American University of Beirut

American University of Beirut
Education 324: "The Problems of Teaching Reading & Literature"

Instructor: Dr. Ghazi Ghaith
Fall 2000
"Nada's ESL Island"
Teaching Second Language

Reading
From An Interactive Perspective
By Nada Salem Abisamra
What Every Teacher Needs
to Know
Group for Discussions on Facebook: Nada's ESL Island.(Join us there!

Post your questions)
Index
1- Approaches to Teaching Reading
A- The Top Down Approach
B- The Bottom Up Approach
C- The Interactive Approach
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Web www.nadasisland.com
A- How do we, teachers, help the reader to build his schema or
background knowledge?
1- Content: How to improve knowledge of content? How to activate
appropriate background knowledge?
a- The Language Experience Approach (LEA)
b- Extending Concepts Through Language Activities (ECOLA)
c- Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)
d- Experience-Text-Relationship method (ETR)
e- PreReading Plan (PReP)
f- Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review method (SQ3R)
2- Text structure: How to improve knowledge of text structure?
2.1. Strategies to use in expository texts:
a- Networking (Dansereau et al., 1979)
b- Mapping (Anderson, 1978)
c- Flowcharting (Geva, 1980, 1983)
d- Top-Level Rhetorical Structures (Meyer 1975; Bartlett 1978)
2.1. Strategies to use in narrative texts:
In narrative texts, students should focus on the elements of story grammar (Mandler, 1984) or the
story map. In expository texts they should focus on the identification of main ideas (Baumann, 1986).
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/st_read2.html
B- How do we, teachers, help the reader to develop a positive
self-concept as a reader?
1- Interests
2- Motivation
3- Learning styles
4- Self image as a reader
5- Sustained Silent Reading
C- How do we, teachers, help the reader to acquire good
Reading Strategies?
1- Characteristics of good readers
2- Test taking strategies
3- Improving retention
4- SQRQCQ
5- Graphic Aids & KWL Chart
6- Organizational techniques
a- Note taking
b- Outlining
c- Summarizing
d- Locating info
e- Retrieving info
7- Comprehension
a- Comprehension strategies
b- Levels of comprehension
c- Questioning strategies
d- Promoting comprehension skills

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A- Word Recognition Strategies
1- Sight words
2- Phonics
3- Content clues
4- Structural analysis
5- Configuration
6- Dictionary
7- Applying various forms of word recognition strategies to text materials
B- Techniques of Vocabulary Instruction
C- Text structure knowledge
1- Networking (Dansereau et al., 1979)

2- Mapping (Anderson, 1978)
3- Flowcharting (Geva, 1980, 1983)
4- Top-Level Rhetorical Structures (Meyer 1975; Bartlett 1978)
4- Related Links (Very comprehensive)
&
Reading Comprehension: Learning Strategies Database
Parents Can Foster Their Child’s Reading Comprehension
Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension
Reading Strategies Notebook
81 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading- S. Krashen

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Definition of Reading
"Reading is a receptive language process.

It is a psycholinguistic guessing game (1967).
There is an essential interaction between language and
thought in reading.
The writer encodes thought as language and the reader
decodes language as thought."
Kenneth Goodman (1988).

Based on "Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading"
Edited by Carrell, Devine, & Eskey (1988)
(All the pages referred to are in this book)
"The ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate with good
comprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral skills, if not
more important." (Eskey 1970) (p. 1)
Reading research is just a little more than a hundred years old. Serious attempts at
building explicit models of the reading process have a history of a little more than forty
years. (Samuels & Kamil, p. 22)
That reading is not a passive, but rather an active, and in fact an interactive, process has
been recognized for some time in native language reading but it is only recently that
second/foreign language reading has been viewed as an active rather than a passive
process.
Early working second language reading assumed a rather passive, bottom-up, view of
second language reading. It was viewed primarily as a decoding process of reconstructing
the author's intended meaning via recognizing the printed letters and words, and building
up a meaning for a text from the smallest textual units at the bottom (letters and words) to
larger units at the top (phrases, clauses, links). Problems of SL reading and reading
comprehension were viewed as being essentially decoding problems, deriving meaning
from print.
In the early seventies, Goodman's psycholinguistic model of reading (later named the top-
down or concept-driven model) began to have an impact on views of second language
reading. In this model the reader is active, makes predictions, processes information, and
reconstruct a message encoded by a writer.
The top-down processing perspective into SL reading had a profound impact on the field,
to an extent that it was viewed as a substitute for the bottom-up perspective, rather than
its complement.
However, as schema theory research has attempted to make clear, efficient and effective
reading (in L1 and L2) requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating
interactively => Interactive model (Rumelhart 1977). Both top-down and bottom-up
processes, functioning interactively, are necessary to an adequate understanding of
second language reading and reading comprehension. (Carrell, 1988- pp. 1-4)
A- The Top Down (Concept-

Driven) Approach
(Knowledge/background/schemata-based)- (Goodman, Smith)
(Overreliance on top-down or knowledge-based processing => schema
interference)
The "top down" approach emphasizes

readers bringing meaning to text based
on their experiential background and
interpreting text based on their prior
knowledge (whole language).
Top = higher order mental concepts such
as the knowledge and expectations of the
reader.
Bottom = the physical text on the page.
<=> The top-down model of reading
focuses on what the readers bring to the
process (Goodman, 1967; Smith,
1971,1982). The readers sample the text
for information and contrast it with their
world knowledge, helping to make sense
of what is written. The focus here is on
the readers as they interact with the text.
** This model starts with the hypotheses

and predictions then attempts to verify
them by working down to the printed
stimuli. This view of reading was called
the psycholinguistic guessing game.
** According to Goodman, readers employ

5 processes in reading: (p. 16)
1- Recognition-initiation
2- Prediction
3- Confirmation
4- Correction
5- Termination
Insights that are foundational to this top-down model:

(pp. 12-14)
1- Language, reading included, must be seen in its social
context.
2- Competence must be separated from Performance:
Competence = what readers are capable of doing. It
results in the reader's control of and flexibility in using
the reading process
Performance = what we observe them to do. It is the
observable result of the competence.
=> Researchers would be committing a serious error if
they equated what readers do with what they are
capable of doing.
3- Language must be studied in process.
4- Language must be studied in its human context.
Impact of Goodman's model: (pp. 3, 23, 240)

This model which has recently been characterized as a
concept-driven, top-down pattern had the greatest
impact on conceptions about native and second
language reading instruction: it made the reader an
active participant in the reading process => From
earlier views of SL reading as a passive linguistic
decoding process to more contemporary views of SL
reading as an active predictive process.
Problems: (Stanovich, 1980)

1- For many texts, the reader has little
knowledge of the topic and cannot
generate predictions.
2- Even if a skilled reader can generate
predictions, this would take much longer
than it would to recognize the words.
Limitations of top-down models: (Eskey, 1988)

They tend to emphasize higher level skills as the prediction
of meaning by means of context clues or background
knowledge at the expense of lower skills like the rapid and
accurate identification of lexical and grammatical forms.
In making the perfectly valid point that fluent reading is
primarily a cognitive process, they tend to deemphasize the
perceptual and decoding dimensions of that process.
This model is good for the skillful, fluent reader for whom
perception and decoding have become automatic, not for
the less proficient, developing reader.
Good reading is a more language-structured affair than the
guessing-game metaphor seems to imply.
According to Weber (1984), a top-down model of reading

is essentially a model of the fluent reader and does not
account for all the needs of students who are acquiring
reading skills.
Top-Down Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 229-231)

The content and quantity of texts that second language
students are asked to read may be the most important
determinants of whether, and to what degree, such students
develop top-down reading skills.
The materials should be interesting for the students; it
should be assigned in substantial amounts over
considerable periods of time.
Two approaches:
- The reading lab approach: students make their own
choices of reading material from among a wide selection of
appropriate texts. This approach allows each student to
progress at his own rate, to develop schemata in some area
of interest, and to compile a personal record of reading.
Disadvantage: it limits group work and isolates reading
from other parts of the curriculum.
- The content-centered approach: the teacher provides for
interesting reading in sufficient quantity; a lot of
information on a subject for the class as a whole to explore
at some depth.
- pre- and postreading work (introductory lectures,
films, discussions, oral/written presentations.
- student interest is stimulated
- natural blending of skills (listening, speaking,
reading, writing)
- the students collectively pursue a common goal
- reading is no longer isolated
- reading is no longer taught as an end in itself but as a
means to an end
Disadvantage: loss of individual choice.
These 2 approaches may be combined within a single

program.

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B- The Bottom Up (Serial)

Approach
(Text-based) (LaBerge & Samuels, MacWorth)
(Overreliance on bottom-up or text-based processing => text-
boundedness)
The "bottom up" approach stipulates that

the meaning of any text must be
"decoded" by the reader and that
students are "reading" when they can
"sound out" words on a page. (Phonics)
<=> It emphasizes the ability to de-code
or put into sound what is seen in a text. It
ignores helping emerging readers to
recognize what they, as readers, bring to
the information on the page.
** This model starts with the printed
stimuli and works its way up to the higher
level stages. The sequence of processing
proceeds from the incoming data to
higher level encodings.
- This model has a tendency to depict the
information flow in a series of discrete stages,
with each stage transforming the input and
then passing the recorded information on to
the next higher stage.
- An important shortcoming of this model is the
fact that it is difficult to account for sentence-
context effects and the role of prior knowledge
of text topic as facilitating variables in word
recognition and comprehension (because of
lack of feedback).
- According to Eskey (1973), the decoding

model is inadequate because it underestimates
the contribution of the reader who makes
predictions and processes information. It fails
to recognize that students utilize their
expectations about the text, based on their
knowledge of language and how it works. (p. 3)
Bottom-Up Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 231-236)

Teaching key vocabulary items and, in the area of
grammar, teaching various cohesive devices.
Two areas of concern:
- Simply knowing the meanings of some set number of
words does not ensure that a reader will be able, while
reading, to process those words both rapidly and accurately.
=> teachers must help students develop identification skills
(exercises for rapid recognition: word recognition and
phrase identification + extensive reading over time).
- Rate building: good readers read fast; they do not, like
many SL readers, try to read word by word, which destroys
their chances of comprehending very much of the text. =>
The major bottom-up skill that readers of second language
must acquire is the skill of reading fast. (paced and timed
reading exercises: formal rate-building work should be
limited to a few minutes per class). Major increases in
reading rate can only follow from extensive reading in the
language over time.
Footnote: If a text contains too many difficult words, no

strategy (top down or bottom up) can make such a text
accessible to the reader. However, second language readers
do of course encounter some unknown words in most texts.
This is the best means of increasing their control of English
vocabulary. SL readers, however, are frequently panicked
by unknown words, so they stop reading to look them up in
dictionaries, thereby interrupting the normal reading
process. In response to this problem, many SL texts
recommend various strategies for guessing the meaning of
unknown words from context, by using semantic and
syntactic clues or even morphological analysis.
In order to develop good reading habits, the best strategy
for dealing with an unknown word may well be to keep
reading until the meaning of that word begins to make itself
plain in relation to the larger context provided.
Central to all these bottom-up concerns is the concept of

automaticity (LaBerge & Samuels 1974). Good readers
process language in the written form of written text without
thinking consciously about it, and good SL readers must
learn to do so. It is only this kind of automatic processing
which allows the good reader to think instead about the
larger meaning of the discourse, which allows for global
reading with true comprehension.
Bottom-Up Implications for the SL Classroom: (Carrell

p. 240-244)
- Grammatical skills: cohesive devices are very important.
- Vocabulary development:
Vocabulary development and word recognition have
long been recognized as crucial to successful bottom-up
decoding skills. However, schema theory has shed new
light on the complex nature of the interrelationship of
schemata, context, and vocabulary knowledge. UNLIKE
traditional views of vocabulary, current thinking converges
on the notion that a given word does not have a fixed
meaning, but rather a variety of meanings that interact with
context and background knowledge.
Knowledge of individual word meanings is strongly
associated with conceptual knowledge -- that is, learning
vocabulary is also learning the conceptual knowledge
associated with the word. On the one hand, an important
part of teaching background knowledge is teaching the
vocabulary related to it and, conversely, teaching
vocabulary may mean teaching new concepts, new
knowledge. Knowledge of vocabulary entails knowledge
of the schemata in which a concept participates,
knowledge of the networks in which that word
participates, as well as any associated words and
concepts (=> structural analysis).
Teachers must become aware of the cross-cultural

differences in vocabulary and how meaning may be
represented differently in the lexicons of various languages.
Several characteristics seem to distinguish effective from
ineffective teaching programs. Preteaching vocabulary in
order to increase learning from text will be more successful
- if the words to be taught are key words in the target

passages
- if the words are taught in semantically and topically
related sets so that word meanings and background
knowledge improve concurrently
- if the words are taught and learned thoroughly
- if both definitional and contextual information are
involved
- if students engage in deeper processing of word meanings
- if only a few words are taught per lesson and per week.
Research specific to SL reading has shown that merely

presenting a list of new or unfamiliar vocabulary items to
be encountered in a text, even with definitions appropriate
to their use in that text, does not guarantee the learning of
the word or the concept behind the word, or of improved
reading comprehension on the text passage (Hudson 1982).
To be effective, an extensive and long-term vocabulary

development program accompanying a parallel schemata or
background-knowledge-development program is probably
called for. Instead of preteaching vocabulary for single
reading passages, teachers should teach vocabulary and
background knowledge concurrently for sets of passages to
be read at some later time.
Every SL curriculum should have a general program of
parallel concept/background knowledge development
and vocabulary development.

(Rumelhart, Stanovich, Eskey)
For those reading theorists who

recognized the importance of both the
text and the reader in the reading
process, an amalgamation of the two
emerged the interactive approach.
Reading here is the process of combining
textual information with the information
the reader brings to a text.
The interactive model (Rumelhart 1977;
Stanovich 1980) stresses both what is on
the written page and what a reader
brings to it using both top-down and
bottom-up skills. It views reading is the
interaction between reader and text.
The overreliance on either mode of
processing to the neglect of the other
mode has been found to cause reading
difficulties for SL learners (Carrell 1988,
p. 239)
The interactive models of reading assume
that skills at all levels are interactively
available to process and interpret the
text (Grabe 1988).
In this model, good readers are both good
decoders and good interpreters of text,
their decoding skills becoming more
automatic but no less important as their
reading skill develops (Eskey 1988).
According to Rumelhart's interactive

model:
1- linear models which pass information
only in one direction and which do not
permit the information contained in a
higher stage to influence the processing
of a lower stage contain a serious
deficiency. Hence the need for an
interactive model which permits the
information contained in a higher stage of
processing to influence the analysis that
occurs at a lower stage.
2- when an error in word recognition is
made, the word substitution will maintain
the same part of speech as the word for
which it was substituted, which will make
it difficult for the reader to understand.
(orthographic knowledge)
3- semantic knowledge influences word
perception. (semantic knowledge)
4- perception of syntax for a given word
depends upon the context in which the
word is embedded. (syntactic knowledge)
5- our interpretation of what we read
depends upon the context in which a text
segment is embedded. (lexical
knowledge)
All the aforementioned knowledge
sources provide input simultaneously.
These sources need to communicate and
interact with each other, and the higher-
order stages should be able to influence
the processing of lower-order stages.
According to Stanovich's interactive-

compensatory model:
* Top-down processing may be easier for
the poor reader who may be slow at word
recognition but has knowledge of the text
topic.
* Bottom-up processing may be easier for
the reader who is skilled at word
recognition but does not know much
about the text topic.
=> Stanovich's model states, then, that
any stage may communicate with any
other and any reader may rely on better
developed knowledge sources when other
sources are temporarily weak.
To properly achieve fluency and accuracy,

developing readers must work at
perfecting both their bottom-up
recognition skills and their top-down
interpretation strategies. Good reading
(that is fluent and accurate reading) can
result only from a constant interaction
between these processes.
=> Fluent reading entails both skillful
decoding and relating information to prior
knowledge (Eskey, 1988).
<=> Reading is a bi-directional process that

concerns both
the Reader & the Text.
The level of reader comprehension of the text is
determined by how well the reader variables (interest
level in the text, purpose for reading the text, knowledge
of the topic, foreign language abilities, awareness of the
reading process, and level of
willingness to take risks) interact with the text variables
(text type, structure, syntax, and vocabulary)
(Hosenfeld, 1979).
http://www.sabes.org/resources/fieldnotes/vol10/f02abrah.htm
According to Joanne Devine (1988), one thing needs to be

taken into consideration: readers' internalized models of
the reading process are extremely important. There is
convincing evidence that readers do indeed have
internalized models of the reading process that they bring
to bear when they read.
Sound- or word-centered readers, those who equated good
reading with sound identification or good pronunciation
focused their attention on the graphic information in the
text and failed to understand or recall what they had read.
Meaning-centered readers demonstrated good to excellent
recall and comprehension of text.
=> a reader's theoretical orientations toward reading may
determine the degree to which low proficiency in the
language restricts second language reading ability.
=> the models that readers hold may be of critical
importance in allowing them to strike a successful
balance between bottom-up and top-down processing
necessary for the interpretation of a text.
ESL researchers should be interested in interactive

models for several reasons: (p. 59)
1- several studies note that linguistic deficiencies are
inhibiting factors in reading (Clarke, 1979; Singer, 1981;
Carrell, 1988).
2- there is a need for extensive vocabulary for reading
(Alderson and Urquhart, 1984; Singer, 1981)
3- there is a need to account for poor readers who do guess
extensively.
4- good readers are not good simply because they are better
predictors, or make better use of context.
Implications of interactive models for ESL reading: (Grabe

p. 63)
1- Higher level processing abilities play a significant role in
reading.
2- Many lower-level processing skills are basic to good
reading. => methods of instruction for rapid visual
recognition, for extensive vocabulary development, and for
syntactic pattern recognition should become major
pedagogical concerns.
Suggestions for recognition and vocabulary instruction can
be found in Stoller (1984, 1986), McKeown et al. (1985),
and Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985).
3- There is a need for a massive receptive vocabulary that
is rapidly, accurately, and automatically accessed -- a fact
that may be the greatest single impediment to fluent
reading by ESL students.
4- Students may overcompensate (overrely on text or on
context) for a lack of relevant schemata; Simple analyses of
student difficulties which explain all problems as word-
boundedness, or as unwillingness to guess or take chances,
are not justified by the range of empirical studies in the
literature.
5- The development of reading abilities may be viewed
more profitably if seen in terms of stages of skills
development.
Some implications of the interactive model of reading for

ESL: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 225)
- contextual interpretation of lexical items is only a part of
the vocabulary skills needed for fluent reading, and may
actually interfere if a student overrelies on this strategy
(Stanovich 1980).
- certain kinds of "phonics" exercises may be helpful to
students (Beck 1981).
- basic recognition exercises to improve speed and accuracy
of perception may constitute an important component of an
effective second language reading program (Stoller 1984).
Some general implications for the teaching of second

language reading: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 227)
1- Some time must be devoted in the reading class to
bottom-up concerns such as the rapid and accurate
identification of lexical and grammatical forms. Even
students who have developed strong top-down skills in
their native languages may not be able to transfer these
higher-level skills to a SL context until they have
developed a stronger bottom-up foundation of basic
identification skills.
2- Some time must also be devoted in the reading class to
top-down concerns such as
- reading for global meaning (as opposed to mere
decoding),
- developing a willingness to take chances
- developing appropriate schemata for the proper
interpretation of texts.
Reading of any kind of text must be treated as real reading,
that is, reading for meaning. No student should ever be
forced or encouraged to limit him/herself to decoding
skills.
In short, for second language readers, especially, both top-

down and bottom-up skills and strategies must be
developed conjointly since both contribute directly to the
successful comprehension of text.
Short Circuit Hypothesis:
Goodman, p. 16:
Any reading that does not end with meaning is a short
circuit. In general, readers short circuit when
- they cannot get meaning or lose the structure;
- they use non-productive reading strategies;
- they are not permitted to terminate non-productive
reading.
List of short circuits:
- letter naming
- recoding
- syntactic nonsense
- partial structures
Clarke p. 120:
The results of some studies conducted suggest that the role
of language proficiency may be greater than has previously
been assumed: limited control over the language "short
circuits" the good reader's system causing him/her to
revert to poor reader strategies when confronted with a
difficult task in the second language. => This suggests
that it may be inaccurate to speak of "good readers" and
"poor readers," but of good or poor reading behaviors
which characterize most readers at different times. When
one is confronted with difficult reading, one is likely to
revert to poor reading behaviors.
Some of the implications of the "short circuit hypothesis"
for ESL reading teachers:
1- It would seem justifiable to develop reading programs
that are characteristic of good readers.
Among the behaviors that seem to be most productive
are:
- concentrating on passage-level semantic cues
- formulating hypotheses about the text before reading,
then reading to confirm,
refine or reject those hypotheses
- deemphasizing graphophonic and syntactic accuracy
=> developing a tolerance for inexactness,
a willingness to take chances and make mistakes.
2- The results of these studies stress the importance of
language skills for effective reading. This finding supports
the activities of "traditional" teachers (Lado, 1964;
Finochiaro, 1974) whose approach to teaching reading
emphasized grammar lessons and vocabulary instruction; it
also supports the recent attempts to integrate reading skills
and language development (Eskey, 1973; Baudoin et al,
1977; Silberstein, 1977).
=> ESL teachers need to emphasize the need for guessing
and taking chances in addition to helping their students
acquire fundamental language skills that would facilitate
the process of reading. They should emphasize both the
psycho and the linguistic.
The Importance of Vocabulary (Eskey & Grabe, p. 226)

All models of reading recognize the importance of
vocabulary, but the interactive model goes further. Not only
is a large vocabulary important, it is a prerequisite to fluent
reading skills.
Since automatic word recognition is more important to
fluent processing of text than context clues as a first
strategy, large-scale development of recognition vocabulary
is crucial (Perfetti 1985).
The importance of vocabulary is not only related to the
number of words, but also to the number of times that these
words are encountered and retrieved in texts.
Conclusion (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 228-229)

We must make a clear distinction between the building up
of particular skills and strategies, or of relevant knowledge,
and reading itself. Both top-down and bottom-up skills can,
in the long run, only be developed by extensive reading
over time. Classroom work can point the way but cannot
substitute for the act itself: people learn to read by reading,
not by doing exercises.
What is needed is:
- extensive reading
- appropriate materials (relevant to students' needs and
interests)
- sound teacher judgment and approach (the teacher will
determine how much and what his/her students read; the
teacher must create the world of reading in class; the
teacher must stimulate interest in reading; the teacher must
project his/her enthusiasm for books; the teacher must help
students to see that reading can be of real value to them; the
teacher must choose, edit, modify or create materials for
students; the teacher must introduce, and provide practice
in, useful reading strategies for coping with texts in an
unfamiliar language; the teacher must provide students with
feedback as needed).
Language Competence & L2 Reading Proficiency

(Devine 1988, pp. 266-268)
The general findings of research -- that low reading
achievement in a SL is significantly related to low general
proficiency in that language and that readers with low L2
language proficiency are especially handicapped in their
ability to utilize contextual constraints and cohesive
devices when reading in the target language -- have led
some researchers to suggest that there is a threshold of
linguistic competence necessary for successful L2 reading
("linguistic ceiling" according to Clarke 1980). => L2
readers will not be able to read effectively until they
develop some proficiency in the target language (TL).
Grabe (1986) contends that successful L2 reading depends
upon the procession of a "critical mass of knowledge" :
linguistic knowledge (automatic processing of syntactic
patterns and vocabulary) + background knowledge +
schematic knowledge (relevant formal and content
schemata).
Text-Boundedness & Schema Interference (Carrell,

1988- pp.101-113)
Text-Boundedness = overreliance on text-based or

bottom-up processing.
Schema Interference = overreliance on knowledge-based
or top-down processing.
What causes such unidirectional biases in text

processing, especially in reading in a second language?
Some causes can be hypothesized:
1- Schema availability
2- Schema activation
3- Skill deficiencies (reading skill deficiencies as well as
linguistic deficiencies)
4- Misconceptions about reading
5- Individual differences in cognitive styles.

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2- The Reader
1- Content: How to improve knowledge of content? How to
activate appropriate background knowledge?
Methods & Approaches:
"The Language Experience Approach (LEA) to teaching reading in English as a second

language uses the student's own experiences, vocabulary, and language patterns to create
texts for reading instruction and make reading a meaningful process." (Dixon & Nessel,
1983)
"Students dictate stories to the teacher or share orally a common experience. When
written down by or in collaboration with the teacher, these experiences and stories
become texts for initial reading instruction. The stories are accessible because they reflect
the language and experience of the learners. This approach is excellent for creating
reading texts for beginning-level ESL students whose command of vocabulary and
structures in English is limited, as well as for those
who are learning to read for the first time. (See Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Rabideau, 1991;
Taylor, 1992 for descriptions of the LEA.) D'Annunzio (1990) describes a bilingual
version of the LEA." (Rabideau, 1993)
The LEA instructional procedures are designed to be applied according to levels of use
rather than age or grade level.
Setting a communication purpose for reading...

(under construction)
Developed by Stauffer, the DRTA is a group comprehension activity that features

prediction of the story events prior to reading, reading to prove or modify predictions,
and the use of divergent thinking.
A. Group DRTA using fiction:

1. Show or read the title, first illustrations, or opening part of the story. Ask questions
like "What might this story be about?" or "What might happen in this story?" to elicit first
predictions. Accept each one noncommittally and jot it on the board. When you have two
or more different ideas, review them and have students read silently read to the first
stopping point (selected beforehand) to see if any of the predictions are confirmed.
2. While reading, help students with difficult words. At the stopping point, have the
students turn over their books or close them and not read ahead.
3. Ask volunteers to summarize the selection just read and point out predictions that
no longer seem probable; erase them or change them on the board as students suggest
new ideas. Be noncommittal in your responses using expressions like "possible" or
"likely". Elicit predictions about events in the next section and press for justification or
predictions. Read the new selection with the new predictions in mind.
4. Predict, read, and prove to the end of the selection.
5. At the end ask volunteers to summarize the whole story, put events in order, discuss
the characters' motives and feelings, and review the ways the group used story
information to make predictions. Add any additional comprehension questions or follow-
up activities.
B. Nonfiction Material:
1. Prepare your prereading questions beforehand by determining what types of

information the passage contains and how it is organized. Develop a set of general
questions that will help children determine what they already know (or think they know)
about the topic. If you were going to read about the building of the first transcontinental
railroad, you might begin by asking:
· What do you think was special about the Union Pacific railway?
· Where did it begin? Where did it end?
· How long do you think it was?
· How long do you think it took to complete?
· What might the Golden Spike be? Why do you think it was important?
· What problems do you think the railway builders encountered?
· In what ways might the railway have changed the area in which it was built?
2. Have the class quickly scan the material or look at illustrations and headings, your
choice. Pose your prereading questions, encouraging the students to disagree with one
another and provide as much specific detail as they can. Jot their guesses on the board,
accepting all non-committally. Read silently watching for information they had predicted.
3. After reading have volunteers point out confirmed predictions, modify those that
were not confirmed and add new information not predicted. Ask more comprehension
questions or follow-up activities.
Benefits:
· Students themselves set reading purposes by making predictions and reading to prove
or refute them.
· They generally read more actively and enthusiastically because they are more
interested in finding out what happened.
· They often remember more information, even after much time has passed. One
reason for this accomplishment may be their increased curiosity.
(Adapted from Taffy Raphael, The Reading Teacher, Volume 36, no 2, November 1982.)
http://members.home.net/sweetent/q&rs.html
Another link:
Strategies for Improved Reading Comprehension:
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
A teaching procedure of advance speculative organization on the teacher's part, who

selects texts in relation to what he thinks may interest his group of learners.
The basic element of the ETR method is discussion of a text and topics related to the text,
especially students' own experiences.
Teachers conduct discussion of stories in three phases:
First, they guide students to activate what they know that will help them understand what
they read, make predictions, and set purposes. This is the Experience phase.
Next, they read the story with the students, stopping at appropriate points to discuss the
story, determine whether their predictions were confirmed, and so on. This is the Text
phase.
After they have finished the story, teachers guide students to relate ideas from a text to
their own experiences. This is the Relationship phase.
Teachers facilitate comprehension, model processes, and may coach students as they
engage in reading and comprehension activities.

Purpose: To diagnose students' prior knowledge and provide necessary background
knowledge so they will be prepared to understand what they will be reading.
Rationale: A diagnostic and instructional procedure used when students read

informational books and content area textbooks.
Procedure:
1. Introduce key concept to students using a word, phrase, or picture to
initiate a discussion.
2. Have students brainstorm words about the topic, and record their ideas on
a chart. Help make connections among brainstormed ideas.
3. Present additional vocabulary and clarify any misconceptions.
4. Have students draw pictures and/or write a quickwrite about topic using
words from the brainstormed list.
5. Have students share quickwrites and ask questions to help clarify and
elaborate quickwrites.
Strengths: To help the students learn about a subject before starting a lesson.
Weaknesses: Classroom management.
http://members.tripod.com/~emu1967/readstrat.htm
How does the SQ3R method work?
Survey
Survey means to scan the main parts of the text you are going to read. This includes looking at the title,
headings of paragraphs, introduction and conclusion, first lines of each paragraph, and any extra
information that may be presented in boxes on the page. Doing this gives you some basic understanding of
what the text is about and helps you know what to expect when you read in more detail.
Question
Questions are very helpful when you read a text. Most of the time, people read first, and then look at
questions at the end of the text. However, this is not the best way to read. If possible, read the questions
provided for you FIRST. This will help you know what specific information to look for. Questions (those
that are provided with text and those provided by your teacher) are designed to focus on the main points.
Therefore, if you read to answer these questions, you will be focusing on the main points in the text. This
helps you read with a goal in mind - answering specific questions.
3 R's:
Read
Once you have some idea of what the text is about and what the main points might be, start reading. Do not
be afraid if the text has many words you cannot understand. Just read!
Follow these suggestions:

Do not use your dictionary the first time through the text.
Try to understand as much as you can from the context.
Take notes as you go.
Make a note of places that you do not understand, or
words that are unclear.
Go through the text a second time.
Try to answer the questions.
Recite
Studies have suggested that students remember 80% of what they learn, if they repeat the information
verbally. If they do not repeat verbally, they often forget 80%. Writing down the answers to questions from
the text and saying these answers will help you remember the information. One good way to do this is to
discuss the information with a friend or classmate, or with the professor. Try to summarize the main points
you have learned from the reading and add to your knowledge from the comments and responses of the
person you are talking with.
Review
Review means to go over something again. In order to remember information, you cannot simply memorize
it one day and then put it aside. After you have read and discussed and studied your information, it is
important to review your notes again a few days or weeks later.
This will help you keep the information fresh in your mind.
(SQ3R was developed in 1941 by Francis Robinson)

http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/buildingcathedrals/SecondaryReadingStrategies.html
Other Sites that Explain this Method:

http://www.roseburg.k12.or.us/sec/handouts/SQ3R.htm
http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/info/admin/studserv/tutor/Study%20Skills/textbook.htm
http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/lessons.html

Early Fluent and Fluent Readers can use their increased awareness of the structure of
words (word parts) to help figure out new words. They can be helped to notice roots and
endings (play, played, playing; fast, faster, fastest) and suffixes and prefixes (un / help /
ful). They also can learn about "compound words" (some / thing, every / body).
Text mapping strategies are used nowadays to increase the reader's awareness of
rhetorical structure of texts. These strategies are based on research on text analysis of
both expository/informational & narrative texts.
"In general, text mapping involves selecting key content from an expository passage and
representing it in some sort of visual display (boxes, circles, connecting lines, tree
diagrams...) in which the relationships among the key ideas are made explicit." (Carrell,
1988)
"In networking Dansereau suggests that learners be trained to recognize six types of links
between nodes of information. These are: Part links, Type links, Leads-to links, Analogy
links, Characteristic links, and Evidence links.
Learners read a passage of text, then create a "node-link map" on paper. They can then
relate or link information nodes on the map by classifying them as one of these link
types. Links represent the way the ideas represented by the nodes are interrelated. Clearly
this strategy relates closely to the link types identified in this study. It may be that experts
in a content domain or in working in hypermedia environments would exhibit link types
more closely related to those suggested by Dansereau. Although McKeachie (1984)
suggests that this networking strategy is difficult and time-consuming to learn and
employ, it would be well worthwhile to examine how well it works in hypermedia
environments."
Description of the networking
"Mapping is a process of reorganizing and rearranging (moving) the most important ideas
and information from your reading or textbook and converting it into a diagram with your
own words to help you understand and remember what you read."
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/Englishworks/reading/mapping.html
(Excellent site)
Text Mapping Strategies

http://www.ci.swt.edu/Reading/AdultResearch/TextMapping.html
http://www.textmapping.org/overview.html
Concept Mapping and Curriculum Design

http://www.utc.edu/Teaching-Resource-Center/concepts.html

A flowchart is a diagram that shows step-by-step progression through a procedure or
system especially using connecting lines and a set of conventional symbols.
http://www.bmm.icnet.uk/people/rob/CCP11BBS/flowchart2.html
d- Top-Level Rhetorical Structures (Meyer 1975, 1985; Bartlett 1978)
Meyer (1985) proposes a set of five 'top-level' rhetorical structures in order to systematize
the structure of the major expository text genres: collection or list, description, causal,
comparative, problem/solution.
http://www.info.kochi-tech.ac.jp/lawrie/signal23.htm
Even though narrative text structure may be taught using any number of models (e.g.,
story grammars, causal networks, conceptual graph structures, scripts and plans), story
grammars are the oldest and most studied
(Graesser et al., 1991). Moreover, they have been validated as benefiting reading
comprehension (e.g., Gurney et al., 1990; Newby et al., 1989; Pearson & Fielding, 1991)
and predicting readers' performance (Graesser et al., 1991). Additionally, they have been
viewed as unifying several research trends in narrative text structure into one theory
(Graesser et al., 1991).
Story grammar instruction usually includes a simplified version of story grammar

components as well as practice in identifying category-relevant information (Pearson &
Fielding, 1991). Pearson and Fielding (1991) found strong support that instruction in a
story grammar resulted in improved reading comprehension of stories beyond those used
in the studies' interventions and "real" stories (i.e., stories not adapted to fit narrative text
structure).
In Gurney et al. (1990), students were taught four major story grammar components: (a)
main character and main problem/conflict; (b) character clues (e.g., characters' actions,
dialogue, thoughts, physical attributes, and reactions to other characters and events); (c)
resolution; and (d) theme. In the Newby et al. (1989) study, students were taught the
following story grammar components
(a) main character, (b) problem encountered by the main character, (c) setting, (d) events
or attempts by main character to solve the problem, and (e) solution or resolution of the
problem.
We should not forget to focus on the goals,
motives, thoughts, and feelings of the characters in stories.
http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/documents/techrep/tech17.html
Additional Link:
Text Mapping Reading Strategies:

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Arouse Student Interest & Motivate
In the reading classroom, the teacher is a motivator/stimulator. The teacher should
foster student expectations about the reading and arouse their interest to read. This
can be done by asking them warmup questions or giving them a purpose for
reading. In this way, students will enjoy learning language and develop a positive
attitude towards reading.
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no4/p43.htm
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/3/89.03.05.x.html
Respect Student's Learning Style
Learning Styles
http://members.fortunecity.com/nadabs/learning.html
Personal Learning Style Inventory

http://www.howtolearn.com/personal.html
Personality: Character and Temperament

http://www.keirsey.com
Respect Student's Self Image as a Reader

http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/cupdate/2000/1sum00.html
Use Sustained Silent Reading
What is Sustained Silent Reading?
Sustained silent reading (SSR) is a time set aside in the class-room for students to
read on their own. Even 15 minutes of SSR is worthwhile.
Students select something suitable and interesting to read, preferably a whole book.
Teachers may or may not have students keep dialogue journals on what they read.
Teachers’ responses to the journals afford individual attention.
Research has suggested that SSR is valuable in helping students progress in reading
and in helping second language students
acquire language proficiency.
Having students read on their own allows brief periods for teachers to work on
portfolio assessments or to have individual
conferences with students.
(http://www.sabes.org/fn102.pdf)
Tips for students
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/zaire/131/linksstudents.htm#7
http://www.dsea.org/teachingtips/teachingtips.html
C- How do we, teachers, help the reader to acquire good Reading
Strategies?
Good Readers
Good readers are active readers. From the outset they have
clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly evaluate
whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals.
Good readers typically look over the text before they read,
noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections
that might be most relevant to their reading goals. As they read,
good readers frequently make predictions about what is to
come. They read selectively, continually making decisions about
their reading -- what to read carefully, what to read quickly,
what not to read, what to re-read, and so on. Good readers
construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they
read. They draw upon, compare, and integrate their prior
knowledge with material in the text. They think about the
authors of the text, their style, beliefs, intentions, historical
milieu, and so on. They monitor their understanding of the text,
making adjustments in their reading as necessary. Good readers
try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts
in the text, and deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.
They evaluate the text’s quality and value, and react to the text
in a range of ways, both intellectual and emotional. Good
readers read different kinds of text differently. For example,
when reading narrative, good readers attend closely to the
setting and characters; when reading expository text these
readers frequently construct and revise summaries of what they
have read. For good readers, text processing occurs not only
during ‘reading’ as we have traditionally defined it, but also
during short breaks taken during reading, and even after the
‘reading’ itself has commenced. Comprehension is a consuming
and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is typically
both satisfying and productive.
http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/pearson/pdppaper/Duke/ndpdp.html
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Before Reading
1. Preview
a. Brainstorm: What do we already know about the topic?

b. Predict: What do we think we will learn about the topic when we
read the passage?
R E A D (the first passage or section)
During Reading
2. Click and Clunk
a. Were there any parts that were hard to understand (clunks)?

b. How can we fix the clunks? Use fix-up strategies.
(1) Reread the sentence and look for key ideas to help
you understand the word.
(2) Reread the sentence with the clunk and the sentences
before or after the clunk looking for clues
(3) Look for a prefix or suffix in the word.
(4) Break the word apart and look for smaller words.
3. Get the Gist
a. What is the most important person, place, or thing?

b. What is the most important idea about the person, place or thing?
R E A D (Do Steps 2 and 3 again, with all the paragraphs or sections in

the passage.)
After Reading
4. Wrap Up
a. Ask Questions: What questions would show we understand the

most important information? What are the answers to those questions?
b. Review: What did we learn?
Sample Reading Strategies
(based on Auerbach and Paxton,1997)
Pre-Reading Strategies
Accessing prior knowledge
Writing your way into reading (Writing about your experiences related to the
topic)
Asking questions based on the title
Making predictions based on previewing
Identifying text structure
Skimming for the general idea
Reading the introduction and conclusion first
During Reading Strategies
Skipping unknown words; guessing from context
Predicting the main idea of each paragraph
Drawing pictures to show what you see in your mind’s eye
After Reading Strategies
Revising prereading expectations
Making an outline, chart, map, or diagram of the organization of the text
Retelling what you think the author is saying
Relating the text to your own experience
http://www.bnkst.edu/americareads/strategies.html
1- Characteristics of good, proficient readers

"Proficient readers are both Efficient and
Effective.
They are Effective in constructing meaning
throughout the reading process, and this meaning
bears some level of agreement with the original
meaning of the author.
They are Efficient in using the least amount of
effort to achieve effectiveness. To accomplish this
they maintain constant focus on constructing the
meaning throughout the process:
 they always seek the most direct path to
meaning;
 they always use strategies for reducing
uncertainty;
 they are always selective about the use of the
cues available and...
 they use their own knowledge about language
and their experiences to predict and construct
meaning as they read;
 they minimize dependence on visual detail.
Any reader's proficiency is variable, depending on
the semantic background brought by the reader to
any given reading task."
Kenneth Goodman (1988)
Skilled Readers:
Reflect on their reading processes:
Why are we reading this particular text?
What information do we need to glean from it?
How closely do we need to read?
Skilled readers practice, develop, and refine their reading over their lifetime.
2- Test taking strategies (& Study Skills)

4- SQRQCQ
Survey: quickly for a general idea or understanding of the problem
Question: What is the problem asking for?
Reread: to identify facts, relevant information, and details
Question: What mathematical operation(s) do I apply?
Compute: solve the problem
Question: Is the answer correct? Does the answer make sense?
5- Graphic Aids (tables, headings, bold print, graphs, charts,
cartoons and pictures)
& KWLChart
K•W•L
K What I KNOW
W What I WANT to learn
L What I LEARNED
It Begins with students‘ knowledge and ideas

It Provides reasons for learning
It Adds new information to knowledge base
It Involves students in learning
It Empowers students to create their own knowledge
a- Note taking
b- Outlining
c- Summarizing
d- Locating information
e- Retrieving information
7- Comprehension
Grade Levels of Reading Books- How Can You Tell?
http://www.stvrain.k12.co.us/ecel/read_for_meaning.html (excellent!)
3- The Text
1- Sight words
2- Phonics
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/phonic.html
3- Context clues: Students learn to quickly find the main idea by skimming and
surveying the text for headings, graphic materials, and terms in boldface that can
provide context clues.
5- Configuration/ Visual clues
6- Dictionary
It pays to be patient. Don't reach for the dictionary as soon as you see an unfamiliar
word. Read the whole sentence. The meaning of the unfamiliar word may become
obvious from context or you may conclude that you have comprehended enough not
to have to bother with looking it up. There is always a good chance that clues to a
word's meaning may appear later in the paragraph because writers often try to help
their readers understand by giving additional explanations, definitions, and
clarifications.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ickpl/Reading_Strategies.htm
http://coe.fgcu.edu/faculty/ray/red/cstrategies.htm
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/rvocabindex.htm
7- Applying various forms of word recognition strategies to
text materials
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/teach/
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/ldrp_chard_guidelines.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/article.php?ID=192
http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/digests/d126.html

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Page created on Jan. 13, 2001 | Last updated on Sep. 29, 2007
Copyright © 2001-2009 Nada Salem Abisamra
http://www,nadasisland.com/reading/
Nada's University Projects || Nada's Online Materials

Second Language Acquisition || Teaching Culture || Teaching Reading || Teaching
Writing || Teaching Idioms
Affect in Language Learning: Motivation
"Error Analysis: Arabic Speakers' English Writings"
Back to Nada's ESL Island
American University of Beirut

Education 324: "The Problems of Teaching Reading & Literature"
Instructor: Dr. Ghazi Ghaith
Fall 2000
"Nada's ESL Island"
Teaching Second Language

Reading
From An Interactive Perspective
By Nada Salem Abisamra
What Every Teacher Needs
to Know
Group for Discussions on Facebook: Nada's ESL Island.(Join us there!
Post your questions)
Index
A- The Top Down Approach
B- The Bottom Up Approach

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1- Content: How to improve knowledge of content? How to activate
appropriate background knowledge?
d- Top-Level Rhetorical Structures (Meyer 1975; Bartlett 1978)
In narrative texts, students should focus on the elements of story grammar (Mandler, 1984) or the
story map. In expository texts they should focus on the identification of main ideas (Baumann, 1986).
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/literacy/st_read2.html
B- How do we, teachers, help the reader to develop a positive
self-concept as a reader?
1- Interests
2- Motivation
3- Learning styles
4- Self image as a reader
5- Sustained Silent Reading
C- How do we, teachers, help the reader to acquire good
Reading Strategies?
1- Characteristics of good readers
2- Test taking strategies
4- SQRQCQ
5- Graphic Aids & KWL Chart
a- Note taking
b- Outlining
c- Summarizing
d- Locating info
e- Retrieving info
7- Comprehension

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1- Sight words
2- Phonics
3- Content clues
5- Configuration
6- Dictionary
7- Applying various forms of word recognition strategies to text materials

4- Related Links (Very comprehensive)
&
Reading Comprehension: Learning Strategies Database
Parents Can Foster Their Child’s Reading Comprehension
Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension
Reading Strategies Notebook
81 Generalizations about Free Voluntary Reading- S. Krashen

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Definition of Reading
"Reading is a receptive language process.

It is a psycholinguistic guessing game (1967).
There is an essential interaction between language and
thought in reading.
The writer encodes thought as language and the reader
decodes language as thought."
Kenneth Goodman (1988).

Based on "Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading"
Edited by Carrell, Devine, & Eskey (1988)
(All the pages referred to are in this book)
"The ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate with good
comprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral skills, if not
more important." (Eskey 1970) (p. 1)
Reading research is just a little more than a hundred years old. Serious attempts at
building explicit models of the reading process have a history of a little more than forty
years. (Samuels & Kamil, p. 22)
That reading is not a passive, but rather an active, and in fact an interactive, process has
been recognized for some time in native language reading but it is only recently that
second/foreign language reading has been viewed as an active rather than a passive
process.
Early working second language reading assumed a rather passive, bottom-up, view of
second language reading. It was viewed primarily as a decoding process of reconstructing
the author's intended meaning via recognizing the printed letters and words, and building
up a meaning for a text from the smallest textual units at the bottom (letters and words) to
larger units at the top (phrases, clauses, links). Problems of SL reading and reading
comprehension were viewed as being essentially decoding problems, deriving meaning
from print.
In the early seventies, Goodman's psycholinguistic model of reading (later named the top-
down or concept-driven model) began to have an impact on views of second language
reading. In this model the reader is active, makes predictions, processes information, and
reconstruct a message encoded by a writer.
The top-down processing perspective into SL reading had a profound impact on the field,
to an extent that it was viewed as a substitute for the bottom-up perspective, rather than
its complement.
However, as schema theory research has attempted to make clear, efficient and effective
reading (in L1 and L2) requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating
interactively => Interactive model (Rumelhart 1977). Both top-down and bottom-up
processes, functioning interactively, are necessary to an adequate understanding of
second language reading and reading comprehension. (Carrell, 1988- pp. 1-4)
A- The Top Down (Concept-

Driven) Approach
(Knowledge/background/schemata-based)- (Goodman, Smith)
(Overreliance on top-down or knowledge-based processing => schema
interference)
The "top down" approach emphasizes

readers bringing meaning to text based
on their experiential background and
interpreting text based on their prior
knowledge (whole language).
Top = higher order mental concepts such
as the knowledge and expectations of the
reader.
Bottom = the physical text on the page.
<=> The top-down model of reading
focuses on what the readers bring to the
process (Goodman, 1967; Smith,
1971,1982). The readers sample the text
for information and contrast it with their
world knowledge, helping to make sense
of what is written. The focus here is on
the readers as they interact with the text.
** This model starts with the hypotheses

and predictions then attempts to verify
them by working down to the printed
stimuli. This view of reading was called
the psycholinguistic guessing game.
** According to Goodman, readers employ

5 processes in reading: (p. 16)
1- Recognition-initiation
2- Prediction
3- Confirmation
4- Correction
5- Termination
Insights that are foundational to this top-down model:

(pp. 12-14)
1- Language, reading included, must be seen in its social
context.
2- Competence must be separated from Performance:
Competence = what readers are capable of doing. It
results in the reader's control of and flexibility in using
the reading process
Performance = what we observe them to do. It is the
observable result of the competence.
=> Researchers would be committing a serious error if
they equated what readers do with what they are
capable of doing.
3- Language must be studied in process.
4- Language must be studied in its human context.
Impact of Goodman's model: (pp. 3, 23, 240)

This model which has recently been characterized as a
concept-driven, top-down pattern had the greatest
impact on conceptions about native and second
language reading instruction: it made the reader an
active participant in the reading process => From
earlier views of SL reading as a passive linguistic
decoding process to more contemporary views of SL
reading as an active predictive process.

1- For many texts, the reader has little
knowledge of the topic and cannot
generate predictions.
2- Even if a skilled reader can generate
predictions, this would take much longer
than it would to recognize the words.
Limitations of top-down models: (Eskey, 1988)

They tend to emphasize higher level skills as the prediction
of meaning by means of context clues or background
knowledge at the expense of lower skills like the rapid and
accurate identification of lexical and grammatical forms.
In making the perfectly valid point that fluent reading is
primarily a cognitive process, they tend to deemphasize the
perceptual and decoding dimensions of that process.
This model is good for the skillful, fluent reader for whom
perception and decoding have become automatic, not for
the less proficient, developing reader.
Good reading is a more language-structured affair than the
guessing-game metaphor seems to imply.
According to Weber (1984), a top-down model of reading
is essentially a model of the fluent reader and does not
account for all the needs of students who are acquiring
reading skills.
Top-Down Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 229-231)

The content and quantity of texts that second language
students are asked to read may be the most important
determinants of whether, and to what degree, such students
develop top-down reading skills.
The materials should be interesting for the students; it
should be assigned in substantial amounts over
considerable periods of time.
Two approaches:
- The reading lab approach: students make their own
choices of reading material from among a wide selection of
appropriate texts. This approach allows each student to
progress at his own rate, to develop schemata in some area
of interest, and to compile a personal record of reading.
Disadvantage: it limits group work and isolates reading
from other parts of the curriculum.
- The content-centered approach: the teacher provides for
interesting reading in sufficient quantity; a lot of
information on a subject for the class as a whole to explore
at some depth.
- pre- and postreading work (introductory lectures,
films, discussions, oral/written presentations.
- student interest is stimulated
- natural blending of skills (listening, speaking,
reading, writing)
- the students collectively pursue a common goal
- reading is no longer isolated
- reading is no longer taught as an end in itself but as a
means to an end
Disadvantage: loss of individual choice.
These 2 approaches may be combined within a single

program.

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B- The Bottom Up (Serial)
Approach
(Text-based) (LaBerge & Samuels, MacWorth)
(Overreliance on bottom-up or text-based processing => text-
boundedness)
The "bottom up" approach stipulates that
the meaning of any text must be
"decoded" by the reader and that
students are "reading" when they can
"sound out" words on a page. (Phonics)
<=> It emphasizes the ability to de-code
or put into sound what is seen in a text. It
ignores helping emerging readers to
recognize what they, as readers, bring to
the information on the page.
** This model starts with the printed
stimuli and works its way up to the higher
level stages. The sequence of processing
proceeds from the incoming data to
higher level encodings.
- This model has a tendency to depict the
information flow in a series of discrete stages,
with each stage transforming the input and
then passing the recorded information on to
the next higher stage.
- An important shortcoming of this model is the
fact that it is difficult to account for sentence-
context effects and the role of prior knowledge
of text topic as facilitating variables in word
recognition and comprehension (because of
lack of feedback).
- According to Eskey (1973), the decoding

model is inadequate because it underestimates
the contribution of the reader who makes
predictions and processes information. It fails
to recognize that students utilize their
expectations about the text, based on their
knowledge of language and how it works. (p. 3)
Bottom-Up Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 231-236)

Teaching key vocabulary items and, in the area of
grammar, teaching various cohesive devices.
Two areas of concern:
- Simply knowing the meanings of some set number of
words does not ensure that a reader will be able, while
reading, to process those words both rapidly and accurately.
=> teachers must help students develop identification skills
(exercises for rapid recognition: word recognition and
phrase identification + extensive reading over time).
- Rate building: good readers read fast; they do not, like
many SL readers, try to read word by word, which destroys
their chances of comprehending very much of the text. =>
The major bottom-up skill that readers of second language
must acquire is the skill of reading fast. (paced and timed
reading exercises: formal rate-building work should be
limited to a few minutes per class). Major increases in
reading rate can only follow from extensive reading in the
language over time.
Footnote: If a text contains too many difficult words, no

strategy (top down or bottom up) can make such a text
accessible to the reader. However, second language readers
do of course encounter some unknown words in most texts.
This is the best means of increasing their control of English
vocabulary. SL readers, however, are frequently panicked
by unknown words, so they stop reading to look them up in
dictionaries, thereby interrupting the normal reading
process. In response to this problem, many SL texts
recommend various strategies for guessing the meaning of
unknown words from context, by using semantic and
syntactic clues or even morphological analysis.
In order to develop good reading habits, the best strategy
for dealing with an unknown word may well be to keep
reading until the meaning of that word begins to make itself
plain in relation to the larger context provided.
Central to all these bottom-up concerns is the concept of

automaticity (LaBerge & Samuels 1974). Good readers
process language in the written form of written text without
thinking consciously about it, and good SL readers must
learn to do so. It is only this kind of automatic processing
which allows the good reader to think instead about the
larger meaning of the discourse, which allows for global
reading with true comprehension.
Bottom-Up Implications for the SL Classroom: (Carrell

p. 240-244)
- Grammatical skills: cohesive devices are very important.
- Vocabulary development:
Vocabulary development and word recognition have
long been recognized as crucial to successful bottom-up
decoding skills. However, schema theory has shed new
light on the complex nature of the interrelationship of
schemata, context, and vocabulary knowledge. UNLIKE
traditional views of vocabulary, current thinking converges
on the notion that a given word does not have a fixed
meaning, but rather a variety of meanings that interact with
context and background knowledge.
Knowledge of individual word meanings is strongly
associated with conceptual knowledge -- that is, learning
vocabulary is also learning the conceptual knowledge
associated with the word. On the one hand, an important
part of teaching background knowledge is teaching the
vocabulary related to it and, conversely, teaching
vocabulary may mean teaching new concepts, new
knowledge. Knowledge of vocabulary entails knowledge
of the schemata in which a concept participates,
knowledge of the networks in which that word
participates, as well as any associated words and
concepts (=> structural analysis).
Teachers must become aware of the cross-cultural

differences in vocabulary and how meaning may be
represented differently in the lexicons of various languages.
Several characteristics seem to distinguish effective from

ineffective teaching programs. Preteaching vocabulary in
order to increase learning from text will be more successful
- if the words to be taught are key words in the target

passages
- if the words are taught in semantically and topically
related sets so that word meanings and background
knowledge improve concurrently
- if the words are taught and learned thoroughly
- if both definitional and contextual information are
involved
- if students engage in deeper processing of word meanings
- if only a few words are taught per lesson and per week.
Research specific to SL reading has shown that merely

presenting a list of new or unfamiliar vocabulary items to
be encountered in a text, even with definitions appropriate
to their use in that text, does not guarantee the learning of
the word or the concept behind the word, or of improved
reading comprehension on the text passage (Hudson 1982).
To be effective, an extensive and long-term vocabulary
development program accompanying a parallel schemata or
background-knowledge-development program is probably
called for. Instead of preteaching vocabulary for single
reading passages, teachers should teach vocabulary and
background knowledge concurrently for sets of passages to
be read at some later time.
Every SL curriculum should have a general program of
parallel concept/background knowledge development
and vocabulary development.

(Rumelhart, Stanovich, Eskey)
For those reading theorists who

recognized the importance of both the
text and the reader in the reading
process, an amalgamation of the two
emerged the interactive approach.
Reading here is the process of combining
textual information with the information
the reader brings to a text.
The interactive model (Rumelhart 1977;
Stanovich 1980) stresses both what is on
the written page and what a reader
brings to it using both top-down and
bottom-up skills. It views reading is the
interaction between reader and text.
The overreliance on either mode of
processing to the neglect of the other
mode has been found to cause reading
difficulties for SL learners (Carrell 1988,
p. 239)
The interactive models of reading assume
that skills at all levels are interactively
available to process and interpret the
text (Grabe 1988).
In this model, good readers are both good
decoders and good interpreters of text,
their decoding skills becoming more
automatic but no less important as their
reading skill develops (Eskey 1988).
According to Rumelhart's interactive

model:
1- linear models which pass information
only in one direction and which do not
permit the information contained in a
higher stage to influence the processing
of a lower stage contain a serious
deficiency. Hence the need for an
interactive model which permits the
information contained in a higher stage of
processing to influence the analysis that
occurs at a lower stage.
2- when an error in word recognition is
made, the word substitution will maintain
the same part of speech as the word for
which it was substituted, which will make
it difficult for the reader to understand.
(orthographic knowledge)
3- semantic knowledge influences word
perception. (semantic knowledge)
4- perception of syntax for a given word
depends upon the context in which the
word is embedded. (syntactic knowledge)
5- our interpretation of what we read
depends upon the context in which a text
segment is embedded. (lexical
knowledge)
All the aforementioned knowledge

sources provide input simultaneously.
These sources need to communicate and
interact with each other, and the higher-
order stages should be able to influence
the processing of lower-order stages.
According to Stanovich's interactive-

compensatory model:
* Top-down processing may be easier for
the poor reader who may be slow at word
recognition but has knowledge of the text
topic.
* Bottom-up processing may be easier for
the reader who is skilled at word
recognition but does not know much
about the text topic.
=> Stanovich's model states, then, that
any stage may communicate with any
other and any reader may rely on better
developed knowledge sources when other
sources are temporarily weak.
To properly achieve fluency and accuracy,

developing readers must work at
perfecting both their bottom-up
recognition skills and their top-down
interpretation strategies. Good reading
(that is fluent and accurate reading) can
result only from a constant interaction
between these processes.
=> Fluent reading entails both skillful
decoding and relating information to prior
knowledge (Eskey, 1988).
<=> Reading is a bi-directional process that

concerns both
the Reader & the Text.
The level of reader comprehension of the text is
determined by how well the reader variables (interest
level in the text, purpose for reading the text, knowledge
of the topic, foreign language abilities, awareness of the
reading process, and level of
willingness to take risks) interact with the text variables
(text type, structure, syntax, and vocabulary)
(Hosenfeld, 1979).
http://www.sabes.org/resources/fieldnotes/vol10/f02abrah.htm
According to Joanne Devine (1988), one thing needs to be

taken into consideration: readers' internalized models of
the reading process are extremely important. There is
convincing evidence that readers do indeed have
internalized models of the reading process that they bring
to bear when they read.
Sound- or word-centered readers, those who equated good
reading with sound identification or good pronunciation
focused their attention on the graphic information in the
text and failed to understand or recall what they had read.
Meaning-centered readers demonstrated good to excellent
recall and comprehension of text.
=> a reader's theoretical orientations toward reading may
determine the degree to which low proficiency in the
language restricts second language reading ability.
=> the models that readers hold may be of critical
importance in allowing them to strike a successful
balance between bottom-up and top-down processing
necessary for the interpretation of a text.
ESL researchers should be interested in interactive

models for several reasons: (p. 59)
1- several studies note that linguistic deficiencies are
inhibiting factors in reading (Clarke, 1979; Singer, 1981;
Carrell, 1988).
2- there is a need for extensive vocabulary for reading
(Alderson and Urquhart, 1984; Singer, 1981)
3- there is a need to account for poor readers who do guess
extensively.
4- good readers are not good simply because they are better
predictors, or make better use of context.
Implications of interactive models for ESL reading: (Grabe

p. 63)
1- Higher level processing abilities play a significant role in
reading.
2- Many lower-level processing skills are basic to good
reading. => methods of instruction for rapid visual
recognition, for extensive vocabulary development, and for
syntactic pattern recognition should become major
pedagogical concerns.
Suggestions for recognition and vocabulary instruction can
be found in Stoller (1984, 1986), McKeown et al. (1985),
and Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985).
3- There is a need for a massive receptive vocabulary that
is rapidly, accurately, and automatically accessed -- a fact
that may be the greatest single impediment to fluent
reading by ESL students.
4- Students may overcompensate (overrely on text or on
context) for a lack of relevant schemata; Simple analyses of
student difficulties which explain all problems as word-
boundedness, or as unwillingness to guess or take chances,
are not justified by the range of empirical studies in the
literature.
5- The development of reading abilities may be viewed
more profitably if seen in terms of stages of skills
development.
Some implications of the interactive model of reading for

ESL: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 225)
- contextual interpretation of lexical items is only a part of
the vocabulary skills needed for fluent reading, and may
actually interfere if a student overrelies on this strategy
(Stanovich 1980).
- certain kinds of "phonics" exercises may be helpful to
students (Beck 1981).
- basic recognition exercises to improve speed and accuracy
of perception may constitute an important component of an
effective second language reading program (Stoller 1984).
Some general implications for the teaching of second

language reading: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 227)
1- Some time must be devoted in the reading class to
bottom-up concerns such as the rapid and accurate
identification of lexical and grammatical forms. Even
students who have developed strong top-down skills in
their native languages may not be able to transfer these
higher-level skills to a SL context until they have
developed a stronger bottom-up foundation of basic
identification skills.
2- Some time must also be devoted in the reading class to
top-down concerns such as
- reading for global meaning (as opposed to mere
decoding),
- developing a willingness to take chances
- developing appropriate schemata for the proper
interpretation of texts.
Reading of any kind of text must be treated as real reading,
that is, reading for meaning. No student should ever be
forced or encouraged to limit him/herself to decoding
skills.
In short, for second language readers, especially, both top-

down and bottom-up skills and strategies must be
developed conjointly since both contribute directly to the
successful comprehension of text.
Short Circuit Hypothesis:
Goodman, p. 16:
Any reading that does not end with meaning is a short
circuit. In general, readers short circuit when
- they cannot get meaning or lose the structure;
- they use non-productive reading strategies;
- they are not permitted to terminate non-productive
reading.
List of short circuits:
- letter naming
- recoding
- syntactic nonsense
- partial structures
Clarke p. 120:
The results of some studies conducted suggest that the role
of language proficiency may be greater than has previously
been assumed: limited control over the language "short
circuits" the good reader's system causing him/her to
revert to poor reader strategies when confronted with a
difficult task in the second language. => This suggests
that it may be inaccurate to speak of "good readers" and
"poor readers," but of good or poor reading behaviors
which characterize most readers at different times. When
one is confronted with difficult reading, one is likely to
revert to poor reading behaviors.
Some of the implications of the "short circuit hypothesis"
for ESL reading teachers:
1- It would seem justifiable to develop reading programs
that are characteristic of good readers.
Among the behaviors that seem to be most productive
are:
- concentrating on passage-level semantic cues
- formulating hypotheses about the text before reading,
then reading to confirm,
refine or reject those hypotheses
- deemphasizing graphophonic and syntactic accuracy
=> developing a tolerance for inexactness,
a willingness to take chances and make mistakes.
2- The results of these studies stress the importance of
language skills for effective reading. This finding supports
the activities of "traditional" teachers (Lado, 1964;
Finochiaro, 1974) whose approach to teaching reading
emphasized grammar lessons and vocabulary instruction; it
also supports the recent attempts to integrate reading skills
and language development (Eskey, 1973; Baudoin et al,
1977; Silberstein, 1977).
=> ESL teachers need to emphasize the need for guessing
and taking chances in addition to helping their students
acquire fundamental language skills that would facilitate
the process of reading. They should emphasize both the
psycho and the linguistic.
The Importance of Vocabulary (Eskey & Grabe, p. 226)

All models of reading recognize the importance of
vocabulary, but the interactive model goes further. Not only
is a large vocabulary important, it is a prerequisite to fluent
reading skills.
Since automatic word recognition is more important to
fluent processing of text than context clues as a first
strategy, large-scale development of recognition vocabulary
is crucial (Perfetti 1985).
The importance of vocabulary is not only related to the
number of words, but also to the number of times that these
words are encountered and retrieved in texts.
Conclusion (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 228-229)

We must make a clear distinction between the building up
of particular skills and strategies, or of relevant knowledge,
and reading itself. Both top-down and bottom-up skills can,
in the long run, only be developed by extensive reading
over time. Classroom work can point the way but cannot
substitute for the act itself: people learn to read by reading,
not by doing exercises.
What is needed is:
- extensive reading
- appropriate materials (relevant to students' needs and
interests)
- sound teacher judgment and approach (the teacher will
determine how much and what his/her students read; the
teacher must create the world of reading in class; the
teacher must stimulate interest in reading; the teacher must
project his/her enthusiasm for books; the teacher must help
students to see that reading can be of real value to them; the
teacher must choose, edit, modify or create materials for
students; the teacher must introduce, and provide practice
in, useful reading strategies for coping with texts in an
unfamiliar language; the teacher must provide students with
feedback as needed).
Language Competence & L2 Reading Proficiency

(Devine 1988, pp. 266-268)
The general findings of research -- that low reading
achievement in a SL is significantly related to low general
proficiency in that language and that readers with low L2
language proficiency are especially handicapped in their
ability to utilize contextual constraints and cohesive
devices when reading in the target language -- have led
some researchers to suggest that there is a threshold of
linguistic competence necessary for successful L2 reading
("linguistic ceiling" according to Clarke 1980). => L2
readers will not be able to read effectively until they
develop some proficiency in the target language (TL).
Grabe (1986) contends that successful L2 reading depends
upon the procession of a "critical mass of knowledge" :
linguistic knowledge (automatic processing of syntactic
patterns and vocabulary) + background knowledge +
schematic knowledge (relevant formal and content
schemata).
Text-Boundedness & Schema Interference (Carrell,

1988- pp.101-113)
Text-Boundedness = overreliance on text-based or

bottom-up processing.
Schema Interference = overreliance on knowledge-based
or top-down processing.
What causes such unidirectional biases in text

processing, especially in reading in a second language?
Some causes can be hypothesized:
1- Schema availability
2- Schema activation
3- Skill deficiencies (reading skill deficiencies as well as
linguistic deficiencies)
4- Misconceptions about reading
5- Individual differences in cognitive styles.

Search
2- The Reader
1- Content: How to improve knowledge of content? How to
activate appropriate background knowledge?
Methods & Approaches:
"The Language Experience Approach (LEA) to teaching reading in English as a second

language uses the student's own experiences, vocabulary, and language patterns to create
texts for reading instruction and make reading a meaningful process." (Dixon & Nessel,
1983)
"Students dictate stories to the teacher or share orally a common experience. When
written down by or in collaboration with the teacher, these experiences and stories
become texts for initial reading instruction. The stories are accessible because they reflect
the language and experience of the learners. This approach is excellent for creating
reading texts for beginning-level ESL students whose command of vocabulary and
structures in English is limited, as well as for those
who are learning to read for the first time. (See Dixon & Nessel, 1983; Rabideau, 1991;
Taylor, 1992 for descriptions of the LEA.) D'Annunzio (1990) describes a bilingual
version of the LEA." (Rabideau, 1993)
The LEA instructional procedures are designed to be applied according to levels of use
rather than age or grade level.
Setting a communication purpose for reading...

(under construction)
Developed by Stauffer, the DRTA is a group comprehension activity that features

prediction of the story events prior to reading, reading to prove or modify predictions,
and the use of divergent thinking.
A. Group DRTA using fiction:
1. Show or read the title, first illustrations, or opening part of the story. Ask questions
like "What might this story be about?" or "What might happen in this story?" to elicit first
predictions. Accept each one noncommittally and jot it on the board. When you have two
or more different ideas, review them and have students read silently read to the first
stopping point (selected beforehand) to see if any of the predictions are confirmed.
2. While reading, help students with difficult words. At the stopping point, have the
students turn over their books or close them and not read ahead.
3. Ask volunteers to summarize the selection just read and point out predictions that
no longer seem probable; erase them or change them on the board as students suggest
new ideas. Be noncommittal in your responses using expressions like "possible" or
"likely". Elicit predictions about events in the next section and press for justification or
predictions. Read the new selection with the new predictions in mind.
4. Predict, read, and prove to the end of the selection.
5. At the end ask volunteers to summarize the whole story, put events in order, discuss
the characters' motives and feelings, and review the ways the group used story
information to make predictions. Add any additional comprehension questions or follow-
up activities.
B. Nonfiction Material:
1. Prepare your prereading questions beforehand by determining what types of
information the passage contains and how it is organized. Develop a set of general
questions that will help children determine what they already know (or think they know)
about the topic. If you were going to read about the building of the first transcontinental
railroad, you might begin by asking:
· What do you think was special about the Union Pacific railway?
· Where did it begin? Where did it end?
· How long do you think it was?
· How long do you think it took to complete?
· What might the Golden Spike be? Why do you think it was important?
· What problems do you think the railway builders encountered?
· In what ways might the railway have changed the area in which it was built?
2. Have the class quickly scan the material or look at illustrations and headings, your
choice. Pose your prereading questions, encouraging the students to disagree with one
another and provide as much specific detail as they can. Jot their guesses on the board,
accepting all non-committally. Read silently watching for information they had predicted.
3. After reading have volunteers point out confirmed predictions, modify those that
were not confirmed and add new information not predicted. Ask more comprehension
questions or follow-up activities.
Benefits:
· Students themselves set reading purposes by making predictions and reading to prove
or refute them.
· They generally read more actively and enthusiastically because they are more
interested in finding out what happened.
· They often remember more information, even after much time has passed. One
reason for this accomplishment may be their increased curiosity.
(Adapted from Taffy Raphael, The Reading Teacher, Volume 36, no 2, November 1982.)
http://members.home.net/sweetent/q&rs.html
Another link:
Strategies for Improved Reading Comprehension:
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
A teaching procedure of advance speculative organization on the teacher's part, who

selects texts in relation to what he thinks may interest his group of learners.
The basic element of the ETR method is discussion of a text and topics related to the text,
especially students' own experiences.
Teachers conduct discussion of stories in three phases:

First, they guide students to activate what they know that will help them understand what
they read, make predictions, and set purposes. This is the Experience phase.
Next, they read the story with the students, stopping at appropriate points to discuss the
story, determine whether their predictions were confirmed, and so on. This is the Text
phase.
After they have finished the story, teachers guide students to relate ideas from a text to
their own experiences. This is the Relationship phase.
Teachers facilitate comprehension, model processes, and may coach students as they
engage in reading and comprehension activities.

Purpose: To diagnose students' prior knowledge and provide necessary background
knowledge so they will be prepared to understand what they will be reading.
Rationale: A diagnostic and instructional procedure used when students read

informational books and content area textbooks.
Procedure:
1. Introduce key concept to students using a word, phrase, or picture to
initiate a discussion.
2. Have students brainstorm words about the topic, and record their ideas on
a chart. Help make connections among brainstormed ideas.
3. Present additional vocabulary and clarify any misconceptions.
4. Have students draw pictures and/or write a quickwrite about topic using
words from the brainstormed list.
5. Have students share quickwrites and ask questions to help clarify and
elaborate quickwrites.
Strengths: To help the students learn about a subject before starting a lesson.
Weaknesses: Classroom management.
http://members.tripod.com/~emu1967/readstrat.htm
How does the SQ3R method work?
Survey
Survey means to scan the main parts of the text you are going to read. This includes looking at the title,
headings of paragraphs, introduction and conclusion, first lines of each paragraph, and any extra
information that may be presented in boxes on the page. Doing this gives you some basic understanding of
what the text is about and helps you know what to expect when you read in more detail.
Question
Questions are very helpful when you read a text. Most of the time, people read first, and then look at
questions at the end of the text. However, this is not the best way to read. If possible, read the questions
provided for you FIRST. This will help you know what specific information to look for. Questions (those
that are provided with text and those provided by your teacher) are designed to focus on the main points.
Therefore, if you read to answer these questions, you will be focusing on the main points in the text. This
helps you read with a goal in mind - answering specific questions.
3 R's:
Read
Once you have some idea of what the text is about and what the main points might be, start reading. Do not
be afraid if the text has many words you cannot understand. Just read!
Follow these suggestions:

Do not use your dictionary the first time through the text.
Try to understand as much as you can from the context.
Take notes as you go.
Make a note of places that you do not understand, or
words that are unclear.
Go through the text a second time.
Try to answer the questions.
Recite
Studies have suggested that students remember 80% of what they learn, if they repeat the information
verbally. If they do not repeat verbally, they often forget 80%. Writing down the answers to questions from
the text and saying these answers will help you remember the information. One good way to do this is to
discuss the information with a friend or classmate, or with the professor. Try to summarize the main points
you have learned from the reading and add to your knowledge from the comments and responses of the
person you are talking with.
Review
Review means to go over something again. In order to remember information, you cannot simply memorize
it one day and then put it aside. After you have read and discussed and studied your information, it is
important to review your notes again a few days or weeks later.
This will help you keep the information fresh in your mind.
(SQ3R was developed in 1941 by Francis Robinson)

http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/buildingcathedrals/SecondaryReadingStrategies.html
Other Sites that Explain this Method:

http://www.roseburg.k12.or.us/sec/handouts/SQ3R.htm
http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/info/admin/studserv/tutor/Study%20Skills/textbook.htm
http://www.litandlearn.lpb.org/lessons.html

Early Fluent and Fluent Readers can use their increased awareness of the structure of
words (word parts) to help figure out new words. They can be helped to notice roots and
endings (play, played, playing; fast, faster, fastest) and suffixes and prefixes (un / help /
ful). They also can learn about "compound words" (some / thing, every / body).
Text mapping strategies are used nowadays to increase the reader's awareness of
rhetorical structure of texts. These strategies are based on research on text analysis of
both expository/informational & narrative texts.
"In general, text mapping involves selecting key content from an expository passage and
representing it in some sort of visual display (boxes, circles, connecting lines, tree
diagrams...) in which the relationships among the key ideas are made explicit." (Carrell,
1988)
"In networking Dansereau suggests that learners be trained to recognize six types of links
between nodes of information. These are: Part links, Type links, Leads-to links, Analogy
links, Characteristic links, and Evidence links.
Learners read a passage of text, then create a "node-link map" on paper. They can then
relate or link information nodes on the map by classifying them as one of these link
types. Links represent the way the ideas represented by the nodes are interrelated. Clearly
this strategy relates closely to the link types identified in this study. It may be that experts
in a content domain or in working in hypermedia environments would exhibit link types
more closely related to those suggested by Dansereau. Although McKeachie (1984)
suggests that this networking strategy is difficult and time-consuming to learn and
employ, it would be well worthwhile to examine how well it works in hypermedia
environments."
Description of the networking
"Mapping is a process of reorganizing and rearranging (moving) the most important ideas
and information from your reading or textbook and converting it into a diagram with your
own words to help you understand and remember what you read."
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/Englishworks/reading/mapping.html
(Excellent site)
Text Mapping Strategies

http://www.textmapping.org/overview.html
Concept Mapping and Curriculum Design

http://www.utc.edu/Teaching-Resource-Center/concepts.html

A flowchart is a diagram that shows step-by-step progression through a procedure or
system especially using connecting lines and a set of conventional symbols.
http://www.bmm.icnet.uk/people/rob/CCP11BBS/flowchart2.html
d- Top-Level Rhetorical Structures (Meyer 1975, 1985; Bartlett 1978)
Meyer (1985) proposes a set of five 'top-level' rhetorical structures in order to systematize
the structure of the major expository text genres: collection or list, description, causal,
comparative, problem/solution.
http://www.info.kochi-tech.ac.jp/lawrie/signal23.htm
Even though narrative text structure may be taught using any number of models (e.g.,
story grammars, causal networks, conceptual graph structures, scripts and plans), story
grammars are the oldest and most studied
(Graesser et al., 1991). Moreover, they have been validated as benefiting reading
comprehension (e.g., Gurney et al., 1990; Newby et al., 1989; Pearson & Fielding, 1991)
and predicting readers' performance (Graesser et al., 1991). Additionally, they have been
viewed as unifying several research trends in narrative text structure into one theory
(Graesser et al., 1991).
Story grammar instruction usually includes a simplified version of story grammar

components as well as practice in identifying category-relevant information (Pearson &
Fielding, 1991). Pearson and Fielding (1991) found strong support that instruction in a
story grammar resulted in improved reading comprehension of stories beyond those used
in the studies' interventions and "real" stories (i.e., stories not adapted to fit narrative text
structure).
In Gurney et al. (1990), students were taught four major story grammar components: (a)
main character and main problem/conflict; (b) character clues (e.g., characters' actions,
dialogue, thoughts, physical attributes, and reactions to other characters and events); (c)
resolution; and (d) theme. In the Newby et al. (1989) study, students were taught the
following story grammar components
(a) main character, (b) problem encountered by the main character, (c) setting, (d) events
or attempts by main character to solve the problem, and (e) solution or resolution of the
problem.
We should not forget to focus on the goals,
motives, thoughts, and feelings of the characters in stories.
http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/documents/techrep/tech17.html
Additional Link:
Text Mapping Reading Strategies:

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Arouse Student Interest & Motivate
In the reading classroom, the teacher is a motivator/stimulator. The teacher should
foster student expectations about the reading and arouse their interest to read. This
can be done by asking them warmup questions or giving them a purpose for
reading. In this way, students will enjoy learning language and develop a positive
attitude towards reading.
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no4/p43.htm
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/3/89.03.05.x.html
Respect Student's Learning Style
Learning Styles
http://members.fortunecity.com/nadabs/learning.html
Personal Learning Style Inventory

http://www.howtolearn.com/personal.html
Personality: Character and Temperament

http://www.keirsey.com
Respect Student's Self Image as a Reader

http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/cupdate/2000/1sum00.html
Use Sustained Silent Reading
What is Sustained Silent Reading?
Sustained silent reading (SSR) is a time set aside in the class-room for students to
read on their own. Even 15 minutes of SSR is worthwhile.
Students select something suitable and interesting to read, preferably a whole book.
Teachers may or may not have students keep dialogue journals on what they read.
Teachers’ responses to the journals afford individual attention.
Research has suggested that SSR is valuable in helping students progress in reading
and in helping second language students
acquire language proficiency.
Having students read on their own allows brief periods for teachers to work on
portfolio assessments or to have individual
conferences with students.
(http://www.sabes.org/fn102.pdf)
Tips for students
http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/zaire/131/linksstudents.htm#7
http://www.dsea.org/teachingtips/teachingtips.html
C- How do we, teachers, help the reader to acquire good Reading
Strategies?
Good Readers
Good readers are active readers. From the outset they have
clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly evaluate
whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals.
Good readers typically look over the text before they read,
noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections
that might be most relevant to their reading goals. As they read,
good readers frequently make predictions about what is to
come. They read selectively, continually making decisions about
their reading -- what to read carefully, what to read quickly,
what not to read, what to re-read, and so on. Good readers
construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they
read. They draw upon, compare, and integrate their prior
knowledge with material in the text. They think about the
authors of the text, their style, beliefs, intentions, historical
milieu, and so on. They monitor their understanding of the text,
making adjustments in their reading as necessary. Good readers
try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts
in the text, and deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.
They evaluate the text’s quality and value, and react to the text
in a range of ways, both intellectual and emotional. Good
readers read different kinds of text differently. For example,
when reading narrative, good readers attend closely to the
setting and characters; when reading expository text these
readers frequently construct and revise summaries of what they
have read. For good readers, text processing occurs not only
during ‘reading’ as we have traditionally defined it, but also
during short breaks taken during reading, and even after the
‘reading’ itself has commenced. Comprehension is a consuming
and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is typically
both satisfying and productive.
http://ed-web3.educ.msu.edu/pearson/pdppaper/Duke/ndpdp.html

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Before Reading
1. Preview
a. Brainstorm: What do we already know about the topic?

b. Predict: What do we think we will learn about the topic when we
read the passage?
R E A D (the first passage or section)
During Reading
2. Click and Clunk
a. Were there any parts that were hard to understand (clunks)?

b. How can we fix the clunks? Use fix-up strategies.
(1) Reread the sentence and look for key ideas to help
you understand the word.
(2) Reread the sentence with the clunk and the sentences
before or after the clunk looking for clues
(3) Look for a prefix or suffix in the word.
(4) Break the word apart and look for smaller words.
3. Get the Gist
a. What is the most important person, place, or thing?

b. What is the most important idea about the person, place or thing?
R E A D (Do Steps 2 and 3 again, with all the paragraphs or sections in

the passage.)
After Reading
4. Wrap Up
a. Ask Questions: What questions would show we understand the

most important information? What are the answers to those questions?
b. Review: What did we learn?
Sample Reading Strategies

(based on Auerbach and Paxton,1997)
Pre-Reading Strategies
Accessing prior knowledge
Writing your way into reading (Writing about your experiences related to the
topic)
Asking questions based on the title
Making predictions based on previewing
Identifying text structure
Skimming for the general idea
Reading the introduction and conclusion first
During Reading Strategies
Skipping unknown words; guessing from context
Predicting the main idea of each paragraph
Drawing pictures to show what you see in your mind’s eye
After Reading Strategies
Revising prereading expectations
Making an outline, chart, map, or diagram of the organization of the text
Retelling what you think the author is saying
Relating the text to your own experience
http://www.bnkst.edu/americareads/strategies.html
1- Characteristics of good, proficient readers

"Proficient readers are both Efficient and
Effective.
They are Effective in constructing meaning
throughout the reading process, and this meaning
bears some level of agreement with the original
meaning of the author.
They are Efficient in using the least amount of
effort to achieve effectiveness. To accomplish this
they maintain constant focus on constructing the
meaning throughout the process:
 they always seek the most direct path to
meaning;
 they always use strategies for reducing
uncertainty;
 they are always selective about the use of the
cues available and...
 they use their own knowledge about language
and their experiences to predict and construct
meaning as they read;
 they minimize dependence on visual detail.
Any reader's proficiency is variable, depending on
the semantic background brought by the reader to
any given reading task."
Kenneth Goodman (1988)
Skilled Readers:
Reflect on their reading processes:
Why are we reading this particular text?
What information do we need to glean from it?
How closely do we need to read?
Skilled readers practice, develop, and refine their reading over their lifetime.
2- Test taking strategies (& Study Skills)

4- SQRQCQ
Survey: quickly for a general idea or understanding of the problem
Question: What is the problem asking for?
Reread: to identify facts, relevant information, and details
Question: What mathematical operation(s) do I apply?
Compute: solve the problem
Question: Is the answer correct? Does the answer make sense?
5- Graphic Aids (tables, headings, bold print, graphs, charts,
cartoons and pictures)
& KWLChart
K•W•L
K What I KNOW
W What I WANT to learn
L What I LEARNED
It Begins with students‘ knowledge and ideas

It Provides reasons for learning
It Adds new information to knowledge base
It Involves students in learning
It Empowers students to create their own knowledge
a- Note taking
b- Outlining
c- Summarizing
d- Locating information
e- Retrieving information
7- Comprehension
Grade Levels of Reading Books- How Can You Tell?
http://www.stvrain.k12.co.us/ecel/read_for_meaning.html (excellent!)
3- The Text
1- Sight words
2- Phonics
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/phonic.html
3- Context clues: Students learn to quickly find the main idea by skimming and
surveying the text for headings, graphic materials, and terms in boldface that can
provide context clues.
5- Configuration/ Visual clues
6- Dictionary
It pays to be patient. Don't reach for the dictionary as soon as you see an unfamiliar
word. Read the whole sentence. The meaning of the unfamiliar word may become
obvious from context or you may conclude that you have comprehended enough not
to have to bother with looking it up. There is always a good chance that clues to a
word's meaning may appear later in the paragraph because writers often try to help
their readers understand by giving additional explanations, definitions, and
clarifications.
http://www.public.asu.edu/~ickpl/Reading_Strategies.htm
http://coe.fgcu.edu/faculty/ray/red/cstrategies.htm
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/rvocabindex.htm
7- Applying various forms of word recognition strategies to
text materials
http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/teach/
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/ldrp_chard_guidelines.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/article.php?ID=192
http://www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/digests/d126.html

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Page created on Jan. 13, 2001 | Last updated on Sep. 29, 2007
Copyright © 2001-2009 Nada Salem Abisamra
http://www,nadasisland.com/reading/
Nada's University Projects || Nada's Online Materials

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Writing || Teaching Idioms
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Education 324: "The Problems of Teaching Reading & Literature"

"Nada's ESL Island"

Teaching Second Language

Group for Discussions on Facebook: Nada's ESL Island.(Join us there!

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1- Networking (Dansereau et al., 1979)

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"Reading is a receptive language process.

1- Approaches to Teaching Reading

A- The Top Down (Concept-

The "top down" approach emphasizes

** This model starts with the hypotheses

** According to Goodman, readers employ

Insights that are foundational to this top-down model:

Impact of Goodman's model: (pp. 3, 23, 240)

Problems: (Stanovich, 1980)

Limitations of top-down models: (Eskey, 1988)

According to Weber (1984), a top-down model of reading

Top-Down Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 229-231)

These 2 approaches may be combined within a single

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B- The Bottom Up (Serial)

The "bottom up" approach stipulates that

- According to Eskey (1973), the decoding

Bottom-Up Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 231-236)

Footnote: If a text contains too many difficult words, no

Central to all these bottom-up concerns is the concept of

Bottom-Up Implications for the SL Classroom: (Carrell

Teachers must become aware of the cross-cultural

- if the words to be taught are key words in the target

Research specific to SL reading has shown that merely

To be effective, an extensive and long-term vocabulary

C- The Interactive Approach

For those reading theorists who

According to Rumelhart's interactive

According to Stanovich's interactive-

To properly achieve fluency and accuracy,

<=> Reading is a bi-directional process that

According to Joanne Devine (1988), one thing needs to be

ESL researchers should be interested in interactive

Implications of interactive models for ESL reading: (Grabe

Some implications of the interactive model of reading for

Some general implications for the teaching of second

In short, for second language readers, especially, both top-

Short Circuit Hypothesis:

The Importance of Vocabulary (Eskey & Grabe, p. 226)

Conclusion (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 228-229)

Language Competence & L2 Reading Proficiency

Text-Boundedness & Schema Interference (Carrell,

Text-Boundedness = overreliance on text-based or

What causes such unidirectional biases in text

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Methods & Approaches:

a- The Language Experience Approach (LEA)

"The Language Experience Approach (LEA) to teaching reading in English as a second

b- Extending Concepts Through Language Activities (ECOLA)

Setting a communication purpose for reading...

Developed by Stauffer, the DRTA is a group comprehension activity that features