Reading+Theory

= Teaching Reading - The Importance of Grammar and Vocabulary in Reading  = Butler-Pascoe, M.E. & Wiburg, K.M (2003). //Technology and Teaching English Language Learners//. Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 5: //Using Technology to Teach Readubg Skills//, pages 114 to 137: 1. What is Reading? ** Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbol in the text. The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to begin. It is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual reading. (Aebersold and Field: 1997)

2. **Describe briefly the 3 basic models of how reading occurs:** (a) **Bottom up process:** Readers first identify the written letters with the matching sounds and then blend the sounds and letters together to identify the words. Students then read the sentences, paragraphs, and eventually longer discourse. (b)**Top – Down Models:** The reader receives input from the text, makes predictions, tests and confirms or revises those predictions, and so forth as he or she reads. Readers read quickly, test their hypothesis as they read, and reread material only when they are unable to confirm their predictions. (c) **Interactive Models**: Reading is a process of constructing meaning from text through the use of both bottom - up and top - down processes, strategies and skills. 3. **What are schemata?** According to schema theory, the reader brings previously acquired background knowledge organized into interrelated patterns or schemata to the reading process. The reader creates meaning by relating the text to this background knowledge, including knowledge of customs and beliefs from his or her own experience.

4. What are the characteristics of Fluent Reading? Fluent reading is reading that occurs in a rapid, interactive, flexible, purposeful, comprehending, and gradual manner. (a) Automatic Perceptual / Identification skills Automatic recognition skills allow the reader to identify letters and words without being consciously aware of the process. (b) Structural Skills ( Grammar ) and Knowledge Grammatical structures provide readers significant information about the content of the reading passage. For example, capital letters in a sentence direct the reader that Mary is probably a name even if they have never heard of it. (c) How can technology assist in developing structural skills? Several multimedia software programs include a grammar component as part of the more comprehensive programs that focus on other skills. (d) Vocabulary Development: Give 3 reasons why vocabulary is so vital to reading comprehension: Readers need to know 10,000 to 100,000 words to be able to read a passage fluently; whereas for second language readers it is usually at 2,000 to 7,000. Readers need to know a large percentage of words in any given text in order to comprehend the meaning of the reading or to guess the meaning of words unfamiliar to them. Vocabulary is not acquired in quick doses, but rather is a process of incremental learning and constant reinforcement. It is not sufficient to know just one meaning of the word in a particular context; instead the reader needs to know other aspects of the word such as its grammatical properties and alternative meanings in different contexts. (e) How does technology assist in vocabulary development? English language learners benefit from reading the fluency, whereby they are encouraged to guess the meaning of unknown words from the context of the reading. The many pictures, animation and other contextual cues provided by interactive CD – ROM BOOKS assist in this strategy.
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