combined strategy instruction to enhance reading skill

THE EFFECTS OF COMBINED STRATEGY INSTRUCTION IN ENHANCING READING SKILL

1 . Background Information

The era in which we are living in has been described as the information age ( Komenar , 1997 . A predominant characteristic of this age is the speed with which information is created , processed , stored or retrieved To say that we are inundated with information , often well beyond what we can comfortably take in , is to say the obvious . This development has made reading , an essential skill set to acquire . Reading is one of the means by which information is assimilated

. Reading itself is done for several reasons or with different purposes in mind . According to Catherine Walter (2003 ) reading can be in the form of skimming (read for gist , scanning (read for specific information , for pleasure , for learning and for gaining general understanding . For reading to be profitable in this era , one needs to acquire the needed skills in not just assimilating information , but more importantly , in doing so speedily . Several strategies and skills sets exist , which when learnt enable the reader to master the art of reading

Strategy , as it relates to reading , has been defined as a plan developed by a reader to assist in comprehending and thinking about texts , when reading the words alone does not give the reader a sense of the meaning of the text . It has established that there are seven core strategies for comprehending any given reading material These are (a ) activating background knowledge to make connections between new and known information (b ) questioning the text as one plows through a given reading material (c ) drawing relevant inferences (d creating images of what one 's is reading about (e ) repairing understanding when meaning breaks down and (f ) synthesizing information

It is estimated that there are now over One billion people online (Businessweek , 2005 . A

number of class exercises requires the use of the internet . The internet now constitutes an integral part of the lives of many people including readers . A good number of reading materials are read solely from online It is foolhardy to assume that strategies employed in reading materials from a hardcover material are equally applicable to the reader in the online environment . According to Anderson (2003 ) despite the increasing role this medium play in the lives of readers , very little research has been carried out to find out the strategies online readers employ to get by . Further more , he pointed out that research that pertains to online reading is one area which has not been integrated into other areas of research investigations . To this end , he advocated for more research into finding out the reading rates of online readers . Also , he called for the gathering of reading strategy data from the same readers in the online reading contexts as well as in hard copy contexts . This study therefore seeks to contribute to filling the knowledge gaps in the areas advocated for by Anderson (2003 . The importance of this study lies in the fact that the integration of the...