Contemporary Understanding of the Reading Process and Reading

Strategies Used by the ESOL Learners while Reading a Written Discourse

Jacek Wasilewski, Poland
Jacek Wasilewski has been an EFL teacher for more than 20 years now. He is currently based
at the University of Podlasie in Siedlce - Poland, where he works as an assistant at the English
Studies Department. Current interests involve: discourse analysis, SLA, pragmatics, phonetics
and phonology of an English Language.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract
Introduction
The current view of the reading process
The schema theory
Schemata
The main models of reading processing
The bottom-up versus top-down reading model
The interactive model of reading
The primary reading strategy classification
Towards the broader categorization
Interaction through reading strategies
The perception of reading strategies
References
Abstract
This paper sets out to shed light on the most important aspects referring to the reading process
and strategies utilized by the readers of a foreign language when processing the written text.
The first sections will go on to examine how the reading process is perceived in the field of
contemporary English language teaching. The later sections concentrate on the existing
theories concerning the reading processing and provide the classification of reading strategies.
The final part refers to the perception of reading strategies and their role in a reading act.
Introduction
An important issue in all stages of our education consists in improving the quality of learners
outcomes. In reality, different factors affect these results. Among them one can find the
quality of reading, the material used during lessons and seminars and the learners perception
of value of the reading skills. Part of this perception may be a reflection of the previous stages
of a learning process the students went through and another part is the effect of current
training.
Over the last decade an explosion of research in the second language reading process
including readers strategies has been observed. They have been of interest for what they
reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with written discourse and what their

relation is with text comprehension. This interest has been seen in the number of textbooks
and educational and teacher prepared materials that are being published. The studies included
various aspects as regards reading skills and focused e.g. on the reading strategies of
successful and unsuccessful learners, individual differences and strategy use, the relationship
with general language proficiency, strategy use among young learners and strategy use at
tertiary level.
In general, the research suggests that learners whether engaged in secondary or university
education have used a variety of strategies to help them with better comprehension,
information storage and to simply become more efficient and effective readers. Strategies
have been defined as learning techniques, behaviours or problem solving tactics (Oxford
1990).
There are a number of reasons why the author of this paper has decided to focus on the
process of reading and techniques used when working on a written text. The present review
tends to heighten reading awareness among Polish learners of English. It is worth mentioning
that their knowledge on reading itself and what it frequently involves is undoubtedly scant.
This paper will attempt to foster independent learning and pro-active reading in secondary and
higher education in Poland and will significantly contribute to better understanding and using
strategies by Polish readers of English.
The current view of the reading process
To fully understand the contemporary issues surrounding the reading process, a strong
influence of the cognitive orientation, which considerably changed the perception of reading,
should be emphasized. The new vision of reading as an important study skill was emphasized
and supported by many researchers in the 1970s. One of them worth mentioning was
Kenneth Goodman (1967) who defined reading as receptive language process and used the
metaphor of guessing game to describe a reading act. His psycholinguistic model of reading
(later called the top-down model) began to have a big impact on views of L2 reading process.
The later studies on reading carried out, for example by Goodman (1988), Carrell (1988),
indicates that reading is perceived as:
an active process of comprehending where students need to be taught strategies to read more
efficiently ( e.g. guess from context, define expectation, make inferences about the text, skim
ahead to fill the context, etc . Furthermore, the same author, namely (Goodman , cited in
Carrell and Eisterhold 1983: 554) by comparing reading to a guessing game , shows us that
a reader becomes a message encoder.
Although one could agree with Goodmans interpretation, his opponents (Weber 1984, Paran
1996:25) must not be forgotten because it shows that the opinions varied as regards the act of
reading. Paran, for instance rejects such a view of reading specifying that all the sentences are
never read in the same way. He argues that readers rely on different cue-words to get a gist of
what kind of sentence may follow, whereas Weber states that the top-down reading processing
can not account for all the needs of learners who are acquiring reading skills.
It has to be clarified that the earlier mentioned term the cognitive orientation and its
widespread meaning in learning and teaching, compared to the previous theory called
Behaviourism, was considered revolutionary in the 70s because it was defined as the activity
of knowing: the acquisition, organization and use of knowledge. With reference to learning
itself, it must be remembered that that it was seen as highly constructive process. As a contrast

to the so called passive reader of the stimulus-response theory introduced by B.F Skinner
(1957), a new type of reader was created who actively constructed meaning and became a
strategic reader. In practice it meant using various techniques while processing a text which
aided learners to better comprehend a written discourse.
An important aspect of the reading process highlighted by researchers (Rumelhart, 1977;
Stanovich, 1980) and worth considering is the occurrence of interaction among the reader,
the text and the context.
The drawing below clearly shows that comprehension is a complex process which involves a
mixture of elements depending on one another.

Figure 1
Source: Heuristic Thinking of Reading Comprehension by Rand Reading Study Group,
(Snow 2002).
These components are as follows:
1. the text
2. the reader
3. the activity-purpose of reading
It can be inferred from the diagram that comprehension in reading occurs as a
relationship between the elements mentioned above and the sociocultural context in
which the reading act occurred. It leads us to the conclusion that a full comprehension
may be achieved if all these parts are interwoven. It may mean that a reader should take
an active part in the process by interacting with a text and also reacting and responding
to it in a multifarious way. Hence, it seems to be reasonable to agree with that a text
interpretation may be varied depending on readers processing abilities and personal
background knowledge.

The Schema Theory

Apart from the cognitive model that influenced the current understanding of the reading
process, it appears that the concept of schema may also contribute to clarifying a reading
action.
Generally speaking, schema theory is concerned with knowledge particularly with the way
knowledge is represented in our minds and the importance of prior knowledge to learning
something new. This theory is based on the belief that
every act of comprehension involves ones knowledge of the world as well
(Anderson et al. in Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983: 73). Therefore, it can be stated that readers
develop an interpretation of text through the interactive process of combining textual
information with the information a reader brings to a text (Widdowson in Grabe, 1988: 56 )
, as was shown in the above diagram.
The same reasoning may be supported by Ausubel who in his work entitled Educational
Psychology (1968) puts forward the substantive approach:
If I had to reduce all educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The
most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.
Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.
Schemata
The readers previously acquired knowledge emphasized by Ausubel is called schemata and
seems to be of paramount importance in the act of reading. Given the fact that such
knowledge may be obtained in different situations and various contexts enable us to assume
that it is definitely varied. Schemata are components
of the Schema Theory which are understood as organized structures where our knowledge is
stored. According to Rumelhart (1980: 34), schemata constitute our knowledge about
situations e.g. receiving guests, events e.g. going to a football game, actions e.g. doing
shopping, and objects e.g. a house , a car, etc. One might also mention the fact that it is
frequently called schematic knowledge which refers to scripts that people use to interpret the
world. Since schematic knowledge is culture specific it is, therefore, easy to specify that it
may play a major role in the right interpretation of a text. The term was precisely defined by
Cook (1989: 69) as:
mental representation of typical situation used in discourse processing to predict the
contents of the particular situation which the discourse describes .
Persuasive though the theory may seem, one is entitled to ask oneself whether schema really
plays such a significant role in the reading comprehension.
The answer to this query can be found in numerous studies carried out by researchers. Carrell
(1988b: 245), as one of them, for instance explains that:
some students apparent reading problems may be the result of insufficient background
knowledge
If this may be the cause of problems during reading, it is necessary to emphasize that
background knowledge including ones previous experience is extremely helpful in the

reading activity. Let us focus on the example which clarifies why this concept may be so
beneficial during reading:
Suppose someone is reading a story and comes across the sentence,
Joanna decided to stop at the local pub on her way home
Immediately the schema for the pub (British) provides the reader with a wealth of information
which may be accurate and interpreted adequately if readers are familiar with the background
knowledge of the British pubs. Otherwise the comprehension may be distorted.
Granted that background knowledge and the heavy emphasis in reading lessons on prereading activities are widely accepted and popularized by influential methodology academics,
(Aebersold, 1997, Alderson and Urquhart , Steffenson and Joag-Dev , cited in Hedge 2000 :
192 ) , we still have to remember that some researchers are of a different opinion. Stott
(2001) for example although agreeing that pre-reading activities are beneficial in the act of
reading, he also regards them as only partially useful. Janzen (2002) goes even further by
accusing much of schema theory of being poorly developed by specifying that it has only a
general meaning and is often presented metaphorically. The next section will focus on a more
detailed explanation.
The main models of reading processing
While on the subject of schema theory referred to above, it is worth pointing out that
comprehending a text is an interactive process. This process can be divided into three models
which include bottom-up, top-down and interactive processing.
The first model ( bottom up ) used by readers while being involved in the act of reading
considers the reading process as a text driven decoding process wherein the sole role of a
reader is to reconstruct meaning embedded in the smallest units of text ( Gough 1972; Carrell
1988; McKoon and Radcliff 1992 ). Considering the text, it is viewed as a chain of isolated
words, each of which is to be deciphered individually . Furthermore, Eskey, Carrell and
Devine (1988) indicate that meaning is built up for a text from the smallest textual units at the
bottom including letters and words to larger units at the top with phrases, clauses and links.
In contrast to the first model, it is necessary to refer to Goodmans ( 1967) psychological
process of reading later named the top-down or also known as inside-out processing. It needs
to be stressed that this model began to wield a great impact on views of a second language
learning (L2) in the seventies, in particular on conceptions about native and second language
reading instruction. While bottom-up placed emphasis on the structure of the text,
interestingly enough, the new model takes the opposite position that highlights readers
interests, world knowledge and reading skills-strategies as the driving force behind reading
comprehension. On balance, according to Goodman, readers are perceived as active
participants who make predictions and process information
A commonly known and interesting explanation of reading processing which can be
understood either as a distinction or a complementary combination is presented by Christine
Nuttall (1996). In her book entitled Teaching reading skills in a foreign language the author
draws our attention to the fact that the above-mentioned models may be treated by readers as
a whole. Furthermore, she stresses that sometimes one model predominates over the other,
but there are no doubts that both are needed to fully comprehend the text. Devine (1988) ,
however, argues that it may be of utmost importance to readers to strike a successful balance
between bottoms-up and top-down for the interpretation of a written discourse.

The two images of processing presented metaphorically by Nuttall are shown below:
The pictures display an image of a readers approach towards reading comprehension. On the
one hand they could be compared to an eagle with a good eyes view that can see everything
better from the top like in a top-down model: on the other hand readers should also be seen as
meticulous scientists who examine the text carefully from the bottom like in a bottom-up
processing.

Figure 2. Top-down processing

Source: Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language (Nuttall.Ch.1996)

Figure 3.

Bottom-up processing

Source: Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language ( Nuttall. Ch. 1996)

The bottom-up versus top-down reading model
The use of only one model of reading in a first and second language became insufficient in the
1980s. At that time it transpired that overreliance on one approach over the other might give
rise to some problems with reading comprehension.
Numerous reading studies have recently revealed that it is really a disputable issue. In case of
the top-down strategy, there seems to be an element of truth in the notion that the reader has
an inadequate amount of knowledge for many texts as regards a reading topic and cannot
generate predictions, (Stanovich 1980). The author strongly asserts that even a skilled reader
can make predictions but unfortunately this takes him much longer than it would to recognise
the words, phrases or links between the sentences or paragraphs. The argument against a
superior role of the top-down view is also advanced by (Eskey 1988) who emphasizes some
limitations of this processing. Namely, he considers this model as perfect for skilled and

fluent English as a foreign language EFL/SL reader for whom perception and decoding have
already become automatic. Unfortunately the top-down model of reading cannot be
recommended for the less proficient or developing reader who might be, as generally
accepted, more interested in developing grammatical skills such as cohesive devices and
vocabulary recognition.
What is of paramount importance is the widespread belief accepted from native reading used
by educators and English teachers that text content and word meaning can be derived from
prediction, inference and guessing from the text. One is tempted to suggest that such
reasoning should be avoided because it often relegates linguistic and lexical knowledge to a
minor role. Chodkiewicz (2001) remarks that we cannot rely entirely on guessing meanings of
words from context because our suppositions may be repeatedly incorrect. Taking one step
further, Cobb (1999) seems to agree with this argument by adding that word knowledge
appears to be a key ingredient and an important contributor to second language academic
reading success. This belief is also supported by Hirsh and Nation (1992) who shows that to
comprehend an academic text, a reader needs to know 95% of the words. This implies that a
text is comprehensible only when there is no more that one unknown words every two lines.
Although it is true that the bottom-up model is regarded frequently as a substitute for high
level processing; however, the fact remains that an important shortcoming of this model lies
in its inadequacy which underestimates the contribution of the reader being responsible for
prediction and processing information.
Considering the following sentence, (Wray & Medwell 1991; 98)
If you aer a fluet reodur you wll hve no prblme reodng ths sntnce
it could be clearly argued that comprehension of this line cannot be guaranteed by only a code
cracking activity because there is something more to it than meets the eye: top-down
strategies must be activated in order that the reader may find meaning in these codes. On the
other hand, it is worth adding that the bottom-up model is satisfactory when we are taught
vocabulary and an organization of a text but this gives us no assurance that the reader will be
able to process the codes-words both rapidly and accurately when reading. It should also be
emphasized that L2 readers are frequently panicked by unknown words in the text, so they
stop reading to look new words up, thereby interrupting the normal speed and act of the
reading process.
The interactive model of reading
To overcome the problems the readers may encounter while reading in L2 and to properly
achieve fluency and accuracy in reading , an effective solution would be created if foreign
language readers relied on a symbiosis of top-down and bottom up strategies. Hence, the
interactive process assumes that skills acquired at different levels of language competence are
best interactively available to process and interpret the written discourse. As Eskey (1988)
claims, fluent reading entails both skillful decoding and relating information to prior
knowledge. It seems therefore reasonable to add that readers become good decoders and
interpreters of texts gradually but surely only when they are familiar with both lower- level
processes , to name just a few, translation of written code or morphological processing and
higher level processes including activation of schemata or influence of attitude, motivation
and reader interest
The primary reading strategy classification

When talking about reading strategies, it is considered necessary to introduce the basic
reading strategies (RS) classification. Much research has been done to identify and classify
reading strategies in English language teaching (ELT) and it should be added that the study of
successful learners in the learning process considerably contributed to gathering data
regarding the most frequent actions taken by foreign language learners.
According to numerous studies that have been carried out on reading strategies and their
influence on success in reading comprehension, there is a general consensus that the two
contrastive groups identified by OMalley and Chamot
(1990) are the most basic orientation in the division of RS.
The authors based mainly on cognitive psychology and used expert opinions and theoretical
analysis of language tasks like reading comprehension. Their classification included the
following types of strategies:
1. COGNITIVE STRATEGIES, which deal with actual information, how to obtain it,
inferring or deducing meaning from context, using dictionaries and grammar books,
retaining information through memorization, repetition or mnemotechnic tricks.
2. METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES, which refer to self management, setting
objectives, monitoring and self-evaluation are regarded by OMalley as more
significant to learners as they involve thinking about the learning process and planning
for learning.
The same author, namely O Malley (1985: 561) tries to attach more importance to the second
group by adding that:
learners devoid of metacognitive approaches are learners without direction or opportunity
to review their progress, accomplishments and future direction .
Such a primary role for the metacognitive strategies over the cognitive ones in the reading
process has been shown in many studies on academic reading in L2. They indicate that
metacognitive strategies play an important role in helping students plan and monitor their
comprehension while reading (Li and Munby study (1996: 199-216), while other studies have
demonstrated significant improvements in reading for rather poor learners who were trained
in the use of these strategies
(Block, 1992).
This belief is also shared by another educator named Flavell (1976: 232). According to him,
metacognition refers to ones knowledge concerning ones own cognitive processes and
products while Block (1992 ) adds that metacognition is the ability to stand back and
observe oneself .He further states that it is an ability often related to effective learning and to
competent performance in any area of problem solving.
Towards the broader categorization
The wealth of studies conducted in the 1990s and in the early years of the twenty first century
by researchers as regards strategies and vocabulary skills in reading
(e.g. Carrell 1989,
Grabe 1991, Block , Sarig and Olshavsky , quoted in McDonough 1995 , Urquart &Weir
1998) caused a great commotion over definitions of strategies per se. It may be sufficient to

state that there has been the lack of consensus with respect to a clear categorization of reading
strategies among methodologists.
It is partly due to the way the phrase strategy has been used and studied in different contexts
both in the L1 and L2 language learning (Cohen 1998). In addition to that, it seems important
to add that the words SKILL and STRATEGY frequently overlap and are used by researchers
as the same notion. But in reality, it might be said that they are two different concepts.
The former refers to information processing techniques that are automatic. Skills are applied
unconsciously and include expertise and repeated practice. In contrast, the latter are regarded
as deliberately selected sensible moves learners may use in order to achieve goals e.g. during
reading. It must be emphasized that strategies may become more efficient if they become
automatised and are applied automatically as skills but this process may take a while before a
strategy changes into a skill.
Let us focus on the broad classification drawn up by above cited researchers who carried out
numerous studies on reading strategies.

REPRESENTATIVE SECONDARY STRATEGIES

Using the context to define words

Synonym substitution
Re-reading
Inferences
Addition of information
Hypothesis
Using information in the story
To solve a problem

Anticipating content
Recognizing text structure
Questioning information in the text
Interpreting the text
Using general knowledge
Reacting to the text
Monitoring comprehension
Re-reading
Paraphrasing

Skimming
Scanning
Skipping
Use of content schemata
Identification of key information
Using synonyms, circumlocutions
Change of planning
Mistake correction
Ongoing self-evaluation

Word related
Clause related
Story related

General
local

Technical aid
Coherence-detecting
Clarification and
simplification monitoring

Olshavsky (1977)

Block ( 1986 )

Sarig ( 1987 )

PRIMARY STRATEGY CLASSIFICATION

REPRESENTATIVE SECONDARY STRATEGIES

Referring to the experiential task

Adjusting reading rate in order to increase comprehension
Making prediction about the meaning of the word and text content
Referring to a previous passage
Skipping unknown words visualizing, skimming and scanning
Using cognates between L1&L2 to comprehend
Paraphrasing
Using context clues to interpret a word or a phrase
Using background knowledge

Local level: word recognition, vocab acquisition

Grammatical skills, cohesion
Pre-reading ( planning ): previewing, prediction
While-reading: monitoring , self-questioning
Post-reading (evaluation ): personal response

Supervising
Support
Paraphrase
Coherence in the text

Cognitive
Metacognitive

Anderson (1991)

Ugurhart & Weir (1998)

PRIMARY STRATEGY CLASSIFICATION

Source: Strategy and skill in learning a foreign language (McDonough 1995)

As can be easily noticed from the diagrams, reading strategies have been going through a
constant and term-making process. The strategies indicate that there is no consistency as
regards similar-sounding strategies. It has to be stressed that what metacognitive scheme
means to Weir does not have to signify the same to Block or Sarig.
Another important feature of reading strategies taxonomy is that they have always mentioned
some category referring to words and their meanings such as identifying word meaning or
simply words in context. Other researchers who also became deeply involved in identifying
specialist skills in reading were Harmer (1991), Grabe (1991), McDonough (1995) and
Chodkiewicz (2001).
One may simply notice that the classification is not free of its weaknesses. By looking at the
Ugurhart and Weirs scheme, there is no difficulty noting that this arrangement provides
excellent goals for L2 teaching and testing and it could make a good and suitable plan for a
typical reading comprehension activity lesson. But it appears that it might be criticized for
such a reason that it tends to overemphasize psychomotor behaviour and ignore the type of
processing used by novice readers.
Interaction through reading strategies
There have been many attempts to identify the readers mental activities that are used in order
to construct meaning from the text (Anderson et al.1991; Devine 1988a; Hosenfeld et
al.1981). These activities are generally accepted as reading strategies or sometimes are
referred to as skills. Garner (1987) defines them as an action or series of actions utilized by
readers to formulate meaning. A similar interpretation of a strategy is presented by Phinney
(1988:130) who compares strategies to a general plan of actions used by learners in the
reading process.
It seems clear that L2 readers may find it difficult to comprehend various texts. To make
things worse, if the texts become more professional like business or academic, the
comprehension of reading may turn out to be a complete failure. Bearing these problems in
mind, it has to be stressed that readers work could be facilitated by acquainting them with a
variety of reading strategies. The question may arise:
Why are the strategies so helpful?
It is important to stress that a number of empirical studies have established a positive
relationship between strategies and reading comprehension. It is essential to highlight at this
point the action research conducted by Grover, Kullberg and Strawser (1999) who have found
that the utilization of reading strategies and skills had a beneficial impact on students reading
comprehension.
Their study entitled Improving student achievement through organization of student learning
investigated various reading strategies to increase comprehension and vocabulary skills. The
study focused on 3 elementary and one junior high school in the USA. The authors came to
conclusion that poor reading comprehension and poor vocabulary skills contributed to lower
student achievement. Such a poor performance was caused by several reasons that included
limited English proficiency, low intellectual ability of students, disregard for learners
individual learning styles or inability to make connections and insufficient reading skills. In
addition to the above mentioned factors, the authors claim that a students failure to master
general reading skills appears to be responsible for looking upon a reader as less skilled.

Moreover, they are credited with the use of graphic organizers for the benefit of students
achievement in literacy which referred to the development of reading comprehension and
vocabulary knowledge. Their research finally determined that the technique used by
Strawser (called graphic organizers, which means using a visual representation of
knowledge such as knowledge maps, concept maps or story maps prior to reading longer
passages), contributed to mastering critical vocabulary skills by 80 % at all levels of learners.
Apart from what has been said above regarding their study, it appears important to mention
two significant assertions made by Phinney (op.cit. p.130) and Schwartz (1985: 199). The
former claims that students frequently struggle without strategies to assist in the progression
of reading while the latter places emphasis on vocabulary skills by saying:
We need to teach students strategies they can use to expand their own vocab and to master
unfamiliar concepts .
Basically, reading strategies are believed to act as good signals of how learners approach
reading tasks or solve problems encountered during the reading process. It could be said that
they serve as pointers giving learners valuable clues about how to plan their work, tackle
reading problems, assess the situation in reading or choose appropriate skills , techniques or
behaviours in order to comprehend the text and learn something from it. In addition to that,
metacognition, which is closely linked to the term of strategies, combines various thinking
and reflective processes. For example,
preparing and planning skills aid to improve
students learning and thinking about their needs and accomplishments, which eventually
enable them to become reflective readers. Also, the ability to be selective as regards the type
of strategy in a given context allows learners to make conscious decisions about their learning
process.
Another positive advantage coming from the use of strategies is monitoring ones utilization
of reading strategies.
A good argument for a valuable role the strategies play is an ability to orchestrate the use of
more than one strategy during processing the text. This technique seems vital while reading
academic or professional texts.
It is also worth mentioning that by evaluating the strategies and having an ability to ask the
following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

What am I trying to accomplish?

What strategies am I using?
How well am I using them?
What else could I do?
learners have a chance to become independent and reflective readers.

However, our attention should be drawn to the fact that several studies indicate some
limitations of reading strategies by stressing individual differences in learning styles.
Reid (1987), for instance suggests that some reading techniques may suit particular learning
styles better than others and there is not a one size fits all bank of effective strategies. It
happens that there are still a number of readers who like to be dependent on teachers and they
never realize that they may hold responsibility for their reading tasks.

Another reasonable feature worth highlighting is that learning strategies including reading
techniques and behaviours may be culturally specific. Such evidence has been provided by
Mc Devit (2004) who specifies in her article that there are some countries where learning
styles including reading strategies are well known and may be accepted with enthusiasm as an
up to date way of teaching and learning. It usually refers to the western countries but on the
other hand, in other areas in particular, Arab and Asian countries the implementation of
reading techniques like (global ones) e.g. inferencing meaning from context, may turn out to
be unfamiliar.
The perception of reading strategies
Research on reading strategies has pointed to an important aspect of this issue. It is widely
supposed that reading comprehension is a sine qua non in academic learning areas. Besides, it
is vital to professional success and to life long learning. Reviewing the developments in
second language reading research, one has to mention Grabe (1991) who stresses the major
importance of reading skills in academic reading contexts. Furthermore, Levine, Ferenz and
Reves (2000) open up interesting areas when they state that:
The ability to read academic texts is considered one of the most important skills that
university students of English as a second and foreign language ESL/EFL need to acquire.
Moreover, Shuyun and Munby (1996) share the belief and note that an academic reading is a
very deliberate, demanding and complex process. In the light of this statement it may be
accurate to specify that L2 students should be actively involved in the development of a wide
repertoire of reading strategies which help them overcome difficulties when encountering
comprehension problems.
Today there is a tendency to believe that expert readers use rapid decoding, large
vocabularies, phonemic awareness, knowledge about text features and a variety of reading
strategies to aid comprehension and memory. These skills usually refer to previously
mentioned cognitive and metacognitive strategies which give a reader a chance to be
successful and independent in the act of reading. However, it is necessary to point to
differences in strategy use while reading. This question was investigated by (Anderson 1991
& Sarig 1987) who explain that no two readers approach or process a written text in exactly
the same way If this is the case, then reading in L1 and other languages is of a highly
individual nature. To take the argument further, one could claim that each reader uses different
strategies if they are familiar with them. In addition to that, Harmer (1991) stresses the
significance of individual factors influencing readers deduction of meaning from context. He
refers to learning outside, learner needs and even the emotional attitude to some words in the
text.
To sum it up, one must stress that the reading process does not seem to be easy to any L2
reader. The difficulty with understanding readers may have while processing the text largely
depends on how they are prepared to tackle a written discourse. Reading simple texts ,for
example with a short content and easy vocabulary does not require of readers to become
experts but university level students must show their professional preparation and expertise
in terms of their knowledge of problem solving techniques, reading strategies, wealth of lexis
and their general approach towards the reading activity i.e. strategies.
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