Comprehension
Comprehension is, especially reading comprehension, the
underlying issue for many educational problems seen in today’s
society as well as in past times. The term comprehension, according
to Cooper (2002), refers to ‘the strategic process by which readers
construct or assign meaning to a text by using clues in the text and
their own prior knowledge.’ (pg. 11). Reading comprehension,
therefore, is one’s ability to understand text in its various
forms.
The article ‘Adolescent Literacy Addressing the Needs
of Students in Grades 4–12’ by Joan Sedit speaks on the
importance of text comprehension. It highlights the fact that
comprehension ‘varies depending on the text being read.’ It goes
further along to speak on the main areas which should be focused on
which are decoding and fluency. Decoding, according to her, is
entirely dependent upon an individual’s ability to understand the
relationship between the letter in written words and their sounds
when spoken. Fluency, in comprehension enables the readers to get a
better understanding of what he or she is reading. With this readers
accurately and smoothly repeat what is on paper without much
consciousness of what is going on. However, comprehension may be
limited in some readers and it is up to instructors to create
strategies to use to help such readers to excel in their reading
activities.
Schema and Learning
Linguists, cognitive psychologists, and psycho-linguistics have used the concept of scchema (plural: schemata) to understand the interaction of key factors affecting the comprehension process. Simply put, schema theory states that all knowledge is organized into units. Within these units of knowledge, or schemata, is stored information. A schema, then, is a generalized description or a conceptual system for understanding knowledge or how knowledge is represented and how it is used. Individuals have schemata for everything. As stated by Rumehart (1980), schemata can represent knowledge at all levels - from ideologies and cultural truths to knowledge about the meaning of a particular word, to knowledge about what patterns are associated with what letters of the alphabet.
We have schemata to represent all levels of our experience, at all levels of abstraction. Finally, our schemata are our knowledge. All of our generic knowledge is embedded in schemata.
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