Introduction
eading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or
deriving meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language
acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a
complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the
reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which
is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous
practices, development, and refinement.
Readers
use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate
symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may
use morpheme, semantics, and syntax and context
clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words
they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema.
What is Reading?
Most of us think
of reading as a simple, passive process that involves reading words in a linear
fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time. But reading is actually
a very complex process that requires a great deal of active participation on
the part of the reader.
To get a better
sense of the complexity of reading, read what some experts in the field have
said about the reading process:
Reading is asking
questions of printed text. And reading with comprehension becomes a matter of
getting your questions answered.
- Frank Smith in Reading without Nonsense (1997)
Reading is a
psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction between thought and
language. Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and
identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most
productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time.
The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in
reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital
in listening. - Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist (1967)
Literacy
practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted
as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction,
values, and beliefs.
- James
Gee in Social Linguistics and Literacies (1996)
As we can see,
reading involves many complex skills that have to come together in order for
the reader to be successful. For example, proficient readers recognize the
purpose for reading, approach the reading with that purpose in mind, use
strategies that have proven successful to them in the past when reading similar
texts for similar purposes, monitor their comprehension of the text in light of
the purpose for reading, and if needed adjust their strategy use. Proficient
readers know when unknown words will interfere with achieving their purpose for
reading, and when they won't. When unknown words arise and their meaning is
needed for comprehension, proficient readers have a number of word attack
strategies available to them that will allow them to decipher the meaning of
the words to the extent that they are needed to achieve the purpose for
reading. Reading is also a complex process in that proficient readers give to
the text as much as they take. They make meaning from the text by using their
own prior knowledge and experiences. Proficient readers are constantly making
predictions while reading. They are continuously anticipating what will come
next. Their prior knowledge and experiences with texts as well as with the
world around them allow them to do this. It is this continuous interaction with
the text that allows readers to make sense of what they are reading.
Types of Reading
Several types of reading may occur in a
language classroom. One way in which these may be categorized, as suggested by
Brown (1989) can be outlined as follows:
Intensive Reading
Activities
Intensive reading exercises may include:
Ø looking at
main ideas versus details
Ø understanding
what is implied versus stated
Ø making inferences
Ø looking at the
order of information and how it effects the message
Ø identifying words
that connect one idea to another
Ø identifying words
that indicate change from one section to another
Munby (1979) suggests four categories of questions that
may be used in intensive reading. These include:
1. Plain Sense - to understand the factual, exact
surface meanings in the text
2. Implications - to make inferences and become
sensitive to emotional tone and figurative language
3. Relationships of thought - between
sentences or paragraphs
4. Projective - requiring the integration of
information from the text to one's own background information
Role of the teacher
Ø The teacher
chooses suitable text.
Ø The teacher
chooses tasks and activities to develop skills.
Ø The teacher gives
direction before, during and after reading.
Ø The teacher
prepares students to work on their own. Often the most difficult part is for
the teacher to "get out of the way" .
Ø The teacher
encourages students through prompts, without giving answers.
Advantages
Ø It
provides a base to study structure, vocabulary and idioms.
Ø It
provides a base for students to develop a greater control of language
Ø It
provides for a check on the degree of comprehension for individual students
Disadvantages
Ø There is little
actual practice of reading because of the small amount of text.
Ø In a
class with multi-reading abilities, students may not be able to read at
their own level because everyone in the class is reading the same material.
Ø The text may or
may not interest the reader because it was chosen by the teacher.
Ø There is little
chance to learn language patterns due to the small amount of text.
Ø Because exercises
and assessment usually follow intensive reading, students may come to associate
reading with testing and not pleasure.
Extensive Reading
Ø Brown (1989)
explains that extensive reading is carried out "to achieve a general
understanding of a text."
Ø Long and Richards
(1971, p.216) identify extensive reading as "occurring when students read
large amounts of high interest material, usually out of class, concentrating on
meaning, "reading for gist" and skipping unknown words."
Ø The aims of
extensive reading are to build reader confidence and enjoyment.
Ø Extensive reading
is always done for the comprehension of main ideas, not for specific details.
Historical
Perspective Extensive Reading
Harold Palmer (1917) in Britain and Michael West (1926) in India were
the first to pioneer the theory of extensive reading as an approach to foreign
language teaching and to reading, in particular. Palmer chose the term
"extensive reading" to distinguish it from "intensive
reading".
Ø The 1929 Coleman
Report on "Modern Foreign Language Study", introducing the Reading Method,
recommended the inclusion of extensive reading in its Method (as distinct from
inclusive reading).
- Students were to read in the second language without
a conscious effort to translate.
- Emphasis was
placed on developing independent silent reading and increasing reading rate of individual
students.
- Frequency word
counts were developed and used as a basis for graded readers.
Ø Broughton (1978)
argued for the important role Extensive Reading could play in second
language programs.
Ø Nuttall (1982)
wrote that the idea of Extensive Reading should be "standard
practice" in second language learning. She suggested the following
"slogan": "The best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign
language is to go and live among the speakers. The next best way is to read
extensively." (p.168)
Ø Krashen (1984)
supported Extensive Reading because he felt it automatically gave rise to
competence in writing. In 1993, he termed it "free voluntary
reading".
Ø Krashen (1995)
argued that 'free voluntary reading" could be used a "bridge"
from communicative language
competence to academic language competence.
Ø David Eskey
(1995) drew the analogy of reading instruction to teaching swimming strokes to
people who hated the water. It would be only through their discovery of the
rewards of reading by actually doing it, that they would become people that can
and do read.
Ø Elley
(1996), in his report on a study involving 210,000 students and 10,000
teachers in 32 educational systems around the world, concluded that "instructional
programs that stress teacher directed drills and skills are less
beneficial in raising literacy levels than programs that try to capture
students' interest and encourage them to read independently."
Ø Dupre's research
(1997) in French supported the theory that Extensive Reading is more
pleasurable and beneficial for language acquisition than grammar instruction
and practice.
Ø Nuttal (1998)
argued the case for Extensive Reading programs citing research studies that
showed “impressive" gains in reading ability, motivation and
attitude, and overall linguistic competence. There was also evidence of gains
in vocabulary and spelling.
Ø
Although research strongly suggests that extensive reading
can boost second language acquisition, few second language learners engage in
voluntary reading at their own initiative, (i.e. Reluctant Readers) and
require guidance in the form of Extensive Reading programs.
Background theory
Several theories come into play in
Extensive Reading:
- Krashen's Input
Hypothesis (1982) made a
distinction between acquisition and learning. For Krashen, the dominant mode of
language learning is in acquisition, the
largely subconscious "picking up of the language" which characterizes
language in informal settings and which is similar, if not identical, to the
way children develop ability in their first language." (p.10)
Language acquisition represents unconscious learning which takes place when
attention is focused on meaning rather than form. In order to acquire language,
Krashen suggested the learner must be exposed to large amounts of second
language input that was "meaningful”, interesting, relevant, not
grammatically sequenced, and in a low anxiety setting. It is felt
that Extensive Reading programs provide such an environment.
- The L1=L2 Hypothesis suggests that second language
learning, like the first, follows a highly predictable pattern. If the
conditions of first language acquisition are approximated by extensive second
language reading, the second language learner can achieve native like
competence in a classroom. An extension of this suggests that reading for
pleasure from appropriate second language texts provides subconscious and progressively
more difficult second language input much like that essential for first
language acquisition.
- Rumelhart (1980)
proposed an "interactive
model" of the reading process in
which reading is a complex task of simultaneously combining
"bottom-up" processes (in which the reader analyzes text in small
pieces and builds meaning from these) and "top-down" processes (in
which the reader makes "guesses" about the content of a passage). It
is thought that Extensive Reading programs provide the quantities of
reading practice necessary for the automaticity of the "bottom-up"
(word recognition) process.
Characteristics:
Day and Bamford (1980) put forward ten
characteristics identified in successful Extensive Reading Programs. They
are duplicated (in abbreviated form) below:
1. Students read as
much as possible.
2. A variety of
materials on a range of topics is available.
3. Students select
what they want to read.
4. The purposes of
reading are usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding.
5. Reading is its
own reward.
6. Reading materials
are well within the linguistic competence of the students in terms of
vocabulary and grammar.
7. Reading is
individual and silent.
8. Reading speed is
usually faster than slower.
9. Teachers orient
students to the goals of the program.
10. The teacher is a
role model of a reader for the students.
Bell (2001), in his article "Extensive Reading : What
is it? Why bother?" gives ten pieces of practical advice on running
Extensive Reading programs.
Materials:
With demands for both simplicity and authenticity,
the teacher must choose from the following:
Graded Readers available by major publishers (e.g... Cambridge
University Press, Heinemann, Oxford and Penguin
- These are readers
with specific levels of word frequency and idiom counts and the introduction of
new vocabulary at a planned rate.
- Broughton (1978)
favors using graded readers where less than one word in every hundred is
unfamiliar.
- These are a good
choice for students whose second language proficiency makes it difficult for
them to read texts written for native speakers.
Texts on the same topic Reading more than one text
on the same topic allows students to bring more background knowledge to
each new text read.
Authentic materials such as newspapers, magazines that
are related to the second language culture
Web resources
These should we chosen from suggestions by the teacher so
that students do not choose those that are too overwhelming
Stories and articles chosen by the teacher, with the
following guidelines:
1. The style should
include repetition, without being monotonous.
2. New vocabulary
should not occur at the same place as difficulties of structure.
3. The text should
break in sections that are not too long. This is to give the reader a feeling
of accomplishment when completed.
4. Authors should be
chosen with less complex structure and less extensive vocabulary range.
5. The subject
matter should be of real interest to the students and suitable
for their age level. Rivers (1981) suggests the subject matter should be as
close as possible to the type of material the students would read in their
first language.
Some thought may be given to socio-cultural issues. Should
there be an attempt to match materials to students' cultural background?
Students bring different knowledge of text types from their first language. Is
it feasible to include these in the materials?
Annotated reading lists are available, suggesting books
that can be read for pleasure and a minimum of frustration for new
language learners. Books that are recommended for English as a Second Language
include the following:
-Brown, D.S. (1988) A World of Books: An Annotated Reading
List for ESL/EFL Students (2nd Ed.) Washington, DC: Teachers of English to
Speakers of Other Languages.
-Brown, D.S. (1994) Books
for a Small Planet: A Multicultural-Intercultural Bibliography from Young Young
English Learners. Alexandria, VA:
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
Materials should be chosen that are at or below the reading ability of the student. They are usually at a
lower level of difficulty than those chosen for intensive reading. This is for
several reasons:
1. It builds
automatic recognition of words
2. It allows the
reader to see words in "chunks" of language, allowing for faster
reading.
Activities
that may occur:
- Reading may be
combined with a speaking component. For example, they may interview each other about
their reading.
- Reading may be
combined with a writing component. For example, after reading the
newspaper, students may be asked to write a newspaper report.
- Class time may be
included for book exchange, if there is an in-class library.
- Students may set
their own goals for their next session.
- Students may progress from reading graded reading
material to authentic text. It should be expected that students will "slow
down" in their reading then, it becomes more challenging.
Role of Teacher
- The teacher gives
recommendations on reading materials, based on student's interests.
- The teacher
guides students in choosing appropriate levels of material, beginning with easy
books.
- The teacher
guides students in choosing a variety of materials of their interest. This
may especially be necessary for students that choose the same type over
and over.
- The teacher
guides students in setting specific goals for amounts read.
- The teacher provides
modeling. If class time is given for reading, the teacher reads at the same
time.
- The teacher
overlooks if students are not aware of the exact meaning of each word.
The teacher should not jump in and explain.
- The teacher leads
pre-reading activities to build interest in the text, such as in the
characters, places, themes, and actions. The teacher must be careful to provide
just enough to stimulate curiosity but not so much that the need to read
is removed.
Role of Student
- The student
assumes total responsibility for developing reading ability.
- The student reads
without the use of a dictionary.
- The student
usually chooses their own material and moves along at their own pace but
must push themselves in order to show greater progress.
Advantages
- The students may:
- develop a "reading habit"
- gain more confidence in reading
- improve their attitude towards reading and become more
motivated to read
- feel more autonomous over their own learning and
more likely to take more initiative.
- become more " independent readers", being
able to read for different purposes and being able to change reading strategies
for different kinds of texts
- become more aware of what's available to them to read and
how to access materials
- expand sight vocabulary
- acquire
"incidental" grammatical competence - that is, it may be acquired
even though it was not directly taught
- build background
knowledge
- increase reading comprehension
- improve overall language competence
- be more prepared for further academic courses because they
have read large quantities
- An Extensive
Reading program may be combined with writing or combined with speaking practice
in a meaningful way (such as when students discuss with each other the books
they have been reading.
- Broughton (1978)
suggested that "It is by pursuing the activity of extensive reading
that the volume of practice necessary to achieve rapid and efficient reading
can be achieved." (p.92)
- Krashen (1993a)
suggested that the benefits of free voluntary reading included "enhanced
language acquisition and literacy development, more ideas and information,
greater success in life, loss of verbal memory, and more fun."
Challenges:
- An Extensive
Reading program may be costly and time-consuming to set up if materials are not
already available. It may be difficult to get support from
Administration.
- Students need to
have easy access to texts within their language proficiency level. An Extensive
Reading program is easiest to establish when the students have a high level of
second language proficiency. For intermediate levels, students require a specialized
library within their language proficiency range. They need texts they can read
without great use of a dictionary.
- It may be
difficult to keep students challenged to read more difficult texts as the
program continues. Some established programs use a "weighing scale"
for students to record materials read, giving more "marks" for
materials read at a higher level. Although this has proven to be a motivating
or competitive factor in some cases, in others it becomes counter-productive if
students try to read texts that are more difficult than they can manage and
consequently become discouraged.
- Reading each
student's journals and reports can be very time-consuming for teachers.
- Students who come
from a culture in which literacy is not valued may be unwilling to participate
in pleasure reading or may not get support at home.
- Some teachers
prefer a skill based program and do not feel comfortable with Extensive
Reading.
- Some teachers are
unaware of how to use Graded Readers and so, provide a limited range of
activities for students, limiting their responses.
- Some teacher feel
that time spent on Extensive Reading will take away from time that could be
spent on learning language skills. Others will argue that Extensive Reading
provides a "richer context" for practice.
- Some people feel
that if graded readers are used, they can give a false impression of the level
of reading that has been achieved. They feel that some students may try
"ungraded" materials too soon and may revert to using a
dictionary to translate.
- Some people feel
that students may place too much emphasis on the number of pages read instead
of on the understanding achieved.
- Students that
have only been exposed to Intensive Reading programs may not believe that Extensive
Reading is a “proper" way to learn.
- Aeberscold (1997)
reported that feedback from students in an Extensive Reading program indicated
that they liked the "choice" but not the "load"
Scanning
- Scanning is a
quick reading, focusing on locating specific information.
- Scanning involves
quick eye movements, not necessarily linear in fashion, in which the eyes
wander until the reader finds the piece of information needed.
- Scanning is used
when a specific piece of information is required, such as a name, date, symbol, formula,
or phrase, is required. The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows
when he has located what he was searching for. It is assumed then, that
very little information is processed into long-term memory or even for
immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching.
When it is used
- Scanning is used
often with technical, scientific or professional materials to locate specific
information.
- Scanning is a
valuable skill for second language learners to develop because often they do
not require a detailed read of a text. There are many everyday uses for
scanning, relevant to a purpose, such as reading a schedule.
Role of Teacher
- The teacher
selects passages that do include specific information.
- The teacher may
use authentic materials that are commonly scanned in real life, such as the telephone
directory, menus, bus schedules.
- The teacher may
ask students before they scan a text to note how the information is organized
in the text.
- The teacher needs
to remind students that as they read carefully to find the required
information, they should pay particular attention to titles and keywords.
Role of the
Student
- The student forms
questions before reading. What specific information are they looking for?
- The student looks
for contextual clues. The student tries to anticipate what the answer might
look like and what sorts of clues would be useful.
- The student is
aware of the graphic form that the answer may take, such as a numeral, a
written number, a capitalized word or a short phrase that includes key words.
Activities
Ø Activities may
include exercises that are devised by the teacher in which students scan for a
single word or specific text.
Ø Activities may
include exercises that are often carried on as a competition so students will
work quickly.
Ø Students use
skills of prediction and anticipation. Students may do any of the following:
- make predictions
and guesses
- use titles and
tables of contents to get an idea of what a passage is about activate prior knowledge about the topic of
the passage by answering some questions or performing a quiz
- anticipate what
they want to learn about the top
- use titles,
pictures, and prior knowledge to anticipate the contents of the text
- use key words,
that may have been given to them by the teacher, that do not appear in the
text, that allude to the main idea
- It is an accepted
view today that efficient readers are not passive. They react with a text by
having expectations and ideas about the purposes of the text as well as
possible outcomes. They reflect on expectations as they read, anticipate what
will come next. In other words, they "interact with the text".
- Skimming is a
quick reading to get:
- to know the
general meaning of a passage
- to know how the
passage is organized, that is, the structure of the text
- to get an idea of
the intention of the writer
- Skimming is a
more complex task than scanning because it requires the reader to organize and
remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it.
- Skimming is a
tool in which the author's sequence can be observed, unlike scanning in which
some predetermined information is sought after.
When it is used
- Skimming is used
when reading some general question in mind.
- Skimming is used
in making decisions on how to approach a text such as when determining if
a careful reading is deserving.
- Skimming is used
to build student confidence and an understanding that it is possible to gain
meaning without reading every word in a text.
- Skimming is used
as part of the SQ3R method of reading, often for speed reading. This method involves
the student in surveying, questioning, reading, reviewing and reciting. Skimming is used for the initial survey and for review.
- Skimming is a
skill that a student may want to develop if they are planning to continue
with academic studies. It is often used in reviewing for a test.
Role of the teacher
Ø Before the
students start reading, the teacher should guide students to ask themselves the
following questions:
- What kind of
audience was the text written for? Was it, for example, the general public,
technical readers, or academic students?
- What type of text
is it? Is it, for example, a formal letter, an advertisement, or a set of
instructions?
- What was the
author's purpose? Was it, for example, to persuade, to inform or
to instruct?
- The teacher
should make the following clear to students before assigning a skimming
exercise:
- the purpose of
the exercise
- how deeply the
text is to be read
Role of the
student
- Students read through the text in the following manner:
- Read the title if
any.
- Read the
introduction or the first paragraph.
- Read the first
sentence of each of the following paragraphs.
- Read any headings
or sub-headings.
- Look at any
pictures or phrases that are in boldface or italics
- Read the summary
or last paragraph.
Activities
- Students must
locate facts that are expressed in sentences, not single words.
- Although speed is
essential and the teacher often sets a time limit to the activity, skimming
should not be done competitively. Students should be encouraged individually to
better themselves.
- To improve
skimming, readers should read more and more rapidly, to form appropriate
questions and predictions and then read quickly
- Pugh (1978)
suggests that to assess skimming, after the students have read and completed
the assigned questions, further questions may be asked, "beyond the scope
of the purpose originally set" (p.70). If students can answer these
questions correctly, it indicates they have read the text too
closely.
Conclusion
From the above topic we can say that Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or
deriving meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language
acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a
complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the
reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which
is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous
practices, development, and refinement.
Bibliography
- http://extensivereading.net
- http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/97/may/extensive.html
- Narayan Swamy K.R.
(1969) Reading Comprehension at college level, CIEFL, Hyderabad.
- Natraj S. (1989), Group Method Techniques for English
Language Instruction, Vallabh
- Nuttall, Christine (1982) Teaching
reading skills in a foreign language, London: Heinemann Educational Books.
- Vidyanagar, S.P.University Press, V.V.Nagar.
- www.rhlschool.com
- www.rong-chang.com
- www.teachingenglishgames.com
