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Reading Theories and Reading Comprehension: Maria Novary Ngabut
Reading Theories and Reading Comprehension: Maria Novary Ngabut
Reading Theories and Reading Comprehension: Maria Novary Ngabut
This article is a review of reading theories The models can be placed in one of
and reading comprehension discussed in a the three categories: bottom-up, top-
wide range of books, journals, articles, and down, and interactive (Harris & Sipay,
the like. Here four main topics are 1984:6). A discussion of the three models
reviewed, namely (i) the nature of now follows.
reading, (ii) schema theory, (iii) reading
comprehension, and (iv) the variables Bottom-up Models
involved in comprehension. Bottom-up models ot the reading
process view reading as basically a
NATURE OF READING translating, decoding, or encoding process.
Reading is an extremely complex Here the reader starts with letters or larger
process that no one can explain units, and as he attends to them he begins
satisfactorily. Those who are interested in to anticipate the words they spell. When
reading have their fundamental diverse the words are identified, they are decoded
views which resul from two different to inner speech from which the reader
schools of psychology: behaviourism and derives meaning in the same way as
cognitivism. In relation to these, most listening. In this process reading
models of reading are partial in that they comprehension is believed to be an
are concerned with specific aspects (for automatic outcome of accurate word
example, perceptual or cognitive), stages recognition.
(beginning or skilled reading), or modes The followers of these models have
(oral or silent reading). They do not argued that reading is essentially the
attempt to account for all aspects of the translation of graphic symbols into an
reading process. There has been no single approximation of oral language. These
model that can be called the most models are influenced by behaviourist
acceptable. psychology and thus structural linguistics
letter
analysis
semantic
knowledge
lexical
knowledge
feature
analysis
syntactic knowledge
Feature analysis refers to the act of analysis tells us that the letter th cluster in
recognising a loop in a letter and the English as in the and ar-thri-tis. Syntactic
direction of the loop (p), whereas letter knowledge identifies the order of words in
analysis is recognising that the loops make a language so as to make a person is able
a specific letter (p) versus d versus b). to know the difference between ‘Marko hit
Certain letters do and do not cluster in Yeti’ and ‘Yeti hit Marko’. This means that
particular languages, and the clusters the same words ordered in different ways
syllabify in particular way. Letter cluster can produce different meanings. So, it is