Theories

and Models
of Reading

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This message serves to prove how

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

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod

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

I couldnt believe that I could

actually understand what I
was reading. The phenomenal
power of the human mind,
according to a research at
Cambridge
University,
it
doesnt matter in what order
the letters in a word are, the
only important thing is that
the first and last letter be in
the right place. The rest can
be a total mess and you can

The Traditional View

According to Dole et al. (1991)

Readers are passive recipients of
information in the text.
Meaning resides in the text and
the reader has to reproduce
meaning.

According to Nunan (1991)

Reading in this view is basically a
matter of decoding a series of
written symbols into their aural
equivalents in the quest for making
sense of the text.
He referred to this process as the
'bottom-up' view of reading.

 Bottom up Model
It is a reading model that
emphasizes the written or
printed text. It emphasizes the
ability to decode or put into
sound what is seen in the text.

According to McCarthy (1999)

He has called this view
'outside-in'
processing,
referring to the idea that
meaning exists in the printed
page and is interpreted by
the reader then taken in.

FEATURES OF BOTTOM-UP MODEL

The reader needs to:

1. Identify letter features
2. Link these features to recognize letters
3. Combine letter to recognize spelling
patterns
4. Link spelling patterns to recognize
words
5. Then proceed to sentence, paragraph,
and text- level processing

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS

ABOUT THE BOTTOM-UP READING
MODEL
Leonard Bloomfield:
The first task of reading is learning the
code or the alphabetical principle.
The meaning of the text is expected to
come naturally as the code is broken
based on the readers prior knowledge of
words

Emerald Dechant
Bottom-up models operate on the
principle that the written text is
hierarchically organized.

That the reader first process

smallest linguistic unit, gradually
compiling the smaller units to
decipher and comprehend the higher
units.

THE COGNITIVE VIEW

Also known as Top - down model.
According to Nunan (1991) and
Dubin and Bycina (1991), the
psycholinguistic model of reading
and the top-down model are in
exact concordance.
direct opposition to the 'bottomup' model

Goodman (1967; cited in Paran, 1996)

Presented
reading
as
a
psycholinguistic guessing game, a
process in which readers sample the
text, make hypotheses, confirm or
reject them, make new hypotheses,
and so forth.
The reader rather than the text is at
the heart of the reading process.

The Schema Theory of reading also fits

within the cognitively based view of
reading.
Rumelhart (1977)

described schemata as "building

blocks of cognition" which are used in
the process of interpreting sensory data,
in retrieving information from memory, in
organising goals and subgoals, in
allocating resources, and in guiding the
flow of the processing system.

Rumelhart has also stated that if

our schemata are incomplete
and do not provide an
understanding of the incoming
data from the text we will have
problems
processing
and
understanding the text

Dole et al. (1991)

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

FEATURES OF TOP-DOWN
APPROACH
Readers can comprehend a selection
even though they do not recognize each
word.
Readers should use meaning and
grammatical cues to identify unrecognized
words.
Reading for meaning is the primary
objective of reading, rather than mastery
of letters, letters/sound relationships and
words.

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS

ABOUT THE TOP-DOWN READING
MODEL

Frank Smith
Reading is not decoding written
language to spoken language
Reading does not involve the processing
of each letter and each word.
Reading is a matter of bringing meaning
to print

Kenneth S. Goodman
The goal of reading is constructing
meaning in response to text .. It requires
interactive use of graphophonic, syntactic,
and semantic cues to construct meaning.
It is one which uses print as input and
has meaning as output. But the reader
provides input too, and the reader,
interacting with text, is selective in using
just as little of the cues from text as
necessary to construct meaning.

The Metacognitive View

Also known as Interactive Reading
Model
According to Block (1992)
The readers attempt to form a summary
of what was read.
Klein et al. (1991)
Metacognition involves thinking about
what one is doing while reading.

Klein stated that strategic readers

attempt the following while reading:
Identifying the purpose of the reading
before reading
Identifying the form or type of the text
before reading
Thinking about the general character
and features of the form or type of the
text. For instance, they try to locate a
topic sentence and follow supporting
details toward a conclusion

 Projecting the author's purpose for

writing the text (while reading it),
Choosing, scanning, or reading in detail
Making continuous predictions about
what will occur next, based on
information obtained earlier, prior
knowledge, and conclusions obtained
within the previous stages.

Interactive Model emphasizes the

role of prior knowledge or preexisting knowledge in providing the
reader with non-visual or implicit
information in the text.
Also, adds the fact that the role of
certain kind of informationprocessing skills is also important.

 Interactive approaches see the advent

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

Both modes of information processing,

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

Hence,the interactive approaches rely

on both the graphic and contextual
information.

VIEWS OF SOME RESEARCHERS

ABOUT THE INTERACTIVE READING
MODEL:
Emerald Dechant
The interactive model suggests that the
reader constructs meaning by the
selective use of information from all
sources of meaning without adherence to
any set order.
The reader simultaneously uses all levels
of processing even though one source of
meaning can be primary at a given time.

Kenneth Goodman
An interactive model is one which uses
print as input and has meaning as an
output.
The reader provides input too, and the
reader interacting with the text, is
selective in using just as little of the
cues from text as necessary to
construct meaning.

David E. Rumelhart
Reading is at once a perceptual and
a cognitive process.
It is a process which bridges and
blurs these two traditional distinctions.
A skilled reader must be able to make
use of sensory, syntactic, semantic,
and pragmatic information to
accomplish the task.

EMERGING READING
MODELS

STANOVICH MODEL (1980)

Interactive-compensatory reading model.
Readers who rely on both Bottom-up and
Top-down processes are depending on:
- reading purpose
- motivation
- schema
- knowledge of the subject

ANDERSON and PEARSON SCHEMATHEORETIC VIEW

It

focuses on the role of schemata

(knowledge stored in memory) in text
comprehension.
SCHEMA THEORY
a. relationships among components
b. role of inference
c. reliance on knowledge of the content

 Comprehension = interaction
between old & new information
Schema Theory: Already known
general ideas subsume & anchor
new information
Include: a) info about the
relationships among the components,
b) role of inference & c) reliance on
knowledge of the content, + abstract
& general schemata.

PEARSON and TIERNEY R/W MODEL

Negotiation of meaning between writer & reader who
both create meaning through the text as the
medium.
Readers as composers:
the thoughtful reader is the reader who reads as
if she were a writer composing a text yet for another
reader who lives within her.
Reader reads with the expectation that the writer
has provided sufficient clues about the meaning
Writer writes with the intention the reader will create
meaning

 Context is important
Knowing why something was said is
as crucial to interpreting the message
as knowing what was said
Failing to recognize authors goal can
interfere with comprehension of the
main idea or point of view

 Focus on the thoughtful reader with 4

interactive roles:
1.Planner creates goal, use existing
knowledge, decides how to align with the
text
2.Composer searches for coherence in
gaps with inferences about the
relationship within the text
3.Editor examines his interpretations
4. Monitor directs the other 3 roles

MATHEWSONS MODEL OF
ATTITUDE INFLUENCE
Attitude toward reading may be
modified by a change in readers
goal. Attitude has tri-componential
construct: - cognitive component affective component - psychomotor
component

 A model that addresses the role

that attitude and motivation play in
reading
Attitude intention to read reading
Attitude toward reading may be
modified by a change in readers
goal
Examples:
Topic of no interest
Examination on comprehension

 Feedback during reading may affect

attitude and motivation:
Satisfaction with affect developed through
reading
Satisfaction with ideas developed through
reading
Feelings generated by ideas from the
reading process.
Ideas constructed from the information
read
How the reading affects values, goals and
self-concept

If we are to guide and direct our students,

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

As teachers , we must know -- in the

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

Hail Hydra!

References:
TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC (
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk )
Anderson, R.C., & Pearson, P.D. (1984). A
schema theoretic view of basic processes
in
reading. In P.D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook
of reading research (pp.255-291).
White Plans, NY: Longman.