System of exercises to develop reading comprehension in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies

"Reading is to the intelligence as the exercise is to the body"

Ricchard Steele

Abstract

The present work is the result of an investigation carried out by the author, related to English language teaching, with emphasis on the development of reading comprehension skill. The students from first year of Pedagogy-Psychology studies should be able to comprehend written texts using some reading strategies in the foreign language, but there are deficiencies to develop this ability as the instruments applied shown. On this basis, the author proposes a system of exercises to develop reading comprehension in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies. Scientific methods of the level theoretical, empirical and statistical mathematical were used that allowed to go deepen the bibliographical consulted in the problematic situation. The system of exercises has been elaborated taking into account the variable to be transformed, its indicators and the possibilities of the students to develop reading comprehension with a systematic character. The application of the proposal shows that the results were effective because the students acquired an appropriate development of reading comprehension skill expressed in the final results.

Key words: skill, reading, reading comprehension, system of exercises

Introduction

Nowadays English has an official status in at least seventy-five countries with a total population of two billion people. Around three hundred seventy-five million people in the world speak English as their native language and the numbers soon will exceed with people that speak English as second language. The United States is the largest community of the English speaking world. In the Caribbean there are many countries where English is the official language.

Cuba is situated in the Caribbean where English is the native language in some of the countries of this area. Cuba maintains cooperation relationships and exchange with a high number of countries in the political, scientific lands, technician, cultural, sport and others. The participation grows in seminars, conferences and other international events; the sources of information are increased in the English language. All the above mentioned demonstrates the necessity that the curriculum includes English teaching.

The main purpose of English Language Teaching in the Cuban System Education is to achieve communicative competence in initial level, which is given by means of the development of different communicative and linguistic abilities such as speaking, listening, writing and reading.

Reading is one of the abilities that the students should acquire in the process of learning a foreign language. Reading comprehension is a means of communication, it is the power to receive written information of the language. It also develops the psychological processes of the learners such as the analysis, synthesis, generalization, memorization and imagination.

The Syllabus of English Subject has as objective to develop in the students the knowledge, habits and abilities that allow them to read and comprehend texts, work with specialized readings that allow the students to act with independence in the academic and professional activities.

Through the educational practice, the author of this investigation has observed lessons in Teaching English Language, in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies, and noticed through the empirical methods that in most of those lessons the reading comprehension has been affected, because students do not have a solid base of the subject. The students do not understand the provided texts because they have a poor vocabulary.

The students are not able to recognize the main and the secondary ideas of the texts and they do not know how to carry out summaries. The students also cannot recognize grammatical structures required of the text; consequently, they cannot answer correctly, what is asked in reading comprehension exercises. There is a contradiction between the ideal stage and real one, because the students should read and comprehend written texts, but they have deficiencies developing the skill. Besides that, there are not enough activities about reading comprehension in the At your pace workbook.

Taking into account the problematic situation mentioned before, the author declares as scientific problem:

How to improve the development of reading comprehension in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies?

Object of study: The reading skill

Field of action: Reading comprehension in the students

Having in mind the problematic situation and the scientific problem stated, the author sets as objective of the investigation: to propose a system of exercises to develop reading comprehension in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies.

The scientific methods used to carry out the investigation were:

Theoretical methods:

• Analysis and synthesis: used to give the possibility of decomposing the whole into its constituents and qualities. It allowed to deal with the information related to the problematic situation by analyzing the elements and to establish the relation among them.

• Induction and deduction: used to move from the general to the particular aspects that reflect the common element of the individual phenomenon.

• Historical and logical: is used to analyze the theoretical and methodological bases of the teaching of English as subject.

• Systemic approach: to conceive the set of activities based on the systemic character of the teaching-learning process of reading skills in English.

Empirical methods:

• Observation: used to gather information through the English lessons

• Survey: used to make a diagnosis of the process of development of reading skills through the English lessons so as to find out about the different criteria of the students and teachers involved in the research

• Pedagogical test: to know the current situation of the students in reading comprehension

The Statistical-mathematical method:

• Descriptive statistic: to process the data obtained after applying the instruments.

• Percentage analysis procedure

Instruments used were:

• Lesson observation guide

• Pedagogical test

• Survey questionnaire

In the investigation, the sample and population are the same; they consist in 10 students from first year of Pedagogy-Psychology studies.

Practical Significance: This research is very important because it tries to overcome the deficiencies in reading comprehension, which is one of the most affected skills in teaching English. Through the elaboration of a system of exercises in this investigation, the author will contribute to the development of reading comprehension in first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies. Taking into account the characteristics of the sample to solve the problem mentioned before.

Chapter I.

Theoretical and methodological foundations

1.1. Conceptualization of Reading Skill

The abilities constitute one in the ways of assimilation of the activity of the man. This activity is the practical transformation of the objective world that carries out the man like social entity. The necessities, reasons and the objectives are component fundamental of the activity specifically human. These components transform and energize in correspondence with the changes and transformations that are happened in the society, which reflect the social activity of the man.

There are many authors that have referred to the term ability, for L. Klimberg the abilities are the automated components of the activity of the man, arisen by means of the practice (1985). Viviana González Maura (Ph.D) and an association of authors defined abilities, from the psychological point, as "the control of operations (psychic and practical) that enable the rational regulation of activity. It is the understanding of the interrelation between the end of activity and conditions, the means for its implementation".

More recently Maribel Ferrer (Ph.D) defined ability as "the construction and control for the student, from the inherent behavior to a determined activity, that it allows you searching or using concepts, properties, relations, procedures, using strategies of work, developing reasoning, broadcasting judgments and solving exercises and problems". Gagné considers to the abilities like "capacities that allow the man to communicate and to represent to the world that surrounds it by means of symbols".

According to Roberto González Cancio, a linguistic skill is "The capacity of directing the verbal activity in conditions of solution of communicative tasks; is the capacity the student develop, to use in a different way, communicative objectives, the linguistic habits or its continuity". (González, R., 2009: 29)

The author agrees with the definition of Maribel Ferrer because is the most complete, since the ability is a behavior that allows the students to carry out a certain activity using concepts, strategies of work, reasoning, as well as it allows to solve problems and exercises

The abilities express, therefore, not only the preparation of the students to apply systems of actions (already elaborated previously) inherent to a certain activity, they understand the possibility and necessity of to look for and to explain that system of actions and their results, of describing an outline or performance program before and during the search and the realization of roads of solution of exercises and problems in a diversity of contexts; to be able to sense, to perceive the possible result and to formalize that knowledge in the appropriate language, that is to say, they understand the construction process and their result.

A skill is defined as the ability to use knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance. It is a learned power of doing a thing competently: a developed aptitude or ability. The language skills become the means for the fulfillment of the educative objectives. Learners solve communicative tasks through the application of the language skills and thus they mold important features of their personalities.

The development of these skills has a cognitive basis, which consists of the analysis of the system of knowledge about language and its use. Learning starts from language models, which are more rational than other elements. The four macro-skills to master a language are listening, speaking, reading, and writing, the students need knowledge and habits to develop skills and the other way around. They acquire knowledge about the language system (sound system, structural patterns and vocabulary) and its use.

Reading is one of the main skills that the learner should acquire in the process of mastering a language. Through reading, the learner enriches his knowledge of the world around him. He increases his knowledge and understanding of the culture of the speakers of the language, their ways of thinking, and their contributions to many fields of artistic and intellectual endeavor Reading develops learners' psychological processes such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, memory and imagination. Reading is a mighty weapon to develop in the learner"s qualities as patriotism, internationalism, responsibility, honesty, loyalty and love.

Reading is a medium of communication, the power to get Information from written language; it is an active, thought- getting, and problem-solving process. In this process, the reader must make an active contribution by drawing upon and using concurrently various abilities that he has acquired. Grellet (1981) puts that reading is a constant process of guessing, and what one brings to the text is often more important than what one finds in it. This is why, from the very beginning, the students should be taught to use what they know to understand unknown elements, whether these are ideas or simple words.

When a person reads, tries to relate the new information in the text to what is already known. The reader must make connections between what a text is about and external absent objects, ideas and people. When the reader focuses primarily on what is already known in trying to comprehend a text, this strategy "is called a concept driven or "top-down" mode. On the other hand, when the reader relies primarily on textual information to comprehend, this strategy is called a data-driven or "bottom-up" mode (Rumelhart, 1980).

There are many authors that have referred to the term of reading, some definitions were found it in the consulted bibliography. According to Johnston Mikuleckey (1990) "Reading is more than an interaction between a reader and a text. It is "a complex behavior which involves conscious and unconscious use of various strategies, including problem-solving strategies, to build a model of the meaning which the writer is assumed to have intended".

According to Isora Enríquez O"Farrill (1997), "reading is an active and productive activity characterized by the interaction, negotiation and recognition of meaning between the readers and the text as well as among readers: Through the critical analysis of the texts the students will develop their processes of thinking and their communication skill".

For the Michigan teachers Wixson, Peters, Weber and Roeber, "reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among: (1) the reader´s existing knowledge, (2) the information suggested by the text being read, and (3) the context of the reading situation".

On the other hand, Johnston (1983) considers that "reading is more than an interaction between a reader and a text. It is a complex behavior, which involves conscious and unconscious use of various strategies, including problem-solving strategies, to build a model of the meaning, which the writer is assumed to have intended".

Leonard S. Braham and William D. Sheldon (1959) expressed that "reading is the interpretation of written materials. Two processes are involved in it: visual perception of printed symbols and the mental processes of thinking of the meaning associated with those symbols. It is the second of these processes, thinking, which men are largely concerned when they deal with the matter of comprehension. Comprehension then may be considered as an understanding of the meaning to be gained from printed materials".

After analyzing several definitions of reading skill, it is evident that there are several common aspects, for example all the authors agree with the idea that reading is an interaction process between the reader and the text. The author of this investigation assumed the definition given by Isora Enríquez O"Farrill, because for her the reading is an interaction process between the reader and the text, where the reader, after knowing some strategies, develop their processes of thinking and their communication skill.

A reading lesson should begin by providing opportunities for students to learn to use analytical language orally. The more the students read, the more they will comprehend. It is important to teach the students to concentrate on the text and not on the sentence. If reading comprehension is to be achieved, the structure of long units such as the paragraph or the whole text must be understood. To start with global understanding and move towards detailed understanding rather than working the other way around.

1.2. Reading Comprehension in the students

The comprehension process follows its normal evolution in the sequence: whole to parts to whole again. In the first step, comprehension is global; in the second, it comes more into focus through the close: awareness of the components; and, in the third, a change in quality is produced: comprehension reaches a more precise level, the use authentic texts whenever possible and the authentic text does not make learning more difficult.

Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of writing. Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. 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.

Joanne Suter, "comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text". (Suter, J.,2006:13)

A reading expert Katherine Maria (1990) defines reading comprehension as "a holistic process of constructing meaning from written text through the interaction of the knowledge the reader brings to the text, i.e., word recognition ability, world knowledge, and knowledge of linguistic conventions; the interpretation of the reader of the language that the writer used in constructing the text; and the situation in which the text is read".

According to Myriam Brito, reading comprehension is since an active process the reader it is able to reconstruct the sense of the text by means of processes that leave of their previous knowledge and their use of certain own strategies. (Brito, 1997: 116)

After analyzing several definitions about the reading comprehension, the author agrees with the definition of the expert Katherine Maria because, such as she said comprehension is a process where the student captures the message or the text, using for that many strategies.

In the process of reading comprehension the reader captures the literal and explicit information that the text offers, perceived meanings, makes inferences, integrates and enriches all information based on your own experience and culture, and finally this influences the own process of development and human growth. This process is the sum of a set of threads that work together, such as meaning of words, inferences, recognizing the purpose of the author, and identification of text ideas.

According Angelina Romeu, there are three basic levels within the comprehension: a first level of translation or intelligent reading, giving information to encode the literal or explicit meanings, implicit and intentional or complementary, as the universe of knowledge of student; a second level of interpretation that assesses the product information of a critical reading in which the reader considers, values, evaluates; a third level that allows extrapolation, creative reading in which it applies, the term is found, exemplified, is created. (Sales, M., 2007:64)

Antich, López and Gandarias express three general objectives for reading comprehension like the understanding and interpretation, the amplification of the vocabulary and the speed.

The comprehension takes place when ideas are read, not single words. This is a process that step should be guided to step, through a series of stages. The amplification of the vocabulary is reached when acquiring the student new words. This gradual acquisition of the vocabulary is carried out.

With regard to the levels of understanding, so much of texts written as oral the authors Antich, López and Gandarias mentions N. I. González, when offering the following classification of levels of comprehension:

• Fragmentary (when alone they understand each other isolated words)

• Global or incomplete understanding (when he/she understands each other 35% of the content of the text approximately, the general idea without perceiving the details.)

• Total or detailed (when it is assimilated 75% at least of those listened or read. In this case one cannot say alone about what it is the text but also their details.)

• Critical (when the understanding reaches 100% of the elements that compose the text, the author's intention it is captured)

Strategies for Reading Comprehension

For most second language learners who are already literate in a previous language, reading comprehension is primarily a matter of developing appropriate, efficient comprehension strategies. Some strategies are related to bottom-up procedures and others enhance the top-down processes. Following are ten such strategies, each of which can be practically applied to your classroom techniques.

1. Identify the purpose in reading

Efficient reading consists of clearly identifying the purpose in reading something. By doing so, knowing what you are looking for and can weed, out potential distracting information. Whenever you are teaching a reading technique, make sure students know their purpose in reading something.

2. Use grapheme rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding (for beginning level learners)

At the beginning levels of learning English, one of the difficulties students encounter in learning to read is making the correspondences between spoken and written English. In many cases, learners have become acquainted with oral language and have some difficulty learning English spelling conventions. They may need to be given hints and explanations about certain English orthographic rules and peculiarities. While in many cases you can assume that one -to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondences will be acquired with ease, other relationships might prove difficult.

3. Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension (for intermediate to advanced levels)

The intermediate to advanced level students need not be speed readers, but you can help them to increase efficiency by teaching a few silent reading rules:

•You do not need to "pronounce" each word to yourself.

•Try to visually perceive more than one word at a time, preferably phrases.

•Unless a word is absolutely crucial to global understanding, skip over it and try

to infer its meaning through its context. Aside from these fundamental guidelines, which if followed can help learners to be efficient readers; reading speed is usually not much of an issue for all but the most advanced learners.

4. Skimming

It consists of quickly running one's eyes across a whole text to get the gist. Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic or message, and possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas. This gives them a "head start as they embark on more focused reading.

5. Scanning

It consists of quickly searching for some particular piece of information without reading through the whole text. Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of a key concept, or to list a certain number of supporting details.

6. Semantic mapping or clustering

Readers can easily be overwhelmed by a long string of ideas or events. This strategy helps the reader to provide some order to the chaos. Making such semantic maps can be done individually, but they make for a productive group -work technique as students collectively induce order and hierarchy to a passage.

7. Guessing

The students can use guessing to their advantage to guess the meaning of a word, grammatical relationship, a discourse relationship, infer implied meaning, about a cultural reference and content messages.

8. Vocabulary analysis

This strategy consists of analyzing in terms of what they know about it. So, the students have to look for prefixes or suffixes that may indicate what part of speech it is, roots that are familiar, grammatical contexts that may signal information and the semantic context for clues.

9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.

This requires the application of sophisticated top-down processing skills. The fact that not all language can be interpreted appropriately by attending to its literal, syntactic surface structure makes special demands on readers. Implied meaning usually has to be derived from processing-pragmatic information.

10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.

There are many discourse markers in English that signal relationships among ideas as expressed through phrases, clauses, and sentences. A clear comprehension of such markers can greatly enhance reading of the students" efficiency.

These skills are developed gradually in a step by step process and little by little they finally form the reading comprehension.

In the reading comprehension, like receptive form of the verbal activity, the reader captures what the writer reflects in an explicit way, what they say literally. But in the process of understanding of that read is also possible to understand what wanted to imply and their attitude, that is to say, what position he/she takes as for what says and it implies. If it is not possible to arrive to this point in the understanding of the text, then "the breach" among the meaning of what was written and their interpretation could not close and therefore, the understanding was not achieved.

1.3. System of reading comprehension exercises

The exercises proposed in this investigation are organized with a systematic character. System is "A set or series of elements that are in an interdependence level so a change in one implies modification in the remaining ones". (ICCP. 1998)

On the other hand according to ISPEJV "A system is as a whole and as such it is able to possess properties and results that it is not possible to find in its components seen in isolated form making notice with it a new edge of the consistent system in that their components in its integration, make arise results that they don't generate their parts for separate". (ISPEJV.1998)

"The set of interrelated components and logically structured that they allow the realization of a certain work professional on the base of completing certain functions and with the purpose of achieving the objectives layouts." (ICCP, Alberto Lima Fences Ph.D, 2001)

An exercise by Gustavo Deler Ferrera (Ph.D) is "A conscious action in that the fellows are implied in the development of an activity with character transformer. It is an activity educational-didactics that is structured in a conscious and systematic way, it organizes and it directs toward a proposed objective of teaching-learning".

Another definition given by Deler about exercise is "Action of to exercise or to train by means of certain effect of exercising. A group of movements that drive to the development of an activity. Proves that is carried out for the student to demonstrate knowledge. It can also be the implication in learning processes like complement and confirmation of the theoretical teaching." "Activity dedicated to acquire, to develop or to conserve an ability or psychic quality".

Exercises are a concrete embodiment (realization) of the content and aims of teaching. They are structural units that organize not only language material but also the actions and operations of the students. Exercises, as a means of solving mental, methodological tasks, include the mental processes and practical activities of the students. Thus, they are units of cognitive and communicative activity.

A system of exercises is a set of well-organized activities for the students to develop different habits and skills in the process of learning a foreign language. It always reflects a definite methodological system as such with its aim, principles, and methods. So the pedagogical process of teacher-student activities is programmed by means of exercises.

System of exercises according to Gustavo Deler Ph. D: "There are the interrelated teaching-learning activities and logically structured that in a conscious and systematic way they are organized and they direct when keeping in mind an objective of the content of the education."

H. Douglas Brown offers the following structural characteristics that the exercises should have.

-Setting of the task (problem).

-Ways and orientations to solve the problem.

-Solving the problem.

-Control and self-control (feedback).

In a system of activities, the phases for the development of the result are the diagnosis, the sensitization – familiarization, development, systematizing – consolidation, control and evaluation.

The qualities of the system of activities that it is obtained must be humanist, transformer, reflexive, perspective, integrative, systemic, dynamic, flexible and strategic, interdisciplinary and assertive.

In the system of activities, the four basic pillars of the Education should be completed that the UNESCO has proposed to face the challenges and challenges of the XXI century: "To learn how to know, to learn how to make, to learn how to cohabit and to learn how to be."

The system of exercises for reading comprehension must be ordered taking into account the three moments as follows:

Before reading exercises as their name involves, are carried out before students read the text. They are used to activate the background knowledge and place students in a position favourable for understanding better what they are going to read. They start creating images and formulating hypotheses. At this stage, general questions must be formulated to direct the students" attention to the main ideas they will see in the passage.

Therefore, these questions should be few in number, easy regarding form and content. The teacher should make any necessary explanation in reference to language or culture specific aspects. During this stage, several types of exercises may be carried out. They include brainstorming, listening to a poem or song, working with either pictures, or the title of the text, or with an excerpt of the text, discussing about news, or the main ideas of a similar text that has been written in mother tongue of the students.

While- reading exercises are carried out while students are reading the text. They process the text working on the cues provided in it. These cues can confirm or reject predictions and hypotheses. Students relate old and new information; they work on the relationships between words and ideas, arrive at conclusions and can even evaluate critically a piece of information. This is all related to what is known as the construction of meaning by the reader as composed to the carrying of meaning of the text.

A varied set of exercises can be considered for this stage: completing charts; puzzles; relating pictures with specific information; drawings; answering questions; true or false exercises and organizing the ideas in chronological order. Other exercises within the stage could be classifying ideas into main topics and details, the overall structure of the text and guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context.

After reading exercises, also called follow up exercises, are designed to put into practice what the students have learned, that is to apply or transfer knowledge and skills to a new situation, to outline or summarize the text. They also contribute to develop other language skills as oral or written output.

The exercises used in this moment should be aimed to comment the main idea, answer questions, retell, summarize and reflect the text and also decode the vocabulary used in it.

While designing the proposal teachers should not impose their own interpretation on the student just providing them with enough evidences to follow the right way. It is better to allow the text to suggest what exercises are most appropriate to it, do not use so many exercises because the pleasure of reading might spoil. It is wise to ask the students help to find out the passages and texts they enjoy most and teach them to approach a new text, to consider it as a whole, to skim it, to scan it. It is advised to help the student to time himself and increase his reading speed little by little.

Chapter 2.

Analysis of the instruments applied and proposal foundation

2.1. Analysis of the results in the initial stage of the investigation

This investigation begun in the course 2015-2016, in the Agrarian University of Havana, located in Mayabeque province, the author took as population the students of first year from Pedagogy-Psychology; since in this level the contents are guided to the formation of abilities in English and especially in the ability of reading comprehension.

During the exploratory study with the group of first year students for 10 students that constitute the sample of this investigation, representing 100% of the total population when all of them are female. There are (2) students with high level, with a level average (3), compose the sample and with difficulties (5) in English; this condition took in consideration of the results of the initial diagnosis.

It is necessary to know the initial state of the sample in the development of the ability of the reading comprehension and for that was applied several instruments: observation guide to lessons (annex 1), survey questionnaire (annex 2), and initial Pedagogical test (annex 3).

The author used four indicators to the elaboration of the instruments.

• General comprehension

• Specific searching of the information

• Infer meanings and grammatical structures

• Summarizing text

As could be seen in the Initial Pedagogical Test the students present difficulties for the development of the reading comprehension where the most affected indicator was summarizing text in the fifth question.

Regularities initial stage:

• Have difficulty answering questions in response to the three levels of reading comprehension

• The students have difficulties in infer meanings and grammatical structures

• Incorrect determination of the text message and the intention of the author

It is for that reason the author considers that a system of exercises could solved the problem in this investigation. Based on these results the author decides to create a system of exercises to develop reading comprehension in the students of first year of Pedagogy-Psychology studies.

2.2. Foundation, characterization and exemplification of the proposal

The proposal has its foundation in the cultural-historic approach concerning the basic principles of the Cuban revolutionary policy. It is situated in the social-historic context in which the student acts.

In this investigation the proposal of a scientifically based system of exercises, it is sustained in the philosophical, psychological, sociological, pedagogic, didactic and linguistic sciences. Their categories, laws and principles are fundamental for the organization and structuring of the proposal responds to the current necessities for the elaboration of exercises guided to the development of the ability of reading comprehension in the first year students from Pedagogy-Psychology studies.

Philosophical foundations: The proposal is sustained in the dialectical materialism assuming by the author to the teacher Yanelis Ayala in her master thesis (2011:52). In this system the center is the human being (student), and the conception of the exercises that integrate it arises of the alive view (diagnostic of the students), to the abstract thought (elaboration of the proposal) and of this to the practice (application of the proposal) for this way to work in the improvement of the development of the ability of reading comprehension being completed the postulates of the theory of V.I. Lenin.

Psychological foundations: It is sustained in the historical-cultural focus of the human psyche developed by Vigotsky (2003:29) on a dialectical-materialistic methodology, with the incorporation of the historical materialism for the development of the personality. Following these ideas in the system of exercises, one keeps in mind the development and the student"s individual growth in the acquisition of the knowledge, as well as the unit of the cognitive and the affective thing in the learning. It is also present as the students they traffic from the dependence to the independence being evidenced in the capacity of the same ones in the realization of more and more complex exercises.

Sociological Foundations: It is sustained in the ideas of the Cuban sociologist Antonio Blanco Pérez (2003) where it establishes a complex system of influences, in those that it participates the whole society. The proposal is based on systematized influences (through the school) and specialized (teachers), keeping in mind the social necessities and the available resources to achieve the students to appropriate of the knowledge through the communication in this case (reading comprehension). Showing, also, each individual"s, where each student processes the reality in a particular way and to carries his or her results as active social entity.

Pedagogical foundations: The realization of the system of exercises is welcomed to the pedagogic laws proposed by Justo Chavez (2006:53), where it outlines that the pedagogic process has an end: the formation and the man's development, the nature of having conditioned and conditioning the education. This proposal contributes to the development of reading comprehension in the students, preparing them this way for the life like professional futures, arising the same one for the existent inadequacies in the development of this ability.

Didactics foundations: It is based on laws and didactic principles, where this proposal is characterized by the correct selection of the contents, methods and teaching means, for the realization of the exercises in each one of the selected units.

The proposal in this investigation is a system of exercises to promote the ability of reading comprehension in English, in the first year student from Pedagogy-Psychology, since these activities to each other, have a coordination relationship. The same ones fulfill the most important qualities in a system: components, it structures, hierarchy principle and functional relationships. In each one of these exercises the three big moments of comprehension of reading: before you read, while you read and after you read.

Linguistic foundation: This proposal is sustained in the ideas of the Roberto González Cancio Ph.D, (2009:32) about the linguistic abilities, where through this system of exercises, the student acquires the capacity to direct the activity of the reading to solve talkative tasks, that is to say, using these form abilities differed in the different situations of the daily life.

The proposal in this investigation is a system of exercises for promote the ability of reading comprehension in first year students of Pedagogy-Psychology, since these activities to each other, have a coordination relationship. The same ones fulfill the most important qualities in a system: components, it structures, hierarchy principle and functional relationship. In each one of these exercises are present the three big moments of reading comprehension: before reading, while reading, after reading.

This system is compound for 10 exercises, one for unit. The same one will be applied in the corresponding lessons to the reading of each one of the units.

This system of exercises has an important role in the students because the reading activities that are exposed in the At your Pace (textbook) are insufficient for the students. In the application of the system the author of this research paper will take in consideration all of those activities but she will reinforce the activities with the tasks. The system of exercises is structured in the following way: number of exercise, unit, objective, evaluation, moment of reading comprehension and objective

2.2.1. Model exercise

Exercise 3

Unit 3: Routines

Objective: to comprehend the text through oral and written exercises guided by the teacher.

Evaluation: hetero-evaluation (individual work)

First moment: before reading

Objective: to identify what the text is about.

1- What time do you wake up?

b) What do you usually do in the afternoon?

c) Do you go to school early in the morning? Why?

d) Are you punctual? Why?

Second moment: while reading

Objective: to extract information from the text through skimming and scanning

Read the following text

Title: _________________________

Mr. Johnson looked at his watch. It was half past seven. He got out of bed quickly. Then he washed and dressed. He was late as usual, so he did not have time for breakfast. He ran all the way to the station and he arrived there just in time for the train. Mr. Johnson never eats anything in the morning. He always says to his friends at the office: "It is nice to have breakfast in the morning, but it is nicer to lie in bed".

2- Select a title to the text and explain why you select it.

a) The trip of Mr. Johnson

b) Mr. Johnson´s job

c) Mr. Johnson´s morning daily routines

_____________________________________________________________________________