3. Reading Strategies (1)
Bottom-up processing (decoding)
which employs micro-skills
Discrimination of graphemes &
orthographic patterns
Recognition & interpretation of
words, word classes, patterns, rules,
etc.
Cohesive devices
Making use of formal schema to
decode the written text
4. Reading Strategies (2)
Top-down processing which
employs macro-skills
Recognition of rhetorical forms and
communicative functions
Using background knowledge to
make inferences
Scanning and skimming, guessing
meaning of words from context,
activating relevant schemata
5. Types of Reading Tasks (1)
Perceptive:
Bottom-up processing
Decoding letters, words, graphemic
symbols, etc.
Reading aloud, picture-cued word or
sentence identification, etc. (Brown
190-93)
6. Types of Reading Tasks (2)
o Selective:
A combo of bottom-up and top-
down processing
Formal (lexical and grammatical)
aspects of language
Formats including multiple-choice,
matching, gap-filling
7. Types of Reading Tasks (3)
Interactive:
Top-down processing (with some
instances of bottom-up)
More lengthy reading where the reader
must interact with the text
A process of negotiating meaning
Both form-focused and meaning-focused
(but more emphasis on meaning
comprehension)
Cloze, comprehension Qs, editing, short
answers, scanning, ordering, info.
transfer (graphics interpretation)
8. Types of Reading Tasks (4)
Extensive:
Top-down processing
Global understanding of a text
Skimming, summarizing and
responding, note-taking and
outlining
9. Summary
Types of reading by length
(short, medium, long), focus
(form and meaning), and
process (bottom-up vs. top-
down) (see Brown 190)
10. Dictocomp
A variation on the traditional dictation
procedure
T reads while Ss listen carefully
Ss write a summary (not word for word
as in dictation)
Decide scoring criteria (Bailey 151)
Rationale:
Meaning-oriented
Conveying & capturing meaning = key
component of communication
11. Communicative Language Teaching
Around 1980s
4 principles of communicative lang. test
design:
Start from somewhere: assessment should be
based on sound theoretical principles
Concentrate on content
Appropriate topics and tasks in terms of the age,
proficiency level, interests, and goals of the learners
Bias for best: to elicit best possible performance
E.g., can use a dictionary when writing dictocomp
Work for washback: promote positive washback
12. Strip Story
A speaking/listening activity in which
every student is given a strip of paper
with one sentence (or portion of a
sentence) from a story written on it.
Procedure:
Every S memorizes his sentence.
Each S says his sentence.
Group sorts out the order.
Ss negotiate the sentence order to
reconstruct the story.
