Revisiting Intermediate-high Cold Reading Curriculum on Design and Practice

Abstract

The phrase “cold reading” originates from marketing psychology, but for teaching Chinese as a second language, it refers to one of many strategies in the reading curriculum. Schema theory tells us those good readers are adept at comprehending interactions between bottom-up and top-down processes (Rumelhart, 1980). According to Liu Songhao et al. (2015), there is a close correlation between reading level and teaching strategy. Research on reading education for Chinese as a second language has largely focused on how educators should teach, but little discussion can be found with regards to how a student engages with reading material. Although the breadth of Chinese vocabulary likely differs from English, it remains clear that non-native readers are limited by their language level and must strive harder to develop the skill and psychological ability to adapt to challenges. In cold reading courses, the student becomes the lead actor, while the teacher adopts a supportive role.BR ICLP(NTU) started up the cold reading curriculum in 2016 for a new trial. However, as opposed to “hot reading”, unlike courses designed for common reading, classes dedicated to cold reading lack translations or vocabulary lists. Students are only provided texts in class, most of which come from authentic first-hand sources. The goal is to help students escape their psychological reliance on the classroom and to develop the ability to approach material they might encounter in daily life. Since students cannot prepare for cold reading courses in advance and lack supplemental material while in class, it better reflects real-life circumstances and forces students to draw upon their foundation of linguistic and background knowledge to guess or infer meaning.BR Through this method, students are expected to build a preliminary cognitive model of the text, which is then analyzed level-by-level in tandem with the teacher’s instruction to either confirm or adjust the student’s mental connotations, eventually resulting in comprehension. The support of the teacher’s knowledge and the initiation of the student’s metacognitive processes also play important roles. A few appropriate tests after an independent skimming reading can evaluate a learner’s level of comprehension and can help clarify problem areas. At the same time, students can also improve their listening, speaking and writing abilities through class discussion and homework assignments. After-class review and making their own vocabulary list can further solidify learning gains and become the knowledge foundation for the next cold reading assignment (Chen Hsiangyu, 2017).BR Base on the discussion of cold reading theory, curriculum design, and practice, this article aims at examining 1) Reading and cognitive theory, 2) Theories on teaching and learning Chinese reading for non-native students, 3) Approaches to the cold reading curriculum, 4) Limitations of and reflections on cold reading courses, and 5) Aspects of further research.