What is reading?
1. Based on Activity 1.2 what do you usually read in English? List up all the cases in which you read texts in English. ex) cereal boxes, street signs, textbooks etc. And also in your future what texts will you be able to read in English in what situations? ex) business emails, TIME magazines etc.
Based on Activity 1.2, I can list my major reading resources in English like that; messages in Facebook, novels, lyrics of my favorite songs, articles, letters from my friends in America, textbooks, recipes, academic texts of TOEFL and TOEIC test, and street signs. Also I thought of my reading resources in English in the future.
1. Articles in science magazines: In order to meet my interest in science, especially in biology, I’m going to get a bunch of up-to-date news of science from articles in the magazines.
2. Research papers: When I have papers to do for my master degree, it’s certain that I’ll get a lot of research papers refer to. What I think the most important reading skills for the reading is deciding quickly if what I’m reading is necessary because there will be a great number of papers.
3. E-mails from graduate school and other graduate students: Communication skill in written English is also required in the process of applying for graduate school, contacting with the professors whose research is related to my interest, and sharing my ideas with other students.
4. English novels: Whenever I’m stressed out from my overloaded work and I want to put myself into the other world, I’ll be able to reading various kinds of English novels refreshing my feeling.
2. What makes you English reading difficult? Analyze your reading process yourself and try to find your barriers to fluent reading.
There are some difficulties I usually face while reading some texts in English. I personally believe that some of them are not unrelated to my reading problems in my mother tongue, Korean. Now, let me introduce my reading problems in English
1. My ability of recognizing English vocabularies, expressions, and complicated structures; I’m sure that I’m not the only one who face the problem related to words and grammar. If you are a second language learner, particularly in the beginner level, the obstacle can make you scared of reading.
1. Based on Activity 1.2 what do you usually read in English? List up all the cases in which you read texts in English. ex) cereal boxes, street signs, textbooks etc. And also in your future what texts will you be able to read in English in what situations? ex) business emails, TIME magazines etc.
Based on Activity 1.2, I can list my major reading resources in English like that; messages in Facebook, novels, lyrics of my favorite songs, articles, letters from my friends in America, textbooks, recipes, academic texts of TOEFL and TOEIC test, and street signs. Also I thought of my reading resources in English in the future.
1. Articles in science magazines: In order to meet my interest in science, especially in biology, I’m going to get a bunch of up-to-date news of science from articles in the magazines.
2. Research papers: When I have papers to do for my master degree, it’s certain that I’ll get a lot of research papers refer to. What I think the most important reading skills for the reading is deciding quickly if what I’m reading is necessary because there will be a great number of papers.
3. E-mails from graduate school and other graduate students: Communication skill in written English is also required in the process of applying for graduate school, contacting with the professors whose research is related to my interest, and sharing my ideas with other students.
4. English novels: Whenever I’m stressed out from my overloaded work and I want to put myself into the other world, I’ll be able to reading various kinds of English novels refreshing my feeling.
2. What makes you English reading difficult? Analyze your reading process yourself and try to find your barriers to fluent reading.
There are some difficulties I usually face while reading some texts in English. I personally believe that some of them are not unrelated to my reading problems in my mother tongue, Korean. Now, let me introduce my reading problems in English
1. My ability of recognizing English vocabularies, expressions, and complicated structures; I’m sure that I’m not the only one who face the problem related to words and grammar. If you are a second language learner, particularly in the beginner level, the obstacle can make you scared of reading.
2. Distractions; unnecessary thoughts (e.g. daydreaming) from my mind can be one barrier stops me follow the texts. Some noise around me also distracts me from my work.
3. Affection factors; being overwhelmed by the large quantity of reading stuff to finish. Depression. High level of tension. Test anxiety.
4. Tricky factors; metaphor, irony, sarcasm, omission from the sentence of some elements.
The following is the analysis of my reading process.
-Before reading: I usually start guessing what kind of contents is going to follow from the title. I can get much information from it such as the genre of the text and organization. At the moment I adopt my own experiences and schemata already formed by them. The schemata are usually very helpful to imagine how author would show the story. However, when I face unexpected story I can say that it interrupts my reading.
-While reading: my reading strategy is different depends on how long the text is and how important the part is. The longer the reading is, the faster I’m likely to skim the text. At that time I tend to read just the first and the last sentences even in the first paragraph. If I don’t get accurate meanings of some words, I can guess or just skip them.
-The problems found in my reading process: I have a tendency to grasp the whole text so quickly that I don’t get how the text is going. Also, when deciding if the part I’m reading is significant, I’m likely to ignore tiny but necessary parts for understanding the whole story.
3. Affection factors; being overwhelmed by the large quantity of reading stuff to finish. Depression. High level of tension. Test anxiety.
4. Tricky factors; metaphor, irony, sarcasm, omission from the sentence of some elements.
The following is the analysis of my reading process.
-Before reading: I usually start guessing what kind of contents is going to follow from the title. I can get much information from it such as the genre of the text and organization. At the moment I adopt my own experiences and schemata already formed by them. The schemata are usually very helpful to imagine how author would show the story. However, when I face unexpected story I can say that it interrupts my reading.
-While reading: my reading strategy is different depends on how long the text is and how important the part is. The longer the reading is, the faster I’m likely to skim the text. At that time I tend to read just the first and the last sentences even in the first paragraph. If I don’t get accurate meanings of some words, I can guess or just skip them.
-The problems found in my reading process: I have a tendency to grasp the whole text so quickly that I don’t get how the text is going. Also, when deciding if the part I’m reading is significant, I’m likely to ignore tiny but necessary parts for understanding the whole story.
3. Refuse the idea "The readers is simply a receiver who plays a passive role in the written communication process." with as much contradictory evidence as possible from the chapter.
According to the textbook, it isn’t true that the readers are simply receivers in the written communication process. First of all, the reading contradicts the idea describing the reading process as absorbing water given by the writer. The author says if the text is like a bucket full of water, “the reader’s mind soaks it up like a sponge. In this view, the reader’s role is passive.” Also, the writer rebuffs the idea since there is no one who can fully get what writer means. According to the chapter 1, the mismatch is directly connected to the different presuppositions derived from individual schemata. Finally, there exist only shared assumptions that readers and the writer share. No 100% overlapped area. Therefore, it replies that how much readers can get the meanings depends on how actively they commit to the text.
In the reading, the author also mentions “the writer is seldom available for consultation, so when we have difficulties in reading, the only way we can ask questions is to interrogate the text itself.” It shows the significant role of readers in the reading process questioning the text thoroughly for some time. In the following part, ‘Reading as interaction,’ the writer contends that interactive process would be going on in the reading process including readers’ making sense of the text, prediction, making use of the top-down and the bottom-up approach.
4. Explain each term of "Reading Process"
1. Schema: Schema is kind of mental structure which means the organization in our mind. It is necessary for getting the meaning from the text in your own way. This is because we adopt our own existing schemata for reading and modify them if they mismatch the text being read.
2. Shared assumption: means the shared part between readers and the writer. It can be same language as a code, all kinds of knowledge, abstract things such as attitudes, beliefs, and values, and unspoken assumptions based on the same society. There is surely mismatch between readers’ and writer’s since it comes from individual experiences.
3. Presupposition: is unstated assumption taken for granted by writers and readers. There can be relevant schemata and different schemata between two sides (I mean writers and readers). In the latter situation, readers are not able to fully understand the text because they can’t guess hidden part that the author omitted.
4. Prediction: is the activation of schemata. We use the process not only before reading but also while reading. Before going into the text, we get the title and start guessing game; what is the text about? How is the author going to process the story? It makes us read the story efficiently by narrowing down the range we should think of in the reading process.
5. Explain three different unconscious reading processes
1. Top-down: In the process, readers start the reading process with their schemata to predict the story in the text. This process can be compared to the forest viewer. They take prior knowledge and common sense to the text and lead the reading. The readers want to get the overall purpose and rough idea, and have to guess the author’s intention make use of the process.
2. Bottom-up: It is the complement of top-down process. Readers start putting together small pieces of the elements in the text such as letters and expressions and end up making bigger meaningful structures (Schemata) and get the meanings. This process seems to have more accurate would actually limit the range of reader’s views. So, in order to fully understand the meanings in the reading, readers have to combine detailed understanding in the limited reading area and knowledge adjacent to the area.
3. Interactive: doesn’t mean that both Top-down and Bottom-up process depends on one another. Rather, the process is adopting two processes at the same time. For instance, someone who wants to get the meaning from the text would primary do that in Top-down process. However, he or she would also be able to make use of Bottom-up process to make sure if he or she finds out the appropriate meaning.
6. Explain the principles of teaching reading(Williams 1986).
He suggested the principles of teaching reading with four major sections; meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. well-designed language course should include almost equal time of those four parts.
First one is meaning-focused input is based on readers' understanding the text. This part is usually applied to reading for non-language purposes such as learning, searching for information. For the strand, teachers should offer the reading sources fit for readers’ proficiency level.
Second, meaning-focused output means production in both spoken and written language. It would have speaking, writing, and listening activities related to the contents of the text.
Second, meaning-focused output means production in both spoken and written language. It would have speaking, writing, and listening activities related to the contents of the text.
Third type is language-focused learning takes up the considerable amount of class time in Korea. The problem for it is that Korean English teachers normally take non-contexturized teaching in the limited language sections; grammar-oriented reading classes. So, in the absence of other language-focused learning (e.g. reading strategies), students get bored easily so that they can’t learn efficiently.
Final strand is fluency development which means reading a lot in a short time. Even though English teachers are likely to ignore the part, it’s necessary for speed reading, and extensive reading.
Final strand is fluency development which means reading a lot in a short time. Even though English teachers are likely to ignore the part, it’s necessary for speed reading, and extensive reading.
