WHAT IS READING?

Dra. Coral Ivy Hunt Gmez

coralhuntg@us.es
Despacho: 4.109

Universidad de Sevilla
2015-2016

What does learning to read

means?

1.

1.
2.

2.

Background knowledge
Goals

A Holistic Approach to Reading

1.

Pedagogical Stages of Reading

1.
2.
3.

Pre-Reading
Initial Reading
Rereading

3.
4.

1.

Readability and Holistic Approach

Horizons of Expectation

Reading as a Process
1.
2.

Pre-reading
Initial Reading
1.

3.

Guided Matrix

Rereading
1.

Rereading strategies

What does learning to read mean?

Reading is a process

undertaken to reduce
uncertanity about meaning
an text conveys.
that results from a
negociation of meaning
between the text and its
reader.

To understand (negociate the

text meaning) a text the
readers uses

knowledge, expectations,
and strategies

What does learning to read mean?

Reading is a process that

does not

draw on just one kind of

cognitive skill
have a straightforward
outcome

- texts are understood in

different ways by different
readers

Reading = non linear process

Researchers have established that the act of reading
is a non-linear process that is recursive and
context-dependent.

Readers tend to jump ahead or to go back to

different segments of the text, depending on what
they are reading to find out.

Goals
n Asking a learner to read a text

requieres that teachers specify a reading

goal.

One minimal goal is to ask the learner to

nd par;cular gramma;cal construc;ons or
to iden;fy words that realate to par;cular
features or topics of the reading.

A Holis;c Approach
to Reading
n
n

Miller (1996) created a Holis;c Curriculum

Holis;c educa;on is concerned with connec3ons in
human experience
n
n
n
n

connec;ons between mind and body,

between linear thinking and intui;ve ways of knowing,
between academic disciplines,
between the individual and the community.

A holis;c curriculum emphasizes how the parts of a

whole relate to each other to form the whole.

From this perspec;ve, reading relates to speaking,

wri3ng, listening comprehension, and culture.

Pedagogical Stages of Reading

n

Ideally, each text used should be pedagogically staged

so that learners approach it by moving from pre-
reading, through ini*al reading, and into rereading.

This sequence moves the learner

n

comprehension tasks > produc3on tasks.

Tasks should build upon

each other in terms of
increasing cogni3ve diculty
n

Bloom's Taxonomy

A widely used classification of learning

objectives pioneered by the educational
psychologist Benjamin Bloom (1956).
3 domains of learning arranged
hierarchically (lower > higher level
objectives and skills ):
1.
2.

3.

Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge).

Affective: growth in feelings or emotional
areas (attitude or self)
Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)

1.Cognitive Process
6 cathegories (simpliest to the most complex)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Knowledge/ Remembering
Comprehension/ understanding
Application /Applying
Analysis/ Analyzing
Synthesis
Evaluation/Creating

Cognitive Process
1. Knowledge /Remembering
n Exhibit memory of learned materials by recalling
facts, terms, basic concepts, and answers
n Knowledge
n

terminology, specific facts

n Knowledge
n
n
n

specifics
of ways and means of dealing with specifics

conventions,
trends and sequences,
classifications and categories,

n Knowledge

of the universals and abstractions in a fieldprinciples and generalizations, theories and structures.

What are the benefits of recycling?

Cognitive Process
2. Comprehension/ Understanding
n Demonstrate understanding of facts and ideas
by
n Organizing
n Comparing
n Translating
n Giving

descriptions
n Stating the main ideas

What are the benefits of recycling?

Cognitive Process
3. Application/ Applying
n Using acquired knowledge
n Solve problems in new situations by applying
n Acquired

knowledge

n Facts
n Techniques
n Rules

Would recycling be good for the seas? In which way?

Cognitive Process
4. Analyzing
n Examine and break information into parts by
identifying motives or causes.
n Make inferences and find evidence to support
generalizations.
n Analysis

of elements
n Analysis of relationships
n Analysis of organizational principles
List different ways of recycling as explain which ones are the
most efficient.

Cognitive Process
5. Synthesis
n Present and defend opinions by making
judgments about information, validity or ideas or
quality of work based on a set of criteria
n Judgments

in terms of internal evidence

n Judgments in terms of external criteria

What is the best way of recycling a bottle of plastic,

and why?

Cognitive Process
6. Evaluation /Creating
n Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements
n Putting parts together to from a whole
n Compile information together in a different way
by combining new pattern or proposing alternative
n
n
n

Production of a unique communication

Production of a plan, or proposed set of operations
Derivation of a set of abstract relations

Modernize an old recycling method by using new

techniques. Explain the benefits of the new method
versus the original one.

2. Affective Process
n
n

Skills describe the way people react emo3onally and their

ability to feel other living things pain or joy.
Aec;ve objec;ves = awareness and growth in
n
n
n

a>tudes,
emo3ons,
and feelings.

5 levels (lowest > highest)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Receiving
Responding
Valuing
Organizing
Characterizing

Affective Process
1. Receiving

The lowest level

The student passively pays
a?en3on.
Without this level no learning can
occur.
Receiving is about the students
memory and recogni3on as well

Affective Process
2. Responding

The student ac;vely par3cipates
in the learning process, not only
aXends to s;mulus.
The student also reacts in some
way.

Affective Process
3. Valuing
n The student attaches a value to an
object, phenomenon, or piece of
information.
n The student associates a value or
some values to the knowledge they
acquired.

Affective Process
4. Organizing
n The

student can put together and

accomodate in his/her schema
n Different

values
n Information
n By
n Comparing
n Relating
n Elaborating

on what has been learnt

Affective Process
5.

Characterizing
n The student at this
level tries to build
abstact knowledge.

Psychomotor Process
Skills describe the ability to physically
manipulate a toll or instrument
n Psychomotor objectives usually focus on
change and/or development in
behaviour and skills.
n

No subcategories were created by Bloom.

n Simpson, 1972:
n

perception, set, guided response, mechanism,

complex overt response, adaptation, origination

1. Pre-Reading
n The ini;al levels of learning, as

described in Bloom's Taxonomy,

involve recognizing and
comprehending features of a text.
n Pre-reading tasks involve speaking,
reading, and listening.

2. Initial Reading
n

Tasks

orient the learner to the text and

n ac;vate the cogni;ve resources associated with the
learner's expecta;ons.
n

n discussions of genres and stereotypes may help the

learner to iden;fy poten;al reading dicul;es and to

strategize ways to overcome these challenges.

1.
2.

Simple oral and wriXen reproduc;on tasks

More complex produc;on tasks
n

crea;ve thinking about several issues at the same

;me

3. Rereading
n

Learners are encouraged to engage in ac;ve L2

produc;on
n

verbal or wriXen analysis and argumenta;on.

These ac;vi;es require longer and more

complex discourse.
n Learners' cri3cal thinking needs to interact
with their general knowledge.
n Cultural context and the individual foreign
language learner's own iden3ty emerge as
central to all acts of produc;on.
n

Readability and Holistic Aproach

Teachers should assess whether the texts they
assign are appropriately readable for the
students.
n But how to measure readability?
n

Redability is determined by:

The suitability of the text for

n the readers background
nTheir language
nThe instructors curricular goals

A text is readable when

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

It presents concrete issues

rather than abstract ones
It provides the who, what,
where and when familiar to
the reader
It is age appropiate
It is a genre familiar to the
reader
It is acceptable to the readers
cultural background

Think of ;mes when you

brought a reading text into
your classroom and had
either a notable success or a
notable failure with it.
1. What factors made the text
a hit or miss with your
students?
2. What made it too hard or
too easy or too alien?
n

Horizons of
Expectation

Readability if a missing piece of

background knowledge is provided.

Historical fact
Social fact
Social stereotype

Not assuming the knowledge

contextual elements by the reader.

Horizons of Expectation

Hans Robert Jauss- textual features

reflect a consensus (shared by a group of
people) about a given style, content,
organizational structure
If the culture/ literature of the foreign
language reflect unfamilar horizons of
expectations, misreadings ofter result.

 Reader recogni;on in pre-reading of a FL asks

1.

2.

3.

4.

students to indicate what they comprehend.

Foreign language instructors have op;ons for
c o n r m i n g s t u d e n t s ' b e g i n n i n g
comprehension of a passage when they
demonstrate
The ability to translate a word or phrase in a
text passage.
The ability to provide foreign language
synonyms for a word or phrase in a text
passage.
The ability to categorize a word or phrase in
a text passage with regard to designated
;mes, places, persons, or events.
All of the above

OPTION 4
All of these options can serve the instructor's class
either with the directions given for pre-reading or
in the subsequent discussion, but their
respective usefulness will often depend on
the genre of the text passage.
For example, an historical account will frequently use
dates in conjunction with events whereas a movie
review is more likely to mention actors and
describe their roles or the location of the film story
and its features.




For purposes of selec;ng FL texts for readability
factors depend about 50% on language factors
and the other 50% results from
How well pre-reading goes.
2. How readers apply variables such as knowledge
background, strategies, and genre.
3. How novel the text is.
4. How extensive the students' command of FL
vocabulary is.
1.

Op;on 2

Researchers nd that language factors such as
syntax and seman;cs cons;tute only about
half of the understanding that results when
students read a FL text.


in the cognitive
Approaching FL reading
stages means

1.
2.
3.
4.

Repeating the same tasks until they are

learned.
Separating grammar from vocabulary
learning.
Choosing the right genre.
Focusing on one mode of thinking at a
time.

Op;on 4.
Reading in cogni;ve stages helps FL readers focus on one
cogni3ve stage at a 3me, star;ng with language
recogni;on and oral or wriXen reproduc;on of text
language.
Once they have established the text's topic and genre,
students are generally able to sort the way language
informa;on is presented in their reading.
Ader that stage, students oden nd it easier to recall
text, grammar, and vocabulary useful for genera;ng
their own language and ideas with reference to the
text..

Bloom's taxonomy of human cognitive

processes places different types of thinking
processes in a hierarchy of low to high
1.
2.

3.
4.

Because only people of higher intelligence

can do the higher levels.
Because some cognitive processes are more
valuable than others.
Because he had to list them in some way.
Because that hierarchy reflects a sequence of
less to more difficult/complex processes.

Op;on 4
The categories, developed in the 1920s, have been
expanded on or rened to a degree subsequently
elaborated on by various groups of psychologists,
but the underlying premise of a shared
progression for any type of human learning
remains unchallenged.
Humans do, of course, have dierent types of
intelligence and may progress more rapidly or
possess stronger abili;es in one or more of the
cogni;ve stages.

Reading as a Process
Many students believe that they must know
every word in a text before they can read
prociently.
n Given our deni;on of reading as a process,
this widespread belief presents a problem for
teachers.
n

How can we show students that they are able to

draw meaning from a text even when they don't
know all the words and much of the grammar?

Reading experts assert that only about half of what

people understand when they read in any language
has to do with knowing that language's vocabulary
and its grammar.
The other half involves factors such as:
n

background knowledge about the topic or the medium

n

knowledge of a genre
n

What information is in a movie review and what importance is

attached to who writes the review and where it's published?

strategies for guessing and working with uncertainty

n

What kind of a hero Batman is, and what an action movie looks like)

I don't know this term, but it has been mentioned twice so it's
probably important and I'll continue reading to see if I can figure
it out.

strategies for identifying cognates and other textual

clues
n

Illustrations, subtitles, etc.

Pre-Reading

n
n

Successful pre-reading ac;vi;es are student-centered.

Teacher:
n
n

iden;es poten;al readability problems

helps students to surmount dicul;es.

provides answers or summarize the content

helps learners iden;fy the sources of their reading

dicul;es.

Pre-reading activity
1

Brainstorming
Students pool what they know about the
topic of a text and share their knowledge in
the target language.

GOALS
1.
ac3va3ng the learners' horizon of
expecta3on,
2.
Helping learners iden3fy what the text is
about.

Pre-reading activity 2

Skimming:
Short period of ;me for skimming the rst
paragraph or page of the text
n look at illustra3ons and sub3tles,
n iden;fy the words that explain the
"who," "what," "where," and "when
n iden;fy core vocabulary words

Overall
Pre-reading helps
students
n

ac3vate their horizon of expecta3on

n
n
n

background knowledge,
syntac;c and seman;c resources,
cogni;ve strategies

take charge of their own learning, and

n become willing to tolerate ambiguity.
n

Initial Reading
Pre-reading

identifying the shared global issues

activities stressed the "who," "what," "when,"
and "where

Reading

requires learners to move to textual specifics

adds details
ask learners to apply the text's genre to help
structure their reading process

Genre
n
n

Knowing the genre of a text helps a reader engage

with the details.
The main characters in each text type will have
dierent func3ons.

Knowing that a text is a mystery or detec;ve story will

mean that there will be mul;ple moments of
inves;ga;on and discovery.
That makes it possible for learners to look for various
stages in the inves;ga;on as their more specic task
to nd the episodes that characterize the genre.

Ader the ini;al reading

Discussion
Teachers
n should help learners weigh the textual details they
have iden;ed.
n can ask students to discuss and jus3fy their choices.
n At this stage, learners begin to move toward the
"how" and "why" of the text
n
n

synthesizing concepts
engaging in problem-solving.

For example, where is the mystery or reader interest in

a detec;ve story is told by the murderer

Guided Matrix

Can be introduced after brainstorming and

skimming activities.
Readers select phrases or sentences to
reconstruct the logic of the text.

Guided Matrix Headings

The headings used in a guided matrix reect a

paXern of logic.
Logical Relationships (Headings) Type of Text
Contrasts or Comparisons

A text that contrasts two people or

the "before" and "after" of an event
or problem (differences in their
characteristics)

Issues and their Features or Results

A text that critiques a movie (what's

right or wrong with it and why)

Problems and their Solutions

A text about an historical era

(political, economic, social issues and
how they were addressed)

Events and their Impact

A news story about a current event

(what happened/who was affected
and how)

Advantages of a Guided Matrix

Learners are likely to reread parts of a text in

order to find the information they want to
include.
Elements of syntax and semantics are
reinforced in context,

as part of values and expectations found in the

given foreign culture.

Learners will be prepared for more

detailed contact
help them make the transition from
reading to writing.

Pre-reading ac;vi;es are somewhat like online

searches because
1. They involve extensive reading.
2. They involve tracing an idea by looking for
other words that relate to that idea.
3. They are can be very boring.
4. They don't ask readers to do very much.

Op;on 2

Like online searches, one doesn't necessarily have
to pre-read or skim a text for long to nd two or
three examples of vocabulary related to that text's
topic.

In this module we suggest that the instructor's role

in pre-reading is
1. To tell everyone what the text is about.
2. To tell the class why it is important to read this
text.
3. To help students brainstorm briey about the
topic and skim for and conrm words related to
that topic.
4. To Remind the class that they will be expected to
have read the text by the following class hour.

 Op;on 3

Brainstorming and skimming by prospec;ve readers
lets them ini;ate their nego3a3on with text
meaning and their reduc3on of their uncertainty
about how its topic will be dealt with.
Peer and instructor conrma;on of readers'
cogni;ve processing fosters an interac;ve and
communica;ve introduc;on to reading.
The other alterna;ves put readers on one-way
streets--teacher and not learner-centered.

The importance of Rereading

Rereading
n on-going and repeated encounters with a text,
n guided by a particular task so that segments of
the text get revisited and rethought.
n most effective type of reading, especially of
foreign language texts,
offers learners
n the opportunity to re-think messages
n See features they have not noticed in initial reading.

Brainstorm about how you react

when you read a text or watch a
movie for the second ;me.

The importance of Rereading

Readers learn more language and information when they
engage with a text using a guided matrix or other task that
encourages them to peruse the text again.
reading the text linearly or translating it,
using their prior knowledge to become confident
about what a text says.
At this point, learners should aim to be sufficiently familiar with a
text's information to be able to summarize that information
from memory.

Differences between Initial

and Rereading Activities
Ac3vi3es in Ini3al Reading

Ac3vi3es in Rereading

Iden;fy the main topic, examples of its

features (summarize content in a FL)

Talk or write about details and their

implica;ons (analyze or interpret content)

Iden;fy words and phrases conveying

author messages and author POV (point
of view)

Role play or write about that POV from

the reader's perspec;ve (modify, agree,
disagree)

Iden;fy genre features (expected order of Perform or rewrite in a dierent genre

events; types of people, events, ideas, or (from descrip;on to dialogue, leXer, diary
objects; characteris;cs of style)
entry, etc.)
Comprehend and reproduce text
language in appropriate categories using
provided matrix headings

Use dierent categories to change the

text's messages (e.g., from before/ader
to problem/solu;on)

When learners read through the whole text two or three

;mes,
n

comprehension of the text improves,

help readers take a further analy;c step.

Readers start iden;fying
n

n
n

text's structure
seman;cs can suggest a point of view
n
n
n
n
n
n

posi;ve,
nega;ve,
dismissive,
laudatory,
impar;al
incomplete

Rereading Strategies
Teachers

Help students structure the discovery process

cognitive and linguistic difficulties.

Give students tasks corresponding their level

of linguistic and cognitive sophistication.
Give students a model of what they are going
to be called on to produce
Encourage students to use words and phrases
from the text.

Brainstorm about the advantages of

giving an assignment that requires
learners to go back over sec;ons of
the text.

Examples of ways rereading can

activate different learning goals
Rereading Activity

Learning goal

Identify or rewrite specific grammar

constructions that occur repeatedly in
a text (passive voice, verbs in various
tenses, cases, singular plural
distinctions, etc.).

Recognizing or modifying grammar

features in context and how grammar
signals meanings

Identify or rewrite statements that

Recognizing or using language that
suggest a particular speech act (e.g., a conveys speaker or author intent
command, an argument, a plea, etc.). (pragmatics).
Look for text features to revise in
another genre (changing a
conversation to a description or a
news report to a diary entry).

Recognizing or discussing how

changing the genre of the source text
changes its rhetoric and the order of
presenting its information.

One reason for rereading a text is

1. to memorize the text.
2. to beXer understand and interpret
textual content.
3. to copy the rst paragraph.
4. none of the above

Op3on 2
n

Analyzing, interpre3ng, and cri3quing are all

higher order cogni3ve abili3es that necessitate
command of language beyond the recogni;on
(pre-reading) and message reproduc;on or
summary stage (ini;al reading).
And while rereading will hopefully x some
language in a reader's memory, the goal is
memory of language to express the reader's
ideas.

A rereading assignment
1. focuses on comprehension processes.
2. asks readers to use texts to express
their ideas in wriXen or spoken
language.
3. asks students to reread the text in
English.
4. asks students to iden;fy a text's genre.

Op;on 2

Rereading, because text content is now predictable,
frees students to think about what that content
implies or to interpret its content.
Most text vocabulary is comprehended quickly,
freeing cogni;ve space to put ideas together.
Synthesizing or analyzing texts goes beyond
comprehension or iden;ca;on per se and
makes rereading a transla;on superuous unless
to analyze dierences between it and the FL
original.