To Improve Students’ English Reading Ability Based on Reading Models

Wen Dongmei

Abstract： The ability of reading means a lot for students and it will equip students with the ability of deriving information， gaining insight into the world and cultivating their thinking mode. Therefore， reading teaching plays an important role in college English teaching. In past several decades， researchers have paid great attention to the study of reading processes and reading models. It is important for teachers to train students to use these reading models to improve their reading ability.

Key words： reading models; reading processes; reading training

I. The definition of reading

Many experts have defined reading. Cashdan proposed that Reading involves two processes： the reader must establish what the writer has said and he must follow what the writer means. Urquhart and Weir said that it is the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print. Goodman said， “Reading is a receptive language process. It is a psycholinguistic process in that it starts with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning which the reader constructs. There is thus an essential interaction between language and thought in reading. The writer encodes thought as language and the reader decodes language to thought”.

II. Reading Models

A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text says reading is driven by a process that results in meaning and this model stresses single-direction， part-to-whole processing of a text. According to Dechant， the bottom-up reading model operates on the principle that the written text is hierarchically organized on the phonemic， syllabic， morphemic， word， and sentence levels and that the reader first processes the smallest linguistic unit， gradually compiling the smaller units to decipher and comprehend the higher units. Applying this bottom-up model to reading instruction， researchers claim that teaching should strengthen the bottom part， and some of them propose the so-called phonics approach， which emphasizes sound- letter relationships. Since it focuses on basic skills， it is also called the skills-based approach. With this approach， teachers spend much time in class teaching students the orthographic rules with the expectation that once sound-letter relationships are learned， meaning will follow. Young pupils learn letter-sound associations by sounding out syllables， combinations of syllables and then words. They learn the skill of pronouncing words on the basis of how words are spelled. With this approach， typically reading programs offer stories using controlled vocabulary and words with which children are already familiar. Writing instruction follows the same vein， children are asked to write only after having achieved mastery in basic spelling skills or when a correct model is provided for them to copy. The bottom-up model emphasizes the centrality of written or printed text and reduces the readers role to one of a decipherer who is incapable of interpreting larger chunks of text except for working up from the bottom.

While， a top-down reading model is a reading model that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text says reading is driven by meaning and proceeds from whole to part. The top-down reading model suggests that processing of a text begins in the mind of' the readers with meaning-driven processes， or an assumption about the meaning of a text. From this perspective， readers identify letters and words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text. As Goodman claims， “readers do not read every word， but sample the text， make hypotheses about the next word to be encountered， sample the text again to confirm their predictions， and so forth. Readers need only to see enough of the text in order to be able to guess the meanings of the words of phrases”. The top-down reading model emphasizes the fact that the reader brings a lot to the text， such as prior knowledge and experiences， and therefore， comprehension begins in the mind of the reader， who already has some ideas about the meaning of the of text at the beginning of the reading process. For this theory， reading proceeds from whole to part， moving from the readers prior knowledge to semantic cues， syntactic cues and other more specific information.

How do the two different models operate and work in the reading process？ Are they contradictory or interactive？ Recent views see comprehension as drawing upon both top-down processing， and vice versa. Stanovich referred that interactive processing is probably “compensator”： that is， one type of processing will take over if there is a problem with the other type. In terms of reading， an interactive reading model is a combination of bottom-up model and top-down model. It recognizes the “interaction” of bottom-up and top-down processes simultaneously throughout the reading process and it attempts to take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models， and tries to avoid the criticisms against each. According to 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 one set order. The reader simultaneously uses all levels of processing even though one source of meaning can be primary at a given time. The interactive model lies halfway between the bottom-up and top-down models， which are pitted against each other. The new model recognizes the interaction between both processes throughout the course of reading.

III. The great difference between Group A and Group B

As a college teacher I have found a great difference between two groups of students during the process of training their reading comprehension. The result of vocabulary test suggests that both of the two groups are possessed of basic vocabulary， the number of which is more or less the same; however， they show great differences in the ability of reading. Through the pretest， the average score of Group A is 16 （the full score is 20）， while Group B can only get one half of the total marks， what leads to the difference？

IV. The analysis of Group A and Group B

Through the interview of the two groups， we can analyze the difference between the two groups with reading models. Group B read materials word by word and pay much attention to the form and meaning of a single word neglecting the whole sentence and passage. They begin with the smallest unit and perceive every letter， organize the perceived letters into words. As a result， an unknown word will become a block that prevents the process of reading from proceeding smoothly. Because they cant organize the words without being perceived into phrases， clauses， and sentences. Because of the only use of bottom-up reading model， they cant proceed from Bottom to Up. They can only stay in a lower level-lexical level instead of a higher level-syntactic level， leaving alone the highest level-discourse level. In contrast， Group A read materials bearing the questions in mind. They also begin with the smallest unit， organize letters into words， and then organize the words into phrases， which shows that they use bottom-up reading model automatically. When they meet an unknown word related to the questions， they will make a question mark and then continue reading. After finishing the whole sentence or the whole paragraph， they guess the meaning of the word according to the context or their own world knowledge. If the new word has nothing to do with the questions， they will skip it instead of thinking for a long time. The process just conforms to top-down process. Because the most important aspect about reading is the amount and kind of information gained through reading and this information can be used to answer the questions. Because of the use of interactive reading model Group A construct meaning by the selective use of information from all sources of meaning without adherence to any one set order. When there is a problem with one reading model， they can use the other one. So Group A can begin with the smaller units and end with larger units and they can get to a higher level from a lower level. It is the use of different reading models that lead to the differences between Group A and Group B in reading ability.

Group A are always scanning all the questions and underline some key words such as main idea， where， why and the like before reading. Then they begin to read bearing these questions in mind， during which they also underline some words related to the questions. When they meet an unknown word， they will make a question mark and then continue reading. On the contrary， group B read word by word. Once they encounter a word beyond their grasp， they will turn to a dictionary or me， As a result， their reading speed is quite slow.

V. Reading training

I believe that the problem with Group B is a universal phenomenon among students. How to avoid the only use of bottom-up approach and how to improve the ability of reading are challenges for both students and teachers. Teachers should serve as good guides and provide students with interactive reading model， appropriate skills and students should cooperate with teachers actively. Teachers can serve as guides to the variety of skills such as scanning and skimming， predicting， guessing words and so on. Reading skills depend on the types of questions of materials， if questions are about main idea， they need students to read extensively and read materials as a whole. If questions are concerned with details， they require students to read intensively. So students should scan all the questions before reading and then choose appropriate skills in the reading process. Exposed to these skills constantly， students will apply them to reading process consciously.

References：

[1]. Dechant， E. Understanding and teaching reading： An interactive model [M]. Hillsdale， NJ： Lawrence Erlbaum. 1991.

[2]. Goodman， K.S. Reading： A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game [J]. Journal of the Reading Specialist. 1967. 3， 15-19.

[3]. Stanovich， K.E. Toward an interactive-compensatory model of individual differences in the development of reading fluency [J]. Reading Research Quarterly. 1980. 16， 32-71.