An Interactive Approach to Teaching L2 Reading: From the Bottom-Up Heidi Hyte Brigham Young University [email protected] [email protected]
Apr 01, 2015
An Interactive
Approach to Teaching
L2 Reading: From the
Bottom-UpHeidi Hyte
Brigham Young University
Webinar Objectives
•Provide examples of bottom-up, top-down, and interactive strategies for teaching L2 reading.
•Provide practical methodology and approaches to teaching bottom-up strategies in L2 reading.
•Offer rationale for the role of students’ phonemic awareness.
•Offer rationale for the use of explicit, systematic bottom-up strategies instruction.
What is reading?
The ability to successfully
generate meaning from
text.
What is fluent
reading?
What is fluent
reading?“The ability to read at an
appropriate rate with
adequate comprehension”
(68).
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp.
67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
What is strategic
reading?
What is strategic
reading?“The ability of the reader to
use a wide variety of reading
strategies to accomplish a
purpose for reading” (68).
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp.
67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
What is the goal of
reading?
Comprehension
Factors that influence
reading comprehension:
Factors that influence
reading comprehension:•The reader
•The text
•Interaction between the reader and the
text:oStrategies
oSchema
oPurpose for reading
oManner of reading
•FluencyAebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language
classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
•Bottom-up processing
(decoding)
•Top-down processing
•Interactive approach
Models of Reading
Bottom-up Processing
Reader builds meaning from the
smallest units of meaning to
achieve comprehension.
Example
letters letter clusters words phrases
sentences longer text meaning =
comprehension
Top-down Processing
Reader generates meaning by employing background knowledge,
expectations, assumptions, and questions, and reads to confirm these
expectations.
Example
Pre-reading activities (i.e. activating schema, previewing, and predicting) + background
knowledge (cultural, linguistic, syntactic, and historical) = comprehension
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second
language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Interactive Approach
Reader uses both bottom-up and
top-down strategies
simultaneously or alternately to
comprehend the text.
Example
Reader uses top-down strategies until he/she
encounters an unfamiliar word, then employs
decoding skills to achieve comprehension.
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second
language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Knowledge base + bottom-up
strategies + top-down strategies =
comprehension
Interactive Approach
Which model should be
adopted?
The reader must be competent
in both bottom-up and
top-down processing.
Nunes, T. (1999). Learning to read: An integrated view from research and practice. Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Kluwer.
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down
strategies:
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down
strategies:
Top-down
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down
strategies:
Bottom-up
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down
strategies:
Bottom-up Top-down
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down
strategies:
Bottom-up Top-down
Bottom-up
strategies
(“phonics”
approach)
_______________
_
Examples:
• decoding
• using
capitalization
to infer
proper nouns
• graded
reader
approach
• pattern
recognition
Top-down
strategies
(“whole
language”
approach)
_______________
_
Examples:
• using
background
knowledge
• predicting
• guessing the
meaning of
unknown
words from
context
• skimming/
scanning
Models of Reading:
ApplicationTop-down processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the
cumpy kebs.
1) What kind of coddlers were they?
2) What did the coddlers do?
3) How did they do it?
4) Where did they do it?
5) In what kind of kebs did they kimple?
6) What is the subject? What is the verb?
Models of Reading:
ApplicationBottom-up processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the
cumpy kebs.
When do you spell words with a C or a K?
•kenlig
•coddlers
•canly
•kimpled
•cumpy
•kebs
Decoding Strategy: The C and K
Skill
C – a, o, u K – i, e
cat kid
cob Ken
cup kin
can keg
Models of Reading:
ApplicationBottom-up processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the cumpy kebs.
When do you spell words with a C or a K?
•kenlig
•coddlers
•canly
•kimpled
•cumpy
•kebs
Step 1: Read the title. Predict what the text is going to be about.
Step 2: Ask questions:
- What is your purpose for reading this text?
- What type of text is this? (A newspaper article? A letter? A textbook? A poem?)
- What is a “Jabberwocky”?
Step 3: Activate background knowledge: What do you know about Lewis Carroll’s style of writing?
Top-down Strategies: Application
“Jabberwocky”By Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,
1872)
Top-down Strategies: Application
“Jabberwocky”By Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There,
1872)
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Top-down Strategies: Application
•Which top-down strategies did you use while reading to help you comprehend the text?
•Were your top-down strategies enough to read the text?
•What did you do when you came across an unfamiliar word?
Top-down Strategies: Application
Bottom-up Strategies:
ApplicationHow do you read these words?
wabe
brillig
Bottom-up (Decoding)
Strategies:
Framework of Phonics:
42 sounds
5 phonetic skills
2 decoding skills
1. metX
*
Five Phonetic Skills
2. jumpX
**
Five Phonetic Skills
3. meX
Five Phonetic Skills
4. smileX X
Five Phonetic Skills
5. boatX X
Five Phonetic Skills
1. met2. jump
4. smile5. boat
3. me
X
*
X
**
XX
XX
X
Five Phonetic Skills
wab
e
Five Phonetic Skills
How do you decode this
word?
wab
e
Five Phonetic Skills
How do you decode this
word?
X X
motel
Decoding Skill #1
1. moX
3. moteX X
4. motelX X2. motX
*
Decoding Skill #1
mote
lOne consonant (guardian) goes on
X X
Decoding Skill #1
provideX X X
Decoding Skill #1
One consonant (guardian) goes on
Decoding Skill #2
campusX X
Two consonants (guardians) split
brilli
g
How do you decode this
word?
Decoding Skill #2
brilli
g
How do you decode this
word?
Decoding Skill #2
X X
Bottom-up Strategies:
ApplicationHow do you read these words?
wabe
brillig
The role of phonemic
awarenessWhat is phonemic
awareness?
•The consciousness that words are composed of separate sounds
•The strategies used to:oSegment strings of soundsoDiscriminate between these sounds
The role of phonemic
awarenessWhy is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?
The role of phonemic
awarenessWhy is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?“ESL and EFL learners need to acquire the knowledge base of English phonemes so that their aural discrimination of sounds
can proceed effortlessly, quickly, and unconsciously” (53).
Birch, Barbara M. (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers.
The role of phonemic
awarenessWhy is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?“Phonemic awareness is an important precursor for alphabetic reading, but
paradoxically people often acquire it as a result of learning to read an alphabet” (54).
Birch, Barbara M. (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers.
The role of phonemic
awareness
•Readers who have it are better readers.
•Readers are able to connect sounds with symbols.
•Readers can attach meaning to sounds.
•If readers can associate the sounds of words when learning the meaning of new vocabulary, it sticks better.
Why is it important for ESL/EFL readers?
Application: Now What?
1) First provide explicit instruction in bottom-
up/decoding strategies, then allow
opportunities to practice bottom-up
strategies in extensive reading materials.
Application: Now What?
2) Use shorter passages to teach intensive
reading skills and longer texts to apply top-
down strategies.
Application: Now What?
3) Select materials for both intensive (teaching explicit strategies) and extensive (application of strategies) purposes. One single text generally cannot meet both needs.
Application: Now What?
4) When teaching new vocabulary, provide explicit decoding strategies to enable learners to develop phonemic awareness.- rhyming games (mat pat)
- manipulation of beginning, middle, and end of words (mat pat pet pen)
Self Reflection
Take a moment to ponder the answers to the questions on the following slide. As you answer these questions, think of your students’ needs. What kind of strategies do you need to equip your students with in order to help them achieve the goal of comprehension?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach
reading?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach
reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did
you learn both bottom-up and top-down
skills?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach
reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did you
learn both bottom-up and top-down skills?
3) When you teach reading, do you rely
more on teaching top-down strategies?
If so, why?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach
reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did you
learn both bottom-up and top-down skills?
3) When you teach reading, do you rely
more on teaching top-down strategies? If
so, why?
4) Are you an interactive reading
teacher?
Why bottom-up?
“Despite the emergence of interactive models, I am concerned that much of the second language reading literature continues to exhibit a strongly top-down bias… This research has resulted in many useful insights, but the lack of attention to decoding problems has, I think, produced a somewhat distorted picture of the true range of problems second language readers face” (95).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language
readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp.
93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Why bottom-up?“In practical terms, my concern is thus to keep the language in the teaching of second language reading. That may not sound very controversial, but I think that in promoting higher-level strategies--like predicting from context or the use of schemata and other kinds of background knowledge--some researchers have been sending a message to teachers that the teaching of reading to second language readers is mostly just a mater of providing them with the right background knowledge for any texts they must read, and encouraging them to make full use of that knowledge in decoding those texts. Though that is certainly important, it is also, I think, potentially misleading as a total approach…We must not, I believe, lose sight of the fact that language is a major problem in second language reading, and that even educated guessing at meaning is not a substitute for accurate decoding” (97).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language
readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp.
93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
What’s your opinion?
“[The introduction of top-down processing]
has had such a profound impact [on second
language reading] that there has been a
tendency to view the introduction of a strong
top-down processing perspective as a
substitute for the bottom-up, decoding view
of reading, rather than its complement” (3-
4).Carrell, P. (1993). Introduction: Interactive approaches to second language reading. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, &
D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp. 1-7). Cambridge, England: ambridge
University Press.
SourcesAebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and
strategies for second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English
Language Teaching (pp. 67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Birch, B. M, (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. Mahwah, New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carrell, P. (1993). Introduction: Interactive approaches to second language reading. In
P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language
reading (pp. 1-7). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language
problems of second language readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.),
Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp. 93-100). Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Nunes, T. (1999). Learning to read: An integrated view from research and practice.
Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.