- Reading occurs in a context

- The meaning is derived from the previous knowledge stored in the reader’s mind and
the processes through which the reader tackles it
- The same scene is interpreted in different ways according to our background
information and predilections.
- The background knowledge into which a text fits, sometimes called the schema,
plays a large role in how it is read.
- A script (…) according to Schank and Abelson (1977), is ‘a predetermined,
stereotyped sequence of actions that defines a well-known situation’.
- Some scripts are virtually the same for speakers of different languages; others differ
from one country to another.
- An important aspect of discourse is how the background information contributed by
the script relates to the purposes of conversation
- The L2 learner needs to be supplied with the vocabulary that the native takes for
granted (Carrel, 1983)
- Pre-reading activities that build up background knowledge, partly through providing
learners with appropriate vocabulary (Carrel, 1983)
- Materials should not only be interesting, but also conceptually complete; a longer
passage or an in-depth set of passages on a single topic is better than short
unconnected passages.
- Students read much slower in their L2 than in their L1
- Students process information much slower in their L2
- A particular problem for L2 students occurs in the use of academic language. Never
mind the language problems, think of the schemas (what different cultures
prioritize/think is correct etc)
- An interesting approach to teaching schemas comes from the field of cross-cultural
psychology, which has developed a technique called cross-cultural training
- Bottom-up: Starts with smaller units putting them together little by little until we get a
whole sentence (sounds - words - phrases - whole sentence)
- Top-down: First considers the whole sentence and then starts breaking it down into
smaller units little by little until they get the meaning (starts looking for phrases first
and then looks into its components)
- Students usually use both types of processing.
- J. Michael O’Malley and his colleagues (1985) found that effective L2 learners used
both top-down strategies listening for intonation or phrases and bottom-up strategies
listening for words, while ineffective listeners concentrated on the bottom-up process.
- Then she goes on explaining more about listening and Krashen’s theory but it is
not so relevant right now.