Theories of reading Just like teaching methodology, reading theories have had their shifts and transitions.

Starting from the traditional view which focused on the printed form of a text and moving to the cognitive view that enhanced the role of background knowledge in addition to what appeared on the printed page, they ultimately culminated in the metacognitive view which is now in vogue. It is based on the control and manipulation that a reader can have on the act of comprehending a text. The traditional view According to ole et al. !"##"$, in the traditional view of reading, novice readers ac%uire a set of hierarchically ordered sub&skills that se%uentially build toward comprehension ability. 'aving mastered these skills, readers are viewed as experts who comprehend what they read. (eaders are passive recipients of information in the text. )eaning resides in the text and the reader has to reproduce meaning. According to *unan !"##"$, reading in this view is basically a matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural e%uivalents in the %uest for making sense of the text. 'e referred to this process as the +bottom-up+ view of reading. )c,arthy !"###$ has called this view +outside-in+ processing, referring to the idea that meaning exists in the printed page and is interpreted by the reader then taken in. This model of reading has almost always been under attack as being insufficient and defective for the main reason that it relies on the formal features of the language, mainly words and structure.

Although it is possible to accept this re-ection for the fact that there is over&reliance on structure in this view, it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension to take place. To counteract over&reliance on form in the traditional view of reading, the cognitive view was introduced. The cognitive view The 'top-down' model is in direct opposition to the 'bottom-up' model. According to *unan !"##"$ and ubin and .ycina !"##"$, the psycholinguistic model of reading and the top&down model are in exact concordance. /oodman !"#012 cited in 3aran, "##0$ presented reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game, a process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or re-ect them, make new hypotheses, and so forth. 'ere, the reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process. The schema theory of reading also fits within the cognitively based view of reading. (umelhart !"#11$ has described schemata as "building blocks of cognition" which are used in the process of interpreting sensory data, in retrieving information from memory, in organising goals and subgoals, in allocating resources, and in guiding the flow of the processing system. (umelhart !"#11$ has also stated that if our schemata are incomplete and do not provide an understanding of the incoming data from the text we will have problems processing and understanding the text.

,ognitively based views of reading comprehension emphasi4e the interactive nature of reading and the constructive nature of comprehension. ole et al. !"##"$ have stated that, besides knowledge brought to bear on the reading process, a set of flexible, adaptable strategies are used to make sense of a text and to monitor ongoing understanding.

The metacognitive view According to .lock !"##5$, there is now no more debate on "whether reading is a bottom-up, languagebased process or a top-down, knowledge-based process." It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge on both 6" and 65 readers. (esearch has gone even further to define the control readers execute on their ability to understand a text. This control, .lock !"##5$ has referred to as metacognition. )etacognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. 7lein et al. !"##"$ stated that strategic readers attempt the following while reading8 Identifying the purpose of the reading before reading Identifying the form or type of the text before reading Thinking about the general character and features of the form or type of the text. 9or instance, they try to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details toward a conclusion 3ro-ecting the author+s purpose for writing the text !while reading it$, ,hoosing, scanning, or reading in detail )aking continuous predictions about what will occur next, based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous stages.

)oreover, they attempt to form a summary of what was read. ,arrying out the previous steps re%uires the reader to be able to classify, se%uence, establish whole&part relationships, compare and contrast, determine cause&effect, summarise, hypothesise and predict, infer, and conclude. In the next part of this article I will look at the guidelines which can also be used as general ideas to aid students in reading and comprehending materials. These tips can be viewed in three consecutive stages8 before reading, during reading, and after reading. 9or instance, before starting to read a text it is natural to think of the purpose of reading the text. As an example of the during&reading techni%ues, re&reading for better comprehension can be mentioned. And filling out forms and charts can be referred to as an after& reading activity. These tasks and ideas can be used to enhance reading comprehension.

Text characteristics /ood readers expect to understand what they are reading. Therefore, texts should contain words and grammatical structures familiar to the learners !:an u4er, "###$. In texts where vocabulary is not familiar, teachers can introduce key vocabulary in pre&reading activities that focus on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words !'ood et al., "##02 cited in :an u4er, "###$. The topics of texts chosen should be in accordance with the age range, interests, sex, and background culture of the students for whom they are intended. 3re&reading activities that introduce the text should encourage learners to use their background knowledge !;skey, "##12 cited in :an u4er, "###$. ,lass members can brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know. Pre-reading tips .efore the actual act of reading a text begins, some points should be regarded in order to make the process of reading more comprehensible. It is necessary to provide the necessary background information to the reader to facilitate comprehension. In addition, as stated by 6ebauer !"##<$, pre&reading activities can lighten students+ cognitive burden while reading because prior discussions will have been incorporated.

Teacher&directed pre&reading !;stes, "###$ Some key vocabulary and ideas in the text are explained. In this approach the teacher directly explains the information the students will need, including key concepts, important vocabulary, and appropriate conceptual framework. Interactive approach !;stes, "###$ In this method, the teacher leads a discussion in which he=she draws out the information students already have and inter-ects additional information deemed necessary to an understanding of the text to be read. )oreover, the teacher can make explicit links between prior knowledge and important information in the text. 3urpose of reading It is also necessary for students to become aware of the purpose and goal for reading a certain piece of written material. At the beginning stages this can be done by the teacher, but as the reader becomes more mature this purpose, i.e. awareness&raising strategy, can be left to the readers. 9or instance, the students may be guided to ask themselves, "Why am I reading this text? What do I want to know or do after reading?" >ne of the most obvious, but unnoticed, points related to reading purpose is the consideration of the different types of reading skills. o Skimming8 (eading rapidly for the main points o Scanning8 (eading rapidly to find a specific piece of information o Extensive reading8 (eading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning o Intensive reading8 (eading a short text for detailed information The most fre%uently encountered reason as to why the four skills are all subsumed into one ? intensive reading ? is that students studying a foreign language feel the urge to look up every word they don+t understand and to pinpoint on every structural point they see unfamiliar. To make students aware of the different types of reading, ask them about the types of reading they do in their first language. The type of text The reader must become familiar with the fact that texts may take on different forms and hold certain pieces of information in different places. Thus, it is necessary to understand the layout of the material being read in order to focus more deeply on the parts that are more densely compacted with information. ;ven paying attention to the year of publication of a text, if applicable, may aid the reader in presuppositions about the text as can glancing at the name of the author.

Steinhofer !"##0$ stated that the tips mentioned in pre&reading will not take a very long time to carry out. The purpose is to overcome the common urge to start reading a text closely right away from the beginning. During-reading tips @hat follows are tips that encourage active reading. They consist of summari4ing, reacting, %uestioning, arguing, evaluating, and placing a text within one+s own experience. These processes may be the most complex to develop in a classroom setting, the reason being that in ;nglish reading classes most attention is often paid to dictionaries, the text, and the teacher. Interrupting this routine and encouraging students to dialogue with what they are reading without coming between them and the text presents a challenge to the ;96 teacher. uke and 3earson !5AA"$ have stated that good readers are active readers. According to Br !"##0$, :ae4i !5AA"$, and 9it4gerald !"##C$, they use the following strategies.

)aking predictions8 The readers should be taught to be on the watch to predict what is going to happen next in the text to be able to integrate and combine what has come with what is to come. )aking selections8 (eaders who are more proficient read selectively, continually making decisions about their reading. Integrating prior knowledge8 The schemata that have been activated in the pre&reading section should be called upon to facilitate comprehension. Skipping insignificant parts8 A good reader will concentrate on significant pieces of information while skipping insignificant pieces. (e&reading8 (eaders should be encouraged to become sensitive to the effect of reading on their comprehension. )aking use of context or guessing8 (eaders should not be encouraged to define and understand every single unknown word in a text. Instead they should learn to make use of context to guess the meaning of unknown words. .reaking words into their component parts8 To keep the process of comprehension ongoing, efficient readers break words into their affixes or bases. These parts can help readers guess the meaning of a word. (eading in chunks8 To ensure reading speed, readers should get used to reading groups of words together. This act will also enhance comprehension by focusing on groups of meaning&conveying symbols simultaneously. 3ausing8 /ood readers will pause at certain places while reading a text to absorb and internali4e the material being read and sort out information. 3araphrasing8 @hile reading texts it may be necessary to paraphrase and interpret texts subvocally in order to verify what was comprehended. )onitoring8 /ood readers monitor their understanding to evaluate whether the text, or the reading of it, is meeting their goals.

After-reading tips It is necessary to state that post&reading activities almost always depend on the purpose of reading and the type of information extracted from the text. .arnett !"#<<$ has stated that post&reading exercises first check students+ comprehension and then lead students to a deeper analysis of the text. In the real world the purpose of reading is not to memori4e an author+s point of view or to summari4e text content, but rather to see into another mind, or to mesh new information into what one already knows. /roup discussion will help students focus on information they did not comprehend, or did comprehend correctly. Accordingly, attention will be focused on processes that lead to comprehension or miscomprehension. /enerally speaking, post&reading can take the form of various activities as presented below8 iscussing the text8 @ritten=>ral Summari4ing8 @ritten=>ral )aking %uestions8 @ritten=>ral

Answering %uestions8 @ritten=>ral 9illing in forms and charts @riting reading logs ,ompleting a text 6istening to or reading other related materials (ole&playing