An Interactive Approach
to Teaching L2 Reading:
From the Bottom-Up
Heidi Hyte
Brigham Young University
heidi_hyte@byu.edu
heidi@readinghorizons.com
Webinar Objectives
• Provide examples of bottom-up, top-down,
and interactive strategies for teaching L2
reading.
• Provide practical methodology and
approaches to teaching bottom-up strategies
in L2 reading.
• Offer rationale for the role of students’
phonemic awareness.
• Offer rationale for the use of explicit,
systematic bottom-up strategies instruction.
What is reading?
The ability to successfully
generate meaning from text.
What is fluent reading?
What is fluent reading?
“The ability to read at an
appropriate rate with adequate
comprehension” (68).
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp.
67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
What is strategic reading?
What is strategic reading?
“The ability of the reader to use
a wide variety of reading
strategies to accomplish a
purpose for reading” (68).
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English Language Teaching (pp.
67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
What is the goal of reading?
Comprehension
Factors that influence
reading comprehension:
Factors that influence
reading comprehension:
• The reader
• The text
• Interaction between the reader and the text:
–
–
–
–
Strategies
Schema
Purpose for reading
Manner of reading
• Fluency
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language
classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Models of Reading
• Bottom-up processing (decoding)
• Top-down processing
• Interactive approach
Bottom-up Processing
Reader builds meaning from the
smallest units of meaning to
achieve comprehension.
Example
letters  letter clusters  words  phrases 
sentences  longer text  meaning =
comprehension
Top-down Processing
Reader generates meaning by employing
background knowledge, expectations,
assumptions, and questions, and reads to
confirm these expectations.
Example
Pre-reading activities (i.e. activating schema,
previewing, and predicting) + background
knowledge (cultural, linguistic, syntactic, and
historical) = comprehension
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language
classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Interactive Approach
Reader uses both bottom-up and topdown strategies simultaneously or
alternately to comprehend the text.
Example
Reader uses top-down strategies until he/she
encounters an unfamiliar word, then employs
decoding skills to achieve comprehension.
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language
classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Interactive Approach
Knowledge base + bottom-up
strategies + top-down strategies =
comprehension
Which model should be adopted?
The reader must be competent in
both bottom-up and
top-down processing.
Nunes, T. (1999). Learning to read: An integrated view from research and practice. Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Kluwer.
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down strategies:
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down strategies:
Top-down
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down strategies:
Bottom-up
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down strategies:
Bottom-up
Top-down
Interaction (“balance”) of
bottom-up and top-down strategies:
Bottom-up
strategies
(“phonics”
approach)
________________
Top-down
strategies
(“whole language”
approach)
________________
Examples:
Examples:
• decoding
• using capitalization
to infer proper nouns
• graded reader
approach
• pattern recognition
• using background
knowledge
• predicting
• guessing the
meaning of unknown
words from context
• skimming/scanning
Bottom-up
Top-down
Models of Reading: Application
Top-down processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the cumpy kebs.
1) What kind of coddlers were they?
2) What did the coddlers do?
3) How did they do it?
4) Where did they do it?
5) In what kind of kebs did they kimple?
6) What is the subject? What is the verb?
Models of Reading: Application
Bottom-up processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the cumpy kebs.
When do you spell words with a C or a K?
• kenlig
• coddlers
• canly
• kimpled
• cumpy
• kebs
Decoding Strategy: The C and K Skill
C – a, o, u
K – i, e
cat
cob
cup
can
kid
Ken
kin
keg
Models of Reading: Application
Bottom-up processing
The kenlig coddlers canly kimpled in the cumpy kebs.
When do you spell words with a C or a K?
• kenlig
• coddlers
• canly
• kimpled
• cumpy
• kebs
Top-down Strategies: Application
Step 1: Read the title. Predict what the text is
going to be about.
Step 2: Ask questions:
- What is your purpose for reading this text?
- What type of text is this? (A newspaper
article? A letter? A textbook? A poem?)
- What is a “Jabberwocky”?
Step 3: Activate background knowledge:
What do you know about Lewis Carroll’s
style of writing?
Top-down Strategies: Application
“Jabberwocky”
By Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
Top-down Strategies: Application
“Jabberwocky”
By Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Top-down Strategies: Application
• Which top-down strategies did you use
while reading to help you comprehend the
text?
• Were your top-down strategies enough to
read the text?
• What did you do when you came across an
unfamiliar word?
Bottom-up Strategies: Application
How do you read these words?
wabe
brillig
Bottom-up (Decoding) Strategies:
Framework of Phonics:
42 sounds
5 phonetic skills
2 decoding skills
Five Phonetic Skills
*
1. met
X
Five Phonetic Skills
* *
2. jump
X
Five Phonetic Skills
3. me
X
Five Phonetic Skills
4. smile
X
X
Five Phonetic Skills
5. boat
X X
Five Phonetic Skills
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
*
met
* *
jump
me
smile
boat
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Five Phonetic Skills
How do you decode this word?
wabe
Five Phonetic Skills
How do you decode this word?
wabe
X
X
Decoding Skill #1
motel
Decoding Skill #1
1. mo
X
*
2. mot
X
3. mote
X
X
4. motel
X
X
Decoding Skill #1
motel
X
X
One consonant (guardian) goes on
Decoding Skill #1
provide
X
X
X
One consonant (guardian) goes on
Decoding Skill #2
campus
X
X
Two consonants (guardians) split
Decoding Skill #2
How do you decode this word?
brillig
Decoding Skill #2
How do you decode this word?
brillig
X
X
Bottom-up Strategies: Application
How do you read these words?
wabe
brillig
The role of phonemic awareness
What is phonemic awareness?
• The consciousness that words are
composed of separate sounds
• The strategies used to:
– Segment strings of sounds
– Discriminate between these sounds
The role of phonemic awareness
Why is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?
The role of phonemic awareness
Why is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?
“ESL and EFL learners need to acquire the
knowledge base of English phonemes so that
their aural discrimination of sounds can
proceed effortlessly, quickly, and
unconsciously” (53).
Birch, Barbara M. (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers.
The role of phonemic awareness
Why is it important for
ESL/EFL readers?
“Phonemic awareness is an important
precursor for alphabetic reading, but
paradoxically people often acquire it as a result
of learning to read an alphabet” (54).
Birch, Barbara M. (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers.
The role of phonemic awareness
Why is it important for ESL/EFL readers?
• Readers who have it are better readers.
• Readers are able to connect sounds with
symbols.
• Readers can attach meaning to sounds.
• If readers can associate the sounds of words
when learning the meaning of new
vocabulary, it sticks better.
Application: Now What?
1) First provide explicit instruction in bottomup/decoding strategies, then allow
opportunities to practice bottom-up strategies
in extensive reading materials.
Application: Now What?
2) Use shorter passages to teach intensive
reading skills and longer texts to apply topdown strategies.
Application: Now What?
3) Select materials for both intensive
(teaching explicit strategies) and extensive
(application of strategies) purposes. One
single text generally cannot meet both
needs.
Application: Now What?
4) When teaching new vocabulary, provide explicit
decoding strategies to enable learners to develop
phonemic awareness.
- rhyming games (mat  pat)
- manipulation of beginning, middle, and end of
words (mat  pat  pet  pen)
Self Reflection
Take a moment to ponder the answers to the
questions on the following slide. As you
answer these questions, think of your students’
needs. What kind of strategies do you need to
equip your students with in order to help them
achieve the goal of comprehension?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach
reading?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did you
learn both bottom-up and top-down skills?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did you learn
both bottom-up and top-down skills?
3) When you teach reading, do you rely more
on teaching top-down strategies? If so,
why?
Self Reflection
1) What strategies do YOU use to teach reading?
2) When you learned how to read, did you learn
both bottom-up and top-down skills?
3) When you teach reading, do you rely more on
teaching top-down strategies? If so, why?
4) Are you an interactive reading teacher?
Why bottom-up?
“Despite the emergence of interactive models,
I am concerned that much of the second
language reading literature continues to
exhibit a strongly top-down bias… This
research has resulted in many useful insights,
but the lack of attention to decoding problems
has, I think, produced a somewhat distorted
picture of the true range of problems second
language readers face” (95).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language
readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp.
93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Why bottom-up?
“In practical terms, my concern is thus to keep the language in the
teaching of second language reading. That may not sound very
controversial, but I think that in promoting higher-level strategies-like predicting from context or the use of schemata and other kinds
of background knowledge--some researchers have been sending a
message to teachers that the teaching of reading to second language
readers is mostly just a mater of providing them with the right
background knowledge for any texts they must read, and
encouraging them to make full use of that knowledge in decoding
those texts. Though that is certainly important, it is also, I think,
potentially misleading as a total approach…We must not, I believe,
lose sight of the fact that language is a major problem in second
language reading, and that even educated guessing at meaning is
not a substitute for accurate decoding” (97).
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of second language
readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp.
93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
What’s your opinion?
“[The introduction of top-down processing]
has had such a profound impact [on second
language reading] that there has been a
tendency to view the introduction of a strong
top-down processing perspective as a
substitute for the bottom-up, decoding view of
reading, rather than its complement” (3-4).
Carrell, P. (1993). Introduction: Interactive approaches to second language reading. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, &
D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp. 1-7). Cambridge, England: ambridge
University Press.
Sources
Aebersold, J. & Field, M. L., (1997). From reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for
second language classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Anderson, N. J. (2003). Exploring Skills: Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.), Practical English
Language Teaching (pp. 67-86). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Birch, B. M, (2002). English L2 Reading: Getting to the Bottom. Mahwah, New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carrell, P. (1993). Introduction: Interactive approaches to second language reading. In P.
Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading
(pp. 1-7). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Eskey, D. (1993). Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems of
second language readers. In P. Carrell, J. Devine, & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive
approaches to second language reading (pp. 93-100). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Nunes, T. (1999). Learning to read: An integrated view from research and practice. Dordrecht,
The Netherlands: Kluwer.