GGGV3224 Lect 1 What is Reading SEM I 2011 2012

8/3/2019 GGGV3224 Lect 1 What is Reading SEM I 2011 2012

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GGGV 3224Teaching reading skills in an

ESL contextSEM I 2011-12

What is Reading?


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Lecture Outline

1. What is reading?

Definitions Characteristics of Reading

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Lecture outline

2. The Purposes of Reading

Reader and Text

Writer and Text

Reader-Writer Relationship

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Lecture outline

3. The Physical Process Role of the eyes

Aspects of memory

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Lecture outline

4. Reading and Information Relationship between visual and non-

visual information

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What is Reading?

Definitions:

Reading can be defined loosely asthe ability

to make sense of written or printedsymbols to guide the recovery ofinformation from memory andsubsequently use this information to

construct a plausible interpretation ofthe written message

Mitchell, 1982:1

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Definitions of Reading

1. Reading is an anticipatory, selective,

purposeful and comprehendingprocess(Smith, 1982)

2. Reading is a process of

interpreting/understanding the textinterms of the questions that the readerformulates about the text. (Smith, 1982)

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Definitions of Reading

3. We exclude any interpretation of the wordreading in which meaningis not central

(Nuttal, 1982:4)4. Reading is an interactive process. There isinteraction between the reader and withwhat is in the text. The reader constructs

meaning based on prior knowledge and thetext content.

(Nooreiny Maarof, 1998)

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Summary of Definitions

A consensus (everyone agree):

Reading is a complex cognitive process

reader and text interact to (re)createmeaningful discourse

An activeprocess --- related to problem-

solving No one precise definition of reading

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The Characteristics of

Reading1. Reading is purposeful.

Reading without a purpose ismeaningless.

Readers purpose will determine type ofinformation readers attend to whenreading.

Reading is a selective process wherereaders attend to information that isrelevant to their needs.

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The Characteristics of Reading

2. Reading is an active process.

Readers need to work on constructingmeaning of what is read.

The active nature of reading involvesproducing and evaluating a continuous

cycle of hypotheses until the mostsatisfactory interpretation of the messageis achieved.

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3. Reading is concerned with meaning.

Meaning or comprehension is the maingoal of reading.

Reading aloud is not reading -- orallyidentifying letters or words oftenreferred to as barking at print.

Reading is done silently with meaning-making as its central focus.

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Reading is an interactive process.

Involves interaction of many skills

(linguistic, cognitive, meta-cognitive. Involves different levels of processing

(bottom-up, top-down, interactive)

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The Purposes of Reading

II.The purposes of reading-- for survival or functional reading: reading forfunctioning in the environment e.g. reading roadsigns, labels, commercials

2. --- for learning- when the act is done to enrich ourknowledge -- not confined to school , also related toeveryday reading

3. --- for occupational work/purposes occurs in the

world of work4. --- for pleasure or aesthetic reading (Rosenblatt,

1978) or recreational reading (Beard, 1990)

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Efferent reading

The three purposes of reading (1-3) are

called efferent reading where the

focus is on gaining information.(survival or functional reading; for

learning; for occupational

work/purposes)

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The Reader and the Text

Readers prior knowledge i.e. knowledge of language andknowledge of the world

Knowledge of the Language versus Knowledge of the World

What? What?

________________________________________________________________

Knowledge of phonology, syntax, Knowledge such as subject

and pragmatics of language matter knowledgeand cultural attitude

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The Writer and the Text

II. Writers also begin with a body of

knowledge and a purpose for writing.Start with knowledge of the topic andthe readers

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Reader-Writer Relationship

II. Writers purposeof writing may or may not matchreaders purposefor reading e.g. The magazine

Parenting may have been written for a purpose forparents, but it can also be occupational.

Thetext is the focus of interaction between writersand readers.

There must be some amount of shared assumption

Prior knowledge is needed to understand the text.

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The Physical Process

The role of the eyes

--- Types of eye movements

1. Our eyeballs are in a constant state of movement

tremorhelps to keep the eyeballs in place; themovements are extremely fastunnoticeable

2. The eyes are constantly moving to pick upinformation to process.

. saccade reading in English, e.g, the eyes move from Lto R; once it reaches the end of the line, it jumps back tothe right and moves on to the next line.

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1. fixation at the end of the line, the eyes will pause. This iscalled fixation. It is during fixation that reading occurs. And it

occurs on content words, rather than on function words.2. masking -- At the end of a fixation, the eyes will erase its

content and replace it with a new one. This is called masking.

3. regression or backward saccade--when the eyemovements go into the opposite direction of a saccade this

occurs during rereading; regression can be positive ornegative

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Regression

Eye regression:

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Positive regression Negative regression

Who?

Done by fluent readers

Who? Happens to poorreaders or children

When? --regress whenthere is confusion or

misinterpretation-- regress when wanting toenjoy certain parts of thetext

When?

--when having difficulty

reading the text


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Tunnel vision its implications on teaching reading

Readers use knowledge of words to identify the printas a whole. If words are arranged in a meaningful phrase,more letters can be recognized within specific time

limits.

If the arrangement of letters is unpredictable, littlecan be seen. It is like looking through a narrow papertunnel where a great deal of visual info. is needed for

each letter to be identified.

The brain is unable to use much prior knowledge andis overloaded with info. Received through the eyes

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Implications of tunnel

vision

1. Reading must be fast.2. Reading must be selective

3. Concepts must be familiar.

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Aspects of Memory

Three aspects of memory:

1. Sensory store

The information received from the eyeis placed briefly at a place calledsensory store before the brain is able

to make any perceptual decisions.Only about 25 letters of a word canbe stored at one time.

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Aspects of Memory

2. Short-term memory (STM)

Information then goes to STM.

Comprises (made up of) information thatreaders are attending to at a specificmoment in time.

The capacity of information that can be

placed in the STM is limited to 7 unrelateddigits.

Recalling info from STM is immediate.

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Aspects of Memory

3. Long-term memory (LTM)

LTM represents all our previous experiences.

The capacity of LTM is infinite. Information is kept in the form of meanings.

Input into the LTM is slow. Approximately 5seconds per item.

Retrieval from STM is not immediate.

Depends on how info is stored and organized.

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Reading and Information

When reading, 2 types information are

involved:1. visual information (refers to the text)

2. non-visual information (refers to prior

knowledge)

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The relationship between visual and non

visual information

The relationship between visual and nonvisual information is reciprocal.

The more non-visual information a readerhas, the less visual info. they need, and

vice-versa.

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TRY THIS!

Read the articles in the following webaddresses. Try out the techniques anddecide which works for you.

http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Perso

nal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/

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http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/http://brain.webus.com/memory/improving_memory.htmwww.wannalearn.com/Personal_Enrichment/Improve_Your_Memory/


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Thats all for today!

THANK YOU!

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GGGV3224 Lect 1 What is Reading SEM I 2011 2012

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Transcript of GGGV3224 Lect 1 What is Reading SEM I 2011 2012