Building reading skills throughout the year

What type of text is this? What would you expect to read in it? Where would you see it? What do you think the first paragraph will be about?

How did you get on? How did you make sense of the text? What does your experience tell you about what reading in English is like for our students? 5 minutes. Jot down some notes.

Now here’s the lecture! Mary

Petty-inspired task Top down/bottom up Schema theory Listen to the talk on: Top down/bottom up Schema theory Be prepared to tell your partner 2 things that particularly interested you about one of the topics. You will be told which one after the lecture!

Reading as an interactive process A dynamic relationship with the text as the reader struggles to make sense of it Processing text involves a combination of: Knowledge you brought with you to reading it Information from the text

Bottom up processing Decoding the letters, words and other language features of the text. Views reading as a process of decoding written symbols into their aural equivalents in a linear fashion decoding letters and words using morphological knowledge to work out meanings of words using cognates to work out meanings of words guessing unfamiliar vocab from contextual clues (Ss can guess 60 – 80% if density of new words is not too high) decoding syntax (reference, lexical cohesion, deletion, discourse signals, signpost words) decoding text structure

Top down processing Application of prior knowledge to text General world knowledge – what Tibetan names look like, that 1950 is a date and 65 is likely to be his age Socio cultural knowledge: nirvana, reincarnation are Buddhist beliefs, Lhasa is the capital of Tibet Topic knowledge: the history and political consequences of the Chinese invasion of Tibet Genre knowledge: of the type of text and expectations of what you might find in it

The two processes are in constant interplay   Top down approach to predict possible meaning A bottom up approach to check that is what the writer really says Learners need to employ both approaches and need training in both

Schema theory Past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help us to make sense of new experiences Our knowledge and expectations about the world affect our ability to understand new information by providing a framework within which that new information might fit. Texts themselves do not carry meaning. Rather they provide signposts, or clues, to be utilised by listeners or readers in reconstructing the original meanings of the writer (or speaker). (Nunan 257) Bottom up processing uses lower level schemata, e.g. expectations of how text will look – need to alter for German capitalisation of nouns Top down processing uses higher level schemata- e.g. knowledge of socio-political situation in Tibet

Example: How do you make sense of the following Example: How do you make sense of the following? The bus careered along and ended up in the hedge. Several passengers were hurt. The driver was questioned by the police. What do you expect the next sentence to be?

Does this alter your schema in any way? She was later congratulated on her quick thinking and skilful handling of the bus when the brakes failed. (Nuttall 7)   Does this alter your schema in any way? Problems arise when readers do not share the relevant schemata. Always ask yourself if there are implicit assumptions in the text that your ESOL students may not share.

Summary Reading is an interactive process: the reader constantly shuttles between bottom up and top down processes Research suggests that schema building activities and tasks, carried out before students read, will facilitate comprehension

But, a certain level of language knowledge is necessary before any training in the use of schematic knowledge can be effective Lack of lower level processing skills puts a strain on short term memory So less cognitive capacity is available for higher level text processing skills (Hudson 94) Research in native speaker literacy suggests that paired oral reading increases reading fluency. Pair stronger and weaker readers; they read to each other. Or put text enlarged on OHT/IWB. Learners read together, silently or quietly (not necessarily at the same speed). Develops fluency in lower level processing skills.

Research also suggests that cohesive relationships should be taught explicitly, especially logical relationships (e.g. however, therefore, moreover)

What do we need to do as teachers to help students develop reading skills? A’s – think about pre- reading activities B’s – think about while reading activities C’s – think about post-reading activities Then re-group and share your ideas

What about next week? Sit with someone teaching the same level as you. Show them the reading text you plan to use next week. Discuss the following: How you are going to activate schemata What tasks you are going to do to help the students engage with the text What follow-up activity you will do.

We love reading! We love reading! We love reading! We love reading! We love reading!