- •Language comprehension
- •Input reading 1
- •Exploratory task 1.1
- •Exploratory task 1.2
- •Input reading 2
- •Warming up discussion 2.1
- •Match the following word-recognition theories and theoretical propositions
- •Exploratory task 2.1
- •Exploratory task 2,2 Match the given metaphorical and idiomatic phrases with their meaning intepretation
- •Input reading 3 Theories of sentence comprehension
- •Exploratory task 3.1
- •Exploratory task 3.2
- •Input reading 4
- •Exploratory task 4.2
- •Exploratory task 4.3 What prior knowledge do you need to comprehend the text? (Mask the “tip” while doing the task)
- •Exploratory task 4.4
- •Exploratory task 4.5
- •Exploratory task 4.6
- •Exploratory task 4.7
- •Exploratory task 4.10
- •Exploratory task 4.11
- •Input reading 5
- •Exploratory task 5.1
- •Exploratory task 5.2
- •Exploratory task 5.3
- •Exploratory task 5.4
- •Exploratory task 5.5
- •Exploratory task 5.6
- •Exploratory task 5.7 Read this short joke and compile the “grammar” of this story in the space provided
- •Exploratory task 5.8
- •Exploratory task 5.9
- •Reference and further reading
- •Eysenck, m. And m. Keane. 1995. Cognitive Psychology. Psychology Press Harley., t. The Psychology of Language. Psychology Press. 1995
Exploratory task 4.10
You need to find information in answer to the question, “How dangerous is HIV today?”. Given below are the two texts. Read these texts and answer the questions that follow
Text 1 Infection with HIV does not necessarily mean that a person has AIDS, although people who are HIV-positive are often mistakenly said to have AIDS. In fact, a person can remain HIV-positive for more than ten years without developing any of the clinical illnesses that define and constitute a diagnosis of AIDS. In 1997 an estimated 30.6 million people worldwide were living with HIV or AIDS—29.5 million adults and 1.1 million children. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 1981, when the first AIDS cases were reported, and the end of 1997, more than 12.9 million adults and children had developed AIDS. In this same period there were 11.7 million deaths worldwide from AIDS or HIV. About 430,000 of these deaths occurred in the United States.
|
Text 2 More than 50 million people have now been infected with the HIV virus, according to the latest UN and World Health Organisation figures. More than 16m have died from Aids-related illnesses. Despite prevention efforts in developing countries, the increase in infections continues. Deaths from Aids reached a record 2.6m in the past year - 2.2m died in 1998 – and an estimated 5.6m adults and children were infected. There are now more women carrying the virus than men. One of the reasons is prostitution. African girls aged 15 to 19 are five to six times more likely to be HIV-positive than boys the same age. Life expectancy in southern Africa is expected to fall from 59 years in the early 1990s to 45 years between 2005 and 2010 because of HIV related deaths. |
Question 1 |
Are texts 1 and 2 alike or different? |
|
Question 2 |
Does text 1 give the answer to the question? |
|
Question 3 |
Does text 2 give the answer to the question? |
|
Question 4 |
What information is essential? |
|
Question 5 |
What information is non-essential? |
|
Question 6 |
What information is adequate to the question? |
|
Question 7 |
What information is inadequate to the question? |
|
Question 8 |
What is the answer to the question? |
|
Question 9 |
What data do I possess to prove the answer? |
|
The success of comprehension depends on a number of success factors. Among them are learner’s intelligence (when the problem raised in the text is not too difficult), the skill of critical thinking (the skill of checking whether one’s conclusions are “true” or “false”), experience of dealing with similar problems, arsenal of comprehension strategies (e.g. taking notes, creating a graphical representation of the text etc), situation of comprehension (a chance for co-operation with the teacher or peers)), emotional reaction to the text (when the text does not leave the reader indifferent), motivation (when there is a strong personal significance of comprehending the meaning).