Developing the language skills: reading Dr. Abdelrahim Hamid Mugaddam

Interactive reading!  Interactive: use to describe the process of reading in a second language.  2 ways 1. Dynamic relationship with the text when the reader struggles to make sense of it.’’ psycholinguistic guessing game (Goodman 1967). 2. Interplay among the various kinds of knowledge that a reader employs in moving through the text (syntactic & morphological, sociocultural knowledge, topic genre.. Schematic)

 Top-down process: use of prior knowledge to working in the meaning of a text  Bottom-up process: decoding of letters, words and other language features.

In what ways is reading an interactive process?  Schematic knowledge: certain words in the text will activate prior knowledge of some kind in the mind of readers.  Activity: asking learners to think aloud, reporting on what they are tackling and responding to the text.. ”Protocols”

Language knowledge!  Language knowledge enables the reader to work on the text. Good readers recognize and decode quickly and accurately words, grammatical structures, and other linguistic features and are unaware of the process as they are engaged in.  In other words, a fluent reader has a good knowledge of the language structure and can recognize a wide range of vocabulary automatically.

 Nation & Coady (1988) suggested 5 ways to help readers: 1. Finding the part of speech of a new word 2. Looking at the immediate context of an unknown word and simplify the context. 3. Looking at the wider context of the unknown word (clause relationship) 4. Guessing the meaning of an unknown word. 5. Making sure that the guess is correct.

Reading as a purposeful process!  Pugh (1978) &Gardner describe various styles of reading:  Receptive reading  Reflective reading  Skim reading : rapid, through a large article skipping large chunks of information focusing on headings and first line paragraphs.  Scanning searching rapidly through a text for specific information  Intensive reading involves looking carefully at a text, as student of literature looks at a poem to appreciate the choice of words, a solicitor would study the precise wording of a legal document.

The SCROL procedure!  Grant (1993) 1. Surveying the heading (what do I already know about the topic, what information the writer might present) 2. Connect (how do the heading relate to each other?, write down key words that might provide connection about the heading)’ 3. Read the text 4. Outline (reflect structure, outline the main ideas and supporting details). 5. Look back (look back to the text and check the accuracy of the main information and details you wrote).

Critical reading!  Critical reading views reading as a social process(Kress)… texts are constructed in certain ways to shape the perception of readers towards acceptance of the underlying ideology of the text.  E.g., We.. To create a bond with the reader by assuming a shared view of the topic under discussion.

The role of extensive reading!  To confer greater facility in the use of the vocabulary already gained  To give the reader a sense of achievement and a taste of pleasure to be derived from the achievement.

Current trends  Independent reading through class libraries or self access centres  Teachers provide accompanying activities to motivate the students to use the materials  Development of a research interest in the value of extensive reading

Defining extensive reading!  Varies with students’ motivation and institutional resources 1. Reading large quantities of material (short stories, novels, newspaper articles) 2. Reading consistently over time on a frequent and regular basis. 3. Reading longer texts 4. Reading for general meaning (pleasure, curiosity, professional interests). 5. Reading longer texts during class time as well as individual reading at home.

Implications for teaching reading 1. To be able to read a range of texts in English 2. To adapt reading styles according to range of purposes and apply different strategies (skimming, scanning) as appropriate. 3. To build a knowledge of language. 4. To build schematic knowledge in order to interpret texts meaningfully 5. To develop an awareness of the structure of written English (rhetorical structure, discourse features, cohesive devices). 6. To take a critical stnce to the content of a texts.

Conclusion!  Reading lesson should aim to build learners' ability to engage in purposeful reading, to adopt a range of reading styles necessary for interacting successfully with authentic texts, and to develop critical awareness.  This implies developing competence in the foreign language, awareness of the structure of written texts, and knowledge about the world.