LITERACY AND LANGUAGE

PROCESSES:
THINKING, READING, AND WRITING IN
FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGES

PRESENTED BY DR. V.L. ESTRADA

GOOD THEORY…..
 Good theory is informed by good
practice and good practice is informed
by good theory.
 Without theory, what we do in the
classroom—practice—is uninformed,
random, inconsiderate, sometimes silly,
and maybe even dangerous.
COGNITIVE THEORY
 COGNITION is centered around schema
theory.
 Piaget defined schemata (pl for schema) as
cognitive structures by which individuals
intellectually adapt to and organize the
environment. Schemata receive, sort,
classify, and hold information about
environmental events and objects; these
events and objects comprise our world
knowledge and are connected to one
another by the logical operations we are
capable of performing.
Schemata
 Schemata are acquired, extended and
refined as a result of both direct and
vicarious experience, and they carry
with them scripts or cognitive maps
which tell us what to expect and how to
behave in specific situations.
Schemata and Discourse
 Discourse—with a capital D are ways of being in
the world, or forms of life which integrate words,
acts, values, beliefs and social identities, as well
as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes.
A Discourse is a sort of identity kit which comes
complete with the appropriate costume and
instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so
as to take on a particular social role that others
will recognize (1996, p. 127).
 Knowledge accumulated in schemata, scripts, and
Discourses helps us see relationships and
interrelationships and to function successfully in
various contexts.
Library Schema and Discourse
 The example Ruddell provides about the
first time you went to the library is a good
one. You learned how to act in a library—to
speak quietly, check out your books at the
desk, etc.
 Knowledge residing in this new schema
and its attendant discourses made it
possible for you to subsequently go to the
library by yourself and function adequately.
 As humans, we are able to classify,
generalize, differentiate, and predict by
using schema and Discourse knowledge.
Cognitive Processing, Concept
Formation and Learning
 We continually extend and refine schemata
through the processes of assimilation and
accommodation.
 Assimilation is the process of adding new
information to old schemata.
 Accommodation is the process of creating
new schemata or changing old ones with
new information.
 The sum of our schemata and Discourse
knowledge can be thought of as our
knowledge of the world.
 The more experiences we have with
various Discourses, and more accurately
and precisely we classify, generalize,
differentiate, and predict, the more
likely it is that we are able to function
successfully in many different context.
 Confusion or non-sense occurs when
experience is not provided in the
appropriate schema and Discourse we
are using in the actual situation.
Vygotsky—Social interaction
theory
 “It is the functional use of the word, or any
other sign, as means of focusing one’s
attention, selecting distinctive features and
analyzing and synthesizing them, that
plays a central role in concept formation.”
 According to Vygotsky, we learn as we
move cognitively from murky,
undifferentiated object “heaps” to fully
differentiated concepts through the
medium of inner speech.
ZPD-Zone of Proximal
Development
 The ZPD is the distance between what
we are able to do (or know)
independently and what we are able to
do (or know) with assistance.
 This is the ideal space for learning to
occur and serves as the centerpiece of
his argument that with peer interaction
or teacher guidance, individuals can do
more than they are able to do alone.
Intertextuality—a concept by
Doug Hartman
 Hartman emphasizes the notion of “text”
as “both linguistic, and nonlinguistic
signs.”
 Our lives are filled with many texts of our
daily encounters and transactions and
intertexts.
 Intertextuality refers to the myriad ways in
which we link these texts to one another in
ongoing and ever changing transactions
with experience and events. The
intertextual links create the Discourses we
acquire through experience.
Reading/Thinking Relationship
 Reading is the act of constructing
meaning while transacting with text.
 Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional theory
is critical in understanding the reading
process.
 She first described the notion of
transaction.
Transactional Theory
 “Every reading act is an event, or a transaction, involving
a particular reader and a particular pattern of signs, the
text, and occurring at a particular time in a particular
context. Instead of two fixed entities acting on one
another, the reader and the text are two aspects of a
total dynamic situation. The “meaning” does not reside
ready-made “in” the text, or “in” the reader, but happens
or comes into being during the transaction between
reader and text (1994, p. 1063).

 Thus, reading is the act of constructing meaning while

transacting with text. The reader makes meaning through
the combination of prior knowledge and previous
experience; information made available in the text; the
stance he or she takes in relationship to the text; and
immediate, remembered, or anticipated social interaction
and communication.
The Reading Process
 Prior
Knowledge and Previous
Experience
› Two types of prior knowledge, residing in
schemata, are critical to the reading
process. These include:
World knowledge (total amount of information
a person has accumulated through day-to-day
world experience).
Text knowledge (information accumulated
from a reader’s experiences with print).
World Knowledge…..
 Includes the information within individual
schemata, information involving networks of
relationships between and across schemata, and
information about embedded characteristics of
schemata.
 Generally, the greater the reader’s world knowledge,
the greater the likelihood that he or she will
construct meaning congruent with the author’s
intended meaning. This is not always true if you
consider that
› The reader may not have the appropriate schemata
(Discourse)
› The reader may have the appropriate schemata
(Discourse) but the information available in txt may not
suggest them.
› The reader may construct a consistent interpretation of
text but not the one intended.
Text Knowledge
 In addition to using world knowledge,
readers us prior knowledge about text
while reading (how texts are organized,
how one processes texts, how the
language of the texts function, what
expectations are reasonable when
approaching print, what procedures are
useful when interacting with text, and
countless other conventions of text and
print).
In other words, (mine)
 We read from left to right (directionality).
 We read for meaning (semantics).
 We consider subject verb agreement
(syntax/grammar).
 We expect to see capital letters at the
beginning of every sentence and
punctuation such as periods, commas,
question marks, etc.
 This expect to see certain organizational
features in texts (words, sentences,
paragraphs, entire essays, chapters, books,
and so on).
Information available in text
 Constructing meaning depends also on
your ability to use information available in
texts. Once you have information in your
mind that is already known, the
information is considered redundant and
requires less mental energy and cognitive
processing time for meaning construction.
 EX. If you already know a good deal about
your content area, when you read a new
text on the same subject, it’s much easier
to process than if it were something
entirely new to you.
Reader Stance
 Louise Rosenblatt believes we have ignored this part
of the reading process; that is, the contribution of
the reader in the act of reading has a relationship
(transaction) with the text.
 In other words (mine) our epistemology (ways of
being and knowing) represented by Discourses
(values, attitudes, beliefs, and social identities)
seem to affect the stance of the reader as they
transact with text.
 Culture, language, social influence, interest and
investment with text are also factors that affect a
reader’s stance with a text. A reader’s stance can
fluctuate and change during a reading event.
The relationship between
thinking, reading, and writing,
 Writing is the process of constructing
meaning while transacting with text just
a reading is the process of constructing
meaning while transacting with text.
 What one knows is prior knowledge and
previous experience, and it is from this
pool of information that we produce the
written text.
Writing Process
 One of the most important attributes of
writing is that it is not only a way to
demonstrate what we know, but also a
way of knowing, a way of working
through confusion and fuzzy ideas, and
a way of moving toward clarification
and articulation of knowledge.
 In short, writing can be a form or
process of inquiry, or of discovering
what we know in the act of writing.
(mine)
Other aspects of Writing
 The writer’s intent, his or her purpose for
writing, profoundly influences the resulting
text.
 As with reading, writing is influenced by
social integration with other thinkers and
writers. Nearly always, we write with an
audience in mind, even if it is just
ourselves.
 Good writers monitor their writing. Meta-
cognitive thought accompanies writing just
as it does reading.
 Reading and writing are parallel processes.
Second Language Acquisition
and Literacy
 StephenKrashen (1981) His theory is
based on five hypotheses:
› The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
› The Natural Order Hypothesis
› The Monitor Hypothesis
› The Input Hypothesis
› The Affective Filter Hypothesis
The Acquisition Hypothesis
 Acquisition of language is a subconscious
process as we encounter and use a second
language for some communicative
purpose.
 Learning is conscious, on the other hand,
and occurs when we study formally the
grammar, structure, and lexicon of
language.
 Krashenconsiders acquisition, not learning,
to be the primary means for second
language development.
The Natural Order Hypothesis
 We acquire grammatical structures of a
second language in a predictable order,
event though linguists do not have a
complete understanding of what that
order is for every structure in every
language.
The Monitor Hypothesis
 Thisexplains the process of acquisition
and learning. The monitor alerts the
second language speaker, reader, writer
that the language construction he or
she just used is not appropriate and
allows for self correction. The second
language learner, or L2, must have time
to consult or reflect on the language
rules, focus on form, and know the rule.
This is a difficult and complex process.
The Input Hypothesis
 The input hypothesis states that we learn a
second language by understanding
language containing linguistic structures
that are just beyond the structures we
already know.
 Krashen calls this comprehensible input
and symbolizes it as i (input) +1. This
notion is not unlike Vygotsky’s ZPD; it is
just a little bit beyond our current level of
competence within which we are able to
construct new meaning.
The Affective Filter Hypothesis
 Krashen identifies three affective
variables that serve as “filters” or
mental blocks that influence second
language acquisition.
› 1. Anxiety
› 2. Motivation
› 3. Self-confidence
Krashen—and affective filter
 People acquire second languages when
they obtain comprehensible input and
when their affective filters are low
enough to allow the input in.
 It will occur in classes where the
students can understand what is going
on in class and when the content is
comprehensible.
Jim Cummins, BICS and CALP
 Basic Interpersonal Communication
Skills (BICS) refers to informal, ordinary
language of daily life.
 Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency (CALP) refers to more
structured, technical, and abstract
language of academic discourse.
Jim Cummins, BICS and CALP
 Itgenerally takes 2 years to acquire age
appropriate conversational proficiency
(BICS); however, it takes 5-7 years to
acquire academic proficiency (CALP).
 Therefore, just because English Learners
can converse in English does not mean
they are proficient in academic
discourse.
A critical last thought
 Teaching in such a way to increase
students’ literacy and language abilities
does not dilute content instruction; in
fact, it increases students’ learning of
content.
 Thanks for reading this professor led
discussion. Continue with the discussion
board activity.