ACTIVATING LEARNER LONG-TERM MEMORY IN TEACHING EFL READING
Arfan Fahmi
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember
Surabaya
ACTIVATING LEARNER LONG-TERM MEMORY IN TEACHING EFL READING
Arfan Fahmi
The cognitive process of reading is restricted in the second language. Reading occurs in a context rather than in isolation. The meaning of a text is not found just in the sentences themselves, but it is derived from the previous knowledge in the reader’s mind and the processes through which the reader tackles it.
As opposed to short-term memory which is simply defined as the ability to recall a series of digits in a few second, long-term memory refers to the ability to store information as it is used to comprehend the next one. The success of teaching reading would lie on many aspects since the activity involves an interaction between language and thought. One of them is the background knowledge of the reader that enables her/him to comprehend the text.
This paper will explore the selection of the reading materials for particular reading classes, and the application of teaching reading method in classroom activities which could increase learner long-term memory to be able to do more reading after completing the course.
Introduction
The discussion starts with the description of information processing which gives theoretical framework before going to classroom application. A general model of information processing consist of three mental structures and a set of processes that move information from one structure to the next.
ENVIRONMENTAL
STIMULI
Adapted from Carroll (1999:47)
The visual sensory store involves the process in capturing colors, tastes tones and smells. As the first step in the information sequence processes the sensory store represent information in a literal, unanalyzed form. Most of the information in this stores disappears very rapidly because it is not intended to our current goals, but the process in taking in new information, identifying it and choosing whether to process it more intensively take a measurable amount of time. The sensory store perform the function of preserving this information long enough for more extensive processing to be initiated.
Working memory is more recent trend to term we used to call short term memory. Although the meaning of the terms are similar, there is a subtle difference between them. Short-term memory is needed to hold information for long period It is severely limited in size, however we can increase our retention by grouping individual pieces of information into larger units, a process known as chunking. Working memory differs from short-term memory in that the term convey a more dynamic view of memory processes, whereas short-term memory has been usually viewed as a passive repository of information, working memory has both storage and processing function The storage functions are similar to those credited to short-term memory, while the processing functions are related to the concept of processing capacity. This concept refers to the total amount of cognitive processes we may devote to a task, which is assumed to be limited. When tasks are new or difficult, they require more processing capacity, therefore it leave less space available for the storage function.
Permanent memory, which is also known as long-term memory is a repository of our knowledge of the world. Permanent memory holds all of the information we have retained from the part that is not currently active (that is in working memory). These memories are used to interpret new experiences, and in turn the new event may later be added to this store house of information. Since it becomes the primary concern of this discussion, the concept of permanent memory or long-term memory will be elaborated in more details.
Tulving has distinguish between two types of permanent memory, semantic memory and episodic memory (Tulving in Carroll, 1999:50) Semantic memory refers to our organized knowledge of words, symbols, concepts, and objects. It includes such broad classes of information such as motor skills (typing, swimming, bicycling), general knowledge (grammar, arithmetic) spatial knowledge (the typical lay out of a house) and social skills (how to begin and end a conversation, rules for self-disclosure). Semantic memory holds all the information in permanent memory that is not tagged for a particular time and place. Episodic memory holds traces of events that are specific in time and place. This is the memory that we use to record our personal experiences. It thus varies from person to person and from time to time, its is constantly updated, whereas semantic memory is relatively stable.
Semantic and episodic memory interact in our processing of information. For example the knowledge that President Soeharto resigned after people power had continuously forced him since the economic crisis in 1998 will be stored in our semantic memory as part of our general knowledge, and our memory about how we learned about this event will be part of our episodic memory. Although not all of our semantic memory is derived from such episodes, much of it is a condensation of a number of experiences. We often can use an episodic trace to retrieve semantic information as when we remember where a concept was presented on a page in a text book and this memory helps us recall the concept itself. In other cases we lose our episodic tags and all that remains is the general semantic information about the event.
In comprehending a text we recognize the terms local and global structure or they are also usually addressed microstructure and macrostructure. Local structure is the relationship between individual sentences in the discourse, while, global structure is our knowledge of the structure corresponding to the idea or thought being presented.. Cohesion and coherence are related to micro structure. The text will be easily comprehended if it is well-organized and it will become more difficult to tackle if it does not show clear relationship between sentences. Our knowledge of the world corresponding to the idea or thought being presented greatly influences our comprehension. A text is easily comprehended by learners, if they have background knowledge of it
In reading process, the working memory (short-term memory) performs two functions. They are processing and storing information. Due to the limited resources of the working memory, sometimes we, as a reader, feel hard to process certain tasks as well as to temporally store the result of these tasks as a result we sometimes find ourselves in a trade-off position. To examine this trade-off, Danemen and Carpenter developed reading span task They had participants read aloud a series of sentences (processing function) and then recall the final word in each sentence (storing function). The task began with only two sentences in a series and progressed until the participants could not remember the final word in each sentences. After recording the result of each participant, they gave them a text to read and answer some questions about it (comprehension checks) Daneman and Carpenter found a significant correlation between reading span and reading comprehension. Participant who had higher reading span (the one who can recall more than five final words in a series) had more correct answers than those with lower reading span (Daneman and Carpenter in Carroll 1999:164). Clark and Haviland suggested that readers expect authors to use given information to refer to information the readers already know or can identify and to use new information to refer to concept which they are nor already familiar. A model of sentence integration called given/new information strategy is derived from this assumption. This model consists of three stages, 1) identifying given and new information in the current sentence, 2) finding an antecedent in memory for the given information and 3) attaching the new information in this spot in memory. This gives an idea that working memory (short-term memory) plays a very important role in reading comprehension. How about permanent memory (long-term memory)?
The word schema, schemata in plural form, is best introduced in discussing permanent memory (long-term memory). It refers to a structure in semantic memory that specifies the general or expected arrangement of a body of information. To properly comprehend a text, a reader should retrieve previous knowledge about the idea or though being presented. The process of comprehending ends successfully when the knowledge is retrieved and then matched with it. The question is how readers can activate their schema?
There are a number of ways that we, as a teacher, can help them. Three points will be discussed to meet this goal, The selection of reading materials, teaching reading in classroom activities, and assessment procedure.
Selection of reading materials
Based on the theoretical framework mentioned above, reading materials are selected by some consideration.
Classroom activities
As a dynamic process of gaining information reading should be performed actively. Teachers could design reading instructions in class which lead to comprehension. Active processing. It refers to a collection o activities that includes relating new information to information we have in our permanent memory, such as:
Looking at some principles of a successful reading proposed by Harmer (Harmer 1998: 70-1), we would find a series of principle that are fundamental. There are 6 principles mentioned and we will look at them briefly before we go into more specific area in reading as the title suggested.
The first principle is, reading is not a passive skill. Reading is an active task which involves understanding what the words mean, seeing the pictures, understanding the arguments, and working out if we agree with them. If the learner do not do these things, They will just scratch the surface of the text and we quickly forget it.
The second principle is, learners need to be engage with their reading. Learners who are not interested in the reading text, they do not actively work out with it. In short, they have less benefit from the activity.
The third principle is, learner should be encourage to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language. It is important to study reading texts for the way they use language. But the meaning, the message of the text, is just as important and we must give learners a chance to respond to that message in some way. It is specially important that they should be allowed to express their feelings about the topic – this provoking personal engagement with it and the language.
The fourth principle is, prediction is a major factor in reading. When we read the text in our own language, we frequently have a good idea of the content before we actually read. Book covers give us a hint of what’s in the book photographs and headlines hint at what articles are about before we read a single word. The moment when we get this hint, our brain starts predicting what we are going to read. Expectations are set up and the active process o reading is ready to start. Teachers should give learners “hints” so that they can predict what’s coming. It will make them better and more engaged readers.
The fifth principle is, Match the task to the topic. Once a decision has been taken about what reading text the learners are going to read, we need to choose good reading tasks. The most interesting text can be undermined by asking boring and in appropriate questions. On the other hand, the most common passage can be made really exciting with imaginative and challenging tasks.
The last principle is good teachers exploit reading texts to the full. Any reading text is full of sentences, words, ideas, descriptions, etc. It doesn’t make sense just to get learners to read it and drop it to move on to something else. Good teachers integrate the reading text into interesting class sequences using the topic for discussion and further tasks, using the language for study and later activation.
The six principles above suggest that both teachers and learners to work out hand in hand for successful reading. Teachers need to create awareness to the learners that reading can not stand alone as an activity, but it is like a sequential activities which involves predicting, comprehending, responding, and summarizing. While the learners need to understand and follow teachers’ classroom instructions in order to be a successful readers.
Summary
There are three mental structures in processing information, sensory stores, working memory (short-term memory), and permanent memory (long-term memory). Sensory store captures visual and auditory, working memory stores information temporarily, and permanent memory holds knowledge, skill and belief. These play an important role in reading comprehension.
Reading material are selected carefully with some consideration such as topics presented in texts should be interested and familiar with readers’ schema, texts should be built in coherence manner and various text structure should be introduced
Classroom activities can be performed in a way such as having pre-reading discussion, outlining, summarizing, and follow-up writing task.
Six principles in successful reading include reading is not a passive skill, learners need to be engage with their reading, , learner should be encourage to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language, prediction is a major factor in reading, Match the task to the topic, and good teachers exploit reading texts to the full.
References
Carroll, David W. Psychology of Language, 1999, Brooks/Cool Publishing Company Pacific Grove USA.
Cook, Vivian, Second Language Learning and Language Teaching, 2001 Arnold Publisher London
Harmer, J How to teach English, 1998, Addison Wesley Longman Limited, England
Lighbown, MPans Spada, Nina, How Languages are learned, 1999 Oxford University Press
Arfan Fahmi, a brief CV
After graduating from English Department At Airlangga University Surabaya in 1996, he began teaching English for adults learner in some private English courses in Surabaya before he joined Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya in 1998. He attended Delta Dozent Program in The Netherlands in 2001 in which he participated in several courses in Business Communication and TESOL at Hogeschool Holland and Educatieve Faculteit Amsterdam (EFA). He currently teaches Academic Reading for first year science and engineering students