ANSWERING  COMPREHENSION  QUESTIONS   CORRECTLY---ENGLISH  LANGUAGE  --- O--LEVEL.

PHOTO | FILE Students of Moi Girls High School in Eldoret town tackle their English Paper One exams, during the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examinations that kicked off on October 18, 2011.

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The Comprehension question is usually set in Paper Two. It is the first question in the paper. In most cases, the comprehension passage addresses topics on emerging (contemporary) issues in the society.

The passage can be got from newspapers, magazines or even text books.

The student is expected to develop effective reading skills that will help him/her answer comprehension questions effectively. The student must read and understand the passage.

To perform well in this question, the candidate is expected to know the different types of questions asked under the comprehension passage. This knowledge will help the student prepare well in advance.

These questions can be broadly divided into:

• Factual questions
• Inference questions
• Questions on summary and note making
• Questions on grammar and sentence structure
• Questions on vocabulary
• Factual questions

These are questions based on facts or ideas from the passage. They are recall type of questions. The student is expected to recall/remember what he/she has read.

When answering recall type of questions, the student is expected to use words and phrases from the paragraph that contains the answer. The candidate should then zero in on the sentence that contains the answer i.e. the sentence that answers the question.

Before a student starts answering comprehension questions, he/she must first understand the passage. There are questions that will require the student to show his/her understanding of the passage.

INFERENCE QUESTIONS

These are questions that are not lifted directly from the passage. The student is expected to infer from the details given in the passage. These questions include:

i. Application questions where the student is expected to relate what has been read in the passage to a different situation.

ii. Questions that require the student to make judgement on the ideas that have been presented in the passage.

Questions on summary and note-making.

a) Summary writing

In summary writing, the student is required to give information from the passage in a given number of words. The student must write complete sentences. The required information must be written in continuous prose. In this question all the rules of grammar must be observed: rules on tense, punctuation, spelling etc.

The students should stick to the instructions given in the question.

Let us look at the phrases that can be used in summary writing questions and see how students should tackle them:

i) In about 50 words, describe the characteristics of fake phones.

The student must count the number of words he/she will use to answer this question. In this question, “In about 50 words”, the student should not go beyond 55 words and not below 45 words. An allowance of 5 words is given as the maximum or minimum number of words to use. Nothing is marked beyond the maximum number given.

ii) In not more than 50 words describe the characteristics of fake phones.

Unlike the first question, this one expects the student to use a maximum of 50 words. Nothing is marked beyond this. Students are therefore expected to read and understand the question.

b) Note-making

The student’s answer here must be in point form. Unlike in summary writing, in note-making, the answer is not given in continuous prose. There must be an indicator that these are notes. To show that they are notes, the student should use numbers, letters, hyphens, bullets, etc. THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO INDICATE THAT THEY ARE NOTES. A student who does not make notes is penalised.

QUESTIONS ON GRAMMAR

The student will be expected to answer a question or two on grammar and sentence construction. The grammar questions are based on sentences from the passage.

The student might, for example, be asked to rewrite a sentence, add a question tag. In this question, knowledge of English grammar is required. All the rules of grammar must be observed. Any grammatical mistake is penalised. No mark is awarded for answers that have grammatical mistakes — wrong punctuation, wrong tense, wrong spelling, etc.

QUESTIONS ON VOCABULARY

These are questions that test the student’s ability to give the meanings of words and expressions. In this question, the candidate should give the meaning of words and expressions in the context in which they have been used. Give the contextual meaning of the words or expressions.

The meaning of the words/expressions must be given in the same tense as the word in question. For example, give the meaning of the following word as used in the passage:

Trudging: Walking slowly

The meaning of the word is given in the same tense as the word in question. Students should take note of this. For a student to answer vocabulary questions correctly, he/she must first understand the passage.

All questions must be answered in the tense in which they are asked.

Students might be asked to give the attitude of the writer towards his/her subject matter. The student is expected to make judgements based on the ideas presented in the passage. Answers to such questions are not got directly from the passage.
Examples of comprehension questions:

i. According to the writer, who are the real leaders? (recall question). It can be got direct from the passage.

ii. With illustrations, describe the attitude of the writer towards the leaders. (evaluation question) Student must make judgement based on ideas presented in the passage.

iii. In note form identify the deficiencies of leadership. (Note-making) Must be in point form.

iv. “You will never be a leader until people see you as such,” he said. (rewrite in reported speech) (Question on grammar)

v. What do you think the writer means by the statement, “He saps the energy of his staff.” (Inference question)

To answer comprehension questions effectively:

• The student must read and understand the passage.
• The answers must be given in the correct tense.
• Use complete sentences when answering your questions.
• Questions on note-making must be in point form.
• Summary writing must be in continuous prose.
• Give the meaning of words using the tense of the word in question.

COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY ------ ENGLISH LANGUAGE ---O----LEVEL.

COMPREHENSION   AND    SUMMARY-----ENGLISH    LANGUAGE  O--LEVEL.

Comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. .[1]
Proficient comprehension depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly.[2][3] If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual words, which interferes with their ability to comprehend what is read.
Many educators in the USA believe that students need to learn to analyze text (comprehend it) even before they can read it on their own, and comprehension instruction generally begins in pre-Kindergarten or Kindergarten. But other US educators consider this comprehension approach to be completely backward for very young children, arguing that the children must learn how to decode the words in a story through phonics before they can analyze the story itself.
During the last century comprehension lessons usually comprised students answering teachers' questions, writing responses to questions on their own, or both.[citation needed] The whole group version of this practice also often included "Round-robin comprehension", wherein teachers called on individual students to read a portion of the text (and sometimes following a set order). In the last quarter of the 20th century, evidence accumulated that the read-test methods assessed comprehension more than they taught it. The associated practice of "round robin" comprehension has also been questioned and eliminated by many educators.
Instead of using the prior read-test method, research studies have concluded that there are much more effective ways to teach comprehension. Much work has been done in the area of teaching novice readers a bank of "comprehension strategies," or tools to interpret and analyze text.[4][5] There is not a definitive set of strategies, but common ones include summarizing what you have read, monitoring your comprehension to make sure it is still making sense, and analyzing the structure of the text (e.g., the use of headings in science text). Some programs teach students how to self monitor whether they are understanding and provide students with tools for fixing comprehension problems.
Instruction in comprehension strategy use often involves the gradual release of responsibility, wherein teachers initially explain and model strategies. Over time, they give students more and more responsibility for using the strategies until they can use them independently. This technique is generally associated with the idea of self-regulation and reflects social cognitive theory, originally conceptualized by Albert Bandura
On tests like the SAT, students are asked to perform certain tasks designed to assess their cognitive abilities. Understanding the significance of the terms used to describe these procedures is as important to the administrator of the exam as it is to the student taking it. Knowing the difference between comprehension and summary is essential to ensuring that proper instructions are given and received.
COMPREHENSION:
The act of comprehending is defined by Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as "the capacity of the mind to perceive and understand." For example, in comprehension a specific passage, to assess one's comprehension would be to ask questions regarding details of the plot, or to inquire about specific facts. Comprehension is focused merely on the content of the item, none of these facts are applied to exterior topics (which would fall morso under summary).
Comprehension has the following meanings:
• In general usage, and more specifically in reference to education and psychology, it has roughly the same meaning as understanding.
• Comprehension comprehension measures the understanding of a passage of text
• Comprehension (logic), the totality of intensions, that is, properties or qualities, that an object possesses
o Comprehension (or comprehensiveness), in Anglicanism, the theological inclusiveness and liturgical breadth thought to be integral to the definition of the tradition
o Comprehension in set theory, another name for the axiom schema of specification (or more specifically, the axiom schema of unrestricted specification)
o List comprehension, in computer science, an adaptation of mathematical set notation to represent infinite lists
SUMMARY:
A summary, synopsis, or recap is a shorter version of the original. Such a simplification highlights the major points from the much longer subject, such as a text, speech, film, or event. The purpose is to help the audience get the gist in a short period of time. In the normal course of events a summary or synopsis is normally written by the summariser using his or her own words to sum up the salient points of an article, text, speech, etc. Summary is defined as the process of separating material or objects into separate elemental constituents. In other words, analyzing a car would include exploring the engine, the interior, the transmission, the electrical system, the wheels, windows and everything else that becomes a part of the whole car. Summary explores the relationship of the parts to the whole system, and then derives meaning from these relationships.
In amost all cases : a written summary is an encapsulation of another person's work. Writers of such summaries are allowed to quote salient points without infringing copyright fair use and in addition are usually expected to rely on their own words to form the greater part of the summary, rather than merely copying text. Written summaries starts with a lead, including title, an acknowledgement of the original author, text type, and the main idea of the text. It has a clearly arranged structure and is paraphrased with new words without quotations from the text. A summary has no dramatic structure and is written in present tense or historical present. In summaries, only indirect speech is used and depictions are avoided. Summaries of scientific books or dissertations present the major facts in scientific language while also being mindful of the non scientists' need to understand concepts. In addition, summaries may also include reviews where a critic or reviwer outlines the various significant points of a book, article, text, film etc.
Summary in nonfiction
Nonfiction summaries serve to familiarize the reader with the subject matter of an entire work in a short space of time. They are written in a balanced and objective way, mirroring the genre’s aim to portray actual events from the author’s point of view. Generally, nonfiction summaries do not offer analysis or assessment.
Summarizers use nonfiction guidelines mentioned above, but also provide numerical ratings and evaluations of the titles covered. Shorter, more concise nonfiction summaries are called abstracts. They are approximately five pages, thus longer than scientific abstracts.
Comprehension is Perception.
Upon comprehension or observing a section of text or an event, your comprehension is a reflection of your ability to remember exactly what was said. Facts are of utmost significance, and knowledge of details proves your high level of comprehension. This memory is then applied to develop an summary.
Summary is Comparison.
Once everything is comprehended, the individual can analyze these terms. Summary is a method of comparison and referential assessment. The act of summary depends on a relative statement, through which the individual explores her comprehension of the item. While comprehension would ask, "What year was the Declaration of Independence signed?", summary would ask, "What significant impact did the signing of the Declaration of Independence have on global economics?"

REFERENCES
• Browne & King (2004). Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print. New York: Harper Resource. pp. 12, 117.
• Card, Orson Scott (1988). Character & Viewpoint. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books.
• Marshall, Evan (1998). The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. pp. 143–165.
• Selgin, Peter (2007). By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for fiction writers. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. p. 38.