Select 5 comprehension strategies for increasing language comprehension and give a brief example that could be used in your classroom for each strategy you selected

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Strategies for increasing language comprehension:
* If the student frequently has difficulty following directions or understanding information of increased complexity, establish eye contact and maintain attention prior to presenting information. Cue the student to listen by using silent pauses or instructions to listen to or look at the teacher. This helps to establish a mental set for listening.
* Ask the student to repeat or paraphrase directions or instructions to the teacher or a peer to ensure comprehension.
* To facilitate listening, arrange classroom seating to limit distractions from doorways and windows and to maximize the use of visual aids.
* When introducing a new concept or skill, use vocabulary that is familiar to the student and explain new vocabulary words by using familiar terms.
* Present new concepts in as many modalities as possible (e.g., auditory, visual, and kinesthetic), and use gestures to augment verbal presentations.
* To increase understanding of the relationship between semantic role and word order, encourage young children to act out sentences (e.g., "Mommy kiss baby") or manipulate objects and talk about their movement.
* Explain to students that listening is an active process that requires them to behave in certain ways, and teach them to identify specific behaviors associated with good listening (e.g., look, think about what is said, and repeat to yourself). Model effective listening skills by being attentive to students.
* Use introductory statements (such as "These are the main points" or "Before we begin") to provide an organizational framework and help students prepare for a task.
* Be sensitive to the students' linguistic sophistication and adjust the rate and complexity of instructional language accordingly. Use structurally simple and relatively short sentences of not more than 5-10 words and limit the number of new and unfamiliar vocabulary words presented in a single lesson to five or less.
* Teach specific memory strategies (e.g., visual imagery, clustering and grouping information, and forming associations) to help students organize, categorize, and store new information for later retrieval.
* To enhance students' recall and memorization of new vocabulary, use the keyword method, in which familiar words are associated with each new concept or word.
* Engage adolescents in concrete problem-solving activities to identify those who have difficulty thinking symbolically or using reasoning in nonsymbolic events.

[Students' responses to second part of essay question will vary depending on which comprehension strategies they select.]