Theory Of Reading Research Articles

Pre-9/11 Islamophobia: A Contrapuntal Reading of Don DeLillo’s Falling Man

Don DeLillo’s Falling Man reproduces the same Orientalist mantra of the Muslim terrorist. Although he is much celebrated for writing thrilling terrorism and assassination novels long before the 9/11 event, many critics situated his Falling Man within the 9/11 neo-Orientalist framework. This study argues that the 9/11 occurrence (while acknowledging its significance) is not the only trigger behind DeLillo’s representation of Muslims in his novel. As such, the study underscores DeLillo’s ideological inclinations by examining his records and the contextual circumstances that transpired before 9/11. By rereading Falling Man, this study situates the investigation within three parameters: the Iranian Revolution, the Rushdie affair and the Clash of Civilisations thesis, thus appropriating the novel within its Islamophobic implicature. Edward Said’s theory of contrapuntal reading, which urges a nonconventional reading of a canonical text, is employed as the theoretical underpinning of this study.

The role of perceptual and word identification spans in reading efficiency: Evidence from hearing and deaf readers.

Theories of reading posit that decisions about "where" and "when" to move the eyes are driven by visual and linguistic factors, extracted from the perceptual span and word identification span, respectively. We tested this hypothesized dissociation by masking, outside of a visible window, either the spaces between the words (to assess the perceptual span, Experiment 1) or the letters within the words (to assess the word identification span, Experiment 2). We also investigated whether deaf readers' previously reported larger reading span was specifically linked to one of these spans. We analyzed reading rate to test overall reading efficiency, as well as average saccade length to test "where" decisions and average fixation duration to test "when" decisions. Both hearing and deaf readers' perceptual spans extended between 10 and 14 characters, and their word identification spans extended to eight characters to the right of fixation. Despite similar sized rightward spans, deaf readers read more efficiently overall and showed a larger increase in reading rate when leftward text was available, suggesting they attend more to leftward information. Neither rightward span was specifically related to where or when decisions for either group. Our results challenge the assumed dissociation between type of reading span and type of saccade decision and indicate that reading efficiency requires access to both perceptual and linguistic information in the parafovea. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Language models outperform cloze predictability in a cognitive model of reading.

Although word predictability is commonly considered an important factor in reading, sophisticated accounts of predictability in theories of reading are lacking. Computational models of reading traditionally use cloze norming as a proxy of word predictability, but what cloze norms precisely capture remains unclear. This study investigates whether large language models (LLMs) can fill this gap. Contextual predictions are implemented via a novel parallel-graded mechanism, where all predicted words at a given position are pre-activated as a function of contextual certainty, which varies dynamically as text processing unfolds. Through reading simulations with OB1-reader, a cognitive model of word recognition and eye-movement control in reading, we compare the model's fit to eye-movement data when using predictability values derived from a cloze task against those derived from LLMs (GPT-2 and LLaMA). Root Mean Square Error between simulated and human eye movements indicates that LLM predictability provides a better fit than cloze. This is the first study to use LLMs to augment a cognitive model of reading with higher-order language processing while proposing a mechanism on the interplay between word predictability and eye movements.

An Examination of Etho-Poetic Reading Scenes in the Works of Jorge Luis Borges and Pascal Quignard

This paper examines reading scenes in the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Pascal Quignard with the objective of studying the thematization and presentation of the etho-poetic aspects of reading in contemporary literature. An introductory chapter presents an overview of recent reading theories and the concept of the ‘reading scene’, which originated in writing studies (Campe, Barthes, Stingelin et al.) as well as the notion of ‘etho-poetics’ (Barthes, Foucault). Thereafter, the analysis turn to two works by Jorge Luis Borges, <i>La biblioteca de Babel</i> and <i>El libro de arena,</i> and then to Pascal Quignard’s <i>Lectio</i> and his novella <i>Le lecteur</i>. The objective of this paper is to define the different ways in which reading and life are intertwined, examining this relationship at three distinct levels: Firstly, at the level of creating literature out of reading, which represents a crucial element of the poetics of both Borges and Quignard. As will be demonstrated, both authors make extensive reference to Proust’s <i>Sur la lecture</i>. Secondly, the relationship between reading experiences and life will be examined in the context of the diegetic world. Thirdly, at the level of the reception, metalepsis functions as a means of inciting the concrete reader to consider reading from an etho-poetic perspective. In addition to these parallels, it can be assumed that in the texts of Borges, the transformative potential of the reading act is depicted as commensurate with the social life of the readers. In contrast, Quignard’s work illustrates the etho-poetic dimension of reading as an asocial practice, dissociating the reader from the social context.

Critical Posthumanist Literacy: Building Theory for Reading, Writing, and Living Ethically with Everyday Artificial Intelligence

AbstractLiteracy has become inextricably bound with machine processes, especially in the age of ubiquitous, consequential artificial intelligence (AI). Despite a relatively long history of AI involvement in our everyday reading and writing practices, the public availability of generative AI tools has set off a wave of heated debate—and concern—about AI's role in our lives. We argue that critical literacy theory and tools can serve as a foundation, when combined with posthumanist ideas and some technical knowledge, for understanding, teaching, and participating in our AI‐infused world. In this paper, we outline our theory of critical posthumanist literacy, which draws on posthumanist scholarship to re‐imagine critical literacy with respect to concepts of ontology, agency, ethics and justice, and pedagogy. For each concept, we build on humanist, critical perspectives to show how posthumanist scholarship can help theorize for literacy in the age of AI, especially as AI presents both lingering and new challenges to conceptions of human text production and consumption. Posthumanism provides us with alternative modes of thinking about the nature of “things” (and ourselves); with an understanding of agency as not a human possession but an accomplishment among/within many human and non‐human actors; with an expanded ethics that accounts more deeply for non‐humans; and with pedagogy that embraces ambiguity, movement, and speculation. Using these ideas to expand critical literacy practices, we offer concepts and questions for guiding literacy practice and research, with the understanding that these are no longer separable from complex computational systems.

The unique contribution of reading motivation to reading comprehension increases from Grades 2 to 4 in Chinese children

BackgroundTo better understand the intricate science of reading development, both cognitive and affective factors must be taken into consideration. This developmental study aims to enrich the literature by exploring how reading motivation – an affective factor – contributes to reading comprehension in Chinese elementary schoolers, beyond well‐accepted cognitive‐based reading skills, such as decoding and vocabulary.MethodsWe used a cross‐sectional design with 420 native Mandarin‐Chinese‐speaking students (Grade 2: N = 95; Grade 3: N = 216; Grade 4: N = 109), with age‐appropriate materials to measure their decoding skills, vocabulary knowledge, reading motivation, and reading comprehension. Three sets of hierarchical regression analyses were run for the three grade samples to examine the unique contributions of reading motivation to reading comprehension while controlling children's demographic profiles, such as age and gender, and two cognitive‐based reading skills.ResultsWe replicated previous findings: children's decoding and vocabulary are robust predictors of reading achievement across Grades 2 to 4. Importantly, reading motivation contributed uniquely to reading comprehension in all three grades and explained an increasing amount of the variances in reading comprehension from Grades 2 to 4. Intrinsic reading motivation was critical in Grade 3, while extrinsic reading motivation became important in Grade 4.ConclusionsTaken together, our findings reveal the complexity of reading development and advance the existing cognitive‐based reading theories by including affective dimensions.

Stefan Zabierowski – Conrad Researcher

The study is an attempt to discuss and summarize the multidirectional and multifaceted Conradist achievements of Stefan Zabierowski. I carefully try to present the scholar’s work on many planes so as to reveal his precursorship, which is not always visible at first glance. It is Zabierowski who creates the entire background of reading and reception research in Conrad studies, starting from the monograph from 1971, entitled Conrad w Polsce. Wybrane problemy recepcji krytycznej w latach 1896-1969 [Conrad in Poland. Selected problems of critical reception in the years 1896-1969] up to Dziedzictwo Conrada w literaturze polskiej XX wieku [Conrad’s Legacy in Polish literature of the 20th century] from 1992. From the perspective of interpretive research, Zabierowski-the researcher represents the exegetical school, devoting most of his attention to one work, the analysis of which has been deepened over the years, also using modern reading theories (Umberto Eco’s concept of the open work) – Lord Jim. In the discussion on the so-called Joseph Conrad’s Polish, as well as borderland background, Zabierowski proposes a competitive metaphor to the one comparing Conrad’s writing to the cathedral in Kamieniec Podolski by Paweł Hostowiec (Jerzy Stempowski) – Conrad’s literature is the Slutsk Belt of competing currents, motifs and poetics and as such, it requires original intertextual reflection. Zabierowski initiates it by comparing the Gould marriage from Nostromo with the Niechcic marriage from Maria Dąbrowska’s Nights and Days.

The Authority and Domination of Kyai in Forming Religious Discourse and Practice in Islamic Boarding Schools

This article discusses the authority of the kiai and its dominance in an effort to construct religious discourse and practice in a pesantren. In the reasoning construction of pesantren, kyai is the single figure of the highest authority. On the other side, pesantren is a homogeneous educational institution that allows students (santri) from various socio-religious backgrounds to study religion in one place. The diversity of the background of the santri is very likely to be ignored by the kiai as the holder of the highest religious authority and effect to the practice of domination. In this case, the author conducted a study at the LSQ ar-Rohmah Islamic Boarding School, Bantul, Yogyakarta. This research is a qualitative research using two reading theories, Max Weber's theory of authority and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of dominance. The results of this study indicate that the kiai as the highest authority holder reflects at least two models of authority at once, charismatic authority because of his scientific capacity and traditional authority inherited from his predecessors. As the holder of authority and strengthened by the accumulation of economic capital, culture and symbols, the kiai has full power in formulating, determining and directing religious discourses and practices that take place in pesantren. Meanwhile, santri as a dominated group are only able to practice religious discourses and practices as part of the pesantren curriculum.

Wynter's Time

Abstract: Taking the resurgence of critical interest in Sylvia Wynter within contemporary Black cultural theory as its starting point, this essay has two aims: to examine more closely how Wynter has been received recently within Black studies, and to then historicize that critical reception by thinking about how it relates to earlier work (the 1960s–1980s) when Wynter was beginning to develop her own protocols for a critical decolonial and aesthetic theory. Wynter's work on temporality, the cognitive subject, and theories of reading will be the main concern. Although the essay's primary archive is the long arc of Wynter's work and how those interventions have affected some recent turns within Black cultural theory, the piece will also aim to examine more closely the effects of Wynter's interventions through reviewing a number of recent monographs within the theoretical humanities (David Marriott's Whither Fanon?: Studies in the Blackness of Being , Tavia Nyong'o's Afro-Fabulations: The Queer Drama of Black Life , Catherine Malabou's Before Tomorrow: Epigenesis and Rationality , and Katherine McKittrick's Dear Science: and other Stories ) that, when read together, help to describe more clearly the contemporary epistemic atmosphere within which so many new and pathfinding readings of Wynter have been taking place.

Multilinguals’ Iserian Reading of the Marilyn Monroe Poem by Judy Grahn

This study examines Judy Grahn (1940- )’s poem “Marilyn Monroe” through the lens of the Iserian reading theory (1972), using two multilingual perspectives. The results indicate that instructors should pay close attention to the gap-filling stage when implementing the Iserian reading stages in their literature classes. While the paper includes two responses from the author and co-author, representing multilingual students, it highlights the significance of the implied reader’s background knowledge in navigating the various identities that arise during the reading process. A future article will delve into students’ responses to the Marilyn Monroe poem in detail and will be published in the upcoming volumes.

Pathways to digital reading literacy among secondary school students: A multilevel analysis using data from 31 economies

In our technology-driven society, digital reading literacy has emerged as a valuable skill as people increasingly read on digital devices rather than from print sources. Using an internationally representative sample (N = 211,899) across 31 economies, this study employed the opportunity-propensity framework to comprehensively investigate the role and relative contribution of opportunity, propensity, and antecedent factors in adolescent students' digital reading literacy. Hierarchical linear modeling and dominance analysis were performed. The results showed that although all three groups of factors contributed to adolescents' digital reading performance, the relative contribution of these factors differed. Propensity factors made the greatest contribution to digital reading performance, most notably metacognitive reading strategies and reading self-concept. While opportunity and antecedent factors such as schools’ support in ICT resources and socioeconomic background also played a role, their contributions were relatively limited. These findings have significant implications for advancing current theories of digital reading and for guiding digital reading instruction in secondary education.

Toward a Multilingual Perspective on Reading: Aligning Emergent Bilinguals' Resources with Theories of Reading and Implications for Instruction

AbstractThis article puts forth a multilingual perspective on reading to counter the prevailing monolingualism that dominates reading instruction. First, it brings theories together to develop a cohesive understanding of teaching reading with emergent bilinguals at the center. Second, it illuminates ways educators can design reading instruction, which is responsive to and normalizes emergent bilinguals' resources. In taking up a multilingual perspective of reading, educators have a challenge and opportunity to engage in intellectual and practical work to ensure emergent bilinguals' strengths are at the center of reading instruction.

Feeling for Augustine

This essay promotes affective engagement with the texts we read, arguing that we should attend both to recognizing emotion within the texts and to allowing ourselves to feel emotion as we read. The essay thus aligns itself with contemporary theories of non-hermeneutic or surface reading. The argument is illustrated specifically by the relationship of Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE) to the emotion of anger. The transcripts of the Council of Carthage, held in 411, show an eruption of anger on Augustine’s part. The essay then traces his thinking on anger through various texts, notably the City of God, the Augustinian Rule, and the personal letters to Nebridius. Using the reflections on anger of the contemporary philosopher Agnes Callard, I argue that Augustine saw anger as a unique type of moral problem, something that, once experienced, was ineradicable and distorted a sense of justice and order. It is only through an emotionally engaged reading that such a position is perceptible.

Reading in the Education Sciences System (About New Scientific Publications in the Field of General Theory of Reading)

Reading in the Education Sciences System (About New Scientific Publications in the Field of General Theory of Reading)

Dialogue In The Poetry Of Ibn Muqbil (A Reading Of The Aesthetics Of The Text)/ الحوار في شعر ابن مقبل (قراءة في جماليات النص)

The dialogue represents an essential part of the aesthetics of the literary text, with the aesthetic interaction and multiplicity of voices within the text that it achieves. It helps to reveal the features of the creator's personality and its psychological tendencies. Through his conversation, the creator may look to show the characters who surrounded him, which may have affected his creative process. It psychologically impacted the creator and created an essential influence on the recipient. The method research is the theory of reading and reception and the mechanisms of the German theorist (Wolfgang Iser) in revealing the aesthetic effect of the creative artistic and poetic techniques that the text carries. The most important result of the research is that there is much dialogue in Ibn Muqbil's poetry, employing him to express psychological impulses such as grief, illness, and love toward the beloved woman or to complain about her. Dialogue contributed to the aesthetic of influence through artistic techniques that exposed creative poetics and the susceptibility of ancient texts to permanence, life, and harmony with theories of modernity (such as reading and receiving theory).

Modelo predictivo en comprensión de lectura impresa y digital en estudiantes universitarios

Introduction: Reading comprehension (CL) is complex and in its process, faculties related to perception, motivation, attention, and interpretation are involved. Our goal was to design a predictive model in understanding printed and digital reading, based on the Theory of the six readings, in students from the universities of Manizales, Colombia and Kharkiv, Ukraine. Methods: During a period of 6 weeks, 70 students participated: Colombians (n=40) and Ukrainians (n=30), in which intervention was generated with the "six reading theory" course together with cognitive evaluation with the MoCA Test (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) instrument. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics for categorical and numerical variables, multivariate analysis and prediction by multinomial regression techniques. Results: The intervention group that received training in the Theory of Six Readings generated better overall results in reading comprehension, a situation that correlated with the predictive model (r2=0.67; global classification index = 0.76). Conclusion: Implementing a print and digital reading program based on the theory of the six readings can allow the optimization of reading proficiency in public and private universities.

Effects of working memory and visual search skill on Chinese reading comprehension: examining the simple view of reading

AbstractTo investigate the longitudinal effects of two domain-general cognitive abilities, namely verbal working memory and visual search skill, on Chinese reading comprehension. To evaluate whether decoding and linguistic comprehension mediate such effects. A total of 202 first-grade Chinese-speaking children from mainland China (Mage = 86 months, SD = 4.9 months; 126 boys) completed tasks that measured verbal working memory, visual search, expressive vocabulary, morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition, and word reading fluency. One year later, they completed a passage comprehension task and a nonverbal intelligence test. Structural equation modeling was conducted with decoding and linguistic comprehension being included as latent variables and mediating factors explaining the effects of working memory and visual search. The children with better verbal working memory and visual search skill exhibited better reading comprehension performance. The effect of working memory on reading comprehension was fully mediated by linguistic comprehension (captured by vocabulary and morphological awareness) but not decoding (measured by word reading accuracy and fluency). However, decoding fully mediated the impact of visual search skill. Our findings suggest that the reading comprehension ability of beginning Chinese readers is associated with verbal working memory and visual search ability. These general cognitive abilities influence reading comprehension through distinct pathways. In line with the simple view of reading theory, decoding and linguistic comprehension skills explain such impacts. This research underlines the value of simultaneously examining general cognitive abilities and exploring their interconnectedness with linguistic skills in the context of reading comprehension.

The Role of Verbal Fluency as a Variable in Reading and Comprehension Skills in Bengali.

The study explored the role of verbal fluency in determining reading and comprehension skills in Bengali among 10-year old typically developing Bengali children. Robust correlations were found between semantic fluency and word reading (0.63) as well as semantic fluency and comprehension (0.70). Good correlation was found between letter fluency and comprehension (0.49), and, word reading and comprehension (0.62). The findings suggest that good word storing capacity and executive functions led to enhanced automaticity of retrieval and verbal fluency, which together with improved orthographic and phonological processing led to good word reading scores, contributing to lesser cognitive load thereby easing out the complex text comprehension task. Transcending narrow empirical base of reading theories derived from Western writing typologies delimited to orthographic depth and psycholinguistic grain size, the study contends that verbal fluency is another interesting variable determining the reading and comprehension skills in Bengali along with visuo-spatial complexity and complex phonology-orthography inconsistencies.

READING AND WRITING STRATEGIES

The present work has as objectives: to know several teaching strategies referring to the theory and practice of reading and writing in the classroom, as well as researching books, several subjects that address the theme of reading and writing, studying subjects focused on the practice of reading in the classroom and researching scientific papers on subjects related to the various existing strategies to develop writing. To carry out the present work, it was necessary to use bibliographic and qualitative research as methodological support, and the bibliographic research was explored through diverse bibliographic sources such as: books, scientific articles and monographs. Such research generated unquestionable and solid learning, as there was a dialogue with several authors who study and approach the theme of reading and writing strategy, and through this dialogue, learning came to flow in a direct way. Through the study and bibliographic research it is possible to verify and know several ways to explore writing and reading in the classroom, so that the student can develop his reading practice or improve it. It was also possible to know that the teacher should encourage his student to practice reading and writing through techniques and strategies applied inside and outside the classroom.

The Application of the Whole-Book Reading Theory in the Unified Textbook “Happy Reading Bar”

The Application of the Whole-Book Reading Theory in the Unified Textbook “Happy Reading Bar”