10 Juni 2011

Level of Comprehension

As we know, reading is a thinking activity. By now, we have read this several times. This process involves getting meaning from the printed word or symbol. In his resource, the researcher finds all levels of meaning or comprehension. In this case, levels mean different depths of understanding and different analysis. In other words, the reader of this research paper will be expected to read at different levels of comprehension. These three different levels of comprehension can be called the literal level, the interpretive level and the applied level. Let us examine what each means briefly.

a) Literal Level
The first level of comprehension can be called the literal level for the sake of wording because it is the most simple. At this level, readers or students can attempt to answer the question: “What did the author say?” At this level, the readers would not have to understand the true meaning of a paragraph; however, the readers could memorize the information. Instructors might ask them to read a chapter dealing with dates or specific facts. At the literal level, the readers would memorize these dates and facts. However, even though the readers have memorized these facts, this does not mean that they necessarily understand their full meaning or see the implication of these dates and facts applied to other situations. At the literal level, the readers are looking at what was written by an author at “face value”, little interpretation is needed.

b) Interpretive Level
The second level of comprehension is called the interpretive level. At the interpretive level, the readers or students can attempt to answer this question: “What was meant by what was said?” At this level, the readers are attempting to understand what the author meant by what she/he said in the story, paragraph or textbook. It is presumed that the readers have already memorized certain facts at the literal level and then they are attempting to see the implications of the author’s words. At this level, the readers are attempting to read between the lines. At this level, the readers are trying to understand that which we memorized at the literal level of comprehension.
Knowing the how and why behind this level of understanding is obviously a much deeper or profound level of thinking. This level of comprehension is that college instructors will most likely expect their students to get in their courses. Of course, they want them to memorize dates, facts, details, but they also want us to be able to understand how that information relates to and is connected to the “bigger picture” of what the students are studying.

c) Applied Level
At this level, the readers are about to elevate or raise your thinking one more “notch” or level to a more critical, analyzing level. This presumes that the readers have already reached the previous two levels. At this level, the readers are “reading between the lines” and then examining the message from the author and attempting to apply that message to other settings.

Abderson in Yatim (1996:106-107) divided comprehension into three levels including reading between the lines. They are listed as follows:

a) Reading The Lines
At this level, a reader is expected to comprehend what the author says in order words, in reading the lines a reader tries to recall what the author explicitly states in writing

b) Reading between The Lines
This level is higher and more difficult than reading the lines. At this level a reader is demanded to understand what the author means not just what author says. When the reader comprehends the lines, he then tries to make interpretation between the lines

c) Reading beyond The Lines
This level is highest from to others, a reader at this level, is of drawing inferences and making generalization of what the reader has read.

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