Dear Elena,

I believe natural reading comprehension, if I understand your question correctly is related to listening comprehension from early stages in learning (formally acquiring) the native language. All of us were, in a way, naturally 'trained' when we were read stories. We understood based on our socio-cognitive experiences and interaction to comprehend or make sense of the stories we were read by our parents, for example. We were not taught or 'trained' to read formally, but only naturally when we interacted with in oral/aural language.

My five cents

I'd suggest reading research by Paula Clarke (University of Leeds) who developed and compared different reading comprehension interventions. The website for this strand of work is here: http://readingformeaning.co.uk/

Hi Elena,

Your question seems quite comprehensive and slightly vague. I think you mean first language reading development. I perceived the word 'natural' as the unconscious cognitive processes during learning how to read. But related research in reading development (schmidt 1991, 94, 2013; robinson, 1996 etc) indicates deliberate levels of selective attention which make reading more conscious process when compared to other skills. Ortographic, morphological, phonological and parsing skills are quite consious processes rather than being natural. You can take a look at 'teaching and researching: reading by grabe and stoller (2011) and reading in second language by grabe (2009) which include valuable insight for first language reading. Good luck.

best 

emrah

I think that the best way is to have students read a lot, but to be very careful about what they read so that it is not TOO challenging.  It should be slightly beyond their current vocabulary.  Too much and it will be demotivating.

Check out this resource:

https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Psycholinguistics_English_Language_Teaching_Learning_Strategies_Reading_Comprehension_Learning_S

Found this: 

http://www.iejee.com/current.html

It is a special edition about reading.

Dear Elena

It's a fascinating question. In our GET network of schools, we use various technologies from very early age. Starting from few weeks old to increase the natural development of what would later be reading comprehension. It is whole system so it too vast to open in short here. Basically, it speaks of two complementary approaches:

1. That in order to substantiate what we comprehend we have to have a few references to support it; as an example if you say to a child: This is blue - there are not likely to comprehend it. But, if you say this is blue like the sea, and this is blue like the sky and this is blue like this flower - blue-bell and this is blue like my eyes. Then the child begins to build a network of references in their brain and this network acts as 'collective intelligence' inside their brain. So comprehension come from internal brain networking…

2. That was the easier part the next approach is to do with the understanding that it is not only the brain that learns and not only the brain that reads and comprehends. So it's important to expose children to experience throughout all their senses and faculties: When you tell them stories or read them stories; or when you teach them anything - to involve in this processes - their emotion and their instinct, their mid and their feelings etc. To make it curious and funny and inspiring etc.. The more parts of the child are involved the more they would later be able to comprehend.

So’ it's important not spate reading and writing from life - as if this belong to school only. But to make it part of life and the comprehending would then not be sterile and abstract but full of life. 

It depends on several factors but the age of the

students is a very important one. I think you can't

use the same tools with kids and teenagers, for

example. I work with undergraduate engineering students

and, in this case, the constant reading of scientific

papers is bringing good results. Specifically, I use

distance teaching tools (such as Moodle), to develop

and verify the reading skills of my students.

I think the best way to teach reading comprehension is use mind maps which depends on brain storming.

Mind mapping is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain. Mind mapping is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally "maps out" your ideas.

All Mind Maps have some things in common. They have a natural organizational structure that radiates from the center and use lines, symbols, words, color and images according to simple, brain-friendly concepts. Mind mapping converts a long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain's natural way of doing things.

I'm going to take a different approach here that reflects my research interests and publications. I think one successful way to teach reading comprehension is to have students write; not read first, write first. This approach may be taken on any level from first grade to post graduate engineering students. Have students write about something they know! If it's a first grader he may, with teacher scaffolding, write a sentence story such as, "My dog Pete is funny." Then have him point to each word as he reads it back to you. Betcha he can read and comprehend that sentence. Then he can, with teacher/peer scaffolding, begin to build sentences into a story. For the engineering student ask her to write about some facet of engineering she knows well or wants to know well. Then ask her to study her treatise and read it aloud to colleagues. Betcha she will comprehend her own text and collegiate feedback and input and enthusiasm will build her comprehension. Then go to a text that treats that same concept; expands on it, explains it in a new way, etc. Ask her to read that and write a summary of her understanding of the main discussion points. Betcha she can read with comprehension!

Namaste! Nancy

I think the subject is reading comprehension not writing comprehension. Some students find it difficult to write than to read. Therefore I suggest to teach them through activities that they can do individually of collectively. This can be achieved by reading the text and then you ask them to extract the answers. 

Dear Nancy

Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience; your practical approach seems like a very useful tool to promote reading comprehension. 

Dear Erez,

You're welcome. It really does seem to work--not for everyone, of course, there is no panacea, but it works for many in my experience. Good luck!

Dear Nancy & Elena,

The "do it yourself first" method really is an amazing one! And if you'd like to challenge your research a bit, I'd suggest testing it with subjects other than reading comprehension as well! I've found that extremely similar strategies can be applied through numerous domains!

It works on the basis of usefulness reward mechanisms, where if one can project his own creations/experience on that of the reading material, artistic design work, or even a trauma patient, it "allows" his mind to stay focused, and perform at a noticeably higher standard! 

If one can get a student (or one's self) to create his own work in the domain of study, it's basically a guarantee that the material will be absorbed (and hopefully inspiring)!

Hi Jon,

Beautiful parallelism. It hadn't occurred to me that this "personal funds of knowledge approach" could be used on such a wide variety of human situations. I like it! Have you published anything in this area or do you know of any published studies? I would be interested.

Hi Nancy,

Firstly thanks! And secondly, I'm just starting to get used to this research gate community, so I figured I'd challenge myself to find some articles from the community that might help!

Depending on where you'd want to start first, and what kind of specialists you have at your disposal, there are tons of different studies that might be useful in creating your own!

If your into music, or if you happen to have a proficient music department where you work, (or a Jazz specialist even better!) then I would suggest reading the following article that outlines the innate problems many graduate students have when learning to improvise... (essentially creating their own music on the spot!)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/35665094_Factors_and_abilities_influencing_the_development_of_visual_aural_and_creative_performance_skills_in_music_and_their_educational_implications_microform_

As a bit of a history lesson: Jazz musicians started out as uneducated piano bangers (or so some classical musicians would say), but as the Jazz musician continued playing, he would intuitively find the correlations between rhythms and notes that classical musicians usually learn through lots of theory and written work. As Jazz music became more and more common, a huge amount of improvisation was introduced into the rigid world of classical music, and now educators are picking up on the fact that the students need to start making music themselves immediately in order to really understand all the subtle intricacies of music theory that are blasted, like calculus rules, at their poor faces, lecture after lecture.

At the end of the article it talks about how mimicking well know styles can play a huge role in the learning curve, including the psychological aspects of all of it. And similarly when babies and toddlers are absorbing the world around them, many would say (even including the crazy Sigmand Freud) that mirroring is essential to human growth and mental evolution!

Article Factors and abilities influencing the development of visual,...

Hi Jon,

Thank you for that informative post. I will definitely access the link you kindly sent. I do know about music. I studied piano for many years and my teacher always recommended I listen to a few recordings of different artists for whatever piece I was developing, especially if I would be performing it.

What's interesting to me, is that when I was a k-12 student, the prevailing philosophy was that under no circumstances should one "copy" anyone else. A child should be completely original in their thinking and creations. I remember puzzling this out as a child and being bewildered at how I could possibly make every thought and action an original one. I am greatly relieved that civilization has advanced to the point where we understand that we build on one another's ideas and expertise.

It's a pleasure to contemplate and investigate this concept more, especially in light of teaching and learning. Thank you for opening some doors!

Best regards, Nancy