Conclusions and Further Research

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General Conclusion

Overall, using intensive reading to decode information allows learners to develop conceptual knowledge. This process is mediated by language and by the strategies learners and teachers choose to approach a text and scaffold the learning process, respectively.  The CLIL framework provides the content teacher with key guiding principles that favor a) student-centered learning environments, b) the use of language strategies such as intensive reading, eliciting key vocabulary, and scanning and skimming, and c) the development of high and low order thinking skills. Finally, the students improve their language ability as a result of using the language in meaningful contexts.

Specific Conclusions

1) Reading needs to be approached as an interactive process that is embedded into meaningful activities addressed to challenge thinking.

2) Measuring reading implies a comprehensive view not only of reading but also of measuring.  Different types of test should be combined to guarantee that judgments about students’ reading comprehension are valid and reliable.

3) Students’ training on new strategies to organize information, understand a paragraph or summarize key information, is required if students are to be successful.

4) Students’ are better able to use the language as a result of taking into account both language goals and content goals when planning the lessons. The strategies used for the purpose of scaffolding the students’ language process were eliciting key vocabulary, reading with a purpose in mind, taking notes, and using graphic organizers to account for science concepts.

FURTHER RESEARCH

• What are the effects of implementing language strategies to favor the development of speaking in a content-based classroom?
• To what extent the use of graphic organizers to decode math information favors the developments of students' mathematical thinking?

Putting Everything Together

As a result of the data analysis, common trends were organized into categories forming a skeleton that gives life to a story about fostering reading comprehension in the science classroom. The data was questioned, compared against each other, confronted against the theoretical constructs of the research, and examined through a magnifying glass to recognize those key elements that affect students' understanding when reading is implemented.

As a result of this process the following flow chart emerged to explain the effects of intensive reading to decode information in a science content-based class

Arguments are enough to say that reading was like a spring that pushed kids to ask, to inquire, to get to know more about what they were reading. Reading was a powerful input, which according to Gagne’s (1985) Information Processing Theory needs to be decoded to make sense out of it. Hence, developing students’ conceptualization corresponds to an eclectic process; reading should be combined with hands-on activities, videos, pre-reading activities, and post-reading activities; the science classroom needs to reflect an interactive learning experience. Reading is a dynamic process, a social situated practice, and should be measured by means of a comprehensive view. This process is more meaningful to students when they are able to share what they read. Regarding how to measure reading, as many authors have pointed out reading is an invisible act quite challenging to measure. However, using two types of tests to analyze to what extent students are developing reading comprehension skills may be useful. Teachers sometimes can get biased if just one type of test is used over and over.

Without a doubt, intensive reading favors cognition and content development. The quantitative analysis shows that this process is mediated by language as there is a positive correlation between the cloze and CARI tests meaning that people who have low linguistic ability on one test will likely have low overall reading comprehension. However, this dependence between language and content development weakens by the end of the implementation and reveals that other variables apart from language can explain students’ reading comprehension results. The qualitative analysis shows that this process is mediated by teachers’ and learners’ strategies.


When cognition and content are developed, students move from factual knowledge to conceptual knowledge. Three main points should be kept in mind: a) the role of vocabulary, b) grounding concepts, and c) the use of questions.


In conclusion, the strategy implemented was successful as students were able to develop their reading comprehension ability and at the same time increase their knowledge about states of matter, kinetic and potential energy, and types of waves. It is evident that through CLIL practices students are able to improve their language, thinking skills, and understanding of science concepts.

Reference

Gagné, E. D. (1985). La Psicología Cognitiva del Aprendizaje Escolar. Traducción de Paloma Linares. Madrid: Visor Distribuciones, S.A.