Repaso de estrategias de lectura.

A partir de la selección de párrafos extraídos de un capítulo de un texto sobre procesos de lectura

vamos a reflexionar sobre su contenido.

Antes de comenzar es importante tener en cuenta la siguiente clasificación que nos va a acompañar
en toda la cursada del Módulo II.

Cuando escribimos, el lenguaje nos proporciona dos recursos para expresarnos: el léxico y el
gramatical. Por ejemplo, si queremos comparar a dos sujetos que están realizando un test, podemos
escribir:
a) Juan es menos hábil que María cuando resuelve problemas.
o
b) Si comparamos la habilidad de estos dos sujetos para resolver problemas, concluiremos
que María aventaja a Juan.

En la primera oración los ítems gramaticales menos...que son los que nos sirven para establecer esta
comparación. Los llamamos gramaticales porque son los que, dentro del sistema estructural de un
idioma, están encargados de realizar esa operación conceptual. En la segunda oración, la operación
conceptual está descripta por el verbo comparar y por el verbo aventajar, por esto los llamamos
recursos léxicos. Esta breve explicación les va a servir para abordar la resolución de la pregunta 2.

Chapter 1: The nature of reading abilities

Source: Grabe,W & Stoller,F.(2011) Teaching and Researching Reading. New York: Routledge.

SECTION A
1. Reading can be thought of as a way to draw information from a text and to form an
interpretation of that information.
2. Reading comprehension is remarkably complex, involving many processing skills that are
coordinated in very efficient combinations.
 3. ‘Reading is the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information
appropriately.’ However, without quibbling over the exact wording of such a definition, it
is, nonetheless, insufficient as a way to understand the true nature of reading abilities.
There are five important reasons why this simple definition is inadequate:
• First, it does not convey the idea that there are a number of ways to engage in
reading. A reader has several possible purposes for reading.
• Second, it does not reveal the many skills, processes and knowledge bases that act in
combination, and often in parallel, to create the overall reading comprehension
abilities that we commonly think of as reading.
• Third, it does not explain how reading is carried out as a cognitive process that
operates under intense time constraints; yet, these very rapid time-processing
constraints are essential to understanding how reading comprehension works for the
fluent reader.
• Fourth, it does not highlight how the ability to draw and then interpret meaning from
a text varies with the second language (L2) proficiency of the reader.
• Fifth, it does not address the social context in which reading takes place nor the
reasons why texts will be interpreted and used in differing ways.

SECTION B Reading to integrate information

Working memory for reading involves the active use of cognitive processes such as recognising
and storing word information, using syntactic information, connecting pronoun references,
building overall text structure, integrating and restructuring information, establishing main ideas,
assessing inferences and adapting reader goals. In Baddeley’s (2007) version, working memory
comprises a central executive processor and three sub-components: the visual–spatial sketchpad,
the episodic buffer and the phonological loop.

The ability to recognise phrasal groupings, word ordering information, and subordinate and
superordinate relations among clauses quickly is what allows fluent readers to clarify how words
are supposed to be understood.

The three processes discussed up to this point – lexical access or word recognition, syntactic
parsing and semantic proposition formation – are typically seen as lower-level processes that occur
relatively automatically for the fluent reader.

Roughly, in each and every two seconds of reading, fluent readers: 1. focus on and access eight to
ten word meanings 2. parse a clause for information and form a meaning unit 3. figure out how to
connect a new meaning unit into the growing text model 4. check interpretation of the information
according to their purposes, feelings, attitudes and background expectations, as needed 5. monitor
their comprehension, make appropriate inferences as needed, shift strategies and repair
misunderstanding, as needed 6. resolve ambiguities, address difficulties and critique text
information, as needed.

Section C: L2 Reading
Transfer as interference is typically assumed to influence beginning and intermediate levels of L2
reading. When L2 students are asked to read material that is difficult for them, they rely on any
resources available to try to make sense of the text (refer to the discussion of the situation model in
Chapter 1). At beginning L2 levels, students’ strongest resources are their L1 language abilities,
their L1 reading abilities and their knowledge of the world. At times, these resources provide
enough support to carry out certain comprehension tasks; at other times, these same resources
mislead students or slow L2 processing routines. In this latter situation, it is important to recognise
that such interference is both natural and strategic on the part of students (and L1 resources are
always active to some extent for the L2 reader). The instructional goal at lower levels is for
students to develop enough vocabulary, reading practice and processing fluency in the L2 so that
they rely less on L1 resources that might interfere. Of course, one of the best ways to move beyond
heavy L1 interference in L2 reading is to be sure that students are not always reading texts that are
too difficult for them; students should be given sufficient opportunities to read texts that are easy to
read and enjoyable.
Transfer refers to the idea that L2 readers will use their L1 knowledge and experiences to help
them carry out L2 tasks.
Closely related to transfer discussions is the very fact that two languages are involved in L2
comprehension processes. The inevitable interplay between two languages in L2 reading influences
word recognition, reading rate, the organisation of the lexicon, the speed of syntactic processing,
strategies for comprehension, experiences in task performance, expectations of success and failure,
motivations for reading and a number of other possible points of interaction (Cook and Bassetti,
2005; Koda, 2007, 2008; Scott and de la Fuente, 2008). Quote 2.11
What it means to be literate, how this literacy is valued, used and displayed, will vary from culture
to culture.
Additional factors related to text organisation that may influence L2 reading comprehension
include differences in (a) the ways in which texts express interpersonal relations with the reader
(e.g. the use of ‘I’ and ‘you’ as pronouns), (b) expectations about the amount of new information
that is embedded in a text (e.g. the use of many nominalisations), and (c) assumptions about how
explicitly reader interpretation should be guided (e.g. with supporting details, descriptions and
explanations). These issues suggest the benefits of exploring the discourse organisation of texts as
part of instruction and raising student awareness of the ways in which information is presented (or
not presented), all the while being cautious with certain over-generalised claims about discourse
differences across languages.