Reading Comprehension: A Key Skill for Higher Education Success

This report examines the critical role of reading comprehension in higher education, emphasizing its impact on knowledge acquisition, language development, and critical thinking. It explores the significance of comprehension strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, inferring, questioning, summarizing, and visualizing. The literature review also addresses obstacles to comprehension, including phrasing issues, inactive reading, vocabulary limitations, and distractions. The discussion highlights techniques for information retention, like focused attention, organization, elaboration, and visualization. Recommendations are provided to encourage reading habits and the report concludes by stressing the importance of reading for academic success, personal growth, and preparedness for the competitive world. The report emphasizes the roles of educators and parents in fostering a reading culture among students.

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER
EDUCATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
A) Role Of Comprehension........................................................................................................3
B) Obstacles Pertaining To Building Comprehension And Retention........................................4
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
It is very important to understand the factors why reading can make a person more
knowledgeable and will help them to grow in the future. It is very important to read because not
all the online statistics are trust worthy and understanding this factor is very important because
this can get a lot of factors of life wrong. Reading develops a persons mind and that is a very
important factor. Reading can also help the people to develop their language skills which is very
important because communication in today's world is necessary.
The report will be a discussion about why reading is important and why the people
should prefer reading and what are the measures one can take so that the people change there
opinion about reading.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A) Role Of Comprehension
In concern with (Stahl, Flanigan and McKenna, 2019) reading comprehension is very
important in everyone's life because they must understand the factors they are reading, they
should be able to not just understand the comprehension but also be able to question the writers
and answer the questions which are related to the writing. Though the importance of this reading
has lot it's importance in today's world because people do not prefer reading.
In accordance with (Assiter, 2017) Reading strategies for making the reading effective
are activating, inferring, monitoring clarifying, questioning, searching selecting, summarizing
and visualizing organizing. The further report will discuss these factors in detail.
Activating
The reading are asked to speak something from there experience and long term memory
about a topic or something relevant to that topic. So that the reads will remember the text they
are reading for the long term memory.
Inferring
There is a discussion on the text that what is written in the text and what is not written in
the text which would bring more beauty to the text or the writer has not been able to speak
through the text (Meyer and Ray, 2017).
Questioning
There is a sense of self questioning about the text, question answer about the text and
there are questions which can be generated by the readers themselves.

Summarizing
The readers are supposed to write the text in their own words, and they are not supposed
to use the original text. This is done for the readers better understanding.
Visualizing Organizing
There are relevant images which are shown to the readers so that they remember the text
for a long term memory.
As per the view of (Nisbet and Shucksmith, 2017) the readers have to read the text
properly so that the text can be a comprehension and there is a sense of enjoyment in the readers
for the text they are reading. Deep reading can be called slow reading as well because it is very
important for the readers to understand each line they are reading for the further references. The
role of deeper reading thinking skills is that the readers will have an ability to question things
better and there cognitive ability will also improve. The reading the readers are doing has to be
understood by them so that they can improve on their cognitive thinking and the that knowledge
can help the readers to solve their future problems with this experience. Students who will read
more will have better academics in the school or college and that will help the student to get
higher job opportunities which is a very good thing (Jablonski, 2018). That is exactly why there
are achievement awards academically so that the students do well in studies for that and that will
make the students read and study more so that they can do good for personal growth.
B) Obstacles Pertaining To Building Comprehension And Retention
In accordance with (Sclater, Peasgood and Mullan, 2016) the obstacles which can be seen
in building up a comprehension are phrasing, inactive reading, lack of smooth reading, limitation
on vocabulary and attempts to read texts which are too hard. There is a high need for the readers
to refer to the library for further reading and that is a very important factor. People should start
going to the library because the books have the exact answer to the questions the readers have
with them concerning any text. There are a lot of troubles which an individual faces because of
there limitation in knowledge, and they are not even willing to read more to improve that factor
for themselves (Klingner, Vaughn and Boardman, 2015). The students are not very focused, and
they are not reading the texts with full concentration therefore this learning or reading will not
stay in the student's memory for a long time. The students do not use that text in real life
experiences because they can not remember them, so they are not being able to use them in the
real life which is making a barrier in the student's life's. Reading is less in the students therefore

there reading is slow and the students are not having correct grammar when they are writing
themselves.
As per the view of (Al-Emran, Elsherif and Shaalan, 2016) it is very important that the
students start reading more because there is a lot of knowledge which the students can get from
books than online because half of it is distraction and not trust worthy which is making the
students even more confused. The confusion can be removed in the students if they start reading
more because they will have the skills to question the writers which means they will be able to
become independent faster and make a living for themselves better, and they will have
knowledge which will help them when they get jobs (Wilson, 2018). It is very important for the
students to grow because there is a lot of competition in the market and if they do not read and
gain knowledge in school level then they will not be prepared for the competitive world outside
the office which is very important for the students because that is there actual competition in life.
It is very difficult to make a living for oneself in the real world and that can only be possible
when the students get to know the importance of reading daily so that they can gain more
outside.
DISCUSSION
In view of (McGeown and et.al., 2015) there are a lot of methods through with a person
can achieve information retention out of which, few of them are as follows.
Focused Attention
The reader who wants to make the short team memory into long term memory then the
readers must read the information properly so that they can remember it (Hayikaleng, Nair and
Krishnasamy, 2016). It is very important to read the text with full attention and with focus, so
they not just understand the text they are reading, but they can remember it long terms.
Structure and Organize
It is very important for any reader to be organized so that they can make the learning
better and this way they will be able to manage there studying time. There are a lot of materials
in the world to read therefore managing the time and being organized with this process is very
important so that the change can be visible (Afflerbach, 2016).
Elaborate and Rehearse
This is a long term memory process because there is a detail understanding of the text
which will help the reader to remember it later (Nakanishi, 2015). There has to be a repeat

understanding of the text because after doing so after a couple of times the person will be able to
remember it after sometimes.
Visualize Concepts
The students must visualize the texts and can be compared to the real life so that the
students can remember it for a longer time duration (Sutton, 2019). The students can remember
the visualized image of the texts for a longer time and this can be proved by so many researches
which have taken place in the world.
Relating new information with personal old Information
It is very important for the students to use the texts in the real life as well because only
then the texts will be helpful for them (Schumm, 2017). The new information they are learning
can be compared to the old information they already know so that it will be easier for them to
remember them so that the students can use there cognitive thinking and be more practical in life.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is very important for the students in the world to become more practical and that is
possible when the students start reading texts which are practical and are knowledgeable for the
students. Reading is very minimum in students but that can increase by making the students gain
interest in this type. It is very easy to influence the students and if they are influenced then the
reading will become common in the students, and they will get to know a lot of things in the
world. Knowledge is everything in today's world. The teachers play a very important role in
making the students to read and make a change in the students life and if the teachers take the
right step for the betterment of the students then the students can get influenced and make the
students get a better life for themselves. It is the life of the students but guiding the students in
the right direction is the work of the teacher and parents of the students. The parents must also
motivate the students for reading so that the students get the habit of reading. There is new
knowledge from every text a person reads and there are so many changes which are taking place
in the world that students will gain a lot if they read texts daily.
CONCLUSION
There is a great importance of the students to read and that is very important because that
will help the students in the future. The students will get to learn a lot of thinking when they get
in the habit of reading new things in life. There are a lot of changes which are taking place in the
world and if the students start reading these texts then they will get the awareness in the world

and the students will be able to be ready for the real competition outside the school barriers. It is
very important to prepare the students for the real world outside where they have to make a
living for themselves which is done by the teachers and parents of the students. Questioning and
reasoning for things will come when the students will read more therefore reading is very
important for all individuals and not just for students but everyone in the world.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Afflerbach, P., 2016. Reading assessment: Looking ahead. The Reading Teacher, 69(4), pp.413-
419.
Al-Emran, M., Elsherif, H.M. and Shaalan, K., 2016. Investigating attitudes towards the use of
mobile learning in higher education. Computers in Human behavior. 56. pp.93-102.
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Hayikaleng, N., Nair, S.M. and Krishnasamy, H.N., 2016. THAI STUDENTS’MOTIVATION
ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION. International Journal of Education and
Research. 4(6). pp.477-486.
Jablonski, K., 2018. Improving Guided Reading Levels of 2nd Grade Students by Implementing
Independent, Silent Reading.
Klingner, J.K., Vaughn, S. and Boardman, A., 2015. Teaching reading comprehension to
students with learning difficulties, 2/E. Guilford Publications.
McGeown, S.P and et.al., 2015. Exploring the relationship between adolescent’s reading skills,
reading motivation and reading habits. Reading and writing. 28(4). pp.545-569.
Meyer, B.J. and Ray, M.N., 2017. Structure strategy interventions: Increasing reading
comprehension of expository text. International Electronic Journal of Elementary
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Nakanishi, T., 2015. A meta‐analysis of extensive reading research. Tesol Quarterly. 49(1). pp.6-
37.
Nisbet, J. and Shucksmith, J., 2017. Learning strategies. Routledge.
Schumm, J.S. ed., 2017. Reading assessment and instruction for all learners. Guilford
Publications.
Sclater, N., Peasgood, A. and Mullan, J., 2016. Learning analytics in higher education. London:
Jisc. Accessed February. 8. p.2017.
Stahl, K.A.D., Flanigan, K. and McKenna, M.C., 2019. Assessment for reading instruction.
Guilford Press.
Sutton, C., 2019. READING, WRITING, AND REFORM. The Learning Professional. 40(2).
pp.57-60.
Wilson, J.D., 2018. Student learning in higher education. Routledge.