23/4/21 1

What is reading？ Two types of reading practice ---- reading

aloud and silent reading The role of vocabulary in reading Model and principles for teaching reading Three stages in teaching reading

23/4/21 2

Reading ---- making sense of text Encoding and decoding: In communications and

information processing, encoding is the process by which information from a source is converted into symbols to be communicated. Decoding is the reverse process, converting these code symbols back into information understandable by a receiver.

23/4/21 3

Reading aloud Silent reading

Manner Utterance of every word Silent

Speed Usually slow Usually fast

Purposes Usually for sharing infor., for appreciation or memorization sometimes

For getting information and sometimes for pleasure

Skills involved Pronunciation and intonation

skimming, scanning, predicting, understanding references, making inferences, evaluating…

Form of activity Collective activity Individual activity

Level of difficulty …

Easy to manage as it can be observed and heard

Difficult to manage

23/4/21 4

Efficient reading begins with a lightening-like automatic recognition of words. (Day and Bamford, 1998)

For developing students' reading skills, the first obstacle is often the vocabulary. Therefore, at the beginning stage, it is important for teachers to realize that helping our students to expand their sight vocabulary is quite important. In other words, only when they are able to quickly recognize the English words that comes to their sight and make a connection between these words and their meanings, can they have space in their brain to process meaning as a whole. If they have difficulty processing every new word their short term memory will be fully occupied with all the individual words, therefore leaving no space for them to process meaning.

23/4/21 5

Sight vocabulary---- Words that you can recognize with both

sounds and meanings without special effort from your brain

The best way to develop vocabulary is to read a great deal since repetition of new words helps in changing newly learned words into sight vocabulary.

But remember, possessing a large sight vocabulary is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective reading comprehension.

23/4/21 6

Some principles for teaching reading (p.184)

Models for teaching readingBottom-upTop-down Interactive

23/4/21 7

Bottom-up model In teaching reading, the teacher basically

follows a linear process from the recognition of letters to words, to phrases, to sentences, to paragraphs, and then to the meaning of the whole text. This way of teaching is known to follow a bottom-up model.

23/4/21 8

Top-down model in teaching reading, the teacher teaches the

background knowledge first so that students equipped with such knowledge will be able to guess meaning from the printed page. This process of reading is said to follow the top-down model. Just as Goodman (1970) once said reading is “a psycholinguistic guessing game”.

23/4/21 9

Interactive model The current theory views reading as an

interactive process. That is to say, the brain receives visual information and at the same time, interprets or reconstructs the meaning the writer had in mind when he wrote the text. This process does not only involve the printed page but also the reader’s knowledge of the language in general, of the world, and of the text types. During the process of reading, all these factors interact with each other and compensate for each other.

One’s general knowledge about the world and about text types are known as schemas.

The schema theory:The basic principle behind the schema theory is that texts themselves, whether spoken or written, do not carry meaning. Rather they provide signposts, or clues to be utilized by listeners or readers in reconstructing the original meanings of speakers or writers. Reading comprehension is thus an interactive process between the reader and the text.

Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge. Comprehending words, sentences, and entire texts involves more than just relying on one’s linguistic knowledge. Every act of comprehension involves one’s knowledge of the world as well.

23/4/21 11

Pre-reading activities ---- Pooling together the existing knowledge about the topic, creating expectations (predicting contents) and arousing student’s interest about the topic

Predicting Predicting based on the title Predicting based on vocabulary Predicting based on T/F questions

Setting the scene Skimming Scanning

23/4/21 12

While-reading activities ---- focusing on the process of understanding Information transfer activitiesReading comprehension questionsUnderstanding referencesMaking inferences

23/4/21 13

Post-reading activitiesDiscussionRole-playRetellingGap-fillingWriting