the importance of the pre-reading stage for the enhancement of reading skills in tee students
DESCRIPTION
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΑΝΟΙΚΤΟ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ ΣΧΟΛΗ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΣΠΟΥΔΩΝΜΕΤΑΠΤΥΧΙΑΚΗ ΕΙΔΙΚΕΥΣΗ ΚΑΘΗΓΗΤΩΝ ΑΓΓΛΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΑΣ ΔΙΠΛΩΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ‘THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRE-READING STAGE FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF READING SKILLS IN TEE STUDENTS’ΔΗΜΗΤΡΑ ΤΣΟΛΑΚΙΔΟΥ Επιβλέπουσα Καθηγήτρια: ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΑ ΓΕΩΡΓΟΥΝΤΖΟΥ 20082Introduction 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 reaTRANSCRIPT
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΑΝΟΙΚΤΟ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟΣΧΟΛΗ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΣΠΟΥΔΩΝ
ΜΕΤΑΠΤΥΧΙΑΚΗ ΕΙΔΙΚΕΥΣΗ ΚΑΘΗΓΗΤΩΝΑΓΓΛΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΑΣ
ΔΙΠΛΩΜΑΤΙΚΗ ΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ
‘THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PRE-READING STAGE FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF READING
SKILLS IN TEE STUDENTS’
ΔΗΜΗΤΡΑ ΤΣΟΛΑΚΙΔΟΥ
Επιβλέπουσα Καθηγήτρια: ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΑ ΓΕΩΡΓΟΥΝΤΖΟΥ
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 reader’s 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.
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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 lesson’s outcome. In the
while-reading 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 post-reading 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.
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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 pre-
reading 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,
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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
pre-reading 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 coursebook’s 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 teacher’s 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
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Research on reading in a second/foreign language and efforts to improve
ESL/EFL reading instruction have grown remarkably over the last decades. Α
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 reader’s 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 one’s 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 don’t know what they
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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. It’s 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 writer’s ‘reality’ and the reader’s ‘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 writer’s 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 top-down 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
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these processes. Eskey defines ‘interactive’ referring to the interaction between
information obtained by means of bottom – up decoding and information provided by
means of top-down 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 learner’s reading skills. TAVI approach
adopts the notion of “topic-type” (Davies 1982 & 1983), as a basis for analyzing the
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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 result, an important part of teaching background knowledge is
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teaching the vocabulary related to it and conversely, teaching vocabulary also means
teaching new concepts, new knowledge, new schemata. Through this process, the
reader’s 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 text’s 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 learner’s mind in the form of schema activation which is essential for
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comprehension to be achieved. As Anderson et al (1977:369) put it ‘every act of
comprehension involves one’s 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 one’s 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
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background 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
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educational context, students’ needs and teaching objectives. These elements should
not be disregarded by the teacher during a reading lesson.
One way of facilitating a reader’s 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 pre-
reading 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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