Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

This chapter is made up of three parts; (1)

Contextualization, (2) Comprehension Ability, and (3)

Synthesis.

Part One, Contextualization, discusses what

contextualization is and its impact on the comprehension

ability of students.

Part two, Comprehension Ability, provides discussion

on the process and mechanics involved in the students’

comprehension ability.

Part three, Synthesis, gives the summary of the

literature reviewed in the study.

Contextualization of Reading Texts

An important feature of the intervention is that it is

contextualized. Contextualization is an approach in which

skills are taught with direct reference to real-life

situations in order to make the skills meaningful to

students (Johnson, 2002). Instead of teaching reading and

writing skills in the abstract, contextualized literacy

instruction focuses on “authentic content.” The guiding

assumption is that skills learned through contextualized

 17

instruction are more likely to transfer beyond the course

in which they are taught. According to this theory, such

transfer would result from the similarity between the

contexts of learning and eventual application as well as

from increased student motivation.

Contextualized text is a text resulting from the local

circumstances and in accordance with learners’ needs and

cognition level. It also suggests that the text in use

includes language, understandable to the target learners,

and suits the philosophy and psychology of the learners and

the society. Knowledge shifts from one context to another

more successfully when the pupil understands not only the

specific but also the generalized vision – the fundamental

ideology, models, and associations attained through the

application of comprehension (Saqlain, 2014).

Contextualization is able to be a recommended method

to teach vocabulary since it can help students understand

the meaning of new words easier (Cameron, 2001). Meanwhile

REACT is one of strategies in contextualization proposed by

Crawford (2001). In detail, the five stages of REACT

strategy can be elaborated as follow:

First, Relating plays role as the fundamental stage in

contextual teaching strategy. In brief, relating is a

process of connecting the material with learners’

 18

experiences to their prior knowledge (Crawford, 2001). In

teaching vocabulary especially to young learners, teachers

are required to link the new knowledge and their prior

knowledge or experience.

Second, Experiencing has something to do with carrying

out the material into the classroom in attempt to give

hands-on experiences. This stage is aimed at helping the

students who have no relevant experience with the material

that are going to be taught.

Third, Applying can be defined as the stage that

giving opportunity to students to learn putting the

concepts to use in a real activity Crawford (2001). In this

stage, teachers can create a realistic and relevant

exercise. In line with that, Kesuma (2010) states that

through applying stage, the students are able to solve the

problem by putting the concept.

Fourth, Cooperating is defined as learning in the

context of sharing, responding, and communicating with

other students (Crawford, 2001). In increasing students’

achievement, cooperating is a recommended strategy since

Slavim cited in Zulmaulida (2011) claims that cooperating

enable students to learn together; sharing their opinion,

maintaining students’ responsibility to the learning goal.

 19

Fifth, Transferring means learning in the context of

existing knowledge, or using and building upon what the

student has already learned. In addition, transferring is a

teaching strategy that we define as using knowledge in a

new context or novel situation—one that has not been

covered in class (Crawford, 2001).

Contextualizing is “placing a text in its historical,

biographical, and cultural contexts” (Salisbury University,

2009). In this strategy, the reader understands that the

writing was written in the past so the reader

contextualizes and recognizes the difference of the

contemporary values and attitudes and those represented in

the text. In contextualizing a reading material, the reader

must consider whether its historical, material, cultural,

or intellectual circumstances change, complicate, explain,

deepen or otherwise influence his/her view of the writing

(Harvard University, 2015). Contextualizing a text requires

the reader to identify the text’s content and interpret how

its context differ from that of his/her own. This can be

achieved by identifying the language or ideas that appear

foreign or out of date; involving once knowledge of the

time and place in which the work was written; and finally

evaluating the effect these differences have on one’s

understanding and judgment of the text.

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Components of Contextualization

In any one program, contextualization of basic skills

instruction contains one or more of the following

components: interdisciplinary learning (Berns & Erickson,

2001), use of students’ informal, out-of-school knowledge,

active, student-centered learning (Dowden, 2007), student

collaboration (Johnson, 2002), use of explicit literacy

strategies (Paquette & Kaufman, 2008), authentic assessment

(Johnson, 2002), and teacher collaboration to identify real

world examples. Professional development may be given

(Stone et al., 2006) but seems rare. Guidelines for

contextualization have been provided for workplace and

transition programs (Kalchik & Oertle, 2010) and

instructions for integrating literacy instruction in high

school science courses have also been offered (Krajcik &

Sutherland, 2010).

Some programs have a vocational English language

component where oral language is taught to English language

learners using the content of specific jobs for which they

are preparing (Mazzeo et al., 2003).

In Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in

the California Community Colleges, Contextualized Teaching

and Learning (CTL) is identified as a promising strategy

 21

that actively engages students and promotes improved

learning and skills development. CTL has been defined in

different ways, based on the intent of the group

championing its use. Most recently, the United States

Department of Education Office of Vocational and Adult

Education (2001) characterized CTL as a “conception of

teaching and learning that helps teachers relate subject

matter content to real world situations” (Berns & Erickson,

2001). Chris Mazzeo (2008) broadened the definition,

describing CTL as a “diverse family of instructional

strategies designed to more seamlessly link the learning of

foundational skills and academic or occupational content by

focusing teaching and learning squarely on concrete

applications in a specific context that is of interest to

the student”.

While much of the research on CTL is fairly recent,

student engagement in contextual learning has deep roots.

John Dewey introduced experiential learning at the turn of

the century as the most sensible and effective way to make

learning meaningful for students. In 1916, Alfred North

Whitehead told the Mathematical Association of English that

“the second-handedness of the learned world is the secret

of its mediocrity”—hitting on a central feature of

contextual learning: the best learning is that which can be

 22

used. In the 1970s, functional context education entered

the education and training community and served as a pre-

cursory to what is now known as CTL. Based on lessons

learned from the U.S. military’s efforts to raise the skill

levels of its soldiers, functional context education is

defined as “an instructional strategy that integrates the

reaching of literacy skills and job content to move

learners more successfully and quickly toward their

education and employment goals” (Wider Opportunities for

Women, 2009).

According to Johnson (2002), [The word] ‘contextual’

naturally replaced ‘applied’ academics because the word

‘applied’ was simply too small to encompass the startling

innovations achieved by this grassroots reform movement.

The more comprehensive contextual—in context implies the

interrelatedness of all things. Everything is connected

including ideas and actions. Contextual also directs our

thinking toward experience. When ideas are experienced, in

context, they have meaning.

One of the goals and effects of a contextualized

approach is to capture a student’s attention by

illustrating the relevance of the learning experience. CTL

helps students find and create meaning through experience,

drawing from prior knowledge in order to build upon

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existing knowledge. A primary principle of CTL is that

knowledge becomes the students’ own when it is learned

within the framework of an authentic context.

In CTL, the traditional curriculum is “…placed in a

broader framework that integrates other subject content

into the learning process for the students. Learning goals

are elevated to higher order thinking skills in the process

of learning to find information, adapt to change, and

communicate effectively while relating to others” (Berns &

Erickson, 2001). In the traditional classroom, students

often struggle to connect with abstractions. An authentic

context helps the learner see the relevance of information

and creates a pathway for them to understand the material.

The SSE Instructional Design Series (2007) articulates

several characteristics of contextualized learning

frameworks including: 1) problem-solving within realistic

situations, 2) learning in multiple contexts, 3) content

derived from diverse work and life situations and 4)

authentic assessment. More broadly, Johnson describes CTL

as a “holistic system” (2002) with several components

working together to create a systemic learning approach—

suggesting that instruction and learning derives from the

whole and not from a discreet part. She argues that

together, these components create a network by which

 24

students are better able to create meaning and retain

information. These components include: 1) making meaningful

connections, 2) doing significant work, 3) self-regulated

learning, collaborating, 4) critical and creative thinking,

4) nurturing the individual, 5) reaching high standards and

6) using authentic assessment.

All of these features point to the importance of

relevance and authenticity, which resonate with the

objectives of the SCANs Commission. Instructors routinely

ask students to “apply” a concept at the end of a lesson as

a demonstration of the student’s understanding of the

concept, but the application of a concept to a real

situation is different than a learning process that is

structured around an authentic context. Svinicki defines

the authentic situation in this way: “an authentic

situation is similar to the situation in which the skills

will really be used eventually, or it can be a real life

situation in which the skills are needed but not

necessarily representative of the learners’ future use of

them” (Svinicki, 2004). Moreover, learning that takes place

within authentic situations is also more likely to engage

the student as a participant rather than an observer.

Another concept often incorporated into CTL is

“cognitive apprenticeship,” which also distinguishes

 25

contextual teaching and learning from mere application.

Cognitive apprenticeship refers to the acquisition of

academic knowledge and/or skills in ways that are similar

to those employed by craftsmen in technical occupations

(Bond, 2004). In cognitive apprenticeship, the instructor

models the skills necessary to complete a task, but also

helps students articulate the thinking that accompanies the

completion of the task. Cognitive apprenticeship differs

from the more traditional instructional models, where the

instructor explains the concepts and models the

application, after which students attempt to imitate what

they have just seen. Raelin harkened back to Dewey in

support of this strategy, stating “Dewey warned educators

that merely doing an activity was not enough to produce

learning; rather, doing should become a trying, an

experiment with the world to find out what it is like”

(Raelin, 2008).

Using a cognitive apprenticeship model, students do

more than just “practice” the skill in an application

process. The entire task is explored within the parameters

of a real-life situation, with the instructor coaching

students through the mental thought process that

accompanies the completion of the task and helping them

create an internal dialogue or narrative of the process.

 26

Raelin (2008) calls this “externalizing the process” for

the learner.

Contextualization beyond Basic Skills

Contextualization is also used in the teaching of oral

language skills to English language learners where course

work and everyday life practices are the simultaneous focus

of instruction (Mak & Coniam, 2008). Contextualized

approaches have also been used within teacher education to

prepare pre-service teachers to integrate literacy into

content area instruction (Perin et al., 2009) and to

increase their sensitivity to their students’ real life

situations (Pugach, Longwell-Grice, Ford, & Surma, 2008).

Another version of contextualization is found in “situated

learning,” which conceptualizes education as a network of

social interactions that form the basis of knowledge and

skill. Having noted these other uses, we return to the

current concern, the contextualization of basic skills

instruction.

Extent of Contextualization of Basic Skills

The extant literature does not provide information on

the frequency of use of contextualization of basic skills

instruction, but it appears that the approach is used more

often in elementary, secondary, and adult literacy

 27

education than in college programs. A study of

contextualization in credit-bearing vocational courses in

community colleges in one state found very few examples,

and those found were almost exclusively in math (Wisely,

2009). A broader search for postsecondary contextualization

in the form of academic-integration in community colleges

in multiple states found similar low usage (Perin, 2001).

One reason may be cost: Perin (2001) reported that an adult

basic education program used in community colleges across

the state of Washington receives 75 percent more funds per

student than for students in traditional basic skills

courses.4

Two Forms of Contextualization of Basic Skills Instruction

Perusal of the ways in which contextualization is

implemented reveals that it occurs in two distinct forms:

contextualized and integrated instruction. This distinction

has not been made explicitly in previous literature, but it

is an important contrast because each form involves

different teaching staff and instructional emphases.

Contextualized instruction would be employed by instructors

of reading, writing, and math, while integrated instruction

would be the province of discipline-area instructors in

both academic and career and technical areas. To maintain

 28

consistency with previous literature, the umbrella term

“contextualization” is used here to refer collectively to

the two forms of instruction.

Contextualized basic skills instruction involves the

teaching of academic skills against a backdrop of specific

subject matter to which such skills need to be applied,

such as philosophy (Snyder, 2002), statistical process

control (E. Baker et al., 2009), allied health (Shore et

al., 2004), history (De La Paz, 2005) and earth science

(Bulgren, Marquis, Lenz, Schumaker, & Deshler, 2009). The

primary emphasis of contextualized basic skills instruction

is the teaching of reading, writing, or math, and, as

mentioned above, the instruction is delivered by

developmental education, English, and math teachers. The

primary instructional objective is to teach academic skills

rather than the subject matter, although there may be some

implicit content learning as students are exposed to

subject-area material in the course of practicing basic

skills. Workplace literacy programs provide contextualized

basic skills instruction. Here, reading, writing, or math

is taught in the context of job documents and tasks.

Another example is instruction in a secondary English

language arts class on the procedures for writing a

persuasive essay on topics being taught in a concurrent

 29

history class (De La Paz, 2005). The latter model is also

used in learning communities that pair developmental

education with, for example, sociology, psychology,

business, or student orientation courses (Weiss et al.,

2010).

In contrast, integrated basic skills instruction is

the incorporation of reading, writing, or math instruction

into the teaching of content, such as in secondary social

studies (De La Paz & Felton, 2010; Massey & Heafner, 2004;

Nokes, 2008), elementary and secondary science (Tilson et

al., 2010), and college-level courses in marketing (Artis,

2008) or agricultural technology (Parr et al., 2008). For

example, using integrated instruction, a high school

science teacher can teach students strategies for

comprehending information depicted in graphics, or how to

write an argument showing why evidence supports one

conclusion rather than another on a scientific issue

(Krajcik & Sutherland, 2010). Integration is also seen when

a community college career and technical course instructor

teaches students how to write a summary of a business text

or when an allied health instructor teaches students how to

write log entries on patient care. While contextualized

instruction is provided by language arts and literacy

teachers, integrated instruction is found in discipline-

 30

area classrooms, with the academic skills serving as a

means of developing critical thinking about disciplinary

content (Pearson, Moje, & Greenleaf, 2010).

Integrated instruction may also be needed when a

content instructor observes that many students are having

difficulty with the basic skills needed to learn the

material, such as, in one example, when teachers “sneak in”

reading comprehension strategies in a college course on

symbolic logic (Higbee, Lundell, & Arendale, 2005). Other

types of integrated instruction are the use of “content

enhancement routines” in secondary content instruction

(Bulgren et al., 2009), where a variety of techniques are

used to support reading comprehension, including advanced

organizers, charts that visually depict and organize

information in text, mnemonic devices, and peer

collaboration.

Integrating basic skills instruction involves

providing explicit instruction in strategies for reading,

writing, and math in discipline-area classrooms. Content

teachers routinely assign reading, writing, or math tasks;

what is different about integrated basic skills instruction

is that the teacher provides procedural knowledge, i.e.

tells the students how to perform these tasks using

modeling techniques (Vaughn et al., 2009) rather than

 31

merely assigning them. The integration of reading, writing,

and math skills is relatively easy to accomplish in

elementary school classrooms since one teacher teaches all

subjects. For instance, the writing skills of fifth and

sixth grade students improved when teachers provided

explicit strategy instruction in argumentative writing as

part of social studies and science lessons (Klein &

Kirkpatrick, 2010). Complications for integrating basic

skills into content area instruction come in secondary

education, where teachers specialize in subject areas. In

this case, content-area teachers need to be persuaded of

the value of integrated instruction and be provided with

professional development in appropriate techniques.

Commonalities in the Two Forms of Contextualization

Academic skills and subject-area teachers may collaborate

to plan instruction in both contextualized and integrated

instruction (E. Baker et al., 2009), and both approaches

may be used within learning communities (Cargill &

Kalikoff, 2007). In addition, “hybrid” courses that combine

basic skills and career content in equal measure have also

been described (Wisely, 2009). Since these tend to be

taught by content instructors (Perin, 2001), hybrid courses

are considered a form of integrated instruction in the

 32

current overview. Both contextualized and integrated

instruction are a departure from traditional basic skills

instruction, where reading, writing, and math are taught in

the abstract, with little or no reference to authentic

applications (Johnson, 2002; Jurmo, 2004). Because

instruction must be customized for specific contexts, both

approaches can require considerable effort on the part of

instructors. However, given the high incidence of

difficulty with basic academic skills among many college

students in the United States (Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010;

Grigg, Donahue, & Dion, 2007; Salahu-Din, Persky, & Miller,

2008), it is important to find instructional methods that

can promote improved outcomes. Both forms of

contextualization seem to be a promising direction for this

purpose.

Reading Comprehension Ability

Comprehension is the essence of reading and the active

process of constructing meaning from text. Reading

comprehension is a complex interaction among autonomic and

strategic cognitive processes that enables the reader to

create a mental representation of the text (van den Broek

and Espin, 2012). Comprehension depends not only on the

characteristics of the reader, such as prior knowledge and

 33

working memory, but also on language process, such as basic

reading skills, decoding vocabulary, sensitivity to text

structure, inferencing, and motivation. Comprehension also

requires effective and strategic processes, such as

metacognition and comprehension monitoring. As readers

mature in their comprehension skills, they are able to

progress efficiently from the stage of learning to read to

the ultimate goal of reading to learn (Yovanoff, Duesbery,

Alonzo, and Tindal, 2005)

Putting letters and words together to form words,

phrases, and sentences is what reading is all about, but

one must also comprehend what is learned – to fully

understand a text one has to interact with a text and add

meaning to it. Astrid Roe as cited in Hansen (2016) states

that “reading comprehension is to make meaning to what is

read”. Vivian Cook (2008) further claims that reading

occurs in context, and that the meaning of a text is

derived from the previous knowledge stored in the reader’s

mind and the process through which the read tackles it. It

shows that it is not only enough to decode the letters and

words, one has to add knowledge and meaning to what is

read, and how can teachers help comprehend what they read.

Strong comprehension skills are central not only to

the academic and professional success, but also to a

 34

productive social and civic life. These skills build the

capacity to learn independently, o absorb information to a

variety of topics, to enjoy reading and to experience

literature more deeply (Shanahan, et.al., 2010)

Although learning how to decode accurately and

fluently a necessary part of reading, most researchers

recognize it is not sufficient to ensure comprehension.

Rapp and colleagues (2007) asserted that in text the

referential and causal/logical relations readers must infer

are not necessary obvious. They can be numerous and

complex. The process involves extensive background

knowledge, and requires coordination of multiple pieces of

information. This complexity and the demands it puts on

readers’ processing capacities is a major source of

comprehension difficulty. According to the RAND Reading

Study Group (RRSG, 2002), readers must have a wide range of

capacities and abilities to comprehend text, and the

process of comprehension is multi-faceted involving

vocabulary knowledge, and the use of knowledge source

simultaneously.

Ahmadi and Pourhosein (2012) expressed that reading

comprehension is a cooperative mental practice between a

reader’s linguistic knowledge (knowledge of the world) and

knowledge about a given subject. Reading comprehension is a

 35

communicating procedure in readers interact with the text

as their background knowledge is activated.

According to Rahmani and Sadeghi (2011), reading

comprehension is defined as a level of recognizing a text

or message. This recognition comes from the communication

between the words that are written and how they knowledge

outside the text or message. Reading comprehension depends

on the ability to understand words fast. If word

understanding is hard, learners use too much of their

processing ability to read individual words which

interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.

Reading Comprehension is a skill that is critical in

the educational success of all individuals. Without

adequate reading comprehension skills, students can

struggle in many subject areas. Reading comprehension is an

important skill needed for all areas of school. Subjects,

other than reading or literature, where comprehension

skills are significantly important include science, social

studies and math. In the area of science, research

indicates that many students lack prior knowledge and

reading strategies to generate inferences; thus, the

students comprehend science texts poorly. It is also found

that students lack the specific reading strategies to

 36

generate inferences that aid in the understanding of

science texts (Baier, 2005).

Reading comprehension is a complex process: the reader

has to construct meaning by interacting with text using his

or her previous knowledge and experience and the

information that can be found in the text. The more

background information related to the text the reader

possesses, the easier it is for him or her to understand

the text. Moreover, each text is unique in regard the

structure of the text, its genre, vocabulary, and language.

Several factors influence a reader’s interaction: how easy

the text is to read, how accurately it follows the

conventions of its genre or structure, the language it is

written in, and even the type and the size of font (Pardo,

2004). Reading is thinking cued by written language.

Effective readers locate the basic information from the

text. Literal comprehension is needed when reading fiction

as well as when reading nonfiction. In fiction, the reader

has to identify the characters and follow the events in the

story. In nonfiction, a reader needs to comprehend the

topic, learn new facts related to it and be able to find

and remember important information (Scharer, et.el., 2005

as stated in Storm, 2007).

 37

Reading plays a significant role in students’ academic

life. Pretorius (2010) found a strong correlation between

students’ reading proficiency and their academic success by

explaining that more reading leads to higher grades.

However, in the Philippines, reading is combined with other

subjects which means lesser time for students to develop

their comprehension skills. This results in poor reading

comprehension skills. Thus, students’ performance in other

subjects also gets affected. Quijano (2007) describes

reading problems the culprit for the poor performance of

some students in the National Achievement Test (NAT).

Synthesis

Based on the related studies and articles about the

influence of the contextualization of reading texts to

comprehension ability, the researcher summarized them as

stated herein.

Contextualization is an approach in which skills are

taught with direct reference to real-life situations in

order to make the skills meaningful to students. It is said

that students learn better if the teacher is able to relate

the lesson to the students, interests and experiences. In

this approach the teacher tries to suit his or her teaching

style to the level of the students.

 38

One of the common problems encountered by teachers is

their difficulty of making their students learn. As

observed, this is brought about by the fact that majority

of the students have poor comprehension ability which leads

to poor performance not only in English but in almost all

subject areas. Comprehension ability means giving meaning

to what is read. The inability of the students to give

meaning to the reading materials means their inability to

learn.

Reading comprehension is a complex process. It is a

skill that is critical in the educational success of all

individuals. Without adequate reading comprehension skills,

students can struggle in many subject areas.

Reading comprehension is very vital for the learning

process as it provides students with the ability to

understand , criticize and interact with the text; it

expands students’ trends and experience ; it enhances their

commonsense level; it deepens their thinking and assists

them to orientate and monitor themselves while reading; it

helps students comprehend a text dependently and the

teachers develop clear and successive instructional

procedures and it breaks the students’ inaction by

encouraging them to get involved in the educational process

more actively and effectively. Hence utilizing strategies

 39

that improve reading comprehension level within the

students is very necessary.

Contextualization of reading texts serves as an aid in

strengthening the students’ comprehension ability. Students

would be able to understand the lessons well if they could

relate it to their daily life experiences. The ability of

the teacher to make their lesson simpler and related to the

students’ interests and experiences would greatly have a

positive impact on their comprehension ability.