whole, something which Matthews (1989: 357) describes as a sort of processing
myopia. Finally, as in real life each text requires a different kind of exploitation
according to its type, Dubin and Olshtain (1986: 94) claim that successful readers are
the ones who know what to expect from a particular text-type. This requires the
activation of the background knowledge a reader possesses which, according to
Williams and Moran (1989: 219) is organized in ‘…abstract structures representing
concepts stored in memory’ known as ‘schemata’(top-down processing). However,
this cannot be achieved if students rely exclusively on the information contained in
the text, what Carrell (1988) refers to as ‘the meaning is in the text’ (bottom-up
processing).
I provide students with the translation of every
new word they come across in texts
Never
3%
Rarely
8%
Always
16%
Sometimes
22%
Usually
51%
Figure 14. The frequency to which respondents translate all new words students meet in texts
Reading texts aloud is another favourite classroom activity, as it is shown in
figure 15 below (see appendix IV, p. 125, table 62). However, as Greenwood (1981:
82-83) stresses, reading is not only a visual task but also a cognitive one, which
involves the interpreting of visual information, ‘…so that one is not simply ‘barking
at print’ ’. Reading texts aloud without a clear communicative purpose for doing so is
an activity which does not simulate authentic situations and which becomes
demotivating for students who have to wait patiently for their turn to come. In
addition, as it is time-consuming, it limits the students’ talking time to the minimum.
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