ENGLISH METHODOLOGY II PROF: R. Correa I Semester 2008 TEACHING READING ENGLISH METHODOLOGY II PROF: R. Correa I Semester 2008

INTERACTIVE SOCIOGOGNITIVE PROCESS TEXT READER SOCIALCONTEXT

IS THERE ANY OPTIMAL WAY TO TEACH READING? From the parts to the whole. Overall construction of meaning from connected or whole texts

From the parts to the whole/Overall constrution of meaning Part Centered Code-emphasis Bottom up Socio-phsycho-linguistic Meaning-emphasis Top-down

The bottom up view of Reading It was influenced by behavorist psychology of the 50s’ some patterns of language are reinforced. Today, bottom up is associated to phonics ( match letters with sounds).

The bottom up view of Reading Reading is considered a linear process by which readers decode a text word by word, linking the words into phrases and then sentences. ( Gray and Rogers 1956) Textual comprehension involves the adding the meaning of words to get the meaning of clauses.

The bottom up view of Reading Most activities are based on recognition and recall of lexical and grammatical forms

The top-down view of Reading In the 1960’s a paradigm shift occured in the cognitive sciences. Behaviorism became somehow discredited as the new cognitive theory represented the mind´s innate capacity for learning. This gave new explanatory to how humans acquired their first language and produced and impact in the field of ESL/EFL

The top-down view of Reading The emphasis on meaning -Ausebel 1968, meaningful learning – informed the top-down approach. 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 brings to the act of reading.

The top-down view of Reading Reading is a matter of making sense of written language rather than decoding print sound ( Smith 1994)

The top-down view of Reading Schema theory: It describes how the the background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task and illustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is crucial to deciphering a text.

Schema theory and the reading process Schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help us make sense of new experiences.(Nunan,1999) 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( Anderson 1994)

Schema theory and the reading process A learner’s schemata will restructure itself to accomodate new information as that information is added to the system (Ommaggio 1993)

Schema theory and the reading process Content and formal schemata FS: knowledge about the structure of a text. CS: knowledge about the subject matter of a text. CS and FS enable students to predict events and meaning as well as to infer meaning from a wider context.

Schema theory to L2 reading Select texts that are relevant to the students needs , preferences, individual differences and cultures After selecting the text follow the three stages that are used to activate and build students’ schemata: Pre, While and Post reading actvities

Schema theory to L2 reading While schema activation and building can occur in all three stages , the pre-reading stage deserves special attention since it is here where their schemata will be achieved

Pre-reading activities To activate existing schemata To build new schemata To provide information to the teacher about what the students know. Devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’s schema (Chen & Graves 1995)

Pre-reading activities Formal schemata will be activated by using devices such as advance organizers and overviews to draw attention to the structure of the text. Content schemata will be activated by using various pre-reading activities to help learners brainstorm and predict how how the information fits in with their previous knowledge.

Pre-reading activities Predicting Previewing Semantic mapping Reconciled reading lesson

The Interactive Model (IM) This model considers the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing skills. The IM acknowledges that lower level processing skills are essential for fluent and accurate reading.

The Interactive Model (IM) It emphasizes that as bottom –up becomes more automatic , higher-. level skills will become more engaged. Efficient and effective readers entails both processes interacting simultaneously.

Interactive Process Nunan (1999) “…reading is an interactive process, in which the reader constantly shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes”( p. 254)

Experiment Study the text below an answer these questions.As you do the task, make a mental note of the strategies you use to make sense of the text. How many words can you make out? What type of text do you think it is? What do you think the text is about? What do you think is the purpose of the text? What lg is the text written in?

TOK BILOG GAVMAN Sipos yu painim sompela Japan i les long pait, yu gifim dispela pas. Sipos i savi wakabut, i kan kam ontaim yupela nau painim soldia bilong yumi. Im i sik tumas, orait, yu brinim tok. Tok im gut, mipela mokan kilim ol, kalabus dasol,nau salim ol iko long Astralia, na weitim pait i pinis. WOK BILOG GAVMAN. I GAT PEI

To think about… Relying too much on either top-down or bottom up processing may cause problems for beginning ESL/EFL readers. To develop reading abilities both approaches should be considered, as Nunan and the interactive approach suggest.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension(RC) The purpose for reading determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension.

THE TRANSFER HYPOTHESIS Good readers in a first language will be able to transfer their skills to the second language.

THE TRANSFER HYPOTHESIS It has been found that L1, reading skill does not predict second language reading proficiency, especially at low and intermediate proficiency readers. Advanced readers tend to transfer them more often.

CROSS CULTURAL ASPECTS OF READING COMPREHENSION It refers to the effect of background knowledge, particularly cultural knowledge, on comprehension, beyond grammatical complexity.

GOOD READERS

GOOD READERS: Read extensively Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading

GOOD READERS: Are motivated Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

THE GOOD READING TASK makes use of authentic and challenging texts; provides students with a topical framework for processing and analyzing the text; involves the students interacting with the text and with each other; involves students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question answering; frequently it may involve the transfer of information from text to a visual or diagrammatic representation. Davies (1995)

DART MODEL Davies developed the DART( Direct Activities Related to Text) model , which includes 2 different task types, reconstruction activities and analysis activities.

RECONSTRUCTION ANALYSIS ( using text modified by teacher) ( using straight text) Text completion Sequencing Prediction Table completion Diagram completion Text marking Labeling Segmenting Table construction Diagram construction St generated questions Summary

Reading Comprehension Reader skills and strategies type of text reading purpose

Strategies for Developing Reading Skills Previewing Predicting Skimming and scanning Clustering Guessing from context Paraphrasing Inferring

Strategies for Developing Reading Skills Identifying genres/purpose Identifying paragraph/sentence structure Noticing cohesive devices Using background knowledge Evaluating Reviewing

How to promote Reading Strategies? BEFORE READING: Plan for the reading task Decide in advance what to read for Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed Determine whether to enter the text from the top down ( overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

How to promote Reading Strategies? During and After Reading: Monitor comprehension Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses Decide what is and is not important to understand Reread to check comprehension

How to promote Reading Strategies? After Reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task Modify strategies if necessary

Some conclusions Use pre-reading,schema-building tasks,particularly with lower proficiency students. Teach learners strategies and give them the opprtunity to match strategies to the purposes. Provide a variety of reading purposes.

Some conclusions With higher proficiency students, develop activities for helping them identify and track logical and referential relationships in texts. Use activities that require students to transform data from one modality to another and from textual to nontextual. Give students opprtunities to go beyond the texts, evaluating and critiquing what they read.

There are worse crimes than burning books There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. Joseph Brodsky, Russian poet Nobel Prize in Literature (1987)