Lecture 12 Teaching L2 Reading Luo Ling

Issues in L2 reading 1.Automaticity and word recognition word recognition in second language reading must be viewed as a “significant phenomenon in its own right” and not just as a facet or the overall second language proficiency. ____ Koda(1996) If a second language is weaker than the first language and reading is slower in the second language, word recognition is less automatic than in the L1 even for the fluent bilinguals.

Practice on word recognition tasks leads to faster and more stable responses. These faster and more stable responses indicated that processing had not merely become faster across the board, but that a qualitative change or restructuring of processing had occurred. Implication: Word recognition exercise are probably useful for both older and younger L2readers, enhancing fluency and raising student awareness of the processing demands of extended independent readings.

2.Reading rate In L1 language research studies, there is considerable evidence that fluent readers read at between 200wpm and 300wpm for most types of texts. Implications: Exercises aimed at improving reading rate seem to help L2 learners, in particular those who have already developed their word recognition skills.

3.The role of background knowledge in reading Bernhardt (1991) was one of the first to caution against a predictive relationship between background knowledge and second or foreign language reading comprehension.

Whilst finding that the effects of background knowledge were statistically significantly correlated with recall protocols scores on the topic. knowledge about the topic being read helps learners understand the reading better. It is an important element in reading comprehension, but only one of many.

Models for teaching reading The Bottom-up Model The Top-down Model The Interactive Model

The Bottom-up Model reading was viewed primarily as a decoding process of reconstructing the author's intended meaning via recognizing the printed letters and words ， and building up a meaning for a text from the smallest textual units at the "bottom”(1etters and words)to larger and larger units at the”top”phrases ， clauses ， intersentential linkages) ．

The Bottom-up Model This model of teaching reading is based on the theory in which reading (and listening, too) is regarded as a process of “decoding”, which moves from the bottom to the top of the system of language.

The Bottom-up Model Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes Linguistic knowledge is used.

The Bottom-up Model Merit: According to this model, if we understand the vocabulary and grammar, we can decode the meaning and then understand the meaning of the text ． Demerit: insufficient and defective (it relies on the formal features of the language, mainly words and structure)

The Top-down Model Good-man(19671) described reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game”. The reader reconstructs meaning from written language by using graph-phonetic, syntactic, and semantic systems of the language. But the reader need not use all of the textual cues. The better the reader is able to make correct predictions, the less confirming via the text is necessary ．

The Top-down Model Linguistic Knowledge & Background Knowledge Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes

The Top-down Model Merit: had a strong influence on ESL ／ EFL reading ． Demerit: not enough attention was paid to the teaching of the language knowledge, but it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension to take place ．

The Interactive Model This model strikes a better balance among the various sub processes of reading. It provides a constant interaction between bottom-up and top-clown processing in reading, each source information contributes to a comprehension reconstruction of the meaning of the text ．

The Interactive Model This process does not only involve the printed page but also the reader’s knowledge of the language in general, of the world, and of the text types.

The Interactive Model Schemata to be activated the schema of language; the schema of content; the schema of forms Discourses Sentences/ Phrases Words Morphemes Phonemes

The Interactive Model Merit: this model emphasizes the role of background knowledge in language comprehension. The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as schema theory ．

Implications of L2 research for instruction 1.The need to develop reading fluency and word- recognition automaticity. 2.The need to develop a large recognition vocabulary. 3.The importance of discourse structure and the instructional benefits of using graphic representations.

4.The need for language awareness and attention to language (structure) and genre form (meta-linguistic knowledge). 5.The importance of meta-cognitive awareness and strategic reading. 6.The importance of specific reading strategies to support word learning and reading to learn goals. 7.The need for extensive reading.

8.The importance of motivation. 9.The benefits of integrated skills instruction and content-based instruction. 10.The need for a supportive (classroom and instructional) environment for reading.

Thank you!