HOW

ISSN: 0120-5927
how_journal@yahoo.com
Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de
Inglés
Colombia

Camargo, Jennifer; Orbegozo Navarro, Jenny Carolina

Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension Process through Their Life Experiences
and the Sight Word Strategy
HOW, vol. 17, núm. 1, diciembre, 2010, pp. 57-72
Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés
Bogotá, Colombia

Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=499450716004

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 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight
Word Strategy

Exploración de la comprensión lectora de estudiantes de inglés

como lengua extranjera a través de sus experiencias
de vida y la estrategia Sight Word

Jennifer Camargo
jennifercita193@hotmail.com

Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

thinkingsological@gmail.com
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

Due to the role language and literature play in the construction of social, economic and cultural
systems, reading comprehension has become a growing challenge. This study examined how the
relationship between English as a foreign language reading comprehension and life experiences while
using the Sight Word Strategy could prove significant. Fifth graders at a public school in Bogotá
participated in this study. Data were collected using tape recordings, field notes, archival data and
students’ reflections. Analysis indicated that comprehension and construction of meaning were
generated by sharing life experiences and through the interaction produced in each one of the Sight Word
Strategy stages. The study suggested further research into a more encompassing definition of reading
comprehension and life experiences correlation as an appropriate goal for English as a foreign language.

Key words: Construction of meaning, life experiences, reading comprehension, sight word
strategy

Debido al rol que juegan la lengua y la literatura en la construcción de sistemas sociales, económicos
y culturales, la comprensión de lectura se ha convertido en un desafío cada vez mayor. Esta investigación
examinó cómo la relación entre la comprensión de lectura en inglés como lengua extranjera y las
experiencias de vida durante el uso de la Sight Word Strategy, podrían resultar significativas. Estudiantes de

HOW 17, December 2010, ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-72 57
Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

quinto grado de una escuela pública en Bogotá participaron en este estudio. Los datos se recogieron
mediante grabaciones, notas de campo, trabajos y reflexiones de los estudiantes. El análisis indicó que la
comprensión y la construcción de significados fueron generadas por compartir experiencias de vida y a
través de la interacción producida en cada una de las etapas de la Sight Word Strategy. El estudio sugirió
investigaciones futuras respecto a una definición más amplia de la correlación entre comprensión lectora
y experiencias de vida, como una meta apropiada para el inglés como lengua extranjera.

Palabras Clave: comprensión lectora, construcción de significado, experiencias de vida, sight

word strategy

Introduction
Throughout the history of mankind, education has provided people with skills
that prepare them physically, mentally and socially for the world they live in. For us,
as foreign language teacher-researchers, one of the most important of these skills is
the reading one which, within education, requires an understanding of the role
language and literature play in the construction of socioeconomic and cultural
systems (Goodman, 1996). This research gives one a perspective on the ability to read
by considering students’ life experiences as a way to comprehend foreign language
texts as well as to understand and respect a different culture while using the Sight Word
Strategy (Fry, 1999), which provides learners with the necessary tools due to the
constant social evolution.
This research, based on the premise that comprehension must be the true and
final goal of all instruction in reading, proposed a strategy that has not been used in
the Colombian context, but in contexts where English is spoken: the Sight Word
Strategy (Fry, 1999), allowing learners of a foreign language to infer and comprehend
foreign language readings when relating them to their life experiences thus going
beyond textual information. This study, grounded on an innovational and
leading-edge scheme that materialized as an alternative to improve reading
comprehension, involved and recognized the learners’ voice, understood by us as
their life experiences within the teaching-learning process. Hence, the development
of students’ personal and collective identities, constructed by interacting with the
texts and sharing or discussing ideas as stated by the Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá
(2007), allowed students to state a point of view and to be part of a group, learning
values such as respect and tolerance for the others.
To conclude, this research project, by enhancing reading and by making the role
of the student within the teaching-learning process active, contributes to the way

58 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English

 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight Word Strategy

English is perceived. It also confirms that reading is not merely a decoding process
but a socio-cultural process that helps learners to construct meaning and identity
through imaginary worlds. Furthermore, the use of the Sight Word Strategy in a
non-native context as inspiring part of this research project, helped us to understand
how the teacher, by being conscious of his/her students’ needs, can apply and/or
modify what others have said as an alternative to educational problems.

Literature Review
In the last few decades, reading has received considerable attention in the English
as a Foreign Language field by both teachers and researchers due to its relevance for
students and professionals in several areas. Bearing in mind our experience as foreign
language students and teachers, we understand that reading constitutes the basis of
the foreign language itself because, while reading, the apprentice learns about
grammar structures and vocabulary as well as to understand and recognize something
of the culture of the language being learned. This belief is supported by Jiménez
(2000, p. 5) who states that “reading is the most significant skill in the academic
programmes where English is taught, since it helps learners to enlarge the knowledge
of the language and of the universe in general”, meaning, that learners do not merely
learn about letters, words and grammar structures but to reject and/or approve
assumptions, concepts and interpretations made by others in a foreign language that
otherwise could not have been understood in the mother tongue as stated by Barbero
(personal communication, August 11, 2010). In this sense, this study conceived
reading as the core involving concepts such as Life Experiences, mainly
conceptualized by views of Freire and Macedo (1987) and Comprehension, emerging
from the Schemata Theory described by Nuttall (1996) and Kern (2000).
When talking about the importance of reading, it is relevant to discuss its
definition which, as Ferreiro (2002) affirms, varies according to the epoch and to the
purpose of the reader. The epoch in which our research project was carried out was a
period in which reading went beyond the purpose of just being informed to include
being aware of the world, of the people and of the social situations they create in
order to understand and to discover how to be part of it.
In order to have a clear conception of reading, we considered two authors’ views.
The first one was Goodman (1996), who defines reading as a receptive language process
where there is an interaction between language and thought, involving the author’s

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

ideas expressed in written language and the reader’s experiences and knowledge that
constitutes thought. Under this conception, we could infer that reading is not just
decoding words but relating the information the reader gets from that process to his
own thought with the intention of understanding the author’s message or, as defined
by Goodman (1996), the process of constructing meaning. Consequently, we assumed
that the meaning each reader constructs varies in relation to another reader because it
depends on the ideas, values and experiences of each of us.
Anderson (2004, p. 598) corroborates that reading is conceived to be an
interactive process when announcing that comprehension is developed by the learner
in three significant moments: before, while and after reading. Before reading, the
reader speculates and hypothesizes as to what the text is going to be about by looking
at the title or the pictures found in it. In the second moment, while reading, the reader
confirms or reshapes the hypothesis s/he created in his/her mind and makes new
representations along the reading. In the last moment, after reading, the reader
establishes concrete thoughts and notions based on the previous hypothesis and
her/his prior knowledge and experiences. These moments, by taking place in the
reader’s mind, corroborate the fact that comprehension is achieved when the reading
evokes a learner’s experience (s) which is the determinant factor in the representation
and interpretation of a text. Considering this, and as stated by Zuñiga (2001), the
elements that intervene in the reading process are the reader, the text and the reading
environment.
In order to broaden the scope of the comprehension concept, it was relevant to
consider the Schemata Theory to explain how knowledge is organized in our minds
and how this organized knowledge intervenes in the comprehension act. Nutall
(2000) defines schema as a mental structure, which means that it is abstract because it
does not relate to any particular experience and that it is a structure because it is
organized. This organized knowledge works as a scaffold, where the old
information and the new provide a slot with the aim of comprehending by allowing
the reader to make inferences or mental representations about the text and to go
beyond the literal information. It is important to clarify that the knowledge of the
world differs with each learner as a result of his/her culture and past experiences,
thus, bringing to light more than one interpretation of a text. Kern (2000)
elucidated this theory by establishing a distinction between two kinds of schema:
Formal and Content. The first one refers to form-related aspects of language use (such
as grammar structures, syntax, semantics, etc.) and the second to background

60 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English

 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight Word Strategy

knowledge. Based on this distinction and the preliminary definition of reading as a

process that goes beyond merely decoding and the influence of the reader’s life
experiences, we could state that content schema plays a more important role in
comprehension than formal schema.
In keeping with this idea, Goodman (1996) declared that it is necessary to be
aware of why people read and what they are trying to achieve through it, in order to
understand reading itself. All of us can think of different aims for reading, but
whichever the reader’s purposes are, reading must give an opportunity to create
carefully reasoned as well as imaginary worlds filled with new concepts, creatures
and characters by integrating personal experiences in real contexts to facilitate
understanding and to make sense of what is being read. In our view; the personal
life experiences the reader brings to the reading comprehension process makes it
significant, were based on daily events, lifestyles, settings, and different situations
involving home, school, family meetings and interactions. These interactions
allowed the reader to find a text meaningful as long as he/she finds her/himself and
his/her own reality within, since, as sustained by Goodman (1996), making sense is
constructed by means of the reader’s own values, appreciations and experiences by
acting upon the text, finding connections, establishing relationships, interpreting
and going beyond the literal material. In addition to this, Freire and Macedo (1987,
p. 29) announced that “reading is not merely reading words but involves reading
the world and bringing that world into our reading”. This concept gathered much
of reading through our own experiences by embracing them and making them part
of the reading itself, thus constituting a relationship and expressing our
understanding of the world, society, and the construction of sociocultural systems.
In this sense, we could assert that the reading comprehension process works as a
reciprocal process, where the reader is providing the text with his/her own
experiences and the text, at the same time, is able to offer the reader new, significant
knowledge.
In summary, the examination of diverse definitions and theories about the
reading process and the confrontation we made with our own beliefs led us to
conclude that reading does not mean to decode words, but to understand how all of
them work as a whole and how, by relating their meaning to our own experiences or
previous knowledge, they allow us to comprehend which constitutes, after all, the
essential objective of the reading process.

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

The Sight Word Strategy

The Sight Word Strategy is established in some research done by Fry (1999) about
the English reading process by studying kids’ literature available in The United States.
Through it, words are introduced to children as whole units instead of analyzing their
sub-word parts and, thanks to the familiar themes on what books are built from,
learners’ life experiences can be related to it by endorsing comprehension.
Furthermore, Fry (1999) exposed the importance of graphics within kids’ literature
arguing that images, by representing the written language, help the learners to
understand their meaning and their function in view of the fact that concrete nouns
are learned easier than abstract words. This strategy was presented to the learners in
three stages in this study which we denominated pre-reading, reading and
post-reading, allowing both students and teachers to develop a meaningful class
through the use of reading tasks as well as to be able to use learnt concepts in real
contexts as stated in the approach.
The first one, the pre-reading stage as its name says, prepared the learner to be
able to understand the reading by introducing the vocabulary found in the book and
related to the book’s topic. Enlarging the learner’s sight vocabulary is the “hallmark
of a successful reader” ( Johnson, 1998 in Monroe & Staunton 2000, p. 32). The
reading stage was the central part of the Sight Word Strategy and was developed most of
the time in groups of 3 students. They shared personal experiences and related them
to the text, negotiating words’ meanings and generating hypotheses in order to
comprehend. This stage, as cited by Fredericks (2003, p. 22), “gives children the
opportunity of using their reading skills in real and meaningful contexts” and the fact
that those students’ personal experiences were integrated in, increased
understanding.
At last, the post-reading stage was built on a successful completion of the reading
stage, where meaning and understanding of the given text were discussed either orally
or in writing. Oral discussions, bearing in mind Henning and Pickett (2000, p. 23),
“are an important step when introducing new words because each student is
encouraged to participate and by relating those words or a specific text to students’
life experiences, students reflect on their own reading processes and how their
interpretations are influenced by particular cultural assumptions, beliefs, attitudes,
and values”.

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 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight Word Strategy

Setting and Participants

This research took place in a public school located in Bogotá where we worked
with 36 fifth graders, all between 10-12 years old. The five students, Piper, Bella,
Susie, Bob and Fletcher, were chosen at random as the research population for our
study and their names were changed for reasons of privacy. The criterion to select the
participants, as mentioned before, was at random in order to avoid researchers’
beliefs and feelings interfering with the investigation.

Data Collection Instruments

Our research proposal was a Qualitative Case Study grounded on Merriam’s
(2005) ideas. We based our investigation on a descriptive and exploratory Case Study
that according to Merriam (2005, p. 49) “is an ideal design for understanding and
interpreting observation of educational phenomena”. This assumption fits with the
intention of gaining an in-depth understanding of the reading comprehension
process as well as the context in which it was carried out and the implementation of
an innovative strategy (the Sight Word Strategy, Fry 1999) rather than confirming a
hypothesis. The research study was adjusted as it progressed and its purpose was to
capture knowledge, meaning and interpretations shared by the selected 5th graders
about the phenomenon exposed on the research question, which could not be
measured quantitatively. The data collection process was done within the natural
setting of the case, following Shagoury and Miller’s (1999) research procedures and
data collection process. Therefore, having the opportunity to explore the instruments
directly in our classrooms led us to realize that there were only 4 instruments that
could provide us with the information we required. The instruments were field notes,
tape recordings, archival data and students’ reflections.

Data Analysis
The process of data analysis we followed in order to answer the research
questions contained organized stages under the names of data organization,
summary, reduction and categorization (Shagoury & Miller, 1999). As a consequence,
three categories and one subcategory emerged. Their analysis indicated that the
participants constructed meaning and knowledge when they were able to bring to
mind their lived experiences and that they got engaged within the reading process

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

when the books evoked those experiences. What is more, all the categories were
related one to the other showing aspects of the reading comprehension process that
are knotted and significant as a whole, indicating that the construction of meaning or
comprehension is a process that is subject to the reader’s self and sphere, in which
reflection and ideas exchanged had been determining factors. Table 1 displays the
categories and the sub-categories for each of the questions posed.

Table 1. Categories derived from data analysis

Main question Sub-questions Categories Subcategories

Tying up reader’s
What is the engagement Familiar Practices
Cognitive and Affective
EFL students establish as Portrayals of
How is reading Dimensions for
with reading when Knowledge
comprehension Understanding
generated by the considering their life
experiences? Contributions as an Outsider as a way to
use of the Sight
Assemble Personal & Collective Identities
Word Strategy
(Fry, 1999) and What is the affinity
its connection among reading and the
with the EFL use of the Sight Word
student’s life Interweaving: Intrapersonal & Interpersonal
Strategy (Fry, 1999)
experiences? Interactions within the Sight Word Strategy
telling us about students’
reading comprehension
process?

The first category, as seen in Table 1, aimed to answer the first sub-question. Its
name makes reference to the readers’ cognitive and affective dimensions stated by
Ruddell and Unrau (2004), who were involved in their meaning construction process
and who gave account of their interpretations and understandings based on what
they had lived. Considering Ellis, Flaherty and Flaherty (1992), by grounding
interpretations on lived experiences the readers are enabled to connect the inside to
the outside, revealing their feelings, sensations and concepts towards the new
information. In this sense, lived experiences work as a conversation through which
we can come to know ourselves and others and the positions from which we and they
speak to construct meaning. The information obtained from the participants with

64 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English

 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight Word Strategy

respect to this matter revealed that the lived experiences they brought to mind while
reading and sharing with peers in order to comprehend included sensations,
emotions and concrete knowledge to disclose what they knew and how they made it
work as a bridge, allowing them to understand foreign language texts, as well as
supporting the importance of readers’ prior knowledge and the role Content Schemata
plays in the reading comprehension process as described by Kern (2000).
In McRae’s view (2010, p. 184), the fact of recalling lived experiences full of
emotions “allows readers to understand a person’s lived experience and through that
identity is that useful concepts are used to build understanding of the world around
us”, confirming that lived experiences support the development of emotions and it is
through these experiences that readers understand others’ points of view regulating
their own meaning construction process.
Referring to Ellis et al. (1992, p. 3), the readers’ cognitive and affective dimensions are
assumed to have different perspectives: “While some people describe emotions as
elements of rational behavior, others describe cognition as an ingredient of emotional
processes”. This position led us to think that the interpretation given to a text must be
grounded either on reasoning, sensations or both. Based on the analyzed data, we
could evidence that in the meaning construction process, these dimensions worked
together founding readers’ personal point of view on solid knowledge and sensations
derived from their lived experiences thus making it possible for them to argue,
examine and share with others. According to Ruddell and Unrau (2004), by working
together, the cognitive and affective dimensions allow the readers to recall experiences
that enable them to give explanations of what they have read as well as to give
interpretations that differ from those of other readers since, as sustained by
Goodman (1996), making sense is constructed by means of a reader’s own values,
appreciations and experiences.
The first and only subcategory also responds to the first question and alludes to
the role readers’ families experience when played within the cognitive and affective
dimensions at the time of reading and within the meaning construction process since,
as evidenced in the data, readers’ most important lived experiences belonged to the
home context. The link between the previous category and this sub-category was
determined by the sensations and prior knowledge that lived experiences within the
family context evoked in participants’ interpretations thus making them similar. The
terms familiar practices were selected to corroborate reading as a social practice

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

where different perspectives and life experiences within diverse social contexts
converged, shaping and transforming readers’ perceptions about this act. Similarly,
by denominating the familiar practices as portrayals of knowledge, we identified the
daily life events described by the participants as instruments used to learn from others
based on the prior knowledge each one of them had developed within a family
environment.
Considering Graves’ (2000) thesis about how the reading act is always altered by
the family without considering the context where it is taking place, we could state,
based on the data analysis, that this influenced not only the readers’ decision to get
engaged with a text but the ways in which the text itself is engaged. In this sense,
familiar practices help readers to understand and to perceive reading as a practice
with significant and intentional purposes within specific contexts and concrete
activities since those practices are the ones readers call to mind to make sense of what
is written.
The second category, by conceiving reading as a social practice as stated by Ferreiro
(2002), established a relationship between foreign language texts and readers’ personal
and collective identities (as revealed by the participants) by bringing to mind past
experiences in order to make sense. They reflected their personal points of view by
comparing and contextualizing the readings to their own reality. Hence, we assumed
personal and collective identities as the way students perceived and made sense of
themselves, of others and of their context through foreign language readings, modeling
and recognizing their role within society as well as respecting and learning from a
foreign culture. By using the word outsider, we referred to how these identities have
been constructed by readers not only in terms of what they have experienced but in
terms of what they had witnessed and how, by observing others and the way they act or
think, readers assumed positions that influence their reading interpretations.
In order to have a clear conception of the term identity, we considered Appiah’s
(2005, p. 65) view, which claims that “the contemporary use of identity refers to such
features of people as their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion. The use of the
term reflects the conviction that each person’s identity- in the older sense of who he or
she truly is- is deeply inflected by social features”. Therefore, we could imply that even
though the term identity is generally perceived as the relation of the singular human
being to him or herself, to their actions, experiences, wishes, dreams or memories, the
term thus always includes a relation to others and to a socio-cultural life.

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 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
Process through Their Life Experiences and the Sight Word Strategy

When talking about the importance of the relation to others in reference to

the development of identity, we considered it pertinent to make a distinction
between personal and collective identities. To do this, we reflected on Straub’s (2002,
p. 3) view, which affirms that “personal identity is meant to characterize the
consciousness a human being has of him or herself. The term collective identity in
contrast, refers to conceptions of sameness or similarities with others”. In this
sense, we could assert that a personal identity is thereby ascribed to a collective identity
often as a group, society or culture, which cannot be developed without
considering referential acts.
With reference to this, Harré (2003) argues that we exist as people for other
people and for ourselves as individuals, leading us to conceive reading and
readers’ witnessed experiences as a reflection of their personal and collective
identities. Thus, texts heighten readers’ identities by establishing meanings and
assumptions based not only on their personal beliefs but also on their being aware
of their role within others’ perceptions developing a sense of change contained by
their opinions.
Finally, the third category aimed to give an answer to the second sub question.
This category, by considering readers’ lived experiences understood by us as their
voices, is closely connected to the role language plays in the meaning construction
process as previously described by us when considering Goodman (1996). Language,
by being the cause of the readers’ knowledge of the world established through
interaction, helped them to test and support their texts interpretations in others’
opinions, beliefs, assumptions and ideas, which, as seen in the previous categories,
facilitated readers’ construction of personal and collective identities and affective
conditions. In this sense, the word selected to describe this category –interweaving-
illustrates the importance of sharing and discussing orally participants’ lived and
witnessed experiences and how, through them, reading becomes meaningful,
corroborating its social condition since, as stated by the Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá
(2007), the interactions produced in the educational setting are the basis of future
interactions within different social contexts.

Findings
At this point it is important to state that the three categories and one subcategory
that emerged from the data analysis are directly linked to the sub-questions due to the

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

relevance of answering these first so the main question could be answered too. The
first and second categories as well as the sub-category revealed that EFL students get
engaged in foreign language readings as long as the texts presented to them manage
to bring to their minds past experiences filled with emotional aspects and prior
knowledge since readers act upon readings on the basis of the meanings that the
words have for them. Furthermore, by recounting and sharing lived experiences and
collective knowledge that have been significant for each reader during the reading
process, this process becomes significant as well.
The categories also evidenced that readers’ lived experiences were reflections
on how participants identify, denominate and interpret their familiar practices
and the influence these have in their reading comprehension process. It is
important to bear in mind that familiar practices linked to reading perceptions
have been shaped by historical contexts, institutions and intentions of the
members of each family, influencing readers’ personal and collective identities
(Schwartz et al, 2009). Moreover, we could assert that the cognitive and affective
dimensions described by Ruddell and Unrau (2004), by being built by the reader
within familiar practices and by being recalled at the time of reading to make sense
of it, determined EFL readers’ involvement with foreign language texts.
Additionally, students’ excerpts displayed that reading can be seen as a social
practice as long as learners who hold a socio-cultural condition are able to build
their own identity as well as to play important roles at the time of helping with the
construction of the others’ identities.
In reference to the third category, we perceived interaction as a reciprocal and
mutual action whereby learners could assume the role of sharing, negotiating and
supporting each other’s positions; thus, they were able to construct meaning and
become significant helpers at the time of facilitating that construction for the
others (Goodman, 1996). What is more, the Sight Word Strategy, by introducing
words as whole units instead of analyzing their sub-word parts, permitted learners
to connect what they had lived to the print, allowing both interpersonal and
intrapersonal interactions (Ellis, 1999) along each one of its stages, thus
transforming EFL learners’ reading comprehension process into a meaningful
and evocative practice by providing a supportive classroom environment where
readers could observe and listen to their classmates’ stories demonstrating that
meaning is conveyed not only through words but also through actions.

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 Exploring EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension
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Conclusions
In an attempt to compile the outcomes of this study, it is important to first
highlight that the main purpose was to provide answers to each one the inquiries
proposed by us as a result of our pedagogical experience in a public school in Bogotá.
These questions, by being closely related to the reading comprehension process
according to Goodman (1996) and the use of an innovative strategy, the Sight Word
Strategy (Fry, 1999), caused a great impact on our research process since different
perspectives, theories and assumptions were consulted and either rejected or
approved by us when delimiting the educational issue at the time of analyzing data.
Furthermore, researching and putting into practice the use of a strategy that has been
used in a native context and that allowed learners to incorporate their personal
experiences into their learning-teaching process enabled us to find meaningful
answers to a specific EFL concern and to understand what students do when they are
reading and how this influences their personal and social growth.
In view of the above outcomes, we could finally determine that the answer to the
main question -How is reading comprehension generated by the use of the Sight
Word Strategy (Fry, 1999) and its connection with the EFL student’s life experiences?
- was that this process is produced by conceiving reading both as a social practice
(where participants’ sociocultural identity emerged from the way they have lived and
made sense of themselves building their own identity as well as assuming important
roles at the time of helping in the construction of others’ identities) and as a whole,
where students’ textual interpretations are built by means of background knowledge
and interaction. Likewise, we perceived how this strategy could be applied in an EFL
context due to the possibility of sharing and interchanging concepts and
interpretations in each one of its stages, which provided a supportive classroom
environment.

Pedagogical Implications
Building on the insights emerging from the theories of Goodman (1996, 1998);
Freire and Macedo (1987) and Fry (1999), discussed within this study as well as the
data analysis results, we learned that the first and most important note that can be
made of the needs for pedagogical implications is that different aspects of students’
lives need to be included in the EFL teaching-learning process since those aspects are
the ones that influence and determine the level of engagement within the process

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Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

itself. A good starting point for the development of this idea could be considering
interactive approaches which argue that reading comprehension is a combination of
readers’ insights, texts features and classroom relations.
In addition, incoming teachers should be aware of concepts that will help them
with the establishment of appropriate methodologies for the implementation of the
reading comprehension process itself. Thus, meaning construction could be given
when there is a relation between the reader’s background and his/her perspective of
the world, making both the reading and the comprehension concepts a dependent
and a co-related process. Because of this, reading and comprehension cannot be
taken as isolated processes, since a connection between the reader and his/her
background knowledge from a teaching perspective is not being propitiated.
Considering the strategy we implemented, the Sight Word Strategy (Fry, 1999), we
believe that reading in a foreign language should be approached with three phases:
before, while, and after reading, in view of the fact that by interrelating emergent
concepts, comprehension is achieved. Ultimately, it is necessary to intensify and
facilitate the development of different strategies where reading could become an
integrated basis that should be built upon pedagogical premises such as developing
meaning construction and learning how to manage interaction. Additionally, it is
important to be aware that the learning process depends both on the learner and
his/her purpose or necessity to learn to communicate, as well as on the teacher who
provides an interactional classroom environment.

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HOW 17, December 2010, ISSN 0120-5927. Bogotá, Colombia. Pages 57-72 71
Jennifer Camargo and Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro

The Authors
Jennifer Camargo holds a B.Ed. in EFL from Universidad Distrital Francisco José
de Caldas. As part of her pedagogical practice, she taught at three public schools in
Bogota and two in the USA where she developed an interest in the development of
the reading and speaking processes.
Jenny Carolina Orbegozo Navarro holds a B.Ed. in EFL from Universidad
Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. Nowadays, she is planning to go overseas to
continue her studies in the socio-cultural and linguistic fields.
This article was received on February 15, 2010 and accepted on June 23, 2010.

72 HOW, A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English