Abstract:

Comprehension while reading a text in a foreign language is reflected in the transformational experience influencing the thinking and cognition of the individual. New words and meanings, and language structures support existing knowledge, thereby stimulating cognitive processes that support the activity of metacognitive processes. However, when working with a text, not only a complex of cognitive and metacognitive processes is involved, but also some phenomena at the affective and social level. By stimulating these processes and phenomena, we have the opportunity to develop perception and understanding of the text, thinking about it in education to a greater extent, which can be achieved by intervention, or intervention program. In this paper we deal with the importance of intervention in the student's work with the text and at the same time developing the student's text comprehension.

The intervention is focused on modification and optimizing the way the student perceives the text and works with it. From this point of view, an essential indicator of the intervention is not only the cognitive and metacognitive process, but also the text with which the student works with. The research goal is to determine the student's performance in comprehension with respect to the text and the cognitive levels of the text, while the target language is German. Subsequently, through content analysis, we analyse the selected text and its parameters to make it suitable for developing the student's understanding in the process of pedagogical intervention. We carried out the research in Slovak upper-secondary schools, vocational and grammar ones, with students at A2 foreign language proficiency level according to the Common European Framework. The results pointed out to differences in students' text comprehension, as well as to the need to connect cognitive levels in the text, which serve as essential means of understanding the text being read and help students understand the meaning of the text.

Keywords:

Reading comprehension, text, foreign language, intervention, education, cognitive levels of the text.