Theories of Reading Essay Example for Free

Theories of Reading EssaySo far, in that respect are three main(prenominal) theories which explain the nature of learning to exhibit. First, the conventional surmisal, or bottom up appendageing, which foc mapd on the printed form of a textual matter. (2) the cognitive view, or top-down processing enhanced the role of undercoat companionship in addition to what appeared on the printed varlet. Third, the metacognitive view, which is based on the control and manipulation that a ref evict ca-ca on the act of comprehending a text, and thus, emphasizes the pastime of the bear witnessers thinking close to what he is doing while drill. 1.The traditional bottom-up view The traditional bottom-up approach to put downing was influenced by behaviourist psychology of the 1950s, which claimed learning was based upon habit formation, brought ab let out by the repeated association of a stimulus with a response and language learning was characterized as a response system that hu mans acquire through automatic conditioning processes, where well-nigh patterns of language are strengthened (rewarded) and others are not, and only those patterns reinforced by the community of language users give persist (Omaggio 1993, 45-46).Behaviorism became the basis of the audio-lingual method, which sought to form second language habits through drilling, repetition, and error correction. Today, the main method associated with the bottom-up approach to information is known asphonics, which requires the learner to match letters with sounds in a defined sequence. According to this view, development is a analog process by which readers decode a text word by word, linking the delivery into phrases and then metres (Gray and Rogers, cited in Kucer 1987).According to Samuels and Kamil (1988 25), the emphasis on behaviorism treated reading as a word-recognition response to the stimuli of the printed words, where teeny attempt was made to explain what went on within the rec esses of the mind that allowed the human to make sense of the printed page. In other words, textual comprehension involves adding the meanings of words to get the meanings of clauses (Anderson 1994).These lower level skills are connected to the visualstimulus, or print, and are consequently come to with recognizing and repudiateing. Like the audio-lingual teaching method, phonics emphasizes on repetition and on drills using the sounds that make up words. Information is received and processed beginning with the smallest sound units, and proceeded to letter blends, words, phrases, and sentences. Thus, novice readers acquire a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially build toward comprehension ability.Having mastered these skills, readers are viewed as experts who comprehend what they read. The bottom-up shape describes familiarity flow as a series of levels that transforms the input and passes it to the next stage without any feedback or possibility of afterwa rd stages of the process influencing earlier stages (Stanovich, 1980). In other words, language is viewed as a code and the readers main t bear is to identify graphemes and convert them into ph unrivalledmes. Consequently, readers are regarded as passive recipients of learning in the text.Meaning resides in the text and the reader has to reproduce it. The ESL and EFL textbooks influenced by this perspective include exercises that focus on literal comprehension and give little or no importance to the readers knowledge or experience with the subject field, and the only interaction is with the basic building blocks of sounds and words. Most activities are based on recognition and recall of lexical and grammatical forms with an emphasis on the perceptual and decoding dimension.This model of reading has almost evermore been beneath attack as being insufficient and defective for the main reason that it relies on the courtly features of the language, mainly words and structure. Althou gh it is possible to comport this rejection for the fact that in that location is over-reliance on structure in this view, it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension to take place. To counteract over-reliance on form in the traditional view of reading, the cognitive view was introduced 2.The Cognitive View (top-down processing) In the mid-sixties a paradigm shift occurred in the cognitive sciences. Behaviorism became close to discredited as the new cognitive theory represented the minds innate capacity for learning, which gave new explanatory power to how humans acquired their first of all language this also had a tremendous impact on the field of ESL/EFL as psycholinguists explained how such internal representations of the foreign language develop within the learners mind (Omaggio, 1993 57).Ausubel (cited in Omaggio, 1993 58), made an important distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning. An example of rote learn ing is simply memorizing lists of unaffectionate words or rules in a new language, where the information becomes temporary and subject to loss. Meaningful learning, on the other hand, occurs when new information is presented in a relevant context and is related to what the learner already knows, so that it bed be easily integrated into ones existing cognitive structure. A learning that is not meaningful get out not become permanent.This emphasis on meaning eventually informed the top-down approach to L2 learning, and in the 1960s and 1970s there was an explosion of teaching methods and activities that strongly considered the experience and knowledge of the learner. These new cognitive and top-down processing approaches revolutionized the conception of the right smart learners learn to read (Smith, 1994). In this view, reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the reader subscribes to the act of rea ding.In this sense, reading is a dialogue between the reader and the text which involves an active cognitive process in which the readers background knowledge plays a central role in the creation of meaning (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Reading is not a passive mechanical activity but meaningful and rational, dependent on the anterior knowledge and expectations of the reader. It is not merely a matter of decoding print to sound but also a matter of devising sense of written language (Smith, 1994 2).In short, reading is a psycholinguistic surmise game, a process in which readers warning the text, make hypotheses, swan or reject them, make new hypotheses, and so forth. Schema Theory Another theory closely related to top-down processing called outline theory also had a major impact on reading instruction. It describes in detail how the background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task and illustrates how a students knowledge and previous experience with the wor ld is crucial to deciphering a text.The ability to use this schemata, or background knowledge, plays a fundamental role in ones trial to comprehend a text. Schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that abet a reader make sense of new experiences. Smith (1994 14) callsschemes the extensive representations of more general patterns or regularities that occur in our experience. For instance ones generic scheme of an airplane will allow him to make sense of airplane he has not previously flied with.This means that past experiences will be related to new experiences, which may include the knowledge of objects, situations, and events as well as knowledge of procedures for retrieving, organizing and interpreting information (Kucer, 1987 31). Anderson (1994 469) presents research showing that recall of information in a text is affected by the readers schemata and explains that a reader comprehends a pass on when he is fit to in volve to mind a schema that gives account of the objects and events described in the message.Comprehension is the process of activating or constructing a schema that provides a lucid explanation of objects and events mentioned in a discourse (Anderson, 1994 473). For Anderson and Pearson (1988 38), comprehension is the interaction between old and new information. They emphasize To say that one has comprehended a text is to say that she has found a mental home for the information in the text, or else that she has modified an existing mental home in order to arrest that new information.Therefore, a learners schemata will restructure itself to accommodate new information as that information is added to the system (Omaggio, 1993) Content and formal schemata Schema theorists disparateiate formal schemata (knowledge about the structure of a text) from content schemata (knowledge about the subject matter of a text), and a readers preceding knowledge of both schemata enables him to pred ict events and meaning as well as to infer meaning from a wider context.Formal schemata refers to the way that texts differ from one another(prenominal) for example, a reading text could be a fictional work, a letter to the editor, or a scientific essay, and each genre will have a different structural organization. Knowledge of these genre structures can aid reading comprehension, as it gives readers a basis for predicting what a text will be like (Smith 1994). For example, if a reader knows that the typical format of a research article consists of sections subtitled Introduction, Theoretical Basis, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, that knowledge will facilitate their interaction with the article and hike upcomprehension.On the other hand, if he is not familiar with this formal schema, teaching it to him could lead to improved reading ability with lasting and beneficial effects. Content schemata refers to the message of the text. Ones familiarity with the content will make more productive and efficient. As Anderson (1994 469) explains, a reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that gives account of the objects and events described in the message.Activating and building schemataSince the reader plays a fundamental role in the social structure of meaning, his age, gender, experience, and culture are important considerations for instructors who want to admit readings that will motivate their students. Anderson (1994) notes that when readers cannot locate a schema that fits a text, they may find it incomprehensible. In some cases readers may not have a schema that is profound to the text, or they may deficiency supporter to spark off the pertinent schema to be able to comprehend the text.In such cases it may not be possible for the reader to visit the text, and the teacher must be ready to engage in building new background knowledge as well as activating existing background knowledge (Carrell, 1988 248). In para llel with this, Bransford (1994) points out that difficulties in comprehension may be ca utilize by the lack of background knowledge presumed by the text, and he nails the responsibility of instructors as being twofold to activate exist schemata and to help students to integrate isolated parcels of knowledge into a schema or to build a new one.If the texts to be read contain a pagan context that is different from the students, the issues of formal and content schemata become even more important. McDonough (1995), explains that, to a higher extent, this is the reason why ESL and EFL students find it difficult to read in a second language with texts that contain cultural assumptions of the target culture. They may lack the culture-specific background knowledge necessary to process the text in a top-down manner. His reports on several studies demonstrate how people outside a given culture may misunderstand events with unfamiliar cultural connotations.(Students from different cultura l backgrounds taking standardized tests which assume common schemata for will also face the same problem. ) Applying schema theory to L2 reading Based on the same ideas, it is obvious that in order to teach reading effectively, the teachers role to activate and build schemata is paramount. To achieve it, he should in advance select texts that are relevant to the students needs, preferences, individual differences, and cultures in order to provide meaningful texts so the students understand the message, which entails activating existing schemata and helping build new schemata.Then, later on selecting the text, he needs to do the following three stages of activities to activate and build the students schemata. (1) Pre-reading activities, in which the teacher have students think, write, and discuss everything they know about the topic, employing techniques such as prediction, semantic mapping, and reconciled reading. The objective is to make sure that students have the relevant schem a for understanding the text. (2)During-reading activities, in which the teacher guide and monitor the interaction between the reader and the text.One important skill teachers can impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize information and record their reactions and opinions. (3)Post-reading activities which facilitate the chance to evaluate students adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that readership must be respected as long as the writers intentions are addressed (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Post-reading activities focus on a wide range of questions that allow for different interpretations.While schema activation and building can occur in all three stages, the pre-reading stage deserves special attention since it is here, during the students initial contact with the text, where their schemata will be activated. Pre-reading activities Pre-rea ding activities is aimed to activate existing schemata, build new schemata, and provide information to the teacher about what the students know. In their report on the positive effect divers(a) pre-reading activities had on reading comprehension, Chen and Graves (1995, 664), define them as devices for bridging the gap between the texts content and the readers schemata.Various activities and materials can help the teacher introduce key vocabulary and reinforce concept association to activate both formal and content schemata. Formal schemata will be activated by employing devices such as advance organizers and overviews to draw attention to the structure of a text. The content schemata will be activated by using various pre-reading activities to help learners brainstorm and predict how the information fits in with their previous knowledge. One of the most important pre-reading activities proposed by schematic theorists isprediction.According to Goodman (1988 16), prediction is import ant because the brain is always anticipating and predicting as it seeks order and significance in sensory inputs. Smith (1994, 1920) defines prediction as the prior elimination of unlikely alternatives. According to him, predictions are questions the readers ask the world and comprehension is receiving the answers. He emphasizes that it is prediction that makes skilled readers effective when reading texts that contain familiar subject matter.Prediction brings potential meaning to texts, reducing ambiguity and eliminating in advance irrelevant alternatives. Thus, we are able to generate comprehensible experience from inert pages of print (Smith 1994, 18). Another pre-reading activity is previewing, where students look at titles, headings, andpictures, and read the first few paragraphs and the last paragraph these activities can then help students understand what the text is about by activating their formal and content schemata and making them familiar with the topic before they begi n reading in earnest.Semantic mapping is another pre-reading activity that Carrell, Pharis, and Liberto (1989 651) describe as a useful way to pre-teach vocabulary and to provide the teacher with an assessment of the students prior knowledge or schema availability on the topic. This activity asks students to brainstorm about the reading topic as the information is displayed on a graphic map. As students make associations, the map becomes a thorough summary of the concepts and vocabulary that they will recreate in the reading. It can also help build schemata and vocabulary that students do not yet possess.Again, it is important to know something about the students so the selected texts contain the fiber of material that is likely to be familiar and interesting to them. Reutzel (1985) proposes another type of pre-reading activity called reconciled readinglesson, which reverses the sequence presented by many textbooks where the text is followed by questions. Instead, the teacher dev elops pre-reading questions from the questions that appear at the end of the reading. Smith (1994) criticizes comprehension exercises presented at the end of a reading because they are like memory tests.He argues that using prior knowledge efficiently contributes to fluent readers, and he believes that there is a reciprocal relationship between visual and non-visual (prior knowledge) information the more the readers have of the latter, the less they need of the former. Although not all the post-reading questions can be easily turned into pre-reading ones, this strategy can be invaluable to activate schemata. 3. The metacognitive view According to Block (1992), there is now no more debate on whether reading is a bottom-up, language-based process or a top-down, knowledge-based process. It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge on readers. Research has gone even further to define the control executed by readers on their trial to understand a text. T his control is what Block has referred to as meta-cognition. In the context of reading, meta-cognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Strategic readers do not only sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, and make new hypotheses while reading.They also involve many activities along the process of reading, whose stages can be divide into three, i. e.before reading, while reading, and after reading. The activities the readers involve before reading are to identify the purpose of the reading, identify the form or type of the text. In the second stage (while reading), they think about the general character and features of the form or type of the textsuch as trying to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details toward a conclusion, project the authors purpose for writing the text, choose, scan, or read in detail, make continuous predictions about what will occur next based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusi ons obtained within the previous stages.Finally, in the last stage, they attempt to form a summary, conclude, or make inference of what was read. Guidelines for Effective Teaching of Reading After discussing the ideas and concepts presented in the three reading theories, we are now on the position of arranging tips and guidelines for implementing a theory of reading which will help to develop our learners abilities. These tips are arranged in three sections which are parallel with the three nonparallel reading stages before reading, during reading, and after reading.Pre-Reading Tips Before the actual act of reading a text begins, some points should be regarded in order to make the process of reading more comprehensible. First, teachers need to make sure that the texts to read contain words and grammatical structures familiar to the learners. If the texts contain unfamiliar vocabulary, teachers can introduce key vocabulary in pre-reading activities that focus on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words.Second, teachers should make sure that the topics of texts chosen are in consent with the age range, interests, sex, and background culture of the students for whom they are intended. If they are not, it is necessary to provide the necessary background information to the reader to facilitate comprehension. This activity could be carried out by letting the class members brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know. The followings are some activities teacher can use during the pre-reading stage. These activities will not take a very long time to carry out.However, they are very effective in overcoming the common barrack to start reading a text closely right away from the beginning. 1. Teacher-directed pre-reading, in which some key vocabulary, ideas in the text, and the type of the text are explained. In this approach the teacher directly explains the information the students will need, including key concepts, important vocabulary, and appropriate conceptual framework. The text types are also necessary to introduce because texts may take on different forms and hold trustworthy pieces of information in different places.The students familiarity with the types of the text they are reading will develop their understanding of the layout of the material. much(prenominal) familiarity will, in turn, enable them to focus more deeply on the parts that are more densely compacted with information. Even paying attention to the year of yield of a text, if applicable, may aid the reader in presuppositions about the text as can glancing at the name of the author.1. Interactive activities, in which the teacher leads a discussion in which he/she draws out the information students already have and interjects additional information deemed necessaryto an understanding of the text to be read. Moreover, the teacher can make explicit links between prior knowledge an d important information in the text.1. Reflective activities, in which students are guided to make themselves aware of the purpose and goal for reading a certain piece of written material. At the beginning stages this can be done by the teacher, but as the reader becomes more mature this strategy can be left to the readers. For instance, the students may be guided to ask themselves,Why am I reading this text?What do I want to do or know after finished reading this? Being aware of their purpose and goal to read, laterin during reading activitiesthey can determine what skill(s) to employ skimming, scanning, reading for details, or critical reading During-reading tips The activities carried out in during-reading stage consist of taking notes, reacting, predicting, selecting substantial information, questioning the writers position, evaluating, and placing a text within ones own experience.These processes may be the most complex to develop in a classroom setting, the reason being that i n English reading classes most attention is often paid to dictionaries, the text, and the teacher. The followings are tips that encourage active reading. Practicing them will help the students be active readers. 1. Making predictions The students should be taught to be on the watch to predict what is going to happen next in the text to be able to integrate and combine what has come with what is to come. 2.Making selections Readers who are more proficient read selectively, continually making decisions about their reading. 3. Integrating prior knowledge The schemata that have been activated in the pre-reading section should be called upon to facilitate comprehension. 4. Skipping insignificant parts A good reader will concentrate on significant pieces of information while skipping insignificant pieces. 5. Re-reading Students should be encouraged to become sensitive to the effect of reading on their comprehension. 6.Making use of context or guessing Students should not be encouraged to define and understand every single unknown word in a text. Instead they should learn to make use of context to guess the meaning of unknown words. 7. Breaking words into their component parts To keep the process of comprehension ongoing, efficient readers analyze unfamiliar words by break them into their affixes or bases. These parts can help them guess the meaning of a word. 8. Reading in chunks To ensure reading speed, students should get used to reading groups of words together.This act will also enhance comprehension by focusing on groups of meaning-conveying symbols simultaneously. 9. Pausing Good readers will pause at certain places while reading a text to absorb and internalize the material being read and sort out information. 10. Paraphrasing While reading texts, it may be necessary to paraphrase and interpret texts sub-vocally in order to verify what was comprehended. 11. Monitoring Good readers monitor their understanding to evaluate whether the text, or the reading of it, is meeting their goals. After-reading tips 12.Post-reading activities fundamentally depend on the purpose of reading and the type of information extracted from the text. Barnett (1988) states that post-reading exercises first check students comprehension and then lead students to a deeper analysis of the text. In the in truth world the purpose of reading is not to memorize an authors point of view or to summarize text content, but rather to see into another mind, or to engage new information with what one already knows. Group discussion will help students focus on information they did not comprehend, or did comprehend correctly.Accordingly, attention will be focused on processes that lead to comprehension or miscomprehension. 13. Generally speaking, post-reading can take the form of these various activities (1) discussing the text written/oral, (2) summarizing written/oral, (3) making questions written/oral, (3) answering questions written/oral, (4) filling in forms and charts (5) writing reading logs (6) completing a text, (7) listening to or reading other related materials, and (7) role-playing. RESEARCHED BY FARNAIDA L. ABUBACAR, MAT-ENGLISHJULY 01, 2011.