For instance, when a reader cannot build up meaning by using the appropriate content schemata( related with the content area and cultural knowledge) she may utilize bottom-up processing ( by word to word analysis of the text to find the meaning from the text)to make up for the missing knowledge. Similarly, when a reader lacks the bottom-up skills necessary to comprehend a text, she can resort to top down processing to obtain the required meaning. Research thus suggests that the interactive model is more effective than other models for the following reasons: • This model allows the readers to bring their own background knowledge and experiences to the reading of a text. • This model combines both top -down and bottom-up strategies that could provide the opportunity and scope for students to utilize their preferred strategies for decoding and interpreting the
The nature of the relationship between reading comprehension and automaticity is based in information processing theory. LeBerge and Samuel (1974) argue that human beings have a limited processing capacity. Thus, in order to comprehend texts, a certain level of automaticity has to be present. Without the automaticity in reading, the reader’s cognitive resources are used for bottom-up processes (decoding) leaving insufficient resources for more top-down processes that are also essential for comprehension. Also, and following the theory of cognitive resource limitation, during the process of synthesizing information from a written text, a less fluent reader has to maintain the information read earlier in the working memory for a longer period of time as it takes them longer to read a text.
Introduction Literature review 1-Reading comprehension Reading is regarded as an essential skill for success in learning and in academia. Aljarf (2007) defines reading as a translation of symbols into words and the relationship between the written form and the spoken meaning. Goodman (1994) defines it as a psycholinguistic process of establishing meaning through interacting with the text to reach an understanding of the writers’ intended meaning of the text. Anderson (2003) considers reading a process that combines information from both the text and the readers background knowledge. Reading is seen as an interactive process between the reader and the text in hand (Grabbe, 1991).
Reading is a process of constructing meaning. In developing a pedagogy about teaching reading, teachers must be aware of all elements that create a good reader. Teachers can provide the best instruction by delivering a balanced approach to teaching reading. Whilst it is necessary for students to recognise explicit elements of reading such as phonics, students will achieve much more success when also viewing reading from a ‘world view’. Teachers should incorporate a combination of direct instruction and the constructivist approach when teaching reading.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter provides a brief description of the whole content of the research, including background, statement of the problems, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, hypothesis and organization of paper. 1.1 Background Reading is one of the most important skills which has to be learned by the students in order to master English well. Most students are not natural born readers. In fact, reading is not a naturally occurring skill at all, but rather a complex process that requires a careful and systematic instructional approach according to the research gathered by the National Reading Panel (2002). Reading is also included into receptive skill besides listening.
Furthermore, Celce- Murcia (1996) claimed the reader is supposed to draw information from a text and then combine it with information he has. Perfetti and Adlof (2012) claimed that reading comprehension entails cognitive processes that operate on many different kinds of knowledge to achieve many different kinds of reading tasks. Ronan (2015) considered that the comprehension of a text is made up of smaller pieces which must come together in perfect harmony: background knowledge, interest in the topic, vocabulary skills, and the ability to make inferences and judgments are all required, along with many other skills. Numerous studies and experimentations on enhancing reading comprehension continue to proliferate in the world of research. Different teaching approaches and methods have been explored and incorporated in teaching in the hypothesis that reading skills will be enhanced and that reading status will be improved.
During the reading process, Schreiber says that, readers have to experience a stage of transformation from written passages to oral production. They need to form proper prosodic makings based on clues in the written passage in order to realize this transforming process. Schreiber further explains the reason of lacking of fluency among poor readers lies in their failure to perceive the prosodic and rhythmic characteristics of the language in the written passage. Prosodic or reading with appropriate phrasing, is considered as a symbol of being a fluent reader (Dowhower, 1991; Rasinski & Zutell, 1990). As they have stated that, prosodic reading includes inflection, pitch, and stress patterns, all of which make reading sound smooth and natural.
These processes have usually been categorized as bottom-up and top-down processes, with a combination of the two leading to successful comprehension. Bottom-up and top-down processes are applied to conceptualize L2 listening (Goh, 2000; Wilson, 2003; Vandergrift, 2007, Prince, 2012). The application of linguistic knowledge in comprehension is usually termed bottom-up processing, whereby the sounds, words, clauses and sentences of a passage are decoded in a fairly linear fashion to elicit meaning (Rost, 2002). Listeners applies bottom-up processes when they construct meaning by accretion, gradually combining increasingly larger units of meaning from the phoneme-level up to discourse-level features. Meanwhile, Tsui and Fullilove (1998) describes in ‘top-down processing’, the listeners’ knowledge of the topic, and their general knowledge of the world and of how texts generally work, will interact with this linguistic knowledge to create an interpretation of the text.
Actually, the word comprehension is related to understand the vocabulary and the connection between words and concepts, organize the ideas, reconstruct the message of the text, recognize the author’s purpose and make judgments which are getting by reading experience. Therefore, the process of understanding the message that the author is trying to convey is called by reading comprehension (Farris, Fuhler & Walther, 2004, p.321). Furthermore, Klingner, Vaughn, and Boardman (2007) explain that Reading comprehension is consisted of some elements, highly complex process which involves many relations between the readers and their previous knowledge and also the use of reading strategies as well as other aspect related to the text such as the reader interest or understanding of the text types. Kintsch (as cited in Santi and Reed, 2015, p.2) states that reading comprehension is the processes that happened during reading to result a mental representation of the situation describe by the text, referred to a real situation model. The mental representation is a result of information from the text that is connected and integrated with the readers’ knowledge to provide an understanding of what is
In the same way, Perfetti and Adlof (2012) claimed that reading comprehension entails cognitive processes that operate on many different kinds of knowledge to achieve many different kinds of reading tasks. Ronan (2015) considered that the comprehension of a text is made up of smaller pieces which must come together in perfect harmony: background knowledge, interest in the topic, vocabulary skills, and the ability to make inferences and judgments are all required, along with many other skills. Numerous studies and experimentations on enhancing reading comprehension continue to proliferate in the world of research. Different teaching approaches and methods have been explored and incorporated in teaching in the hypothesis that reading skills will be enhanced and that