READING DEFINED

“Reading is the process of identifying and understanding the meaning of the characters and words in written or printed material.”- Microsoft® Encarta® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation

“ Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game.”

- Kenneth Goodman

“Reading is a complex, interactive process.”- Bernhardt, 1991

○ 75 % - Sight

○13% - Hearing○6% - Touch○3% - Taste○3% - Smell

Models of Reading

1. Bottom-up Model (Behaviorism)

Print {Every letter discriminated} {Phonemes and

graphemes} Blending {Pronunciation} Meaning

2. Top-Down Model

• Reading is viewed as a complex information-processing skill.

• The reader is seen as an active, planning, decision-making individual who coordinates a number of skills and strategies to facilitate comprehension.

Frank Smith’s Reading Model

Information processing

- is the ability of the mind to perform tasks such as remembering, applying, and comprehending.

The Frank Smith model of language processing incorporates three mental structures and explains how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Top-Down Reading Model

• Emphasizes what the reader brings to the text

• Says reading is driven by meaning, and• Proceeds from whole to part.

also known as

* inside-out model

*concept-driven model

* whole to part model

Smith discusses “the essence of reading” as a natural human activity reaching far beyond understanding the print.

“Reading is the most natural activity in the world.” – Frank Smith

Smith discusses psycholinguistic aspects of reading and the interconnections between the act of reading and higher order understanding, thinking, and learning.

Three general points about language: 1. what counts in language is not

letters, sounds, words, or sentences but meaning in its broad sense

2. spoken and written language are different; and far beyond vocabulary and grammar

3. language is social in all its aspects

Reading is a matter of bringing meaning to print, not extracting meaning from the print.- emphasizes what the reader brings to

the text, such as prior knowledge and experiences

- comprehension begins in the mind of the reader, who already has some ideas about the meaning of the text.

- proceeds from whole to part

Frank Smith’s Model

Sensory Stage – first stage of informational processing.

In this stage, new unexplored information is taken through the sensory pathways for a short amount of time. The information is encoded when one takes information in and stores it with representations that can be used in the cognitive structures. It is then recorded by the reader.

Relevant information from sensory stage is then transferred to the brain’s short-term memory (STM), which is also called working memory.

SHORT-TERM MEMORY is the second stage of information processing. It provides temporary stage for the information that is currently being processed. There is, however, a limited amount of information that can be stored into the STM.

There are two compartments of the STM. These compartments are temporary storage and information processing.

Once a person takes information from his environment, it is stored in temporary storage. Information is stored in temporary storage until it is processed. It is at this stage that the information may be lost. The longer it takes for a person to process things, the more space that is taken up from temporary storage, meaning that there is less space for other information.

If a person has to pause when taking information in, more cognitive space is taken up and information drops out of storage before a person can retrieve and apply it.

STM is important in getting information to LONG-TERM MEMORY.

LONG-TERM MEMORY – is the third stage of information processing.

- holds a person’s knowledge of the world

In LTM, information can be stored for later use thus called prior knowledge.

More information is contributed by the reader than by the text.

The Interactive-Compensatory Model -Stanovich, 1980 -constant interaction of the

brain and the text, interaction is flexible

There are multiple readers within a reader.

Interactive Compensatory Reading is only incidentally

visual. Emphasized that meaning is

not fully present in a text waiting to be decoded.

MEANING is created through the interaction of the text and the reader.

Schema Theory Fundamental tenet:

Any text, either spoken or written, does not itself carry meaning, rather, a text provides directions for listeners or readers as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning from their own, previously acquired knowledge

* Efficient comprehension requires the ability to relate the textual material to one’s own knowledge.

Five causes of breakdown of meaning:

1. Absence of relevant knowledge structures to utilize top-down processing or lack of schema availability.

2. When available schemata is not activated because the texts do not contain sufficient textual cues to signal the appropriate schemata to be activated.

3. If readers are linguistically deficient.

4. Conceptions about reading may also interfere with interactive processing. Some students do not know that they are allowed to use information not stated in the text in order to interpret it.

5. The reader’s cognitive style is a possible cause of unidirectional processing. Some people may simply treat any stimulus as independent of all prior knowledge they possess.

Importance of Schema Theory:

1. A schema provides ideational scaffolding. Schemata provide a framework for organizing incoming information ad retrieving stored information.

2. A schema permits selective attention.

3. A schema permits inference making.

Draw an inference on the ff:We were impressed with your

qualifications for secretarial work. Also, we were pleased that you are interested in working for Theater Guild. However, all our secretarial positions have been filled.

4. A schema facilitates editing and summarizing. Readers can determine key ideas.

5. A schema allows orderly memory searches. Readers can be guided to the kinds of information that need to be retrieved.

6. A schema permits inferential reconstruction. Schema helps readers generate hypotheses about the missing information.

Remember! Reading is not just a basic skill. Reading is problem solving. Fluent reading is not the same as

decoding. Reading is situationally bound. Proficient readers share some key

characteristics.