The Psychology ofREADING

J. Fadul, PhDProfessor in the Social Sciences

De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde

Task 1. READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTS AND PICTURES

Text 1

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15. (Source: http://didyouknow.org/numbers-as-letters/)

Task 1. READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTS AND PICTURES

Text 1 7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N R34D 7H15. (http://didyouknow.org/numbers-as-letters/)

This message serves to prove how our minds can do amazing things! Impressive things! In the beginning it was hard but now, on this line your mind is reading it automatically without even thinking about it, be proud! Only certain people can read this. Please forward if you can read this.

Task 1. READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTS AND PICTURES

Text 2

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

(Source:http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/stu/human_mind)

Task 1. READ THE FOLLOWING TEXTS AND PICTURES

Text 2I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.(http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/stu/human_mind/)I couldn’t believe that I could actually

understand what I was reading. The phenomenal power of the human mind, according to a research at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without a problem.

Dole et al. (1991):• Readers are passive recipients of information

in the text. • Meaning resides in the text and the reader

has to reproduce meaning.

The Traditional View

Nunan (1991):• Reading in this view is basically a matter of

decoding a series of written symbols into their aural equivalents in the quest for making sense of the text.

• He referred to this process as the 'bottom-up' view of reading.

• Bottom – up Model It is a reading model that emphasizes the

written or printed text. It emphasizes the ability to decode or put into sound what is seen in the text.

McCarthy (1999): He has called this view 'outside-in'

processing, referring to the idea that meaning exists in the printed page and is interpreted by the reader then taken in.

 The reader needs to: 1. Identify letter features2. Link these features to recognize letters3. Combine letter to recognize spelling

patterns4. Link spelling patterns to recognize words5. Then proceed to sentence, paragraph, and

text- level processing

FEATURES OF BOTTOM-UP MODEL

Leonard Bloomfield: The first task of reading is learning the code

or the alphabetical principle.

The meaning of the text is expected to come naturally as the code is broken based on the reader’s prior knowledge of words

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS ABOUT THE BOTTOM-UP READING

MODEL

Emerald Dechant: “ Bottom-up models operate on the principle

that the written text is hierarchically organized.

That the reader first process smallest linguistic unit, gradually compiling the smaller units to decipher and comprehend the higher units.

Charles Fries: The reader must learn to transfer from the

auditory signs for language signals to a set of visual signs for the same signals.

The reader must automatically respond to the visual patterns.

Learning to read … means developing considerable range of habitual responses to a specific set of patterns of graphic shapes.

Philip B. Gough: Reading is strictly a serial process Lexical, syntactic and semantic rules are

applied to the phonemic output which itself has been decoded from print.

The idea of linear processing Underestimated the contribution of the reader Failed to recognize that students utilize their

expectations about the text based on their knowledge of language and how it works

Failure to include previous experience and knowledge into processing

Drawbacks of Bottom -up

• Also known as Top - down model.• According to Nunan (1991) and Dubin and

Bycina (1991), the psycholinguistic model of reading and the top-down model are in exact concordance.

• This is in direct opposition to the 'bottom-up' model.

THE COGNITIVE VIEW

Goodman (1967; cited in Paran, 1996) • Presented reading as a psycholinguistic

guessing game, a process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, make new hypotheses, and so forth.

• The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process.

The Schema Theory of reading also fits within the cognitively based view of reading.

Rumelhart (1977) described schemata as"building blocks of cognition" which are used in the process of interpreting sensory data, in retrieving information from memory, in organising goals and sub-goals, in allocating resources, and in guiding the flow of the processing system.

Rumelhart has also stated that if our schemata are incomplete and do not provide an understanding of the incoming data from the text we will have problems processing and understanding the text.

Dole et al. (1991) stated that, besides knowledge brought to bear on the reading process, a set of flexible, adaptable strategies are used to make sense of a text and to monitor ongoing understanding.

FEATURES OF TOP-DOWN APPROACH

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS ABOUT THE TOP-DOWN READING

MODEL

Also known as Interactive Reading ModelAccording to Block (1992) The readers attempt to form a summary of

what was read. Klein et al. (1991)Metacognition involves thinking about what

one is doing while reading.

The Metacognitive View

• Projecting the author's purpose for writing the text (while reading it),

• Choosing, scanning, or reading in detail• Making continuous predictions about what will

occur next, based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous stages.

 

Interactive Model emphasizes the role of prior knowledge or pre-existing knowledge in providing the reader with non-visual or implicit information in the text.

Also, adds the fact that the role of certain kind of information-processing skills is also important.

Interactive approaches see the advent of the incorporation of bottom-up and top-down approaches to reading (Eskey, 1988; Samuels and Kamil, 1988).

Both modes of information processing, top-down and bottom-up alike, are seen as strategies that are flexibly used in the accomplishment of the reading tasks (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Carrell, 1988; Clarke, 1979; Eskey, 1988; Grabe, 1988).

Hence,the interactive approaches rely on both the graphic and contextual information.

Emerald Dechant The interactive model suggests that the

reader constructs meaning by the selective use of information from all sources of meaning without adherence to any set order.

The reader simultaneously uses all levels of processing even though one source of meaning can be primary at a given time.

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS ABOUT THE

INTERACTIVE READING MODEL:

Kenneth Goodman An interactive model is one which uses print as

input and has meaning as an output. The reader provides input too, and the reader

interacting with the text, is selective in using just as little of the cues from text as necessary to construct meaning.

David E. Rumelhart Reading is at once a perceptual and a

cognitive process. It is a process which bridges and blurs these

two traditional distinctions. A skilled reader must be able to make use of

sensory, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information to accomplish the task.

EMERGING READING MODELS

Interactive-compensatory reading model. Readers who rely on both Bottom-up and Top-down processes are depending on:

- reading purpose- motivation - schema- knowledge of the subject

STANOVICH MODEL (1980)

It focuses on the role of schemata (knowledge stored in memory) in text comprehension.

SCHEMA THEORY a.relationships among components b. role of inferencec. reliance on knowledge of the content

ANDERSON and PEARSON SCHEMA- THEORETIC VIEW

Comprehension = interaction between old & new information

Schema Theory: Already known general ideas subsume & anchor new information

Include: a) info about the relationships among the components, b) role of inference & c) reliance on knowledge of the content, + abstract & general schemata.

Negotiation of meaning between writer & reader who both create meaning through the text as the medium.

Readers as composers:“ the thoughtful reader …is the reader who reads as if she were a writer composing a text yet for another reader who lives within her”.

Reader reads with the expectation that the writer has provided sufficient clues about the meaning

Writer writes with the intention the reader will create meaning

PEARSON and TIERNEY R/W MODEL

Context is important Knowing why something was said is as crucial to

interpreting the message as knowing what was said

Failing to recognize author’s goal can interfere with comprehension of the main idea or point of view

Focus on the thoughtful reader with 4 interactive roles:1.Planner – creates goal, use existing knowledge, decides how to align with the text2.Composer – searches for coherence in gaps with inferences about the relationship within the text3.Editor – examines his interpretations4. Monitor – directs the other 3 roles

Attitude toward reading may be modified by a

change in reader’s goal. Attitude has tri-componential construct:

- cognitive component - affective component - psychomotor component

MATHEWSON’S MODEL OF ATTITUDE INFLUENCE

A model that addresses the role that attitude and motivation play in reading

Attitude intention to read reading Attitude toward reading may be modified by a

change in reader’s goal Examples:

–Topic of no interest–Examination on comprehension

Feedback during reading may affect attitude and motivation:

Satisfaction with affect developed through reading Satisfaction with ideas developed through reading Feelings generated by ideas from the reading

process. Ideas constructed from the information read How the reading affects values, goals and self-

concept

If we are to guide and direct our students, we need to know where we are going, which paths are the most likely to get us there, and which paths are most likely to be dead ends. This means that, as teachers of reading, we must be cognizant of our underlying beliefs or theories of literacy development: how one begins to learn to read and how one develops from that point into an increasingly effective reader with a broadening range of texts

As readers, we must know -- in the sense of holding beliefs that are grounded in experience and information -- how this literacy development is affected by the knowledge, experiences, and cognitive stage of adults.

Thank you

References: TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC (

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk)

Anderson, R.C., & Pearson, P.D. (1984). A schema theoretic view of basic processes in

reading. In P.D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of reading research (pp.255-291).

White Plans, NY: Longman.