2. What is reading?
decode, decipher, identify
articulate, speak, pronounce
understand, respond, meaning
Without comprehension, a reader is just
„barking at print‟ – think of all those late
nights spent poring through dense textbooks in
your university years; seeing the words but
not making any sense of them?
The main purpose of reading is to get
meaning from the text
4. How do we read?
Reading is decoding + using knowledge of
sentence structure + comprehension
We usually read silently
5. How do we teach reading?
We can‟t; we can help our learners to effectively
use reading skills
decoding skills (phonics, spellling
patterns), sight words, affixes, vocabulary, using
context, identifying context clues (signal
words, punctuation), using knowledge of sentence
structure…
6. What makes a text difficult?
Text A:
http://www.seismosoc.org/publi
cations/srl/eew/posters/index.p
hp
7. Text A:
We cannot decode if we don‟t know the
language!
Decoding = breaking down words, recognizing
letters and letter combinations + structure (e.g.
recognizing „-ed‟ endings and the meaning they
carry)
8. What makes a text difficult?
Text B:
If a set of raw scores, such as student test scores, is
normally distributed, then so are the standard score
equivalents; similarly, the normal curve equivalencies
indicated in Figure 12.1 for the various standard scores
are accurate only if the distribution is normal. Raw
scores can be transformed mathematically to insure that
the distribution of standard scores will be normal.
Further, standard scores can be compared only if all the
derived scores are based on the raw scores of the
same group (Gay, Mills, &Airasian, 2009, p. 314).
9. Text B:
Lack of prior knowledge – we (or I) don‟t know
enough about quantitative research to grasp the
meaning of the text the first time we read it. The
vocabulary in this text isn‟t difficult; it‟s the
concepts that are challenging to the reader
without sufficient prior knowledge.
The difficulty of a text depends on the amount
of previous knowledge I bring to the text.
10. What makes a text difficult?
Text C:
Cavorting in the vicinity of the residential area
populated by those of piscatorial avocation, the
miniscule crustacean was enmeshed in a reticulated
object with interstices between the intersections.
(Nuttall, 2005, p. 6)
11. Text C:
The vocabulary is difficult, therefore the „code‟ is
only partly the same as the reader. Note that
the text is not intellectually challenging.
12. Background Knowledge
Shared assumptions – where the circles overlap. A scientist and an
architect – need to have a common language to understand each
other. Our role as reading teachers is to help learners activate their
background knowledge (BK) about the text topic or provide the
required BK so they can comprehend the text.
13. Background Knowledge – an example
Read this passage:
The bus careered along and ended up in the hedge.
Several passengers were hurt. The driver was questioned
by police.
(Nuttall, pp. 7-8)
How do you visualize this scene? (What do you think
happened? Describe the driver, the environment, the
possible causes)
14. Background Knowledge – an example
Read on and notice if/how „the picture‟ in your head changes:
She…
…was later congratulated on her quick thinking
…and skillful handling
…of the bus when the brakes failed.
15. What influences/adds to BK?
one‟s
culture, education, media, sex, politics, religion, moral
code, other languages, life experiences (places
travelled, work experience, social interactions)….
We have background knowledge about syntax/
grammatical rules and about content.
16. BK is often cultural knowledge
As a teacher, I can anticipate that my new
immigrant students will not be familiar with the issue
of Quebec separatism, so I will avoid giving them a
reading text on this topic OR I will:
Do background teaching: issues, concepts, vocabulary
Give background reading or have a thorough
discussion (or lesson) on the topic before I give them the
text
What other topics might ESL students have little or
know BK about?
17. Schema
= how we store organize our background knowledge.
How we interpret a text depends on our schema
(plural: schemata)
= “a mental structure; abstract in that it doesn‟t
related to a particular experience but rather is a
culmination of our related experiences and how we
have mentally organized them in our brains”
See http://iteslj.org/Articles/Stott-Schema.html for a brief
discussion about schema theory and its limitations in the context of
ESL reading.
18. Psycholinguistic model of reading
sample predict read confirm, revise
We thought he was coming on the 9 o’clock flight
what do you think happened to him?
We thought he was coming on the9o’clock flight
so now you know he didn’t come in on that flight, but on an earlier or
later one?
We thought he was coming on the 9 o’clock
flight, but he didn’t get in until midnight.
this either confirms your prediction or you have to revise it.
19. References
Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., Airasian, P. (2009). Educational
research: Competencies for analysis and
applications. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education.
Nuttall, C. (2005). Teaching reading skills in a foreign
language. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Publishers
Limited.
