Tesis profesional presentada por Ana Karen Solares Baños [ana.solaresbs@udlap.mx]

Licenciatura en Idiomas. Departamento de Lenguas. Escuela de Artes y Humanidades, Universidad de las Américas Puebla.

Jurado Calificador

Presidente: Dra. Myrna Elizabeth Iglesias Barrón
Secretario y Director: Dr. Antonio Rico Sulayes
Vocal: Mtra. Patricia Ann McCoy Baballe

Cholula, Puebla, México a 16 de mayo de 2016.

Resumen

Reading strategy use and reading comprehension monitoring are essential cognitive processes that skilled readers use to make sense of texts. Comprehension is also enhanced through the employment of word-recognition, phonology, syntactic processes, and prior knowledge. These procedures are used when reading in a second language, and transfer most of the time to the second language directly from the native language. This study determined the extent to which bilingual International Relations college students transfer strategies when reading in Spanish and in English, and if this process helps enhance reading comprehension. The study included ten bilingual students studying International Relations at the private university UDLAP in Puebla, Mexico. Their native language is Spanish and their second language is English. This population was chosen as International Relations college students attend content courses in Spanish as well as in English and are encouraged to read in this second language. This research project contains observations of students while reading, applications of comprehension questionnaires, evaluations of strategies through the application of the "Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory" (Mokhtari and Reichard, 2002), and interviews with the participants. All these instruments were used to explore strategy use and transfer, from Spanish to English, text comprehension and awareness of the comprehension monitoring process that students follow when reading. From the results obtained, the most important were a considerable transfer of literacy strategies from Spanish to English as well as from English to Spanish, and little awareness of using reading strategies and of the comprehension monitoring process.

Key terms: bilingualism, reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading comprehension monitoring, L1 (native language), L2 (second language).

Palabras clave: lectura de comprensión, estrategias de lectura.

Table of content

Portada (archivo pdf, 16 kb)

Agradecimientos (archivo pdf, 6 kb)

Índices (archivo pdf, 209 kb)

Capítulo 1. Introduction (archivo pdf, 128 kb)

  • 1.1 Introduction and Contextual Background
  • 1.2 Research Problem and Research Objectives
  • 1.3 Research Questions
  • 1.4 Justification of the Study
  • 1.5 Limitations of the Study
  • 1.6 Description of the Study
  • 1.7 Structure of the Thesis

Capítulo 2. Literature Review (archivo pdf, 163 kb)

  • 2.1 Reading
  • 2.2 Reading Comprehension
  • 2.3 Strategies vs. Skills
  • 2.4 Reading Comprehension Monitoring Process
  • 2.5 Bilingualism
  • 2.6 Reading in a Second Language

Capítulo 3. Research Methods (archivo pdf, 137 kb)

  • 3.1 Participants
  • 3.2 Instruments
  • 3.3 Data Analysis

Capítulo 4. The Data - Analysis of Results (archivo pdf, 1 mb)

  • 4.1 Analysis of the Results of the Instruments from the Text La Ciencia Política en México: Papel y Desafíos
  • 4.2 Analysis of the Results of the Instruments from the Text Political Science in Canada
  • 4.3 Transfer of Observed Strategies in the Political Science Texts
  • 4.4 Reading Strategies Inventory in the Political Science Texts
  • 4.5 Interview
  • 4.6 Analysis of the Results of the Instruments from the Text Dimensión ética del desarrollo sostenible de la agricultura
  • 4.7 Analysis of the Results of the Instruments from the Text Reinterpreting the Definition of Sustainable Development for a More Ecocentric Reorientation
  • 4.8 Transfer of Observed Strategies in the Sustainable Development Readings
  • 4.9 Transfer of Observed Strategies from the Political Science Readings to the Sustainable Development Readings
  • 4.10 Reading Strategies Inventory in the Sustainable Development Texts

Capítulo 5. Discussion of Results (archivo pdf, 155 kb)

Capítulo 6. Conclusions (archivo pdf, 139 kb)

Referencias (archivo pdf, 126 kb)

Apéndice A. La Ciencia Política en México: Papel y desafíos (archivo pdf, 1 mb)

Solares Baños, A. K. 2016. Reading Comprehension Strategies and Comprehension Monitoring in Bilingual International Relations College Students. Tesis Licenciatura. Idiomas. Departamento de Lenguas, Escuela de Artes y Humanidades, Universidad de las Américas Puebla. Mayo. Derechos Reservados © 2016.