Reading Comprehension

  Dr. Abdulkhaleq Al-Qahtani, associate professor of the Department of English at the Faculty of Languages and Translation, presented a paper titled "Reading comprehension and strategies of Saudi Arabian learners in two learning contexts: EFL vs. ESL" at a webinar hosted by Department of English Chair, Dr. Munassir Alhamami, on April 8, 2021. As a visiting professor for the University of Southern Indiana on sabbatical leave from King Khalid University, Dr. Al-Qahtani obtained data from five different universities across the Midwestern United States, a region that contains the largest population of Saudi students.   In this talk, Dr. Al-Qahtani presented evidence of a significant difference between EFL and ESL students in the strategies they use. ESL students were found to favor Global Reading Strategies (GLOB), which can be explained as universal techniques that we all use when reading. Dr. Al-Qahtani noted that he used the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) instrument developed by Kouider Mokhtari and Ravi Sheorey in 2002. SORS measures three categories of reading strategies, namely global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. At the macro level, Dr. Al-Qahtani highlighted that the findings of the 141 participants in his study indicate a predominant use of problem solving strategies, followed by global strategies, and support strategies.   "Saudi Arabia is traditionally an EFL context. Students usually have friends around the globe and use English as their preferred language of communication. English is no longer limited to the classroom," he said. Dr. Al-Qahtani then went on to mention that although the USA was traditionally a pure ESL context, that is no longer the case for many Saudi students, who through technology, communicate with friends and family in Saudi Arabia as if they were face to face. This observation, he noted, supports the notion that the ESL learning environment does not always lead to better acquisition of the target language in comparison to the EFL context.   Dr. Al-Qahtani informed the audience that his paper is accepted for publication in the near future, and he looks forward to collegial dialogue on the implications of his study and the potential for further research. Date: 4/12/2021 Source: Faculty of Languages and Translation

  Dr. Abdulkhaleq Al-Qahtani, associate professor of the Department of English at the Faculty of Languages and Translation, presented a paper titled "Reading comprehension and strategies of Saudi Arabian learners in two learning contexts: EFL vs. ESL" at a webinar hosted by Department of English Chair, Dr. Munassir Alhamami, on April 8, 2021. As a visiting professor for the University of Southern Indiana on sabbatical leave from King Khalid University, Dr. Al-Qahtani obtained data from five different universities across the Midwestern United States, a region that contains the largest population of Saudi students.   In this talk, Dr. Al-Qahtani presented evidence of a significant difference between EFL and ESL students in the strategies they use. ESL students were found to favor Global Reading Strategies (GLOB), which can be explained as universal techniques that we all use when reading. Dr. Al-Qahtani noted that he used the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) instrument developed by Kouider Mokhtari and Ravi Sheorey in 2002. SORS measures three categories of reading strategies, namely global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. At the macro level, Dr. Al-Qahtani highlighted that the findings of the 141 participants in his study indicate a predominant use of problem solving strategies, followed by global strategies, and support strategies.   "Saudi Arabia is traditionally an EFL context. Students usually have friends around the globe and use English as their preferred language of communication. English is no longer limited to the classroom," he said. Dr. Al-Qahtani then went on to mention that although the USA was traditionally a pure ESL context, that is no longer the case for many Saudi students, who through technology, communicate with friends and family in Saudi Arabia as if they were face to face. This observation, he noted, supports the notion that the ESL learning environment does not always lead to better acquisition of the target language in comparison to the EFL context.   Dr. Al-Qahtani informed the audience that his paper is accepted for publication in the near future, and he looks forward to collegial dialogue on the implications of his study and the potential for further research. Date: 4/12/2021 Source: Faculty of Languages and Translation

  Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui, Bachelor of Arts in English program, delivered a presentation titled Interpretive Reading at the seminar organized by the Language Research Center on November 27, 2019. The presentation was based on a research paper titled "Interpretive reading as a strategy to construct meaning in EFL Reading Comprehension: A case study at KKU EFL Classroom ", conducted by Dr. Ahmad Ismail Assiri and Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui.   The presentation focused on how effective interpretive reading is in reading comprehension. Dr. Siddiqui highlighted some previous studies conducted by Alsamadini (2009), Al-Jarf (2007), Carrell (1989) and Cooper (1984). The studies, he stated, emphasized the positive correlation between language competence and being able to understand written texts, and how reading helps in vocabulary building.   Dr. Siddiqui related that interpretive reading is the effective communication of thoughts and or feelings of an author to the listener. He then stated the research objectives: to determine whether interpretive reading has a significant effect on students' reading comprehension; to investigate the efficacy of interpretive reading in employing various types of texts; to compare the effect of interpretive reading to that of silent reading and reading aloud respectively; and to suggest ways in which teacher can go about using interpretive reading in their teaching. He, while explaining the methodology, also compared the statistical data of the control group and the experimental group. Finally, he explained in detail the research outcomes. Two video clips were also played, which demonstrated two examples of interpretive reading.   The seminar was very interactive and a great success. It is worth mentioning that the King Abdullah Road Campus also attended the seminar. Date: 11/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

  Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui, Bachelor of Arts in English program, delivered a presentation titled Interpretive Reading at the seminar organized by the Language Research Center on November 27, 2019. The presentation was based on a research paper titled "Interpretive reading as a strategy to construct meaning in EFL Reading Comprehension: A case study at KKU EFL Classroom ", conducted by Dr. Ahmad Ismail Assiri and Dr. Ahlullah Siddiqui.   The presentation focused on how effective interpretive reading is in reading comprehension. Dr. Siddiqui highlighted some previous studies conducted by Alsamadini (2009), Al-Jarf (2007), Carrell (1989) and Cooper (1984). The studies, he stated, emphasized the positive correlation between language competence and being able to understand written texts, and how reading helps in vocabulary building.   Dr. Siddiqui related that interpretive reading is the effective communication of thoughts and or feelings of an author to the listener. He then stated the research objectives: to determine whether interpretive reading has a significant effect on students' reading comprehension; to investigate the efficacy of interpretive reading in employing various types of texts; to compare the effect of interpretive reading to that of silent reading and reading aloud respectively; and to suggest ways in which teacher can go about using interpretive reading in their teaching. He, while explaining the methodology, also compared the statistical data of the control group and the experimental group. Finally, he explained in detail the research outcomes. Two video clips were also played, which demonstrated two examples of interpretive reading.   The seminar was very interactive and a great success. It is worth mentioning that the King Abdullah Road Campus also attended the seminar. Date: 11/30/2019 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

Erich Beer presented a short seminar titled "Some Practical Considerations Regarding the Teaching of Reading Comprehension," organized by the Language Research Center at King Khalid University, on September 26, 2018. The presentation was based on his experience of teaching reading comprehension in the Faculty of Languages and Translation over the past five years. Beer began his presentation by briefly describing his philosophy of teaching, and explaining the approach to teaching Reading Comprehension he had gradually arrived at. He maintained that teaching students the process of arriving at answers was crucial. He had come to think of reading comprehension as essentially being text navigation – students finding their way around texts and extracting basic meaning with ever greater ease and fluency. He explained that higher-level thinking would spontaneously arise once the necessary conditions for attaining ease and fluency were created. He spent the remainder of the presentation giving pointers for choosing, using and reusing texts. The presentation was thought-provoking, resulting in a lively response afterward. Date: 9/26/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

Erich Beer presented a short seminar titled "Some Practical Considerations Regarding the Teaching of Reading Comprehension," organized by the Language Research Center at King Khalid University, on September 26, 2018. The presentation was based on his experience of teaching reading comprehension in the Faculty of Languages and Translation over the past five years. Beer began his presentation by briefly describing his philosophy of teaching, and explaining the approach to teaching Reading Comprehension he had gradually arrived at. He maintained that teaching students the process of arriving at answers was crucial. He had come to think of reading comprehension as essentially being text navigation – students finding their way around texts and extracting basic meaning with ever greater ease and fluency. He explained that higher-level thinking would spontaneously arise once the necessary conditions for attaining ease and fluency were created. He spent the remainder of the presentation giving pointers for choosing, using and reusing texts. The presentation was thought-provoking, resulting in a lively response afterward. Date: 9/26/2018 Source: Mohammad Adil Siddique

On Monday, December 12, 2016, Mr. Erich Beer presented a talk on Reading Comprehension in the seminar series presented by the Language Research Center of the Faculty of Languages and Translation. The talk was titled: "From the top of a pole 100 feet high, how do you step forward? Questions, Intuitions, and pointers relating to Reading Comprehension." Mr. Beer started by explaining the intriguing title and then proceeded to share the result of a poll he had conducted. Two groups had been surveyed: male English teachers teaching in the faculty (Graiger and Mahala campuses) as well as graduating male students (Graiger). The two groups had been given the same questions except for one question which was only applicable to teachers. The questions dealt with reading habits and views regarding the teaching of reading comprehension respectively.  Mr. Beer compared and contrasted the responses from the two groups for the information of the audience. Sometimes the views of the groups compared favorably, and at times they were widely divergent. The presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session. The session ended with two gift vouchers being given away to the first two members of the audience who could answer a competition question correctly. It was an engaging and thought-provoking presentation enjoyed by those present. Mr. Beer's Appraisal  He writes: "The presentation (material) itself did not tie all the loose ends together, and there wasn't a proper interpretation of the survey result. Also, the preamble was disproportionately long. There were, however, several thought-provoking ideas that could be pursued, and a few innovations besides. I am an artist, not a scientist - I love (creative) ideas and get deliciously overwhelmed by them. They are like the contents of Pandora's box let loose - I simply can't nicely and neatly box them in, so I just let them be. Overall, I think, it was an engaging presentation, even somewhat entertaining." Date: 12/12/2016 Source: MD Adil Multimedia contribution: MD Sirajul Islam

On Monday, December 12, 2016, Mr. Erich Beer presented a talk on Reading Comprehension in the seminar series presented by the Language Research Center of the Faculty of Languages and Translation. The talk was titled: "From the top of a pole 100 feet high, how do you step forward? Questions, Intuitions, and pointers relating to Reading Comprehension." Mr. Beer started by explaining the intriguing title and then proceeded to share the result of a poll he had conducted. Two groups had been surveyed: male English teachers teaching in the faculty (Graiger and Mahala campuses) as well as graduating male students (Graiger). The two groups had been given the same questions except for one question which was only applicable to teachers. The questions dealt with reading habits and views regarding the teaching of reading comprehension respectively.  Mr. Beer compared and contrasted the responses from the two groups for the information of the audience. Sometimes the views of the groups compared favorably, and at times they were widely divergent. The presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session. The session ended with two gift vouchers being given away to the first two members of the audience who could answer a competition question correctly. It was an engaging and thought-provoking presentation enjoyed by those present. Mr. Beer's Appraisal He writes: "The presentation (material) itself did not tie all the loose ends together, and there wasn't a proper interpretation of the survey result. Also, the preamble was disproportionately long. There were, however, several thought-provoking ideas that could be pursued, and a few innovations besides. I am an artist, not a scientist - I love (creative) ideas and get deliciously overwhelmed by them. They are like the contents of Pandora's box let loose - I simply can't nicely and neatly box them in, so I just let them be. Overall, I think, it was an engaging presentation, even somewhat entertaining." Date: 12/12/2016 Source: MD Adil Multimedia contribution: MD Sirajul Islam