A Study on Reading Teaching

【Abstract】： Reading is one of the important skills in language learning and teaching. A teacher who has a good understanding of methodology and research in teaching will surely get more positive feedback from the students if he combines the approaches and the research results with his teaching practices. This paper seeks to give a review on teaching English reading at home and abroad. Above all， a study on reading teaching can provide the teachers with some helpful teaching models and strategies. Some implications of the theories and research results can lead to the achievement of beneficial results in practicing reading teaching.

【Key words】： reading teaching; literature review; English

【摘要】：閱讀是語言教與學中必不可少的一項重要技能。如果教師具備一定的教學教法知識并且關注教學研究，將理論與實踐成果運用到課堂教學中，那么他一定更容易獲得良好的教學效果和積極的學生反饋。本文旨對國內外英語閱讀教學模式與理論進行綜述。閱讀教學的研究定能給教學工作者在教學模式與策略方面一定的啟發。同時，一些理論與研究結果的啟示也可以更好指導閱讀教學實踐，從而提高英語閱讀教學水平與質量。

【關鍵詞】：英語閱讀教學;文獻綜述

1. Introduction

To Jeremy Harmer， famous expert on English teaching， reading is a process of co-operation between eyes and brain. The reader is on alert with their brain always in operation to find something behind the words， sentences and paragraphs. According to modern reading theories， reading includes three aspects： language， psychology and culture. The process of reading is one of active thinking， understanding and receiving information. And the goal of teaching reading is to develop students’ reading skills. Teachers must train every student to be efficient or skilled in his reading. Readers are supposed to comprehend a text in three levels： literal comprehension level， inferential comprehension level， and evaluation comprehension level. For language learners， they play the roles of both learners and readers when they read in target language. Teaching them how to read efficiently is of great importance in language learning. Therefore， language teachers need to have a clear mind of what is going on in the second language reading teaching class and what models and methods can be applied according to different circumstances.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Historical review of research on reading

This can be illustrated from two aspects， the psychological view and the sociological view.

2.1.1 The psychological view

Reading was first viewed as a decoding and reconstructing process in which the meaning of the text became clear as readers connected and built up meaning from the smallest textual units to larger units. The movement from the units at the “bottom” （letters and words） to the units at the “top” （phrases， clauses…） constructs the “bottom-up” view of reading. However， this view emphasizes strongly on the understanding of vocabulary and grammar， namely the formal features of the language.

1970s， representatives of top-down approach， Goodman and Smith challenge the bottom-up approach. They focus on the research of psychological process in reading from a cognitive psychological perspective. Goodman（1967） advanced reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game.” This view emphasized the importance of known information or learned knowledge and also background knowledge， which promoted making predictions. Here， the reader is an active information processor instead of a passive decoder of vocabulary and grammar. However， this “top-down” model led to negligence of the teaching of the language knowledge. It has to be committed that knowledge of linguistic features is also efficient for comprehension.

1980s， interactive approach which integrates the views of bottom-up approach and top-down approach emerged. This view holds that good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters， “guessers” in a sense. The research on the psychological process also focuses on exploring the influences of attitudes and motivation on reading.

2.1.2 The sociological view

Research on reading theories from a sociolinguistic perspective is less compared with the former perspective. In recent years， the newly emerged approach in the first language reading “the new literacy approach” interprets reading as a communicative process between the reader and the thoughts， emotions and language of the author， which have a great impact on the research on second language reading.

2.2 Theoretical research and studies on English reading teaching

2.2.1 Studies abroad

Decoding theory which bears similarities with the “bottom-up” view is popular from the early period of English teaching to the beginning of Audio-Lingual theory. At this time， people recognize reading as a process of decoding the literal texts. Audio-Lingual theory gives prior emphasis on the oral language with the principle of emphasizing listening and speaking， then followed by reading and writing. Therefore reading is only considered as a mean to consolidate the oral ability. As a result， there is a shortage of requirements for reading teaching and the development of students’ reading ability is hindered.

Influenced by psycholinguistics， the theoretical research on reading teaching begins to focus on mental mechanism and gradually， reading process becomes a central research topic concerning language teaching studies. Therefore， two new teaching approaches are developed. They are bottom-up approach and the top-down approach. Bottom-up approach proposes that reading should start with the minimal language units to process the information. However， the habit of reading very carefully to work out the meaning of every word and sentence will certainly lead to a limited reading quantity. While the top-down reading teaching approach advocates readers to get a general view of the reading passage. This approach gives great value on the assistance of background knowledge. The difference between two approaches is like the difference between studying the individual trees within a forest then going up and studying the forest from above as a whole then going down.

However， the complete abandon of vocabulary and grammatical knowledge do not fit the real reading comprehension process. The interactive approach is promoted， in which bottom-up and top-down reading interacts with an emphasis on the latter reading model. The factors in the two processes mutually effect and co-operate.

The role of background knowledge in reading teaching and reading comprehension leads to the development of schema theory. The previously required knowledge is referred as schema （plural schemata）. The schema theory suggests that the knowledge we carry around in our heads is organized into interrelated patterns and our knowledge and expectations about the world will strongly affect our ability to understand new information by providing a framework within which the new information might fit. A great deal of research concerning with both first and second language readers has been carried out using schema theory. As the existing knowledge plays a crucial role in reading comprehension， the teaching activities should focus on arousing schemata in learners’ minds. Through the discussion of the clues such as titles， keywords of the articles， students are activated to make positive predictions based on their background knowledge. Sometimes it is the individual details that help us understand the whole and sometimes it is our overview that allows us to process the details. However， too much emphasis on the reasoning in reading process has its drawbacks. Students may satisfy with themselves in general understanding and therefore neglect the cultivation of linguistic knowledge.

The transfer hypotheses believe that good readers in a first language will be able to transfer their skills to the second language. However， it has been found that L1 reading skill does not predict second language reading proficiency. And on the relationship between background knowledge and reading performance， studies have found that background knowledge was a more important factor than grammatical complexity in readers’ ability to comprehend the cohesive relationships in the texts.

Phonics is an approach to the teaching of reading in which learners are taught to decode words by matching written symbols with their aural equivalents， which is an appropriate approach for beginning learners. Most teachers who have taught initial reading using phonics are familiar with children who can “read” without understanding. Reading efficiency can be enhanced as children grow up. Phonics is criticized for the fact that it de-emphasizes meaning in the reading process and this approach is getting popular in teaching English for kindergarten and preliminary students.

Strategies-based approaches to the development of reading skills have been put forward by Grellet. Grellet （1981：12-13） identifies three main types of strategy： sensitizing， improving reading speed and going from skimming to scanning. "Strategies-based approaches to reading tasks have also been put forward. It is believed that by choosing the best strategies for different texts and purposes， it is possible for second language readers to significantly increase both their reading speed and their comprehension level.

2.2.2 Studies in China

Studies on reading teaching can be categorized into four main types. The first one is from the perspective of the combination of models and theories of reading with English reading teaching. The most influential theory in exploring reading teaching is schema theory. Gu Ye （1998） firstly explored the implication of schema theory on the contents， focus， processes， and material arrangement of reading teaching. The second research focus is on the context perspective. Research on the relationships between context theory and reading has become a hot field in China. Li Hongmei（2005） conducted a research on Genre and found that teaching method of Genre can help promote students ability of reading and communication and it also helps students to form self-learning habits. The third one is from the angle of pragmatics. Pragmatics theories play a crucial role in guiding how to teach English reading. The fourth one is research on the assistance of multi-media in reading teaching.

3.1 The problems in reading teaching

The biggest problem in reading teaching is that students lack skills and strategies in reading. Most of the traditional pedagogy does not reflect how and what people read in real life. Usually the students are asked to do some preview， and in class the teacher explains the text one paragraph after another. As a result， students find it difficult to improve their reading comprehension ability because they lack the necessary training in reading. Besides， the teaching and learning of reading skills presents a number of particular problems which need to be addressed. The problems concerns with the target language， reading topics， tasks students are asked to perform and the expectations students have of reading. Resolutions to the language problems are teaching vocabulary before reading， asking students to do extensive reading and listening， and pursuing the authenticity of the reading material. Resolutions to the problems of topic and genre are choosing the right topics， creating interests， activating schemata and varying topics and genres. Resolutions to the problems of comprehension tasks are combining testing and teaching， and providing appropriate challenges. Resolutions to the problems of students having low expectations of reading are persuading them to change these negative expectations into realistic optimism， teachers’ being supportive when organizing feedback after reading if teachers encounter any negative feelings students might have about the process.

Bibliography

[1]David Nunan. Second Language Teaching and Learning[M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2001.

[2]Francoise Grellet. Developing Reading Skills[M]. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 2000.

[3]Goodman K. Reading： a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game[J]. Journal of the Reading Specialist， 1967：35-126.

[4]Jeremy Harmer. The Practice of English Language Teaching[M]. Global Knowledge Press， 2003.

[5]顧曄.試論圖式理論與閱讀教學[ J].北京第二外國語學院學報，1998，（3）：99- 102.

[6]李紅梅.體裁教學法在大學英語閱讀教學中的應用研究[ J].山東外語教學，2005，（1）：60- 63.

[7]鐘啟泉.外語教學展望.華東師范大學出版社，2001.