Definitions and Classifications of Reading Strategies in English teaching

摘 要：多年來在英语教学中，许多关于阅读策略教学方面的研究层出不穷。笔者认为英语阅读策略的教学不仅能使学习者成为独立的阅读者同时也能促进他们成为独立的学习者和写作者。对于学习者来说，掌握常用的英语阅读策略的分类和定义并应用到英语学习中，一方面能提高英语阅读能力，另一方面能增加学习者学习英语的兴趣。

关键词：阅读策略，分类， 英语教学

【Abstract】Over the years， numerous strategies to teaching reading have appeared. The author believes that these strategies are not just teaching reading； rather， they are guiding an assisting learners to develop as independent readers， writers， and learners. At the same time they are also a philosophy of learning. To master the definitions and classifications of reading strategies is very necessary for the college students in their English learning， because it facilitates their reading ability and it also develops their learning interest in English.

【key words】reading strategy， classification， English teaching

The author believes that language serves personal， social， and academic aspects of students lives， and that students become literate as they grapple with the meaning and uses of print in their environments.

A different definition of strategy instruction is more general and involves how a person thinks and acts when planning， executing， and evaluating performance of a task and its outcomes （Lenz， Ellis， & Scanlon， 1996）. This definition of strategy instruction is related to development of metacognition， or students' ability to control and manage their cognitive activities in a reflective， purposeful fashion （Gersten， Fuchs， & Williams， 2001）.

Weaver （1994） divides these strategies into two larger categories：

（1）Bottom-up Strategy

Part-centered （ also called Code-emphasis or Bottom-up ） strategy， which views reading instruction as moving from learning the “parts” and building up to the “whole”. In bottom-up processing， the readers build up a meaning from the black marks on the page： recognizing letters and words， working out sentence structure. They can make conscious use of it when an initial reading leaves them confused.

（2）Top-down Strategy

Socio-psycholinguistic （also called Meaning-emphasis or Top-down） strategy， which emphasize the overall construction of meaning from connected or whole texts， and draw on the readers and writers schemata and personal experiences. This kind of strategy processing is used when readers interpret assumptions and draw inferences. The readers make conscious use of it when they try to see the overall purpose of the passage， or get a rough idea of the pattern of the writers argument， in order to make a reasoned guess at the passage step. This enables readers to predict the writers purpose， the likely trend of the argument and so on， and then use third framework to interpret difficult parts of the passage.

Whereas with a Top-down strategy， the interaction process between the reader and the text involves the reader in anticipating the knowledge of the world， plus past experiences， expectations and intuitions to arrive at the meaning of the passage. That is， Top-down process interacts with bottom-up process in order to aid comprehension.

Therefore effective reading should involve the integration of both Bottom-up and Top-down strategies. Their relationship is like the following

Bottom-up

（Cited in McDonough J. and Shaw C. 1993： 110）

（3） Skimming and Scanning strategies

Blake（1989：169） describes skimming and scanning strategies as follows：

Skimming and scanning are strategies for making fast searches for information. Readers can use them to find what they need without reading the whole materials. It can save our work and time.

That is to say the readers simply let their eyes wander over the passage until find what they are looking for， whether it be a name， a date， or a less specific piece of information.

When readers apply skimming strategy， first they should know predicting is the core of skimming. It is the faculty of predicting or guessing what is to come next， making use of grammatical， logical and cultural clues. And Unlike predicting， previewing is the core of scanning which involves using the table of contents， the appendix， the preface， the chapter and paragraph headings in order to find out where the required information is likely to be.

The key to skimming is to find the main idea of the selection or different paragraphs， and to be able to synthesize them into an organic whole by way of generalization.

Conclusion Reading is a highly effective means of acquisition foreign language knowledge. It is also a complex cognitive process which various sub-components such as decoding skills， knowledge of text structures， schematic knowledge and processing strategies interact simultaneously to help readers construct coherent meaning from texts （Carrel & Eskey 1988， cited in Brown）. Additional research has been directed at improving second language readers use of strategies through specific reading activities （Nuttall，1989； Grabe， 1991； Anderson 1999）. Most important all， reading is gradually being recognized as a valuable source of language input， particularly for students in learning environments as in EFL context and reading is the major means that the educational system uses to develop students' ability to reason and evaluate. Under this circumstance， the researcher carries out this study which focuses on reading strategy definitions and classifications among with the goal of strategy training is to explicitly teach students how， when， and why strategies can be used to facilitate their efforts at reading learning and using a foreign language smoothly.

References：

1. Anderson， N. J.（1999）. Exploring second language： issues and strategies. [M] Beiji

2. Baltimore， Esther Minskoff Ph.D.（2002）. Teaching reading for struggling learners. [M] U.S.A.

3. Cairney， T. H. （1990）. Teaching reading comprehension. [M] Open University Press.

4. Carlisle & Rice. （2002）. Language teaching approaches. [M] USA

作者簡介：

孙秀萍，女（1976.8-），彝族，云南双柏，讲师，研究生，主要从事英语学科教学、跨文化交际研究.