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.