Browsing by Author "Souter, Colin W"

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    Developing the reading comprehension skills of English second language primary school teacher trainees at an Afrikaans-medium college of education
    (1989) Souter, Colin W; Donald, David; Archer, Maureen
    There is evidence that many primary school teachers of English Second Language (EL2) are inadequately equipped to teach reading comprehension skills. They test their pupils on literal, at the expense of inferential, reading skills. This investigation therefore sought to test the literal and inferential reading comprehension skills of a group of Afrikaans-speaking EL2 teacher trainees and to design a reading comprehension programme which would improve their thinking skills over a period of nine months. The students were also instructed in a programmed reading course (the SRA Reading Laboratory) to determine its efficacy in improving their thinking skills. A further objective was to establish whether a programmed reading course or the author's cognitive reading development programme benefitted high-status (proficient in English) more than low-status (less proficient) EL2 students and what effects the two different programmes would exert on their reading comprehension skills a year after formal instruction in reading comprehension ceased. It was found that specific sequences of the two different instructional programmes were associated with significant changes in the students' reading comprehension scores. It was also found that, while high-status students benefitted sooner from the author's cognitive reading comprehension programme, that approach was also ultimately beneficial for low-status students. It is suggested that cognitive reading development programmes be implemented at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions where language skills and levels of meaningful reading need to be raised.