Language Comprehension, a Cognitive Element of ReadingI. Introd

In this section you will hear a mini-lecture. You will hear the mini-lecture ONCE ONLY. While listening to the mini-lecture, please complete the gap-filling task on ANSWER SHEET ONE and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each gap. Make sure the word(s)you fill in is(are)both grammatically and semantically acceptable. You may use the blank sheet for note-taking.
    You have THIRTY seconds to preview the gap-filling task.
     (a thirty-second interval)
    Now listen to the mini-lecture. When it is over, you will be given THREE minutes to check your work.
            Language Comprehension, a Cognitive Element of Reading
    Good morning. Let’s begin today’s lecture by picturing a child reading a book silently to herself. She’s just sitting there, fairly motionless, staring at a book. Occasionally, she turns a page. Sometimes she laughs quietly to herself for no apparent reason. As the reader sits motionless, she is simultaneously decoding the text and comprehending the message contained within the text. That is what reading is all about — decoding and comprehension. The integration of these two skills is essential to reading, and neither one is more or less essential than the other. In this lecture, we’ll focus on one of the two elements involved in children’s reading acquisition: language comprehension.
    Language comprehension generally refers to one’s ability to understand speech. It is important to remember that language is not at all generic. There are different " levels" of language. Adults do not speak to children the way they speak to other adults: stories for adults are aimed at a "higher level" than stories for children.
    Further, there are different types of language. Language can be informal, as it often is in routine discourse among friends and family, or it can be formal, as it often is in classroom environments. Informal language for young children is usually very context dependent: the conversation typically focuses on information that is immediately relevant and often concrete. Formal language, on the other hand, is often decontextualized and abstract(e. g., asking a child to retell a story or to consider the perspective of a character in a story).
    It is also worth noting that there are different types and levels of language comprehension. The most mundane form is explicit comprehension — the listener merely understands what is explicitly stated. The listener may not draw any inferences or elaborate on what is said, but at least the listener understands what is specifically stated.
    A more elaborate form of language comprehension builds inferential understanding on top of explicit comprehension. Sometimes, in order to truly understand language, the listener must consider the context in which communication is taking place. Sometimes, one needs to "read between the lines" and draw inferences. Sometimes, these inferences are context dependent, meaning that it is necessary to consider the speaker and the audience. Consider the following statements out of context: "My car broke down the other day, and it’s going to cost $ 2,000 to fix! This couldn’t have come at a worse time, either. Bob Junior needs braces, and Mary hasn’t been able to work very many hours recently."
    Out of context, this person seems only to be seeking sympathy. However, what would you think about these statements if you knew that this person was speaking to his boss? He never says it explicitly, but it is obvious that he is asking for a raise. In real communication, sometimes the true message is never explicitly stated — the listener must deduce the speaker’s intent behind the message.
    For language to work, it is assumed that both the speaker and the listener are cooperating in their communication: The speaker is attempting to convey only the information that is relevant and interesting for the listener: the listener is trying to ascertain the important and relevant message that the speaker is conveying.
    The context, the nature of the discourse, the speaker’s underlying intent — these and many other factors are important to comprehension. Often, what is not said is as important to the communication as what is said.
    More than just an appreciation for the social context of communication and the ability to draw inferences, language comprehension involves a general awareness that the purpose of communication is to coherently convey information. Children need to develop an understanding of different genres, voices, perspectives, and styles. Children also need to understand how those elements may reflect the intent of the speaker, author, or storyteller, and how those elements affect the underlying meaning of communication. Young children typically do not have a well-developed appreciation of the pragmatics of speech, and teachers must often draw their attention to these comprehension skills explicitly.
    It is also relevant to note that, particularly in the Southwest United States, sometimes there are cross-language issues related to language comprehension. A child’s native language may be Spanish, and she may have high levels of understanding in Spanish, but if she is in a classroom in the United States, her language comprehension is most likely being assessed in English.
    Language comprehension in this context, then, refers to the child’s ability to understand and draw inferences from speech that is in a language the child understands, and that is at a level the child should be able to understand. If a child is expected to read English text, the child must understand spoken English adequately. If the child does not speak English, the text will be more meaningful if it is written in the language the child does speak and at a level she understands.
    Next time, we’ll discuss the second cognitive element of reading, decoding. Thank you for your time.