Debates in Reading

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The ‘Traditional’ View

A first view of reading might be called the ‘traditional’ view. It is also called the ‘bottom-up’ approach, so-called because of its prioritisation of language.

The ‘bottom-up’ approach

The first view is called the ‘traditional’ view.
It is also called the ‘bottom-up’ approach, so-called because of its prioritisation of language.

Dole (et al)

This view is all about having the reader having a set of skills which are built upon to gain full comprehension.
Dole (et al) believe that the text holds clues, meaning and opportunities to learn and that it is the reader's job to decipher these.
In this method, the reader takes a passive role.

Nunan

Nunan believes that the child learns to decode written symbols into their aural equivalents (link the phonics method here).

McCarthy

McCarthy built on this saying that the traditional view is less ‘bottom-up’ and more ‘outside-in’ in the sense that meaning already exists, and the reader has to take this meaning in.

The ‘Cognitive’ View

The next view is called the ‘cognitive’ view. In opposition to the 'traditional' view, it is ‘top-down’ by which it means that the knowledge must be in place at the base.

Schema theory

The next view is called the ‘cognitive’ view.
In opposition to the previous view, it is ‘top-down’ by which it means that the knowledge must be in place at the base.
Linked in most closely with this is schema theory (you may remember this from spoken acquisition).

Rumelhart

Rumelhart believes that reading requires the ‘building blocks of cognition’ in order for the reader to be able to process the information they are receiving.
As a result, missing schema (or building blocks) can prevent a child from properly understanding and processing what the information means.

The psycholinguistic model

You can link this to children who have an excellent ability to read books, but a very poor ability to comprehend what is going on.
This view has also been equated with the psycholinguistic model.

Goodman

Goodman states that the reader is at the heart in the process of learning to read and that the reader makes hypotheses as they read to confirm or reject ideas.

The ‘Metacognitive’ View

The third and final system is called the ‘metacognitive’ view. In this, the reader thinks about what they are doing when they are reading (metacognition – thinking about thinking).

Metacognition

The third and final system is called the ‘metacognitive’ view.
In this, the reader thinks about what they are doing when they are reading.
(Metacognition – thinking about thinking).

Block

Block believes that the other two views are irrelevant because the reader controls their own ability to understand a text.
In this respect, he believes that reading is an active process.

Linked to this, Share believes that there is a process which takes place called phonological recoding in which the reader recodes what they know of phoneme-grapheme correspondence in order to correctly read words.

Klein (et al)

In addition, Klein (et al) believes that metacognitive readers do the following whilst reading a text:
- Finding purpose of the reading (this occurs before reading).
- Deciding what the form (type) of text it is (this occurs before reading).

Klein (et al) cont.

Look for features and conventions which typify the form of the text identified in the above.
Projecting the author’s purpose of writing the text onto the text.
Deciding whether to scan or to read in detail.
Predict what will happen in the text as they read (based on what has already happened, their existing knowledge and chapter endings).