Stephen van Vlack

Sookmyung Women`s University

Graduate School of TESOL

Teaching Reading

Week 10 - Answers

Nuttall (1996), Chapters 6 and 7

1. What is the optimal sequence for integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches in reading?

What is optimal varies to a large degree according to the text and the goal of the specific reading activity that we are asking the students to engage in, but in general reading the optimal order is top-down followed by bottom-up and then followed or finished up by top-down. Readers need to use top-down to get a sort of schema activated which will initiate the reading process. When the reader runs into problems with certain elements of the content of the text or their own top-down predictions and assumptions about the content of the text, then they need to use bottom-up processing to help them over the rough spots. Once they have gotten over those rough spots, then they need to continue to fall back on top-down processing in order to integrate those newly understood points into the whole. It is important to remember that the order presented above, as discussed in Nuttal (1996), is highly generalized. Bottom-up processing is necessary to activate top-down processing in a very basic way. Processing is activated through the recognition of the specific lexical items and these lexical items are analyze through bottom-up and not top-down processing.

            It might be helpful to relate these two types of processing to different types of memory. Basically we can say that top-down approaches integrate the text to the long-term memory while bottom-up approaches make heavy use of the short-term memory. We also need to use short-term memory for basic reading, that is language processing. It should also be remembered that everything must move first through short-term memory and to turn become part of long-term memory. Based on this relationship between short-term memory and long-term memory and bottom-up and top-down processing we can create a very simple metaphor for the reading process.

            Think of reading as a rail system. In the rail system you have two basic components you have the tracts upon which the training needs to run and of course the train itself. Neither one is very useful without the other. A set of tracks gets you nowhere, while a train without tracks can`t move. Bottom-up processing is like the tracts, while top-down processing can be represented by the train in this metaphor. The tracts need to be laid down in front of the train. It is the tracts they keep the train running. So reading is a process that needs to move quickly, and as soon as we have activated our top-down processes the train starts to move, but we need to keep on checking the tracts to make sure that the tracts are not only there but that the train is still on the tracts. As soon as our top-down processing makes the wrong prediction or gets ahead of what were actually checking through bottom-up then the train simply will derail. When the train derails we have to wait for the asked to be reset and rebuilt so that the train can start moving again. That really is the way reading really works.

2. Why is overly complex grammar such a difficult problem in reading certain texts and how can such texts be dealt with?

Some texts are simply rough not because of the vocabulary or the subject area, but because they have been written in a way that is hard for the short-term memory to process. There are two basic ways that we can short out the short-term memory. The first of these is predictability. Our processing mechanism finds it easier to process sentences that are predictable in structure. Sentences that challenge norms of structure but are still grammatical (so-called garden path sentences) will be hard to read regardless of their length. The other way of hurting regular short term memory is simple length. Sentences need to be below a certain threshold in length of they are to be processed easily. If the sentences of a text violate either of these two constraints on a regular basis then the text will be hard to read. Such texts are best dealt with through a strategy of simplification. Multi-clausal sentences can be broken down into their respective clauses, which really are sentences of their own. English also has a tendency to build rather complex NPs both as subject and objects. For example:

1) The stupid man sitting in the corner wanted to eat toast.

2) Bob gave his favorite dancing armadillo over there with the pink jacket and matching pants a lovely pink rose.

Often the length and complexity of these NPs makes it difficult for the readers to understand, so any additional information contained in the NP (or anywhere else, as dependent clauses, for that matter) should be deleted. Simple strategies related to breaking up larger units into smaller ones and deleting the incidental work well. Lastly, students need to be able to find clausal boundaries to determine structure. The simplest way for doing this is to hunt for main verbs. Each clause will have only one main verb. Find it and look for its modifiers and dependents. Other verb-like entities are much less important and can often be ignored.

3) The bird flew, as birds are wont to do, in the direction of the house which I just built on the property I bought from my brother-in-law with the one arm and not the one with the one eye and ended up slamming into the branch of a tree.

This sentence is hard to process not because as anything particularly difficult in it except of course for the word `wont`. It is hard to process because it is simply too long. Is very important that we teach our students ways to deal with sentences like this one, because they do occur in writing and particularly in more creative types of writing. Looking at this example we could argue that the students might very well end up focusing their attention on exactly the parts of the utterance which are the least important. The clause in which the word `wont` is embedded in is totally irrelevant to the rest of the sentence, yet this is probably exactly where the students are going to go looking because they saw something they didn`t know. We need to really break our students of the strategy and giving pieces of writing what sentences like this that are hard to process, rather than simplifying all the time will make that possible. So if we want our students to be able to move her sentence like this quickly and efficiently, again, we need them to be able to identify clause boundaries and also which clauses are important and which ones are irrelevant. Clause boundaries are easy to find an English once we look, again, for the two components at all English clauses require, which are a verb and a subject. Here now is the same sentence with the irrelevant clauses marked out in pink.

3a) The bird flew, as birds are wont to do, in the direction of the house which I just built on the property I bought from my brother-in-law with the one arm and not the one with the one eye and ended up slamming into the branch of a tree.

Once we eliminate all the irrelevant structures the sentence is not hard to process and can be processed quickly. Students need to learn how to do this in order to deal with real reading.

3. What is cohesion and how can we recognize it?

Cohesion relates to how a text flows and how elements in the text are linked together in order to make it flow better. Good writers create texts using principles of cohesion. The basic idea is the readers need to be reminded of what the text is about in general and what the main ideas and elements in the text are. This entails repeating key ideas as well as key elements so the reader doesn't forget what's going on. Now, repetition is a good thing and is a necessary thing, but we also know that the English language frowns on too much repetition, most particularly in writing. For that reason different types of cohesive devices are regularly used by writers. These cohesive devices, if readers are not familiar with them, can be a tremendous source of confusion for readers. As English language/reading teachers, therefore, we need to make sure that our students are aware of how cohesion works in texts. By being able to analyze cohesion readers can use bottom-up processing to the decode texts and also learn about how lexis actually works in language.

            One of the main types of cohesion is lexical cohesion. The lexical cohesion basically consists of substituting words or phrases with other words or phrases which are linked semantically. We can call this replacement. So, for example, overt noun phrases like that damn dog can be replaced by pronouns like it. The same noun phrase can also be replaced by synonyms or by other phrases like lovely poochie or the canine nuisance we wish we did not have. The only way to really recognize this is to be aware of the language and the lexical relations in the language as well as the basic flow of meaning in the text. It is important to remember that this is very cultural. Especially the area of phrasal replacement is extremely culturally based. For example, the NP hero can be replaced by good guy, macho, muscle-bound moron, sweetboy, indispensable cultural icon, etc. depending to a large extent on the writer`s opinion of the concept hero. Understandably, these concepts are based to a large extent on cultural background. 

4. How does ellipsis work and how can we recognize it?

Ellipsis is a syntactic phenomenon by which large units or constituents are deleted or replaced by a limited set of markers. Writers use ellipsis to avoid unnecessary repetition of language which is interpretable from the text. It is a linguistic phenomenon and as such some linguists might argue that the structure is actually there but is empty or not realized in reality. Here is an example,

1) John and Jane are siblings, as such they carry some similar genes. John has tremendously oversized teeth and Jane does too.

This is an example of ellipsis because the phrase `has tremendously oversized teeth` has been taken out or replaced by something entirely different. Here is another example.

2) The Wilsons arrived at the new hotel yesterday, but the Pettigrews arrived only today.

In this example the phrase at the new hotel is ellipsed. Of course we could stick it in as in;

3) The Wilsons arrived at the new hotel yesterday, but the Pettigrews arrived at the new hotel

            only today,

The repetition of at the new hotel makes the writing both boring and overly wordy. Following this we can see just how common and important ellipsis is in writing and therefore in reading. The question then remains, how do we get our students to deal with ellipsis? The simple answer to this is Korean. In this case we know very well that since ellipsis also exists in Korean and people deal with it on a constant and regular basis, than they really already know what to do with ellipsis. Our strategy then turns to first identifying ellipsis in an English text, because their knowledge of ellipsis is at this point only passive. So, first we need to get them to recognize ellipsis when they see it and once they`ve done that then simply remind them that this is a phenomenon which also exists in Korean and more or less the same way and that they know exactly how to deal with it. In this example, it is imperative to use students knowledge of Korean or to help them to understand similar phenomenon in English which has largely been ignored.

5. What role do discourse markers play in texts?

Discourse markers play an important iconic role in texts. While discourse markers do not really have semantic meaning (remember we talked about this in the beginning of the course) they have iconic meaning in the context of the text itself. By iconic I mean they point toward elements of the text to clarify things for the reader. Based on this we can see that discourse markers play a pivotal role in all sorts of texts. They basically show us how to move through the text and as such can be likened to road signs along a highway. They remind us not only where we are but where we were and where we are going. These discourse markers are extremely important in a text which means it is equally important for readers not only to recognize them but also recognize them for what they are. They are not amenable to direct translation. So, for example a discourse markers like `following this` can`t be translated word for word. To do so will confuse a lower level or even a mid-level reader which are the type of readers who use these strategies. So, looking at these discourse markers we realized that it is not, not, not, not, not, not an effective strategy to have students translate. It is probably the least effective strategy as a general one, a specially where languages are more culturally dissimilar which makes them prone to use different types of discourse markers.

6. What are some of the main functions contained in texts and how can readers best deal with them?

            According to Nuttall (1996) there are three different kinds of functions. They are:

Independent functions

Independent functions are those that are able to be decoded in general, free from the context of the text. They have a clear message which can be interpreted from any angle and totally free from the text in which they are embedded.

Text-dependent functions

Text-dependent functions are those that are only interpretable or meaningful within the specific context of the text. Such functions are closely related to the purpose or the structure of the text. They could be functions which are extremely vague when taken outside of the text. A simple example would be somebody crying. People cry for all different reasons and the world and sometimes because they are happy and sometimes because they are sad. This would be a good example of a text-dependent function because we need the text to tell us which of the many possible functions apply in this particular case.

Interaction-dependent functions

Finally, interaction-dependent functions are those functions that are to a certain extent, dependent on the reader (the audience). We often see these types all functions being used in advertisements, where the writers of slogans or advertising copy need to think very carefully about how the audience is going to read or interpret every small bit of that text. We also see this in editorial writing. So if you want your students to get a feel for this then let them read some editorials in the newspaper.

            The sentences within a text contain one or more of these types of functions. It is important for readers to be able to understand the writers intentions in the sentences they use. Again, as mentioned earlier in relation to many things related to writing and reading, the ways these different functions are encoded are very much culturally bound and the only way for the reader to get to understand them is through experience and (controlled) interaction with authentic texts.

7. What role does organization play in a text?

Organization plays an important role in trying to get readers to understand both functions of elements in a text as well as make predictions. Again, the way a text is organized is different from language to language and culture to culture. English has three main specific organizational patterns and one main overriding type of organization, which is general to specific. Readers of English also need to grapple wit the idea that English tries to present ideas in a linear manner. Readers need to be aware of and make use of organizational structure to be able to deal with texts effectively.

            A good writer must always know exactly which organizational pattern they are using in their writing so that they can lay down the most appropriate discourse markers for the readers. Reading relies on these things as well. As reader must know the organizational patterns of the writing so that they can make the right types of predications. It is important to recognize at this point that not all writers follow these organizational points very closely. Writing becomes more interesting when norms are challenged, mixed and built upon, and this occurs more often in creative writing. It is therefore, maybe more appropriate to try to introduce some of these ideas of organization to your students using more formal and certainly less creative types of writing.

8. Why is presupposition important?

Presupposition is important because without it readers will not be able to understand the writers intent, which after all is the main reason why we read and is the key to being able to read effectively. Presupposition is when the writer assumes that the reader is going to react in a certain way to a certain bit of writing. It is based on the idea that the writer and the reader share at least some of the same schema. That is, in order for presupposition to work in the reader, the schema of the reader that is activated by the writing needs to overlap with or share some points with the schema of the writer.

9. How is it that inferencing can be seen as a kind of cognitive counterpart of ellipsis?

Inferencing is also about missing content, but this time instead of being linguistic as ellipsis is, inferencing is about cognitive gaps. Writers do not need to include all possible information. In all pieces of writing writers need to make constant decisions about what to include and what to exclude in the text. Elements are excluded because the writer feels the reader will be able to understand. They will able to fill the cognitive gaps. What is left out or not depends on the purpose of the writing and the target audience. For our students, when we are having them deal with authentic texts (AS we SHOULD be doing), we run into a problem because our students were never part of the target audience the writer envisioned as she/he composed the text. This can cause problems for non-native speakers trying to tackle authentic texts.

10. Why is prediction a necessary reading attack strategy?

Prediction allows the reader to form schemas, which we know are necessary for top-down processing. The guess that readers try to make about what will occur in a text are based on the schemas that they are using. Therefore, we can not really make a distinction between the generation of schemas and prediction. They are in a constant interplay where one generates the other and visa-versa.