Assessing-reading阅读笔记

Assessingreading阅读笔记1.Preface:Readingalsoplaysacriticalroleinappliedlinguisticsresearchandintheday-to-dayprofessionallifeofthelanguageteacher.Assessmenttechniques:readingaloud,impressionisticjudgement,miscueanalysis,andself-assessment.2.ThenatureofreadingThenumberofdifferenttheoriesofreading:whatitis;howitisacquiredandtaught,howreadingrelatestoothercognitiveandperceptualabilities,howitinterfaceswithmemory.ConstructofreadingProcessandproduct:theprocessiswhatwemeanby‘reading’proper:theinteractionbetweenareaderandthetext.Researchhasfocusedonexaminingtheeyemovementsofreaders,andinterestinginsightshavebeengainedfromeyemovementphotography.Levelsofunderstanding:reading‘thelines’,reading‘betweenthelines’,andreading‘beyondthelines’.Thefirstreferstotheliteralmeaningoftext,thesecondtoinferredmeanings,andthethirdtoreaders’criticalevaluationsoftext.Beabletoread:Davis(1968)defineseightskills:1.Recallingwordmeanings;2.Drawinginferencesaboutthemeaningofawordincontext;3.Findinganswerstoquestionsansweredexplicitlyorinparaphrase;4.Weavingtogetherideasinthecontent;5.Drawinginferencesfromthecontent;6.Recognizingawriter’spurpose,attitude,toneandmood;7.Identifyingawriter’stechnique;8.Followingthestructureofapassage.Readingisessentiallydividedintotwocomponents:decoding(wordrecognition)andcomprehension.Readinginvolvesperceivingthewrittenformoflanguage,eithervisuallyorkinaesthetically.Top-downandbottom-upprocessing:Bottom-upapproachesareserialmodels,wherethereaderbeginswiththeprintedword,recognizesgraphicstimuli,decodesthemtosound,recognizeswordsanddecodesmeanings.Top-downapproachesemphasizetheimportanceofschemata.Goodman(1982),forexample,callsreadinga‘psycholinguisticguessinggame’,inwhichreadersguessorpredictthetext’smeaningonthebasisofminimaltextualinformation,andmaximumuseofexisting,activated,knowledge.Goodman’scharacterizationofthereadingprocessasoneofsampling,predicting,conformingandcorrectingmightdescribeamoregeneralprocessthanthatofreading.Readingrepresentproblem-solving,First-languagereadingandsecond-languagereading:readingabilitiesareassumedtotransferacrosslanguage,improvingsecond-languagereadingwillleadtoimprovingreadinginthefirstlanguagealso.Oncereadingabilityhasbeenacquiredinthefirstlanguage,itisavailableforuseinthesecondorsubsequentlanguagealso.Readingassocioculturalpractice:Implicationfortestdesign:content-centred;individualinstruction;silentreading;pre-,during-andafter-readingtasks;specificskillsandstrategies;groupworkandcooperativelearning;readextensively.3.VariablesthataffectthenatureofreadingIthasbecomecommonpracticetodivideresearchintofactorsthataffectreadingintothetwomainconstellationsofvariablesthataretypicallyinvestigated.Thefirstfactorswithinreader:aspectsofthepersondoingthereadingthathavebeenthoughtorshowntohaveaneffectonthereadingprocessandtheproductofreading.Thesecondmajorsectionwilllookatthoseaspectsofthetexttobereadthatareofsignificance.Readervariables:researchhaslookedatthewayreadersthemselvesaffectthereadingprocessandproduct,andhasinvestigatedanumberofdifferentvariables.Thereader’sknowledge,motivation,andthewaythisinteractswiththereasonswhyareaderisreadingatextatall.Thestrategiesthereadersuse;relativelystablecharacteristics:sex,age,andpersonality;physicalcharacteristics:eyemovement,speedofwordrecognition,automaticityofprocessing.Insecond-andforeignlanguagereadingstudies,therewasanearlyemphasisontheimportanceofsyntacticaswellaslexicalknowledge,andonlyrecentlyhasrhetoricalknowledgeandmetalinguisticknowledgebeenstudiedinanydepth.Berman(1984)suggestthattheabilitytoprocesscomplexsyntaxmaybemoreimportantfortheunderstandingofdetailedinformationinsentencesthanfortheunderstandingofthegistofatext.Knowledgeofsubjectmatter,knowledgeoftheworld,culturalknowledgeKnowledgeofsubjectmatter:AldersonandUrquhart(1985)wereabletoshowthatreadingtestsontextsinsubjectdisciplinesthatstudentswerestudyingorhadstudiedweresometimeseasiertoprocessthanthosewhichwerenot,butnotalways.Readerskillsandabilities:Alderson(2000:49)concludes:’Answeringatestquestionislikelytoinvolveavarietyofinterrelatedskills,ratherthanoneskillonlyorevenmainly.’Compensationhypothesis:oneofthecausesofthevariationwehavenotedinreadsandreadingmightbethatreadershavedifferentamountsofknowledgerelevanttothetextinhand,asdiscussedabove.Suchdifferencesmightresultinsomereadershavingtocalluponcertainskills.However,lackofknowledgeorskillinoneareamightbecompensatedbyabilitiesorknowledgeinotherareas.Readerpurposeinreading:Readermotivation/interest:studiesofpoorfirstandsecond-languagereadershaveconsistentlyshownthatpoorreaders(Coper’s1984‘unpractised’readers)lackmotivationtoreadortospendtimeimprovingtheirabilitytoread.Readeraffect:theemotionalstateofthereader;anxiety;Emotionalresponsesinreadingliteraturehavelongbeenthesubjectofresearch,atleastforfirst-languagereaders.Beginningreadersandfluentreaders:self-regulationstrategiesTextvariables:thesefactorsrangefromaspectsoftextcontent,totexttypesorgenres,textorganization,sentencestructure,lexis,texttypography,layout,therelationshipb