Unit- 4
Communicative Creativity.
Comprehension means complete understanding of a writing. Usually, we read very casually and without concentration. As a result, we retain a very vague idea of what we have read. An exercise on comprehension compels us to read with care and concentration. It also tests our reading comprehension skill. Comprehension of a given passage means complete understanding of what is contained in it. We are required to answer certain questions at the end of the passage to show that we fully understand it
Without comprehension, reading is a frustrating, pointless exercise in word calling. It is no exaggeration to say that how well students develop the ability to comprehend what they read has a profound effect on their entire lives.1 A major goal of reading comprehension instruction, therefore, is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and experiences they must have if they are to become competent and enthusiastic readers.
Benefits of Comprehension
1. Comprehension improves our reading skill and develops understanding of text.
2. Comprehension develops our habit of effective as it compels us to study with care and concentration.
3. Comprehension develops our writing skill because it gives us a useful practice in writing.
Extracting: By extracting meaning, a reader attempts to get at the meaning an author wished to convey. By constructing meaning, a reader creates a mental representation based in part on prior knowledge and experience. The constructive element of comprehension guarantees that each reader will come away with a unique idea of what a particular text conveys. As the critic Edmund Wilson
once put it, "No two persons ever read the same book."
Interpretation is either a mental representation of the meaning or significance of something, or an explanation of something that is not immediately obvious. Example: “I interpret what you are saying as a displeasure with the status quo.” This means that the hearer has mentally extended the meaning of the speaker’s statement beyond the words the speaker has used. understand. Interpretation is more of an ability to analyze what is understood. interpretation is to apply set of rules to extract the literal meaning of a sentence.
Summarizing means recalling the main points or ideas. A reader must first learn to sequence a text, retell a text using the language of the text, then put it into their own words (paraphrase) and finally select the most important ideas to sum up what the author has told them.
Summarizing is about finding the key ideas of the text. Duke and Pearson (2002) state that research sh"…instruction and practice in summarizing not only improve students’ ability to summarize texts, but also their overall comprehension of text content”
Summarizing provides an opportunity for a student to verbalize, write or type their understanding of the text. An extension could be drawing or creating a visual display or performance of the summary. By summarizing and sharing, students can discover any gaps in their understanding or misconceptions as well as validate their key understandings.
There are 6 steps for creating a summary:
1.List the main ideas;
2.Underline the most important;
3. Combine any you can;
4. Number in order;
5. Write the summary;
6. Edit the summary.
Reviewing: Getting an overview of a complex text, before reading it in detail, helps to build up a mental outline of the main ideas covered. Read the introduction and conclusion, as well as the first and last sentences of each paragraph. This process allows you to see the bigger picture of the text.
Analyzing: To analyze means to break something down into its parts and examine them. Analyzing is a vital skill for successful readers. Analyzing a text involves breaking down its ideas and structure to understand it better, think critically about it, and draw conclusions.
Analytic reading requires readers to break a text into its component parts, in order to understand its meaning and relate it to other texts or experiences. Research shows that, "readers of all ages must be aware of text structures if they are to be most successful". This includes being able to recognize individual elements of varying text structures, understanding the components of a writer's craft (descriptive language, dialogue, irony, foreshadowing, etc.), and recognizing aspects of various genres. In addition, analyzing allows students to examine cause/effect relationships, the difference between fact and opinion, compare and contrast ideas, events, or characters, and much more.
Developing theme and situation through Role play activities or Dialogue writing.
Role-playing takes place between two or more people, who act out roles to explore a particular scenario. You can also use role-play to spark brainstorming sessions, to improve communication between team members, and to see problems or situations from different perspectives.
Role playing is an important communicative activity. It allows students to practice the target language in a safe environment where mistakes are no big deal. They’ll get a feel for what it’s like wielding the language in different situations and contexts.
Role playing is a popular pedagogical activity in communicative language- teaching classes”. “Role-Plays simulate the real world in the same kind of way, but the students are given particular roles – they are told who they are and often what they think about a certain subject.
Role-play is a technique that allows students to explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way in order to develop experience and try different strategies in a supported environment.
This is the difference between you talking about a “hammer”—how to hold it, the different parts and uses—and students actually “swinging the hammer around,” pounding the walls or aiming for the nail.
An important part of your role in helping your pupils learn has to be helping them to think about what they know and what they do not know or cannot do. Unless you encourage them to talk about their ideas and listen to other people’s viewpoints they will not be able to extend their own understanding as much as they could. Straightforward reading and answering questions exercises do not challenge their thinking and ideas as much as activities where they have to apply the ideas to relevant situations. For example, pupils will understand the idea of gravity and how things fall to the ground much better if they have to plan and investigate ways to slow down how things fall. By discussing what they are going to do, they have to think about what they already know, why and how things fall, and what they could do to slow them down.
Talking in groups of about four/five will give all pupils the opportunity to speak and listen to other’s ideas, but sometimes just asking pupils to talk in pairs for a few minutes for one key idea to share with the class can be just as valuable. Shy pupils, who do not normally participate in larger class discussions, may feel more confident about speaking in these smaller groups and so you would be able to find out more about what they know and how they think.
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