Understanding How to Help Your Child Read Why is it important for my child to read? The ability to read is vital. It paves the way to success in school, which can build self-confidence and motivate your child to set high expectations for life. People read for many reasons: for pleasure and interest for work to obtain information that will help them make choices and decisions to understand directions (such as those on street signs and in recipe books)to learn about the world to keep in touch with family and friends How will my child learn to read? Learning to read does not happen all at once.
Why we read? We read because reading benefits our body, inspires us to be better people, and expands our capabilities to be imaginative, creative and empathetic. A negative stigma about reading has developed in the current century: that reading is a mere pastime, that it is a taxing chore [or labour], and simply a hobby for the elderly or people with time on their hands. But reading is much more than this. In recent years, research into the benefits of reading has shown us that reading helps to improve focus, concentration and memory.
Reading is not just reading books because someone tells you to, it is the key to learning, and creating a mental picture of the world around us. Being able to read provides me with opportunities for a better future. My mom made learning to read exciting and instilled in me the possibilities that awaited me through learning to read. She allowed me to develop a love and understanding beyond my young
Franzese (2002) said that read aloud is when an adult talk about different genres of books and read then and the children listen. Terblanche (2002) said that in reading aloud, children can understand different matters and encounter with various topics that are in the books. Primamore (1994) also added that when students have difficulties in reading for example their vocabulary are poor, reading aloud can solve their problem and enhance their motivation. Seneschal and Cornell (1993) argued that when one reads a text aloud, children can learn new vocabulary incidentally. Guler (2013) said that read aloud is a dual engaging activity in which both teachers and learners interact with each other and teacher’s read aloud can be a powerful tool to promote student’s reading comprehension provided that it is integrated into ELT curriculum.
By knowing the importance of reading, a question may arise: How can teachers improve the language learners’ reading skill? To answer this question, a research study
However, pre-reading is important. In the pre-reading step, the book or reading material is discussed by the reader and the adult. When the reader has a general idea of what the book will be about, he/she has a great percentage rate of self-correcting errors. The reader and teacher may discuss the title and make predictions or even look at the pictures prior to reading. Once the child has mastered guided reading, he/she will be able to read independently.
Furthermore, Jacobwitz (1988) says, "reading is a process of confirming predications about meaning. It is interactive in nature; readers select appropriate cues from the text in order to fulfill their purpose '. Reading is more than a linguistic skill; it is also a general cognitive skill (Walter, 2007), Li and Wilhelm (2008) consider reading as a source of enjoyment for individuals. Finally, "Widdowson (1979) says that “reading is not a reaction to the text, but an interaction between the writer and the reader mediated through the text". The reader's prior knowledge and familiarity with the topic are main factors that determine the level of readability on which reading comprehension depends.
That is why there are some cases where pupils are not able to retain meaning as they were given with complex passages. Again in this article, Lenz has stated that reading comprehension is important for pupils to learn as it helps the reader in comprehending text and convey meaning through there. However, it depends to how the person read and gain meaning from the passage. It can also be through various strategies in understanding
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Reading is a process which is done and used by the reader in getting the message and information that is made by the author in the form of written or printed material. Generally, many people read a written or printed material for getting pleasure and relaxation. However, academically the students read a book which is made based on the rules of academic discourse for increasing their knowledge and getting some information that can help them in learning. So they should understand about written symbol on the text in getting the point. Kenyon (2008:5) states that when you plan reading sessions with your learners, make sure that there is time to talk about the text (passage, story and to write).
In other words, when a person has found the book he loves, he would look forward to reading it. This encourages him to read more. The same goes for students especially in schools. The reading materials available in the school library drive the students to read and explore more on the world of reading. Based on a research done by Owusu-Acheaw (2014), the reading habits of students of Koforidua Polytechnic in Nebraska, 62% out of 1000 students choose to read lecture notes when they visit the library.