Theories of
Reading
The first part
of this section will look at some of the shifts and trends in theories relating
to reading. The second part will examine tips and guidelines for implementing a
theory of reading which will help to develop our learner's abilities.
Just like teaching
methodology, reading theories have had their shifts and transitions. Starting
from the traditional view which focused on the printed form of a text and
moving to the cognitive view that enhanced the role of background knowledge in
addition to what appeared on the printed page; they ultimately culminated in
the met cognitive view which is now in vogue. It is based on the control and
manipulation that a reader can have on the act of comprehending a text.
The traditional
view
According to
Dole et al. (1991), in the traditional view of reading, novice readers acquire
a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially build toward
comprehension ability. Having mastered these skills, readers are viewed as
experts who comprehend what they read. Readers are passive recipients of
information in the text. Meaning resides in the text and the reader has to
reproduce meaning.
According to
Nunan (1991), reading in this view is basically a matter of decoding a series
of written symbols into their aural equivalents in the quest for making sense
of the text. He referred to this process as the 'bottom-up' view of reading.
McCarthy (1999) has called this view 'outside-in' processing; referring to the
idea that meaning exists in the printed page and is interpreted by the reader
then taken in.
This model of
reading has almost always been under attack as being insufficient and defective
for the main reason that it relies on the formal features of the language,
mainly words and structure.
Although it is
possible to accept this rejection for the fact that there is over-reliance on
structure in this view, it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic
features is also necessary for comprehension to take place. To counteract
over-reliance on form in the traditional view of reading, the cognitive view
was introduced.
The cognitive
view
The 'top-down'
model is in direct opposition to the 'bottom-up' model. According to Nunan
(1991) and Dubin and Bycina (1991), the psycholinguistic model of reading and
the top-down model are in exact concordance.
Goodman (1967;
cited in Paran, 1996) presented reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game, a
process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject
them, make new hypotheses, and so forth. Here, the reader rather than the text
is at the heart of the reading process.
The schema
theory of reading also fits within the cognitively based view of reading.
Rumelhart (1977) has described schemata as "building blocks of
cognition" which are used in the process of interpreting sensory data, in
retrieving information from memory, in organizing goals and sub goals, in
allocating resources, and in guiding the flow of the processing system.
Rumelhart (1977)
has also stated that if our schemata are incomplete and do not provide an
understanding of the incoming data from the text we will have problems
processing and understanding the text.
Cognitively
based views of reading comprehension emphasize the interactive nature of
reading and the constructive nature of comprehension. Dole et al. (1991) have
stated that, besides knowledge brought to bear on the reading process, a set of
flexible, adaptable strategies are used to make sense of a text and to monitor
ongoing understanding.
The metacognitive
view
According to
Block (1992), there is now no more debate on "whether reading is a
bottom-up, language-based process or a top-down, knowledge-based process."
It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge
on both L1 and L2 readers. Research has gone even further to define the control
readers execute on their ability to understand a text. This control, Block
(1992) has referred to as metacognition.
Metacognition
involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Klein et al. (1991)
stated that strategic readers attempt the following while reading:
Identifying
the purpose of the reading before reading
Identifying
the form or type of the text before reading
Thinking about
the general character and features of the form or type of the text. For
instance, they try to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details
toward a conclusion
Projecting the
author's purpose for writing the text (while reading it),
Choosing,
scanning, or reading in detail
Making
continuous predictions about what will occur next, based on information
obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous
stages.
Moreover, they
attempt to form a summary of what was read. Carrying out the previous steps
requires the reader to be able to classify sequence, establish whole-part
relationships, compare and contrast, determine cause-effect, summarize,
hypothesize and predict, infer, and conclude.
Conclusion
In the second
part of this article I will look at the guidelines which can also be used as
general ideas to aid students in reading and comprehending materials. These
tips can be viewed in three consecutive stages: before reading, during reading,
and after reading. For instance, before starting to read a text it is natural
to think of the purpose of reading the text. As an example of the
during-reading techniques, re-reading for better comprehension can be
mentioned. And filling out forms and charts can be referred to as an
after-reading activity. These tasks and ideas can be used to enhance reading
comprehension.
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