SLAT6827 Second Language Literacy Semester 2, 2004

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SLAT6827 Second Language Literacy Semester 2,
2004

• Lecture slides and notes
• Week 7

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Aims of the lecture

• Distinguish between testing and teaching
  reading.
• Identify key principles underlying reading
  instruction
• Examine the role of strategies in reading
  instruction.

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Similarities between testing and teaching reading

• Both involve a student
• (1) being required to read a text or texts
• (2) And then responding to it
• the task should approximate real-life use as
  much as possible

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Differences between testing and teaching reading

• The main focus in testing is on reliability
• Teaching can/should take into account different
  interpretations
• Focus on lower level skills sometimes needed

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How do you teach someone to read?

• Is reading skill different from language skill?
• Is instruction necessary?
• What do you teach? (i.e., what is reading
  comprehension?)

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Fluent reading requires

• the development of top-down and bottom-up
  processes conjointly
• a high degree of control over grammatical
  structures
• cohesion and coherence markers
• a large vocabulary
• automatic word and phrase recognition skills
• word recognition exercises
• phrase recognition
• rate-building

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An interactive approach to second language reading

• Top-down processes - the use of background
  knowledge, expectations and contexts
• Bottom-up processes rapid and accurate
  recognition of letter and words, lexical access,
  automaticity in processing
• Which one is the starting point?
• Which one is the controlling factor?

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Reading instruction as strategy training

• Give a man a fish .......
• Strategy training attempts to develop the
  learners general reading skills, rather than
  focusing on just understanding a specific task.

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Strategy versus skill

• A skill is cognitive ability which a reader is
  able to use when interacting with text. It has
  been automatised and operates largely
  unconsciously.
• A strategy is a conscious procedure carried out
  by the reader in order to solve a problem.

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• The use of the term strategy rather than
  skill shifts the focus to actions that readers
  actively select and control to achieve desired
  goals or objectives strategies are skills
  under construction Carrell, 1998

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Cognitive and metacognitive strategies

• Cognitive strategies involve application of
  processes directly involved in understanding the
  text.
• Metacognitive strategies involve an awareness of
  ones own mental processes and an ability to
  reflect on how one learns (pp 179)

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Cognitive strategies.

• (Urquhart Weir, 1998)
• Tasks at the local and global level
• Purpose of reading determines choice of strategy

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Cognitive strategies Local tasks

• Word recognition
• Automaticity
• Speed in reading
• Vocabulary acquisition
• Grammatical skills
• Cohesion

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Cognitive strategiesglobal tasks

• Understanding explicitly stated main ideas
• Understanding implicitly stated main ideas
• inferring pragmatic meaning
• Understanding pragmatic meaning related to a text

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Reading skills

• Skimming
• Search
• Scanning
• Extensive reading

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Metacognitive strategies in L2 reading

•  Reading strategies allow readers to elaborate,
  organize and evaluate information derived from a
  text. (Carrell, 1998, p4)
• Learning to read gtgtgt Reading to learn
•  

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Strategic reading is a prime characteristic of
expert L2 readers (1)

• Hosenfeld (1977) study of U.S. high school FL
  learners
• Successful L2 reader
• gt Kept meaning of passage in mind while reading
• gt Read in broad phrases
• gt Skipped words unimportant to total phrase
  meaning
• gt Had positive self concept as reader
•  

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Strategic reading is a prime characteristic of
expert L2 readers (2)

• Hosenfelds (1977) unsuccessful L2 reader
• gt Lost meaning of sentences as soon as they
  were decoded
• gt Read in short phrases
• gt Seldom skipped words as unimportant
• Had negative self concept as reader
•  

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The importance of going beyond the text.

• Bocks (1986) study of English L1 and L2 readers
  in university remedial course found that more
  successful learners
•   gt integrated the various parts of the text
• gt recognised aspects of text structure
• gt used general knowledge, personal experiences
  and associations
• gt responded in an extensive as opposed to a
  reflective mode

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• Critical issue making reading strategy
  instruction appropriately text and context
  sensitive instead of a mindless teaching of lists
  of strategies.
•  

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Steps in reading strategy instruction

•  The teacher needs to explain
• what the strategy is
• why the strategy should be learned
• how to use the strategy
• when and where the strategy should be
  used
• how to evaluate use of the strategy
• (from Winograd Hare, 1988, in Carrell, 1998)

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Can reading strategies be taught?

• Do strategies represent natural learning styles
  or are they techniques to be taught?
• Reading strategies arent instant recipes for
  success but can help learners take control of
  their learning.

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References

• Carrell, P. (1998). Can reading strategies be
  successfully taught? Australian Review of Applied
  Linguistics 21, 1, 1-20.
• Ramírez, A. G. (1995). Creating contexts for
  second language acquisition. White Plains, NY
  Longman Publishers.

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Last slide SLAT6827 week7
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Discussion points

• An interactive model would predict, for
  example, that at earlier stages of development
  the differences in reading in different languages
  would be greater than at more advanced stages of
  development. Eskey Grabe, 1988
• Why?