THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRE-READING STAGE FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF READING SKILLS IN TEE STUDENTS

: 2008

Introduction Mark A. Clarke (1980) calls reading the most thoroughly studied and least understood process in education today'. In recent years though, the field of second and foreign language reading has been revitalised by changes in our understanding of the nature of the reading process. The focus in the teaching of reading has now shifted from the end product to the process the reader goes through when getting involved in a text and, nowadays, EFL teachers work towards that direction by putting emphasis on the reading process in order to create autonomous and confident readers. Goodman (1967) describes reading as a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguistic surface presentation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning which the reader constructs. There is thus an essential interaction between language and thought in reading, which means that reader based processes mingle with text driven processes to form the path to reading comprehension. This theoretic approach questions the notion of perfect comprehension and recognizes the possibility of multiple interpretations, treating reading as an open-ended process which brings in the readers subjectivity. The reader comes to the text with a set of expectations, drawn from his/her background knowledge and engages in inferences to be subsequently confirmed or disconfirmed during the actual reading. In practice, a good method of implementing these theoretic guidelines in the classroom is to look at the reading lesson in terms of three phases: pre-reading, while reading, and post-reading. The three phases offer the teacher a framework which can help him/her cut the whole reading procedure into manageable chunks and thus

overcome many problems in the process of reading, as there is gradual and hierarchical treatment of the text. More specifically, the aim of the pre-reading stage is to arouse interest in the topic by drawing on the learners knowledge of the world, share their opinion and generate relevant vocabulary. This preparation stage is carried out before learners have seen the actual text as is considered very crucial for the lessons outcome. In the whilereading phase the actual reading takes place for learners to understand the structure and content of the text and the writer's purpose and intended meaning. Finally, the postreading stage is intended to help learners consolidate and reflect upon what has been read. Although all the above mentioned phases should be evaluated and treated with the analogous respect and preparation in the reading lesson, there is a tendency among teachers practice to neglect or even omit the pre - reading stage. For some teachers this stage is seen as unimportant or of little value to the whole reading lesson and is neglected, unattended or restricted, to the advantage of the other two stages which have more to do with the actual text. The aim of this dissertation is to prove the crucial role of the first stage of the reading lesson, the pre reading stage, and show the great influence it can have in the reading comprehension process. Through this dissertation, it will become obvious that by simply providing learners with a text and asking them to read it, it is unlikely that the desired outcome will be achieved. Students will not engage in the reading process due to lack of motivation and a feeling of insecurity for the unknown text. On the contrary, if they are well prepared during the pre reading stage, by the use of different activities and various tasks, this will enhance their interest for the actual reading phase,

prepare them for what is to come and, consequently, it will contribute greatly to a better reading comprehension. In order to reach this conclusion certain theoretic guidelines will be followed and, then, based on practical research, I will try to implement them in practice in order to prove my point. The structure of the dissertation will be as follows: In Chapter 1 the general theory about reading will be presented, focusing on the main reading models (bottom-up, top-down and interactive), dealing with key issues such as reading skills and strategies, formal and content schemata, text as vehicle of information (TAVI) as opposed to text as linguistic object (TALO) and product versus process in reading. Furthermore, there will be reference to the problems that may arise in a reading lesson due to a more traditional approach, which may result in the lack of stages and more particularly of the pre-reading stage. Chapter 2 will also be theoretical but more specific, in the sense that the focus will be solely on theory about the pre-reading stage, its benefit for the learners and its importance in reading comprehension. I will present theory about what readers bring to the text, in relation to their background knowledge and refer to the relevant formal and content schemata theory. Furthermore, there will be an analysis of practical ways to implement the pre-reading stage and the tasks or activities that can be done during this specific stage along with the means, duration and anticipated outcomes. Chapter 3 will include a quantitative research based on questionnaires given to students of my class and teachers of English in order for them to state their opinion about the reading lesson in general, the difficulties that can arise, the lacks, the needs and preferences. Most importantly, through the questions I will emphasize on the prereading stage, ask students and teachers how much they value its contribution, what they expect to get from this stage and how they think it can be improved in order to

become more effective. Through gathering opinions, there will be some insight in the reading lessons, and the need for implementation of new practices will arise. Thus, my aim will be to prove the vital role of the pre-reading stage in reading comprehension and as a proposal suggest practical ways to make it more effective and successful as a stage. Through a well prepared pre-reading stage students will be benefited greatly and this will consequently lead to an overall successful reading lesson, better reading comprehension and finally more efficient readers. Chapter 4 will discuss the experimental design analytically based on the theoretical stance. The results of the questionnaires along with the theory about the prereading stage will be taken into account and put into practice in the classroom through five reading lessons based on the TEE coursebook. The lessons will be conducted differently than the coursebooks guidelines, laying emphasis on the pre-reading stage, which will become longer as a stage in order to better prepare students for what is to follow. All five lesson plans will be included and appended and all stages (while and post -, too) will be presented. The tasks of the pre-reading stage will be presented more analytically according to their underlying essence and purpose. Chapter 5 will present students reaction and response to such alteration of the reading lesson, will measure up their performance and whether it has improved according to the teachers and students impression. This will form the basis upon which certain conclusions will be drawn in relation to the pre-reading stage and its importance in reading comprehension. The outcome of the five novel lessons will be analyzed in order to reach a conclusion on the effect of the pre-reading stage. Last but not least, the strengths and weaknesses of this study will be mentioned along with suggestions for further research and teaching implementation.

Chapter 1 Research on reading in a second/foreign language and efforts to improve ESL/EFL reading instruction have grown remarkably over the last decades. contributing factor to that has certainly been the recognition that reading is probably the most important skill for second language learners in academic (and not only) contexts and is a necessary prerequisite for most types of communication in the foreign language (Carrell, 1989a; Lynch & Hudson 1991). Goodman (1967) has described reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game in which the reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display (1971:135). Goodman views this act of meaning construction as being an ongoing, cyclical process of sampling from the input text, predicting, testing and confirming or revising these predictions. Thus, from a psycholinguistic viewpoint reading is a problem solving behavior that actively involves the reader in the process of deriving and assigning meaning. While doing so the reader is drawing on contextual information that contains semantic and discourse constraints which affect interpretation (Cziko 1978:472-89; F. Smith 1971). Coady (1979) has elaborated on this basic psycholinguistic model and has suggested a model in which the EFL readers background knowledge interacts with conceptual abilities (intellectual capacity) and process strategies, more or less successfully, to produce comprehension. Nuttall (1982:10) adds that reading is not just an active process, but an interactive one. That means that reading is not simply looking at what has been written, translating graphemes to phonemes and reading aloud but rather understanding what has been written, interpreting visual information and extracting meaning from writing in relation to ones existing knowledge.

Furthermore, Penny Ur (1996) defines reading as reading and understanding. A foreign language learner who says I can read the words but I dont know what they mean is no, therefore, reading in this sense. He or she is merely decoding translating written symbols into corresponding sounds (1996:138). As Williams (1984:2) put it the key word is understand merely reading aloud without understanding does not count as reading. In the reading process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as he/she tries to understand and elicit the meaning by using two kinds of knowledge, linguistic knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top-down processing). All these show that the nature of reading is complex. Its not just pronouncing words correctly but reading in a meaningful way, getting something from the text, understanding its aim, working on it interactively and developing integrated skills. It is not simply a matter of taking out (information, opinion, enjoyment) it also involves contributing (attitudes, experience and prior knowledge). A text may therefore be seen as a focus for an interactive relationship between the writers reality and the readers reality. The most recent model of reading, the interactive one, combines top-down and bottom-up processes. In the bottom up view, the reader works from information provided initially by letter and word recognition, later using higher level cues to build up an understanding of the writers message. This is also known as data driven model, because the process is based principally on perceptual information. On the other hand, there are the top down models, regarded as concept driven, where the process is based principally on conceptual information. According to David E. Eskey (1988), the interactive model does not presuppose the primacy of bottom up or top down processing skills but rather posits a constant interaction between bottom up and topdown processing in reading, each source of information contributing to a

comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text. Good reading that is, fluent and accurate reading can result only from a constant interaction between these processes. Eskey defines interactive referring to the interaction between information obtained by means of bottom up decoding and information provided by means of topdown analysis, both of which depend on certain kinds of prior knowledge and certain kinds of information processing skills. William Grabe (1991) mentions that, in general the term interactive approach can refer to two different conceptions. First, it can refer to general interaction which takes place between the reader and the text. Second, the term can refer to the interaction of many component skills potentially in simultaneous operation. The interaction of these cognitive skills leads to fluent reading comprehension. Thus, reading involves both lower-level rapid automatic identification skills and higher-level comprehension/interpretation skills (Carrell 1988b; 1989a; Esken, 1986; Esken & Grabe, 1988).

This learner-centered approach gives focus to the process of reading rather than to the product of reading, and seeks to foster self-reliance and independence of the reader rather than teacher-dependence, as in the case of previous, older approaches. Through this modern approach learners can become more strategic readers and can cultivate life-long reading habits instead of employing solely short-term reading strategies. This is done because the emphasis throughout this approach is on the conceptual frame of content and students personal response to it, by means of using the text as vehicle of information (TAVI), rather that as a linguistic object (TALO). Johns and Davies (1983) make an important distinction between what they call TALO (text as linguistic object) and TAVI (text as vehicle for information). In TALO the text is a carrier for the teaching of language, grammar, vocabulary, but contributes very little to

the development of learners reading skills. TAVI approach adopts the notion of topictype (Davies 1982 & 1983), as a basis for analyzing the semantic content of texts and this provides a framework for classroom interaction, group work or pair work before, during and after the reading of the actual text. TAVI aims at the development of generalizable and transferable strategies of meaning reconstruction and helps readers become autonomous, competent and efficient while working towards successful reading comprehension. The mix of skills and knowledge (bottom up and top down) will naturally vary from reader to reader, but the model can account for and accommodate this. So, an interactive model of reading assumes that skills at all levels are interactively available to process and interpret the text. This model incorporates the implications of reading as an interactive process, that is, the use of background knowledge, expectations and context and simultaneous recognition of letters and words. According to Rumelhart (1977) and Hill and Larson (1983), the reader starts with the perception of graphic cues, but as soon as these are recognized as familiar, schemata derived from both linguistic knowledge of the world in general are brought into play. As previously mentioned, efficient and effective foreign language reading requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating interactively (Rumelhart, 1977, 1980; Sanford and Garrod 1981; Eskey and Grabe 1986; Carrell 1988). In practice, vocabulary development and word recognition have been recognized as crucial to successful bottom up decoding skills. Unlike traditional views of vocabulary, current theories converge on the notion that a given word does not have a fixed meaning, but rather has a variety of meanings around a prototypical core and that these meanings interact with context and background knowledge. Thus, knowledge of vocabulary entails knowledge of the schemata in which a concept participates. As a

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result, an important part of teaching background knowledge is teaching the vocabulary related to it and conversely, teaching vocabulary also means teaching new concepts, new knowledge, new schemata. Through this process, the readers old knowledge of the world and long-term memory is triggered and stimulated to bring forth the appropriate schema for the relevant situation. A schema, as defined by Williams and Moran (1989:217) is an abstract structure representing concepts stored in memory or according to Anderson and Pearson (1988:39) an active organization of past reactions or past experience. The activation of the proper schema prior and during the reading process is a crucial step towards comprehension. Hudson (1982) found that schema production, that is, top-down processing, is very much implicated in foreign language reading and that schemata can override language proficiency as a factor in comprehension. That means a slight emphasis should be given on teaching techniques and strategies which can help students make more effective use of the top down processing mode, by activating background knowledge based on the schema theory. The greater the background knowledge a reader has of a texts content area, the better the reader will comprehend the text (Pearson, Hansen and Gordon 1979; Taylor 1979; Stevens 1980). The notion of prior knowledge influencing reading comprehension suggests that meaning does not rest solely in the printed word but that the reader brings certain knowledge to the reading that influences comprehension. In other words, meaning is not inherent in the text; readers bring their own meaning to what they read based on what they expect from the text and their previous knowledge. It is the interaction of these existing concepts with the new information provided by a reading text that is said to constitute what we refer to as comprehension and it is that active participation of the learners mind in the form of schema activation which is essential for comprehension to

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be achieved. As Anderson et al (1977:369) put it every act of comprehension involves ones knowledge of the world as well. Schema theory research (P. Carrell and Eisterhold) has shown the importance of background knowledge within a psycholinguistic model of reading, placing the readers in the centre of the process. The readers have to use their culture-specific background knowledge, and not only their linguistic competence, in order to get the meaning from a text. This background knowledge will enable the student to comprehend a text at a reasonable rate and keep him involved in the written material in spite of its syntactic difficulty (Coady 1979: 12). This knowledge coupled with the ability to make linguistic predictions, determines the expectations the readers will develop prior to reading and as they read. Indeed comprehending words, sentences and entire texts involves more than just relying on ones linguistic knowledge. Zhang (1993) compares comprehension process to hypothesis testing, where the reader arrives at the main idea after revising the initial hypothesis, provided the reader has adequate background knowledge. This means that foreign language readers may stumble on cultural references, which first language readers take for granted, and this can create impediments in their process of comprehension. Foreign language readers may sometimes fail to understand a text, even though they have adequate vocabulary knowledge, just because they cannot link what they are reading to something they already know. As Anderson notes without some schema into which it can be assimilated, an experience is incomprehensible, and therefore, little can be learnt from it (1977: 429). At this point it is useful to draw a distinction between formal schemata which have to do with background knowledge of the format, rhetorical organizational structures of different types of texts, and content schemata, relating to the background

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knowledge of the content area of a text (Carrell 1983b, Carrell and Eisterhord 1988:79). According to Williams and Moran (1989:217) a similar concept to that of a content schema is script, as the term has been used (by Schank and Anderson to 1977) to describe the patterns though which the various routines of everyday life come to be associated with. Orasanu (1986) explicates the notion of schema which can be thought of as a framework containing slots to be filled by incoming text information. For example, if a reader is presented with a text about going on vacation, he or she would likely have a slot in the vacation schema for packing a suitcase. Text statements about folding clothes or carrying bags could then fill the slot. If a reader did not have a vacation schema with a suitcase-packing slot the information about clothes and bags might not be readily understood (p. 118). Carrell (1984b, 1987) and Carrell & Eisherhold (1983) have investigated thoroughly the usefulness of the notion of schema theory for second language reading and have found that activating content information plays a major role in students comprehension and recall of information from text, especially for less proficient students, who need support both at a word and content level. As Patricia L. Carrell (1983b) puts it, we must strive for an optimum balance between the background knowledge presupposed by the texts our students read and the background knowledge our students actually possess. Carrell (1986b) has also argued that a lack of schema activation is one major source of processing difficulty with second foreign language readers.

All the above mentioned theory has some implications in the teaching practice. It becomes obvious that teachers must use a balanced approach to teaching reading by incorporating both top - down and bottom - up processes and prepare the students for

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what they will encounter in terms of content and language. The immediate goal of EFL reading teachers should be to minimize reading difficulties and to maximize comprehension by providing all the necessary, linguistically and culturally relevant information, in order to avoid having students read material cold. The reading teacher can play a crucial role in the students developing (or failing to develop) foreign language reading skills and can have a major effect on whether students will perform successfully in the reading lesson. It is the teacher who must create the world of reading in a class, stimulate interest in reading, project his or her enthusiasm, make the subject matter appealing and help students realize the real value of reading. It is also the teacher who must choose, modify or create appropriate materials for students with varied needs and purposes to ensure their improvement in reading. The teacher must also introduce and provide practice in useful reading strategies for coping with texts in a foreign, unfamiliar language. Furthermore, it is the teacher who must provide students with feedback and serve as an all-purpose reference tool to resolve uncertainties and help readers work towards the ultimate goal of acquiring proper reading habits. From all the above, it becomes obvious that, nowadays foreign language reading teachers face many challenges in the classroom. Teaching students how to utilize the skills and knowledge that they bring from their first language, developing vocabulary skills, teaching reading strategies and improving reading comprehension are some of the elements that teachers must consider in preparing for an EFL reading class. According to William Grabe (1991), reading instruction should be taught in the context of a content-centered, integrated skills manner. This should be done because content provides learner with motivation and purposeful activities. Further more, specific skills and strategies should be given high priority depending on the educational

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context, students needs and teaching objectives. These elements should not be disregarded by the teacher during a reading lesson. One way of facilitating a readers interaction with the text and providing orientation to context and content is through various kinds of text-related tasks. The idea that there are three main types of reading activity, those which precede presentation of the text, those which accompany it, and those which follow it, is now a common feature of discourse about reading (Wallace 1992; Wallace 1988; Williams 1984). For this reason, to establish a purpose and achieve its aims, a reading lesson should be planned in a pre-, while and post reading framework, in order to build background knowledge, practice reading skills within the reading texts themselves and engage in comprehensive instruction. In a pre-, while and post reading framework embodying the TAVI method, where the text concentrates on information rather than language, on overall meaning rather than points of detail, the activities undertaken before the text is handled are of crucial importance. These activities work towards the text and act as direction-finders, awakening interest, establishing the purpose for which the text is to be read, the sort of information that may be found in it and the value that information that may have for students. In other words, the pre-reading stage supplies something like the situational context and helps students get into the mood for dealing with the text successfully. For the foreign language reader who is often insecure, pre-reading strategies are even more important than they are for the native reader and the teacher must therefore coach the students in their use. Thus, the pre-reading stage, if conducted in a serious manner, provides a crucial information basis for the next stages of the reading lesson (that is the while and the post) and creates the conditions for a successful reading lesson.

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Unfortunately, while most teachers implement the pre- while and post-reading phase in their lessons, many of them do not acknowledge the vital role of the prereading stage and in practice- they tend to devote less time than necessary or even omit it completely, urging students to deal directly with the text without any previous preparation. In the absence of any preparatory activities, students are left on their own devices in the most important activity of all: the puzzling out of what the text means. This inevitably makes them feel unprepared and, thus, insecure. For this reason emphasis should be put in the pre-reading stage as it is an integral part of the reading lesson which prepares learners for what is to come, gives them the basis to build upon and vastly influences the final outcome of the reading lesson. In the Chapter that follows the value and virtues of the pre-reading stage are presented and analyzed.

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