FOSTERING TEENAGERS’ COGNITIVE SKILLS THROUGH THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF READING TASKS

FOSTERING TEENAGERS’ COGNITIVE SKILLS THROUGH THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF READING TASKS

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

DANIELA LUCÍA MARTIÍNEZ BARBOSA

UNIVERSIDAD INDUSTRIAL DE SANTANDER

This paper was prepared for Classroom Research taught by professor Esperanza Revelo

FOSTERING TEENAGERS’ COGNITIVE SKILLS THROUGH THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF READING TASKS

Introduction

In the last twenty years, the educational field has experienced an increase of language

research based on learners‘ perception towards reading as a mean of getting to aware

people of the many benefits reading volume has when teaching and learning a foreign

language. This study is based on experts‘ works in this field and the outcomes of their

research which point out that reading enhances learners better performance, motivation,

and autonomy when learning as well as their capacity to discriminate the contents they

consider necessary for their reality.

This study will be carried out at a languages institute in the city of Bucaramanga with an

heterogeneous group of fifteen teenagers with different learning styles, social background,

preferences, and proficiency in the English level. This project has been thought for learners

that have never been in touch with a significant amount of written English texts and that

might find advantages when reinforcing their reading skills.

Literature review

Encouraging learners to go beyond

It has been said that an autonomous learner is someone who is able to learn on their

own even if there is a teacher or an instructor that, according to Lowes (1998), ‗… helps

and provides the learner with opportunities for them to practice the new language as well as

revise and learn at home.‘ We as teachers ‗…can promote this by encouraging and fostering

students‘ ability to remember, learn, extrapolate, and achieve on their own.‘ Target(1998).

That is why meaningful learning can only be possible if we want to learn and take an active

role in our learning and leave aside our cognitive laziness. Michalko (2012) claims that

‗One of the many ways in which we have become cognitively lazy is to accept our initial

impression of the problem that it encounters. Once we settle on an initial perspective we do

not seek alternative ways of looking at the problem. Like our first impressions of people,

our initial perspective on problems and situations are apt to be narrow and superficial. We

see no more than we expect to see based on our past experiences in life, education and

work.‘, and as a result, ‗Humans tend to avoid stressful and demanding cognitive strain,

often making them vulnerable to many biases. This ―laziness‖ and desire for cognitive ease

often invites individuals to a world of irrationality where the decisions made can be

detrimental.‘ Armenia, 2013.

Cognitive benefits of reading

As stated by Gough, Wesley (2013) ‗From the cognitive perspective of learning to read,

reading comprehension (or, simply, reading) is the ability to construct linguistic meaning

from written representations of language. This ability is based upon two equally important

competencies. One is language comprehension–the ability to construct meaning from

spoken representations of language; the second is decoding–the ability to recognize written

representations of words.‘

Nowadays, along with the increasing use of new technologies that supply learners with

the exact object of study they need ‗…learners have also developed certain reluctance

towards reading whether for academic purposes or as a habit.‘Asraf (2013). Krashen, 1993

suggests that ‗…one of the best ways to help students increase their language proficiency is

to encourage them to read extensively.‘ which means that it is advisable for us teachers to

encourage learners to read not only for the mere benefit of a grade but also to foster

students‘ reading habits outside the classroom. Besides, most theorists are agreed that

‗…the bulk of vocabulary growth during a child‘s lifetime occurs indirectly through

language exposure rather than through direct teaching.‘(Miller & Gildea, 1987; Nagy &

Anderson, 1984; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Sternberg, 1985, 1987). In addition,

many researchers are convinced that ‗… reading volume, rather than oral language, is the

prime contributor to individual differences in children‘s vocabularies.‘ (Hayes, 1988; Hayes

& Ahrens, 1988; Nagy & Anderson, 1984;Nagy & Herman, 1987; Stanovich, 1986). As

suggested by (Chall, 1983; Sticht, 1979) about the cognitive benefits of reading in language

learners ‗As skill develops word recognition, becomes less resource demanding and more

automatic, more general language skills, such as vocabulary, background knowledge,

familiarity with complex syntactic structures, etc.‘

For instance, Cunningham and Stanovich (2001) based on their research strongly believe

that ‗… all of our studies have demonstrated that reading yields significant dividends for

everyone—not just for the ―smart kids‖ or the more able readers. Even the child with

limited reading and comprehension skills will build vocabulary and cognitive structures

through reading.‘ Due to the fact that ‗In addition to its cognitive benefits, extensive

reading helps to develop a positive attitude among students towards reading in the second

language. It also increases their motivation to read in the second language.‘ (Hayashi, 1999;

Hedge, 1985; Constantino, 1994; Day & Bamford, 1998). This may happen because the

more one reads, the more he understands and it becomes gradually easier. Elley (1991)

asserts that ‗…children who read extensively appear to learn the language incidentally, and

to develop positive attitudes towards books when immersed in meaningful text.‘

Enhancing metacognitive thinking

When talking about metacognitive skills, we first need to identify cognitive skills such

as attention, memory (short-term, and long-term), logic and reasoning, auditory processing,

visual processing, and processing speed. For a person to get to a certain level of cognitive

development, it is necessary for him to know first how they learn as individuals in this case,

a foreign language. Because ‗The ability to construct the meaning of spoken language, or

language comprehension, requires a complex mix of different abilities, each somewhat

dependent on the other.‘ (Wesley,2013) both teacher and learners should be conscious of

the fact that one can do better in a foreign language if there is a way of interconnecting

different abilities with specific purposes and before start learning people first need to

understand the way their minds work.

It is known that ‗Good readers know how to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies

together to develop a deeper understanding of a book‘s theme or topic. They learn or

―construct knowledge‖ (using cognitive strategies) through a variety of methods, and then

recognize (using metacognitive strategies) when they lack understanding and,

consequently, choose the right tools to correct the problem.‘ Fountas and Pinnell (2000).

But what can teachers do when students have no concrete ideas on how to think their

learning process? Fogarty (1994) states that‘ …metacognition is a three-part process.‘ And

in order to be successful thinkers, students must be asked to ‗Develop a plan before

reading, monitor their understanding of text; use ―fix-up‖ strategies when meaning breaks

down, and evaluate their thinking after reading.‘ Fogarty (1994) also claims that ‗Good

readers learn how to use cognitive and metacognitive strategies in conjunction to develop a

deeper understanding of a content-area topic, a character‘s motives, a book‘s theme, and the

like. They construct knowledge through a variety of different venues (cognition), and they

identify when they no longer understand and what they can do about it (metacognition).

Therefore, constructing understanding requires both cognitive and metacogntive elements.‘

Defining the problem

The main concern from learners towards their language knowledge is linked to any of

these questions: How can I learn faster? What is the best way to acquire more vocabulary?

How can I improve my pronunciation?, and the like. But very few people ask themselves

about What is going on in my mind when I learn?, and that is actually what they should be

thinking of in order to know how to understand, control, and manipulate their own

cognitive processes because once you are aware of the importance of learning to learn and

thinking about thinking you have walked half the path through meaningful knowledge.

From my experience as an English instructor I have found out that most of my learners

have little or no interest in developing their reading skills by means of reading a

considerable amount of written texts because of the lack of commitment and understanding

of the relevance reading may have on their L2 improvement. The age group I have chosen

to carry out this research varies from eleven to thirteen years old teenagers at a language

institute in Bucaramanga; they all are in an A1 level and the majority of them have never

taken English lessons apart from their formal L2 lessons at their schools; therefore, they

have never read or been exposed to authentic written texts different from worksheets with

exercises or their text books. The fact that they have little or not a significant amount of

negative experiences regarding the English language makes them an appropriate group to

set up the basis of good reading habits and a deeper understanding about themselves and

how can reading enrich their language learning as well as their cognitive development in

general.

However, some learners might find useless extensive reading tasks in spite of getting to

know the many benefits of reinforcing this skill in and outside the classroom and because

of this possible reaction, it would be necessary to make parents feel more committed with

such extensive tasks at home and schedule reading sessions in the class with the aim of

tracking students‘ progress.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to foster metacognitive skills through reading tasks

designed based on appealing written texts for teenagers who have grown up in an era in

which technology has replaced the power books have in someone‘s life. It is expected that

once the learners reach certain level of commitment, they are expected to develop a major

autonomy at the time of accomplishing the tasks proposed, choosing and proposing other

texts according to their likes and needs.

Objectives

1. Is there a way teachers can foster cognitive development in teenagers?

2. Why teenagers do not find reading beneficial for their cognitive development?

3. What is the main reason why young learners do not enjoy reading?

Justification of the research

After years of research on cognitive development and how can reading skills enhance

people‘s better progress on their knowledge acquirement, it has been proved that a

considerable volume of reading in someone‘s life allows him to establish better connections

between their learning process and their autonomy on what to learn. This study‘s aim is to

widen learners‘ horizons regarding reading and show them how can this habit benefit their

language and emotional dimensions and be able to go further on any task, at any time, and

with any purpose they face on their daily lives. Besides learning about ourselves, reading

also provides second language learners with plenty of socio-linguistic input of the target

culture (vocabulary, manners, believes, and the like of a society) which raises learners‘

interest in learning about foreign cultures and compare, and contrast them with their

culture.

Research Methodology

The type of tools for collecting data necessary to carry out this project is mixed since

from qualitative research (interviews, questionaires) quantitative results will be derived to

accomplish an acceptable level of coherence between the model to be proposed and the

learners. Thus, the first step is to observe students’ behavior during regular English classes

(participation, previous knowledge of the language, development of tasks). From the

observations, the behaviors observed will be classified into three categories: students’

attitude towards the language, learning styles, and language usage. After that, students will

solve two questionnaires and a test. The first one will be a questionnaire about learning

styles so that we compare the possible efficiency of the model in different kinds of learners,

and the second one about their reading habits. The test will be about cognitive ability.

Once the data is collected and analyzed, I will manage to incorporate some components

based on the learners’ attitudes, and usual behavior when learning that could be beneficial

for their L2 development.

Data Collection Instruments

After the teacher’s observation, the following tools will be implemented.

Learning styles questionnaire: from this, learners’ preferences and abilities to learn

will be obtained from closed questions.

Reading habits questionnaire: this questionnaire will be composed by a set of five

open questions that leads us to a better understanding of their perspective on

reading.

Cognitive ability: in order to obtain information about the learners‘ verbal,

numerical and abstract reasoning, person's ability to acquire, retain, organize and

apply information.

Describing the model

The main objective of this research is to foster cognitive skills through reading tasks

designed based on appealing written texts for teenagers who have grown up in an era in

which technology has replaced the power books have in someone‘s life. Also tasks are the

main tool to get learners hooked with the book they are to read. Once the learners reach

certain level of commitment, they are expected to develop a major autonomy at the time of

accomplishing the tasks proposed, choosing and proposing other texts according to their

likes and needs.

The tasks consist pretty much on a set of videos in which the teacher guides students

while they read by reading aloud, making comments about the target culture and catching

facts about the characters from the book, and showing them other videos in which some

situations from the story are performed. While students see the video, they must answer a

couple of questions and other kinds of activities such as drawings on their notebooks. At

the end of every video task, the student will check his progress on a checklist that contain

different subskills and competences that they are supposed to accomplish once they have

done their task; this, with the objective of awakening students‘ awareness of their own

learning process.

Another objective is to aware learners of their own thinking by helping them understand

the importance of knowing their inner learner before they start learning anything. Because

of this, it is necessary to implement instruments such as tests, questionnaires, and the like

so that students find out the way their thinking takes place before, during, and after they

apply the model.

Along with the implementation of the model, learners are expected to become more

autonomous in terms of knowing themselves more than just learning a foreign language as

something abstract and that does not mean a lot to them.