Modern foreign investigations of difficulties in understanding of texts among primary school pupils

In the article, the reader can observe the experience taken from foreign publications that focus on the problems of teaching primary school pupils how to understand the texts, which is one of the most important universal competences in the educational process. The author studied and analyzed the investigations of American, Finnish, Canadian, Chinese and other scientists in this field. The author found out that during the latest half of the century the quality of reading among pupils has dramatically decreased and has a tendency to get even worse. The most attention in the article was paid to the investigations that demonstrate the possible causes of incorrect reading and understanding of the informative texts among pupils. Among the causes there are: the difficulty of the text that influences the understanding of it, using different methods of teaching how to read the text, the control and evaluation of reading skills etc. In the article there are enlisted the factors that contribute to the better understanding of texts. There are also mentioned some strategies of coping with problems and forming the good reading skills. The scientific works that are mentioned in the article have a great importance in the theory and practice of pedagogical science, as the ability to understand the text correctly is not only important for successful educational process at school, but is also an essential ability in life

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