Self-Assessment of Classifying Words into Parts of Speech to Improve Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The goal of this action research was to recognize parts of speech in order to improve reading comprehension. This action research was carried out at a public high school situated in the north sector of the city of Guayaquil. Participants were a group of 43 students, 20 males and 23 females of eighth basic education whose ages ranged from 11-13. The instruments used in this quantitative action study were pre- and post-test and a checklist. Results showed a big impact of the action research Cohen’s d 2.48, indicating an improvement in their reading comprehension after the application of the innovation. The self-assessment process evidenced a considerable increase of word recognition by means of the daily checklists, three of them were considered the analysis being the nouns the most recognized and the adjectives the least. Finally, the application of this study showed a positive learners´ perspective in the classification of words to improve reading comprehension. Implications of this research involve other teachers who would like to improve their students´ reading comprehension and English proficiency.