Chapter 8. Teaching Reading and Vocabulary |
1 | Schemata Theory & Background Knowledge Comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader's background knowledge and the text. Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one's own knowledge. |
2 | Content Schemata -The content schemata which include general world knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, and topic knowledge. Formal Schemata -The formal schemata which consist of the knowledge(rhetorical, discourse structure) we have of the overall structure of some speech event. |
3 | Bottom-up Processing -Bottom-up models typically consist of lower-level reading processes. Students start with the fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition, which in turn allows for morpheme recognition followed by word recognition, building up to the identification of grammatical structures, sentences, longer texts. Letters, letter clusters, words, phrases, sentences, longer text, and finally meaning is the order in achieving comprehension. |
4 | Top-down Processing -Top-down models begin with the idea that comprehension resides in the reader. The reader uses background knowledge, makes predictions, and searches the text to confirm or reject the predictions that are made. A passage can thus be understood even if all of the individual words are not understood. Within a top-down approach to reading the teacher should focus on meaning generating activities rather than on mastery of word recognition. |
5 | Intensive Reading -Within a bottom-up approach to reading, the most typical classroom focus is on what we call intensive reading. Intensive reading involves a short reading passage followed by textbook activities to develop comprehension and/or a particular reading skill. |
6 | Extensive Reading -Extensive reading plays a key role in top-down approaches to reading. Extensive reading means reading many books without a focus on classroom exercises that may test comprehension skills. |
7 | Interactive Model -Interactive models combine elements of both bottom-up and top-down models assuming "that a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources". |
8 | A meaning-based approach or a whole language approach to reading is supportive of top-down models of reading. Four key features highlight a meaning-based or whole language approach to teaching reading. First, it is a literature-based approach. Books are used which contain authentic language. Readers are exposed to a wide range of vocabulary. Next, whole language is student-centered; the focus is on the individual reader choosing what he or she wants to read. Third, reading is integrated with writing. The focus should be on meaning and keeping the language whole, as opposed to breaking it down into smaller units. Whole language is a method, not the goal. |
Strategies for Reading Comprehension |
9 | Skimming -When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the writer. |
10 | Scanning -When scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so. We simply let our eyes wander over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it be a name, a date, or a less specific piece of information. |
11 | Skimming tasks -Unlike scanning, this involves reading, but done at a fast speed. Most of these tasks can usually be given orally. Ask the class to do any of the following: ①Compare values ②Find and compare events ③Select a title ④Draw inferences ⑤Decide the question ⑥Create a title |
12 | Scanning tasks -Remember that when we scan we do not read the entire text. In fact, it would be wrong to do so in the majority of cases. The aim is achieved quickly. ①Find new words for old ②Locate grammar features ③Find a specified advertisement ④Compare details ⑤Check dates |
13 | Critical Reading Pedagogy -Critical reading views reading as a social process. From this perspective, texts are constructed in certain ways by writers in order to shape the perceptions of readers towards acceptance of the underlying ideology of the text. Readers identify and resist the values underlying a text : 1. Why is this topic being written about? 2. How is the topic being written about? 3. What other ways of writing about the topic are there? 4. Who is the text's model reader? |
Stages of Reading |
| The pre-reading Phase ①To help students activate background information that can facilitate subsequent reading ②To motivate the learners to want to read the text ③To activate or build the students' knowledge of the subject ④To provide any language preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage ⑤To provide specific information needed for successful comprehension, stimulate student interest, set up student expectations, and models strategies that students can later use on their own. |
15 | The while-reading Phase ①To help students to understand the specific content ②To provide the rhetorical structure of the text e.g. the use of graphic devices such as flowcharts or diagrams ③To determine sources of difficulty and seek clarification ④To look for answers to questions posed during prereading activities ⑤To write down predictions of what will come next |
16 | The post-reading Phase ①To review the content(working on bottom-up concerns such as grammar, vocabulary, and discourse features) ②To consolidate what has been read by relating the new information to the learner's knowledge, interests, and opinions ③To integrate the new information from the text with what the students already know e.g.the use of flowcharts or diagrams, discussions, role-plays, project works |
17 | Tips for Teaching Vocabulary 1.Allocate specific class time to vocabulary learning. 2. Help students to learn vocabulary in context. 3. Play down the role of bilingual dictionaries. 4. Encourage students to develop strategies for determining the meaning of words. 5.Engage in 'unplanned' vocabulary teaching. |