Models Of Reading Comprehension

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5.7 MODELS OF READING COMPREHENSION 5.7.1 PROPOSITIONAL UNITS MODEL In order to analyse and validate reading comprehension and academic language of multilingual students, it is necessary to review models of reading comprehension. This thesis focuses on five prominent models that deal with reader’s knowledge in academic language. The first model is the process model by Kintsch & van Dijk (1978) provides theoretical foundations for most of the recent models of reading comprehension. The model suggests that students form a coherent representation of the given text through propositional units. For example, a proposition that ‘animals eat a lot in summer’ is followed by another proposition that animal then sleep during winter. This type of proposition…show more content…
This model also takes into account the prior knowledge of a reader, O’Brien states that when a reader is confronted with new information, it either resonates with prior knowledge or not. Although similar to Kintsch CI Model, the resonance model focuses on reading comprehension. The resonance model suggests that there is an interaction between the information being read and the reader’s background knowledge. In view of refutation texts, O’Brien states that due to the fact that such text takes readers’ prior knowledge into consideration, it resonates with their concept, therefore, being able to change the misconceptions that students may have about a…show more content…
(1994) adds a few more characteristics in the reading comprehension. Graesser starts by stating that the reader’s goal for reading a text is of high important when talking about comprehension. A reader who is just reading for fun might not have a deeper processing of the text, whereas, if the reader is studying for an exam, such text will be deeply processed. The next stage in Graesser’s model is about readers seeking explanation for the structure of the given text. Most readers will try to logically explain why the author structured the text in a particular way while using background knowledge available to them. In so doing, they arrive at the last stage by Graesser et al. (1994) which is the stage of coherence. By explaining the structure in the text readers often try to fill in the blank for the author, so areas, where readers feel is lacking, they often construct a coherent representation of what could be missing. 5.7.5 LANDSCAPE MODEL The last model is the landscape model from Tzeng and Broek et al. (2005) which sums up all the models. The landscape model view reading comprehension as a process where readers activate different ability as s/he proceeds through the text. As Broek and Kendeou state: “As the reader proceeds through the text, concepts (propositions, informational units) fluctuate in activation: With each new cycle some concepts (e.g. sentence) continue to be active, others decline in activation,

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