UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGÓGICA EXPERIMENTAL LIBERTADOR
INSTITUTO PEDAGÓGICO DE CARACAS
Subdirección de Investigación y Postgrado
Subprograma de Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera
Caracas, February 2010
Authors:
Albis Tovar
César Rivas
Edgar León
Lisbeth Belisario

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
I have some knowledge about this topic
This article is about insects,
Therefore I can make a prediction about it

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
Insights that are foundational to this top-down model:
 Language, reading included, must be seen in its social context.
 Competence must be separated from Performance:
Competence = what readers are capable of doing
Performance : It is the observable result of the competence.
 Language must be studied in process.
 Language must be studied in its human context.

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
Top-Down Applications: (Eskey & Grabe)
Two approaches:
 The reading lab approach: students make their own choices of reading material from among a wide selection of appropriate texts .
 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.

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
The Bottom Up (Serial) Approach
(LaBerge & Samuels, MacWorth)
 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 decode or put into sound what is seen in a text.

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
UP : Higher level stages
BOTTOM : Printed Stimulus

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
Problem:
 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)

Top Down and Bottom Up Approaches
Bottom-Up Implications for the SL Classroom:
(Carrell p. 240-244)
 Grammatical skills: cohesive devices are very important.
 Vocabulary development and word recognition have been recognized as crucial to successful bottom-up decoding skills.
 Teachers must become aware of the cross-cultural differences in vocabulary and how meaning may be represented differently in the lexicons of various languages.

Rapid Accurate

need

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Info
Context

X P T A Q E W T
Jam hot pin call did tap son tick
How quickly can you read and understand this?

The handsome knight mounted his horse, and galloped off to save the beautiful princess. On and on, over mountains and valleys, until his galloping house was exhausted. At last he dismounted…Where was the dragon?

Carrell, P.; Devine, J.; Eskey, D. (2000).Interactive Approaches to
Second Language Reading. Cambridge University Press.
Gascoigne, C.
(2005).
Toward an Understanding of the
Relationship between L2 Reading Comprehension and
Grammatical Competence.
[Article on Line] Available in http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/gascoigne/article.pdf
[Consulted: 2010, February 18]
-Salem, N. (2007). Teaching Secong Language Reading from An interactive Perspective.
[ web site ] available in http: / nandab.tripod.com/.
[consulted: 2010, February 18].
-Villanueva, E. (2006). Applying Current Approach to the Teaching of Reading.
Revista Forum, Number 1, Pag.
8-14.