Final answer:
Language comprehension is crucial when students deal with complex or unfamiliar texts that require active reading, context knowledge, and critical thinking. By actively engaging with the text, students enhance their understanding and analytical skills, which are vital in a college environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
Language comprehension becomes more important to reading success when students encounter complex texts that require a deeper understanding of language structures, context, and critical thinking skills. To be proactive readers in a college setting, students must expand beyond basic decoding and fluency to apply strategies that aid in comprehending and analyzing texts. This involves looking up unknown words, taking meaningful notes, and asking questions to develop a thorough understanding of the text's rhetorical situation. To effectively comprehend literature such as Shakespeare or other works that are culturally or linguistically distant, students need tools and strategies to bridge these gaps.
Understanding informational texts also demand knowledge of the subject matter and the rules governing the genre. Without this, reading seminal texts, like the Emancipation Proclamation, or understanding complex concepts in a biology textbook can be challenging. As knowledge increases, so too does the ability to critically engage with reading material, write with depth, and expand one's critical thinking capabilities.
Therefore, active reading is crucial. Passive reading, where comprehension is minimal, doesn't build connections with other material or concepts. Comprehension is the stepping stone to critical analysis, understanding, and evaluative thinking, which are essential to both academic and post-academic success.