Theories of reading

1. The traditional view
1. knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension
2. focused on the printed form of a text
3. Dole et al. (1991) novice readers acquire a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially build toward comprehension ability
  1. readers - experts who comprehend what they read.
4. 1. Readers ==> passive recipients
5. 2. Nunan (1991)
  1. 'bottom-up' reading
    1. decoding a series of written symbols into aural equivalents in the quest for making sense.
6. 3. McCarthy (1999)
  1. 'outside-in' processing
    1. meaning exists in the printed page and is interpreted by the reader then taken in.
7. 4. insufficient and defective that it relies on the formal features of the language, mainly words and structure.
8. over-reliance on structure
2. The cognitive view
1. enhanced the role of background knowledge in addition to what appeared on the printed page
2. The 'top-down' model. According to Nunan (1991) and Dubin and Bycina (1991), the psycholinguistic model of reading and the top-down model are in exact concordance.
3. 1. Goodman (1967; cited in Paran, 1996) a psycholinguistic guessing game.
  1. a process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, make new hypotheses, and so forth.
    1. the reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process.
4. 2. The schema theory of reading
  1. Rumelhart (1977) schemata as "building blocks of cognition"
    1. which are used in
      1. the process of interpreting sensory data,
      2. in retrieving information from memory,
      3. in organising goals and subgoals,
      4. in allocating resources,
      5. in guiding the flow of the processing system.
5. 3. Rumelhart (1977) if our schemata are incomplete and do not provide an understanding of the incoming data from the text.
6. emphasize the interactive nature of reading and the constructive nature of comprehension
7. Dole et al. (1991) a set of flexible, adaptable strategies are used to make sense of a text and to monitor ongoing understanding.
3. The metacognitive view
1. based on the control and manipulation
2. According to Block (1992), there is now no more debate on "whether reading is a bottom-up, language-based process or a top-down, knowledge-based process."
  1. It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge on both L1 and L2 readers. Research has gone even further to define the control readers execute on their ability to understand a text.
    1. This control, Block (1992) has referred to as metacognition.
3. Metacognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Klein et al. (1991)-- strategic readers attempt
  1. 1. Identifying the purpose of the reading before reading
  2. 2. Identifying the form or type of the text before reading
  3. 3. the general character and features of the form or type of the text.
  4. 4. Projecting the author's purpose for writing the text (while reading it),
  5. 5. Choosing, scanning, or reading in detail
  6. 6. Making continuous predictions about what will occur next, based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous stages.
4. attempt to form a summary of what was read.
  1. reader to be able to
    1. classify
    2. sequence
    3. establish whole-part relationships
    4. compare and contrast
    5. determine cause-effect
    6. summarise
    7. hypothesise and predict
    8. infer
    9. and conclude.
Conclusion
1. three consecutive stages
  1. before reading
  2. during reading
  3. after reading
Further reading
1. Barnett, M. A. (1988). Teaching reading in a foreign language. ERIC Digest
2. Block, E. L. (1992). See how they read: comprehension monitoring of L1 and L2 readers. TESOL Quarterly 26(2)
3. Dole, J. A. Duffy, G. G., Roehler, L. R., and Pearson, D. D. (1991). Moving from the old to the new: research on reading comprehension instruction. Review of Educational Research 61
4. Dubin, F., and Bycina, D. (1991). Models of the process of reading. In Celce-Murcia (ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Boston, Mass.: Heinle and Heinle.
5. Duke, N. K., and Pearson, D. P. (n.d.). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. Available at //effective reading.com/ (Oct. 15, 2001).
6. Estes T. H. (1999). Strategies for reading to learn. Available at www.reading strategies.
7. Fitzgerald, J. (1995). English-as-a-second-language learners' cognitive reading processes: a review of research in the United States. Review of Educational Research 65
8. Klein, M. L., Peterson, S., and Simington, L. (1991). Teaching Reading in the Elementary Grades. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon.
9. Lebauer, R. (1998). Lessons from the rock on the role of reading. Available at // langue.Hyper.Chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/t/t/98/lebauer.html
10. McCarthy, C. P. (n. d.) Reading theory as a microcosm of the four skills. Applied Linguistics Series.
11. Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall International.
12. Paran, A. (1996). Reading in EFL: facts and fiction. ELT Journal 50
13. Rumelhart, D. E. (1977). Toward an interactive model of reading. In S. Dornic (ed.), Attention and Performance IV. New York, NY: AcademicPress.
14. Steinhofer, H. (1996). How to read nonfictional English texts faster and more effectively. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. II, No. 6, June 1996
15. Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
16. Vaezi, S. (2001). Metacognitive reading strategies across language and techniques. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Allameh Tabataba'iUniversity, Tehran, Iran.
17. Van Duzer, C. (1999). Reading and the Adult English Language Learner. Washington, D.C.: Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education
Ref: This article published: 23rd March, 2006 was first published in Iranian Language Institute Language Teaching Journal Volume 1, No.1 Spring 2005.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/theories-reading