Lexical anticipation in pre-reading as a didactic strategy to improve text comprehension

Abstract

This work details a study carried out at the Ermesinde Secondary School as part of the Master's Degree in Portuguese Teaching in the 3rd Cycle of Basic Education and in Secondary Education, taught at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto. Using the methodological principles of action-research, the project aimed to improve the lexical knowledge and textual comprehension of 7th grade students. The identification of the intervention area was based on the knowledge obtained through direct observation of the class and records in the researcher's diary. Considering the decisive role of this knowledge in reading comprehension, two research-action cycles were implemented regarding the explicit teaching of the lexicon in pre-reading. The results demonstrate a positive evolution in this domain, attesting to the effectiveness of the activities and the need for further investigations that adopt this didactic strategy.