the underlying conceptual model and varies between different tests or education studies. It is about trying to make psychometric characteristics easier to understand and thus provide only an interpretation aid dar. Which competency level a person is assigned depends exclusively on the obtained raw value and gives no information on whether he or she actually the tasks of a certain level of competence mastered, or not. The following presentation is based on the concept of competency levels in the PISA study in 2000. These stages but were extended example in the study of 2009 in order to take account of a change in model performance. Also, for example, the PIRLS study is based on a different stage model, so that the results of both studies can not be directly compared:

Level I

Elementary, > students are able to:

• To locate explicitly stated information if no competing information in the text are available ( retrieving information );
• To identify the main idea or the intention of the author in a text on a familiar topic, the main idea is quite striking because it appears at the beginning of the text or is repeated ( interpreting texts );
• Make simple connections between information from the text and general everyday knowledge, the reader being expressly instructed relevant factors in the task and in the text to note ( reflection and evaluation ).

Competence level II

Production of simple links, > for example, students are able to:

• To locate one or more information in the text, which must be inferred from the text and meet several conditions. The text is complicated by a variety of competing information. ( Retrieving information );
• To identify the main idea and to understand further the relationships and the acquisition of meanings in the text on the basis of conclusions ( interpreting texts );
• To compare several connections between text and knowledge that goes beyond the text, and then with personal experiences and attitudes regarding increase ( reflection and evaluation ).

Proficiency level III

Integration of text elements and conclusions, > students are able to:

• To identify information that meets several conditions, whereby in some relations between this information must be recognized and prominent competing information is present ( retrieving information );
• To identify the main idea of a text to understand a relationship or to open up the meaning of a word or phrase, even if several parts of the text must be considered and integrated ( interpreting texts );
• Make connections between information and compare information and explain or evaluate certain characteristics of a text, even if an accurate understanding of the text in relation to familiar, everyday knowledge, or a reference to less common knowledge is required ( reflection and evaluation ).

Proficiency at Level IV

Detailed understanding of complex texts, > for example, students are able to:

• To locate more embedded information ( retrieving information );
• Categories in an unfamiliar text to understand / apply and interpret language nuances in text components, which take into account the text as a unit ( interpreting texts );
• Critical to formulate hypotheses or on textual information under the aid of formal / general knowledge and to understand long / complex texts texts ( reflection and evaluation ).

Proficiency at Level V

Full flexible use of unknown and complex texts, expert level, > for example, students are able to:

• To locate various pieces of deeply embedded information, and to organize, even if the content and form of the text are unfamiliar and must be derived indirectly by what information is relevant to the task ( retrieving information );
• A text with an unfamiliar subject and format completely and understand in detail ( interpreting texts );
• To evaluate with reference to specialized knowledge or a text critically to formulate hypotheses about information in the text, even if the relevant concepts contradict the expectations ( reflection and evaluation ).

Background

In recent years, doubts about the reading skills of many young people have come up. Some leave school with only rudimentary reading skills and develop in some cases gradually functionally illiterate. The review of reading skills was a central part of the international PISA study, in which the reading skills of students of different school systems was investigated.

Reading literacy is the basis for the acquisition of additional skills further, because in many disciplines knowledge must be " exquisite ", for example in textbooks. So you can identify the reading skills as one of the key qualifications.

Sometimes the shifts in media consumption in particular younger people (about their increasing affinity Internet ) held responsible for any actual or perceived weaknesses in reading and writing. It is highly controversial whether about the decline of newspaper readers in the lower age groups caused the assumed deficits.

Reading skills and life chances

Knowing how to read is a central part of today's culture age. The lack of mastery of reading also has other weaknesses result. Anyone who reads poorly, will have difficulties in the comprehension of mathematical problems in acquiring scientific issues. Just pick the konstatierten at the beginning of puberty deficits in later years still. To read good means to have learned fluent and sinnentnehmendes reading. In Austria are less than one percent "real" illiterate; three to four percent shall be regarded as "functional " illiteracy. Your knowledge and skills are not enough to cope with written language or computational tasks of everyday life independently can.

History of reading skills

In antiquity and the Middle Ages was the ability to read ( and write ) the exception rather than the rule. Even kings could sometimes despite training by Hofmeister not read ( and write). There were the clerics and the profession of the scribe who carried out such tasks for reading and Schreibunkundige.

A comparatively high literacy was the people of Israel. The five books of Moses referred to parents, their children ( and particularly the boys) reading ( and reading ) the "word of God" to teach.

A boost to the reading skills brought after the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in Central Europe, the mass distribution of the Luther Bible and the other documents of Martin Luther in the era of the Reformation in the 16th century.

The introduction of the Sunday school for many regional and free churches in the 19th century in Germany for the purpose of religious instruction and Bible study was a major advance for the reading skills of the German population.

Finally, the introduction of compulsory education, reading skills among the population promoted immensely in modern times, as well as the establishment of public libraries.

Even today there are in developing countries where the literacy rate is very low, the profession of the writer who is illiterate to the side, for example, in correspondence with the authorities.