Historical and Theoretical Perspectives on Teaching Reading

Running Head : Teaching Reading

Historical and Theoretical perspectives on Teaching Reading

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Abstract

Reading can be referred to as an interactive process that occurs between the reader and the text , and usually results in comprehension where the text comprises of words , letters or sentences that give a certain meaning . When reading , the reader utilizes the skills knowledge and strategies in to understand the meaning of the text In the traditional understanding , the purpose of learning how to read was that one required the access

to the necessary literature . Studying a language 's vocabulary , grammar and the structure of the sentences was seen as important even if actual reading was not done . However , since the 1980s , different theoretical perspectives on teaching reading have been proposed (Aukerman , R .C . 1984 . The perspectives have provided the education institution with major themes , issues , and influences which have had an impact on the classroom instruction . In this , the different perspectives to teaching reading will be looked at , together with their themes and influences on classroom instruction

Discussion

In the past two decades , the amount and quality of literature that is published and used in the classroom has expanded greatly . One perspective of teaching Reading that has been used in learning is the Communicative Approach . Communicative Approach has been very instrumental in providing a new understanding of the role of classroom reading in comparison with the previous understanding . In this approach class instructors are able to clearly understand how important classroom reading is , in relation to language classroom as well as the type of text that is used in the instruction . The approach shows the goal of classroom instruction as being communicative competence and the impact of this kind of approach or perspective is that any literature material such as training schedules , journals , newss and web sites is viewed as being very vital and appropriate as classroom materials . This is because reading all the materials guarantee the learners an opportunity to develop the communicative competence . Therefore , teaching is able to integrate reading as a very essential part of developing communicative competence (Carrell .P et al .1988

Another perspective is based on the purpose of reading and the reading comprehension . For example , different people will buy and read a news article for different purposes or a person reads different books of different s depending on how reading the text will be important to them . Therefore , the perspective looks at reading as a process that is greatly motivated by the purpose of reading and comprehension . A student who wants to understand all issues that relate to a certain happening or a phenomenon will require knowing the vocabulary used in that field in to understand facts and ideas through reading . The purpose one has for reading a particular text plus the type of text being read usually dictate the skills and specific knowledge that a given reader will need to use for him or her to achieve comprehension

The whole-language approach in teaching...