What Is a Reading Model?

Cindy remembers when she was in early elementary school and taught to read. They did a lot of worksheets and focused on
phonics; kids in her class seemed to do fine with this type of instruction. Now her daughter, Kayla, is in primary school, and
there is a different focus, more on thinking during reading and everyone working on their own level. Cindy wants to know why
they changed things up when the old way worked just fine.
During a parent-teacher conference, Ms. Dobbs, Kayla's teacher, explains that there are several reading models, or ways
educators instruct and teach reading. Each is based on a belief or philosophy on how children learn to read.

Types of Reading Models

Ms. Dobbs goes on to explain that the different types of reading models can all be classified into one of three categories: top
down, bottom-up, and interactive.
Top down
The top down reading model is based on the philosophy that the brain and reader are at the center of understanding and
succeeding. This method argues that readers bring an understanding to the print, not print to the reader. In other words, the
experiences a reader has help him or her to read, decode, and make sense of text. Top-down models ask readers to construct
meaning from text; this knowledge is made from the whole (text) to the part (words). This model does not focus on phonics and
decoding, but instead, allows children opportunities to read 'real' books and make sense of them. Finally, the top-down method
utilizes making sense of grammar and text clues to figure out unknown words.
In other words, Ms. Dobbs explains, the focus in a top down model is not on phonics instruction but rather on getting students
to read complete sentences, paragraphs, and books. This model relies on children mastering skills through experience.
The whole language approach, where learners are taught to identify entire words rather than combinations of sounds, is an
example of a top down model.
Bottom Up
A different approach is the bottom up method. Bottom up focuses on direct instruction of phonics, such as identifying features
of letters, like curves and straight lines, to recognize them. From there students will begin combining letters to read and write
words. They then become familiar with spelling patterns and learn to read sentences, paragraphs and longer texts.
The bottom up model uses phonics as its core, believing readers first process and understand sounds in speech and move on to
understand letters, then words, then longer sentences. Eventually, they build comprehension skills as they grow as readers.
Cindy recognizes this model from her days as a student.
Interactive Model
The interactive model combines features of both other models - students interact with both phonics and text. Teachers using
the interactive model use both instruction methods relying on phonics and a student's experiences with text, believing that each
is necessary for understanding. In classrooms using the interactive model, students receive direct instruction on the
sound/symbol relationships in phonics alongside instruction in comprehension and reading strategies.
Ms. Dobbs explains that most schools today use the interactive method and that Kayla, as an emerging reader, is being taught
both how to read and how to make sense of what she reads. By learning both skills side-by-side, Kayla makes connections
between her sounds, letters, words and books. This way she learns to love reading and can build confidence as she grows.

Bottom-up processing happens when someone tries to understand language by looking at individual meanings or grammatical
characteristics of the most basic units of the text, (e.g. sounds for a listening or words for a reading), and moves from these to
trying to understand the whole text. Bottom-up processing is not thought to be a very efficient way to approach a text initially,
and is often contrasted with top-down processing, which is thought to be more efficient.

Example
Asking learners to read aloud may encourage bottom-up processing because they focus on word forms, not meaning.

In the classroom
Learners can be encouraged to use both bottom-up and top-down strategies to help them understand a text. For example in a
reading comprehension learners use their knowledge of the genre to predict what will be in the text (top-down), and their
understanding of affixation to guess meaning (bottom-up).
Bottom-Up Theories of the Reading Process

Collect This Article

By D. R. Reutzel|R.B. Cooter Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

Updated on Jul 29, 2013

Bottom-up theories hypothesize that learning to read progresses from children learning the parts of language (letters) to
understanding whole text (meaning). Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the reading process say that the
reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an examination of each piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make
a picture. Two bottom-up theories of the reading process remain popular even today: One Second of Reading by Gough (1972)
and A Theory of Automatic Information Processing by LaBerge and Samuels (1974). Goughs (1972) One Second of Reading
model described reading as a sequential or serial mental process. Readers, according to Gough, begin by translating the parts of
written language (letters) into speech sounds, then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece the words
together to arrive at an understanding of the authors written message. In their reading model, LaBerge and Samuels (1974)
describe a concept called automatic information processing or automaticity. This popular model of the reading process
hypothesizes that the human mind functions much like a computer and that visual input (letters and words) is sequentially
entered into the mind of the reader. Almost without exception, humans have the ability to perform more than one task at a time
(computer specialists sometimes call this multitasking). Because each computer (and by comparison the human mind) has a
limited capacity available for multitasking, attention must be shifted from one job to another. If one job requires a large portion
of the available computers attention capacity, then capacity for another job is limited. The term automaticity implies that
readers, like computers, have a limited ability to shift attention between the processes of decoding (sounding out words) and
comprehending (thinking about the meaning of the authors message in the text). If readers are too bogged down in decoding
the text, they will not be able to focus on the job of comprehending the authors message. An example of automaticity in action
can be seen in the common skill of learning to ride a bike. Novice bike riders focus so intently on balancing, turning the
handlebars, and pedaling that they sometimes fail to attend to other important tasks like direction and potential dangers.
Similarly, a reader who is a poor decoder focuses so much of his attention on phonics and other sounding out strategies that he
has little brainpower left for comprehending. When this happens, the reading act, like an overloaded computer, crashes. In
contrast, children who are accomplished bike riders can ride without hands, carry on a conversation with a friend, dodge a
pothole in the road, and chew gum at the same time. Like the accomplished bike rider, fluent readers can rapidly focus on the
authors message because decoding no longer demands the lions share of their attention capacity. In summary, the LaBerge
and Samuels (1974) model predicts that if reading can occur automatically, without too much focus on the decoding process,
then improved comprehension will be the result.
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Teachers who believe that bottom-up theories fully explain how children become readers often teach subskills first: they begin
instruction by introducing letter names and letter sounds, progress to pronouncing whole words, then show students ways of
connecting word meanings to comprehend texts. Although bottom-up theories of the reading process explain the decoding part
of the reading process rather well, there is certainly more to reading than decoding. To become readers, students must compare
their knowledge and background experiences to the text in order to understand the authors message. Truly, the whole purpose
of reading is comprehension.
What is a bottom-up reading model?

by Ken Boothe
Leah B. Walter
Mary D. Stringer (editor)

Home News Cai Music Essays Training Vocabulary Teaching Plan Forum

Introduction
A bottom-up reading model emphasizes a single-direction, part-to-whole processing of a text.
In the beginning stages it gives little emphasis to the influences of the reader's world
knowledge, contextual information, and other higher-order processing strategies. (Dechant 1991).
Definition
A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that
emphasizes the written or printed text
says reading is driven by a process that results in meaning (or, in other words, reading is driven by text), and
proceeds from part to whole.

Also known as: part to whole model

Proponents
Here are some proponents of the bottom-up reading model:
Flesch 1955
Gough 1985
LaBerge and Samuels 1985

Discussion
Here are the views of some researchers about the bottom-up reading model:
Leonard Bloomfield:

The first task of reading is learning the code or the alphabetic principle by which written marks...conventionally
represent...phonemes. (Bloomfield and Barnhart 1961)
The meaning of the text is expected to come naturally as the code is broken based on the reader's prior knowledge of
words, their meanings, and the syntactical patterns of his/her language. (McCormick, T. 1988)
Writing is merely a device for recording speech. (Bloomfield and Barnhart 1961)

Emerald Dechant:

Bottom-up models operate on the principle that the written text is hierarchically organized (i.e., on the grapho-
phonic, phonemic, syllabic, morphemic, word, and sentence levels) and that the reader first processes the smallest
linguistic unit, gradually compiling the smaller units to decipher and comprehend the higher units (e.g., sentence
syntax). (Dechant 1991)

Charles Fries:

The reader must learn to transfer from the auditory signs for language signals...to a set of visual signs for the same
signals. (Fries 1962)
The reader must learn to automatically respond to the visual patterns. The cumulative comprehension of the meanings
signaled then enable the reader to supply those portions of the signals which are not in the graphic representations
themselves. (Fries 1962)
Learning to read...means developing a considerable range of habitual responses to a specific set of patterns of graphic
shapes. (Fries 1962)

Philip B Gough:

Reading is a strictly serial process: letter-by-letter visual analysis, leading to positive recognition of every word
through phonemic encoding. (McCormick, T. 1988)
Lexical, syntactic and semantic rules are applied to the phonemic output which itself has been decoded from print.
(McCormick, T. 1988)

Example
A widely accepted instructional program that incorporates several bottom-up principles is the phonic approach to
reading.
Features
Here are some features of a bottom-up approach to reading:
Bottom-up advocates believe the reader needs to
identify letter features
link these features to recognize letters
combine letters to recognize spelling patterns
link spelling patterns to recognize words, and
then proceed to sentence, paragraph and text-level processing.

See also
 What is a top-down reading model?
What is an interactive reading model?

Are you a top-downer or a bottom-upper? The debate as to the relative importance of these two approaches to understanding
spoken or written text has been going on for decades. Most people would agree that both approaches are useful at different
times and for different reasons. In this blog I will attempt to explain why the bottom-up approach should not be neglected.
First, some definitions.
Top-down processing starts from the reader or listener. It assumes that the learner brings to the text certain knowledge of the
world, of texts (including how certain types of conversation typically unfold), and of language. This knowledge is likely to be
useful in understanding a text (whether written or spoken), but it often needs to be activated, and activities such as discussions,
questionnaires, quizzes, brainstorms, and vocabulary-anticipation can all be used to do this.
For example, when you saw the title of this piece, you probably started thinking about what it might mean, what the arguments
in the piece were likely to be, whether you wanted to read it, and so on.
So assuming you still do want to read it
Bottom-up processing starts from the text. It assumes that by working on a combination of different aspects of the written or
spoken text, the learner can increase their ability to comprehend it. These might be very micro- elements, such as the fact that
we tend to insert a w sound between certain vowels; or they could be at a more macro- level, such as searching for
synonyms within a text. The key idea here is decoding.
For example, in order to understand the second sentence of this piece (the one that starts The debate), you needed to work
out that the first 17 words are the subject (a complex noun phrase), that the verb comes next (has been going on), followed by
an adverbial (though unless you are a grammar geek, you wont have used these terms). Identifying the verb is a key aspect of
decoding complex texts.

Improving the ability to decode

Most people would agree that we use a combination of the two approaches when we are processing a text. We tend to switch
from one to another as is needed. But whereas it used to be thought that we revert to bottom-up processing when we are unable
to use top-down (for example, if we are unable to predict the content, we have to listen to the actual words!), research suggests
that in fact the reverse is true. If you are in a noisy caf, and cant decode what your friend is saying (bottom-up), you tend to
fill in the gaps with your knowledge of the world, or your friends usual speech habits.
Within this framework, the idea of comprehending a text needs to be defined. Many activities in coursebooks are essentially
asking the learners: Did you understand this text? i.e. the one in front of them. This can work as an assessment or
diagnostic tool, but the danger is that it does not prepare the learners for the next text. In other words, we need to train learners
in transferable skills that can be used for any text in the future.
We can do this to a limited extent with top-down activities for example, we can train learners to use prediction techniques to
anticipate the content and language of a text. Furthermore, classroom research and teacher experience tell us that top-down
activities such as the ones listed above can be integrated easily into lessons, are motivating and fun, and enhance the overall
experience for the learner. So we should not discount top-down activities entirely.
However, common sense tells us that we are often in situations where we are less able to use top-down skills, for example, in
exams, or simply when we turn on the radio at random. At this point, our ability to decode becomes key. And it is with bottom-
up approaches that the training aspect comes into its own.
Vocabulary, of course, is vital. The wider your vocabulary, the more fluent your reading or listening is likely to be. However,
bottom-up skills remain important because they work on aspects of the text that are useful even when the learners vocabulary
level is high. We have all heard learners say plaintively Well, I know all these words, but I still didnt get what they were
saying! For this reason, reading and listening activities need to include work on decoding text.
Subsequent blog articles will explore how training in bottom-up decoding can be introduced painlessly into the classroom.

Top down
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Top-down processing of language happens when someone uses background information to predict the meaning of language
they are going to listen to or read. Rather than relying first on the actual words or sounds (bottom up), they develop
expectations about what they will hear or read, and confirm or reject these as they listen or read. Top-down processing is
thought to be an effective way of processing language; it makes the most of what the person brings to the situation.

Example
Asking learners to predict what a newspaper article might be about from the headline or first sentence will encourage them to
use top-down processing on the article.

In the classroom
Learners can be encouraged to use both bottom-up and top-down strategies to help them understand a text. For example in a
reading comprehension learners use their knowledge of the genre to predict what will be in the text (top down), and their
understanding of affixation to guess meaning (bottom up).

In 'real-life' listening, our students will have to use a combination of the two processes, with more emphasis on 'top-down' or
'bottom-up' listening depending on their reasons for listening.

Top-down vs. bottom-up listening

In the classroom

Top-down listening activities

Bottom-up listening activities

Conclusion

Top-down vs. bottom-up listening

Imagine the following situations:

Over lunch, your friend tells you a story about a recent holiday, which was a disaster. You listen with interest and interject at
appropriate moments, maybe to express surprise or sympathy.

That evening, another friend calls to invite you to a party at her house the following Saturday. As youve never been to her
house before, she gives you directions. You listen carefully and make notes.

How do you listen in each case? Are there any differences? With the holiday anecdote, your main concern was probably
understanding the general idea and knowing when some response was expected. In contrast, when listening to the directions to
a party, understanding the exact words is likely to be more important if you want to get there without incident, that is!
 The way you listened to the holiday anecdote could be characterised as top-down listening. This refers to the use of background
knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message. Background knowledge consists of context, that is, the situation and
topic, and co-text, in other words, what came before and after. The context of chatting to a friend in a casual environment itself
narrows down the range of possible topics. Once the topic of a holiday has been established, our knowledge of the kind of
things that can happen on holiday comes into play and helps us to match the incoming sound signal against our expectations
of what we might hear and to fill out specific details.

In contrast, when listening to directions to a friends house, comprehension is achieved by dividing and decoding the sound
signal bit by bit. The ability to separate the stream of speech into individual words becomes more important here, if we are to
recognise, for example, the name of a street or an instruction to take a particular bus.

In reality, fluent listening normally depends on the use of both processes operating simultaneously. Think about talking to your
friends (in your first language) in a noisy bar. It is likely that you guess the content of large sections of the conversation,
based on your knowledge of the topic and what has already been said. In this way, you rely more on top-down processing to
make up for unreliability in the sound signal, which forms an obstacle to bottom-up processing. Similarly, second-language
listeners often revert to their knowledge of the topic and situation when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or structures, so
using top-down processing to compensate for difficulties in bottom-up processing. On the other hand, if a listener is unable to
understand anything of what she hears, she will not even be able to establish the topic of conversation, so top-down processing
will also be very limited.

In the classroom
In real-life listening, our students will have to use a combination of the two processes, with more emphasis on top-down or
bottom-up listening depending on their reasons for listening. However, the two types of listening can also be practised
separately, as the skills involved are quite different.

Top-down listening activities

Do you ever get your students to predict the content of a listening activity beforehand, maybe using information about the topic
or situation, pictures, or key words? If so, you are already helping them to develop their top-down processing skills, by
encouraging them to use their knowledge of the topic to help them understand the content. This is an essential skill given that,
in a real-life listening situation, even advanced learners are likely to come across some unknown vocabulary. By using their
knowledge of context and co-text, they should either be able to guess the meaning of the unknown word, or understand the
general idea without getting distracted by it.

Other examples of common top-down listening activities include putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order,
listening to conversations and identifying where they take place, reading information about a topic then listening to find
whether or not the same points are mentioned, or inferring the relationships between the people involved.

Bottom-up listening activities

The emphasis in EFL listening materials in recent years has been on developing top-down listening processes. There are good
reasons for this given that learners need to be able to listen effectively even when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or
structures. However, if the learner understands very few words from the incoming signal, even knowledge about the context
may not be sufficient for her to understand what is happening, and she can easily get lost. Of course, low-level learners may
simply not have enough vocabulary or knowledge of the language yet, but most teachers will be familiar with the situation in
which higher-level students fail to recognise known words in the stream of fast connected speech. Bottom-up listening
activities can help learners to understand enough linguistic elements of what they hear to then be able to use their top-down
skills to fill in the gaps.

The following procedure for developing bottom-up listening skills draws on dictogloss, and is designed to help learners
recognise the divisions between words, an important bottom-up listening skill. The teacher reads out a number of sentences,
and asks learners to write down how many words there would be in the written form. While the task might sound easy, for
learners the weak forms in normal connected speech can make it problematic, so it is very important for the teacher to say the
sentences in a very natural way, rather than dictating them word-by-word.

Some suitable sentences are:

Im going to the shop.

Do you want some chocolate?

Lets have a party!

 Id better go soon.

You shouldnt have told him.

What are you doing?

There isnt any coffee.

What have you got?

He doesnt like it.

Its quite a long way.

Why did you think youd be able to?

Can you tell him I called?

Learners can be asked to compare their answers in pairs, before listening again to check. While listening a third time, they
could write what they hear, before reconstructing the complete sentences in pairs or groups. By comparing their version with
the correct sentences, learners will become more aware of the sounds of normal spoken English, and how this is different from
the written or carefully spoken form. This will help them to develop the skill of recognising known words and identifying word
divisions in fast connected speech.

Conclusion
Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these two types of processing. Activities which work on each strategy
separately should help students to combine top-down and bottom-up processes to become more effective listeners in real-life
situations or longer classroom listenings.

What is an interactive reading model?

by Ken Boothe
Leah B. Walter

Home News Cai Music Essays Training Vocabulary Teaching Plan Forum

Introduction
An interactive reading model attempts to combine the valid insights of bottom-up and top-down models. It attempts to
take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models, and tries to avoid the criticisms leveled
against each, making it one of the most promising approaches to the theory of reading today. (McCormick, T. 1988)
Definition
An interactive reading model is a reading model that recognizes the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes
simultaneously throughout the reading process.
Proponents
Here are some proponents of the interactive reading model:
Rumelhart, D. 1985
Barr, Sadow, and Blachowicz 1990
Ruddell and Speaker 1985

Discussion
Here are the views of some researchers about the interactive reading model:
Emerald Dechant:

The interactive model suggests that the reader constructs meaning by the selective use of information from all sources
of meaning (graphemic, phonemic, morphemic, syntax, semantics) without adherence to any one set order. The reader
simultaneously uses all levels of processing even though one source of meaning can be primary at a given time.
(Dechant 1991)

Kenneth Goodman:
 An interactive model is one which uses print as input and has meaning as output. But the reader provides input, too,
and the reader, interacting with the text, is selective in using just as little of the cues from text as necessary to construct
meaning. (Goodman, K. 1981)

David E. Rumelhart:

Reading is at once a perceptual and a cognitive process. It is a process which bridges and blurs these two traditional
distinctions. Moreover, a skilled reader must be able to make use of sensory, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic
information to accomplish the task. These various sources of information appear to interact in many complex ways
during the process of reading (Rumelhart, D. 1985).

Examples
The distinction between reading methodologies which are classified as whole-language (top-down) in contrast to
interactive is not always clear. Here are some examples, though, of instructional programs that incorporate the
interactive reading model:
The Multistrategy method with its workbook track and storybook track is a fairly clear-cut example of a methodology
which attempts to focus on all levels of the reading hierarchy.

See: The Multistrategy instructional program

Another method which is traditionally labeled as bottom-up but does have components which attempt to guide the
reader through all levels of the reading hierarchy is the Gudschinsky method.

See: The Gudschinsky instructional program

An interactive whole language instructional program developed by SIL in Papua New Guinea focuses on using whole
texts to teach reading. These texts are reproduced in primers, story books, or Big books. Various reading activities are
constructed around the texts. Lessons include the systematic teaching of phonics or syllables. If primers are
constructed, their lessons link with the story in focus.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Strategies (or Processing): What Are They Anyway?
A colleague of mine recently asked me to explain the difference between bottom-up and top-down reading strategies. I feel a
need to add the interactive approach to reading to these descriptions, as well.

Essentially, bottom-up, top-down, and interactive approaches to reading are the theoretical models used to describe how print is
processed. Each are described below.

Bottom-up strategies (or bottom-up processing): Bottom-up strategies incorporate the lower-level reading processes that
teach students to construct meaning from the most basic units of language, including letters, letter clusters, and words. Students
make meaning of a text by building on a foundation of analyzing the smallest units of meaning.

Bottom-up reading strategies begin with letter-sound correspondences (the bottom) to achieve comprehension (the
top). Bottom-up processing begins with letters and sounds, building to morpheme and word recognition, and then gradually
moving to grammatical structure identification, sentences, and longer texts. A phonics approach to teaching reading supports
bottom-up processes. Phonics is a method to facilitate students' access to text to ultimately lead to comprehension.

Top-down strategies (or processing): Top-down strategies instruction focuses on activities that construct meaning rather than
on mastering bottom-up skills. Students generate meaning by employing background knowledge, making predictions, and
searching the text to to confirm or reject the predictions that are made.

According to supporters of this approach, comprehension resides in the reader. The reader uses background knowledge,
expectations, assumptions, and questions and engages in pre-reading strategies, such as previewing the text, predicting, and
activating background knowledge.

Interactive approach:The interactive approach is considered the most comprehensive description of the reading process. The
best readers use an interactive reading approach. An interactive approach to reading combines elements of both bottom-up and
top-down reading processes simultaneously. For example, a reader may begin reading a text using top-down strategies to
comprehend the text, and then shift to bottom-up strategies when he or she encounters an unfamiliar word. The reader then uses
bottom-up strategies to decode the new word before moving on.

Another way to illustrate the interactive approach to reading is as follows: Recognition of letters (bottom-up processes) leads to
recognition of words, which leads to comprehension (bottom to top). Conversely, context, inferences, and world knowledge
(top-down processes) can influence lower-level processing strategies, affecting readers' expectations about words and meanings
and thus helping readers recognize words faster (top to bottom).
Top-down reading models teach students to read by introducing them to literature as a whole. Instead of teaching students to
read by sounding out each word in a sentence, teachers read whole passages of a text. Students begin to use context clues to
decipher unfamiliar words. The National Capital Language Research Center reports top-down reading models are helpful to
those learning a second language because they help students concentrate on the whole meaning of a passage. The theory also
works with those just learning to read, as readers rely on their previous knowledge to decipher text or unfamiliar words.
Look for Whole Meaning
The top-down reading model theory encourages students to focus more on understanding the main ideas of a passage than
understanding every word. Even if students do not understand each word, they are likely to grasp the meaning of a text as a
whole. Babies learn to speak much the same way. Instead of teaching words one at a time, parents use conversation to teach
language to their children.
Apply What Is Already Known
The top-down reading model encourages students to rely on their own knowledge and use context clues to understand new
concepts or words. The report by Hirotaka Nagao, Using Top-Down Skills to Increase Reading Comprehension, states
readers use their knowledge of the content matter instead of their knowledge of the vocabulary used in a particular piece of
text. Students could also use context clues to determine the meaning of words that have more than one use. For instance, the
word read is pronounced differently depending on the context in which it is used. Students using the top-down reading theory
could rely on context clues to help them determine which pronunciation was correct in a particular text.
Encourage Active Involvement
The teaching model allows students choose books to read based on their own interests. Teachers urge students to select
materials of personal interest so they are more likely to be motivated to read it. Instead of assigning one book for an entire class
to read together, the teacher might take the entire class to the library and allow them to choose their own books. New readers
will begin to understand new vocabulary and increase reading fluency as they read engaging and interesting books.
Encourage Perserverance
In the top-down model, teachers encourage readers to develop speaking and listening skills by having them read aloud to the
class or to a smaller group of students. Instead of stopping students to correct a pronunciation mistake, the teachers urge the
reader to continue reading, even if struggling with a particular passage. Teachers might not correct spelling errors during
creative-writing exercises but instead encourage students to take risks and attempt to spell new and more difficult vocabulary
words. Repetition of important or meaningful passages is often used to help students understand and sometimes memorize the
reading material, resulting in a deeper understanding.
A- The Top Down (Concept-Driven) Approach (Knowledge/background/schemata-based)- (Goodman, Smith)
(Overreliance on top-down or knowledge-based processing => schema interference)

The "top down" approach emphasizes readers bringing meaning to text based on their experiential background and
interpreting text based on their prior knowledge (whole language).
Top = higher order mental concepts such as the knowledge and expectations of the reader.
Bottom = the physical text on the page.
<=> The top-down model of reading focuses on what the readers bring to the process (Goodman, 1967; Smith,
1971,1982). The readers sample the text for information and contrast it with their world knowledge, helping to make
sense of what is written. The focus here is on the readers as they interact with the text.

** This model starts with the hypotheses and predictions then attempts to verify them by working down to the printed
stimuli. This view of reading was called the psycholinguistic guessing game.

** According to Goodman, readers employ 5 processes in reading: (p. 16)

1- Recognition-initiation
2- Prediction
3- Confirmation
4- Correction
5- Termination

Insights that are foundational to this top-down model: (pp. 12-14)

1- Language, reading included, must be seen in its social context.
2- Competence must be separated from Performance:
Competence = what readers are capable of doing. It results in the reader's control of and flexibility in using the reading
process
Performance = what we observe them to do. It is the observable result of the competence.
=> Researchers would be committing a serious error if they equated what readers do with what they are capable of
doing.
3- Language must be studied in process.
4- Language must be studied in its human context.

Impact of Goodman's model: (pp. 3, 23, 240)

This model which has recently been characterized as a concept-driven, top-down pattern had the greatest impact on
conceptions about native and second language reading instruction: it made the reader an active participant in the
reading process => From earlier views of SL reading as a passive linguistic decoding process to more contemporary
views of SL reading as an active predictive process.

Problems: (Stanovich, 1980)

1- For many texts, the reader has little knowledge of the topic and cannot generate predictions.
2- Even if a skilled reader can generate predictions, this would take much longer than it would to recognize the words.

Limitations of top-down models: (Eskey, 1988)

They tend to emphasize higher level skills as the prediction of meaning by means of context clues or background knowledge at
the expense of lower skills like the rapid and accurate identification of lexical and grammatical forms.
In making the perfectly valid point that fluent reading is primarily a cognitive process, they tend to deemphasize the perceptual
and decoding dimensions of that process.
This model is good for the skillful, fluent reader for whom perception and decoding have become automatic, not for the less
proficient, developing reader.
Good reading is a more language-structured affair than the guessing-game metaphor seems to imply.

According to Weber (1984), a top-down model of reading is essentially a model of the fluent reader and does not account for
all the needs of students who are acquiring reading skills.

Top-Down Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 229-231)

The content and quantity of texts that second language students are asked to read may be the most important determinants of
whether, and to what degree, such students develop top-down reading skills.
The materials should be interesting for the students; it should be assigned in substantial amounts over considerable periods of
time.
Two approaches:
- The reading lab approach: students make their own choices of reading material from among a wide selection of appropriate
texts. This approach allows each student to progress at his own rate, to develop schemata in some area of interest, and to
compile a personal record of reading. Disadvantage: it limits group work and isolates reading from other parts of the
curriculum.
- The content-centered approach: the teacher provides for interesting reading in sufficient quantity; a lot of information on a
subject for the class as a whole to explore at some depth.
- pre- and postreading work (introductory lectures, films, discussions, oral/written presentations.
- student interest is stimulated
- natural blending of skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing)
- the students collectively pursue a common goal
- reading is no longer isolated
- reading is no longer taught as an end in itself but as a means to an end
Disadvantage: loss of individual choice.

These 2 approaches may be combined within a single program.

B- The Bottom Up (Serial) Approach

(Text-based) (LaBerge & Samuels, MacWorth)
(Overreliance on bottom-up or text-based processing => text-boundedness)

The "bottom up" approach stipulates that the meaning of any text must be "decoded" by the reader and that students
are "reading" when they can "sound out" words on a page. (Phonics)
<=> It emphasizes the ability to de-code or put into sound what is seen in a text. It ignores helping emerging readers to
recognize what they, as readers, bring to the information on the page.
** This model starts with the printed stimuli and works its way up to the higher level stages. The sequence of processing
proceeds from the incoming data to higher level encodings.
Problems: (Stanovich, 1980)
- This model has a tendency to depict the information flow in a series of discrete stages, with each stage transforming the input
and then passing the recorded information on to the next higher stage.
- An important shortcoming of this model is the fact that it is difficult to account for sentence-context effects and the role of
prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension (because of lack of feedback).

- According to Eskey (1973), the decoding model is inadequate because it underestimates the contribution of the reader who
makes predictions and processes information. It fails to recognize that students utilize their expectations about the text, based
on their knowledge of language and how it works. (p. 3)

Bottom-Up Applications: (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 231-236)

Teaching key vocabulary items and, in the area of grammar, teaching various cohesive devices.
Two areas of concern:
- Simply knowing the meanings of some set number of words does not ensure that a reader will be able, while reading, to
process those words both rapidly and accurately. => teachers must help students develop identification skills (exercises for
rapid recognition: word recognition and phrase identification + extensive reading over time).
- Rate building: good readers read fast; they do not, like many SL readers, try to read word by word, which destroys their
chances of comprehending very much of the text. => The major bottom-up skill that readers of second language must acquire is
the skill of reading fast. (paced and timed reading exercises: formal rate-building work should be limited to a few minutes per
class). Major increases in reading rate can only follow from extensive reading in the language over time.

Footnote: If a text contains too many difficult words, no strategy (top down or bottom up) can make such a text accessible to
the reader. However, second language readers do of course encounter some unknown words in most texts. This is the best
means of increasing their control of English vocabulary. SL readers, however, are frequently panicked by unknown words, so
they stop reading to look them up in dictionaries, thereby interrupting the normal reading process. In response to this problem,
many SL texts recommend various strategies for guessing the meaning of unknown words from context, by using semantic and
syntactic clues or even morphological analysis.
In order to develop good reading habits, the best strategy for dealing with an unknown word may well be to keep reading until
the meaning of that word begins to make itself plain in relation to the larger context provided.

Central to all these bottom-up concerns is the concept of automaticity (LaBerge & Samuels 1974). Good readers process
language in the written form of written text without thinking consciously about it, and good SL readers must learn to do so. It is
only this kind of automatic processing which allows the good reader to think instead about the larger meaning of the discourse,
which allows for global reading with true comprehension.

Bottom-Up Implications for the SL Classroom: (Carrell p. 240-244)

- Grammatical skills: cohesive devices are very important.
- Vocabulary development:
Vocabulary development and word recognition have long been recognized as crucial to successful bottom-up decoding
skills. However, schema theory has shed new light on the complex nature of the interrelationship of schemata, context, and
vocabulary knowledge. UNLIKE traditional views of vocabulary, current thinking converges on the notion that a given word
does not have a fixed meaning, but rather a variety of meanings that interact with context and background knowledge.
Knowledge of individual word meanings is strongly associated with conceptual knowledge -- that is, learning vocabulary is
also learning the conceptual knowledge associated with the word. On the one hand, an important part of teaching
background knowledge is teaching the vocabulary related to it and, conversely, teaching vocabulary may mean teaching
new concepts, new knowledge. Knowledge of vocabulary entails knowledge of the schemata in which a concept
participates, knowledge of the networks in which that word participates, as well as any associated words and concepts
(=> structural analysis).

Teachers must become aware of the cross-cultural differences in vocabulary and how meaning may be represented differently
in the lexicons of various languages.

Several characteristics seem to distinguish effective from ineffective teaching programs. Preteaching vocabulary in order to
increase learning from text will be more successful
- if the words to be taught are key words in the target passages
- if the words are taught in semantically and topically related sets so that word meanings and background knowledge improve
concurrently
- if the words are taught and learned thoroughly
- if both definitional and contextual information are involved
- if students engage in deeper processing of word meanings
- if only a few words are taught per lesson and per week.

Research specific to SL reading has shown that merely presenting a list of new or unfamiliar vocabulary items to be
encountered in a text, even with definitions appropriate to their use in that text, does not guarantee the learning of the word or
the concept behind the word, or of improved reading comprehension on the text passage (Hudson 1982).

To be effective, an extensive and long-term vocabulary development program accompanying a parallel schemata or
background-knowledge-development program is probably called for. Instead of preteaching vocabulary for single reading
passages, teachers should teach vocabulary and background knowledge concurrently for sets of passages to be read at some
later time.
Every SL curriculum should have a general program of parallel concept/background knowledge development and
vocabulary development.

C- The Interactive Approach (Rumelhart, Stanovich, Eskey)

For those reading theorists who recognized the importance of both the text and the reader in the reading process, an
amalgamation of the two emerged the interactive approach. Reading here is the process of combining textual
information with the information the reader brings to a text.
The interactive model (Rumelhart 1977; Stanovich 1980) stresses both what is on the written page and what a reader
brings to it using both top-down and bottom-up skills. It views reading is the interaction between reader and text.
The overreliance on either mode of processing to the neglect of the other mode has been found to cause reading
difficulties for SL learners (Carrell 1988, p. 239)
The interactive models of reading assume that skills at all levels are interactively available to process and interpret the
text (Grabe 1988).
In this model, good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters of text, their decoding skills becoming more
automatic but no less important as their reading skill develops (Eskey 1988).
According to Rumelhart's interactive model:
1- linear models which pass information only in one direction and which do not permit the information contained in a
higher stage to influence the processing of a lower stage contain a serious deficiency. Hence the need for an interactive
model which permits the information contained in a higher stage of processing to influence the analysis that occurs at a
lower stage.
2- when an error in word recognition is made, the word substitution will maintain the same part of speech as the word
for which it was substituted, which will make it difficult for the reader to understand. (orthographic knowledge)
3- semantic knowledge influences word perception. (semantic knowledge)
4- perception of syntax for a given word depends upon the context in which the word is embedded. (syntactic
knowledge)
5- our interpretation of what we read depends upon the context in which a text segment is embedded. (lexical
knowledge)

All the aforementioned knowledge sources provide input simultaneously. These sources need to communicate and
interact with each other, and the higher-order stages should be able to influence the processing of lower-order stages.

According to Stanovich's interactive-compensatory model:

* Top-down processing may be easier for the poor reader who may be slow at word recognition but has knowledge of
the text topic.
* Bottom-up processing may be easier for the reader who is skilled at word recognition but does not know much about
the text topic.
=> Stanovich's model states, then, that any stage may communicate with any other and any reader may rely on better
developed knowledge sources when other sources are temporarily weak.

To properly achieve fluency and accuracy, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up
recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies. Good reading (that is fluent and accurate reading) can
result only from a constant interaction between these processes.
=> Fluent reading entails both skillful decoding and relating information to prior knowledge (Eskey, 1988).

<=> Reading is a bi-directional process that concerns both

the Reader & the Text.
The level of reader comprehension of the text is determined by how well the reader variables (interest level in the text,
purpose for reading the text, knowledge of the topic, foreign language abilities, awareness of the reading process, and
level of
willingness to take risks) interact with the text variables (text type, structure, syntax, and vocabulary) (Hosenfeld,
1979).
http://www.sabes.org/resources/fieldnotes/vol10/f02abrah.htm

According to Joanne Devine (1988), one thing needs to be taken into consideration: readers' internalized models of the
reading process are extremely important.There is convincing evidence that readers do indeed have internalized models of
the reading process that they bring to bear when they read.
Sound- or word-centered readers, those who equated good reading with sound identification or good pronunciation focused
their attention on the graphic information in the text and failed to understand or recall what they had read.
Meaning-centered readers demonstrated good to excellent recall and comprehension of text.
=> a reader's theoretical orientations toward reading may determine the degree to which low proficiency in the language
restricts second language reading ability.
=> the models that readers hold may be of critical importance in allowing them to strike a successful balance between
bottom-up and top-down processing necessary for the interpretation of a text.

ESL researchers should be interested in interactive models for several reasons: (p. 59)
1- several studies note that linguistic deficiencies are inhibiting factors in reading (Clarke, 1979; Singer, 1981; Carrell, 1988).
2- there is a need for extensive vocabulary for reading (Alderson and Urquhart, 1984; Singer, 1981)
3- there is a need to account for poor readers who do guess extensively.
4- good readers are not good simply because they are better predictors, or make better use of context.

Implications of interactive models for ESL reading: (Grabe p. 63)

1- Higher level processing abilities play a significant role in reading.
2- Many lower-level processing skills are basic to good reading. => methods of instruction for rapid visual recognition, for
extensive vocabulary development, and for syntactic pattern recognition should become major pedagogical concerns.
Suggestions for recognition and vocabulary instruction can be found in Stoller (1984, 1986), McKeown et al. (1985), and
Nagy, Herman, and Anderson (1985).
3- There is a need for a massive receptive vocabulary that is rapidly, accurately, and automatically accessed -- a fact that may
be the greatest single impediment to fluent reading by ESL students.
4- Students may overcompensate (overrely on text or on context) for a lack of relevant schemata; Simple analyses of student
difficulties which explain all problems as word-boundedness, or as unwillingness to guess or take chances, are not justified by
the range of empirical studies in the literature.
5- The development of reading abilities may be viewed more profitably if seen in terms of stages of skills development.
Some implications of the interactive model of reading for ESL: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 225)
- contextual interpretation of lexical items is only a part of the vocabulary skills needed for fluent reading, and may actually
interfere if a student overrelies on this strategy (Stanovich 1980).
- certain kinds of "phonics" exercises may be helpful to students (Beck 1981).
- basic recognition exercises to improve speed and accuracy of perception may constitute an important component of an
effective second language reading program (Stoller 1984).

Some general implications for the teaching of second language reading: (Eskey & Grabe, p. 227)
1- Some time must be devoted in the reading class to bottom-up concerns such as the rapid and accurate identification of
lexical and grammatical forms. Even students who have developed strong top-down skills in their native languages may not be
able to transfer these higher-level skills to a SL context until they have developed a stronger bottom-up foundation of basic
identification skills.
2- Some time must also be devoted in the reading class to top-down concerns such as
- reading for global meaning (as opposed to mere decoding),
- developing a willingness to take chances
- developing appropriate schemata for the proper interpretation of texts.
Reading of any kind of text must be treated as real reading, that is, reading for meaning. No student should ever be forced or
encouraged to limit him/herself to decoding skills.

In short, for second language readers, especially, both top-down and bottom-up skills and strategies must be developed
conjointly since both contribute directly to the successful comprehension of text.

Short Circuit Hypothesis:

Goodman, p. 16:
Any reading that does not end with meaning is a short circuit. In general, readers short circuit when
- they cannot get meaning or lose the structure;
- they use non-productive reading strategies;
- they are not permitted to terminate non-productive reading.
List of short circuits:
- letter naming
- recoding
- syntactic nonsense
- partial structures

Clarke p. 120:
The results of some studies conducted suggest that the role of language proficiency may be greater than has previously been
assumed: limited control over the language "short circuits" the good reader's system causing him/her to revert to poor
reader strategies when confronted with a difficult task in the second language. => This suggests that it may be inaccurate
to speak of "good readers" and "poor readers," but of good or poor reading behaviors which characterize most readers at
different times. When one is confronted with difficult reading, one is likely to revert to poor reading behaviors.
Some of the implications of the "short circuit hypothesis" for ESL reading teachers:
1- It would seem justifiable to develop reading programs that are characteristic of good readers.
Among the behaviors that seem to be most productive are:
- concentrating on passage-level semantic cues
- formulating hypotheses about the text before reading, then reading to confirm,
refine or reject those hypotheses
- deemphasizing graphophonic and syntactic accuracy => developing a tolerance for inexactness,
a willingness to take chances and make mistakes.
2- The results of these studies stress the importance of language skills for effective reading. This finding supports the activities
of "traditional" teachers (Lado, 1964; Finochiaro, 1974) whose approach to teaching reading emphasized grammar lessons and
vocabulary instruction; it also supports the recent attempts to integrate reading skills and language development (Eskey, 1973;
Baudoin et al, 1977; Silberstein, 1977).
=> ESL teachers need to emphasize the need for guessing and taking chances in addition to helping their students acquire
fundamental language skills that would facilitate the process of reading. They should emphasize both the psycho and the
linguistic.

The Importance of Vocabulary (Eskey & Grabe, p. 226)

All models of reading recognize the importance of vocabulary, but the interactive model goes further. Not only is a large
vocabulary important, it is a prerequisite to fluent reading skills.
Since automatic word recognition is more important to fluent processing of text than context clues as a first strategy, large-
scale development of recognition vocabulary is crucial (Perfetti 1985).
The importance of vocabulary is not only related to the number of words, but also to the number of times that these words are
encountered and retrieved in texts.

Conclusion (Eskey & Grabe, pp. 228-229)

We must make a clear distinction between the building up of particular skills and strategies, or of relevant knowledge, and
reading itself. Both top-down and bottom-up skills can, in the long run, only be developed by extensive reading over time.
Classroom work can point the way but cannot substitute for the act itself: people learn to read by reading, not by doing
exercises.
What is needed is:
- extensive reading
- appropriate materials (relevant to students' needs and interests)
- sound teacher judgment and approach (the teacher will determine how much and what his/her students read; the teacher must
create the world of reading in class; the teacher must stimulate interest in reading; the teacher must project his/her enthusiasm
for books; the teacher must help students to see that reading can be of real value to them; the teacher must choose, edit, modify
or create materials for students; the teacher must introduce, and provide practice in, useful reading strategies for coping with
texts in an unfamiliar language; the teacher must provide students with feedback as needed).

Language Competence & L2 Reading Proficiency (Devine 1988, pp. 266-268)

The general findings of research -- that low reading achievement in a SL is significantly related to low general proficiency in
that language and that readers with low L2 language proficiency are especially handicapped in their ability to utilize contextual
constraints and cohesive devices when reading in the target language -- have led some researchers to suggest that there is a
threshold of linguistic competence necessary for successful L2 reading ("linguistic ceiling" according to Clarke 1980). => L2
readers will not be able to read effectively until they develop some proficiency in the target language (TL).
Grabe (1986) contends that successful L2 reading depends upon the procession of a "critical mass of knowledge" : linguistic
knowledge (automatic processing of syntactic patterns and vocabulary) + background knowledge + schematic knowledge
(relevant formal and content schemata).

Text-Boundedness & Schema Interference (Carrell, 1988- pp.101-113)

Text-Boundedness = overreliance on text-based or bottom-up processing.

Schema Interference = overreliance on knowledge-based or top-down processing.

What causes such unidirectional biases in text processing, especially in reading in a second language?
Some causes can be hypothesized:
1- Schema availability
2- Schema activation
3- Skill deficiencies (reading skill deficiencies as well as linguistic deficiencies)
4- Misconceptions about reading
5- Individual differences in cognitive styles.

A Bottom-up Approach to ESL Learning and Teaching

bottom-up: Language learning that proceeds from the most basic blocks of language, such as words, and then proceeding to
more complex structures, and finally to meaning. This can be contrasted to top-down learning where students try to understand
the general message without understanding all of the constituent parts. Listening for exact phrases and words would be
considered a bottom-up listening activity, whereas listening for the gist would be considered a top-down activity. Also,
studying individual grammatical structures or sentence structures would be bottom-up.

top-down: Studying language as a whole. Trying to understand the meaning of a reading or listening selection without
worrying about the individual components of language. Listening for the gist and reading for the gist are two types of top-down
activities. The learner is trying to understand using cues such as intonation, tone of voice or body language without focusing on
specific words and structures. Top-down learning is thought to be important for producing automatic processing. Top-down
techniques can be contrasted with bottom-up techniques.

What's the Bottom-Up Approach?

Remember the song for learning your ABC's? The English language is an alphabetic system of writing. Unlike other languages
that use a symbol to represent parts of words or even whole words, the English alphabetic system uses a set of letters, some of
which represent consonant sounds and other vowel sounds.
The bottom-up approach treats developing reading skills as a sequential process. Students must first learn the basics of
phonics and how to decode words before more complex skills such as reading comprehension can be mastered.
This was popularized by many in the 1970's. Among them was Philip Gough in his work titled One Second of Reading. He
theorized that reading is a sequential process, whereby the person reading takes the letters, assembles them into sounds, and
those sounds form words and phrases.
In this teaching process, children learn to read by first mastering the letters of the alphabet. Then they learn phonics, decoding
skills, vocabulary, grammar, and eventually reading comprehension skills. Let's take a deeper look.

Teaching Phonics
After learning the alphabet, the next step is for students to learn that letters in various combinations produce certain sounds.
This relationship is called phonemic awareness. Students have to learn the various phonemes, or letter/sound relationship, in
the English language.
Allow students a multisensory approach to experience seeing, saying, and hearing the various sounds they are learning through
phonics.
 Relationship between components of bottom-up reading.

Regardless of how complicated the phonics rule might be, it should be taught in the least complicated manner possible. For
example, a teacher shouldn't try to teach all the types of vowel sounds at once. They should teach one type of vowel sound,
such as long vowels, and give students a variety of ways to practice that engage as many senses as possible.
Typically teaching phonemes this begins with teaching students the consonant sounds (b, c, d, f, g) and vowel sounds (a, e, i,
o, and u). Teachers may approach this by having students begin to recognize words that start with the consonant or vowel
sounds.
As students move through the phonics instruction, they progress to more complex phonemes such as blended sounds (br, cr,
wr) and digraph sounds (sh, ch, th, and wh). After learning a particular phoneme, students need the opportunity to practice
using that skill in real stories and books.

Decoding Word Recognition

As students learn to recognize phonemes, they will learn to recognize words. Vocabulary is taught in the context of the
phonemes being learned. If students were working on consonant sounds then the vocabulary being taught should emphasize
that particular skill.
Typically, however, students would already have a large vocabulary of words before they are exposed to phonics in pre-K or
early elementary school. Phonics allows the child to recognize the written versions of the words they already know the
meaning of from their previous or current classroom experiences.

Learning the fundamentals of grammar help students decode when

learning to read.

As students develop their language skills, they will learn to recognize various words. In contrast to whole-language instruction,
which emphasizes teaching reading by having students memorize certain words called 'sight words', phonics
The Top-Down Reading Model Theory
by Amy Pearson

Top-down models encourage reading for meaning instead of word-by-word decoding.

Top-down reading models teach students to read by introducing them to literature as a whole. Instead of teaching students to
read by sounding out each word in a sentence, teachers read whole passages of a text. Students begin to use context clues to
decipher unfamiliar words. The National Capital Language Research Center reports top-down reading models are helpful to
those learning a second language because they help students concentrate on the whole meaning of a passage. The theory also
works with those just learning to read, as readers rely on their previous knowledge to decipher text or unfamiliar words.
Look for Whole Meaning
The top-down reading model theory encourages students to focus more on understanding the main ideas of a passage than
understanding every word. Even if students do not understand each word, they are likely to grasp the meaning of a text as a
whole. Babies learn to speak much the same way. Instead of teaching words one at a time, parents use conversation to teach
language to their children.
Apply What Is Already Known
The top-down reading model encourages students to rely on their own knowledge and use context clues to understand new
concepts or words. The report by Hirotaka Nagao, Using Top-Down Skills to Increase Reading Comprehension, states
readers use their knowledge of the content matter instead of their knowledge of the vocabulary used in a particular piece of
text. Students could also use context clues to determine the meaning of words that have more than one use. For instance, the
word read is pronounced differently depending on the context in which it is used. Students using the top-down reading theory
could rely on context clues to help them determine which pronunciation was correct in a particular text.
Encourage Active Involvement
The teaching model allows students choose books to read based on their own interests. Teachers urge students to select
materials of personal interest so they are more likely to be motivated to read it. Instead of assigning one book for an entire class
to read together, the teacher might take the entire class to the library and allow them to choose their own books. New readers
will begin to understand new vocabulary and increase reading fluency as they read engaging and interesting books.
Encourage Perserverance
In the top-down model, teachers encourage readers to develop speaking and listening skills by having them read aloud to the
class or to a smaller group of students. Instead of stopping students to correct a pronunciation mistake, the teachers urge the
reader to continue reading, even if struggling with a particular passage. Teachers might not correct spelling errors during
creative-writing exercises but instead encourage students to take risks and attempt to spell new and more difficult vocabulary
words. Repetition of important or meaningful passages is often used to help students understand and sometimes memorize the
reading material, resulting in a deeper understanding.