LITERATURE REVIEW
Level 3: Applied
2.9 READING COMPREHENSION MODELS
Reading as a cognitive process involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the two (Ahmadi, 2013: 13). Thus the bottom-up, top-down and interactive models have been developed to explain and assist with RC (Babaiba-Medjahdi, 2015:
10; Noar, 2016: 39).
27 2.9.1 The bottom-up reading model
The proponents of the bottom-up approach include Stanovich (1986), Garnham (1985) and Rieben and Perfitti (1991), who put emphasis on the role played by lower-level recognition skills. In their approach, they explain that reading is a hierarchical and a step and step process which starts with small units such as single phonemes to words, clauses, then sentences and eventually to the whole text (Davoudi & Moghadam, 2015: 174). The bottom-up reading model puts emphasis on the written and printed texts. In line with this view, reading is a linear process where a reader has to decode a text word by word, linking words into phrases and then sentences (Pardede, 2017:
2). This is also called data-driven reading, which stresses the ability to decode or put sound in the words within the text, which the reader is supposed to get the meaning from (Babaiba-Medjahdi, 2015: 10). This model emphasises the identification of words and the decoding of letters and words in a text because students need to be able to process words first before processing the text (Noar, 2016: 39). The bottom-up model is known as the phonic model because it requires the student to be able to match letters with their sounds. By building letters into words, the latter into sentences, and sentences into phrases, and proceeding to get the overall meaning, the student is actually getting meaning in a linear form (Souhila, 2014: 5).
The bottom-up model starts with decoding the smallest linguistic units such as phonemes, graphemes and words, and eventually creating meaning from the smallest, to the largest units (Ahmadi, 2013: 13). Some researchers state that the model is only able to explain the reading process but not RC. This is because the model only considers the lower level of processing such as word identification. It ignores the reader’s high level processing such as the impact that background knowledge may have on the reader (Noar, 2016: 39). This is why the bottom-up reading model should not be applied in isolation in tackling RC challenges of first entering English language students at HBUs in SA.
28 2.9.2 The top-down reading model
Goodman (1967) started the systematic analysis of RC and came up with the top- down approach. In terms of the conceptualisation of this approach, reading is a guessing game because readers’ preconceptions and background knowledge largely affect lower-level processes such as orthographic and phonological processing, as well as the word recognition skill.
In top-down processing, readers use the information from the text to compare it with their world knowledge so as to make meaning of what they read in the text. Basically, they bring prior knowledge with them when they read. They use what they know about the topic at hand to make sense of the text (cf. Davoudi & Moghadam, 2015: 173; see Schema Theory).
The top-down model emphasises the significance of the reader’s background knowledge. The model is based on the idea that meaningful learning occurs when information at hand is in a relevant context and is related to what the reader already knows so that it can be integrated with the reader’s schema (Pardede, 2017: 4). The top-down model puts more focus on the meaning of the word or text as opposed to the phonemic representation of the word. What matters is the context and meaning. It is argued that readers who employ the top-down approach do not use all the information presented in the text. The reader makes use of their guesses, present in their schema, and relates it to the text for comprehension (Noar, 2016: 39). The top- down reading model focuses on the reader’s prior knowledge, which takes preference over text structure (Babaiba-Medjahdi, 2015: 11).
According to Ahmadi (2013: 13), the top-down model is based on the notion that reading is a psychological guessing. The reader makes use of his or her prior knowledge or textual schemata in connecting with the text, and makes meaning of this new information in the text. Souhila (2012: 6) argues that the top-down approach refers to the use of prior knowledge to comprehend the meaning of the text, implying that the reader creates connections between his or her previous knowledge with new information for comprehension. As such, reading is a dialogue that takes place between the reader and the text. The advantage of this is that the more knowledge
29
the reader has about the topic, the quicker it will be for comprehension to take place.
However, it should be noted that without knowledge of the linguistic components, as suggested by the bottom-up reading model, RC will unlikely take place. The student must be able to read and understand letters with their sounds, and how they make up words to phrases, and so on, before they link what they are reading to what they already possess in their schemata (cf. Schema Theory).
The next reading model, however, encompasses both the bottom-up and the top-down reading models.
2.9.3 The interactive reading model
Reading comprehension cannot happen within the text alone; it happens as a result of the co-construction of the information that is in the text and the interpretation of the reader (Rumelhurt, 1977). The interactive reading model recognises the simultaneous use of both bottom-up and top-down processes throughout the text (Noar, 2016: 40;
Babaiba-Medjahdi, 2015: 11; Ahmadi, 2013: 14). The model has been defined as a process whereby the reader is engaged actively in the reading process of constructing the meaning of what is being read (Noar, 2016: 40). Thus, reading involves the lower level skill of being able to recognise and decode letters to words then to sentences, then finally into a whole text, as well as the higher level skill of being able to activate the appropriate schemata related to the presented information (cf. Meta-cognitive Theory).
Noah (2015) states that the interactive model is a reading process that is currently advocated for as it suggests that reading takes place when there are interactions amongst the text, readers and others. Ahmadi (2013: 14) argues that the interactive model is derived from the bottom-up and top-down interaction. Thus, an effective reader makes use of both top-down and bottom-up reading models. So should first entering university students. Babaiba-Medjahdi (2015: 11) further argues that the interactive reading model depends on both graphic and textual information, which is a combination of surface structure systems and deep structure systems.
30
Figure 2.3: The Interactive model (in Souhila, 2014: 7)
The Top-down model The Interactive model
The Bottom-up model
Figure 2.3 above demonstrates the interactive reading model as an integration of both top-down and bottom-up reading models. The interactive model is basically a way of making a connection between the bottom-up model and the top-down model.
Therefore, RC can take place when these two models are used simultaneously during the reading activity (Souhila, 2014: 6).