JIMMA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

MATERIAL FOR THE COURSE ‘READING SKILLS’

(ENLA 2012)

DECEMBER, 2021

JIMMA, OROMIYA, ETHIOPIA

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UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO READING SKILLS
1.1. Definition of Reading

What is reading?
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by
sight or touch. Is reading about only sensing written letters or symbols? No, reading is about
understanding written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought.
Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word
recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken
language. While reading a given text, readers typically make use of:

-background knowledge,
-vocabulary,
-grammatical knowledge,
-experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text.

 Different scholars has tried to define the word reading. Some of their definition
about reading include:

 Alderson (2000) defines reading as “…an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from
which much pleasure can be derived, and in which one can become, totally absorbed”.
But reading is not only about getting pleasure. Reading means different things to different
people; for some it is recognizing written words, while for others it is an opportunity to
teach pronunciation and practice speaking. For others, it is still about gaining knowledge.
However, reading always has a purpose. It is something that we do every day; it is an integral
part of our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be something that
everyone can do.
 According to Leu and Kinzer (1987) reading is development, interactive, and global
process involving learned skills. In short, reading is an activity to get meaning from
printed words or symbols and how this ability is used to recognize, understand and
interpret in words.
 According to (Tarigan (1990:7) in Jaenal 2010) argues that reading is a process that is
carried and used by readers who want to get the message delivered by the author through
the medium of words or written language.

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 According to (Oka (1983:15) in Jaenal 2010) if viewed in terms of differences in scope, it
can be distinguished three kinds of meaning to read: Understanding the first is a narrow
sense, namely the sense that regards reading it as a process of written symbols
recognition. Into this process included the recognition of words carefully, in a wide
range, and quickly.
 According David Nunan (1989:33) “Reading is not an invariant skill, that there are
different types of reading skills that correspond to the many different purposes we have
for reading”. So, in the classroom, in students’ reading activities, the writer is sure that
they have many purposes, among others are to graduate from their school and to provide
themselves with the knowledge to continue their studies whatever their purposes are. In
order to achieve the goal, the comprehension ability in reading is needed.
 According to Harmer (2007: 99) reading is useful for language acquisition. Provided that
students more or less understand what they read, the more they read, the better they get at
it.
 According to Grellet (2004:7) reading is a constant process of guessing, and what one
brings to the next is often more important than what one finds in it. In reading, the
students should be taught to use what they know to understand unknown elements,
whether these are ideas or simple words.
 According to Day and Bamford (1998:12) reading is the construction of meaning from a
printed or written message. It means the construction of meaning involves the reader
connecting information from the written message with previous knowledge to arrive at
meaning and understanding.
 According to Cline et.al (2006: 2), states that reading is decoding and understanding
written texts. Decoding requires translating the symbols of writing system (including
Braille) into the spoken words which they represent. Understanding is determined by the
purposes for reading, the context, the nature of the text, and the readers’ strategies and
knowledge.
 According to Olson and Diller (1982:42), what is meant by reading comprehension is a
term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained
in a written material. This statement is supported by Harris and Sipay (1980:179), who
say that reading comprehension ability is taught to be a set of generalized knowledge

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 acquisition skills that permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a
consequence of reading printed language. There's even a sense that views reading as a
process of giving meaning to visual symbols (Oka, 1983:11 in Jaenal 2010).
 IN GENERAL, all the definition commonly indicate that reading is
understanding/comprehending the meaning or message of a given written text.

1.2. Reasons why Reading is Important

Reasons of reading may depend on each individual’s interest. Although we read a o

1. It improves your creativity and imagination.

2. It helps you learn.
3. It increases your vocabulary.
4. It improves memory.
5. It increases your concentration and attention span.
6. It improves your writing skills.
7. It reduces stress.
8. It could extend your life.
9. It boosts your empathy.
10. It expands your understanding of the world.

1. It improves your creativity and imagination

If you ever feel stuck creatively, reading can stretch those muscles. When you read a book,
especially fiction, it stimulates your imagination. Your mind paints a picture of what you’re
reading, so you become an active participant in the activity. At least one study supports this
benefit. 100 people read either a fictional story or a nonfiction essay, and then completed a
questionnaire. The fiction readers were more creative in their answers than the essay readers.

2. It helps you learn

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To grow as a person, you always want to stay curious and keep learning. There will always be
things you don’t know, and reading can bridge the gaps and open up new worlds. In the 1990’s,
Keith Stanovich and his colleagues performed reading studies to identify the link between
reading, cognitive skills, and factual knowledge. According to Stanovich, the results showed that
“avid readers” had 50% more fact-based knowledge than people who didn’t read much.

3. It increases your vocabulary

In those same studies by Stanovich, he also discovered that avid readers have a 50% larger
vocabulary. This is most likely because the more you read, the more unfamiliar words you come
across. You can learn the meanings either through context or looking them up, and over time,
your vocabulary gets bigger and bigger. The process of learning new words is good for your
brain.

4. It improves memory
Research shows that reading, even if it’s just a little bit every day, can help improve your
memory. This is because reading stimulates the part of the brain responsible for attention and
memory. As you read through a text, you need to remember what’s happened before in order to
follow the narrative or themes the writer is addressing. You may not even be aware that your
mind is remembering things, but the process exercises and stretches the brain.

5. It increases your concentration and attention span

Reading takes more concentration than a passive activity, like watching TV. To follow where a
writer is going, you need to pay close attention to the words you’re reading and their meaning.
This action stimulates the brain, improving your ability to stay focused. People who can sit and
read for hours have excellent attention spans, which can be harnessed for other tasks that require
concentration.

6. It improves your writing skills

If you are interested in the craft of writing at all, you know that some of the best authors
recommend lots of reading. The more you read, the more familiar you become with structure,
character development, and writing styles. This applies to both fiction and nonfiction writing.

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Even if you don’t need to write much in your daily life, reading prepares you for any time when
you might need to, whether it’s a Christmas letter, email, personal blog, or journal entry.

7. It reduces stress
Stress is a common problem these days and there are many ways to deal with it. Reading is one
of the best. A 2009 study conducted by Mindlab International at the University of Sussex
discovered that after people read quietly for just six minutes, their heart rates slowed down and
they had less muscle tension. Their stress levels actually reduced by an impressive 68%, making
reading more effective than talking a walk or listening to music. By focusing their minds on what
they were reading, people could distance and distract themselves from anxious thoughts and
feelings.
8. It could extend your life
Reading can actually help you live longer. In a 12-year study performed by Yale University,
researchers monitored 3600 adults over 50-years old. Those who read books for at least 30
minutes a day lived around 2 years longer than those who read newspapers or magazines. While
we can’t say that reading ensures a longer life, this study does show a connection. It could be that
reading and its ability to improve cognitive functions keeps neurological diseases like
Alzheimer’s at bay.

9. It boosts your empathy (the ability to share someone else’s feelings)

Empathy is the ability to understand and sympathize with other people, even when we don’t
agree with them on something. While some people possess lots of natural empathy, most of us
could use a bit more. Reading can help. In 2013, different members of a group read different
genres such as literary fiction, popular, fiction, and nonfiction. A control group read nothing.
Throughout the experiment, researchers learned that people who read literary fiction were better
at identifying facial expressions and guessing how the characters in their books would act. This
is because in literary fiction, characters tend to be complex. Readers must pay closer attention
and exercise empathy in order to understand them. Those skills translate into the real world.

10. It expands your understanding of the world

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Speaking of the real world, reading both fiction and nonfiction can change your perspectives on
things. How? Books are like windows. By looking through them, you can see different views on
humanity, current events, history, culture, and more. If you intentionally seek out voices and
authors who are very different from you, your understanding expands even more.

As such reading is a thinking process rather than an exercise in eye movements. Effective
reading requires a logical sequence of thinking or thought patterns, and these thought patterns
require practice to set them into the mind. They may be broken down into the following seven
basic processes:
1. Recognition: the reader's knowledge of the alphabetic symbols.
2. Assimilation: the physical process of perception and scanning. One way this happens is by the
second sound changing to be more similar to the first. One way to help learners notice is to use
phonemic script to describe the changes to sounds.
3. Intra-integration: basic understanding derived from the reading material itself, with
minimum dependence on past experience, other than knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.
4. Extra-integration: analysis, criticism, appreciation, selection & rejection.
These are all activities which require the reader to bring his past experience to bear on the task.
5. Retention: this is the capacity to store the information in memory.
6. Recall: the ability to recover the information from memory storage.
7. Communication: this represents the application of the information and may be further broken
down into at least 4 categories, which are:
* Written communication;
* Spoken communication;
* Communication through drawing and the manipulation of objects; and
* Thinking; this is another word for communication with the self.

1.3. Reading as a Means of Communication

There are numerous things that differentiate good reader from poor readers, but one of the
most important is that of ‘reading concept’. Good readers perceive reading as a form of
communication; that is, they sense that there’s a story or message being presented to them and
they use searching type of behavior to ‘ferret out’ what’s happening or what is being said.

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To live, people should communicate; they should exchange news and views; they should lend
and borrow experience. It is because of this indispensable necessity that people are encouraged
to develop the four language skills. When they master these, they are called literate and that is a
promotion. Once they become literate, they read and write throughout the rest of their life to
exchange experience among their fellow men. That is how life is made full, by means of
communication. And a communication is processed (in addition to listening and speaking) by
means of reading and writing. Reading directly or indirectly, affects one’s life. It is, in fact, a
means of life. If we do not read, then our life is not full. It is lacking cumulative human
experience.

 Skills that we attain in reading are considered preliminary befits. Such

skills include:

- the attainment of new vocabulary

- the act of capturing facts (realities) and ideas (opinions) and the relationship between
these

- the capacity to analyze structures and expressions

- the realization of strange cultures and social values

- enjoyment or excitement

- acquiring information for some purpose or because we are curious about some topic

- obtaining instructions on how to perform some task for our work or daily life

- knowing when or where something will take place or what is available

- knowing what is happening or has happened (as reported in newspapers, magazines,

reports)

- keeping in touch with friends by correspondence or understanding business letters.

1.4. Reading comprehension

What is reading Comprehension?
The word comprehension means understanding. Comprehension is the process of making
sense of words, sentences and connected text. Comprehension is the understanding and

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interpretation of what is read. Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw
conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to
happen, which characters are funny.
Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. It
relies on two, interconnected abilities: word reading (being able to decode the symbols on the
page) and language comprehension (being able to understand the meaning of the words and
sentences). When we make sense of a text, however, we don’t just remember the exact words
and phrases we read. Rather, we form a mental model of what the text describes by integrating
the sense of the words and sentences into a meaningful whole, like a film that plays in our head.

Good comprehension is vital if reading is to have a purpose, if a reader is to engage with and
learn from a text and, ultimately, if a reader is to enjoy what they’re reading.

For more information about the nature of comprehension, an excellent introduction is provided
by Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension: A handbook by Jane Oakhill, Kate
Cain and Carsten Elbro (Routledge, 2014).

 Good comprehension requires a range of different knowledge and skills:

 vocabulary and background knowledge

 integration and inference skills

 understanding language structure/connections

 knowledge and use of text structure

 comprehension monitoring.

Each of these works together with the others to help a reader to make sense of what they read.

 Why is vocabulary development important for comprehension?

The relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension is two-way: they support each
other. One reason for this strong relationship is that rich knowledge of word meanings enables
readers and listeners to make inferences and thematic links within a text. Put simply, the greater

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 a person’s knowledge of words and their meaning, the easier they will find it to understand even
complex texts.

While being familiar with a large number of words is important, the depth of a person’s
vocabulary is also important – how well they can use their knowledge of the word and its related
words in order to understand what they are reading.

The range of language used in written text means that reading is a good way of expanding
vocabulary knowledge, because written text contains rarer, less familiar words than conversation
does. All children, even those who can decode fluently, benefit from being read aloud to as it
provides access to these less familiar words, as well as providing a model for fluent reading and
pronunciation.

1.5. Reading comprehension Strategies

There are different comprehension strategies. The key comprehension strategies are listed
below:

 Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing. ...

 Predicting. ...
 Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization. ...
 Questioning. ...
 Making Inferences. ...
 Visualizing. ...
 Story Maps. ...
 Retelling.
These and other strategies will be deeply discussed under unit four.

1.6. Factors that affect/help reading comprehension

Reading comprehension involves various factors such as background knowledge, a

Background information plays an important role in understanding reading. In an effort to

understand the text, students rely on their background knowledge to link what they already know
with the text they are reading. Background information includes actual student information and

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textual information. Drawing similarities between background information and texts helps
students to become more active readers, improving their reading comprehension.

1.6.2. Vocabulary

Whether learners have vocabulary skills or not affects their reading comprehension. Learners
should be able to understand a word they know and its relationship to other words within the
text. Proper study of vocabulary involves seeing part of a sentence, an explanation, helpful
contextual clues, and how it works in a sentence. These word techniques can help improve
comprehension.

1.6.3. Fluency

Fluency allows learners to store information with precision, expressiveness and increased speed.
The ability to read fluently is developed through practice. As learners become fluent learners,
they will spend less time trying to understand the meaning of words and more time considering
the meaning of sentences. Over time, fluent readers will develop the ability to respond with
understanding of the text.

1.6.4. Active Reading

The Beginners often rely on skilled students to guide them through the text. However, as
beginners develop and grow older they are able to monitor the reading comprehension. Students
can guide their self-study by identifying cognitive problems as they occur. Students can solve
comprehension problems by remembering what they have read, asking themselves questions or
checking the text.

1.6.5. Critical Thinking

Students can respond enthusiastically to a well-written text when they have critical thinking
skills. As students read, they can get the main idea and supporting details, the sequence of events
and the general text structure. Students will also be able to identify textbooks and their impact on
the text. Developing meditation skills helps to deepen a student’s understanding of the text,
leading to a better reading experience.

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The above factors help one to comprehend/understand what he/she is reading.

 HOWEVER, there are factors that negatively affect reading comprehension. These
include:
a) less developed language skills
b) Poor command of vocabulary
c) Habit of cramming
d) Losing interest to learn creativity in reading but the sole goal is just to pass the
examination
e) Psychological problem (Anxiety/stress and others)
f) Distractive noise

1.7. The Three Processes in Memory for the Successful comprehension

The act of remembering what we have read requires the successful completion of three
processes: encoding, storage and retrieval.

The first process, ENCODING, involves transforming information in to a form that can be
stored in memory. Sometimes we encode information automatically, with any effort, but often
we must do something with the information in order to remember it. For example, if you meet
someone named George at a party, you might associate his name with George Washington or
George Bush. Such simple associations can markedly improve your ability to recall names and
others information. The careful encoding of information greatly increases the chance that you
will remember.

The second memory process, STORAGE, involves keeping or maintaining information in

memory. For encoded information to be stored, some physiological change is the must take
place_ a process called consolidation. Normally consolidation occurs automatically, but if a
person loses consciousness for any reason, the process can be disrupted and permanent memory
may not form. That is why a person who has been in serious car accident could awaken in a
hospital and not remember what has happened.

The final process, RETRIEVAL, occurs when information stored in memory is brought to mind.
Calling George by name the next you meet him shows that you have retrieved his name from

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memory. To remember, we must perform all three processes_ encoding the information, store it,
and then retrieve it. Memory failure can result from the failure of any one of the three.

1.8. Monitoring Your Comprehension

Monitoring comprehension is a process in which readers determine whether they understand
what they are reading. If they realize that they cannot articulate the main idea of the passage,
they can take steps to repair their comprehension before continuing to read. Readers who are
good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and
when they do not.
There are different things that may cause comprehension problems. Here are some suggestions
for fixing comprehension problems:

a) Monitor your concentration (e.g. move from your noisy room to a quiet place complete the
reading)

b) Redo the steps to activate reading (if you forget to prepare, go back and preview the
material, set your purpose, and activate your previous knowledge)

c) Fill in the gaps. (A specific section or passage may be causing you trouble because there are
key words that you do not know, so you will have to obtain the relevant definition before
containing to read)

d) Re-read the material. Understand and accept that some material is difficult and may need a
second reading for full comprehension.

 When students face difficulty to comprehend while reading a written text, they may
use several comprehension monitoring strategies:

a) Identify where the difficulty occurs.

b) Identify what the difficulty is.

c) Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words.

d) Look back through the text.

e) Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve the difficultyy

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1.8.1. Self-monitoring Reading Strategies in Comprehension
Self-monitoring reading strategies to help students better understand a text. Self-monitoring
strategies help students independently keep track of what they do and do not
understand while reading a complex text. In short, benefits of self-monitoring
reading strategies include:

 Give students greater independence

 Foster a deeper understanding of a text

 Enable students to learn more effectively

 Encourage risk-taking

 Promote students to take more responsibility for their learning

 Empower students

1.8.2. How Self-monitoring Strategies Support Students When Reading

Closely
That sense of independence and belief in one's ability to comprehend a text
independently often leads to students challenging themselves and taking more risks.
By providing students with self-monitoring strategies , teachers help them reach a
higher level of independence and a better understanding of how to analyze a text
because they will not be so dependent on teacher support while reading a text.

When reading closely, students can use self-monitoring strategies to ensure they check
for basic understanding and think more critically.

 The process of ‘self-monitoring’ includes:

a) Visualize

b) Ask yourself questions

c) Draw conclusions

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 d) Reread to clarify

Strategy 1: Create a Visual

In reading, visualizing refers to creating mental image of what is read. Visualizing is

constructing a mental image or graphic organizer for the purpose of extracting
and constructing meaning from the text Students use their five senses to visualize
what is going on in the text. By visualizing what is happening in the text, students are
more likely to notice and remember details.

Questions for Students:

When picturing in their mind the people or other characters, places, and events in the
text, students can ask themselves the following questions:
 Why is this visual important to the story?
 How does this visual help you to better understand the story?

Strategy 2: Draw Conclusions

Students use their background knowledge and clues from the text to make an
inference (something that you know that the author does not come right out and tell
you). Encouraging students to think about “why” a character did or said something,
and “why” an author may have written the text, creates an environment where students
are naturally making inferences.

Questions for Students:

Students can think about questions like these while making an inference:

 What new information were you able to figure out?

 Why do you think the character did _____________?

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  Why do you think the character said _____________?

 Why do you think the author wrote this text?

Strategy 3: Ask Yourself Questions

Students need to remember that good readers are ALWAYS thinking and wondering.
By actively reading, students will develop a better understanding of the text. Students
should be aware of the difference between a thin and thick question.

Questions for Students:

‘Thin questions’ are the ones where the answers are right in the text (you can actually
point to the answer in the text).

 Who is the main character?

‘Thick questions’ are those where the answers are supported by the text.

 What is a possible lesson that can be learned from the story?

Encourage students to use questions like these while actively reading a text:

 Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Strategy 4: Re-Read to Clarify

Students need to go back to the text and re-read parts that are still confusing and/or to
clarify misinterpretations. Re-reading will lead to a better understanding of a text and
analysis at a deeper level.

Questions for Students:

Here are some questions for students to think about while re-reading.
 What new information did I learn?

 What do I understand better?

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  How has my thinking changed?

 IN SUMMARY, Self-monitoring strategies have many benefits, such as giving

students greater independence and fostering a deeper understanding of a text.
These strategies enable students to learn more effectively and encourage risk-
taking. Self-monitoring strategies encourage students to take more
responsibility for their own learning and, most importantly, will empower
students.

UNIT TWO: THEORIES/ MODELS OF READING

There are three theories/models of reading. These are traditional view/bottom-up, top-down,
and the interactive model (the meta-cognitive view)

2.1. The Traditional view (Bottom-up model)

Traditional theories of reading suggest it's a process by which individuals learn smaller, discrete
words and parts of words before learning how to read whole sentences, paragraphs and so on.
Traditional theories of reading maintain that individuals build up their vocabularies and
grammatical rules, and through this act of accretion they slowly gather together the necessary
components to read fluently. These bottom-up theories of reading lend themselves to models of
instruction such as phonics-based learning, in which individuals sound out phonemes or parts of
words and slowly combine them into whole words, whole words into sentences, and so on.

According to Browne (1998), this model describes reading as a process that starts with the
learner’s knowledge of letters, sounds and words and how these words are formed to make
sentences. This model is called part to whole model because it goes from partial to whole
knowledge. This model is so effective in the early childhood, especially students as young
learners. It’s effective because the emphasis here is on the letters, recognition of their shapes and
reading individual words. However, this model has many disadvantages if used for higher levels
since it forgets the reader’s expectations, experience, and attitudes. Furthermore, it doesn’t pay
attention to the context since it only encourages remembering.

In bottom-up theories, meaning resides in the text. This point of view shows this process as
an essentially passive process, where the reader decodes the intended message of the writer by

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moving from the lowest level, such as letters and words, towards the higher levels of clauses,
sentences, and paragraphs (Carrell, 1998). This implies that the meaning comes from deciphering
the letter, then the word, the sentence and finally the text. In other words, the process is
conceived of as something unilateral in which the reader only has the role of extracting written
information and constructs meaning from the particular text segment that is being processed
without taking into account the surrounding environment.

One bottom-up model, described by Urquhart and Weir (1998) taking into account Gough's
model mentions that a number of processing components are used in order to process text. His
description shows the reading process from the perception of the letters which make up the text,
through an oral realization of it. The reader begins with letters, which are detected by the
scanner, and then the strings of letters are converted into phonemes by the decoder. The output of
the decoder then arrives to the recognition of a word. The reader then continues by fixating on
the next word in the text until every word in the sentence has been analyzed.

A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text, it
says that reading is driven by a process that results in meaning (or, in other words, reading is
driven by text) and that reading proceeds from part to whole.

To elaborate, Gough (1972) proposes a phonics-based or bottom-up model of the reading

process which portrays processing in reading as proceeding in serial fashion, from letter to
sound, to words, to meaning, in the progression suggested in the accompanying figure.

 Here Stated in Gough's terms the reading system, from a bottom-up perspective,
functions in sequences as follows:

First, the graphemic information enters through the visual system and is transformed at the first
level from a letter character to a sound, that is, from a graphemic representation to a phonemic
representation.

Second, the phonemic representation is converted, at level two, into a word. The meaning units
or words then pass on to the third level and meaning is assimilated into the knowledge system.

Input is thus transformed from low-level sensory information to meaning through a series of
successively higher-level encodings, with information flow that is entirely bottom-up, no
higher-level processing having influence on any lower-level processing.

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This process is also referred to as data-driven. However, some researchers (e.g. Rumelhart,
1977) have already noticed the weaknesses of the bottom-up model in which processing is seen
as proceeding only in one direction, so this implies that no higher level information ever
modifies or changes lower level analysis.

In some cases, readers are able to identify a word correctly only by employing higher level
semantic and syntactic processing.

 Drawback (Weakness) of Bottom-up Theory

The bottom-up or decoding model of reading was criticized by Eskey (1998) for its failure to
account for the contribution of the reader and his expectations about the text, which are informed
by his knowledge of language, and are employed as part of the reading process. The perceived
importance of the reader's expectations in the processing of text led to the development of the
top-down model of reading.

Readers often decontextualize and just think about the words so that by the time they reach the
end of a page they have forgotten what the topic was about (Eskey & Grabe, 1988). This model
of reading ignores readers’ background knowledge. But background knowledge about the text
we read has a great role in understanding its message.

2.2. The Cognitive View (Top-down model)

A top-down reading model is a reading approach that emphasizes what the reader brings to the
text, it contends that reading is driven by meaning and proceeds from whole to part.

It is also known as concept-driven model. To these theorists (e.g. Goodman, 1967; Smith,
1971), efficient reading doesn't result from the precise perception and identification of all the
elements in a word, but from skills in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary.

They contend that readers have a prior sense of what could be meaningful in the text, based
upon their previous experiences and their knowledge about language. Readers are not, in their
view, confined only to one source of information—the letters before their eyes, but have at their
disposal two other important kinds of information which are available at the same time: semantic
cues (meaning), and syntactic cues (grammatical or sentence sense).
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Thus, what readers bring to the text separately in terms of both their prior knowledge of the topic
and their knowledge about the language assists them in predicting what the upcoming words will
be.

Readers sample the print, assign a tentative hypothesis about the identity of the upcoming word
and use meaning to confirm their prediction.

If meaning is constructed, readers resample the text and form a new hypothesis. Thus, readers
need to only briefly sample the marks on the page in order to confirm word identity.

This model, which is also called inside-out model and whole to part model, involves the reader’s
experience and what he/she brings to the reading material. Browne (1998) clarified that, ‘this
model suggests that readers begin to read by drawing on what they know about the structure and
the meaningfulness of language, the structure of stories and other genres and their knowledge of
the world to predict the general meaning and specific words in context.’ This model is broader
and more realistic. It should be pointed out here that whenever the experience of the students is
being involved, the more effective the teaching will be. Moreover, this model encourages
guessing. However, one of its disadvantages is that cross-cultural identifications might play a
major role in recognizing such texts. For instance, some cultures might lack information about
certain topics and readers could face great difficulties in recognizing what the topic is about.

In this model it is evident that the flow of information proceeds from the top downward so that
the process of word identification is dependent upon meaning first. Thus the higher level
processes embodied in past experiences and the reader's knowledge of the language pattern
interact with and direct the flow of information, just as listeners may anticipate what the
upcoming words of speakers might be. This view identifies reading as a kind of
“psycholinguistic guessing game”(Goodman, 1967).

The top-down model centers upon the assumption that good readers by pass the letter sound
correspondence when they read because they read so quickly. That is, because good readers
read at a faster speed, they do not depend upon the phonemic code.

However, this view is also challenged. Recent evidence presented by Stanovich (1980) discredits
this assumption.

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A lot of research suggests that instead of depending on meaning only, good readers may well
markedly attend to graphic information, especially when they are uncertain about a word.

Consider the following Top-Down Approach:

 Past experience and Language intuitions → Selective aspect of print → Meaning
→ sound (pronunciation) if necessary

 Top-down strategies that good readers employ, and that can be thought to young readers
include the following:
a) using background knowledge to assist in comprehending a particular text;
b) scanning the text for headings, sub-headings and non-text material such as pictures, graphs
and diagrams to acquire a broad understanding before more detailed reading;
c) skimming the text and thinking about the content, and then writing down a number of
questions that you would like the text to answer for you;
d) Identifying the genre of the text (knowing that you are about to read a procedural instructive,
allegorical text etc. can facilitate reading comprehension);
e) Discriminating between more and less important information (for example, discriminating
between key information (for example, discriminating between key information and supporting
detail).

How Is the Top-Down Theory of Reading Implemented?

In the top-down reading model, the emphasis is placed on a student's engagement with the
text. It is not enough to get students to simply know the word they see, understand its general
meaning and know how to pronounce it if reading aloud. The goal of the top-down reading
theory is to get students to become active readers. Active readers have increased
comprehension skills and larger vocabularies and are more capable of engaging in abstract and
logical thought.
Active readers have meaningful engagement with the text. A large reason for this is that active
readers tend to pursue texts in which they are interested. Rather than simply being able to read
the words off an exercise page that is presented to them, top-down readers learn by reading
actual texts that they choose and begin to decode with the help of a teacher.

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When students select a certain text, they have to use clues beyond sounding out words to
understand what they are reading. They need to bring themselves and their experiences to what
they know of the subject matter. The top-down theory of perception posits that it is this
connection between what a reader's unique brain perceives when reading and the words on the
page that produces meaning.

 Major Problems/drawback of Top-down Approach to reading

One of the criticism that could be made of top-down processing as it is applied the teaching of
reading is that it fails to distinguish adequately between beginning readers and fluent readers.
Researchers argue that, as fluent readers recognize words on sight, then this is how beginning
readers should be taught. (they point out that children learning ideographic written systems such
as Chinese learn in this way-that is, by recognize the unique shape of each character.) However,
it doesn’t follow that, because fluent readers proceed mainly through sight recognition (assuming
that they do). Then this is the way that beginning readers should be taught.

2.3. The Interactive model (The meta-cognitive view)

Since neither the bottom-up nor top-down model of the reading process totally accounts for what
occurs during the reading process, Rumelhart (1977) proposes an interactive model in which
both letter features or data-driven sensory information and non-sensory information come
together at one place. Using a computer analogy, Rumelhart labels this place a “message
board”. In this model, reading is not viewed simply as either a bottom-up or top-down
process, but instead as: a synthesizing of patterns, calling for the application or integration of all
of the previously identified knowledge sources.

Orthographic knowledge, lexical knowledge, syntactic knowledge, and semantic knowledge

come together simultaneously to facilitate word identification. It is theorized that the message
center keeps a running list of hypotheses about the nature of the input string, scans the message
board for the appearance of hypotheses relevant to its own sphere of knowledge, and then
evaluates that hypothesis which is either confirmed or disconfirmed.

Reading, according to Rumelhart, is thus neither a bottom-up nor top-down process, but a
synthesis of the two.

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Stanovich (1980) proposes an interactive-compensatory model, which adds a new feature to
the interactive Rumelhart Model by suggesting that strength in one processing stage can
compensate for weakness in another.

Stanovich (1980) argued that this model gathers the features of the bottom-up and the top-
down models and gives reading more meaning. Here, the readers are more involved in reading.
They use their knowledge of subject theme, their pre-experience of written words, their
reading and their own expectations to make predictions about the reading text. So, the
textual details are the best way in the recognition of the words and the letters the text contains.
The most important advantage of this model is that the communicative activities and the reading
skills are integrated. Whenever the students’ experience is involved, the more interesting,
thrilling and lovely the reading will be.

According to Stanovich, problems in both the bottom-up and top-down models can be reduced
with his model. That is, bottom-up models do not allow for higher-level processing strategies to
influence lower-level processing, and top-down models do not account for the situation in which
a reader has little knowledge of a text topic and, therefore, cannot form predictions.

In Stanovich’s words, “Interactive models assume that a pattern is synthesized based on

information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources. The compensatory
assumption states that a deficit in any knowledge source results in a heavier reliance on other
knowledge sources, regardless of their level in the processing hierarchy” (1980, p. 63).

Stanovich’s theory explains the apparent anomaly found in many experiments in which poor
readers sometimes show greater sensitivity to contextual constraints than do good readers. Poor
readers may be thus using strong syntactic or semantic knowledge to compensate for less
knowledge of orthography or lexicon.

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UNIT 3: LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING READING
Reading comprehension is understanding a written text or extracting the required information
from it as efficient as possible. In fact, total comprehension splits into three levels of
comprehension: 1. literal understanding/meaning,
2. critical/interpretive meaning, and
3. Affective/evaluative meaning.
However, none of these levels is actually a separate entity. All three depend on one another. The
three levels of understanding reading have been discussed as the following.

3.1. Literal Understanding/comprehension

Pedro, T. D. and Yerni, G.D (2020) state that Literal understanding/comprehension refers to an
understanding of the straightforward meaning of the text, such as facts, vocabulary, dates,
times, and locations. Questions of literal comprehension can be answered directly and explicitly
from the text.
Literal comprehension occurs at the surface level when a reader/viewer acknowledges what
they can see and hear. The details are stated and clear for anyone to identify. Literal
comprehension is often referred to as ‘on the page’ or ‘right there’ comprehension. This is the
simplest form of comprehension. According to Lapp and Flood (1986), literal comprehension
revers to the ability to understand and identify the information that directly stated on the printed
pages; fact and opinion, directly stated main ideas, and sequences.

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Literal understanding/comprehension is the basic understanding of the text, often answered by
questions such as who, what, when, and where.

Literal meaning is simply what the text says. It is what actually happens in the story. This is a
very important level of understanding because it provides the foundation for more advanced
comprehension. Without understanding the material on this level, you could not go any farther.

Literal comprehension is that basic level of understanding a reading material that entails or
involves the ability to recognize words accurately as well as main ideas and supporting details.
Hence, it is the most basic level of understanding, providing the foundation for the development
of the two higher levels, namely critical and affective comprehension. It is probably the most
used of the three levels of comprehension.

Making up literal comprehension are such things as vocabulary knowledge or development,

understanding main ideas and supporting details in the main or to mention of few.

Here the reader finds the answer in the text. The reader might be asked to do any of the
following:

Here are examples of the type of information that could be identified as literal meaning:

 Identify the main ideas of the paragraph or short story.

 Recall details that support the main ideas.
 Organize the sequence in which the main events occurred.
 Identify facts
 Identify characters in the story (in case of short story, novel, fiction…)
 Examples of literal question starters:

a) What happened . . . ? d)Who . . . ?

b) How many . . . ? e) What is . . . ?
c) How did . . . ? f) Which . . . ?
It has been mentioned above that literal comprehension is the understanding of information and
facts directly stated in the text. It is recognized as the first and most basic level of
comprehension in reading. Students can employ literal comprehension skills as defined under:
keywords, skimming and scanning to better locate the information efficiently. Consider the
following table.

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 Key words are the content words that carry the most meaning in a text.
Key Words
Students can underline or highlight the key words
Skimming refers to reading quickly from a text to get main idea. Students
Skimming
can skim/read from the text headings and sub-headings, pictures,
diagrams, captions, any italicized or bold words, and the first and last
paragraphs of the text.
Scanning refers to locating the particular elements or specific details in a
Scanning
text, such as key concepts, names, dates or certain information in answer
to a question. Students can easily scan the text and locate the key words to
find the specific information quickly.

 To summarize, Literal is – identifying the information by using the context clues to

supply meaning, following specific directions, sequences, identifying stated
conclusions and identifying explicitly stated relationships and organizational
patterns. These organizational patterns can include cause, effect as well as comparison
and contrast. For example:
1. What words state the main idea of the story?
2. How does the author summarize what she/he is saying?
3. Outlining the first paragraph of the story.
4. What happened first, second and last?
5. How are these things alike? How are they different?

3.2. Interpretive/Critical Understanding

Critical comprehension is the level of comprehension or understanding that enables us to
distinguish fact from opinion, to recognize a writer’s intent, attitude or bias, to draw inferences
and to make critical judgments. It is more sophisticated level of understanding than literal
comprehension and a less flavored level of understanding than affective comprehension. Critical
comprehension requires a contribution by both the writer and the reader and an interplay which
usually results in a new understanding.

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Inferential comprehension/critical understanding requires the reader to link ideas within the text
that are not explicitly stated. Inferential questions often answer ‘why’ or ‘how’. Inferential level
of understanding also considers the author's purpose, word choice, and mood of the text.

Interpretive understanding requires the reader to move beyond the text to consider what they
think and believe in relation to the message in the text. They use an important skill called
‘inferring’. It is at this point that readers/viewers are required to justify their opinions, argue for
a particular viewpoint, critically analyse the content and determine the position of the author.

Inferential comprehension requires the reader/viewer to draw on their prior knowledge of a topic
and identify relevant text clues (words, images, sounds) to make an inference. Inferential
comprehension is often referred to as ‘between the lines’ or ‘think and search’ comprehension.
This level of comprehension requires more skill but can be achieved by young children (van den
Brock, Kindeou, Kremer, Lynch, Butler, White and Pugzles Lorch, 2005).

 REMEMBER THAT: An Interpretive or parallel level, the focus shifts to reading

between the lines, based on the meaning of the text or the text being studied. It requires
readers to piece together pieces of information to form beliefs about the author’s purpose
and message. Directing students to recognize these imaginative relationships improves
comprehension and reduces the risk of being overwhelmed with the complexity of visual,
audible or readable text.
Further to clarify, the Inferential comprehension could also involve interpreting figurative
language, drawing conclusions, predicting outcomes, determining the mood, and judging the
author’s point of view.
The following questions are usually asked:
1. What does the author value?
2. What is the theme?
3. What effect does this character/event have on the story?
4. How do you think this story will end?

Inferential meaning involves determining what the text means. You start with the stated
information. This information is then used to determine deeper meaning that is not explicitly

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stated. Determining inferential meaning requires you to think about the text and draw a
conclusion.

 Examples of the type of information that could be identified as inferential meaning

include:
 Cause and effect relationships
 Future predictions.
 An unstated main idea

3.3. Affective Understanding/ Reading for Applied Meaning

Knut Hamsun wrote ‘one must know and recognize not merely the direct but the secret power
of the word. He meant affective comprehension is recognized by the secret power of the word.
Affective understanding/comprehension, most simply put, is your reaction to what you read at
the literal and critical levels of understanding entwined spirally or rebuilt in a triangular
interaction. It is your intercultural and emotional response to what you read. Unless we react
on effective level, a personal meaningful level reading becomes dull and uninteresting. Hence,
as a good reader, you will become your own teacher using the learned skills to rebuild and
recognize your thoughts and beliefs that only happen when effective reactions to what is read
take place.

Affective comprehension has to do with your personal reaction to what you read with your
senses_ taste, touch, smell, sight and sound with words. Affective comprehension has also to
do with our tastes and appreciation of the skills involved in writing and reading.

Affective reading engagement deals with students' motivation to read as well as emotional
reactions that they feel while doing the reading tasks, such as interest, boredom, happiness,
sadness, and anxiety.
Here, the reader makes links between the text and his or her own experience and knowledge to
develop an answer. The reader asks open-ended questions to promote deeper understanding and
do the following:
 Make generalizations.
 Make comparisons.
 Make judgments.

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  Make recommendations and suggestions.
 Make decisions.
 Create alternative endings.
 NOTE THAT: Applied comprehension concerns itself with why the author says what
he or she says. This high level of comprehension requires the reader to use some
external criteria from his/her own experience in order to evaluate the quality, values of
the writing, the author’s reasoning, simplifications, and generalizations.
The reader will react emotionally and intellectually with the material. Because everyone’s life
experiences are varied, answers to some of the following questions will vary:
1. Could this possibly happen?
2. Is this argument logical?
3. What alternatives are there?
4. Is this a fact or an opinion?
5. Do you agree or disagree with the author?
6. What is the best solution to this problem?

SUMMARY OF THE THREE LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING IN READING

Level 1: Literal Understanding: Locate, Recall, Connect. What do you see? The answer is in
the image. Justify answers with evidence from the text. (Students search for the information
within the text.)

Level 2: Inferential/Critical Understanding: Infer and Interpret. What do you think this
means? Why? What evidence in the text supports your answer? (Students use the literal
information and combine it with other information from the image or context, and prior
knowledge to make inferences based on this information. This requires close analysis of the
text and deeper thinking about this.)

Level 3: Evaluative/Applied Understanding: Evaluate, Generalise, Hypothesise, Synthesise,

Think critically, Think creatively, and Apply to other contexts. What do you think about this?
(Students combine the literal and inferential information from the text with other ideas and
knowledge to extend thinking beyond the text.)

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ACTIVITIES:

Putting the Three Levels of Understanding/Comprehension into Practice:

Instruction: Now that you've learned about three levels of reading comprehension, you're
ready to put those into practice! Read the following continuation of Billy's story from the
lesson, and then answer the questions that follow:

Billy stacked the blocks one by one. They were almost as tall as he was! He couldn't wait to
show them to his grandfather; he knew Grandpa would say the real Eiffel Tower was taller, but
he would like Billy's smaller version too.

Billy's neighbor Akira reminded him he was supposed to come over to her house to swim. It was
a hot summer day, and Akira's family's pool was the only way to cool down. But Billy said he
had changed his mind. Akira begged him to come, so Billy finally told her she was ruining his
concentration and annoying him. Akira ran off.

Billy was almost finished with his tower when suddenly... crack! Bang! Pop! Billy's tower fell
over!
Akira stood behind Billy's tower. Her eyes were still red from crying. She had kicked the tower
over!
Billy burst into tears too. When she saw her friend crying, Akira felt bad for destroying his hard
work. She said that she was sorry. Billy ignored her and started to rebuild the tower. Akira
decided not to swim herself that day and stayed in the hot driveway to help Billy. By the time
Grandpa arrived, Billy and Akira were friends again.
Literal Meaning/understanding questions::
1. What was Billy intending to build?
2. What happened to Billy's tower?
Critical/Inferential Understanding questions:
1. Why do you think Akira did what she did to Billy's tower?
2. What might happen next for Billy and Akira?
Evaluative Meaning/understanding questions:
1. What do you think the author is saying about Billy's and Akira's relationship?

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 2. How do you feel about the way Billy and Akira handled the conflict? Is that how you
would handle it?

Sample Answers:
Literal Meaning:
1. The Eiffel Tower.
2. Akira knocked it over.
Inferential Meaning:
1. She was disappointed he broke his promise.
2. Multiple answers are possible, such as "Billy and Akira will swim tomorrow; Billy and
Akira will fight and make up again, and more!"
Evaluative Meaning:
1. Multiple answers are possible: "They can fight and make up; they are close and like
siblings; it is good to apologize when you hurt someone," and more.
2. Answers will vary based on your opinion!

UNIT 4: READING STRATEGIES

Reading strategies is the broad term used to describe the planned and explicit actions that help
readers translate print to meaning. There are different kinds of reading strategies. Each strategy is
easy to implement and helps keep students/readers actively engaged in the process of learning to
read. The strategies include: predicting, skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing links
(reference), inferring, summarizing, intensive reading, extensive reading, etc.

4.1. Predicting
Predicting is an important reading strategy. Prediction involves students using both their
understanding of the passage and their own knowledge of the topic and related matters in a
systematic fashion to determine what might happen next or after a story ends.

This strategy involves the ability of readers to get meaning from a text by making informed
predictions. Good readers use predicting as a way to connect their existing knowledge to new
information from a text to get meaning from what they read.

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Making predictions is a strategy in which readers use information from a text (including
titles, headings, pictures, and diagrams) and their own personal experiences to anticipate what
they are about to read (or what comes next).
Predicting helps keep the reader's mind engaged and activated as he or she works through a
text. When students actively predict while reading, they stay connected to the text and can reflect
upon, refine, and revise their predictions.
When making predictions, students envision what will come next in the text, based on their prior
knowledge. Predicting encourages children to actively think ahead and ask questions. It also
allows students to understand the story better, make connections to what they are reading, and
interact with the text.

Making predictions is also a valuable strategy to improve reading comprehension. Students are
able to make predictions about a story, based on what they have already heard, read, or seen.
This in turn, will allow students to become actively involved in the reading process. To
determine if their predictions are correct, students should be required to reread portions of the
text to recall facts about the characters or events within the story. Picture walks can serve as a
tool to organize information within a story, which can also increase a child’s comprehension.
During a picture walk, students are able to activate their prior knowledge and connect the visual
images in the story to their own personal experience.

Students can also use a graphic organizer to predict the outcome of a story. They can do this by
identifying clues within the text to predict how characters will behave and how significant
problems in the story will be solved. When using a graphic organizer, students are able to stay
fully engaged in the story as they capture their thoughts in a logical way. It is important for
teachers to encourage children to record clues that either support or deny their predictions.
Teachers can also allow students to revise their predictions in order to reflect on the clues that
are found within the text.

Making predictions encourages readers to use critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Readers are given the opportunity to reflect and evaluate the text, thus extracting deeper meaning

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and comprehension skills. Students will also be more interested in the reading material when
they connect their prior knowledge with the new information that is being learned.
When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations
based on their prior knowledge about similar topics. As they read, they may mentally revise their
prediction as they gain more information.

4.2. Skimming
Do you ever feel like you spend way too much time reading? Do you have trouble determining
which parts of a text are the most important? Do you wish you could collect information from
books in a quicker and more efficient way?
The skimming strategy is done by readers when they skip details, minor ideas, and examples as a
method in reading quickly. Instead of closely reading every word, focus on the introduction,
chapter summaries, first and last sentences of paragraphs, bold words, and text features.
Skimming is extracting the essence of the author’s main messages rather than the finer points .
Lee Kai and Paula (1979) state that skimming is to understand the relationship between ideas
require first motivation or interest in the topic, and secondly a readiness to recognize where the
supporting details begin and end, and where the central points are. Skimming is used to quickly
identify the main ideas of a text. Skimming is done at a speed three of four times faster than
normal reading. People often skim when they have lots of material to red in a limited amount of
time.

Skimming is reading a text quickly to get a general idea of meaning. It can be contrasted with
scanning, which is reading in order to find specific information, e.g. figures or names.
Skimming is a strategic, selective reading method in which you focus on the main ideas of a
text. When skimming, deliberately skip text that provides details, stories, data, or other
elaboration. Instead of closely reading every word, focus on the introduction, chapter summaries,
first and last sentences of paragraphs, bold words, and text features. Skimming is extracting the
essence of the author’s main messages rather than the finer points.

Why skim?
You need the “big picture” or main points when you’re reading. Even if you’re going to do a
more detailed reading of the text, skimming as a form of previewing can help you better

33
comprehend what you read. Knowing when and how to skim will help you become a more
efficient, strategic reader. You’ll become better at determining what parts of the text are most
important. There may also be times when your instructor wants you to understand the big
picture, not all of the little details. In these cases, skimming helps you understand the overall
points of the text and its relevance to your course without bogging you down.
Make the most of your time. Sometimes you don’t have time to do everything. With skimming,
you’ll be able to cover vast amounts of material more quickly and save time for everything else
that you have on your plate. Maybe you don’t have time to finish your reading before class, but
skimming will help you get the main points and attend class much more prepared to maximize
in-class learning.
You need to review a text you have read before. Skimming is also an efficient way to refresh
your memory of large amounts of material before an exam. Skimming a text that you have
already read helps you recall content and structure.

Skimming is not:

Skimming can present problems if not done intentionally. Skimming is not simply flipping
through a text quickly or paying half attention to it. When skimming, be deliberate and
intentional with what you choose to read, and make sure that you are focused. Skimming is not a
lazy way out or a half-hearted attempt at reading. Make sure that you use it carefully and
strategically and are able to walk away with the main ideas of the text.

Skimming methods:
Beginnings & endings: Read first and last sentences of paragraphs, first and last paragraphs of
major sections, and introductions and summaries of chapters.
Wheat vs. chaff: Read only the amount of text necessary to determine if a section presents a
main idea or support for a main idea.

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Visual & verbal cues: Watch for signal words and phrases that indicate an author’s direction
(e.g., however, although, moreover, in addition to). Things to focus on while skimming:

 Introduction and conclusion

 Chapter/section summaries
 First and last sentences
 Titles, subtitles, and headings
 Bold words
 Charts, graphs, or pictures
 End of chapter review questions

When to skim:
There are certain texts that lend themselves to skimming better than others. It is typically less
beneficial to skim novels, poetry, and short stories or texts that do not have text features such
as such as tables of content, chapter or section summaries, headings, bold words, pictures, and
diagrams. Non-fiction texts, like textbooks, journal articles, and essays are typically full of
these kinds of text features and are more suited for skimming.
Skimming can also be a good tool for conducting research and writing papers. Typically, when
researching or writing, you will not need to read every word of every text closely, but will
benefit more from skimming while evaluating your sources or identifying information important
to your work.
Finally, know your context. There may be some texts that you are better off reading closely and
thoroughly. Some professors specifically tell you that they include small details from the
textbook on exams. You may have some classes that are just difficult to understand, and you may
find that reading closely helps you comprehend concepts better. Before skimming, spend some
time thinking about your classes, professors, and needs to determine if you have any texts you
may need to read more closely.

4.2.1. Active Reading Strategies in Skimming

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When skimming, it’s important to continue to use active reading strategies. This keeps your
brain active, engaged, and focused, and helps you understand and retain information better and
longer. Here are a few effective active reading strategies to pair with skimming:

A) Set a purpose for reading: Instead of approaching the text as something you just have to get
through, identify a purpose for this reading. What do you want to get out of it? Why are you
reading it? Keep this purpose in mind as you read.

B) Preview: Look through the text before started to read and focus on headings, illustrations,
captions, highlighted items, end of chapter summaries, etc. These features give you an idea of the
main concepts of the text and what you should focus on while skimming.
C) Make a prediction: Right after previewing, make a prediction about what you think the
chapter or section is going to be about.
D) Activate prior knowledge: Make a list of what you already know about the topic and what
you want to know about it. Identify and write down any questions you have.
E) Annotate: Instead of copying down copious notes from the book, jot down brief notes and
thoughts (in your own words) in the margins of the text or in a notebook. PDF viewers, such as
Adobe Acrobat and Preview, also let you add notes directly on the page of a digital text. Other
possibilities include note-taking apps such as Evernote, OneNote, or Google Keep.
F) Summarize the main ideas. After a section or page, stop and write a 1-3 sentence summary
in your own words. This keeps your brain engaged and ensures you are comprehending what you
read.
G) Generate questions. Ask and write down questions that you have as you read the text and/or
questions that you would ask a class if you were the instructor. Try using different levels of
questions.

4.3. Scanning

Scanning is reading rapidly in order to find specific facts. While skimming tells you what
general information is within a section, scanning helps you locate a particular fact. Use scanning

36
in research to find particular facts, to study fact-heavy topics, and to answer questions requiring
factual support. Scanning is a technique to trigger and extract key information and ideas such as
names, numbers, and specific facts. Scanning involves moving your eyes quickly down the
page, identifying specific words and phrases to find a particular answer or grasp the basic main
idea.

Scanning strateg is a rapid reading to search for the specific information of the text is read. Ken
Heland (In Wakkang, 2004) states that scanning is rapid search for specific information rather
than general impression.
Scanning demands the reader to ignore all about the key item being searched for. It is useful skill
for data gathering, review, using reference books, or judging whether a text contains material
deserving further study. Lee Kai and Paula (1979) state that is not reading in the strict sense of
the words.
It is an ability to locate facts quickly to find the answer to specific question. The scanning
activity is when the readers want to find out about a word, a place, or a name about a time
or date, or about statistic them concrete on a specific section and glance down it.

4.4. Guessing
Is guessing one of the reading strategies?
Believe it or not, guessing is taught as a reading strategy in many schools, so previous teachers
may have encouraged a student to look at the pictures or use context clues to see if he could
figure out what the unknown word was.
Guessing from context refers to the ability to infer the meaning of an expression using
contextual clues.
Reading is a constant process of guessing and what a reader brings to the text is often more
important than the text itself. Students benefit from learning to use what they know to understand
unknown elements through a global approach to the text. Look at the unknown word and decide
its part of speech.

Contextual guessing is using context to discover the meaning of unknown words to comprehend
a reading text. By contextual guessing readers can identify important words in reading and can in
fact make semantic predictions about their relationship to one another. Contextual guessing is the

37
most important skill used by most readers in attacking new words (Sukri, 2012). It is closely
related to comprehension and this is one of the most practical skills students learn. Context clues
have several uses in reading:
First, context clues help readers to derive the pronunciation and meaning of a known word from
its uses in a sentence. Second, context clues also help to determine the pronunciation and
meaning of an unknown word from its use in a sentence. When context is used for this purpose, a
student reads around an unknown word, gets the general meaning of the sentence and then
guesses at the pronunciation and meaning of the unfamiliar word from the way it is used. Third,
context determines how the accentuation of similar words used in different contexts or with
different grammatical usages affects their meanings. Fourth, context provides clues to the
meanings of words that vary according to the subject area in which they are used. Context clues
can function only if the material is suited to the reader in terms of difficulty and familiarity or
interest. If the context is too involved, or if there are too many unknown words, context is of
little value

4.5. Recognizing links (Reference)

Sentences and paragraphs are not just strung together, one after the other. The ideas they express,
both within and between sentences, are connected by means of various words and phrases that
relate the ideas to each other. You can improve your reading speed and comprehension by
recognizing and using references.
To prevent the same word more than one time in a sentence or in some sentences of the same
paragraph or of the same article, writers always use references. References are words that
substitute for other words or phrases. They usually refer back to ideas that have already been
expressed, but they can occasionally refer forward to ideas yet to be stated. Thus, in order to see
the connection between items of information, we need to find the reference of the substitution
word. Below is a list of the most often used references.
1. Personal pronouns: I, me, my, mine, she, her, hers, he, him, his, it, its, they, them, their, we,
us, our, ours, you, your, yours (replace nouns)
2. Impersonal pronouns: one, ones (replace nouns)
3. Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those (replace nouns, phrases, or sentences that
refer to a fact or idea)

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4. There, then (replace adverbials of place or time)
5. Such + noun (replaces the description of the person or thing named by the noun)
6. The former, the latter, the same (replaces the previously mentioned person, thing, or idea)
 In the following paragraph, the references are bolded and italicized.
Consider what the words show/refer to.
‘Speed-reading is a skill every student should master in order to succeed their study. In
relation to this, some students read slowly but don’t know that they do; others read slowly and
know it. Their reading problems are the same, but the latter can be helped more easily because
they are already aware of their problem. Before the former can be helped, however, they must
be made aware of the problem.’

4.6. Inferring (Making Inferences)

Writers sometimes suggest rather than state their ideas: they say just enough so that readers have
the basis to make or draw an inference. An inference is an educated guess about what a person
implies but doesn’t directly state.
Inferring is being able to ‘read between the lines’, when the author implies something but
doesn’t exactly state it. To infer, we need to use both the clues in the text (context, illustration,
etc) and our own prior knowledge. By using the text and our own prior knowledge, we can
interpret what we think the author is really trying to say.
Making inferences involves more than a literal understanding. Students may initially have a
difficult time answering inference questions because the answers are based on material that is in
the text but not explicitly stated. An inference involves students combining their literal
understanding of the text with their own knowledge and intuitions.

INFERRING refers to bringing what is written in the text, what is un written in the text,
and what is already known by the reader in order to extract and construct meaning from the
text.

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  When you try to infer main idea implied by the author, remember the following
points:
1. An implied main idea should summarize the paragraphs just a topic sentence would.
2. The implied main idea has to be solidly based on the statements that the author actually
makes.
3. It should be based more on the author’s words than on what you know, feel, or think about the
topic.
4. An implied main idea should never be contradicted by a statement in the paragraph.
The inference techniques in reading are the teacher taught students how to infer meanings from
paragraph context. In order to make inferences about something that is not explicitly stated in the
text, students must learn to draw on prior knowledge and recognize clues in the text itself.
Inferring means figuring out something that the author doesn't actually say. You can use
clues that are in the text, and things from your own mind. Sometimes it's called "reading between
the lines," and it adds a lot more meaning to the story.
Inferring is being able to ‘read between lines’, when the author implies something, but doesn’t
exactly state it. To infer, we need to use both the clues in the text (context, illustration, etc) and
our own prior knowledge. By using the text and our own prior knowledge, we can interpret what
we think the author is really trying to say.

How does Inferring Support Reading Comprehension?

Students develop deeper understandings of the text when they ‘read between the lines’ to draw
their own conclusions by using their prior experience. They create their own unique meaning of
the text. As they read, these understandings may be revised as the reader is exposed to a new
information and confirms or adjusts their thinking.

Language we use when inferring:

a) Reading between the lines, I think………………
b) I would expect that……………………
c) I already know that………. so I think………………
d) In my experience…………………..
e) I think the author is really saying that………………
f) My conclusion is………….because in the text it says……………

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g) The author’s clues were……………..
h) I think what is really going on is…………………
i) I wonder why…………………
j) I wonder if …………………...

4.7. Summarizing
One good way to view longer passages is to write a summary. A summary helps you prepare for
class discussion and makes a useful record for future study. Also instructors frequently assign
summaries because they are good measures of how well you have understood a writer’s main
idea. A summary is a brief restatement of the main ideas of a work. Make a summary shorter
than the original by including only the main ideas and major details. To summarize your writing,
restate the main ideas in your own words. Make each summary a fair and accurate restatement of
the original work.
Summarizing teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main
points for more concise understanding. Upon reading a passage, summarizing helps students
learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate important details that support them. It is a
technique that enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are
worth noting and remembering.
Paul (2010) states:
“Summarization is an effective strategy to help students enhance understanding of
what is read. The method requires that students rewrite or outline only the
importance part of a passage. Summarization encourages students to look for the
most important parts and determine what parts of a story are less important and what
should be ignored. This also helps students see how different parts of a story relate to
each other; including how parts of the text fit with the title or main topic.”

Summarizing helps readers how to discern the most important ideas in a text,
how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas
in a meaningful way.

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  Here are some guidelines for summary writing:
a) Write you own words except for key terms that need to be included.
b) Begin the topic or main idea and then add supporting details.
c) Do not include your opinion. Be careful that word choice does not misrepresent the meaning
of the original.
d) Do not include minor details. Do include important definitions when appropriate.
e) Combine several ideas into one sentence as a way to condense the original.

4.8. Intensive reading

It is also called study reading, this involves close study of the text. As the amount
comprehension should be high the speed of reading is correspondingly slower. The meaning of
intensive reading is to read with full concentration and complete focus. It’s not about reading
book after book or 10 articles a day. Even if you’re reading a single-line quote, you should try to
understand what the words are trying to convey.

Intensive reading is one of the most critical skills you can develop to get a better understanding
of information. When you have to read a report for work, for instance, you cannot just skim it
and call it a day. You have to get a deeper understanding of what’s written, assess the purpose
and evaluate the results to make sense of it. Reading intensively will help you tackle complex
texts. You will be able to strengthen your reading comprehension, vocabulary and language
skills.

Therefore, intensive reading means that type of reading in which the material has to be read
carefully and thoroughly, to get specific details.

Intensive reading is a reading method wherein learners are supposed t read the short text
carefully and deeply to gain maximum understanding.

HOW TO READ INTENSIVELY:

A. Taking notes

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Try to jot down notes and ideas in the margins as you are reading. Maybe you have a question
related to the text or a thought that you want to express.
Taking notes is convenient when you reread the text and can be particularly helpful when you are
reading a long report. Add sticky notes with questions, ideas and opinions so you can share them
with the author. Not only will you be able to keep track but it will also give you something to
focus on while you are reading.

B. Break down the reading process

A handy trick to intensive reading is breaking it down into three steps—pre-reading, reading and
post-reading. The first step is preparation: use your existing knowledge to understand the
purpose of the text. The second is the actual reading process that is supplemented by note taking.
The final step is what comes after you are done reading. This is where you summarize all the
information, ask questions and get your thoughts in order.

C. Apply what you’ve learnt

It is not enough to simply keep the information to yourself and forget about it the next day. If
you can find ways to use that information, you will be able to retain it for much longer. For
instance, if you are reading a report on achieving sales targets, you can make notes that you can
later share with your team. These can include points to look out for, strategies for advertising and
other ideas that crop up as you read.
You will find that there are many advantages of intensive reading. It increases your efficiency
and saves time in the process. You are able to focus on one task and deliver improved results.

Intensive reading involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. It can
be compared with extensive reading, which involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to
develop general reading skills.

Example
The learners read a short text and put events from it into chronological order.

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In the classroom:
Intensive reading activities include skimming a text for specific information to answer true or
false statements or filling gaps in a summary, scanning a text to match headings to paragraphs,
and scanning jumbled paragraphs and then reading them carefully to put them into the correct
order.

4.9. Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a technique in teaching reading which is defined as a situation where

students read a lot of materials in their level in a new language; they read for general, for overall
meaning, and for information at one with enjoyment (Day and Bamford, 2004). It is projected to
build positive attitude toward reading, to develop good reading habits, to construct vocabulary
and structure knowledge (Richards and Schmidt, 2010).

Extensive reading involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general reading
skills. It can be compared with intensive reading, which means reading in detail with specific
learning aims and tasks.

Example: A teacher reads a short story with learners, but does not set them any tasks except to
read and listen.

Extensive reading is an approach to language learning in which the students for general
understanding read long text and a large amount of material.

Basically, an ideal reading program combines both the approaches, wherein intensive reading
can be used to acquaint new language and extensive reading can be helpful in spreading
awareness of that language.
Extensive reading refers to that type of reading in which students read and refer to large
quantities of material, chosen by them as against, intensive refers to in-depth or concentrated.

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  ADVANTAGES OF EXTENSIVE READING
Say that you want to learn the French language. Even if you don’t understand all the grammar
and vocabulary, reading a text in French will help you get an idea of how the words connect with
each other and how the text flows.
Whether you want to learn a new language, read quickly to save time or make sense of large
amounts of text, there are many advantages of extensive reading:

A. Develop an Interest in Reading

Many of us find reading to be a chore; an activity that may even make us fall asleep in an instant.
However, it may be impossible to avoid reading altogether. If not for pleasure, we still have to go
through work-related material like reports, minutes of meetings and emails. Extensive
reading will help you develop a healthy interest in reading. You will be able to approach texts
with more enthusiasm and attentiveness.

B. Improve Reading Comprehension

You will find your reading comprehension significantly improving with practice. You will be
able to make sense of text right from the get-go. Sometimes it is hard to focus on a sentence if it
is too complex. Reading extensively will help you get used to different types of written material.
This way you can learn to focus on the text itself without losing yourself in its structural makeup.

C. Help Read widely

Start small and choose short articles and online blogs to develop the habit. Read a little every
day, but make sure you read across genres. You can improve your reading speed, saving time at
work.

D. Improve Vocabulary
When you read from multiple sources, you become better at picking up new words. For
vocabulary, the most important thing is context—the setting where each word is used. As you
continue reading, you’ll be able to understand the meaning of different words as well as connect
them to the general idea presented in the text.

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Extensive reading will help you tackle complex sentences and words that are hard to understand.
Even if you do not become an avid reader or a book lover, you can still develop reading skills to
improve your performance at work.
Harappa Education’s Reading Deeply course will teach to apply the three-step reading process—
pre-reading, reading and post-reading—to improve your skills. You will learn to interpret texts
and make sense of complex reading material. It has high-impact concepts and frameworks for
professionals and students who want to enhance their reading ability. These skills will go a long
way in improving your work performance!

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UNIT 5: WORD AND TEXT ATTACK SKILLS
For the successful comprehension in reading, a reader has to have word and text attack skills.
The concept of the two skills have been discussed in the following text.

5.1. Word-attack skills

Word attack skills are the ability to convert graphic symbols into intelligible language. Special
application of techniques of word recognition, utilization of all those skills that enable one to
recognize and master the meaning of new words is termed "word attack’'. Word attack
skills/decoding skills are those that you use to make sense of printed words. Simply put, this
means being able to recognize and analyze a printed word to connect it to the spoken word it
represents. These skills are a must to transit students into successful readers.

Word attack skills rely on the ability to recognize the sounds that make up words and to put those
sounds together (phonemic awareness). More advanced word attack skills involve using context,
prefixes or suffixes or a dictionary to determine what a word means.

To understand meaning of unfamiliar words while reading a text, using word-attack Strategies
is very important. Word-attack strategies are what readers use to identify, decode pronounce,
and understand unfamiliar words. They help students attack words piece by piece or from a
different angle.

Decoding plays important role in knowing meaning of unfamiliar words in the text. Decoding is
the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter
patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children
the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before.

Similarly, you may ask, what are the five word attack strategies?

 Connect to a word you Know

 Think of a word that looks like the unfamiliar word.
 Compare the familiar word to the unfamiliar word.
 Decide if the familiar word is a chunk or form of the unfamiliar word.
 Use the known word in the sentence to see if it makes sense.

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In addition to what have been discussed above, a reader can use three strategies as word-attack
skill to know meaning of unfamiliar words while reading a given text. These include using
(structural clues, inferring and dictionary).

5.1.1. Structural clues

To understand meaning of new words you encounter while reading a text, one way of knowing
meaning of the words is using structural clues. Structural clue is analyzing the structure of the
word. To do this, using structural analysis is important.

While reading, using structural analysis is important. Structural analysis is a useful aid in word
recognition when combined with phonics and context clues. The chief advantage of structural
analysis is that readers can break the strange word into large rather than small phonetic
elements, thereby, permitting more rapid identification and learning to use larger elements, and
this should be used with context.

Structural analysis is the process of breaking words down into their basic parts to determine
word meaning. Structural analysis is a powerful vocabulary toll since knowledge of a few word
parts can give you clues to the meaning of a large number of words.

When using structural analysis, the reader breaks down words into their basic parts:

a)prefixes: word parts located at the beginning of a word to change meaning

b)root: the basic meaningful part of a word

c)suffixes: word parts attached to the end of a word, suffixes often alter the parts of speech of the
word.

Example: ‘bicyclist’

a)bi-: prefix (meaning: two)

b)cycle: root word (meaning: wheel)

c)-its: a noun suffix (meaning: a person who…)

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5.1.2. Inferring
Vocabulary/words play a great role in understanding the text we read. The more a reader knows
vocabulary of a text he/she reads, the more he/she understands the text. But sometimes, because
of lack of vocabulary, we fail to understand what we read. Lack of vocabulary is regarded as the
greatest sources of problem in reading. In reading, knowing meaning of new words through
inferring refers to knowing meaning of unfamiliar words contextually. Context cue instruction
can improve learners’ ability to infer word meanings from context, improve their comprehension
and enable them to read independently.

Using context to infer word-meaning and acquire vocabulary is very essential. Context clues are
hints found within a sentence, paragraph, or passage that a reader can use to understand the
meanings of new or unfamiliar words. When readers’ language levels improve, and they are able
to have a better understanding of the whole information of text, they start to infer an unknown
word-meaning from the overall knowledge acquired from the context. That is to say, when
readers, who achieve a certain language level, are reading an authentic text, the top-down
process is dominated. The reader uses his own background information, as well as the
information he acquires from the text, to infer the meaning of an unknown word, and confirm his
guessing from the context.

Using of some clue-words in the immediate context always lead to a successful guess of the
target word‘s meaning. A clue-word is a word that indicates the meaning of another word. It
could be a preposition, a conjunction, an adjective, etc. For example, the word ―’consequently’
indicates the first sentence is the reason for the second sentence. Thus, it helps the learners both
to generate and to evaluate guesses.

As a teacher, it is important to assist students with finding clue-words and to help students
improve their ability to identify clue-words while reading authentic foreign language texts. The
teacher also needs to encourage students to use context clues to double-check word
interpretations, even when they think they already know the word. It is also important to teach
students how to use context to identify the part of speech of a word.

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5.1.3. Using the dictionary
Guessing meaning of unfamiliar words contextually is better than using dictionary. But if we
fail to know meaning of unfamiliar words in context, we can use dictionary. Dictionaries can
help you in your reading and writing, and to improve your vocabulary. A dictionary can be used
to look up the meaning of a word. You can also use a dictionary to check the spelling of a word.
Dictionaries may also give other information about words, such as word type and word origin.

The use of the dictionary as a word attack skill can be beneficial to the reader who is
approaching independence, as well as to the already independent reader. Eventually, the
independent reader will be able to use the dictionary as a source of meaning of words, and as a
source expansion of vocabulary meanings.

The dictionary can give the independent reader valuable assistance in the pronunciation of
troublesome words. Because the dictionary has words written phonetically with a pronunciation
guide complete with key words, a reader with basic phonic skills can look up words to find out
how to pronounce them.

As a source of meanings for words, the dictionary can be used to clarify material read. In the area
of content subjects, the dictionary can be particularly helpful.

Often an independent reader can use a dictionary to expand his knowledge of meanings for a
given word. It is not unusual for a student who has had some difficult with reading to tend to
establish a single meaning for a single word. By using the dictionary with well-constructed
exercise work, an independent reader can gain insight into additional meanings.

5.2. Text-attack skills

What is text attack skills?

Reading is no longer seen as a passive skill. Readers co-construct texts, and go beyond gist and
comprehension questions. Text attack skills are comprised of eight sub-skills, i.e.: understanding
syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, interpreting discourse markers,
recognizing functional value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presuppositions

50
underlying the text, recognizing implications and making. Text attack skills involve the
following things:

5.2.1. Understanding Sentence Syntax

Syntax refers the structure and formation of sentences. It explains how words and phrases are
arranged to form correct sentences. When we read a given text, we need to analyze different
structures of the text we read. The followings are some of the structure we need to analyze to
understand the text:

A) Nominalization

Nominalizations are nouns that are created from adjectives (words that describe nouns) or verbs
(action words). For example, “interference” is a nominalization of “interfere,” “decision” is a
nominalization of “decide,” and “argument” is a nominalization of “argue.”

When a verb or an adjective is used as a noun, a nominalization is created. They can mask the
key verb of a sentence, and hence, we often risk losing important information.

There may be different kinds of nominalizations. Consider some of the following

nominalizations:

A) Nominalized Adjective:
a) applicable (adj): This word is formed from the noun (applicability)

The applicability of the law in this case is debatable.

b) happy (adj): This word is formed from the noun (happiness)

Her happiness was a result of having her loving friends.

c) intense (adj): This word is formed from the noun (intensity)

The intensity of her gaze frightened the dog.

B) Nominalized verb: a) react (verb): This word is formed from the noun (reaction)

eg.The children's reactions to receiving candy were priceless

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 b) refuse (verb): This word is formed from the noun (refusal)

eg. The board's refusal to consider the motion ended the meeting.

c) adjust (verb): This word is formed from the noun (adjustment)

eg. Starting University is a big adjustment.

C) Gerundive nominalization: a) write (verb): This word is formed from the gerund (writing)

Eg.Writing is a difficult skill to learn in a new language.

b) run (verb): This word is formed from the gerund (running)

eg. Running is a cardio-heavy exercise.

c)apologize ( verb): This word is formed from the gerund

(apologizing)

Eg.Some people may say that Canadians are always apologizing

Here are more examples of nominalization:

Verb Nominalization Adjective Nominalization

Verb Noun Adjective Noun

Achieve……….achievement anger……………….anger

Adapt………..adaptation available…………..availability

Civilize…….civilisation careless……………carelessness

Conclude……conclusion happy…………….happiness

Confuse……confusion difficult…………..difficulty

Develop……development injured…………..injury

Discovery…..discovery miserable………..misery

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B) Co-ordination

Coordination is the act of connecting two ideas of equal weight and importance.
Coordination uses conjunctions to connect two sentences with roughly equal ideas. Both ideas in
a coordinate sentence (also called a compound sentence) carry approximately equal weight. A
trick to remembering the conjunctions is to think of the acronym, FANBOYS, which stands
for [For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So]. While reading a text with coordination, a reader has to
know that the ideas connected to each other have equal importance to comprehend well.

C) Subordination

Subordination creates unequal emphasis between ideas and emphasizes a major idea in one
independent clause, while placing minor ideas in subordinate, or dependent, clauses. ...
Understanding subordination allows you to create complex sentences, adding sentence variety to
your paragraphs.

Subordination is important in showing relationships between ideas because it more closely

reflects complex life situations. In the subordination of two related ideas, the more important
idea is put into an independent clause, which could stand alone. The less important idea is put
into a subordinate clause, which could never stand alone because it is dependent on the
independent clause.

Subordination uses conjunctions (for example: although, because, since, when, which, who, if,
whereas) to connect one dependent clause to an independent clause, creating a complex
sentence. By using a complex sentence, you indicate to your reader that one idea carries more
weight than the other. Therefore, while reading texts, a reader has to identify sentences that carry
main idea and details.

D) Prepositional phrases

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A prepositional phrase is a group of words containing a preposition, a noun or pronoun object
of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object. A prepositional phrase starts with a
preposition and ends with a noun or a pronoun. Most of the time, a prepositional phrase
modifies a verb or a noun. These two kinds of prepositional phrases are called adverbial
phrases and adjectival phrases, respectively.

When reading a given text, we should recognize prepositional phrases since prepositional phase
contains certain ideas.

In the following phrases, preposition is in italics, and the nouns are underlined.

Example: a) in our house b) between friends c) with that beautiful woman.

Some of the most common prepositions that begin prepositional phrases are [to, of, about, at,
before, after, by, behind, during, for, from, in, over, under, and with.]

HERE ARE MORE EXAMPLES

In the following sentences, prepositional phrases are underlined.

a) He sat on the chair. e) There is some milk in the fridge.

b) She was hiding under the table. f) The cat jumped off the counter.

c) He drove over the bridge. g) She lost her ring at the beach.

d) The book belongs to Anthony. h) They were sitting by the tree.

5.2.2 Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices

The issue of recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices includes: a) Coherence and Cohesion,
b) Interpreting reference and substitution, c) Interpreting elliptical expressions, d) Interpreting
lexical cohesion.
A) Coherence and Cohesion
Coherence is what makes a text semantically meaningful. In a coherent text, ideas are logically
connected to produce meaning. It is what makes the ideas in a discourse logical and consistent. It
should be noted that coherence is closely related to cohesion. Cohesion on the other hand refers

54
to the act of forming a whole unit. It is effectively a subset of coherence. Cohesion is all about
the connection between ideas in a given text. To make cohesion, cohesive devices (linking
words) are usually used. While reading text, a reader should consider how coherences and
cohesion is made between ideas. Cohesive devices effectively help the discourse flow. They
include collocations, lexical repetition, linking adverbials, substitution, ellipsis, conjunctions,
synonymy/antonymy, hyponyms/hyponyms and referencing (anaphoric, cataphoric, deictic).
These devices create physical links between the words in a discourse.

B) Interpreting reference and substitution

Reference words point backwards or forwards to other words or concepts that have already
appeared in the text or are about to appear in the text. In reading unless we know what reference
words refer to, we may fail to understand the text we read.
Substitution occurs when an item is replaced by another item in the text to avoid repetition. The
difference between substitution and reference is that substitution lies in the relation between
words, whereas reference between meanings. There are three types of substitution: nominal,
verbal, and clausal.
Below is a list of the most often used references:
1. Personal pronouns: I, me, my, mine, she, her, hers, he, him, his, it, its, they, them, their, we,
us, our, ours, you, your, yours (replace nouns)
2. Impersonal pronouns: one, ones (replace nouns)
3. Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those (replace nouns, phrases, or sentences that
refer to a fact or idea)
4. There, then (replace adverbials of place or time)
5. Such + noun (replaces the description of the person or thing named by the noun)
6. The former, the latter, the same (replaces the previously mentioned person, thing, or idea)

Example: In the following paragraph, the references are italicized and in bold. Consider
what each reference refer to.
Speed-reading is a skill every student should master in order to succeed their study. In relation to
this, some students read slowly but don’t know that they do; others read slowly and know it.
Their reading problems are the same, but the latter can be helped more easily because they are

55
already aware of their problem. Before the former can be helped, however, they must be made
aware of the problem.

C) Interpreting elliptical expressions

What is an elliptical expression?

An elliptical expression is a group of words with certain understood words omitted. An
elliptical construction is one in which a word or phrase implied by context is omitted from a
sentence, usually because it is a repetition/redundancy of a preceding word or phrase. The
omission of a word or words necessary to the grammatical completeness of a clause or sentence
is called ellipsis. Ellipsis is done when the omitted part doesn’t affect/change the meaning of
the sentence. Elliptical writing occurs when an author opts to not describe an event literally.
Instead the writer implies it obliquely—which can be more artful than spelling it out.
Elliptical language fits into two categories, elliptical sentence construction and elliptical
storytelling. Elliptical sentence construction involves the omission of words from a sentence.
These omitted words are implied by other elements within the sentence. Elliptical structures
include a noun ellipsis, a verb ellipsis, or a verb-phrase ellipsis. Elliptical storytelling uses
the power of implication and suggestion to discuss a subject matter—particularly subject matters
that are taboo in nature.
In individual sentences, you can spot elliptical constructions by looking for omitted words.
Elliptical sentences still conform to the rules of English grammar; they just say the same
amount with fewer words. Here are some examples of elliptical constructions. Use them to
further your understanding of both an elliptical sentence and an elliptical clause.

1. Noun Ellipsis: A noun ellipsis removes a noun from a sentence. For instance: “I did a
full workout, and Marie did too.” This sentence removes the phrase “a full
workout” from its second independent clause. We understand that what Marie “did”
was “a full workout,” and the elision of these words does not diminish that
understanding.

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 2. Verb Ellipsis: A verb ellipsis omits a verb from a sentence. For instance: “I drank
water and Ellen milk.” The verb “drank” appears only once but it refers to both “I” and
“Ellen.” In the case of Ellen, the verb is merely implied.
3. Verb-phrase Ellipsis: A verb-phrase ellipsis omits an entire phrase that’s anchored
by a verb. For instance: “I went to the movies, but Jerry did not.” We know that the
thing Jerry did not do was “go to the movies,” but we omit it as part of this elliptical
construction. The meaning of the sentence does not change with the elliptical clause
omitted.

HERE ARE MORE EXAMPLES OF SENTENCES WITH ELLIPSIS:

In the following examples the omitted words are supplied in brackets and bolded:
1. Thank you. → (I) thank you.

2. Pass me that book. → (You) pass me that book.

3. Some of the strangers spoke French, others Spanish. → Some of the strangers spoke French,
others [spoke] Spanish.

4. Some of the patriots were armed with old flintlocks, others with swords, still others with
pitchforks. → Some of the patriots were armed with old flintlocks, others [were armed] with
swords, still others [were armed] with pitchforks

5. When a youth, he travelled in the East. → When [he was] a youth, he travelled in the East.

6. They were amused, though somewhat vexed. → They were amused, though [they were]
somewhat vexed.

7. While drifting downstream, we grounded on a sand bar. → While [we were] drifting
downstream, we grounded on a sand bar.

8. If possible, send me word to-night. → If [it is] possible, send me word to-night.

D) Interpreting lexical cohesion

What is lexical cohesive?

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Lexical cohesion refers to the reader-perceived unity of text achieved by the author's usage
of words with related meanings (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
Lexical cohesion happens when two words in a text are semantically related in some way; in
other words, they are related in terms of their meaning (Nunan, 1993: 28).
Nunan stresses the fact that the ability to recognize the lexical cohesive links across sentences
and paragraphs is crucial for students or readers to accurately understand the meaning in a text.
When the sequence of sentences is scrambled or changed on purpose, the meaning of the text is
surely distorted or even radically changed. A reader has to know how lexical cohesion is used in
texts to well comprehend what he/she reads.

5.2.3. Interpretation discourse markers

Discourse Markers (DMs) refers to words or phrases that help readers comprehend a text of the
writer. A discourse marker is a word or a phrase that plays a role in managing the flow and
structure of discourse.
According to many research findings, the presence of discourse markers (DMs) enhances
readers' comprehension of the texts they read. Moreover, high correlation carries a strong
regression power and scores on a test of DMs could be a good indicator of the test takers' reading
ability. It is believed that DMs correlate highly with reading comprehension and that they
facilitate the reader's understanding by improving his/her reading speed and recall (Khatib &
Safari, 2011). Readers who are good at recognizing DMs tend to perform better in reading
comprehension tasks, whereas those who are poor at recognizing DMs tend to perform poorly on
reading tasks.

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UNIT 6: TEACHING AND SELECTING READING TASKS
6.1. Principles of teaching reading
Different scholars have tried to state different principles of teaching reading. Their number of
teaching reading is different. Although they state different numbers regarding principles of
teaching reading, following principles of teaching reading has taken consideration:

PRINCIPLE #1: EXPLOIT THE READER'S BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

“A readers background knowledge can influence reading comprehension.” -Carrell, 1983 and
Carrell and Connor 1991

PRINCIPLE #2: BUILD A STRONG VOCABULARY BASE

“It is easier for the reader of academic texts to cope with special terminology than with general
vocabulary...” -Levine and Reves, 1990

PRINCIPLE #3: TEACH FOR COMPREHENSION

“Teaching the author is an excellent technique for meaningful cognitive interaction with the text
and for assisting the students in the process of constructing meaning from the text...” -Beck,
McKeown, Hamilton and Kucan, 1997

PRINCIPLE #4: WORK ON INCREASING READING RATE

Focuses on reader's independence on dictionary. Focuses on fluency, not speed.

PRINCIPLE #5: TEACH READING STRATEGIES

“Strategies are not a single event, but rather a creative sequence of events that learners actively
use...” -Oxford, 1996. “To achieve the desired results, students need to learn how to use a range
of reading strategies that match their purpose for reading. Teaching them how to do this should
be a prime consideration in the reading classroom...” -Anderson, 1991; Chamot and O'Malley,
1994

PRINCIPLE #6: ENCOURAGE READERS TO TRANSFORM STRATEGIES INTO

SKILLS “An important distinction between strategies and skills...” -Kawai, Oxford and Iran-
Nejad, 2000

-defined as conscious actions that learners take to achieve the desired goals or objectives
SKILL/S -a strategy that becomes automatic STRATEGIES VS SKILL

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PRINCIPLE #7: BUILD ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION INTO YOUR TEACHING
Assessing growth and development in reading skills from both a formal and an informal
perspective requires time and training.

PRINCIPLE #8: STRIVE FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AS A READING

TEACHER “Just because you are a reader does not mean that you are prepared to be a teacher
of reading...” -Aebersold and Field, 1997

6.2. Procedures/stage of teaching reading

There are three stages for teaching reading. These are pre-reading stage, while reading stage and
post-reading stage. Each of them has its own important role. They are all necessary parts of a
reading activity. In language classrooms, these phases have to be put in consideration in order to
achieve to develop students' reading skills.

6.2.1. Pre-reading Stage

Pre-reading stage is the stage where a reader makes preparation to read a given text. In the pre-
reading stage, a person prepares herself or himself for the things that they are going to read.

The reader's task prior to reading is to activate his or her prior knowledge of the topic, to
prepare the mind to interact with the new information contained in the text. Schema is another
term for the prior knowledge base each reader possesses about a topic.

It is where readers develop a positive attitude toward reading, advanced preparation (previewing
the reading materials), Predicting (content, vocabulary), Structured overview, Question,
Brainstorming (Structured overview), Relating new knowledge to prior knowledge

According to research previewing the text can increase the reader’s involvement with the text.
These are:

a) Setup a purpose- Decide a written or mental goal for your reading. Moreover, this purpose
will help you to locate the specific information or idea that you need to summarize the text.

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b) Make Predictions- Use the title or sub-heading to generate an idea about the book or text.
Also, try to figure out how the writer will try to communicate the topic. Besides, prediction
makes you curious about what the topic is.

c) Questions- Ask some questions before you start reading, which according to you the text will
answer.

d) Build Knowledge- In this, first of all think about the topic and then acquaint you with the
content. Also, make yourself familiar with the language, format, topic, issue, and ideas that it
will cover. In addition, in what way the language and organization of the text are used for
specific purposes. Besides, the purpose of writing can be describing, informing, persuading,
interacting, finding out, entertaining, recording, and regulating.

e) Scan the Vocabulary- Quickly look over the text for new words and then try to find their
meaning from the context.

f) Skimming- It is a process in which a person just do a surface level reading and pay attention
to the visuals, sub-headings, and format to govern if the text gives the information it needs or
not.

g) Scanning- It simply means that do a quick reading to the text and look for keywords, ideas,
phrases, visuals, subheadings, and format.

6.2.2. While-reading Stage

While-reading stage is the stage where a reader does the actual reading. It means to look for
clues in the text to obtain the author’s meaning and purpose for strengthening the skills of the
reader.

Readers do a lot of things while reading a given text. These are: identify important ideas, identify
the organizational pattern of the text, identify indicators in discourse, identify sequence of
events, note-taking, skimming, scanning, draw inferences, make use of logic/common sense,
deduce the meaning of unfamiliar lexical items, skipping unknown/unimportant words, imagery
monitor understanding, etc.

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The order of reading- The order of the text should be according to the order mentioned below.
Also, it helps you to get the universal meaning before you go through the whole text in details.
Besides, sometimes it happens that people after going through this order does not feel to read the
whole text. Moreover, the order is:

1. Heading or title

2. Sub-headings

3. Head Paragraph

4. Final Paragraph

5. The first sentence of every paragraph

6. Entire text

Joining different elements of the text- Pay attention to what the writer/author is saying and
how she/he expresses it. Also, what is the clear and secret meaning in the text? Try to figure out
the sense of the author in relation to the topic.

Guess- When you get stuck on a word, then try to read the whole text and guess its meaning
accordingly. This will help you to learn new ways to use a word.

Silent reading- It is the quality of good readers that they read silently. Besides, reading aloud
slows you down. Also, it forces you to listen to the sounds of words rather than their meaning.

Getting answers- Look for the answer to the question that you asked in the pre-reading stage.
Moreover, it helps you to determine to predict the text.

While-Reading Activities are defined as activities that help students to focus on aspects of the
text and to understand it better. The goal of these activities is to help learners to deal as they
would deal with it as if the text was written in their first language.

While-Reading Activities Examples

1. Identify topic sentences and the main idea of paragraphs. Remember that every paragraph
usually includes a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the paragraph.

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2. Distinguish between general and specific ideas.

3. Identify the connectors to see how they link ideas within the text. For a full list of linking
words, have a look at these linking words grouped by category.

4. Coding text involves teaching students a method of margin marking so they can place a
question mark next to a statement they do not understand or an exclamation mark next to
something that surprised them. (For more information on while reading activities, please check
pg.)

6.2.3. Post-reading Stage

The main purpose of the post-reading phase is to check for accurate comprehension of the text.
Too often students are asked to read a selection and then never get a chance to discuss the piece
they have read.

In this, simply go to the pre-reading stages and try to fill the gaps that you make according to
your assumption. In addition, prepare a detailed sketch of what you have learned and compare it
with prediction.

What students/readers should do in post-reading include:

a) Evaluate- This help in carrying out how effective the writing as if the writer was successful at
its an accomplishment or not.

b) Map- Create a visual presentation of the text and the different ideas in it with the main idea in
the center.

c) Discuss- Analyze the language, content, and pattern of the text.

d) Initial prediction- Check whether your initial prediction was right or not.

e) Pre-reading question- Try to answer your entire pre-reading question

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6.3. Selecting Reading Tasks
To facilitate students’ reading, different activities should be prepared. The activities we design in
pre-reading, while reading have their own role to help students have complete understanding
about the idea/concept of the text they read. Therefore, giving account to selecting effective
activities is very important.

6.3.1 Pre-reading tasks

In pre-reading, brainstorming questions are prepared so that students get the opportunity to freely
forward something they know about the text they are going to learn. Usually, pre-reading
questions are open-ended questions. Here, teachers do not expect correct answer from their
students. Instead, they encourage students to share their ideas. The items prepared here include:

A) Brainstorming

The teacher gives the title of the reading to the learners and students have to share their all their
knowledge about the topic. The goal of this activity is help learners create expectations about
what they are about to read and then see if their expectation were met. For example if you have
to teach about the influence of social media on teenagers, students can take turn and talk about
the topic, as they read they can confirm if the study they read confirm their expectations.

B) Introducing Vocabulary

In the context of an ESL Classroom, it will always be important to introduce key vocabulary so
students don’t get discouraged by unknown words while they read. Introducing vocabulary
doesn’t have to be a boring task, you can easily create a wordle with key vocabulary and see if
students can tell you something about those words.

C) Guessing from Words

Before students look at the text they are going to read, the teacher writes 5 or 6 words from the
text on the board and asks the students to guess the topic. Students brainstorm ideas and then the
teacher confirms how close or far they were.

D) Speed chatting

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Prepare one or two simple questions related to the topic of the reading. Ask the class to make
two rows facing each other. Then, encourage your learners to ask each other the questions, but
warn them that they only have 60 seconds to do so. Once the 60 seconds are up, one of the rows
rotates so each learner has a new partner. Repeat the process several times.

E) True or False
Let’s take the example of the influence of social media on teenagers again. You can come to the
classroom and read a few statements and ask them if they think those statements are true or false.
Don’t reveal the answers and let them confirm if they were right or wrong when they are doing
the reading.

F) Quotations
Prepare some quotes related to the topic and ask students to comment on them. They don’t have
to do that as a class, they can make groups of 3 to 5 people and then a member of each group can
share the ideas with other groups.

6.3.2. While-reading tasks

Reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them.
When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols and we use our brain to convert them
into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. To help our students do
this, we should prepare some questions the students answer as they are reading. The
questions/activities we select and design here helps students have good understanding about the
text they read.

Items to be used in while-reading

Eg. 1. Filling gaps/blank spaces (students complete gaps as they read the text provided them)

2. Asking questions after some paragraphs. This helps students skim the idea of paragraph.
Eg. What is the main idea of this paragraph?

3. Asking questions about the next paragraph. This helps students predict the idea of the next
paragraph so that they can easily have good understanding.

Eg. What do you think does the following paragraph discuss about?

6.3.3. Post-reading tasks

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Post-reading activities help students understand texts further, through critically analyzing what
they have read.

Post-Reading Activities:

1. Creative Discussions: Prepare four or five simple questions and ask students to talk about
those question for 3 minutes and after that ask one member of each pair to go and talk to another
person of the group.

2. Quiz Your Classmates: Ask your students to prepare 5 questions about what they read, once
they have them ready, you can tell the students to make groups of 4 and then they can ask those
questions to each other.

3. Finding Related News: After students have finished reading, they can browse on the internet
for a new related to something they read, for example: if they read something about moral and
values, they can find examples of altruism on the web and they can share that information with
their classmates.

Items to be included in post-reading Activities:

1. True/False item

2. Matching

3. Choice

4. Group discussion

5. Questions students answer in written form

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