Top Down and Bottom Up Approach in Teaching Language Skills BILC Professional Seminar, Slovenia 2012 Ibrahim Ghanwi, Slovakia

Meaning Conceptual The meaning of a word on its own. Propositional The meaning of a sentence on its own. Contextual The meaning a sentence can have only when in context. Pragmatic The meaning a sentence has only as part of the interaction between the writer and the reader.

Comprehension Pronunciation significant sounds or phonemes Grammar morphology and syntax Pragmatics pragmatic comprehension (misunderstandings) Semantics vocabulary, text (written or spoken) comprehension

Everything begins here

We should create good conditions for development

Bottom up approach Bottom-up processing, so called because it focuses on developing the basic skill of matching sounds with the letters, syllables, and words written on a page. Progressing from small or subordinate unit or units to a larger or more important unit, just as in the case of planting seeds. It is an approach to a problem that begins with details and works up to the highest conceptual level.

Top down approach is a top-down processing, which focuses on the background knowledge a reader uses to comprehend a written text. is an approach of/or relating to a hierarchical structure or a process that progresses from a large holistic unit to smaller, detailed subunits. is an approach to a problem that begins at the highest conceptual level and work down to the details.

TD and BU approach to teaching reading „The writers encodes thought as language and the reader decodes language as thought.“ (Kenneth Goodman, 1988) The purpose for reading a text: Person´s interest Academic duty Motivational purpose Teachers should help their students to adopt the new purpose as their own = to motivate students to read for pleasure The context = create a scenario

The phases of reading comprehension Pre-reading While reading Post reading

Pre-reading (top down approach) Brainstorming Activate previous knowledge of the topic Think, write, discuss Key vocabulary (associations) Structure, outline, draft Prediction How new information fits with the previous knowledge Providing information to the teacher about students knowledge Bridging student´s knowledge with text content

The person´s identity Factors influencing knowledge

While reading Efficient and effective reading Reading strategies The reader interacting with the text (both approaches in the construction of the meaning of the text; fluent guessing) Word and structure recognition (decoding process) Reading meaningful chunks Conceptual knowledge

Factors increasing reading comprehesion Vocabulary development Parts of speech, roots and endings, suffixes and prefixes, compound words. Extensive reading- data base of reading and listening materials. Reading speed Discourse knowledge Rhetorical organisation of texts Genre-based approach (writing) Language functions – descriptions, narrations, compare vs. contrast, cause vs. effect, fact vs. opinion etc. Cohesives devices (substition, ellipsis, referencing etc.) Locating discourse markers

Post reading Knowledge confirmation Post-reading questions Evaluating student´s adequacy of their text interpretations Increasing student´s knowledge

Interactive approach Teaching-learning process demands both approaches to be applied Both approaches complement each other, they are not alternatives The orientation and the purpose determine which approach is being applie

Questions, please

Websites about the topic http://www.usingenglish.com/ http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/listening-top-down-bottom http://eltnotebook.blogspot.sk/2007/02/teaching-listening-top-down-or-bottom.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down_and_bottom-up_design http://www.ehow.com/info_12059397_difference-between-topdown-teaching-bottomup-teaching.html www.zeepedia.com/read.php?bottom-up_top-do...

Thank YOU for Your attention !