how can we use our first language (Spanish) knowledge to succed at English reading comprehension?

References

Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (2002). The nature of reading abilities. In N. Christopher, C. Hall, & D. R. Hall (Eds.), Teaching and Researching Reading. (pp.09-39). Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.

Mcnamara, D.S. (2009). The importance of teaching reading strategies. Retrieved   February 19, 2010, From http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=4&sid=1&src hmode=1&vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=1&clientid=47007&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=1796506561&scaling=FULL&ts=1267187075&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1267187094&clientId=47007.

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The role of language experience when reading in a foreing language.

Some reading strategies

some reading strategies are

·     Connecting texts with background knowledge

·     Summarizing information

·     Making inferences

·     Guessing the meaning of new words from context

·     Comprehension monitoring

·     Skimming to get the general idea from the text

·     Scanning to find specific information in the text

·     Paraphrasing

·     Paraphrased translation

·     Literal translation

Reading strategies

    The influence of the United States in economical, political, and technological aspects increases the necessity to learn English in our Colombian context as in many other South American countries (Zuluaga, 1996). In Colombia, and all over the world, companies look for competent employees in the use of English addressed to a professional or occupational field, so that companies can become part of the international marketing. Under such circumstances, many people see the need to learn English with occupational  purposes —which is mainly focused on the content or areas of interest of a particular field— or at least to read in English at reasonable levels of proficiency to achieve academic, professional, and occupational goals (Grabe & Stoller, 2002).  

    McNamara (2009), suggests that an effective way to help readers is teaching them reading strategies, taking into account that reading strategies not only provide readers an effective interpretation of textbooks, but also the ability to identify and solve their difficulties in reading comprehension. McNamara (2009), also reports that general knowledge of a language is helpful to understand a text, but that domain knowledge —knowledge about a specific topic— is essential to comprehend it.

    Grabe & Stoller (2002), argue that because of the importance of English language not only for being the global language, but also for being the language of science, technology and research in advanced, many people have to approach documents written in English to be competent in their professional area. Under this concept, it is necessary to highlight the importance of reading strategies as a key to succeed at reading comprehension. Reading comprehension refers to the ability that a reader has to understand the content of a text.  Reading strategies are techniques that help readers to succeed at comprehending text.