TEXT AND READING

Text allows people to communicate their ideas with one another across time and
space. Indeed, a large part of what each person knows comes from reading texts.
People who never discover how to learn from text have strong constraints on what
they can know and do. On careful reflection, however, learning from text is a more
controversial topic than is readily obvious. Learning may be of higher quality when
students experience the world directly rather than read about it. Fourth graders who
construct electric circuits or twelfth graders who enact a mock trial may well
understand more about the underlying principles of electricity or the judicial
system than if they had read chapters from their science or social studies textbooks.
As appealing as learning by doing may seem, it has its own limitations. It is
unrealistic to assume that students would be able to acquire the understanding of
electricity that the nineteenth-century German physicist Georg Ohm had or the
understanding of the law that John Marshall, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme
Court from 1801 to 1835, had by repeating the same school activities even
countless times. Through reading, students can experience the thinking of these
experts and come to know some of what they knew or know without completing
the same years of study or possessing equal amounts of academic insight.
Successful learning depends on a close match among reader goals, text
characteristics, reader proficiencies, and instructional context. As B. Ed college
students also, much of their time will be spent interacting with texts of all types,
shapes, sizes, and delivery methods. Most of the texts they exposed to in college
will be hard (printed) copy or online written texts like books, articles, and essays—
college remains a rather traditional place, and these kinds of texts are still the most
common types of learning material.

In academic terms, a text is anything that conveys a set of meanings to the person
who examines it. You might have thought that texts were limited to written
materials, such as books, magazines, newspapers, and ‘zines (an informal term for
magazine that refers especially to fanzines and webzines). Those items are indeed
texts—but so are movies, paintings, television shows, songs, political cartoons,
online materials, advertisements, maps, works of art, and even rooms full of
people. If a person look at something, explore it, find layers of meaning in it, and
draw information and conclusions from it, He/ She is looking at a text.

Most of the texts you’re exposed to in college will be hard (printed) copy or online
written texts like books, articles, and essays—college remains a rather traditional
place, and these kinds of texts are still the most common types of learning material.
But you’ll also be asked to explore other types of textual materials, and it’s good to
be prepared.

Which of these would be a kind of text?

 A graphic novel or comic book

 A journal written by a 15 year old
 A series of photographs
 A poem
 A movie

Reading practice to help you understand simple information, words and sentences
about known topics. Texts include posters, messages, forms and timetables.
Reading practice to help you understand simple texts and find specific information
in everyday material. Texts include emails, invitations, personal messages, tips,
notices and signs.
Reading practice to help you understand texts with everyday or job-related
language. Texts include articles, travel guides, emails, adverts and reviews.

Reading practice to help you understand texts with a wide vocabulary where you
may need to consider the writer's opinion. Texts include articles, reports, messages,
short stories and reviews.
Reading practice to help you understand long, complex texts about a wide variety
of topics, some of which may be unfamiliar. Texts include specialised articles,
biographies and summaries.
Like all languages, English is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is
shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is
culturally and socially situated. The Reading process requires continuous practice, development,
and refinement. In addition, reading requires creativity and critical analysis. It is an essential skill
for both children and adults. If a student is weak in reading English, then he will not be able to
perform the activities of the daily life as English is used in all the activities from the start of the
day till the end.