MORE ABOUT THE

READING PROCESS
L2 Reading is a basic life skill.

Without the ability to read in

English well, opportunities for
personal fulfillment and job
success inevitably will be lost.
Literacy rich environments display texts
everywhere and provide opportunities
that can engage students in L2 reading
and writing activities.
These environments can
also encourage students to
read and write in English
for different social
purposes.
Reading throughout the years:
from the 70s to now.

Three cognitive models

The bottom-up model

The top-down model

The interactive model

The bottom-up model acknowledges
that …
Readers proceed from the written
text to meaning.
Readers are passive recipients of
meaning.
Meaning resides in texts.
Meaning is driven by the text.
Reading proceeds from part to
whole.
From the bottom-up perspective,
it is believed that …
Readers read in a linear way through a step-by-
step procedure which involves identification of
letters,
recognition of spelling patterns and words, and the
processing of meaning
from the sentence level
to the paragraph level and
then to the text itself.
In sum, the bottom-up model
emphasizes a single-direction,
part-to-whole processing
of a text.
Main proponents of the bottom-up
model of reading
Gough, P.B. (1972). One second of
reading. In: J.F. Kavanagh and I.G.
Mattingly (eds.), Language by ear and by the
eye (pp. 331-58). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.

LaBerge, D. and Samuels, S.J. (1974).

Toward a theory of automatic information
processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology,
6, 293-323.
According to Gough (1972), reading
is a sequential or serial mental process.

In his words,
“Readers begin by translating the parts
of written language (letters) into speech
sounds, then piece the sounds together
to form individual words, then piece the
words together to arrive at an
understanding of the author’s written
message.”
 Top-down
process

Important element: readers’ prior knowledge.

Focuses on what readers bring to the process
Readers activate prior knowledge to understand
texts.
Readers are active processors of meaning.
 Top-down
process:

Reading is a “psycholinguistic guessing game”,

Goodman, 1970.
Reading proceeds from whole to part.
Meaning is brought to the written text, not
derived from it.
Reading is driven by meaning.
Main advocates of the top-down
model of reading
Kenneth Goodman (1967). Reading: A
psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal
of Reading Specialist, 6, 126-35.

Frank Smith (1971). Understanding

reading. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston.
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive
activity.
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive Reading is a
activity. dynamic activity.
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive Reading is a
activity. dynamic activity.
Readers have no control
over the act of
comprehending a text
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive Reading is a
activity. dynamic activity.
Readers make use of
Readers have no control their previous
over the act of knowledge
comprehending a text to comprehend a text.
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive Reading is a
activity. dynamic activity.
Readers make use of
Readers have no control
over the act of their previous
comprehending a text knowledge
to comprehend a text.
Readers rely only on the
formal features of language
in the quest for making
sense of a text.
Traditional view of Cognitive view of
reading (bottom-up reading (top-down
model) model)
Reading is a passive Reading is a
activity. dynamic activity.
Readers make use of
Readers have no control
over the act of their previous
comprehending a text knowledge
to comprehend a text.
Readers (as well as
Readers rely only on the
formal features of language texts) are at the heart of
in the quest for making the
Sense of a text. reading process.
The interactive
model of reading

Acknowledges that reading involves

both a bottom-up and a top-down
process.
The interactive
model of reading

Recognizes the simultaneous interaction

of bottom-up and top-down processes
during reading comprehension.
The interactive
model of reading

Readers rely on their prior knowledge and

also on the formal features of language in
the quest for making sense of a text.
The interactive
model of reading

Stresses the dynamic interaction of

the active mind of the reader and
the written text.
The interactive
model of reading

Examines reading comprehension from

the point of view of connected discourse.
The interactive
model of reading

Starts considering readers’ cultural

background and value systems in the
process of reading comprehension.
The interactive
model of reading

Acknowledges the importance of schema, that is,

units of organized knowledge about events, situation
or objects that readers have stored in their mind’s
cognitive structures during the process of reading
comprehension.
The interactive
model of reading

Schema knowledge is subdivided into formal

and content schema with the acknowledgment
of the importance of the social, cultural and
text rhetorical features in reading comprehension
Carrell & Einsterhold (1988)
 Main advocates of the interactive
model of reading

David Rumelhart (1980). Schemata: the building

blocks of cognition. In: Spiro, R.J.; Bruce, B. C.;
Brewer, W. F. (ed). Theoretical issues in reading
comprehension. p. 33-58.

Keith Stanovich (1980). Toward an interactive-

compensatory model of individual differences
in the development of reading fluency. Reading
Research Quarterly, 16, 32-71.
 Cognitive views of reading
(top-down and
interactive models)

Encompass this fundamental principle

from schema theory:

A spoken or written text does not in itself

carry meaning; rather, it provides directions
for readers on how to use their own stored
knowledge to retrieve and construct meaning.

(Adams & Collins apud Leahey & Harris, 1989. p. 201

 A social view
of reading
Posits that reading performs a socializing function.

Assumes that texts are social and cultural artifacts

reflecting group values and norms.

Acknowledges the fact that texts are materialized

or structured into different genres.

Recognizes that we communicate through genres

that fulfill different social purposes in particular
contexts of use.
Toward a synthesis:
A sociocognitive view
of reading
(Bernhardt, 1991).

The two perspectives are integrated into a

holistic view of the reading process.

Meaning is reader-generated and it depends

on the activation of different types of knowledge
(prior knowledge, textual, lexical-systemic and
strategic knowledge).
Toward a synthesis:
A sociocognitive view of reading
(Bernhardt, 1991).

Acknowledges the dynamic relationships

between text producers, text receivers
and the text itself.

Recognizes the ongoing interaction between

reader and writer, mediated by the text and
context. This interaction is socially constructed.
Toward a synthesis:
A sociocognitive view of reading
(Bernhardt, 1991).

Schema knowledge (from schema theory) is

both a social and a mentalistic construct.

Understands the concept of text as a social

construct.
 Conceptualized as a social
construct.

Viewed as a communicative
event that is socially and
The reading culturally recognizable, both
text in spoken and written
modes.

Materialized in different
genres for a variety of social
communicative purposes.
 A reading text can be paper, electronic,
or live.
It may comprise one or more semiotic
systems (linguistic, sound, visual,
spatial, gestural).

Texts are consciously constructed.

The reading
text Meanings are actively constructed.

A text may be constructed using

intertextuality.

Texts may be multimodal, interactive,

linear, and nonlinear.
(Anstey; Bull, 2004)
 A genre-based
approach to
teach L2 reading

Encourages habits of meaning-making

by students.

Centered on the explicit identification

and analysis of genre features to show
how patterns of language work to shape
meaning.
 A genre-based
approach to
teach L2 reading

Counts on students’ recognition of genre

similarities between Portuguese and English
to enhance L2 reading comprehension.

Counts on students’ repeated experiences

with texts in their mother language to enhance
L2 reading comprehension.
 A genre-based
approach to
teach L2 reading

Encourages students to contextualize the particular

texts they have to read by an understanding of the
specific situations for which they have been written,
their communicative purposes, intended audience,
the social role played by the author, and when and
where they were published.
 A genre-based
approach to
teach L2 reading

In other words, this approach to teaching

encourages students to answer this set of
questions: “who writes what, for what purposes,
how, where, and when” in order to understand the
overall context for which texts have been written as
well as who they want to influence.
 A genre-based
approach to
teach L2 reading

Teaches the discursive, the lexical and

the linguistic features of different genres
explicitly to enhance L2 reading
comprehension.