Reading

Interactive reading

A type of reading where both top-down and bottom-up processing occurs simultaneously,

Definition of reading

An activity involving focus on written text, reader approaches the text with purposeful intent to extract meaning, a communicative activity with interaction between reader, writer and text, an ACTIVE process. A process of the writer attempting to communicate something with the reader and the reader participating in the communicative process by trying to understand.

Comprehension questions

An testing approach in traditional reading tasks.

Background information

Another factor in the expecting, predicting, recognising and inferring chain of skills. When we read we use this factor to help us comprehend. For example what the text looks like (hand written, bold type, small print, lots of space, pictures) gives us information.

Advantages of authentic texts

Familiarise students with the way language really works. Build confidence if the task is manageable and students are successful. Motivate students because they are working with real material. Help reduce the artificiality of the classroom.

Advantages of extensive reading

It gives students exposure to lexis, structure, discourse etc. in different and meaningful contexts. It is important that students read longer texts, not only short ones. It provides an opportunity for more of a top-down focus, perhaps to balance the more typical in-class bottom-up focus. It increases the amount of time students are exposed to English. It can be motivating for students to complete a reading outside of class. It can provide a sense of progress and achievement.

Disadvantages of authentic texts

It is impossible to control the language. Especially at lower levels, there can be too many distractions (new language) for students. The materials may lower student confidence and increase student anxiety if they feel overwhelmed. An achievable task would of course make all the difference here. Some say that authenticity is lost as soon as it comes into a classroom. Materials may decrease motivation if students feel they cannot understand a good amount of it.

Discourse

Linked to a student's command of language is his/her understanding of ********patterns, or in other words those connections between parts of the text above/beyond individual sentence level.

Holistic approach

Reading sub skills cannot be fragmented.

Language Level

Students' level of language is a factor in their attempts to read effectively. They may find words in the text they do not understand (a negative effect on their confidence and their comprehension). But it is not knowledge of individual items that enables students to be effective readers; it is familiarity with patterns. Expectations of what words go together, what word is likely to follow another, how words combine syntactically and how the text unfolds, all make processing texts easier for readers, and lack of awareness of these linguistic patterns reduces readers' abilities to predict, to have realistic expectations, and/or to infer.

Top-down processing

This process involves the reader focusing on getting an overview of the text, on getting the "big picture", on understanding generally what is being said rather than looking at the text at a micro level.

Factors Affecting your Students' Reading Proficiency

Topics are unfamiliar and/or inappropriate. Students do not have sufficient background information. Students' level of language is not high enough. Students may not be able to apply reading strategies from their own language. Students may not be familiar with the script. Students may not be familiar with conventions of layout, punctuation, paragraphing. Students may find reading in the classroom off-putting. Students may read word by word only. Students may mouth words as they read or, as above, subvocalize. Students may translate as they read. Students may focus or get stuck on what they don't know. Students may panic when confronted with text and tasks.

Subvocalize

When students read the text aloud under their breath.

Bottom-up processing

a process where the reader stops and looks at individual words or structures to understand what the writer is saying to facilitate understanding at a more global level

Skills

are unconscious ways of dealing with text; they are abilities which operate without the readers consciously thinking about them.

Sequences

both of sentences and paragraphs which indicate relationships between information and ideas. For example, 'A storm blew up and the tanker sank' indicates a different relationship between the two actions compared with the one in 'The tanker sank and a storm blew up'.

Extensive reading

happens outside of class time. Students are encouraged to read longer texts on their own for pleasure, relaxation, specific information and/or gist; what is important is that increasingly students are encouraged to make their own decisions about what they want to get out of the text.

Reasons for teaching reading

in class it adds to a balance of language systems and skills. learning a language means acquiring reading, as well as other, skills and structure, lexis, etc. students expect to learn to read when they learn a new language. students need to learn to read in the language they are learning e.g. for their jobs, to pass an examination. reading is a very effective means of learning language, and about language. texts contextualise specific target language and this helps student understanding.

Developing skills

in class requires the teacher to show the students how to read better. It may involve asking them to process a text in a particular way and then reflect on what they did and how effective it was.

Testing skills

involves getting the students to provide answers based on (say) comprehension questions from the text in order to assess their proficiency in reading.

Systemic knowledge

is a learner's knowledge of lexis and grammar which helps them interpret a text and is imperative in bottom-up interpretation.

Schematic knowledge

is a reader's knowledge of the wider world and of different situations, contexts and genres, and how these are likely to influence the development (and language employed) in a text. It is vital for top-down processing.

Peripheral information

layout, visuals, title, typeface, text type / genre, location etc. to get information about a text.

Topic:

limited knowledge of a topic and making predictions about the content of the text enable readers to chunk information, and to identify what needs closer scrutiny and what needs less attention.

Skim reading

rapidly reading a text in order to get the gist, or the main ideas or sense of a text. A reader might skim a film review in order to see if the reviewer liked the film or not.

Detailed reading

reading a text in order to extract the maximum detail from it such as when following instructions for installing a household appliance.

Scanning

reading a text in search of specific information, and ignoring everything else e.g. when consulting a bus timetable for a particular time and destination,

Intensive reading

relates to a focus on a shorter text in a variety of ways (skimming, scanning) for a variety of reasons (specific information, gist)

An assumption that reader and writer -

share the same script/characters, punctuation conventions, and knowledge of the same grammar, discourse and vocabulary and stylistic conventions

Strategies

the conscious ways that readers problem-solve while they read. When comprehension of the text breaks down, for example, when the lexis becomes too complex for rapid comprehension, students employ these such as inferring meaning from context, or breaking words down into their constituent parts. But both are inextricably linked.

Cohesive devices/discourse markers

the words that show relationships between sentences such as 'them' 'those' 'her' 'the' or 'in contrast,' 'meanwhile,' 'afterwards'.

Effective reading/reader

this is being proficient with a process in real life i.e. outside the classroom. It is a process of silently reading real and meaningful text with purpose, without teacher assistance but interacting with the text by using textual and non-textual clues to understand it, questioning, predicting, reacting, inferring, stopping and looking at things in depth when necessary, and understanding what it is necessary to understand.

Development of strategies

to activate and encourage students' making predictions, their bringing their knowledge of the world and their experience to the text, and their making choices of how they will approach a text and then reflecting on the effectiveness of these choices.

Sub skills of reading

understanding words and identifying their grammatical function. recognizing grammar features, such as word endings, and 'unpacking' (or parsing) the syntax of sentences. identifying the topic of the text, and recognizing topic changes. Identifying text type, text purpose, and text organization, and identifying discourse markers and cohesive devices. distinguishing key information from less important information identifying and understanding the gist. following development of an argument following sequence of a narrative paraphrasing a text

Strategy training

using contextual and extra-linguistic information (pictures, layout, headlines) to make predictions about what text is about. brainstorming background (or schematic) knowledge in advance of reading. skimming a text in advance of more detailed reading. keeping the purpose of text in mind. guessing the meaning of words from context.

Atomistic approach

views that reading can be broken down into discrete sub-skills which can, and should, be developed separately.

Schemata/Schema (sing.)

we organise the experiences we have had into mental structures. When we read, our are activated and we use our experiences to enable us to interpret the text correctly.However, even very competent language users can have difficulty when, usually for cultural reasons, they cannot use or even identify, the background information.

Reading aloud

when reading a prepared speech or lecture, or reading a story aloud, or an extract from a newspaper.