a slideshow about some basic concepts related to teaching the reading skill.

1. TEACHING
READING

2. WHAT IS READING?
• Reading is a conscious and unconscious thinking process.
• The reader applies many strategies to reconstruct the meaning
that the author is assumed to have intended.

3. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN READING?
• The reader does this by comparing information in the text to his or her
background knowledge and prior experience.
• A reader approaches a text with a huge store of prior knowledge and
experience, including preconceptions about the uses of spoken and
written language.

4. All of a person’s prior knowledge, experience, and values are organized in
categories, or schemata.
Each category, or schema, is connected to many other schemata in a complex
mental network.
The reader matches that information with background knowledge and is able
to construct a version of the text’s meaning.

5. TYPES OF SCHEMATA
Three are three types of schemata that have an impact on reading comprehension:
1.Formal schemata: prior knowledge of rhetorical structures and conventions (e.g.
different types of expository organizational patterns: cause and effect, comparison
and contrast, problem and solution, and chronological order, etc.)
2.Content schemata: background knowledge of the subject of the text, which is
often culture-bound.
3.Linguistic schemata: decoding knowledge used to recognize words and determine
their syntax in a sentence; that is, prior knowledge of a particular vocabulary and
grammar rules.

6. • When a person reads, two aspects of this “human information
processing system” continuously interact.
• When the reader focuses primarily on what he or she already
knows, this is called a CONCEPT-DRIVEN or “TOP-DOWN”
MODE.

7. • On the other hand, when the reader relies primarily on textual
features and information to comprehend, this is called a DATA-
DRIVEN or “BOTTOM-UP” MODEL.
• In other words, the reader is constantly noticing parts of the text
and comparing that sample with what he or she already knows.

9. • Readers’ first language and mental schemata, however, determine what they notice
in a text and how they apply the mental schemata to that information, and second
language readers’ mental schemata are based on their first language and cultural
background.
• This means that what second-language readers notice in the text and how they
interpret it will vary due to differing expectations about language structure and
cultural attitudes toward literacy.

11. WHAT IS LITERACY?
Literacy is a set of attitudes and beliefs about the ways of
using spoken and written language that are acquired in the
course of a person’s socialization into a specific cultural
context.

12. • Teachers cannot assume that students who are good readers in their
native language can simply apply successfully the same skills to
reading in English.
• Teaching reading in standard English to second or foreign-language
learners means helping them acquire the ways of thinking about text,
that are practiced by native speakers of English.

13. • In fact, learning to read and comprehend a second language
requires learning a secondary literacy: alternative cultural
interpretations, cultural beliefs about language and discourse, and
culture specific formal and content schemata.

14. THEORIES OF READING
• TRADITIONAL VIEW = focused on the printed form of a text
• COGNITIVE VIEW = that enhanced the role of background
knowledge in addition to what appeared on the printed page
• METACOGNITIVE VIEW = based on the control and manipulation that
a reader can have on the act of comprehending a text

15. THE TRADITIONAL VIEW
• According to Dole et al. (1991), in the traditional view of reading, novice
readers acquire a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially
build toward comprehension ability.
• Readers are passive recipients of information in the text.
• Meaning resides in the text and the reader has to reproduce meaning.

16. • According to Nunan (1991), reading in this view is basically a
matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural
equivalents in the quest for making sense of the text. He referred
to this process as the 'bottom-up' view of reading.
THE TRADITIONAL VIEW

17. THE BOTTOM-UP MODEL ACKNOWLEDGES
THAT …
• Readers proceed from the written text to meaning.
• Readers are passive recipients of meaning.
• Meaning resides in texts.
• Meaning is driven by the text.
• Reading proceeds from part to whole.

18. From the bottom-up perspective,
it is believed that …
A STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE
IDENTIFICATION OF LETTERS
RECOGNITION OF SPELLING PATTERNS AND WORDS
PROCESSING OF MEANING SENTENCE - PARAGRAPH - TEXT

19. In sum, the bottom-up model
emphasizes a single-direction,
part-to-whole processing of a
text.

20. THE COGNITIVE VIEW
• The 'TOP-DOWN' MODEL is in direct opposition to the 'bottom-
up' model. According to Nunan (1991) and Dubin and Bycina
(1991), the PSYCHOLINGUISTIC MODEL of reading and the top-
down model are in exact concordance.

21. THE COGNITIVE VIEW
• Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game, a process in which
readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them,
make new hypotheses, and so forth.
• The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading
process.

22. • Schemata as "building blocks of cognition" which are used in the
process of interpreting sensory data, in retrieving information
from memory, in organizing goals and subgoals, in allocating
resources, and in guiding the flow of the processing system.
THE COGNITIVE VIEW

23. • Important element: readers’ prior knowledge.
• Focuses on what readers bring to the process
• Readers activate prior knowledge to understand texts.
• Readers are active processors of meaning.
• Reading proceeds from whole to part.
THE TOP-DOWN MODEL ACKNOWLEDGES
THAT …

24. TRADITIONAL VIEW OF READING
(BOTTOM-UP MODEL)
COGNITIVE VIEW OF READING
(TOP-DOWN MODEL)
Reading is a passive activity.
Readers have no control over the act of
comprehending a text.
Readers rely only on the formal
features of language in the quest for
making sense of a text.
Reading is a dynamic activity.
Readers make use of their previous
knowledge to comprehend a text.
Readers (as well as texts) are at the heart
of the reading process.
CONTRAST BETWEEN THE TWO THEORIES

25. THE METACOGNITIVE VIEW
• Metacognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Klein et al.
(1991) stated that strategic readers attempt the following while reading:
• Identifying the purpose of the reading before reading
• Identifying the form or type of the text before reading
• Thinking about the general character and features of the form or type of the text.
For instance, they try to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details
toward a conclusion

26. • Projecting the author's purpose for writing the text (while reading
it),
• Choosing, scanning, or reading in detail
• Making continuous predictions about what will occur next, based
on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions
obtained within the previous stages.

27. Bottom-Up Model Top-Down Model Interactive Model
1960s - 1970s 1970s - 1980s late 1980s - present
a decoding process (focus
on the text).
Reading is a psycholinguistic
guessing game (focus on
the reader).
A process of constructing meaning from
text through the use of both bottom-up
and top-down processes, strategies, and
skills (focus on the interaction).
1) alphabet letters - sounds
2) Words - grammar rules
3) Sentences-discourse rules
4) paragraphs - longer
discourse
1) The reader receives input from
the text,makes predictions,
tests and confirms or revises those
prediction.
2) Use a holistic approach to
reading and writing that advocates
the use of children's literature and
authentic reading materials.
1) Both bottom-up and top-down
processes occur simultaneously for the
reader to comprehend the meaning of the
text.
2) Two levels of interaction:
- the interaction between the
reader and the text.
- the interaction between two kinds of
cognitive skills:
identification and interpretation.
The phonics approach to
teaching reading is used.
The "whole language" approach is
used.
The balanced approach to teaching
reading is used.

28. APPLYING THEORY AND
RESEARCH TO PRACTICE
• Second-language students need to learn to “think in English” in order
to read effectively in English.
• Reading instruction needs to be based on training ESL and EFL
students in new ways of talking and thinking about texts.
• In teaching reading, instructors need to take into account the
following conclusions and recommendations of educational
researchers.

29. • Cognitive psychologists claims that students learn new strategies
or thinking processes most effectively when they are consciously
aware of what they are doing.
• They can monitor their comprehension and apply appropriate
strategies as needed for comprehending a text.

30. • Cognitive psychologists claims that students learn new strategies
or thinking processes most effectively when they are consciously
aware of what they are doing.
• They can monitor their comprehension and apply appropriate
strategies as needed for comprehending a text.

31. • Interacting and talking about text in particular ways is essential, and
others found that students develop literate skills when teachers
encourage them to talk about written language, and when students
have opportunities to talk to each other about how they make sense of
a text.
• Research also confirms that students must read faster and with more
fluency if they wish to read effectively. Faster reading promotes reading
in thought units instead of one word at a time, and that leads to
improved comprehension.

32. • Krashen posited that the best way to improve reading is by
reading. The benefits of extensive reading include fluency,
vocabulary acquisition, awareness of grammar, models for writing,
and an immersion in the culture of the second or foreign
language.

33. TIPS TO READ WELL IN ENGLISH
• Develop a schema of the reading process that includes the idea that reading is
more than translating—reading is thinking.
• Talk about their reading, and explain how they make sense of a text.
• Read extensively for pleasure in English, and discuss their reading with someone
who can model the literate behaviors expected in an English-language context.
• Break the habit of reading every word by reading faster.
• Learn to vary their reading rate to suit their purpose in reading.

34. TIPS TO READ WELL IN ENGLISH
• Employ top-down processes effectively by learning to make connections
between what they already know and what they are reading.
• Learn reading and thinking skills that fluent readers of English employ
unconsciously to strengthen both top-down and bottom-up processing abilities.
• Enhance bottom-up processing by acquiring the most useful vocabulary and by
learning strategies for guessing meaning in context.
• Master the basic 2,000 words that constitute approximately 80 percent of texts in
English.
• Acquire specific reading comprehension skills they can apply strategically.