Reading literacy and by extension text comprehension--remains a priority aim of education systems worldwide. As such, text comprehension may be considered the fundamental principle of reading and learning.
The learner, cannot be considered to have truly read if that individual has not fully comprehended i.e. made sense of the text; the development of students’ comprehension skills, therefore, is of critical importance in today’s vast, dynamic technological and digital global environment.
Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts can facilitate effective instruction in text comprehension which is the bedrock of the reading act and appropriate skills and strategies that build comprehension must be taught explicitly to assist students in becoming effective, independent readers to fully comprehend a variety of texts—informational or literary.
This raises serious concerns about the nature of instructional strategies for developing students’ text comprehension skills in relation to students’ attainment of Essential Learning Outcomes.
I often wonder, why is literacy such a big peoblem all over the world. And some thoughts crossed my mind. Does the developing world, in an attempt to mimic the developed world place too much emphasis on reading? Did our parents and grand parents not get by with their level of literacy? Do we have to "keep up" with the proverbial "Joneses"? Does the use of oral tradition be now seen as useless? Well do we now say that the countless tribes of Africa and South America are still living in the Dark Ages? I personally think that it is an attitude of superiority and arrogance when we start behaving as if being able to read is such a big thing. Don't get me wrong, there are some people who are deeply immersed in a literary environment and need it to survive, but the poor farmer who is struggling to make ends meet for his family should not be made to feel that he is doing something wrong if he chooses not to educate his children. Intervention to correct a "problem" is one thing but creating problems that are not there is just wrong.
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