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According to the paper that I had presented on ER and the systematic integration that we could apply in the curriculum, I truly believe that to a certain extent, it could be integrated in the curriculum along with the Intensive Reading (IR) approach. However, as what I had shared in the presentation, if we look at the current Malaysian curriculum, ER has been implicitly integrated though it’s not fully enforced due to the lack of time and reading materials. Although there are strategies that could be implemented based on the 10 principles by Day and Bamforf (2002), there is still much to be done in terms of the teachers’ role and being a model of a reader to the students. I think it’s safe to say that most Malaysians are not avid readers. In fact, how many of us do take the time to read a few chapters or pages of a book or magazines on a daily basis?

So, I guess based on the discussion that had been highlighted by both Eddy and Afza regarding the relationship between ER and IR, somehow to a certain extent there is a relationship between these two despite it being different in form and manner. I truly believe that in order to carry out ER among the students, they first need to acquire the reading strategies that could be taught in the lessons as part of the IR approach. How can one truly understands and appreciate what one reads if we have not been taught or exposed to the technical aspects of reading skills.

Which leads to the question Prof raised during the discussion on which reading strategies suit both IR and ER. From my perspective, I believe the metacognitive strategies are applicable for IR and ER. If we look at the metacognitive strategies, these strategies are combined with the metacognitive knowledge that the learners have acquired through their learning. Since IR focuses more on the technical aspect of the reading skills that include reading for main idea and supporting details, the metacognitive strategies revolve on the planning and arrangement of the goals and learning activities that help to support, in this case, the reading process which eventually could develop into a love for reading in general.

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Intensive reading involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks. It can be compared with extensive reading, which involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general reading skills. Based on Ida’s presentation on Systematic Integration of Extensive Reading in the Curriculum: Strategies and Resources, there were interesting questions raised during the Q & A. Wilder’s question was about the relationship between intensive reading (IR) and extensive reading (ER), Prof K asked if both IR and ER can go on the same direction and Afza shared her personal experience. She pointed out that an extensive reading encourage reading fluency, so students should not be stopped frequently because they do not understand a passage. And Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan brought up a question on which theory is the most suitable for IR and ER. In my opinion, Schema theory encourages students to participate actively in the process of reading, making assumptions about, and understanding the material by guiding them from sensory thinking to imaginative thinking (An & Suying, 2013). Students use prior knowledge to link and grasp a text using the schema framework. In addition, Krashen's Comprehension Hypothesis is the basic notion guiding extended reading. According to the Comprehension Hypothesis, "when we interpret communications, that is, when we comprehend what we hear and what we read, when we get "comprehensible information," we acquire language and develop literacy." (Krashen, 2003).

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In the article I presented on ‘The Impact of Metacognitive Scaffolding and Monitoring on Reading Comprehension’, the researchers used quasi-experimental design to compare the effects of metacognitive raising. The study was conducted in Singapore to investigate the student’s metacognitive awareness to enhance reading comprehension capacity through scaffolding and monitoring. There were MARSI inventory used to check on the students’ metacognitive awareness and UNSW ICAS test used to compare their scores before and after the intervention. The researchers found that the experimental group performed way better than control group. It is proven that students who get a proper guidance from their instructor gain a better understanding compared to those who just try to employ the skills from their background knowledge or experience. However, if I were to conduct a similar study as this, I would also include other variables which are motivation and teacher’s in-depth interview procedures that can be carried out for a longer period of time. It is because I feel that motivation plays an important role in cultivating reading habit among learners. On the other hand, teachers’ perceptions are also essential in determining the success of the implemented curriculum. The teacher’s views can help us pinpoint valuable variables that have an impact on how they use metacognitive techniques in their instruction.

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (Week 13 - K Kalai Mathi)

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (Week 13 - K Kalai Mathi)

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I certainly agree with Gio's perspectives on self-assessment (SA) that it can't yield a favourable result. I have witnessed it in my classroom where the low proficiency students especially have difficulty in identifying their strength and weaknesses accurately. They somehow would expect the teacher to provide a constructive feedback that can be convincing. They are also afraid of admitting their weaknesses and fearful of their surroundings or afraid of being judged by their peers. So, as Giovanni mentioned, motivation is the key to make them feel comfortable and confident. Indeed it is not easy to conduct research as it is very subjective and the result may not be precise.

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Qiu Xiaoting Jasmine presented an article about metacognitive skills in reading. It explored the connection of cognitive skills incorporated with higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and reading comprehension. There was q question raised on how ‘test battery’ can be employed as a valid instrument to measure creative skills in reading performance. Also, the research question related to gender gap was also found to be irrelevant as there was no literature to prove that males perform better than females. It is quite interesting to know that creative skills can be assessed through Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) that are constructed based on HOTS. All these while I had an assumptions that creative skills are mostly constructed in subjective questions. It motives me to also try out this method in my future study. In my opinion, I believe that students who have gone through the metacognitive pedagogy have a higher chances of better understanding as they are conscious throughout the reading process.

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (WEEK 11- K Kalai Mathi)

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (WEEK 11- K Kalai Mathi)

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Wilder’s presentation was about reading strategies. An investigation on the level of focus and comprehension among undergraduates while reading an identical information text on paper or tablet. The result of the study revealed that there is no significant between the screen reading and paper reading. However, I personally believe that paper reading leads to a better focus which enables the readers to make key notes, highlight important phrase or words, and closely connected. Whereas for digital reading text, the readers would mostly get distracted and come across pop up advertisements, emails, and WhatsApp notifications. I feel that the researcher should not have used pdf text on Samsung Galaxy Tab instead should have explored the real-life scenarios.  I learned a new phrase today ‘shallowing hypothesis’ used in the research paper that means a surface level of understanding without critical thinking. Future research may include a real web-based platform to get more reliable results.

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Emy’s presentation on qualitative research entitled ‘What might readers want? Unexpected responses from Malaysian Literature in English students and suggestions of potentiality of text selection’. The main concern of the study is to promote an active engagement to literature texts among Malaysian students. Although there were only two participants involved in this study, their feedback seem to be very straightforward and sensitive. It shows that student who has a high proficiency background has a high expectation while reading a particular piece of literature compared to low proficiency student who still tries to read and understand the content out of interest. Thus, it is crucial for teachers to select the materials carefully and practice extensive reading among their students. Based on my personal experience, I usually encourage my students to choose the stories based on their preference to motivate and prove them wrong that literature is not boring!
And I would ask them to share their perspectives about the stories that they've read in class. I was surprised to see them continuing the practise.

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (Week 9 - K Kalai Mathi)

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REFLECTING ON REFLECTION (Week 9 - K Kalai Mathi)

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Anan’s presented an interesting experimental research paper on the effectiveness of e-reading programme compared to traditional teaching methods. It was good example for students like us to know more on the Do’s and Don’ts in conducting an experimental study. There were several drawbacks found in this paper. As mentioned by Emynordiana, the content shared by the researchers were insufficient for readers to understand their concept. There was no explanation given on the duration, procedure, and instructional materials used. There is a high possibility where biasness may often occur in this kind of research. This view is also supported by Professor Kabilan’s input:

·         The researchers should not get involved directly in the process of conducting the research as the teacher.

·         The procedure is carried out.

·         The number of students in both control group and experimental group should be equal or minimum of 30 participants.

·         It should be statistically significant.

·         Validity and reliability must be measured.

·         If the researchers are teachers who teach the participants, they should hire someone to assist with the procedure

The question and answer session was really fruitful as I gained valuable knowledge that experimental research should be carried out carefully.

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The ability to comprehend what one has read is the goal of reading instruction. Good readers frequently possess strong vocabularies. They can comprehend and correctly use the language. Today, we were given a unique task about the challenges of reading and teaching reading in different countries such as Malaysia, China, and Thailand. We were required to list all the similarities and differences. In our group, there were Jasmine, Giovanni from China and me from Malaysia, so we discussed based on our countries’ context. We found more similarities in the challenges of reading than differences. We all agreed that Lack of interest and motivation affect student’s reading comprehension.  Other than that, slow speed and short attention span also lead to poor comprehension. As for the teaching reading, the teachers face several challenges too. There is lack of fund, trainings, resources, exposure, and large classes. In Malaysian context, education is exam orientated. Thus, the teachers are focusing more on the overall achievement of students rather than teaching a long-term process. We concluded our view as interesting teaching and learning process can help students to build their interest in learning English especially in reading aspect. In the future it is recommended that reading strategies should be applied by the schools because it can help teachers and students to overcome problems in reading comprehension.

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Reflecting on Reflections - Week 7 K Kalai Mathi

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Reflecting on Reflections - Week 7 K Kalai Mathi

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I strongly agree with Yuan Ye’s point of view on Brighton’s presentation. There is indeed a complicated conception between reading theory and neuroscience. Reading is a neurological component of general language perception and processing, which also includes morpho-syntactic, syntactic-semantic, syntactic-thematic, and discourse processing. This process starts with letter recognition in word identification processing in the visual cortex. However, as he mentioned, presuming our brain as a black box would not be very effective if we ignore the process. As I do agree that we can’t study the learner’s brain concurrently and or visualize the outcome to evaluate, there are several ways to measure the input and output such as assessments and reflections that involve in conducting a particular lesson. Also, based on the presentation, there is still a need for a multifaceted perspective on literacy that considers its cognitive, social, and critical components as well as the flexibility of its meaning. As discussed a teacher is unable to modify the instructional materials according to each learner instead can often promote student centred  approaches to enhance independent learning. In a way it would cultivate the intrinsic motivation when the teacher gives positive feedback. My suggestion would be educators can try grouping the students based on their proficiency level and prepare tasks accordingly for a better guidance and to avoid them feeling stressful or demotivated. This method could also help to change the student's mindset towards the various dimensions of reading.

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In the issue of intensive and extensive reading, much can be taken into consideration from the thorough research report presented by Ida.

Firstly, I do not believe that extensive and intensive reading is a phase-by-phase process. Each individual language learner has a unique database/skillset of 'book knowledge' they gained before entering a language classroom for reading lessons. Some learners are from a family of readers that reinforces their habit of reading at home, while there are also learners who only received the reading exposure from the language classroom. In such cases, the former already has a sizable 'book knowledge' from their extensive reading while the latter have to start with intensive reading in class. Therefore, the idea of extensive/intensive reading is not sequential, just categorical.

Having explained how unique learners are, we can still make statistical estimation based on the cultural tendency of the language learner society. For example in Malaysia, it is a known fact that many Malaysians do not have a good reading habit (if reading refers to reading books). From this, we can assume that most learners do not read extensively. Hence, it is highly important for teachers to promote and encourage extensive reading through careful planning as shown in the research paper.

2.0 Reading Theories associated with Intensive and Extensive Reading

I view intensive reading as facilitated reading as it opens the text to analysis and dissection in a language classroom, hence to me it is very relatable to constructivist theory. The explanation from the 'knowledgeable other' be it teacher or peers help the learner to construct meaning and understand the text especially in a communicative approach of teaching reading.

But of course, there are also instances in which Krashen's comprehensible input is very likely a better theory to explain intensive reading in the classroom, especially to a more individualistic approach to intensive reading.

On your own (extensive reading), you interact with the text using your global knowledge (knowledge of the world), and whatever reading subskills you prefer to use or/and make self-informed guess of sentence meanings. This spells out schema theory.

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In terms of the issues raised by Prof, the Compelling Input Hypothesis proposed by Krashen et al is the appropriate theory to apply to extensive reading, according to this theory, Input should be compelling, that is, the input should be so interesting that the acquirer enters a state of “flow”. When readers enter a state of flow during reading, they are wholly engrossed in the book. The evidence for the Compelling Input Hypothesis are the numerous cases of unexpected improvement in language without conscious effort, but merely by being very interested in reading, or watching films and television programs.  The theoretical significance of ER is derived from implicit learning. According to Ellis (2008), implicit learning refers to the acquisition of

knowledge without conscious awareness. It is essential in developing reading processes that contribute to automatic lexical and syntactic processing and fluency in reading (Grabe, 2009). In order for implicit learning to have an impact on reading development, long-term and large volumes of input are necessary (Grabe, 2009), which means that learners need to read a lot and

widely.

In terms of intensive reading, exploring background knowledge plays a crucial role in promoting the reader to get information in the process. The role of background knowledge in language comprehension has been formalized as the Schema theory. Schema Theory is how knowledge is acquired, processed, and retrieved. The Schema theory thinks that comprehending a text is an interactive process between the reader's background knowledge and the text. Comprehension of the text requires the ability to relate the textual material to one' s own

knowledge. Comprehending words, sentences, and entire texts involves more than just relying on one’s linguistic knowledge. From the schema theory, it is clear that meaning is not fully presented in a text passively waiting to be decoded by the reader. Meaning is reconstructed or created through the reading process through the interaction of text and the reader’s background knowledge. So what the teacher should do is teach the students to link their prior knowledge with the text. By doing this the students can better understand the global meaning of the text.

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Standardized tests serve as the study's initial launching point. Unfortunately, from the perspective of educational consequences, forcing standardized tests on young students does not improve classroom instruction and does not produce the anticipated washback effect. In the Chinese context, alternative assessment is essential, so that teachers can better understand learners' learning progress and then respond to individual learner differences. Examples of such alternative assessments include performance assessments, self-assessments, and language portfolios. According to the study, young students typically give an accurate assessment of their reading and writing skills in a foreign language.

Training and expertise with SA were crucial. If learners could consistently practice SA, they may utilize it as a metacognitive tool to assess their language learning strengths and deficiencies. There is a threshold beyond which language learners can more accurately self-assess their abilities, and higher proficiency learners can do so more accurately than lower proficiency learners could. Young learners are better able to evaluate their language learning skills following continuous practice with SA, according to Butler and Lee's (2010) research. Given the results, it is reasonable to assume that if the individuals in the present study received regular training or practice with SA, the correlations would have been stronger. As a result, with education and practice, learners may evaluate their proficiency in the English language with accuracy. Accurate ability assessment calls for continual education and experience.

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Reflection (Week 14 Anan Sawaengdist) Ida’s Presentation

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Reflection (Week 14 Anan Sawaengdist) Ida’s Presentation

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One of the difficult aspects of teaching reading is incorporating significant reading into the curriculum, tactics, and resources. Intensive Reading and Extensive reading, in my opinion, are quite different from one another because Intensive Reading helps students read with a purpose, focusing on the main idea and supporting details to accurately extract information from the text, whereas Extensive Reading helps students develop reading habits, increase reading speed and fluency, and develop contextualized vocabulary and grammar as well as Extensive Reading the learners can read it for pleasures or improve reading competency.

In the discussion section, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan raised the issue of what theories should be applied to both Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading. Schema theory can be applied to the Intensive Reading process. According to the schema theory, reading comprehension involves an interactive process between the reader's prior knowledge and the text. It explains how individuals interpret, arrange, and keep information in their minds.

The Krashen Comprehension Hypothesis is the basic idea that underlies Extensive Reading. In accordance with the Comprehension Hypothesis, "we acquire language and gain literacy when we grasp messages, that is, when we comprehend what we hear and what we read, when we get "comprehensible information"" (Krashen, 2003). The comprehension hypothesis contends that language acquisition occurs when individuals are exposed to understandable material, or "skills" like vocabulary and grammar (Krashen, Lee, & Lao, 2018).

In the context of ESL/EFL, I believe it is very difficult to integrate extensive reading into the curriculum due to time constraints, learning schedules, study loads, limited learners' reading proficiency, and learners' lack of motivation if most students focus more on exams or grades than reading for habits. Another issue is how teachers can encourage pupils to develop good reading habits and serve as role models for extended reading.

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reflection on reflections week 14(YUANYE)

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reflection on reflections week 14(YUANYE)

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In the chapter 2, the author mentioned ER as a core element of reading instruction.
Opportunities for ER need to be part of the curriculum and course planning. In the school where I stay, for liberal education, the reading course was generally conducted without any stress on ER or IR. Maybe the name of textbook is called Intensive Reading or Extensive Reading. But in the authentic class, not so much attention were given to ER or IR. But after explained by Ida, this paper told us integrated ER in the curriculum is necessary.

My view is that the article didn’t mention the sequence. What’s the right sequence of reading of ER or IR for distinct readers? Both learners and teachers should be cautious about the choice of ER & IR materials. Learners are clear about what’s the best material for their own reading (see the table 2 in the paper “graded books”).

Dr. Kabilan argued what’s the exact theories of ER & IR. Anan referred cognitive theory to ER and meta-cognitive to IR. To some degree, they have something overlapped. For my reflection, ER is the fundamental structure of IR. Learners will have a good command of basic reading comprehension ability from ER and then they can have the motivation and ability to do IR. Brighton mentioned Karshen input hypothesis to ER while Afza referred Schema theory. I prefer the INPUT HYPOTHESIS. It refers that only when we understand the input that contains part of what we are going to learn at the next stage can we acquire language in a natural order. Our current level is i, the next level of acquisition is i+1, and the input we receive contains i+1 content. We can use contextual information, past learning experiences, and common sense to help us solve unacquired grammatical content.

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Reflections on week 14 (Qiu Xiaoting-Jasmine)

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Reflections on week 14 (Qiu Xiaoting-Jasmine)

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The presentation today is quite fruitful. The article elaborated on how to use empirical research to incorporate extensive reading into curriculum. Day and Bamford (2002) suggested 10 principles for instructors, such as giving students access to enough reading materials and giving them complete autonomy. I'm particularly interested in how to put into practice Principle No. 8, "Reading is individual and silent." Is it practical to offer students 20 or 30 minutes in a classroom context to do extensive reading? For it seems to run counter to what I had previously learned that the class should be used entirely for productive learning activities rather than some silent ones. Later, this article explained how to track the process of extensive reading, which to me appears like a means of process assessment. It has been discussed whether exam-centered as final assessment method is a factor to concern. To determine whether it is a useful method of evaluating that merits future study.

In Q&A session, the relationship between extensive reading and intensive reading was discussed. In my perspective, ER and IR are complementary to each other. Through persistent extensive reading, good reading habits will be developed which is beneficial to intensive reading as well. After acquisition of accurate vocabulary in IR, it will facilitate the reading speed and the fluency in ER.

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Intensive Reading refers to the act of carrying out a detailed analysis of a text, usually led by a teacher, in which vocabulary and grammar are studied.

On the other hand, Extensive Reading refers to the act of reading text quickly, often to understand the gist without undergoing detailed analysis of the text or studying vocabulary and grammar. Extensive Reading is also typically done without guidance from teacher.

Proponents of Extensive Reading argue that readers gain much just from the act of reading. As Ida highlighted in her presentation, past studies on ER suggested a multitude of benefits, including increase in vocabulary knowledge, motivation and reading proficiency. Additionally, ER may enhance reading fluency as the process of decoding language become increasingly automatized through greater exposure.

Meanwhile, Intensive Reading compel readers to read more slowly and carefully in order to answer accompanying comprehension questions. The presence of a teacher also meant that unknown vocabulary and sentence structure are more likely to be discussed during Intensive Reading. This is sometimes known as treating ‘Text as a linguistic object’ where the purpose of reading is to learn language.

If we were to distinguish between reading accuracy and reading fluency, Intensive Reading serves the purpose of enhancing readers’ reading accuracy, while Extensive Reading enhances reading fluency.

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Extensive reading, along with other what I would like to call "peripheral learning acitivities" such as extensive listening and writing (writing jounal entries, keeping writing tweets in English etc.) is really pivotal in my instruction plan.

Theory-wise, inspired by Professor, I assume it is both "noticing"  (Schimdt, 1990), as well as "flow" in motivation research area by someone who enjoys a prolonged surname and oftentimes making presenters (for example me from last semester) feel incompetent in reading it aloud (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990), learners, through extensive reading, can ideally obtain extra linguistic knowledge as well as the state of feeling hooked by the book, reaching what often is known as  Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) stage.

As much I like the whole conception of extensive reading, it cannot be employed solely to address an issue in reading, as there are also constraints to be cautious about, for example, who is to be determine what to read, by what criterion, for how long, what follow-up digestion or evaluation etc. I agree with what Afza mentioned at class, that extensive reading, as what I categorized as "peripheral" activities of learning, has to be intertwined with intensive reading. Just as "noticing" itself can never be sufficient for language learning without teaching grammar and explaining ideas explicitly, once students are to start reading extensively, it is not only their responsiblity to extend their scope and simply "having fun" in reading, but also teachers, who should be handle the rein of directing and supervising. So after this well presented reporting from Ida, I may like to explore more about any practical examples and approaches of localizing extensive reading in my context.

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Self-assessment surely bears inconceivable potential for obvious reasons, and indeed there has been some substantial amount of work investigating and yielded some promising results. I'm also for the idea of applying SA in practice, though limited by certain context, when in reality, SA has not seen its potential to be fully fulfilled in my case.

As Brighton commented, oftentimes, it is rather impossible for some students, whose proficiency leves and metacognitive awareness are below average, to discover what is lacking during his/her learning or simply "find the lesson" after an exam. Obviously I'm not trying to negate its usefulness in daily classroom, but it does make it extremely difficult for teachers to have faith in results from self-assessment: ability aside, do you have full trust in their devotion and willingness to cooperate? This is another well-worth researching topic obviously...

After spending some time seriously whinning about SA, still I would like to mention that motivation still matters...a healthy SA is built on honesty, by which I mean learners' not being afraid of exposing their weaknesses, and that relies on, quite heavily, motivation. A student with momentum of learning is never fearful of "losing faces". So every time SA is to be used, probably it is good to ask ourselves, are this bunch of kids already at the point of not having problem disclosing what they are struggling about?

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Reflection on Reflections (week 13 Qiu Xiaoting)

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Reflection on Reflections (week 13 Qiu Xiaoting)

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It is clear from reading Anan and Yuan Ye's reflections that both of them place a great emphasis on the metacognitive awareness that comes with reading and teaching reading since it fosters higher order thinking in students and enables them to organize, carry out, and assess their reading. As Anan suggested, it's crucial to incorporate metacognitive reading skills into typical classroom settings. However, in my opinion, the application of metacognitive methods can be challenging for students with low competence levels.

Self-assessment is frequently employed in English learning as an efficient assessing technique. As Anan questioned when students with high proficiency but average self-ratings while those with average or poor English proficiency levels give themselves high grades, how do the research findings apply to English education? I'd like to offer my humble view in response to this query: first of all, students will be forced to undergo specific training on how to assess their work using a standard before self-assessment in reading and writing is implemented. In order to ensure that students' self-evaluations are accurate, teachers must reassess all of their assignments once they have completed them. Although it takes a lot of time for teachers in the first few weeks, it will be beneficial in the long run.

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From Kalai's presentation, the author noted that there is a positive relationship between metacognitive awareness raising and reading comprehension improvement. So it implicated that in the natural reading teaching activities, learners' metacognitive strategies should be imposed to some extent. Regarding the metacognitive strategy instruction, as SULLIVAN referred, in conducting metacognitive instruction, one aspires to teach students to plan, implement, and evaluate strategic approaches to learning and problem solving. But to avoid the bias, the experiment researcher cannot be the teacher himself.

As to Lydia's presentation, SA plays key role in for FL learners. But I would like to use it on the basis of backwash effect. In fact, the SA has been applied in many textbooks. For example, Comprehensive Business English from Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, there is a module of SA in the end of each unit, which is a good practice method of SA.

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Reflection (Week 13 Lydia &Kalai Presentation) Anan Sawaengdist

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Reflection (Week 13 Lydia &Kalai Presentation) Anan Sawaengdist

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Lydia gave a presentation on her paper, which was titled "Self-assessment (SA) of Foreign Language (FL) Reading and Writing Abilities among Young Chinese Learners of English."

The findings showed a strong link between reading comprehension and SA reading scores. In terms of reliability and validity, I'm just curious how the study's findings could be put to use if the students gave excellent performances but were so modest as to rate them with low marks, as opposed to the students who gave poor performances who gave them high marks, or if the students lacked the confidence or skills necessary to assess their performances. In terms of included grading, what role should teachers and students have in terms of grading proportion?  Because SA can encourage learner autonomy, self-regulated learning processes are improved, and learners can self-assess in a collaborative, anxiety-free manner. Additionally, it has been discovered to be favorably related to learners' performance and confidence.

The impact of metacognitive strategy training and developing critical thinking awareness on reading comprehension was the topic of Kalai's talk. The three kinds of metacognitive reading strategies—global, problem-solving, and support—as well as the thinking abilities. These three sets are therefore extremely important for reading comprehension.

It is essential to reorient the traditional approaches to teaching reading in the classroom by including methodological techniques that encourage metacognitive reading strategies or higher-order thinking processes like analysis, synthesis, and evaluative justification. It also relies on the pupils' capacity for process thinking.

At the conclusion of the session, the professor also talked about possible interferences with the experimental study, such as the fact that the researcher cannot act as the teacher while the experiment is being conducted but can still watch or monitor the classroom environment.

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Reflection on reflections YUANYE (WEEK 12)

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Reflection on reflections YUANYE (WEEK 12)

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After digesting the presentation, I came to know that higher order thinking skills and metacognitive awareness are crucial for effective reading comprehension in English. Higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, involve the ability to go beyond simply understanding and recalling information. These skills allow readers to make connections between different pieces of information, evaluate the credibility and relevance of a text, and form their own opinions and arguments based on the information presented. Metacognitive awareness, on the other hand, refers to an individual's ability to think about and reflect on their own thinking and learning processes. This includes setting goals, monitoring comprehension, and adapting reading strategies as needed. By being aware of cognitive processes, readers are able to better understand and engage with a text, as well as identify and address any misunderstandings or gaps in their knowledge.

Regarding the 5 RQs, I didn’t catch the cohesion among RQ2 and the others. As Briton mentioned, the author manage to explain two questions by one research method or instrument, which seemed to be unreasonable. Lydia also felt puzzled about the RQ2 and argued the results that female and male learners showed a similar pattern of skill levels but why there was a gap existed in their reading performance. Moreover, I do agree with Qiuxiaoting’s point that think-aloud protocols involving English texts should be used to investigate learners’ HOTS levels in reading comprehension. As the “Think-aloud protocol” referred by Latini proved to be a good instrument.

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Jasmine's study report focused on the levels of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in English reading comprehension among university students in Pakistan. (HOTS) is also connected to working memory, which is a crucial component of reading comprehension, and metacognitive abilities, awareness, and skills. To me, I assume that readers with strong metacognitive abilities will perform well in reading comprehension since they have strong reading comprehension and critical thinking abilities.

The five quite elaborated (HOTS) objectives were even attempted to be investigated in this research. But one that the researcher made an effort to observe the learners' HOTS levels: Is there a gender difference? There are no appreciable differences between them in the outcomes, despite the fact that the literature analysis indicates that ladies perform better than males. Therefore, it may be difficult to determine how internal or external influences in therapies may have an impact on the results.

I also question why "the creating skill"—rather than "the analyzing skill" and "the evaluating skill"—is the best predictors of reading performance based on the data. Additionally, even among low-level students, it is completed well. For more accurate and trustworthy theme results, the interviewers should be increased to more than six individuals from the qualitative components.

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The research paper presented by Jasmine is actually quite impressive in a way. I agree with Gio that it is ambitious for covering a wide perimeter yet, it did not leave any loopholes in its research paper that is not backed with a reference/rational explanation.

Metacognitive skills, metacognitive awareness and the working memory have always intrigue me. It is the inner workings of the mind. A mystery that is unique for every other individual. Having said that, any effort made to enhance thinking skills are commendable. Back in 2014, the i-Think program was launched in schools by the ministry. It promotes the usage of higher order thnking skills among the school students in primary and secondary schools. It also made it compulsory for all teachers to complete an online course to be well-versed in applying iThink maps in their respective subjects. Although the implementation was quite hurried, the use of iThink maps have been quite productive in my lessons. Though, I have to admit that I tend to rely only on 2 out of the 8 maps. This is mostly for writing. As for the learners, iThink maps help them to practise categorizing, analyzing and understand ideas/concept.

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This paper is with huge ambition, along with multiple statistical methods and a mixed-methods design employed. I'm fascinated by the idea of trying to mediating the relationship between HOT skills and reading with metacognitive skills, which have been for a long time reckoned as both an effective language learning strategy as well as a useful tool to monitor specifically reading process. This is of very great importance, as is shown from the literature review. In addition, although being critical enough in the following discussion, I do think some sections that otherwise could have been clearly fingerposted (e.g., problem statement) in fact have been merged in the writing, and it does sometimes can be confusing for readers with the lack of "tangible" boundary without traditional bulletin-point-ish format, it is not unacceptable as probably this is more of idisyncracy of the writers.

However, despite presenting vast amount of benefits in terms of HOT and having fleshed out the the three skills in Bloom's taxonomy, which is intuitive enought, this paper fails to make the aforementioned skills in reading align with the anticipation of readers (at least most of students in the session) by NOT clearly explicating how MCQs can germinate high order thinking skills, e.g., creating. It can really be brain-throbbing that only with adapted IELTS reading questions, which I believe most of my classmates are way too familiar with, can give rise to creating skills, especially considering a gate-keeping and high-stake test like it with such a short period of time required to finish. So the missing of the instrument may be the biggest regret of reading the paper, with abundant quantitative methods used based on the data gathered from the elusive reading test...

Having said that, and though the writers seems being too determined to answer so many questions in just one shot, I like the very rigor of this paper and how methods were used after re-reading several times. I believe this is really a textbook straightforward explanatory inquiry, reading and digesting this paper is a very rewarding experience personally.

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The article was to diagnose the cognitive strengths and weaknesses in reading comprehension by HOTS (higher order thinking skill) and used metacognitive awareness as the mediator variable to check the connection between HOTS and reading comprehension. By reading up the research, it is questionable for the instrument (test battery) about how it can be a valid and reliable instrument to check the creative skills in reading performance and it seems that the research didn’t justify it although it was stated by citing Jovanovska (2018) who contends that multiple-choice questions can be used as a dependable tool to measure learner performance. She states that creative skills can also be examined through multiple-choice items in case the items are well-written and taken to a higher order. However, there is no exact example to elaborate the detailed information of test battery.

By critiquing the problem statement, research objectives, research questions and literature review, it was concluded in the group discussion that the second research question to determine the gender gap in reading comprehension performance seems unnecessary. Besides, as group member proposed, why employ metacognitive awareness as mediator variable has not been elaborated in detail. Nevertheless from my perspective, the research did a thorough and consistent literature review on variables.

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The article presented by Jasmine today examines the levels of Pakistani university learners’

higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in English reading comprehension. This study started with a phenomenon that assessment practices for English in underdeveloped education systems as a second language reading comprehension are illusory and traditional relying largely on surface scoring, which may result in stagnated low reading performance among university learners. This study concerns the gender gap in the learner’s HOTS levels. It is noticeable that HOTS levels of female learners are higher than male learners, but this study does not offer many explanations for the reasons behind it. One possible explanation is females have a positive opinion about using assessment in reading comprehension by explicit HOTS strategy. According to prior research, gender stereotypes may be a significant factor behind this gender gap as stereotypical thinking builds learners’ self-concepts. More research on the gender gap is needed since the gender gap in reading remains unclear. Investigating the gender gap holds valuable implications for EFL learners.

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The article for this week seems to be too much to handle. The scattering information impedes a better understanding. In addition, the wring-up seems to be very inconsistent, leaving RO and RQs hang there. One of the RQs does not relate to the overall RO, which could be better to be replaced by a question exploring the HOTs perception among different proficiency levels. I would not do the same if I were about to conduct such a study.

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Reflection on Yuan Ye and Anan’s reflections (week 11) —Qiu Xiaoting

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Reflection on Yuan Ye and Anan’s reflections (week 11) —Qiu Xiaoting

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Reading strategies or tactics are essential when teaching English. As Anan mentioned in his reflection, reading strategies share similarities from orthographic to phonological processes in word recognition and proposed how less proficient readers apply these tactics. From my perspective, it is fundamental to find out the reasons why less proficient readers need to read comprehensively first and to stimulate their intrinsic motivation. It is similar to teaching less proficient young learners. Only by knowing much about students’ true intentions, educators can enforce external stimuli to motivate learners, and then strategies will take effect, otherwise, any tactic will be in vain.
It is an interesting finding that digital reading can obtain deep understanding. Reading on digital devices is not prevail in China. Most students just get used to paper reading especially in taking tests context. It is understandable that most students are less exposed to digital reading experiences while they are inclined to use digital devices to browse social media rather than read. It is worth more research to verify digital reading achievement after exposing more online reading to students. However, it is the trend that digital reading will be increasingly popular and widely used in the contemporary world.

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Reflection on Yuanye's Reflection (Week 11)-Giovanni

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Reflection on Yuanye's Reflection (Week 11)-Giovanni

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I’ve always been intrigued by reading styles, what platforms reading is on, and ultimately whether daily reading habits will shape or reshape the efficiency of reading, and rationality aside, I may be all for the shallowing hypothesis, as I, too, believe it is sensical to find a scapegoat for the alleged decline of reading (traditionally and narrowly defined), and that should be technology, while the result was rather counter-intuitive, as Yuan Ye put.

While there was not enough proof of tech’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (especially in terms of the slightly marred rigor of the experiment design and sampling  just to name a few), the writer does mention and to some extent has offered some explanation in discussion section:…such readers under such circumstances realize the need to strategically counteract the tendency to shallowly read digital texts in a myriad of other digital reading contexts…therefore the medium itself may seem less important than the mindset readers bring to each reading medium.

Therefore, why bother to blame the medium when transition to the novel platform is inevitable, while knowing the key lies in the necessary change in readers? Literacy awareness is and should be prioritized.

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Less-skilled adults readers are found to rely on sounds in the process of recognizing words. I personally agree on this point based on my observation from my students. Whenever they run across a new word, most of time  they tend to pronounce it referring to what their knowledge of other words. I guess this is a mechanism for less-skilled reader to recognize world. It guess it is mainly because sound is the most available tool for them, since they have not mastered too much knowledge about other aspects.
Article presented by YuanYe is also very insightful, especially the shallowing hypthesis. I also learned a lot from the research design comparing two mediums of reading.

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The study referred to in Wilder's presentation investigated whether undergraduates who read an identical informational text on a tablet or paper would differ concerning strategic text processing and text comprehension. There were no indications in the research data that participants reading digitally processed the text more shallowly than participants reading in print. So there was no evidence for a mediated effect of reading medium on comprehension performance via strategic text processing. One contributing reason may be that the researcher has examined the print text and PDF files on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. However, in reality, readers are inevitably subject to more distractions when using the digital reading medium, for example, pop-up ads, social media messages, news, etc. Readers tend to read in fragments rather than in-depth, as the shallowing hypothesis suggests. Therefore, I believe that research on reading mediums could include more interview studies. To investigate how readers react when faced with distractions, and how is this different from reading printed texts.

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Adult education is a foreign ground to me as there are theories, approaches and methodologies that work best for young learners but not as effective for adults. The reality of life-long learning policy demands better understanding of adult learners. Physiologically, adults' brains are not as malleable as young learners' so there is a factor of neurolinguistic differences. However, adults are better at expressing themselves and their thought processes. On top of that, adults may have better control of their executive functions, hence the teaching of appropriate reading strategies would bring significant improvements to their language learning process.

Eddy's presentation on the research paper of this particular topic is quite enlightening. It is found that adult learners in the sample made use of two reading strategies which were incorrectly implemented. This opens up the discussion to how much progress could have been achieved with correctly used reading strategies. This discovery is also revealing insuch that it tells you that knowing how to do something does not make you actually able to do it precisely. A skill is practised mastery. On the other hand, a habitual error, once addressed, can be quite demeaning to one's self-esteem. I am not sure how many adults will be forgiving if someone pointed out how they have been doing things incorrectly. In a learning context, maybe being tactful should be the language teacher's second nature.

As for Yuanye's research paper presentation, I find it quite fresh because it is the first time I was introduced to verbal protocol analysis. The shallowing hypothesis has also made quite an impression to me. Lately, there has been online trending reveals of people having ADHD. I wonder if their ADHD is the result from this shallowing hypothesis or innate. Although the study reveal that shallowing hypothesis is not proven, I believe a different research methods used such as experimental research would suit this better and might produce a different outcome.

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Reflection on Yuan Ye and Eddy presentation

From Eddy’s presentation on the topic of What Strategies Do Less Skilled Adult Readers Use to Read Words, and How Aware Are They of These Strategies?

Less skilled adult and child readers tend to have decoding abilities, relying more on orthographic processes or visual memory and less on phonological analysis during the reading process. Six different categories of word recognition techniques emerged from the research: syllables, analogies, letter patterns, onset rime, usage of sounds/sound breakdown, syllables, and morphological rules. In terms of linguistic recognition and speech chunks, I'm just curious how similar these tactics are. How can less proficient readers execute or apply their reading techniques in order to comprehend the reading texts? This is what reading comprehension is all about. The emphasis on reading comprehension was absent even from this essay. Metacognitive reading is, however, also mentioned in the study. Additionally, I'm keen to hear whether or not the six word recognition tactics stated above will be helpful to advanced or skilled readers.

From Yuan Ye’s presentation on the topic of Strategic Text Processing Across Mediums: A Verbal Protocol Study.

The study looked into whether reading instructional content on a tablet versus reading it on paper would result in differences in text comprehension and strategic text processing. The outcomes supported this finding. According to my perspective, a number of variables could have an impact on the study, including the length of the intervention, task-related task boundaries for the shallowing hypothesis, individual variations, and reading settings.

However, given that we currently live in a digital age and that the majority of readers in the new generation are familiar with it, I personally believe that digital reading will have a greater impact than paper reading. Additionally, there are many alternatives to make using digital texts easier than reading on paper, and the texts are bright and easy to recognize.

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Admittedly, the study Wilder presented, in which digital and print medium were compared was hugely thought provoking. The researcher cited Shallowing Hypothesis in the beginning which claims that reading through the digital medium lead to shallower processing due to the vast distractions embedded within digital medium (e.g. a websites) which constantly urge readers to navigate to other sites or links, not to mention animated advertisements.

Therefore, it came as surprise when the researcher revealed that no difference was found between reading digitally or in print. However, my contention is that this is possibly due to the fact that the researcher has not fully recreated the digital experience in the study. In the study, a digital reading experience was operationalized as reading a PDF version of the text using a Samsung Galaxy Tab, which does seem to fully reflect our daily digital reading experience which often contain much more distractions than a PDF does.

On a separate note, one variable that was measured was participants’ Working Memory, however it was unclear this was related to the study and as Prof. Kabilan mentioned, the researcher has not operationalized the variable in the study. To my mind, another related but broader variable – Executive Function, might be more pertinent as it subsumes basic cognitive processes like attentional control, cognitive inhibition, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. It is speculated that an individual with higher executive function will be better able to regulate own reading experience which is a prerequisite to counter the distractions residing in digital texts thus leading allowing deeper processing.

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From Eddy’s presentation, it came to me that, it is high time that we should question the textbooks. Because in the present textbooks which I use, I found the directive method is to teach readers how to conduct “strategies”, such as previewing the text, reading headings and subheadings, making predictions, asking questions, and summarizing. We can’t deny that readers did fail to employ meta-recognition strategies like what have discussed in the essay. But I have a question that if less skilled readers have a good command of meta-recognition strategies, do they really preform well in the reading activities?

In my presentation today, the results are quite counterintuitive. We literally regard reading digitally as superficial/shallow understanding. But the fact is that no matter what reading medium you use, the final results seem to be the same. As to the question mentioned by Afza, neither the sample is large enough nor the sampling is convincing. But just as the author pointed, the essay is limited by ecological validity. @Afza. So in the further research, we may conduct the same experiment to examine whether we can draw the same results by a larger number of samples. As to the “shallowing hypothesis”, for my understanding, I’d like to make a metaphor that someone eat a whole Chinese date without chewing. I don’t like this theory, either. How can we simply give an equation between digital reading and superficial understanding? Likewise, how can we make a conclusion that printed reading equals to deeper understanding.

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 10, Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection (Week 10) Qiu Xiaoting)

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 10, Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection (Week 10) Qiu Xiaoting)

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Rosenblatt's concepts of text potentialities are used in this study as a lens to examine potential for involvement, enjoyment, and sustained reading in the Malaysian setting. In order to improve students' reading skills, not just in Malaysia but also among ESL/EFL learners, all three potentials are crucial. It is difficult to teach reading in a classroom setting, despite the fact that it is one of the essential skills for enhancing students' other English abilities. Intriguingly, I also had no idea that although though there were only two participants in the interview, it was still sufficient for a quantitative study. There aren't many students interested in studying English literature in Thailand or other nations either. Additionally, this field needs lecturers.

I agree that the choice of texts seems to be crucial for increasing engagement and interest, but may reading skill be hampered by low text potentiality? It makes sense to choose the reading materials depending on the needs and interests of the students. However, improving the learner's reading skills is also a major factor to take into account.

Because one of the main goal of teaching reading is to increase reader’s in reading. So, it is hard to balance students’ enjoyment and reading ability improvement due to most of the students’ might only perceive that read for commentary or read to pass the exam. Thus, how to promote extensive reading and self-regulated, self-reading habits as well as reading autonomy are much beneficial if the learners are capable.

Absolutely, social media has evolved into a distraction and interruption for reading because reading on e-reading platforms or any other platforms is more evocative and constantly interrupts learners. These elements may have an impact on some learners' engagement and intentions. Low EFL proficiency level instructors must teach hard to achieve mastery level while students are unwilling to complete extended reading if it is not required, making the process of teaching reading rather slow. Some students lack the reading skills and techniques necessary to understand the materials they are reading, while others lack the desire to read or the reading goals. As a result, teaching reading is exceedingly difficult to accomplish.

The three issues in the discussion portion are highly intriguing, both from a research and practical teaching perspective. After group discussion, it becomes a little bit easier to write the conclusion differently for the first question. Teachers may select texts from a variety of cultural origins and fascinating topics in response to the second question about its educational relevance. The abbreviated version could be used because literature texts can be challenging. This will allow us to resolve the conflict between the potential of the text and the involvement and engagement of the pupils in their reading.

Simply said, educating students about English literature is one of the most difficult jobs. As a result, discussions of literary works by English-speaking locals and norms are also included.

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Reflection on reflections Week 10 Lydia/Li Huan

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Reflection on reflections Week 10 Lydia/Li Huan

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Rosenblatt’s text potentiality as an interpretive lens encourages evaluation of the text that nudges discussions beyond the level of personal reader preferences. A reader who enjoys reading a text will likely put in the effort to sustain the reading experience. Therefore, instead of individual reading texts, teachers can provide relevant ongoing reading texts in response to learners' reading interests.
As far as the choice of texts to read is concerned, as Afza mentions, those that express the unique cultural and social situation of the locality should not be criticized as 'imposters'. There is a lot of material describing the local culture in the compulsory textbooks for Chinese EFL learners, which is more familiar to the learners and makes them more enthusiastic and interested to continue reading. As Brighton mentions, familiar texts require less cultural background knowledge.
However, the evaluation of potentiality is subjective, familiar material may not engage the reading interests of some students, who may prefer foreign cultures, which are more likely to spark their curiosity. The selection of texts should therefore take into account the interests of learners rather than language choice.

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The paper that Emy presented last evening is different and quite controversial in some instances. It is different as this is the first selected research that is entirely qualitative. Thus, there was a question of sample size as well as validity of method used. Other than that, there are also some delicate issues that arise but were not addressed exclusively in our discussion probably because they are sensitive. One that I would like to address is that the research seems to doubt Malaysia Examination Council’s (MPM) intention to break away from the conventional literature texts. The exact intention is

“…[to] incorporate[s] current developments in literature studies and syllabus design in Malaysia. To reflect these changes, both canonical and non-canonical texts are included in the syllabus so that candidates are able to gain insights into historical and modern developments of literature and the ways in which these texts can be read and analysed.”

(MPM, Literature in English subject syllabus, https://www.mpm.edu.my/stpm/sukatan-peperiksaan)

This is a major move from the MPM because by doing so, the council shows that English literature is not limited to native English poet/playwright/writer but should also include local writers who write in the language. This also challenges the social stigma that is ingrained in post-colonial countries such as Malaysia which is English literature should be that of English native writers. The impact is almost definitely be the backlash from the stakeholders criticizing the move.

One particular part of the interview that really struck a chord with me personally is the comments the interviewees made on Malaysian English literature: ‘It’s rubbish’, ‘It’s not relevant’. These are very emotionally charged comments. It further strengthens the idea that English literature should be written by native users of English. The fact is that native speakers can no longer claim a sense of ownership over English language. It is a language used around the world (lingua franca), so literature written in English but depicting cultural and social norms of the local context should not be criticized as ‘imposters’ instead it should be analyzed for its literary aesthetics. We can further understand this issue from Schneider’s Dynamics Model of Postcolonial Englishes.

Other than this particular issue, I do believe that there is an extent onto which the notion of text potentiality can be used to select the literary work for LiE subject. Although the selection of timeframe actually made the findings (to be truthful) quite expected, the research may prove to be even more rounded if a different approach is taken to test the notion of text potentiality.

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This week, Emy presented a phenomenological study on Malaysian STPM students’ responses to literature through the interpretive lens of text potentiality.

The study suggests that canonical texts which are culturally foreign and unfamiliar but written by great English authors can excite Malaysian learners, in part, due to the vividness and richness of the language which turn out to be fertile ground for imagination and emphatic insight.

In sharp contrast, texts written by Malaysian authors, despite being more culturally familiar, were perceived as inferior and lack certain qualities that hinder imagination and a sense of awe.

One of the pedagogical implications from this article is that English teachers need to consider text potentiality in selecting texts.
While familiar texts render them easier to relate to and require less teaching of cultural or background knowledge embedded in the texts, the same texts may also undermine opportunities to gain exposure to alien yet intriguing notions and topics, in other words, opportunities to enhance experiential awareness. As the researcher argues, “a student is not expected to leave school with the same level of experiential awareness he or she enters with.”

The notion of text potentiality articulates an interesting criteria to selecting text for learners (though it remains somewhat ambiguous) by examining the text's potential to provide new experiences and emphatic insights through reading rather than depending solely on the language demand of a text.

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Reflection on reflections WEEK 10(YUAN YE)

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Reflection on reflections WEEK 10(YUAN YE)

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Teaching English literature reading can be regarded as a challenge. Like what Emynizam referred in the presentation, the interviewee responded negatively about English literature reading. But literature ,in fact, is a rewarding and enriching experience for both the teacher and the students. Reading literature allows students to engage with diverse perspectives and experiences, as well as to develop critical thinking and analytical skills(the plots, the narrative method, the rhetoric device,etc.).

On the contrary, literature is much more interesting than any other reading materials. If learners feel reluctant to read literature stories, it is blamed to lecturers who failed to explain the humorous or wisdom or intricate maze of story plots. It is also essential to consider the needs and interests of individual students when teaching literature reading. Providing choice and allowing students to select texts that align with their personal interests can help to increase motivation and engagement.

In conclusion, teaching English literature reading can be a rewarding and enriching experience for both teachers and students. By using a variety of teaching strategies and considering the needs and interests of individual students, teachers can create a dynamic and engaging learning environment that promotes critical thinking and literary analysis.

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This article incorporates Rosenblatt’s ideas of text potentialities as lens to explore potentiality for participation, potentiality for enjoyment and potentiality to sustain reading in Malaysian context. Although the number of participants interviewed was only two, it was discussed in class which was acceptable for the paucity of students in learning literature in Malaysia. It was mentioned in presentation part that mandated reading is unwelcome by students so the selection of texts seems to be important which will increase the participation and interest but whether reading ability could be impaired due to low text potentiality? It has a similar situation in China that it is hard to balance students’ enjoyment and reading ability improvement. Further, students are easily distracted by social media which becomes a hindrance to engage in reading. The process in teaching reading part is quite slow among low EFL proficiency level for instructors have to teach intensively to ensure the mastery level while students are reluctant to do extending reading if it is not mandatory, and then it would be in a negative situation that the less loads of reading are, the lower reading efficacy would be.

In group discussion part, the three questions are quite interesting from research to practical teaching aspect. For first question, how to write conclusion differently is a little bit tricky but after group discussion, Brighton narrowed down the conclusion and attempted to draw it in a more cautious way which is to determine whether low proficiency level students would appreciate the high potential text. However, I would like to talk about the second question regarding its pedagogical implications, educators may choose text from different cultural backgrounds and a range of interesting topic, but the alien ones are more preferred in order to increase the text potentiality. Given the difficulties of literature text, the abridged version could be adopted. In this way, we may handle the contradiction between text potentiality and students’ reading participation and engagement. Also, other groups' sharing provide more views to solve these problems and they are very beneficial.

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The research paper that Anan presented last week had raised a lot of interesting insights on the research paper. It was interesting because it allowed us to see both the strengths and weaknesses of the research itself though the latter is more prominent.

From what we gathered from our discussion was the instructional approaches were not clearly defined. In the research, this so called “worksheets” were not clearly defined. Many questions were raised such as “What do these worksheets refer to?”, “Were the study groups given the same reading materials?”. These were some of our concerns when we discussed on the validity of the data. As there was no mentioning of the materials, we agreed that the conclusions may be a bit far fetched for the data did not fully justify the validity of the research.

After listening to the presentation and pondering it over with the class, it had helped me gain a better understanding in how to be more focused and meticulous in the way I design my research in future. After all, the main reason behind a research is always about sharing our findings and conclusions with our counterparts so that more effective ideas and solutions can be used in our very own classrooms.

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Reflection on Brighton’s reflection WEEK 9 (Zhang Yuan Gio)

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Reflection on Brighton’s reflection WEEK 9 (Zhang Yuan Gio)

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I myself also believe that technology-mediated learning, especially in the area of language learning, is up-and-coming. This paper does remind me of one of the most recent tech that has been trending all over the social media: ChatGPT.

Some say, we are simply soon to see the critical point of high school English teacher (in case of once again being accused of throwing students and teachers off with pessimism, I’m just yet another courier carrying a message from others: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/openai-chatgpt-writing-high-school-english-essay/672412/), because a lot of essential yet quotidian tasks would be undertaken by AI effortlessly. In this article, the author bemoans how AI is taking over his area of expertise and, not only how smooth its response had been like, but also the fact that teachers are flooding to ChatGPT for inspiration. A question like “is it worthing doing” is like his final shrieking cry for help.

This reflection is apparently not going to end here by the way, because much like how the nomads once tamed animals, teachers today are inevitably supposed to embrace various means of techs to advance, the only difference is that our teaching might not be as easy, or at least as easy as it used to be: reading isn’t simply for gleaning out the central idea based on the frequency of certain words or other traditional “hardcore skills”, but rather more interconnected and interdependence with analysis, e.g., critical thinking, or output like writing, say, even if ChatGPT or any other AI readily offer complete synopsis, this also could be a starting point for further exploration. Not to mention AI technology might be a tremendous motivator galvanizing interest in more intensive and goal-oriented reading, instead of nudging all students to turn to ChatGPT for more summaries of certain books or chapters through handing out mechanical assignments, students might be tempted to read more in order for more opinions and perspectives through some “provocative conversations” with AI. “Reading for fun” might be materialized by a rebellious AI.

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 9, Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection (Week 9) Afza

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 9, Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection (Week 9) Afza

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I also learned from Afza's thoughts that it is very important to ensure the validity and reliability of the research tools, techniques, research treatment, and design when doing experimental research because those elements can have an impact on the study's findings.

Personally, I am aware that conducting an experimental group necessitates having at least 30 well-chosen participants in order to ensure reliability, but the real question is how to choose participants and how the experimental group and control group might approach the research design. As a result, the researchers should be required to elaborate and clarify the treatment plans and procedures in more depth. Given that both internal and environmental factors may contribute to the results of the treatment. To make the results more meaningful and trustworthy, the researchers should take into account all of the information mentioned.

When conducting experimental research, this is the fresh information I received from Prof. Dr. Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan. The researchers cannot act as instructors, the two participant groups should not be acquainted, and the instructors may differ even in terms of their preferred methods of instruction. Personally, I'm interested in conducting study on experiments. However, if I do it, I will need to be cautious and have knowledge of how to conduct it because it is difficult to perform because there are so many variables and research-related concerns.

Yes, the length of the treatment is this study's strength, but it is also its weakness. The controlled group and experimented group coming from different universities would produce a highly compelling outcome, as was discussed in the discussion. Additionally, I believe the researchers ought to go into greater depth and elaboration concerning the control group's treatment in the training modules. Due to the evident disparities between the two groups, conducting future study on-site is preferred over comparing results obtained online.

So, based on this study, we may make certain measures before starting a similar research project to ensure that the findings are meaningful and supported.

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Reflect on reflection week 9 (Qiu Xiaoting)

After reading the most reflections proposed by group one, I deeply realized that conducting research is a sophisticated and meticulous process.

From research part:

Just as Afza questioned whether perfect research exists? Or what we can do is to perfect our research continuously since there are quite a few uncontrolled variables from both internal and external. Before doing research, we may better consult experts and discuss with group members (if we have), and then design and plan the research procedure carefully in order to avoid some common errors occurring during the research process. For all types of research methods, personally speaking it is worth attempting to do several shots and we also can learn something from failure experiences. No one can do a perfect research from the very beginning right？

From e-reading part:

Before doing edd activity, I was fancy at printed reading even though it cost more. However, it is undoubted that screen-reading is quite effective for me to study. It allows me to track my reading process and reading the target part by searching for key words and I can make notes just like printed reading does. Enlightened by Anan’s presentation and Brighton’s reflection, my students could not be an old school as me like, so in future teaching, I would search for a range of possible and effective e-reading platforms for them to develop reading habits and cultivate the reading awareness.

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REFLECTION OF WEEK 9 (15/12/2022) - EMYNORDIANA JAMIL

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REFLECTION OF WEEK 9 (15/12/2022) - EMYNORDIANA JAMIL

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The research paper presented by Anan aimed to explore the effectiveness of the e-Reading programme compared to the traditional teaching methods. This topic sounds interesting as nowadays digital learning is not something new. Many platforms have been created to cater the needs of digital learners.

The researcher used an experimental research design. I feel blessed and lucky since I have just learnt in my Research Methodology class with Dr Ummu the day before. It is a research that is designed to investigate cause and effect relationship through the direct manipulation of an independent variable and control of extraneous variables.

However, critiques were raised up pertaining to this research by groups. The researcher did not explain or mention what or how lesson was carried out in control group. He only mentioned using traditional method but did not explain in detailed. For that reason, the readers have unclear understandings between the two variables. Next, the researcher seems to manifest his bias on the benefits of the digital learning/technology he is utilizing and could have controlled on the extraneous variables in this experiment.

From this experiment, for readers to effectively interpret the experiment and form an accurate opinion of the findings' quality, the explanation of how the experiment is conducted must be incredibly careful and detailed.

Honestly, I have the intention to conduct experimental research for my coming project. And yes, it is quite tricky and complicated as we have to control a lots of variables and also the influence that come from outside.

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The study analyzed the effects of the learner’s reading comprehension while using e-reading methods, and some critical comments were suggested by groups. Firstly, The intention of experimental research is the production of results that are objective and valid. In experiments, it is the independent variable that is manipulated to see the effect, so extraneous variables must be controlled to be able to attribute the effect to the treatment. The study did not mention some strategies for controlling extraneous variables, which also might have effects on the dependent variable. Secondly, The study lacks some essential references. “Technology can help replace a more teacher-centered learning environment and allow the learners to become more autonomous” and “the literature indicates that not many instructors are utilizing e-Reading programs in the classroom”, such conclusions require references to make the study more reliable. Thirdly, regarding traditional teaching strategies, the study does not explain them in detail, which prevents the reader from understanding the difference between the two variables. These issues remind us to avoid similar problems in terms of experimental design and references.

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When I examined the RQ “How can e-reading programme help learners improve their skills in reading comprehension” and analyzed the results, I began to suspect whether the researcher already had the conclusion that the answer is “YES”. With the burdened preconceived assumptions, researchers may inevitably take bias or preconceptions.

The key word “traditional method” is rather vague. Researchers should make more  specific words academically or make special definition in the very beginning. Frankly, the new instruments/tools that probably enhanced the reading or second language learning is either widely agreed or encouraged by teachers or other commercials. As to examine the final effects, researchers has to be extraordinarily careful when conduct experiment study. As Prof. Kabilan mentioned, the researcher and experiment conductor or the instructor cannot be the same person who are doing the same study. The participants should be from different colleges. We need ask and double check the following questions: Do we exclude the effects of irrelevant variables? What’s the relationship between experiment and questionnaire? Is the sampling convincing and reasonable?

In conclusion, the paper and presentation as well as the discussion alarmed me that when we conduct our own research, we should be serious and meticulous in terms of the sampling, grouping, experiment treatment and data collection as well as analysis.

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Anan presented a research paper which aimed to find out the effectiveness of e-reading programme compared to conventional method of teaching reading.

I was intrigued by this topic because I believe there is enormous potential in using digital platform / websites designated for reading to promote extensive reading / reading outside the classroom. One such website which I used to use is Actively Learn https://read.activelylearn.com/#teacher/catalog. The website allows teachers to assign reading and embed various forms of questions within the text like questions to lead in and activate background knowledge as well as to check reader’s comprehension. Readers can also check definitions and translations of any words that might be unknown to them or listen to the text being read aloud (by a digitally synthesised voice).

However, despite its numerous functionalities and smooth interface, my own experience of using this website hasn’t been entirely successful, so there might be a ring of truth in arguing that reading motivation remains one of the key factors in deciding whether students would engage in reading outside classroom.

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It was a thorough presentation by Anan. Luckily for some of us, we have enough exposure on experimental research from our lesson yesterday. Yet, I have to say that there are nooks and crooks on experimental research design which we still aren't sure of, at least for me personally. E.g. Why do we have to have equal or more than 30 participants per group - what makes it more significant that way? To set a standard or is it representative of the population? In a natural setting, there can be many unexpected variables, are we supposed to control those as well?  Does a perfect experimental research exist, or do we just need to control what we can and address the limitations to our study? To what extent is that allowed?

The research
1. The strength of this research is the duration of the treatment which is also its downfall. As discussed in the session, it would make a very convincing result if the controlled group and experimented group are not from the same university.

As for the discussions, all of us agree that the researcher has implied his bias on the advantageous use of technology and could have controlled the extraneous variables of his experiment.

I also wonder if the researcher purposely choose this type of research just to prove a point that using technology is effective.

From this research, we can take some precautions before embarking in a similar research method. Basically, we need to be neutral and careful with our planning. On top of that, be more detailed in explaining how the experiment is carried out so that the reader are able to analyse accurately and make better judgement on the quality of the findings.

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Several points are raised in terms of the weakness of the paper presented in this section. First of all, the experimental group and control group are supposed to have roughly the same level. Another point is, which is also something I did not aware, that research should not be the lecture of the experimental group. Otherwise, it might result in obvious biasness. Two groups are not supposed to be taught by the same lecture during the treatment. One more thing is the validity and reliability of the instruments, which are required to be well established before being piloted.

I have been inspired a lot from this section, since I also intend to conduct an experimental research later on. Anyway, as Prof.K mentioned, it is very tricky sometimes in the experimental research. We got to be more cautious.

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I had the opportunity to be in the same group as Afza, Qi Meng and Zhou Xue. One of common the issues in regard to the teaching of reading that were highlighted in our discussion was how in both China and Malaysia, our education system has always revolved around exams. Exams have always played a pivotal role in the way we assess the students. So much so that we tend to drill the students to familiarise themselves with the exam format. What we gathered from the discussion was that both countries put emphasis more in the students’ performance that we forget it is not about the numbers or data that reflects the students’ true abilities.
Qi Meng also pointed out that in China, this leads to the focus of getting the right answers only. In some ways, it does resonate with the situation here in Malaysia. Let’s face it, every time the school holds an SPM workshop for the form 5 students, the emphasis will always be on the answering technique. It has always been about getting the right answers. Having said that, not that I am against the whole examination concept, for we do need these exams to validate the students’ proficiency level. However, when examination takes a big chunk of the teaching and learning process, the pure enjoyment of learning itself takes a back seat.
Reading should not just be about exams and test scores but it should also be about instilling the reading habits as well as encouraging students to be creative and become critical thinkers. How often have we ever asked our students what their opinions are on the reading passage that they have read? The same thing can be said about their choices of the answers. In all honesty, I have never asked my students why they have chosen the answers that could not be accepted by the answer key. Perhaps, the teaching of reading should not just be about getting the right answers. Looking back at what Brighton presented about SVR and how reading is a complex process, I believe this should be incorporated into my reading lessons. Instead of just drilling the students to highlight the keywords and to find similarity of ideas in the passage for the right answers, maybe I should be more opened to understanding why certain students choose the incorrect answers over the right ones. After all, the way we decode and interpret words also depends on our experiences and knowledge. If we keep on focusing on getting the right answers, how can we help this set of students who probably have a different understanding than us.

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REFLECTION ON GIOVANNI'S REFLECTION WEEK 8 (AFZA)

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REFLECTION ON GIOVANNI'S REFLECTION WEEK 8 (AFZA)

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Giovanni brought forth some great points of discussion when highlighting motivation as one of the driving factors of reading. The reason being that  motivation is ridiculously fleeting and almost usually depends on personality of the learner. Those who are resilient, patient or diligent (aside of being linguistically-inclined) are more likely to yield better results in reading proficiency level because their motivation helps them to persevere in the face of challenging texts. For teachers of young learners, maybe these values can be instilled through self-reflection activities. Learning to be a certain character does not make you that character but at least this is one simple thing that teachers can do to support students' affective channel other than organising countless school programs for specific groups of students. I know for sure that all the teachers in Malaysia are taught to include reflection session as part of their lessons. So, this idea is plausible especially since the ministry has made civic a cross-curricular element across core subjects. Once the students' interest is sparked (become motivated), the next challenge is to maintain it.

How to make reading lessons engaging? I find that texts that challenge learners (in terms of vocabulary, sentence structure, subject matter or even word count) is quite a good choice for subsequent reading text especially after the students have shown good grasp of comprehension. However, considering how different individual students are across the classroom interms of proficiency and interest, it is hard for teachers to practise personalised lesson for reading. Seeing that personalised learning can support learner's individual progress, it may very well be a solution to mix-level classroom. Thus, in order to reconcile these two, L2 teachers can apply differentiation during their lesson which is in essence a form of graded reading. For example, when carrying out the jigsaw reading activity, the challenging text is used. The differentiated element is when teachers introduce a levelled-down version of the text catered to the low level students for the paragraph discussion. As is already obvious, when and how the differentiated text is introduced will also determine the effectiveness of the idea.

All these is evident that what teachers need is time. The time to produce differentiated texts and also the expertise to adjust the difficulty level of the text. Such specific needs could have been supported by the government (any support system) by providing the resources, or maybe creating an app/web program that can include said function.

Another topic that Giovanni broached was about GenZ and the advent of techology. Depending on how technology is used, it can turn ESL into English as Lingua Franca. One way to exploit this is by linking our lessons to online resources in English. Showing Youtube videos with subtitles to facilitate listening (and reading) just like what Ida presented in PLG744 is one of many methods we can use. We cannot deny that students will come across similar famous sites (e.g. Youtube) when browsing online because the global community is quite close-knit especially by age range. As long as we use the same search engine, the possibility is close to definite. Consequently, there are resources suitable for target students' age. It is a matter of being flexible with how we plan our lessons and alter it to suit what the ministry plan, what the students need and how to make students need it so that our lessons can be executed successfully. In a nutshell: Yes, teachers have alot on their plate. And they need time to gather new skillsets and for their personal learning curve.

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Reflecting on Reflections Week 8 ( Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection of Week 8 (Brighton)

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Reflecting on Reflections Week 8 ( Anan Sawaengdist) Reflection of Week 8 (Brighton)

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I concur with you on all of the hot button issues. The circumstances in Thailand are remarkably comparable to those in China and Malaysia. If learners have a large vocabulary or a variety of words, they can more readily have a complete grasp of the reading texts. This is true in terms of inadequate vocabulary size. Additionally, reading is a receptive skill that can help learners develop their critical thinking, creativity, processing skills, and other English-language abilities. As students read more, they gain knowledge of vocabulary, writing strategies, tones, moods, and other topics. Thus, reading habits and learner autonomy are almost always intended to benefit students.

It may be difficult for learners to learn and read more if they have a limited vocabulary or a large number of unfamiliar terms. Since it is reasonable to infer while reading terms that are unfamiliar. Our ability to comprehend or grasp something can be interrupted by them. They must be dealt with by the learners using certain media translations. Additionally, if the students lack the reading techniques necessary to overcome it. The desire to read could be higher or less.

As we can see, students' schedules at schools and colleges are highly demanding because of the variety of subjects they must take and the standards they must meet. According to the policies of the schools or universities, students must learn. Undoubtedly, there is a lack of reading time or reading material for extended readings. Therefore, in my opinion, the extra time and the materials should be tailored to the needs and interests of the learners. All of those elements, nonetheless, ought to help students become more proficient. It would be better if the leaners could vote or make suggestions on how to study or supplement utilizing reading textbooks or core textbooks.

The learner-centered approach should also be used more in the classroom to support students' autonomy, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. Teachers can act as facilitators or monitors to support students' learning processes. I think that these mindsets will be more beneficial to the students if they have them.

Final thoughts With ESL and EFL students, reading instruction is still more challenging. as a teacher, you must be aware of different teaching approaches. In light of the learners' proficiency, SVR, Cognitive, Metacognitive, and Multimodal reading processes are challenging for students.

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Reflection on Reflections Week 8 (Zhang Yuan Giovanni)

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Reflection on Reflections Week 8 (Zhang Yuan Giovanni)

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In the discussion session, several important points concerning L2 reading have been identified in terms of its challenges and affordances in both China and Malaysia.

Thinking back from now, I would personally reckon motivation is probably what needs to be pointed out and worths the most attention, which is a shared conundrum in both above contexts.

Getting extensive reading is key to literacy, as is known to everyone, but seems like everything is against a friendly and sustainable reading environment: be it the dominance of TikTok and products alike which remarkably curtail both time should have been spent on reading as well as attention span of L2 readers (Gen Z today are so used to multi-tasking that a uni-task like reading does seem dated), or boring and inauthentic materials with certain content that does not remotely interest anyone, let alone kids, that fail to engage students, or probably teaching methods, which is accustomed to make teachers the center of the podium just to name a few.

Shame as it is, today we are in fact standing at a point of no return at all: the wave of digital era is too overwhelming. Probably what really lies ahead is a revolution, and it is always the Rubicon that we as practitioners need to cross.

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In the session, the challenges of teaching reading and solutions are discussed. The one challenge is the learners’ inability to monitor their comprehensive level. Given that large-scale standardized tests are widely employed by local and national agents, learners’ attention is focused on whether the answers to standardized tests are correct or incorrect, rather than reading for interest or pleasure. However, large-scale standardized testing decreases learning motivation and engagement. Learners do not accurately assess their reading ability and lack the motivation to explore. The teacher-centered pedagogies

and exam-oriented learning inhibits learner autonomy, and will ultimately prevent learners from independently realizing and implementing any appropriate remedies for their weaknesses.

The solution that could be practiced for this challenge is self-assessment, self-assessment places learners in a natural and low-anxiety setting where teachers can consistently monitor their progress and provide feedback. The use of Self-assessment in the class could benefit to strengthen EFL motivation and enthusiasm and encourage learners to take more responsibility for their own learning. For instance, the teacher can utilize the self-assessment to evaluate students’ involvement in learning activities, and gauge the consistency or discrepancy between students’ Self-assessment and objective tests. Self-assessment help promote a learner-centered pedagogy, which is particularly needed in most Chinese schools where instruction emphasizes teacher-centered pedagogies and exam-oriented learning. The implementation of Self-assessment will benefit learner-centered pedagogy, and ultimately aid learners in growing into independent language learners.

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REFLECTION (WEEK 8) EMYNORDIANA

In today's discussion, several issues regarding the challenges / difficulties / problems / issues of reading and teaching reading have been highlighted. Among the similarities points of our discussion are:

1.    Massive classroom

·         In primary schools, the number of students in each class is about 25 – 40 and they come from various levels of English proficiency. While Anan said that he has to teach about 60-80 students in one session

·         It is quite hard for the teachers to teach and assess them individually and to develop the reading strategies to meet their needs.

·         The teacher must make sure that she is instructing in a clear and comprehensible way to all students. At the same time, all students must enjoy learning.

2.    Textbooks are appointed by the authorities

·         The textbooks used are aligned with CEFR and not much opportunity teacher can do to choose the right text for the students.

·         The development of relevant tasks is essential when teaching students to read texts.

·         The activities created for every material determine whether the lesson is a success or a failure.

·         If we are unable to engage pupils in the appropriate tasks, even an exciting text can become dull.

·         Therefore, the teacher needs to select the books with various kinds of reading strategies and activities.

3.    Limitation on reading materials / Inappropriate materials

·         Lack of reading materials can cause them to have lack of vocabulary and weak grammar structures.

·         Teaching in rural school, the teacher is the sole provider of the reading materials.

·         Therefore, extensive reading is almost impossible.

4.    Too much attention paid on grammar

·         The knowledge of grammatical rules by students is essential in the classroom, since at the end of the day, written and spoken evaluations are used to assess the students' language proficiency.

·         However, too much focus on grammar can limit the students’ motivation to read.

·         In my opinion, to instill reading habits, students should read for different purposes. Be it for specific purposes, academic purposes or even to read for pleasure.

·         The students should also be taught the strategies in reading and eventually they will be motivated and therefore increase their understanding and vocabulary

5.    Exam oriented

·         Students read for exam purpose.

·         Teachers teach them the techniques of answering the questions so that everybody manage to pass the exam, even the low achievers.

·         In some cases, as reported by another group, the students manage to score in reading papers, but unfortunately it does not reflect their proficiency in reading.

·         The schools put more focus on the grades and percentage rather than the students’ proficiency.

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1. During discussion session, it is easier to find that different countries or even different provinces have similar challenges in teaching reading or reading process; however, some unique difficulties may occur in local places, for example, in Yunnan province of China, there are 26 types of national minorities which featured the learning and teaching differently. When identifying challenges in our group, we highlight the motivation, vocabulary and assessment as the main problems, which give me some hints about the starting point to identify some difficulties—that is, to seek out problems from external to internal factors analyses, and from teacher to learner. Given that most students lack motivation in reading, educators need to subdivide the internal reasons by some survey or study; referring to low vocabulary in reading, teachers also need to screen the specific causes for this. The last highlighted part is the assessment on reading. We have to evaluate whether the assessment methods in reading are valid and reliable and further consider whether the assessment in reading is to review both reading skills and reading awareness.

2. After identifying diverse challenges in conducting teaching, it is very helpful to realize that the first step to solving problems is to exactly find out why is that. Only do we know the reasons just like the doctor screen the causes for certain symptoms, it is possible for us to cure these problems. Besides, it is essential to distinguish and subdivide the reasons from external to internal factors and from teachers’ perspective to students’. How to handle those problems in reading require reviewing a bunch of studies and learning more theories in teaching reading part, and then developing an effective system to put them into practice.

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Reflection on reflections WEEK 8(YUAN YE)

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Reflection on reflections WEEK 8(YUAN YE)

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We are group 1 and we discussed the same challenges we faced from Malaysia, China and Thailand. Ⅰ. Much attention has been paid to grammar when teaching reading. Ⅱ. Sometimes, lecturers teach reading in a massive classroom(40-60 students), which led to a difficulty both for teachers and students. Ⅲ. In some classes, the students who suffered from LD(learning disorder) or RD(reading disorder) were missed out.

From other groups, I learned that we generally forget why we are reading and read for what. We seemed to be lost in teaching syllabus, teaching plans and examinations. Now I teach the intensive reading and I just do the same thing as Group 2 pointed--teaching students to adopt “skills” to answer the questions, like gap filling, multiple choices and judging True or False so as to pass the reading examination.

Referred the theories we had discussed last two weeks, both of the literature came from developed countries(institutions), while we are trying to analyze and apply them directly to our own developing status. So far as I am concerned, we should be careful when adapt those advanced experience without neglecting we are in developing countries. Integrating listening and reading is certainly an innovation. SVR(Simple View Reading) might be regarded as a solution to the large-scale class teaching though it was criticized comprehensively. Theories are not ABCs and a confluence of complexity naturally exists. Anyhow, TESOL teachers has to be aware that teaching reading is much more than passing the exams because reading activity is unique in human beings. Reading can be fun but it can be gruelling; reading can be tranquil while it can be noisy. Reading is life itself.

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Reflection of Week 8 (Anan)    Group 1(Emy, Anan and   Yuan Ye)

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Reflection of Week 8 (Anan)    Group 1(Emy, Anan and   Yuan Ye)

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Reflection of Week 8 (Anan)    Group 1(Emy, Anan and   Yuan Ye)

In today’s group discussion on the difficulties affordances difficulties/ affordances/ issues policies of teaching reading in our country. Among the group of countries we represent (China, Malaysia and Thailand), we identified some similarities and differences.

In similarities, four discussed themes are found.

1.      Massive classroom: Students who are not English majors attend general English classes. There are a lot of students in the classes (60-80) with mix-level of English proficiency. Thus, teaching reading is a hard job for teachers for developing reading strategies to meet and align with learners’ needs. Moreover, it is quite tough for the teachers to monitor the students while they are leaning. Especially, in ESL and EFL settings, the learners are not in the center area of the country they could use various dialect languages more than English. So, they might lack of some connected vocabularies to the topics. Additionally, cultural circumstances in some western countries may result in pupils having less previous knowledge on specific topics, which would make them less motivated and eager to study. So the teachers should select the content book with the various kinds of reading strategies and various contents, contexts and learner's interests.

2.      Textbooks are appointed by the authorities: Textbooks used are supported by the authorities and ministry which are align with CEFR levels. Thus, there is little opportunity for teachers to choose the textbooks that their students will use. Some countries used commercial books to study. So, selected textbooks or extra textbooks that might suit for learners are concerned.

3.      Limitation on reading materials: In general English course learners study using the textbooks by authorities or commercial textbooks align with CEFL levels and learners’ intended outcomes. In leaning environments’ student’s just use that book to study simply to pass the tests or to comprehend and execute the exercises during class activities. But beyond instruction, children have neither prolonged reading nor intensive reading tools to support their reading. As well as students less habit in reading routines.

4.      Too much attention paid to grammar: For comprehension or to obtain the right responses, grammar and reading are emphasized in most educational institutions. In actuality, reading is incredibly important for a variety of reasons, including encouraging reading habits and reading for specific purposes. Because if students or readers can read and are aware of reading tactics and purposes, they will ultimately be more motivated to increase their reading comprehension and vocabulary. It could be beneficial in relation to other people's English skills.

Additionally, we discovered some variations in learners' learning styles, levels, and situations, as well as in countries' policies to improve learners' outcomes, which are debated within the group. Finding practical ways to augment resources or teach practices that are appropriate for various contexts and learner requirements is difficult for educators and policy makers given the aforementioned factors.

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In today’s discussion, we discussed the challenges of reading and teaching reading. It turns out that there are many similarities between the Chinese and Malaysian context.

We noted that the following issues in both contexts.

•       Vocabulary (inadequate vocabulary size)

•       Insufficient extensive reading (reading out the classroom)

•       Lack of engaging materials & graded readers

•       Students do not have time to do extensive reading (overloaded with homework)

•       Inability to monitor own comprehension level

•       Especially lower levels readers

•       Reading materials which are not suitable / appropriate

•       Complexity of the sentence structures (e.g. use of passive form)

•       Localised content and adaptation which reduces the authenticity of the text

•       Students may not have adequate cultural and background knowledge

•       Student are not given the autonomy to choose which text to read > low motivation & low engagement

•       Text treated as a linguistic object

•       Teachers always use texts as a means to teach language which might shape students’ attitude towards reading (believing that the purpose of reading is to learn new vocabulary / language)

•       Reading as a form of assessment (heavily exam oriented) VS Reading for pleasure

•       Teacher-centred approach

Today’s discussion has not drastically transformed my views or beliefs about teaching of reading because issues highlighted have existed for quite a long time and while things are slowly changing, it’s hard to envision a radically different approach to teaching reading in the Chinese and Malaysian contexts given how entrenched the practices are.

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I was in the second group with Ida, Qi Meng and Zhou Xue. In our group discussion, we looked at the topic in a macro level and found that much of the similarities that we have in regard to reading is on examination. Time constraint, pressure and, (let’s be honest) lack of knowledge/limited skills to teach reading have led us down this road whereby teaching reading boils down to increasing the level of difficulty for each text and dissecting the text in a technical way. Eventually, teachers are cornered to strategize on exam answering techniques so that low-level readers can pass their exams. Zhou Xue explained that in some extreme cases there are students who managed to achieve high scores in reading paper, but the scores do not reflect their reading proficiency level. On the personal level, I have yet to come across such students because in my experience, low-level readers are commonly students who lack the motivation or initiative to learn. These students rarely able to achieve high marks in reading because they leave the answer sheet blank. The fact is, they are just slower in progress than their peers (based on syllabus) and the gap is humiliating for them hence, they shut off from learning. Miraculously, in the month before the national exam these students would suddenly find the heart to learn, and I had no other option but to teach answering techniques. It is safe to say some of them manage to pass the exam.

This difference made me realize one thing, particularly upon examining our contexts. In Malaysia, English language is used almost as commonly as the Malay language especially in the cities and suburban areas. Take for example the advertisements on billboards, posters, televisions or flyers, there are at least some English words used. Radio stations and television, content on Youtube or TikTok and reels in Instagram and Facebook are other media English language can make its way to the language learners. This exposure to English albeit passively may contribute to World Knowledge in the theory of reading. World Knowledge may translate differently in other reading theories but essentially it provides the schemata to the words that we read. Having adequate World Knowledge should facilitate reading for low-level readers in one way. Thus, it is possible that what they lack is the skill to tap into this World Knowledge and make meaning with the Linguistic Knowledge from the sentence that they have read. Maybe teachers can contemplate the use of authentic texts to help low-level readers bridge the connection between these two knowledge forms. In extension of this World Knowledge argument, we need to consider that individual differences can be perceived in a spectrum from that observant of their surroundings (to build on World Knowledge) to ignorant ones.

The extreme case told by Zhou Xue also made me realize that it is possible to achieve high levels of decoding ability without breaking through the comprehension ceiling. What I understood from the reading theory (Simple View of Reading) is that decoding make way to making meaning. Apparently, there are different levels to making meaning. One reaches the ‘prosaic’ reading level before they enter the immersive reading. The difference being that ‘prosaic’ reading only requires you to read the text superficially without getting into the depth of immersive reading. This is my presumption based on this case. During the discussion, I asked Zhou Xue whether the exam questions also include critical thinking questions and she mentioned that mostly they do not. This led me to assume that these learners could have entered the immersive reading level if they are challenged with questions demanding the use of higher order thinking skills. I will stop here before this gets too long.

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In today's discussion, my concern has always been that our Chinese reading teachers always pay attention to the teaching of grammars and vocabularys, while ignoring the teaching of reading itself. However, since I'm not a teacher, I'm just thinking from my own learning experience. Through communicating with peers, I figured out that it is because the ultimate goal of all the courses we study is just for the exam and to get higher scores in the exam, so the teacher does not pay attention to the improvement of reading skills, but only focuses on how to improve students' reading Grades, because our schools often have such requirements for teachers. From this point of view, the reform of reading teaching not only requires teachers to make changes, but also requires the entire education system to shift from focusing on students' scores to focusing on students' overall quality.
In addition, I learned from exchanges with Malaysian and Thai students that this phenomenon does not exist in their countries, which further shows that in China, the purpose of all courses is to improve scores, which is problematic.

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During the discussion, several issues have been raised. One of them is vocabulary issue. I also believe this is also the most preliminary one, since it might lead to other issues. The inspiration from our discussion, which might be effective to handle vocabulary issue, is the lexical network theory. It basically suggests that vocabulary should be imbedded in certain context. The context varies from a single sentence to a short paragraph. It also could be the association with other relevant words, such as synonymy or even autonomy. One more point raised by Brighton is meaningful context. It also inspired me that when we select material for our classes, we need to ensure that the selection material are meaningful to our students. What I meant is the martial should be comprehensive not only its sentences but also the content. Under such circumstances, I think the reading class might be more engrossing.

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Reflection on Reflections Week 7 (Ida Ruhidiba)

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Reflection on Reflections Week 7 (Ida Ruhidiba)

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The article that Brighton shared and presented has provided us with the understanding that reading is indeed multidimensional and there are certain factors that affect the students’ reading. When we talk of the latter, I have to agree with Qi Meng’s opinion on creating a distinctive personalised lesson for individuals. Just like our counterparts in China, we Malaysian teachers are also facing a similar situation when it comes to the big number of students in class. It is highly impossible to cater a lesson plan with differentiated strategies when we have to consider the students’ learning style and abilities. In a classroom where it consists of multiple abilities among the students, it proves to be difficult for teachers to cater the learning demands of each student. Let’s also not forget on the fact that there may be students who might not know how to read.

Moving on, I too wholeheartedly agree with Anan and Afza about the misconception of SVR. I myself am also guilty into thinking that “simple” here means easy which as what the article had stated, it is far more complex than the word has allowed us to believe. The whole process of reading requires us to decode and also involves the measurement of listening comprehension. Our ability to read highly depends on word recognition and our understanding of the language itself. This proves that reading is indeed a complex process. Throw in the extensive range of language practices, adds on further how reading is developed. The way we interact with people, the shows that we watch and the songs that we listen to all play a role in developing our understanding of words and sounds. Whatever words or phrases that we acquire during the process do affect the way we understand a certain text and characteristics of the text. Somehow our experiences do play a role in the way we develop our reading skill.

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Reflection of Reflections - Week 7 (Emynordiana Jamil)

First, I would like to say that the presentation carried out by Brighton is incredibly well done and crystal clear, from systematically presenting the original paper to expressing his critical opinions.

The paper presented was discussed from different angles and I would like to focus on Simple View Reading. Despite the word simple, it is not as simple as it meant. The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension.

Many educators once believed, and still do today, that if language skills are excellent, reading comprehension may be achieved without having great decoding skills. Beginner and struggling readers are frequently instructed to make up for poor decoding skills by guessing an unknown word based on the initial letter or the visual, then checking to see if the term makes sense after reading the phrase. On the contrary, when decoding is the primary focus of instruction, kids are taught to accurately decode words as well as to sound out unfamiliar words using all the letters and practise reading accurately until they are able do so at a sufficient reading rate. This is similar to Afza’s thought that individuals differ in their level of pre-literacy skills. Kids need to be able to read at least simple words or phrases. Once they have mastered their pre-literacy skills, they can take on more challenging texts.

I have the same opinion as Anan that we should not set some limitations or approach when teaching reading. Use the best approach to improve the students’ literacy that associated with the learning objectives, the outcomes and the needs of the students.

I also comply to Qi Meng, that it is difficult to apply educational setting to a large number of students in a particular classroom and making individual reading is almost impossible. It is very burdensome to the teacher as the students are of mixed abilities. I concur that teachers can adapt their teaching methods to the needs of the students. Yes, giving them the complexity and diversity of reading as pointed out by Brighton and Qiu Xiaoting.

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Reflecting on Reflections (WK 7, YUAN YE)

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Reflecting on Reflections (WK 7, YUAN YE)

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Brighton’s presentation made me realize reading absolutely cannot be explained by a simply theory or a constructional recognition. Last week, by Giovanni’s session of analysis, we discussed whether the integrated reading and listening process could be linear process. In the prospective of neuro-reading research, it is not a linear. I assume now we can make a simple conclusion that, to some extent, reading refers to a complicated psychological activities of human beings.

Afza argued that structural literacy made it easier for teachers to guide reading activity. She also questioned if following textbooks can ease the overload of work. As matter of fact, there is always a contradiction between efficiency and quality. Especially for Chinese teachers, they often face a large number of students crowded in a small classroom. Worse, the lecturers find themselves swamped in completing the task rather than value the reading creativity or initial implementation.

Moreover, Qiuxiaoting made the point that it is possible for lecturers to tailor the teaching methods for individual student guided by embodied process. While Qi meng mentioned that it’s truly a challenge if consider the personalized reading activities in China, because the students scale stays a quite number（40-60 students in one classroom）.

As Brighton mentioned the key term multidimensional, some voices virtually hold the view that “reading activities are much complicated while previous theories explained like SVR, is not the SIMPLE conception as they deemed”. So far as I am concerned, the multidimensional refers to a CONFLUNENCE of complexity(as the author pointed out “more evidence should be based on empirical research;  findings should be related to the brain and reading). For me, I associate with the “BLACK BOX” theory. Because it’s impossible for us to examine learners’ brain simultaneously or visualize the outcome to analysis. Why not presume our brain is a black box? Neglect what’s going on the black system, transfer our attention to the input and output correlation and probe to the rules or regulation. So the reading can be understood as re-organize the chaos information to a right order.

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 7, Anan Sawaengdist) The paper that Brighton presented was discussed from a variety of angles, including Simple View of Reading, Structured Literacy and Multidimensional Nature of Reading, neuroscience and the observations on how students read.   In the context of the recovery process and teaching reading, I have brought up some of my opinions and experiences that I find to be critical. According to Afza Abdullah, "individuals differ in their level of pre-literacy components," which she noted, is a remark I do agree with. They will be able to read at least simple texts once they have mastered at least one or two key pre-literacy skills. Once they have improved their reading ability enough to meet the prerequisites for other pre-literacy skills, they can tackle texts that are more difficult. Additionally, they must use SVR processing, which entails word recognition, decoding, and text comprehension while relying entirely on semantic, discourse, and schema-based processes. Yes, I agree that the Simple View of Reading theory has sometimes been misrepresented as being "simple," however while reading and understanding text, all of the complicated processes are classified into decoding and linguistic comprehension, which can lead to more complex text. I agree that the best approach or method should be used to improve learners' literacy. To support personalized learning, I believe it should be in line with learning objectives, student outcomes, and learner needs. I concur with Qi Meng when he said that it is difficult to apply in educational settings because most classrooms contain between 40 and 60 students, making individualizing the teaching of reading impossible. Similar to how my General English classes have always been. Therefore, it is quite challenging to supervise and instruct, especially when there is a mix of proficiency. I also agree that it is possible for teachers to modify their teaching strategies for certain children, as Brighton and QIU XIAOTING point out, given the complexity and diversity of reading. Although it's possible that teachers won't be able to adapt their teaching methods for every student, we can encourage them to experiment and provide feedback based on their impressions. As a result, reading can link with the reader's past knowledge, some schema, Liuzhifang resound with similar emotions, and help build a new comprehension of the reading materials due to its complexity and diversity. In conclusion, the most important considerations in teaching reading are theoretical models of readings, reading research based on neurobiology, and observations of how pupils read. Teachers should base their approach and reading choices on the students' advocacy. Simple, Structured, and Multidimensional reading strategies all contribute to the process of comprehension when it comes to reading.

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Reflecting on Reflections (Week 7, Anan Sawaengdist) The paper that Brighton presented was discussed from a variety of angles, including Simple View of Reading, Structured Literacy and Multidimensional Nature of Reading, neuroscience and the observations on how students read.   In the context of the recovery process and teaching reading, I have brought up some of my opinions and experiences that I find to be critical. According to Afza Abdullah, "individuals differ in their level of pre-literacy components," which she noted, is a remark I do agree with. They will be able to read at least simple texts once they have mastered at least one or two key pre-literacy skills. Once they have improved their reading ability enough to meet the prerequisites for other pre-literacy skills, they can tackle texts that are more difficult. Additionally, they must use SVR processing, which entails word recognition, decoding, and text comprehension while relying entirely on semantic, discourse, and schema-based processes. Yes, I agree that the Simple View of Reading theory has sometimes been misrepresented as being "simple," however while reading and understanding text, all of the complicated processes are classified into decoding and linguistic comprehension, which can lead to more complex text. I agree that the best approach or method should be used to improve learners' literacy. To support personalized learning, I believe it should be in line with learning objectives, student outcomes, and learner needs. I concur with Qi Meng when he said that it is difficult to apply in educational settings because most classrooms contain between 40 and 60 students, making individualizing the teaching of reading impossible. Similar to how my General English classes have always been. Therefore, it is quite challenging to supervise and instruct, especially when there is a mix of proficiency. I also agree that it is possible for teachers to modify their teaching strategies for certain children, as Brighton and QIU XIAOTING point out, given the complexity and diversity of reading. Although it's possible that teachers won't be able to adapt their teaching methods for every student, we can encourage them to experiment and provide feedback based on their impressions. As a result, reading can link with the reader's past knowledge, some schema, Liuzhifang resound with similar emotions, and help build a new comprehension of the reading materials due to its complexity and diversity. In conclusion, the most important considerations in teaching reading are theoretical models of readings, reading research based on neurobiology, and observations of how pupils read. Teachers should base their approach and reading choices on the students' advocacy. Simple, Structured, and Multidimensional reading strategies all contribute to the process of comprehension when it comes to reading.

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The article that Brighton presented did a great job in (1) advocating that reading is not an one-dimension process that can be easily sliced and structured into one-size-fits-all reading lessons, (2) discussing reading processes from three perspectives, namely, thoretical models of readings, reading studies based on neuroscience, and observations on how students read.

However, some conclusions from the paper might not be easily applicable to educational contexts where individualising the teaching of reading is not feasible. The author argued against standarised lessons that are a common feature of the traditional "structured literacy" approach. But, for instance, in the context of most schools in China, deviating from standardised lessons might not be feasible, because (1) most classes have 40-60, if not more, students, and customising the teaching of reading for each student will be virtually impossible; (2) standardised tests (like the A-Levels in Britain and the gaokao in China) heavily influence how lessons are taught in some countries. Since teachers in China are heavily evaluated based on the average gaokao scores in their classes, they will likely be incentivised to rely on standard pedagogies that are proven to produce high average scores in a class, rather than customise their lessons to individual students.

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REFLECTING ON WEEK 7-QIU XIAOTING‘S REFLECTIONS--Wang Zongli

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REFLECTING ON WEEK 7-QIU XIAOTING‘S REFLECTIONS--Wang Zongli

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For Brighton's presentation, I have almost the same experience as Qiu Xiaoting. Each of our students is an independent individual, and their knowledge background, growth environment and comprehension ability are all different. Therefore,teachers must attend to a full range of considerations when it comes to teaching reading.
As teachers, we need to master a broad range of teaching strategies to serve various students. However, to customize teaching approaches for each student is not possible because we have a limited amount of time to teach many students. What we can do, though, is guide them to explore and offer feedbacks according to their perception.

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The paper that Brighton presented last evening was a critical review of literature discussing the Simple View of Reading, Structured Literacy and multidimensional nature of reading. He argues the vagueness of Compton-Lilly et. al proposal of a complex solution that honour the complexity of reading. I concur with his argument as the actual framework or theory is not explicitly described. However, the aim of this paper is to address the complexity of literacy and deny all forms of simplified version of some reading theories. In that sense, it has achieved its purpose. I have some sort of idea on this complexity of reading which is that individuals differ in their level of pre-literacy components. When they have reached a minimum level for 1-2 essential pre-literacy components, they will be able to read at least low-level texts. In the ongoing progress of their reading skill, once they reach the minimum level for other pre-literacy components, they can handle a more challenging text. For example, a young learner with some predisposition whereby his semantic processing knowledge is quite high, yet his decoding skill is just bare minimum, this learner may be able to read simple text and gain some sort of understanding of the text.

Other related issues:

• This paper essentially argues that many have misunderstood the Simple View of Reading theory as ‘simple’ when in reality all the complex processes are categorized into decoding and linguistic comprehension. Even though the misunderstanding is small, the repercussion can be massive. Hence, it is imperative that a scholar refer to a theory in its holistic elaboration, and not nit-picking on parts that suit his arguments.

• From the discussion of structured literacy, what I can surmise is the idea of structured literacy is meant to make it easier for teachers. However, it has clouded a language teacher’s practice by taking away the autonomy to select the right method or approach to enhance learners’ literacy. This issue resonates with me since I do feel complacent and at times overwhelmed (getting swamped with work to be completed). Due to that, I heavily relied on the given textbook when teaching reading.  Ideally, I should know “what the students know and can do and then determine” where to go from there. This type of personalized learning requires a lot of attention from the teacher especially in the initial implementation.

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Reflection (Week 7) - Brighton / Heng Wen Zhuo

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Reflection (Week 7) - Brighton / Heng Wen Zhuo

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The Simple View of Reading (R = D x C) is an appealing model to researchers and teachers, in part, due to its simplicity which highlights two measurable construct – (1) decoding / word recognition, and (2) language comprehension.

However, Compton-Lily et al. (2020) argue that reading is inherently complex and multidimensional, which was supported by past studies in theoretical models, neuroimaging and systematic observation of young readers.

My take on this is that both conceptualizations (simple & complex models) have their merits and the reason these two conceptualizations differ greatly from each other is partly due to the researchers’ beliefs in what makes a good model.

To my mind, researchers who subscribe to SVR are also likely to be those who prefer a clean and lean model, thus explaining the limited number of constructs in SVR.

On the other hand, researchers who advocate for a complex model tend to prefer a holistic model that takes every possible factors into account, even when doing so may involve some hard-to-measure constructs like cultural and experiential knowledge.

Having mentioned the above, I believe there are place for both types of models, and indeed we need both, because the minimalist model allows researchers to quantifiably measure their constructs as precisely as possible, while the maximalist model allows researchers to encompass equally important but qualitative constructs which are often less tenable to being quantified.

My personal opinion about reading research is that neuroimaging studies seems to be the best bet we have to really advance our understanding of reading. This, however, is easier said than done, as neuroimaging studies are often highly technical and requires expertise that teachers may not already possess. However, it does seem to me that neuroscience is the future of educational research.

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Reflection on Brighton's Presentation (Week 7) Zhang Yuan Giovanni

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Reflection on Brighton's Presentation (Week 7) Zhang Yuan Giovanni

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If there is anything that I can reflect from this fantastic presentation, it might be implication in practice after complex models are identified.

Starting off from complexity, in daily teaching, sometimes practical experience may not suffice for teachers, instead, knowledge in a various areas needs to be aware of, and as well as that, attending to social factors that may impact reading is likely to be a prerequisite for literacy teachers, just to resonate with the complex models and how this may give rise to radical professional development among all educators. Community identity or issues like social justice should be put on the agenda, which necessitates teachers of literacy ponder the instruction of reading with more perspectives.

I personally like this idea of “confluence” as, despite the fact that a simplified model or a universal approach is by all means tempting, reading, as an activity, am interactive process, or a multidimensional phenomenon, is never going to be unravelled too easily. Therefore, L2 learners, might deserve a little more comparative research where localized culture, social and experiential contexts, which in fact “evidence” the confluence, and at the same time diversify the advances in further investigation. I’m more intrigued in “localized” English reading instruction with intersection with culture and other social issues, probably self-censorship and global citizenship in some localized reading instruction materials can shed some light to this one.

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REFLECTION ON PRESENTION (WEEK 7-QIU XIAOTING)

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REFLECTION ON PRESENTION (WEEK 7-QIU XIAOTING)

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The article that Brighton presented is filled with theories review to reflect the reading is a multidimensional and complex process. The neuroimaging studies are impressive which explicitly explain how reading is nonlinear process from semantic comprehension process, embodied process to phonological processing and word reading process. Among which the embodied process is quite evoking my own experience in reading because it can connect with reader’s background information and can resonate similar feelings and construct the new understanding to the reading materials.

Given the complexity and diversity of reading, is it possible for educators to tailor the teaching methods for individual students? Brighton explained from his own teaching experience and is very helpful to me. Maybe we are unable to customize teaching approaches for each student but we can guide them to explore and offer feedbacks according to their perception.

The presentation done by Brighton is very excellent from systematically displaying the original article to presenting his critical thoughts articulatorily, which encourages me to do my presentation better next time.

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I could not agree more on the point raised in the presentation, which is reading comprehension involves complex processes.  I also can associate the general teaching stages in a reading class. Most of time, the reading classes are designed with three stages with specific purposes to serve.  For instance, the first phrase is mainly designed to activate some schema, which echoes what Brighton has presented.  In addition, some other types of reading tasks can be implemented in a reading class. It is also propelled due to the complex nature of reading comprehension.   

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REFLECTING WK 6 (K KALAI MATHI KERNAGARAN)

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REFLECTING WK 6 (K KALAI MATHI KERNAGARAN)

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It was a wonderful presentation by Giovanni’s on ‘An Integrated Cognitive Theory of Comprehension’. This article was written by Vahid Aryadoust to address the socio-cognitive viewpoint on information processing and to put forth a paradigm that combines the study of reading and listening comprehension. Based on the presentation/ article, I gained in-depth insights that underlies between reading and listening which was focused separately by the previous research. There were also several models related to reading and listening been highlighted by the author which made me more curious on how far/ effective this integration had been proven as not many studies been done earlier. The questions raised by Brighton whether can be linear which was indicated on the bottom-up and top-down processing. As the presenter clearly explained the pre-comprehension and comprehension process in the chart (figure 1), Prof. K asked a question on which part reflection can be fit in the best. Well, in my opinion, I strongly believe that ‘reflection should fall under the fourth, ‘integration’ stage where it involves the mental imagery. Also, a question on fluency was raised by Qi Meng, whether there would be any differences between a fluent and non-fluent reader in comprehending. I hope future research would contribute more findings to this kind of questions.

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Reflecting on Reflections Week 2 ( Anan Sawaengdist)

After reviewing classmate’s responses to the paper titled "An Integrated Cognitive Theory of Comprehension," it became clear that reading and listening had previously been seen as independent cognitive processes. But after reading this study, it seemed very obvious to me that since both skills are responsive and might potentially ignite together, they must be combined into one acquired set of skills.

As YUANYE mentioned, I was also curious as to whether this linear theory model could more effectively explain the comprehension process. We are all aware with the functions of bottom-up and top-down processing in the reading process, but in my opinion, how well readers process and comprehend written texts relies on their reading levels, proficiency, tactics, and approaches.

Since reading and listening, which have historically been separated, are the main goals of the research. I concur completely with Indra Kolan Daveloo, the human neurological system and sense organs must be fully functional, which implies that the eyes and ears must be able to receive and transmit inputs such as sound waves and the nervous system must be able to receive and send visual stimuli to the brain.

However, f or oung learners and novices can still use the phrase "LISTEN AND REPEAT AFTER ME," however I'm not sure if it will work for upper intermediate levels. Perhaps they have more difficulty with critical and creative thinking.

I also agree with retracing from paper’s steps, the researcher put up a four-stage general hypothesis of listening and reading comprehension. Articulatory, psychoacoustic effects, and linguistic learning are all part of stage 1. Word recognition in stage two results in the activation of meaning. Words, phrases, and sentences are mostly understood in Stage 3, whereas inferences, elaborations, and the context of the text are understood at Stage 4. For L2 learners, there are key phases in reading comprehension.

To complete these processes, attention should also be paid to EMYNORDIANA JAMIL's experiences so that the morphological, phonological, and semantic information in the recognized word is made available to the listener so they may understand what is being read.

However, I believe that in order to effectively teach reading, teachers should apply or select reading resources based on learner outcomes, reader levels (i+1), and popular reading books.

I concur with Afza Abdullah's analysis that the researcher ought to go into greater detail about how to combine reading and listening into a single cognitive theory of comprehension.

I'm considering how instructors and professors might work with students who have limited competence or who are at different levels to help them understand difficult texts and the tough types of questions that may be posed, such as inferred meaning, tone of the reader, detailed queries, etc. And at what level, should more complicated texts and cognitive abilities be the starting point for proficiency

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REFLECTING ON Giovanni’s REFLECTIONS WK6 (YUANYE)

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REFLECTING ON Giovanni’s REFLECTIONS WK6 (YUANYE)

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From Zhangyuan’s presentation, I have learned that Integrated Cognitive Theory of Comprehension MODEL. Listening and reading were regarded as separate parts in previous studies. While in Integrated Cognitive Theory, the author Vahid Aryadoust define reading and listening as a complete unit. According to the Figure 1, Brighton questioned that whether the flow chart should be linear? Yet the author stressed that in the very beginning: the theory draws on a maximalist account of comprehension and emphasizes the role of bottom-up and top-down processing. So this theory mode sounds reasonable. However, some scholars criticize the simple view of reading(SVR) and explained the complexity of the SVR and theoretical models of reading complexity(Ayan Mitra; Mary Fuar; Lucy K.,2020). Some worried that policymakers are often attracted by simplified arguments(Person, 2004).

Could this linear theory model better explain comprehension process? Dr. K argued that if we add “reflection” part in the model, which stage can be best placed? Actually,  I mostly care about the fourth stage--strategic comprehension. So my answer is: the reflection can be placed in stage 4--integration. Because here reflection can be explained as a cognitive strategy. But the theory made me confused with Krashen’s  Input Hypothesis. Can I safely say reading and listening are “input” process? Where can I find the learners’ Affective Filter/affection in the four stages?

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The main aim of the research is to integrate reading and listening. Therefore, the researcher had shared and quoted various literature review to support his view. The theory proposed in this study is to merge the reading and listening fields, which have traditionally been separated. Listening as stated in the research is linguistic processing, which itself is the initiator of comprehension. As the human nervous system and sense organs must fully functional; which means, the ears must be able to receive and transmit inputs or sound waves and the eyes must be able to receive and transmit the visual stimuli to the brain through the nervous system (Bodie et al., 2008b; Rost, 2016). As for reading the researcher has indicated that four theories that he had surveyed here have several common features as well as multiple distinctive properties which help develop the integrated comprehension model in his current research paper. Nevertheless, I do feel that this paper is too complex, and jargons are affecting my level of understanding. I could see that the writer substantiates various theories and models in his write-up. I missed the points who were his samples and the cognitive level of his samples. Being a teacher myself, I do agree with the researcher as the skill of integrating listening and reading are the main component of MUET Listening paper. Students will have to listen to audios and answer questions based on audios played at the same time. Therefore, I strongly agree that integrating both skills is possible. Other than that, this is also applicable to very young L2 learners. Though there are vast changes in pedagogy now, but the phrase “LISTEN AND REPEAT AFTER ME” will never be forgotten. Educators for young learners never fail to train their students to LISTEN and READ from alphabets to words to sentences. Therefore, integration of listening and reading is not something new in acquiring L2. At the end of the research, the researcher proposed a general comprehension theory of listening and reading in four stages. Stage 1 is articulatory, psychoacoustic effects, and linguistic learning. Stage 2 is word recognition which leads to the activation of meaning. Stage 3 is mainly comprehension of words, phrases and sentences, Stage 4 refers to inferencing and elaborations and contextual meaning of the text. This are stages of comprehending reading for L2 learners. As English is not their first language, L2 learners must go through stages of listening to and reading: letters – words – sentences – paragraphs. It’s my opinion that I do agree with the researcher and integrating listening and reading is possible to the human mind though both are different skill of mind.

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This article is convincing in describing the significance of reading and listening theories and the knowledge they provide that may aid in a learner's comprehension. The ability to comprehend new information is a critical concept in language learning — one that can determine how well you will be able to absorb language elements and use them in a meaningful way. That is, acquiring language in a predictable order, starting with the most basic then increasing in complexity as you understand more and more language elements.

Referring to the three-stage framework of word recognition, I would like to share my experience teaching primary students with no or little English backgrounds. It starts with prelexical, followed by post lexical stage where the morphological, phonological, and semantic content of the recognized word becomes available to the listener. It is a process by which students learn to identify words and word parts. It begins with an understanding that letters symbolize the sounds and progresses to the ability to understand complex word parts. This is the most crucial part as I am teaching Year 1 students. Some of them are in the pre-alphabetic stage. At this stage, they have very limited experience with words and letters, especially English words. They might be able to identify just a few letters or words in context such as the word “eat” only when they see the picture or the teacher doing the gesture. At this stage too, they should be able to read their names, but they do not understand the relationship between the letters of their name and the sound they make. Therefore, as a teacher, I support them by teaching letters, sounds and sight words within the context of predictable or repeated text. As they learn more letters and sounds, they move into the partial-alphabetic phase. The partial-alphabetic phase of decoding is when students have achieved the ability to name most of the consonants of the alphabet and can identify the sounds associated with them. During this phase, students can decode some words phonetically. This is where they understand that letters, specifically the consonants are associated with certain sounds.
Overall, this integrated cognitive theory of comprehension is practical as it is a theory that explains how we interpret information and acquire knowledge. To me, it is an interactive learning approach that emphasises how to use your brain to its fullest capacity. It can improve your memory since the learners are able to link new information to previously existing ideas.

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Reflecting on Afza's and Lydia's Reflections Week 2 (Qiu xiaoting)

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Reflecting on Afza's and Lydia's Reflections Week 2 (Qiu xiaoting)

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Both of these two reflections involve critical thinking regarding the paper itself from literature review part to the discussion and conclusions parts and come up a disagreement or a question upon the theories and modals of this article, Both of them believe that this article has its limitations pertaining language research or teaching and learning.
Afza shows more attention on the article while Lydia extends her reflection on the personal teaching experience, both of which provide me with more contemplation. First of all, each time when classmates finished their presentation I feel like I have a lot of questions about it but don’t know where I should start to ask. The root of this lies in my poor theory background and lack of systematic theoretical framework to TESOL. It needs my persistent commitment and devotion to harvest these unknown fields; Also, Lydia mentioned her experience in teaching students with dual-route modal. Each time if we combine our reflection with our practical teaching, it will be promising for improvement of our teaching skills and benefit our students in a scientific and overall way.

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REFLECTING ON LYDIA's REFELCTIONS WK 6 (Zhang Yuan Giovanni)

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REFLECTING ON LYDIA's REFELCTIONS WK 6 (Zhang Yuan Giovanni)

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For me, understanding comprehension before is nothing but blind men trying to feel the elephant: each blind man would argue he was right about the elephant, be it a tusk or leg or tail etc. Everything can be construed as comprehension, comprehension equally could be anything. At best, it’s like all roads lead to Rome, as long as you can comprehend, who would ever care how you arrive? Especially as teacher-researchers or practioners, a commonly negligent part is, why bother theories learning when I'm already an award-winning teacher, with sufficient language knowledge and surrounded by parents and kids?

In fact, some scholars do care, and this is where the story begins. Comprehension should be modeled and each stage, if there’s any, needs to be panned out.

As much admiration I have for early exploration and trailblazers, as Lydia mentions, a somewhat concise and efficient framework is desperately in need. This is not simplifying everything, but trying to rationalize comprehension along with stages or the process within, for the sake of parameterizing and measuring with methods underpinned by real science. CI is ground-breaking in that it attempts to add simplicity to theoretical building, and it is true that our prior knowledge is and has been alive and kicking through and through, functioning as an integral part in comprehending.

I did harvest quite a lot from the floor, questions from everyone after my presenting are very thought-provoking to say the least. Some minor but noticeable issues, for example the translating, or code-switching in linguistics to be accurate as Michael pointed out, is also worth exploring, it touched down some more subtle and micro stage of comprehension, could be a very promising research field.

What I’d like to add more is about reflection, as professor Kabilan yesterday asked: where do reflection fit in this theory? As a key indicator of an effective English language teacher, reflection is by all means a very telling trait. So, from the perspective of language teachers, I tend to believe that reflection is more “post hoc”, that is after at least comprehension for the first time, as the optimal reflection occurs in a “socially supportive” environment, and a “dialogue” has to take place through which words, emotions or actions are genuinely delivered. In other words, when the “first round” of comprehension, usually accompanied with subjectiveness, reaches its finish line, reflection can come in to play and raise one’s awareness of self-examination. Pretty much like what we are doing right now :D

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Qi Meng - Week 2
Reflection on Afza's Reflection

I agree with Afza's opinion that this paper has limited information and results that could be directly applied to teaching English, and that the paper glosses over certain important details.  I would like to expand Afra's criticism with a few more points:

(1) This paper does not discuss how fluent speakers and learners that have limited proficiency differ in the ways they perceive written and audio information.  For example, learners often fail to "read between the lines" and infer information that is not directed stated in the passage, and learners that rely heavily on translation often fail to perceive fine shades of meaning that are difficult or impossible to translate.

(2) This paper does not discuss how linguistic, social, cultural, and individual differences might alter his unified framework of perception (see page 19).  In the author's framework, perception universually proceeds in four stages, (1) perception, (2) recognition, (3) selection, and (4) integration.  This framework holds fairly well when we consider how perception works in speakers of phonetic languages such as English.  But from my personal experience as a speaker of Chinese which has a pictogram writing system, I would suggest that perception could directly proceed to integration without recognition and selection.  For example, traditional Chinese calligraphic styles immediately conjure up mental imageries (stage 4 in the framework) of "flowing water", "nature", "freedom", "discipline", "relaxation", "heroism" and so on, even before the reader reads and understands a single word from a passage.

However, I also believe it is not this paper's fault to fail to propose pedagogies and methods that could be immediately applied to teaching.  The basic sciences (maths, chemistry, and physics) came up with the fundamentals of computing, nuclear energy, and genetics many decades before they were applied by industry to make computers, nuclear power plants, and genetically engineered medicines and crops.  Likewise it could take a while in TESOL for action researchers to find out how to apply theoretical frameworks in real teaching practices.

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My initial concern with this research paper is the rationale of integrating reading and listening into one cognitive theory of comprehension. I fail to see how integrating both reading and listening theories can contribute to the English language teaching and learning. Essentially, how can an English teacher make use of this theory of comprehension in his practice?

The paper was eloquent in narrating the importance of reading and listening theories and the insight they give which may contribute to a learner’s comprehension.  However, there is very limited reference on research that attempt to put together a comprehension theory similar to this research paper. I have checked some references in which the researcher claims to be representing both listening and reading skill in the literature review section, only to find out that they refer to just one of the skills (e.g. Cook & O’brien, 2017; Vandergrift & Goh, 2012; Bodie et. al., 2008). The researcher also claims that ‘there is increasing evidence supporting the interdependence of verbal and written message comprehension’ (Aryadoust, 2017, p.3). Yet only a single reference was listed (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). This is in no way criticizing the research, but it has raised questions about the reliability of his deductions.

Overall, the theory proposed is succinct and addresses each component of both receptive skills into four stages: Perception, Recognition, Selection and Integration. But, it seems too simplified. As mentioned in the paper, there is a unique element between listening and reading which is the orthographic system. Listening can be a fleeting process and it does not leave much traces for a language learner to revise. In comparison, reading allows regression to understand what a written text tries to convey. I believe the researcher should have put this element in the schematic representation of his theory because it influences the initial part of comprehension level. In listening skill, people repeat what they think they heard to achieve some sort of comprehension whereas people reread a sentence or paragraph. Does it not deserve to be mentioned in the pre-comprehension processes? I believe it does.

In the discussion part of the paper, it is revealed that the rationale for this integrated cognitive theory of comprehension is to put together a simple theory that explains how we process input and gain comprehension. As we know, our brains are not segmented into specific parts that help to process information for specific mode of input. Clearly, this is true, and it will be extremely helpful for future research in the field of neuroscience as suggested by the researcher. Nevertheless, I stand firm with my initial opinion that this research does not contribute much to English language teaching. Not unless an individual learner is assessed by her comprehension of the language, via mixed-modality input instead of a single modal. In retrospect, it may be useful as the main theory that outline the general ideas of how comprehension can be achieved. For example, this theory can be applied for language research. Otherwise, it remains to be seen whether this integrated cognitive theory of comprehension can directly contribute to language learning as opposed to other skill-specific comprehension theories.

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The Logogen Model is particularly good as including contextual information in recognizing words and is quite successful in explaining word recognition in terms of semantics. However, Whether a spoken prime should facilitate a written word just as much as a visual prime? In visual stimuli, grammatical structures and syntactic rules play an important role, which distinguishes them from auditory stimuli.
The difference between listening and reading in the process of word recognition is also shown in the orthographic system. For instance, in reading comprehension, readers regress to previous sentences to recognize words and activate the relevant phonological and semantic information, while in listening comprehension, the absence of orthography can disadvantage listeners, since word recognition has taken place rapidly. Comprehension is an interconnected cognitive network that enables people to use symbols.
The dual-route model is perhaps a widely studied model for reading comprehension in my teaching practice. It assumes two separate mechanisms for reading: the lexical route and the non-lexical route. The lexical route is most effective with skilled readers who can recognize words that they already know. This is like looking for words in a dictionary. The non-lexical route can decode novel words through the identification of a word’s constituent parts, which can be used to read regular words.This mechanism is effective in teaching students at different levels of English language learning.

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Reflection Week 2 (Brighton / Heng Wen Zhuo)

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Reflection Week 2 (Brighton / Heng Wen Zhuo)

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Today's presentation was eye-opening and I was overwhelmed by the number of models proposed by past researchers to explain the underlying mechanism of reading comprehension.

But in particular, I was fascinated by the construction-integration (CI) model (Kintsch, 1998) which argues that comprehension is akin to a continuously updated network where meaning is first constructed through surface information and then integrated with comprehender's world knowledge to form a coherent representation. It is important to note that this is not a linear process but is constantly modified while reading until a coherent global representation of the text is reached.

During our class discussion, Michael raised the question of whether the underlying reading comprehension could be different between non-fluent and fluent readers. Perhaps automaticity in accurately perceiving, recognising, selecting and integrating is what distinguishes fluent and non-fluent readers. It would be really interesting if we could carry out brainimaging research to compare the reading process of non-fluent and fluent readers.

Another question which Michael raised during the discussion was the applicability of the model in research. As a model which sought to deconstruct the reading process and subsequently reconstruct and present it as a coherent model, the researcher has done a great deal to ensure the comprehensiveness of the model. However, in doing so, it may also have inadvertently rendered it virtually impractical for researchers who tend to adopt a more granular approach in examining the reading process, often by compartmentalising it so that only a handful of specific variables are investigated at a time.

However, the model might have particular utility for pre-service teachers who will likely benefit from a detailed reading comprehension model to inform their teaching practices.

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Reflection (3/11/2022)
Class began with a discussion and brainstorming session. Questions given were pertaining the definition of reading, teaching reading and learning reading. Eddy, Vera, and I discussed mainly our experiences teaching reading in our classrooms. We concluded that reading is basically to extract information from a text. Different readers have different understanding and perceptions of the text. Reading materials are vastly diverse and the focus is to deliver information
On the aspects of teaching and learning reading, we discussed that teaching reading basically deals with basic understanding, critical thinking and extracting information needed. Also, choosing the reading materials is relevant according to the age, understanding capacity and built-in vocabulary access. As for learning reading, it is a very individualized process as different individuals have different capacity of understanding.
Nevertheless, reading is more than a mere cognitive process of coding and decoding. During the discussion I realized that reading is also emotional as readers interact and are associated with their reading text: “We laugh when we read a piece of joke,” said Eddy. A reader indulging in a good novel will keep reading and turning pages to know what happens next. Reading too is a creative process as readers can picture and imagine what they read in their mind. Readers will travel with the time and to the land beyond as in their reading text.
Reading is a structured process in an examination or for academic purpose. However, reading as a hobby or for general knowledge is pleasurable. In a reading process, the reader will decode symbols first before extracting information. Interactions do take place between the reader and the text. We do feel down reading an obituary column, laugh reading a joke or joyful reading a message from a loved one. Nevertheless, reading is a tedious task.

Indra

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The class last night began with discussing some questions about reading. In terms of the definition of reading, it can be a social process, an emotional process, or a learning process based on what people read, why people read, and who are reading. When it comes to creativity, both Afza and I believe that people can create nothing when reading unless they are extremely familiar with the language. For instance, an English poet can never make a Chinese poem after reading an English poem if he knows nothing about Chinese. The question regarding teaching reading is always a hard one to answer. Generally, most of language teachers mentioned about vocabularies, sentence structures, grammar, etc. It seems that there is still no a perfect way to teach, so it is worthy to keep doing related research on it.
It is indeed quite hard to give definitions in academic discussions, because there are no absolutely right or wrong answers. People are unable to see a thing from every aspect. Usually almost everyone gives answers from his or her perspectives, which is based on his or her knowledge and experiences, and that might not be sufficiently objective. For me, there is no absolute truth, and every kind of answers is likely to be one side of the fact or perhaps not related to the fact. That is why we should keep thinking, discussing, questioning, and exploring every answer and make ourselves get closer to the fact. I believe that is the critical thinking mentioned by our professor, and it is also a good starting point for our research.

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reflection on 3 Nov. 2022 (Qiu xiaoting-Jasmine)

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reflection on 3 Nov. 2022 (Qiu xiaoting-Jasmine)

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Reflection 3 November 2022 (Ida Ruhidiba Bakhtiar)

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Reflection 3 November 2022 (Ida Ruhidiba Bakhtiar)

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My reflection on what had been discussed yesterday is the definition of reading is not only confined to the cognitive process but it also extends to the very state of the emotional process. This is especially true when we read novels or other narrative form of reading materials. When we read the stories in the books, we can’t escape from the character’s reality that we had immersed ourselves in. It’s easy to get carried away emotionally through the characters especially when we have allowed ourselves to be emotionally connected through our reading that could trigger either our apathy or sympathy towards the characters.

Having said this, we are left to reflect on the aspect of reading being a creative process. To a certain degree, reading can be a creative process. This is because reading promotes critical thinking in which we develop our personal views and opinions on the issues or events presented in the reading text. When we are able to develop our own point of view, it does not restrict the different perceptions that each of us possess nor does it conform to just one particular thought. By having a distinctive idea it nudges our creativity of individual taste and belief. Thus, making reading a creative process.

Reading, as a skill is indeed a structured process. In order for us to even begin, required steps and processes are necessary to ensure that we are able to identify the gist first. Attempts to make one understands the reading text, calls for one to associate the words to the context. Deciphering the meaning of the writer’s purpose could match that of Sherlock Holmes’ skills in unraveling a mystery since we need to match these so called symbols to their precise meaning to help us comprehend and make sense of what we are reading. If we are unable to decode these symbols, this can lead to the obstruction of the reading process as reading is a structured process where each process is carefully outlined and properly defined.

When we speak of decoding symbol, we are made to acknowledge the other end of the spectrum in that it touches on the extraction of information. Extracting information is different in that when we extract information, it’s merely taking the information from a source whereas decoding the symbols sees us making a match with the pre-conceived information we may have inside our mind with the very symbols we encounter. Since decoding symbols is about associating with what had been acquired by us, it makes more sense as we are able to understand better of what is shared in the reading text. Just by extracting information, we may not know if the information is incomplete or irrelevant to the idea. Moreover, there’s the question of suitability and validity of the information. This extracted information could very well fits the idea like a piece of jigsaw puzzle or it could be a contributing factor to a more puzzling idea.
In conclusion, reading as whole, is indeed a tedious process. It not only focuses on the familiarity of the letters and words but also the sounds, forms and functions as well as the intended tone of the reading materials.

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Reflection 3 Nov 2022 Li Huan Lydia

The discussions inspire me a lot in my perspectives on reading and current professional knowledge, the group discussion provides an opportunity for me to reflect on my classmates’ reflections so that I can internalize pedagogical knowledge and practice. For defining teaching reading, group members inspire me to think about it in a systematic way(pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading), if teaching reading is a structured process, reading is a structured process too, but I think it depends, because many students read the content first and then pick the chapter that they to extract pieces of information, or they scan the chapters and select one or two chapters to read, for these readers, extracting information is more meaningful than decoding symbols, it allows readers to interpret the information within existing frame of knowledge, and by rereading the text, readers have an interaction with materials, which will strengthen the understanding of the material, so it is a fact. However, reading is a continuous process, it is not limited to decoding single words, phrases, and sentences, but also a creative process, the reader transcends time, place, and space in consciousness to conceive the ideas in their heads. It also can be an emotional activity, readers decode information from their existing knowledge, both critical thinking and emotional states derived from reading.

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*Reflection* KKalai
Yesterday’s discussion had helped me to brainstorm and widened my perception of reading. As an English teacher, I always had a fixed mindset that reading is solely a cognitive process and I should ensure my students are able to comprehend the materials. However, the session extracted some unforeseen thoughts that reading indeed can be an emotional process and it can also be viewed as a creative process. This has made me to realize that I had been only focusing the standard comprehension checking practice as mentioned by Brighton and Afza. Perhaps, now I feel that there are lot more involves in teaching reading. Overall, it was a fruitful discussion that given me a new understanding and knowledge of reading, teaching, and learning reading in a meaningful way.

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When attempting to define the conception of “reading”, we naturally took it as “English Reading”. Some regarded it as an understanding process while some hold the view that "coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic."  But if discussed widely without the limitations of language reading/reading class, we made a question “where and when reading begins?”. Whether we defined it as cognitive or emotional process, we are talking about the conception from diversified perspectives. If we probe to the origin of reading, it can be associated with the purpose of reading, which is “delivering/coding information”. It was reported that the oldest book “Dead Sea Scroll” was found between the 2nd and 1st century BC. With books or other readable materials, reading happens. After that, we continue to talk about teaching reading as well as learner’s reading. We read and then think and we "exist".(Descartes, Je pense,donc je suis)

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In Today’s session, loads of topics on reading have been touched upon, ranging from individually conceptualizing what “reading” really is, to the rationale of reading behind and other hidden traits that feature in reading but not necessarily known to us all without proper and in-depth discussion with some of my fellow classmates and friends.

I totally concur with Brighton in that for an extended period of time, I, too, has been regarding reading as skill-based. So, when trying to answer the question about “teaching/learning reading”, it somehow occurred to me that, perhaps, reading, along with a single reading session, has much more to offer than simply honing skills in skimming and scanning, or extracting main ideas: these are by all means of tremendous importance, but other than those aforementioned hard and technical skills, how to then make students be aware of the fact that, far from relying on a shorthand to ace a reading test, reading can be joyful and at ease, at least practically speaking, not all reading after your graduate is attached with a string of gap-fills or MCQs.

In PLG 744 on Monday, Michael presented a paper from Ryan (2022), the main proposition of which centers on “interactive” side of listening in response to the anguish that most L2 listeners confront in most of their listening experience. I was being critical to the paper and lashed out its too-good-to-be-true applicability. However, in reading, which is a far tolerant process, in the sense that repetition is always allowed, and with remarkable density of (usually beyond literal) information, the momentum gained by readers could be by and large from their attitude towards reading: just like Andrea Gillies noted in her White Lie, that reading is remotely passive or quite, sometimes, the way to think the in the shoes of the writers during reading is to “talk” with the writer, albeit one-way conversations. Interaction matters, immersion matters, too, believe or not, this could be somewhere creativeness and emotion kicking in (under-researched though)…most importantly, reading necessitates the construction of a clear, complete, and integrated representation of the meaning, which sole decoding does not going to cut it.

Make the meaning while you read, but it’s never a handy job…but the good news is, there’s an awful lot of interesting stuff out there in reading research area.

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Since my occupation is not a teacher, my previous major is not English, and my teaching experience is very limited, I do not have a lot of profound experience and thoughts on many education-related issues. But through yesterday's discuss, my teammates really gave me a lot of inspiration. For example, when talking about "Interaction between readers and reading materials: Is this a fact, theory or an assumption?" I don't quite understand how to realize the interaction between people and reading materials, but the classmates we discussed together gave me a Good example, he said when you read a piece of joke, you laugh, which shows an interaction between the reader and the text. I understood it immediately after listening to this example

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The definition of reading (upon re-reflection on the first discussion session) does not comprise of only decoding symbols, it is the whole process of extracting as much info that one can gain from a given text to process/construct meaning.  My group came to an agreement that reading is decoding symbol, vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures which is in fact, quite restricted to a certain level of reading ability. In real life, the process of decoding no longer applies to higher level readers (or at least, readers who can sight read). Those who already have the basic recognition skills in reading, are fluent readers who only need to extract information from the text. At this level, there are even readers who can only read phonically without understanding meaning. From this session, I realize that there is a whole spectrum of types of readers and wonder if I may have been a little close-minded as a teacher teaching reading.

While reading can be defined as a cognitive process, it is not limited to it. Truthfully, I also believe that it is just a cognitive process because info needs to be extracted first. During our discussion, Jo (our group member) gave an example of reading love letters which is quite an emotional process. And Prof K talked about reading being a social process. It appears to me that the purpose of reading plays a major role to how one responds to a reading text. Looking back, I could have tweaked a reading exercise to bring in the need to read when planning lessons to enhance learners’ engagement.

There are some issues arising from the discussion that still makes me think about reading. Can we interact with a text? Initially, I strongly believe so because I believe that reading is the other end of a communication line with the writer of the text. But the interaction only occurs between the writer and recipient of the text (one with enough prior knowledge about it). A reader who cannot make sense of the text cannot interact with it. This reasoning explains a little about graded books (levelled books) that focus on young readers. The starting level can be a few words repeatedly use with different pictures so that beginner readers can interact with the words and built on contextual knowledge.

Is reading a creative process? It should be but it may be possible that the room for creativity only opens when meaning (albeit a little bit) comes through. With limited understanding, language learners can use thinking skills to find meaning from the clues in the text. On the other hand, advanced readers use imagination to recreate a storyline or visualize mind maps from different types of text. I think creativity manifests differently and uniquely for individual readers. As a language teacher, I should make full use of this area when approaching a text as it could be an aid in comprehension.

The session has left me with more questions on reading than before. I also hope to continuously build on my understanding in the coming classes.

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REFLECTION (3 NOVEMBER 2022) Emynordiana Jamil

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REFLECTION (3 NOVEMBER 2022) Emynordiana Jamil

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REFLECTION (3 NOV 2022)
Today’s discussion on reading has given me a new understanding that reading is not solely a cognitive process. As an English teacher, I always perceive reading English as an important part of language learning because it helps you to develop other related skills like grammar, vocabulary, and writing. Reading allows language learners to explore topics that they love and stories that engage them. Contrastingly, reading also involves emotional process. In fact, a lot of texts are written for the purpose of eliciting emotional responses. These refer to the ability to understand and sympathize with others’ emotions, cognitions, and motivations, which is crucial to fostering the development of adaptive relational resources (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006).
Can reading be a creative process? For me, yes. I consider reading is a creative process. Some would simply read for pleasure.  Are you becoming creative when you read a book, a novel in particular? You aren't producing anything when you just close the book and put it aside, there is nothing obvious to demonstrate its existence. The concepts you are learning from the book, however, as well as the pictures you are constructing and developing in your imagination, are all unique characteristics that can be included into your daily life. It is an intent-driven process.
But I do agree with Afza.  Reading is a creative process only when meaning comes through. Having limited knowledge and understanding is one of the obstacles. The readers need to find the meaning using the clues or dictionary! In some cases, the teacher might have to provide the meaning in mother tongue.

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Considering a question holistically indeed is required as an Edd candidate. It will not only demonstrate the critical thinking ability but also show our professionalism. Therefore, I believe that I will pay more attention to that in the future. Except that, I also realized that discussion among peers can help me a lot. Sometimes, I could not get a fuller picture regarding the question. But after discussing with friends, I could get a better understanding.