Cultivating Reading Comprehension through "Reading Aloud"

To all the dads and moms who feel, "It's impossible to teach Japanese at home!"
Among all the subjects, "reading comprehension" is particularly difficult. You probably wonder, "How on earth am I supposed to teach this?"
Even if you buy a workbook titled "Reading Comprehension for Grade X," it's hard to get your child to keep doing it...

So, I would like to introduce a method that costs no money and requires little effort.
That method is "reading aloud." If your child is in elementary school, they likely get reading aloud as homework. With this, there is no need to buy any workbooks.

However, just reading through it is not enough.
Since you have to do the reading aloud homework every day anyway, let's make good use of it.
This time, I will talk about effective methods for "reading aloud" as the "first step toward improving reading comprehension."

Effective ways to read aloud to cultivate reading comprehension

1. Read slowly and in a loud voice

When reading aloud, it is important to read in a loud voice no matter what. This is because it serves as a declaration to yourself: "I am going to read this now and grasp what is written."
Also, if you read in a small, mumbling voice, you won't be able to notice your own reading mistakes. This act of "noticing mistakes" is very important.
I will talk about that in point 3.

2. While listening to your own voice

Understanding things involves the brain breaking down, comparing, and combining information that enters through the eyes and ears.
You can see that when reading aloud, adding the information of sound entering through the ears to the information entering through the eyes is overwhelmingly advantageous for grasping the content. It is necessary to send your own voice to your brain while listening to it yourself. That is precisely why reading in a loud voice, as mentioned in point 1, is important.

3. While noticing your own reading mistakes

If you read while confirming the sound information from your ears yourself, you should eventually encounter parts where you feel, "Hmm, this is a bit strange," or "What does this mean?"
That is the "first step of reading comprehension."
If you can find the places where you stumble or feel a sense of discomfort while reading, you have taken a step forward. This is because you have "distinguished between what you understand and what you do not understand."

In any kind of learning, it starts with finding out what you don't understand, and that is also the most difficult part.

4. Reread only the parts where you stumbled

For reading aloud homework, it seems to be the norm to read it three times. Actually, until recently, I also easily assumed that reading it three times would help one grasp the content better than reading it once.
But that is wrong. It is not about the number of times, but about being conscious.
Read while separating what you understand from what you don't. And it is necessary to reread only the parts where you feel the sentences don't connect. Even if you don't understand the full meaning of the text, reread until the point where the sentences somehow connect. Reading the whole thing aloud once is enough. Instead, reading with the awareness of not leaving the parts you find strange as they are is what understanding the text is all about. In other words, it leads to improving "reading comprehension."

5. You can do it even alone

"Reading aloud homework is a hassle when I'm busy."
Especially in the lower grades, it is assigned almost every day, so I think there are times when dads and moms cannot listen to their children read.

Of course, I think it is better for the child's motivation if you sit next to them, open the textbook, point out mistakes, and praise them. But it is okay to do it alone. It is fine to read in a loud voice toward the back of a mom who is preparing dinner. Mom doesn't even need to look at the textbook. Please continue with your housework.

If you continue this kind of reading aloud, by the time they are in the upper grades, they will be able to grasp the content just by reading carefully (reading with their eyes). Of course, all by themselves.

6. Discuss the content

After they finish reading, instead of just checking how they read, please also talk about your impressions of the content, such as "I found this part interesting. What did you think, [Child's Name]?" and listen to your child's thoughts.
Feeling something from the text they read. Trying to gain something from it.
That attitude leads to grasping the content of the text.

It's all not that difficult, is it?
You can start today. By all means, give it a try!