1. Purposes of Reading
Ahmad Sofwan
sofwan1589@yahoo.com

2. Purposes of Reading
• To search for simple information
• To skim quickly
• To learn from texts
• To integrate information
• To write (or search for information needed for
writing)
• To critique texts
• For general comprehension

3. To search for simple
information & to skim
• Typically scan the text for a specific information
or a specific word (e.g. a telephone directory to
find key information)
• To skim sampling segments of the text for general
understanding
• A combination of strategies to find the location of
the information and use basic reading
comprehension skills to obtain a general idea
about the text

4. To learn from texts
• Typically occurs in academic/professional
contexts to learn a considerable amount of
information from a text.
• To remember main ideas & details of the main and
supporting ideas in the text
• Recognize and form rhetorical frames
• Link the text to the reader’s knowledge base
• Carried out at a slower reading rate
• Makes stronger inferencing demands to connect
the text information with background knowledge

5. To integrate information,
write & critique texts
• Requires critical evaluation of the
information to decide what information to
integrate and how to integrate it for the
reader’s goal
• Requires abilities to compose, select &
critique information from a text

6. For general comprehension
• Requires very rapid and automatic
processing of words, strong skills in
forming a general meaning representation
of main ideas, efficient coordination of
many processes

7. Reading Strategies
• Specifying a purpose of reading
• Planning what to do/what steps to take
• Previewing the text
• Predicting the contents of the text or section of text
• Checking predictions
• Posing questions about the text
• Finding asnwers to posed questions
• Connecting one part of the text to another
• Paying attention to text structure

8. Reading Strategies
• Rereading
• Guessing the meaning of a new word from context
• Using discourse markers to see relationships
• Checking comprehension
• Critiquing the author
• Critiquing the text
• Judging how well objectives were met
• Reflecting on what has been learned from the text

9. Processes in fluent reading
comprehension
• a rapid process
(200-300 words per minute)
• an efficient process
(coordinated & carried out automatically)
• an interactive process
(recognizing words & analyzing sentence structure to find
clause-level meaning, finding main ideas, monitoring
comprehension, etc; linguistic information from the text
and background knowledge)

10. THE EXAMPLES
• John is willing to help
• John is difficult to help
• John is willing to help someone
• John is difficult for someone to help

11. Processes in fluent reading
comprehension
• a strategic process
(recognize processing difficulties, address imbalances
between text information & reader knowledge, & make
decisions for monitoring comprehension and shifting goals
for reading)
• a flexible process
(adjust with the changing purposes and ongoing
monitoring of comprehension)
• an evaluating process
(must decide if the information is coherent and matches the
purposes of reading; reader’s motivation, attitudes,
feelings, expectation

12. Processes in fluent reading
comprehension
• a purposeful process
(different ways based on different purposes; motivation is
triggered by individual tasks or purposes)
• a comprehending process
(to understand a text)
• a learning process
(to learn new information through reading)
• a linguistic process
(not a reasoning process, understanding linguistic elements
is important for text comprehension)

13. Reading processes
occurring each & every two
seconds we read
• Focus on and access 8 to 10 word meanings
• Parse a clause for information and form a meaning unit
• Figure out how to connect a new meaning unit into the
growing text model
• Check interpretation of the information according to their
purposes, feelings, attitudes, and background expectations,
as needed
• Monitor their comprehension, make appropriate
inferences, shift strategies and repair misunderstanding, as
needed
• Resolve ambiguities, address difficulties and critique text
information, as needed

14. Models of reading
Metaphorical models of reading
• Bottom-up models
• Top-down models
• Interactive models
Specific models of reading
• Psycholinguistic Guessing Game Model
• Interactive Compensatory Model
• Word recognition models
• Simple View of reading Model

15. Bottom-up models
• All readings follows a mechanical pattern in
which the reader creates a piece-by-piece mental
translation of the information in the text, with little
inference from the reader’s own background
knowledge.
• The reader processes each word letter-by-letter,
each sentence word-by-word, and each text
sentence-by-sentence in a linear fashion.

16. Top-down models
• Primarily directed by reader goals and
expectations.
• The reader has a sets of expectation about text
information & samples enough information from
the text to confirm or reject.
• The reader directs eyes to the most likely places in
the text to find useful information

17. Interactive models
• Take useful ideas from a bottom-up perspective
and combine them with key ideas from a top-down
view.
• Word recognition needs to be fast and efficient,
but background knowledge is a major contributor
to text understanding.
• Highlight the number of processes, particularly
automatic processes, being carried out primarily in
a bottom-up manner with little interference from
other processing levels or knowledge resources.

18. Psycholinguistic Guessing
Game Model
• A universally applicable interactive process of (a)
hypothesising, (b) sampling, and (c) confirming
information based on a background knowledge,
expectations about the text, a sampling of surface
features of the text and context information from
the text.

19. Interactive Compensatory
Model
• Readers develop efficient reading processes.
• Less automatic processes interact regularly.
• Automatic processes operate relatively
independently, and
• Reading difficulties lead to increased interaction
and compensation, even among processes that
would otherswise automatic.
• Using context clues to understand a text better or
to decide what a word means is a compensatory
strategy when normally expected abilities break
down, or have not been developed.