Cultural components of reading an examination of psycholinguistic processes in reading and implications for the bilingual classroom

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Cultural Components of Reading

An examination of psycholinguistic processes in reading and implications for the bilingual classroom G.C ELIAS & D.E INGRAM NGỮ - ĐHOGHN ỌC LIỆU wef, os) ~ 2.4, 53 | SỈ Sel ~ S32) 8 sy 2 | SE = me

Published by Singapore University Press for SEAMEO Regional Language Centre

Singapore

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I: INTRODUCTION

2: MODEL OF THE WORLD

A THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING

B LANGUAGE, CULTURE, & COGNITIVE SOCIALIZATION

Language and Thought Language and Culture

Patterns of Thought Development

Summary of Parts A and B C BILINGUALISM

One or Two Models of the World?

Effects of Time of Introduction of the L2 Summary 3: THE READING PROCESS Model Reading Begins with Meaning Graphological Level Attention in the Reading Process Summary

4: READING AND BILINGUALISM

Model of the World and Alternatives of Meaning Perceptual Constraints

5: SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS Language of Initial Reading

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Elias and Ingram have, in this slim volume, provided a text which should make a significant contribution to teachers concerned with

helping children master the process of reading, particularly in a

situation where bilingualism is involved

The authors’ emphasis throughout is on reading as a cognitive process involving the abstraction of meaning The cognitive processes are explored first in relation to the individual’s interpretation of his environment; he can interpret his environment only through the

cognitive structures already available to him In the authors’ term, he brings to the situation some internalized representation of external reality, or a ‘model of the world’ The meaning he extracts then from a

situation is dependent on his model of the world

Communication between two people requires not only that they

speak the same language but that there be some degree of correspondence between their models of the world Only in this way can shared

meaning prevail This is true not only for oral communication but also

for communication between writer and reader

The model of the world the child develops is influenced by the

cultural patterns and values he experiences and by the language that he

learns

The authors explore an issue of bilingualism of central impor-

tance to education: does the bilingual individual have one or two models of the world? They conclude that there is a variable degree of overlap between the two models The degree of overlap is determined partly by the compatibility of the languages involved and partly by the degree of the match between his cognitive development and his level of development in each language The discussion in this section of the book should help the reader to understand in some depth the situation of the child who attempts to meet the challenge of acquiring literacy in a-second language

Their theoretical orientation leads the authors to a view of the nature of reading as a process in which the individual is active as he

seeks to extract meaning from the visual configurations before him

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viii CULTURAL COMPONENTS OF READING

meaning’ of the visual configuration The need for this relationship or

compatibility is critical in the case of the bilingual reader For such a

child, the content must be appropriate to his model of the world, the

rhetoric should be familiar, and he should have achieved competence in

the language

The authors provide throughout their commentary a careful review of some of the significant literature in the field, drawing on prevailing ideas and integrating these into an approach which provides a relatively easy but at the same time conceptually sound introduction to the psycholinguistic processes involved in reading, particularly in a second language

Each section ends in a succinct summary which might well be

used by the student to test the degree to which he has understood and

captured the material presented in the preceding argument An accompanying glossary of terms provides useful support to the student Elias and Ingram have, throughout, drawn on their experience

and theoretical understanding to present a useful text in a particular

aspect of reading Beginning teachers should find it highly stimulating

and thought-provoking, especially those who wish to become pro- fessionally involved in helping young speakers of a language other than

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Reading is a language skill Language can be defined as a means of expressing an infinite number of meanings by using a finite set of symbols If a finite set of symbols has the task of carrying an infinite number of meanings, then those symbols must be able to combine in various ways to produce an infinite number of utterances However, the combinations are not merely arbitrary but are made on the basis of tules mutually and tacitly agreed on by speakers of any one language For example,

(1) John it saw

is unacceptable in English but (2) John saw it

which uses the tacitly agreed upon rules of English is acceptable and meaningful to speakers of the language The speaker of English rec-

ognizes the rules that have been used to produce (2) and so recognizes the relationships that exist between ‘Tohn’, ‘saw’ and ‘it’ However, the

rule system of English was not used to produce (1) and therefore our English rules fail to provide us with information about the relationships

between ‘John’, ‘saw’ and ‘it’ in that utterance, and so we fail to obtain

unambiguous meaning from it

That not all languages share the same rule system is obvious if one considers a word-for-word translation of (1) into French:

(3) Jean a vu

This combination is in accord with the rule system of French, and is acceptable and meaningful to speakers of that language Such an

argument leads one to conclude that language is ‘rule-governed behaviour’! and that speakers of a language know its rule system and

use it in producing and understanding language Studies in develop-

mental psycholinguistics also lead one to conclude that it is a rule- system the child acquires in acquiring a language and that language is

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2 CULTURAL COMPONENTS OF READING

Reading is the abstraction of meaning Meaning, we have seen, is abstracted from strings of symbols (that is, utterances or sentences) by the use of the rules of the language.? In the same way, when strings of symbols are written as marks on a page, the rules by which these symbols were combined must be known if meaning is to be abstracted Reading is a visual process A person listening to speech uses the rules of the language and attends to sequences of sound (that is, to auditory symbols) A reader.uses the rules of the language and attends

to sequences of marks on the paper (that is, to visual symbols) In each

case, the use of the rule system is mandatory if meaning is to be abstracted In one case, the rules are used to convey meaning through sounds and to abstract meaning from sounds; in the other, the rules are used to convey meaning through written marks and to abstract meaning

from the written marks

Reading is a cognitive process As we have seen, reading involves

the use of previously learned rules and symbols to abstract meaning Further, for any object or event to be meaningful, the individual must have sufficient prior knowledge to be able to interpret that object or

event For example, while a circuit diagram is highly meaningful to the

electrical technician, it may be meaningless to the housewife Similarly, consider the interpretation of

(4) Mr Whitlam’s picture is on the T.V

by a reader or listener with no knowledge of Australian political figures

and that by one who has Clearly, understanding involves more than abstraction of meaning in its simplest sense: the listener or reader must

bring meaning to the event We shall elaborate on this important notion in Chapter 2

In summary, reading may be considered as:

(a) alanguage skill,

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A THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEANING

A major factor in the individual’s interaction with his environ-

ment is the perceived stability of the events and objects that surround

him Because of this stability, the responses characteristic of the in-

dividual’s unique interactional patterns may be implemented rapidly and appropriately In any ‘new’ situation, past learning enables the perceiver to extrapolate certain ‘attributes’ and to impose a certain

structure upon that situation

A number of theories have been postulated with regard to this

phenomenon Bruner stresses the notion of the active role of the

perceiver in selecting, classifying, and organizing the stimuli that

impinge upon him:

in place of a telephone switchboard connecting stimuli and responses it might be more profitable to think of a map room where stimuli were sorted out and arranged before ever response occurred +

Piaget’s epistemological theory incorporates the notion of man’s tendency to organize behaviour and thought and to adapt to his en-

vironment In his active interaction with his environment, psychological structures arise which constitute organized behaviour patterns These

structures are available to the individual as means for the interpretation and solving of problems as they occur in the interaction process In

consequence of the interaction of experience and maturation, the structures undergo change Importantly, the components of these

structures exhibit interrelationships and organization, and intellectual functioning is therefore definable in terms of this organization and in-

tegration

When an environmental event is assimilated into the cognitive

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cognitive structure imposes its own organization, meaning, or intez- pretation That is, the individual interprets the environment through the structures available to him McNally puts it thus:

Interposed between a stimulus and its assimilation is the organism, an ACTIVE organism whose cognitions are as much a function of this activity as they are of the actual

physical properties of the environment.5

Oliver makes a similar point and includes a cultural dimension: What we notice in the environment and how we notice it are both pre-determined to a significant degree by how we are prepared to notice this particular type of object

Cultural anthropologists point out that given acts and objects appear vastly different in different cultures, depend- ing on the values attached to them what is perceived depends upon the observer’s perceptual frame of reference.6 Bniner? proffers an explanation of the means by which this

representation and organization of experience take place They may occur within the enactive, the iconic, or the symbolic modes The

enactive mode is based upon motor action Iconic imagery involves a form of pictorial representation whilst representation in the symbolic

mode involves, distinctively (if not exclusively), the use of language with its own systematic characteristics The child’s representation of his

world is developed through, successively, the enactive, iconic, and symbolic modes (but note that development through the later modes

does not preclude the continued use and expansion of the earlier ones) Thus he experiences the world through a constructed model of reality,

each of the modes imposing its own particular set of constraints on the representation (See the Glossary for further elucidation of the three modes.)

It seems clear that the individual must be considered an active perceiver The individual in interaction with his environment brings to

the situation some internalized representation of external reality, which operates in such a fashion as to impose structure upon objects and

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structure’ or ‘a structured set of expectancies’ The present authors have chosen to use the term ‘model of the world’ (M.O.W.)® because,

notwithstanding those ambiguities that may attach to it, it has been found to hold considerable explanatory power

Meaning may be conceptualized as the internalized representation of an object or event consequent upon the assimilation or accommodation? of that object or event into extant’ psychological structures.!0 The individual, we have seen, imposes structure upon any given situation, a structure which includes a set of expectancies coded in terms of a set of postulated alternatives deemed appropriate in terms of his model of the world As information is received, certain alternatives are eliminated whilst others are retained, and meaning can be

considered to result-from the elimination of alternatives Clearly, meaning is ultimately dependent upon the individual’s model of the world and its activation in any given situation

Implicit in the notion of the model of the world is an explanation of how the individual reduces the infinite diversity and complexity of his environment to manageable proportions Rather than react to

objects or events as discrete occurrences, the individual categorizes them in terms of their common attributes and responds to classes or

categories of events which in turn are ordered and related to form systems Compare Bruner:

We map and give meaning to our world by relating classes

of events rather than by relating individual events.11

Clearly, this process of categorization and systernatizaton is integral to the establishment of meaning Hence, whenever communi-

cation is being considered, the nature of the attributes by which the categorization and systematization take place are of critical importance

To the degree that those attributes do not form part of a shared system,

the communication process becomes constrained Simply, what this means is that for effective communication to occur, the speakers must not only share the same words and grammar, but there must exist a

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B LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND COGNITIVE SOCIALIZATION

The cultural patterns and values that the child experiences and the language that he learns influence the development of his model of

the world

Language and Thought

Herriot defines language as those processes in the brain which

operate to regulate language behaviour, while thinking is those pro-

cesses which operate to regulate non-verbal behaviour.!2 Similarly,

Vygotsky draws a distinction between ‘the stream of language and the

stream of thought’!3 and argues that they are both different and

inseparable.!4 In other words, language and thought can be considered

to be separate processes, and Furth’s research into the development of

language and thinking in deaf children would add support to this view.!5

However, there is considerable evidence that language through its directive function may come to regulate other aspects of the child’s

behaviour.!6 Menyuk schematizes various theoretical descriptions of

the relationship between thought and language, and each of these

stresses the interactional effects.17

The work of Kuhlman, which is cited at length in Bruner e¢ ai., 1966, illustrates the differences between those children who use lan-

guage in problem-solving and those who are dependent on the iconic

mode The latter achieve their greatest success in problems which

enable them to use ‘surface’ cues or perceptual features, whereas the former make greater use of such features as relationships and

hierarchies.18 Bruner describes this development in these terms: Tt is only when he can go beyond this ‘match by direct

correspondence’ that he comes to deal with such ‘non-

sensory’ ideas as the relations between quantities, in- variance across transformations, and substitutability within a conceptual category.19

As the operational stages of the child’s cognitive development

approach, symbols — or, in Piagetian terms, ‘signs’ — become associated

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community20, Thus the language through its system of symbols (that

is, its grammatical, lexical, and semantic systems) comes to play an increasing role in the child’s representation of the objects and events of the environment In addition, this system is more economical and manageable, and facilitates the thinking process by, for example,

reducing the demands on short-term memory and permitting the recall

of past perception.2! Menyuk, for example, concludes that language plays a major role in memory and might be expected to affect performance in cognitive tasks where memory is an important

component.2? Language then facilitates thought and the handling of

experience but for it to do so, Bruner stresses, the child must impose on experience an organization similar to that which exists in the language he is acquiring: -

One is thus led to believe that, in order for the child to use

Janguage as an instrument of thought, he must first bring the world of experience under the control of principles of

organization that are in some degree isomorphic with the

structural principles of syntax.23

Thus the language of the child intervenes in the interaction between him and the environment, and influences the development and strac-

turing of his model: of the world and the manipulation of its components in the thinking process

Language and Culture

In developing his internalized representation of external reality, his model of the world, the individual is dependent upon learned

techniques whether they be in the enactive, iconic, or symbolic modes

In particular, we have seen that language, the symbolic mode, facilitates

thought and provides the framework within which the environment is organized and regularized Language as such a framework is learned

within the culture and, as Whorf and Sapir propose, it might be expected that as each language differs, so it will act to establish and maintain a particular world view (or model of the world) shared by the

speakers of that language Sapir has described this ‘moulding function’

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Language is not merely a more or less systematic inventory , but is also a self-contained, creative symbolic organization, which not only refers to experience largely acquired without its help but actually defines experience for us by reason of its formal completeness and because of our unconscious projection of its implicit expectations into the

field of experience.?4

And elsewhere, Whorf has stated:

It was found that the background linguistic system (in

other words, the grammar) of each language is not merely a

reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself

the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individ-

ual’s mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and’ ascribe signif: icances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agree-

ment to organize it in this way — an agreement that holds

throughout our speech community and is codified in the

patterns of our language.25

Some problems in accepting such views of linguistic relativity might

seem to occur in the light of developments in transformational gen-

erative grammar and its theory of language universals Deese, for example, seems unwilling to accept the theory as much more than

‘opinion’,26 though he does seem ready to accept a modified view:

Within the boundaries set by a universal grammatical generating device, however, variations in language may

indeed be responsible for characteristic cultural differences

in thought.27

Whorf, in his article Science and Linguistics, 28 provides some

convincing examples Brown and Lenneberg (1954) concluded that’

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The lexical structure of a language may effect constraints upon

the cognitive functioning of the speakers Such constraints may result from the way in which lexical items draw the attention of the learner to aspects of his environment or from the way in which, by a process of prebiasing,29 they determine the readiness of the speaker to respond in

certain ways Thus, for example, the speaker of English who has the

global term ‘rice’ is less likely to readily differentiate his responses to that word or to the commodity than is a speaker of an Asian language which has not a single global term but several terms to refer to differing types of that commodity Brown and Lenneberg showed that the perception and memory of colours was a function of the way in which the colour names broke up the spectrum.3° Fishman speaks of the ‘heuristic utility’ of language and goes on to say:

In a very real sense a language variety is an inventory of the concerns and interests of those who employ it at any given

time If any portion of this inventory reveals features not

present in other portions, this may be indicative of particular stresses or influences in certain interaction networks

within the speech community as a whole or in certain role relationships within the community’s total role repertoire.3} One implication of this is that, as Fishman says earlier,5 the lexical taxonomies reflect sociocultural reality rather than vice versa, but it

remains probable that the language may have a determining effect on children who are directed by parents and others to see the environment

through the language they are learning, that is, the person coming

newly into that sociocultural reality has his attention drawn to it through the language - xe

Even though one might query the strorig form of Whorf’s theory

of linguistic relativity and claim that the language has not necessarily

by itself determined a culture’s particular world view, it is at least true that the language reflects the culture and is the means by which it is

transmitted from generation to generation This is very evident if one examines the way in which foreign learners acquire certain tense markers in English Many such learners have severe difficulty in dif-

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ways, their inexperience in doing so, arising from the rarity of such

differentiation in their own: first language, seems to make the task

infinitely more difficult Thus the native French speaker uses je joue where the English speaker uses J play or I am playing, and has difficulty in making this differentiation in learning English even though his language does have the strong form je suis en train de jouer which, however, is more rarely used than is the Present Continuous in English

The learned use of language is probably equally significant in

determining how the speaker thinks and how he explores and interacts with his environment Bernstein has referred to the ‘context bound’ use

of language which orients the user towards particularistic rather than

universalistic meanings:

the [middle class] child is oriented towards universalistic meanings which transcend a given context, whereas

the second [working class] child is oriented towards particularistic meanings which are closely tied to a given

context and so do not transcend it.33

That is, the latter uses language in conjunction with present experience while the former can use it to gr beyond the immediate present Other

writers, Wight34 and Widdowson?5 for example, have highlighted other

functions of language and the fact that linguistic ability and ability

to cope in various ways with the environment are determined by the

child’s knowledge of how language is used to carry out certain tasks

even more than by his knowledge of syntax and vocabulary Halliday has given a detailed analysis of language functions, and relates the differing cognitive effects of different language varieties to the differing

uses to which language is put He says:

It is not a question of which words and structures the

child knows or uses, but of their functional significance and interpretation Restricted and elaborated code are in effect varieties of language function, determining the meanings that the syntactic patterns and the lexical items

have for the child who hears or uses them 36

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carry out certain tasks says something about the nature of the world

and the child’s place in it, and gives meaning to the words and struc-

tures themselves For example, the fact that language can be used to seek information about the world (Halliday’s heuristic model) indicates something about the nature of the world, that it is understandable, that it is rule-governed and predictable Similarly, the fact that language can be used to name generically indicates something of the nature of

the world (that, for example, its objects and events can be categorized) and this realization in turn influences the child’s model of the world

Bruner presents cross-cultural data which also underline the

importance of language function by indicating the effect of developing an ability to use language independently of contextual and perceptual-

reference situations:

The Wolof school child is much more akin to the American

school child as far as ideas of equivalence are concerned, closer than he is to his unschooled cousin in the next village The difference lies, at the very least, in the extent to which and the manner in which children learn to use language

as an implement of thought School forces him to rely on linguistic encoding as a way of communicating, because

by its remoteness from direct action it robs him of contextual and ostensive reference as a mode of carrying meaning.37

Thus, language can be seen to affect the child’s model of the world

through both its structure and its learned use

Patterns of Thought Development 3°

Another important phenomenon resulting from the influence of

the sociocultural and linguistic environment which the child experi-

ences is the pattern of thought development reflected in the language By this phenomenon, we imply what has variously been described as ‘the organization and presentation of content’, ‘discourse structure’,

‘the ideational or conceptual progression’, ‘thought transition’, or ‘the

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languages and different sociocultural groups tend to favour different patterns of thought development, and these patterns are marked in the language by what may be termed the features of rhetoric, that is, by such sequence signals and linkers as in other words, because, likewise, therefore, as was stated above, etc Even without the overt use of such markers, patterns of thought development remain and are of considerable importance in the comprehension and production of language

It is highly probable, as Kaplan suggests,4° that the ability to use the

‘normal’ patterns in a language constitutes a major element in the advanced foreign learner’s ability to read fluently and to write in a native-like manner As we shall see later, it probably plays a major role in reading, in the projection and reduction of alternatives of meaning

For a further elaboration of this idea and for examples of differing

patterns of thought development, the reader is referred to Kaplan, 1966 For a detailed analysis of typical patterns in English and their linguistic markers, he is referred to Ingram’s Written Expression, 1971

Summary of Parts A and B

1 This chapter so far has been concerned to define the notion ‘model of the world’ and to stress the importance of its function

as the internalized representation of reality

2 Ways in which such a model might be established have been considered

3 The model of the world is dependent upon those modes through which it has been established

4 The individual’s model of the world acts to impose structure

upon incoming information

5 Meaning can only be conceived of in terms of the organization _ imposed by the model of the world

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7 Language, which uses symbols in the categorization process,

provides a basis for efficient interaction 8 Language facilitates the cognitive processes

9 Within certain limits, language variations may be seen to dif- ferentially influence cognition

10 Sociocultural and linguistic factors may operate to determine

patterns of logical thought

C BILINGUALISM

So far we have considered the relationships between the individ-

ual’s model of the world, his Ianguage, and his interaction with the

environment In order to understand what is involved in learning to read in a second language (L2), one needs first to have some understanding of key issues in bilingualism

For our purposes, we shall adopt the definition of bilingualism

proposed by Fishman, namely, the ‘demonstrated ability to engage in

communication via more than one language’.4! This definition con- trasts with those demanding ‘equal and advanced mastery’*? of both

languages but in this paper, we prefer to avoid debate over the use of such terms as ‘bilingualism’ and ‘ambilingualism’ If the more rigorous

definition were to be accepted, the child may never become ‘bilingual’

although he may have achieved significant competence in the second

language Fishman’s more general definition is more convenient in

discussing the sort of issues that will be raised in this chapter

In considering bilingualism in education, it is useful to examine

some of the dimensions along which bilingual performance varies Such an analysis will throw light on factors influencing the reading process and determining the outcome of bilingual education

Fishman in his discussion of the ‘bilingual dominance config-

uration’43 indicates four contexts in which the individual’s facility may differ:

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(b) role (that is, the use of language in reception, production, and

inner speech);

(c) formality level (that is, the use of formal, casual, or intimate

language); and

(đ) domain (that is, the use of registers of language for different purposes to different people in different situations)

Consider, for example, the case of an aboriginal child brought up in tribal or semi-tribal conditions, who has learned an aboriginal lan-

guage as his L1 and is taught English as his L2 on entering school It

may well be that his facility in primary language (listening and speaking) in his L1 will exceed that in his L2, but his facility in reading in the 12 may exceed that in his L1 if it exists in the L1 at all With respect to

‘role’, if he has been taught in a classroom where he is viewed as a largely ‘passive’ recipient in the learning process, his receptive ability

in English is likely to be disproportionately greater than his productive ability in English, while no discrepancy of such magnitude would be evident in his L1 Similarly, if insufficient attention is paid to develop-

ment of a model of the world relevant to the L2 or if translation figures

large in the language teaching methods used, it is probable that the child’s ability to use the L2 in ‘inner speech’ will be constrained If

English is learned only in the formal classroom situation for interaction between teacher and student and in the domain of ‘schoolwork’, the

child’s facility in the language with respect to formality and domain will be restricted accordingly These notions have clear implications for the model or models of the world that the child will develop via the respective languages, and these issues will be considered in detail shortly Fishman also differentiates two types of bilingual functioning: compound bilingualism, where the individual thinks in only one of his languages while communicating in both; and co-ordinate bilingualism, where the individual thinks in the language of communication, be it either of the languages available to him Of fundamental irnportance in

both analyses of bilingualism is the question of the existence of one or

two models of the world

One or Two Models of the World?

We have already seen the close interaction that occurs between

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the language the child learns and his experience and internal representation of reality The case we have made suggests that the child’s model of the world is at least influenced by the nature of the relationships and hierarchies expressed within the linguistic rule systems he

experiences and has available to him

It might be supposed that an individual develops a single model

of the world whether he be monolingual or bilingual If this were so, his

perception and management of the world would be affected by his facility in the language systems he has internalized, rather than by the distinctive characteristics of either system Results of tests of cognitive performance that differed according to the language of operation could

then be attributed merely to unequal facility in each language For example, the subject’ may lack the L2 structures or lexical items to

retrieve the relevant components in his cognitive structure or from memory However, research by Kelly in Papua New Guinea throws

doubt on such views.44 His subjects, when tested in their L2 (English),

performed significantly better than when tested in their L1 (Melpa) on a grouping task involving a set that was nameable in English but not

in Melpa Since the ability to name the group was not involved in the test, the mere linguistic difference does not fully account for the test

results, and it is concluded that the subjects must have had available two at least partially discrete models of the world in which they operated according to the language of the test instruction Kelly himself

suggests this as a possible explanation and draws support from the work

of other researchers He says:

One explanation is that there could be two sets of intellec-

tual structures associated with each language which do not

work together.45

Koleis’ research led him to a similar conclusion:

The point.to be made is that mental activities and information learned in one context are not necessarily available

for use in another.*6

Putting it slightly differently and considering the test results

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tan-16 CULTURAL COMPONENTS OF READING

guages which leads the individual to retrieve components from his memory store through one language and not the other, but the nature of the language itself This also implies that the different languages

subsume different models of the world

However, if the models of the world were entirely discrete, one would not expect to find any transfer from one to the other Yet there is evidence that such transfer occurs In the St Lambert experiment,

mathematical concepts readily transferred from the L2 (French) to the

L1 (English).48 Kolers (1968) investigating the ‘storage systems’ of

bilingual speakers found that some information was readily available

through either language, but that other information was ‘closely bound

to the language by which it was stored in the mind’.49 In particular,

words referring to concrete manipulable objects showed greater likeli- hood of eliciting similar responses within each language system than did

those words of an abstract or affective nature This is of particular significance in considering the effect of a bilingual person’s languages on the nature of his cognitive structures, since the semantic attributes

of abstract and affective words would be expected to be determined in

greater degree during, in Piaget’s terms, the later concrete and formal

operational stages It is during these stages, as Herriot suggests,5 that

significant levels of interaction between the symbolic and linguistic

systems probably occur

We conclude, therefore, that some overlap between 2 bilingual

person’s models of the world probably obtains, and that the extent of the overlap will be determined in part by the compatibility of the languages Further, as will appear as a corollary of our discussion of language-mediated stimulation for cognitive development, the extent of overlap will also be determined by the degree of the match between

cognitive development and the level of development in each language.>}

Effects of Time of Introduction of the L2

From the discussion so far, it is clear that the differences between

the models of the world probably become most pronounced during the

later stages of operational thinking,>? that is, during the interactional

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Where the two language systems have sufficiently developed prior to the interactional phase, both language systems can be matched to the young child’s model of the world described by Bruner ez al as his ‘barely symbolically organized experience’53 Two cases are worth considering: firstly, where the child is learning two languages more or less simultaneously, they will subsume a single model of the world or at least two virtually coincidental models (Figure 1); secondly, where the child is learning the additional language as an L2 but very early

L = Language

M= Model of the World

Figure 1

in life, a similar situation would prevail In both these cases, interaction

between each language and the model of the world would be more or

less equally effective, thus implying the condition of co-ordinate bilingualism

With the passage of time, as each language develops and the distinctive influence of each on the child’s cognitive structure increases (particularly during the in,

the models of the world sbERHEING RAd sO Ad digabbs PHAGHN

represented diagrammatically in HigegNG TAM HOC LIEU -

E.44444 f

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TY Mi

Figure 2

This condition continues to imply co-ordinate bilingualism, with the

speaker able to think in both languages and with some interchange

between the two models to the extent that we have already discussed when referring to the St Lambert experiment.54

Let us consider now the condition where the second language is introduced at a later stage when the L1 and its associated model of the

world are well established and the model to some degree organized and

structured in terms of the Li While the L2 is in the process of being learned, a gross mismatch in the levels of development of the L2 and

the child’s extant cognitive structure exists Under such conditions, the child is forced to respond in terms of the extant cognitive structure

and, even if the language of communication is the L2, he will be forced to think in the Li and to use translation as an essential component of

the communication process This condition would seem to imply compound bilingualism

This clearly has important implications for second language teaching and bilingual education since compound bilingualism would seem to involve less efficient use of the language and cognitive systems

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Firstly, there is an obvious need for L2 teaching to give more attention

than hitherto to the concurrent development of the model of the world typically associated with the L2 The failure of much present-day

language teaching to develop genuine fluency in production and com-

prehension in even advanced students is, doubtless, largely attributable to the hiatus and mismatch that are not overcome between the learner’s cognitive structures and his L2 The problems are still further ex- acerbated when the learner is being taught to read in the 12 since, as

will be seen later, reading brings its own peculiar difficulties

Secondly, let us consider the child for whom the medium of

instruction is the L2 All development is the product of the interaction between the child’s genetic potential and environmental stimulationS5 and, as we have seen already, language plays a key role

in stimulating and structuring cognitive development In the formal

educational system, cognitive development is heavily dependent upon

language-engendered stimulation In a monolingual situation, the level

of development of the child’s language is assumed (sometimes wrongly) to be such as to carry that kind and degree of stimulation that will promote further cognitive development If the level of development of the child’s L2 fails to provide an appropriate match with that of his cognitive development and if the medium of instruction is the 12, the

child’s development will be constrained by virtue of the inability of his 12 to carry sufficient stimulation Further constraints will exist to the

extent that the linguistic rule systems he has developed in the L2 will

allow him to operate within and restructure the model of the world established in conjunction with his L1

To the degree also that the L1 and 12 reflect (or establish) cultural predispositions determining different categorial hierarchies and systems, then the child choosing or forced by the educational system to ‘think in the L2’ must operate within a model of the world less developed than and different from that arising in terms of the L1 In other

words, such a child is being forced to retreat to a level of cognitive

development inferior to that of his monolingual peers and from that point to develop cognitively in conjunction with his L2 Implied in this condition is co-ordinate bilingualism, but considerably different in kind

and degree from that other type discussed above These two forms of

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An interesting contrast exists between the results of Kolers’

experiment and that of the St Lambert experiment, and highlights the importance of the time of introduction of the L2 and the nature

of bilingualism Whereas in the St Lambert experiment, mathematical concepts learned by the young child transferred readily from one language to another,°® Kolers cites the instance where such did not apply in the case of the young adolescent.57

Clearly non-equivalent co-ordinate bilingualism and compound

bilingualism would seem to impose an onerous penalty on the child in terms of his cognitive development Some support for our views on the operation of non-equivalent co-ordinate bilingualism is implicit in the experiments of Kolers5® already referred to earlier in this chapter Kelly>? has investigated the effect of bilingualism and biculturalism

on the cognitive development of migrant children in Australia and

indigenous children in Papua New Guinea We conclude, from the

results of these researches and from our discussion in this chapter, that

of greater significance than bilingualism per se in determining cognitive

development and educational success is the type of bilingualism and, in particular, the time of introduction and rate of learning of the L2:

Summary

The views expressed in this chapter have important implications for the teaching of an L2 especially in a bilingual education situation

The early introduction of the L2 would seem most favourable for the

promotion of cognitive development and the attainment of fluency and

flexibility in the language This view may be substantiated by the following propositions from which a set of corollaries can be derived

Propositions

1 Language constitutes a mediating system between the child and

the environment and, as such, it significantly affects cognitive development

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cognitive development (As indicated earlier, this is particularly

important during the operational stages and, if effective interaction is to occur between the systems, then the language competence to facilitate this must be available at the time of interaction.) Corollaries @ (b) (c) @ @)

Where the match fails to obtain, constraints are set

Under ‘ideal conditions’, an effective match exisis between cognitive development and linguistic competence

Under ‘ideal conditions’, an effective match exists between cognitive development and L2 competence

Under some conditions, an ineffective match may obtain between the level of cognitive development and competence in the prin-

“cipal language that promotes this development Where this applies, cognitive development may fail to be promoted or even

maintained

Until a match can be effected between cognitive development and L2 competence, the cognitive development will best be promoted by:

@ continued use of the Li as the major medium for cognitive stimulation whilst the L2 system is being developed;

(ii) the early introduction of the L2 so that the disparity between cognitive development and the level of L2 com-

petence is minimized

Further,

Git) where it occurs that cognitive development is well in

advance of L2 competence (for example, in immigrant children of school age), the rapid acquisition of the L2

(for example, in highly intensive courses) is preferable to a naive attempt to promote cognitive development and L2

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THE READING PROCESS Visual Configuration T @ Ì J@® Graphological Component _— 7 ĩ = i Recoding I T 1 @ ị ' Phonological Component ¡ |) ' I ' i Ị 1 = 1 Syntactic and Lo we Semantic Components Gine lexicon) Ị I Ị t Ỷ Alternatives << of 7 Meaning T Ị ‘match’ t (meaning) I I N $ Model of the World

Path (a) tends to be followed by less skilled readers Path (b) is characteristically followed by fluent readers

Figure 3: A model of the reading process

Surface Structure

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Reading begins with meaning

In Chapter 2, Part A, we saw that the individual perceives.in the

context of his model of the world That is, his model of the world leads

him to postulate the presence of certain features in the totality of

stimuli impinging upon him — features which are then sought within

that totality The effects of those stimuli held to be of lesser moment are in some fashion inhibited The reader is just such an individual

This notion implies that the successful reader approaching the visual configuration (those marks on the page determined by the

conventionalized orthography) does so with the expectation of ab-

stracting meaning from it, and a relationship exists — and for successful

reading must be seen to exist — between the reader’s model of the world and the ‘intended meaning’ of the visual configuration This relationship is such that either the intended meaning is extant within the reader, or the reader is able to accommodate his model of the world to obtain a match between it and the intended meaning

The sine qua non that the child must bring to the reading task is the realization that the marks on the paper can be decoded to obtain meaning The child who is unfamiliar with the reading experience, for

example, whose home is devoid of reading materials, who has never been read to, or who has never come to see reading as a thing of importance in his environment may lack such a realization even after entering

school The development of this realization is clearly an essential element in the child’s repertoire of reading readiness skills The Break- through to Literacy approach stresses the necessity of the early establishment of this realization of the relationship between the marks on

the page and meaning:

Many children arrive at school with little idea of what written language is; some children may not understand the difference between the text and the illustrations in a

picture story book, nor the connection between the marks

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Reading (as depicted in the model in Figure 3) is considered a decoding process which the reader approaches with a set of postulated

alternatives located at the level of deep structure.! These alternatives

are postulated from the lowest level of the model to generate tentative deep structures that are changed and reduced as the visual configuration is scanned, by interaction between the various levels in the model The model of the world, on the basis of broadly expected meanings

and utilizing just so much of the information contained in the visual

configuration as is needed, operates through a semantic component to generate deep structure alternatives, that is, alternatives of meaning.®? Reading, then, is the reduction of alternatives, and the decoding process or the abstraction of meaning can be considered, if successful, to be the process by which these alternatives are reduced to that one assumed

to be intended by the writer.63

Note in passing the problems raised by the notion of ‘the meaning

intended by the writer’ For the reader to abstract that and only that

meaning presupposes that the writer has successfully encoded it and

also that the reader’s and the writer’s models of the world are

sufficiently similar to enable the reader to postulate that meaning Consider, for example, the following sentence:

(5) Aman pushed me as I was getting onto the train

Even if we suppose that the writer has accurately encoded his thoughts,

the meaning abstracted from this sentence by two people could well be

significantly different To the London commuter, it could entail notions of rudeness and offence To a Japanese reader, such semantic

features might well be replaced by notions of efficiency, necessity, and acceptance The significance of this difference will clearly depend on

the importance of the intended meaning to the rest of the text In general, though two persons might not abstract exactly identical

meanings from any one sentence, the significance of the difference will

depend on whether communication will break down as a result The writer is, in effect, in a dyadic relationship with each of his readers and, where he communicates successfully, it must be assumed that his

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That the writer does indeed exercise some control over the range of

tolerance will be discussed later

The reader’s set of postulated alternatives referred to above is determined by at least three factors:

(a) the nature of the reader’s knowledge system or model of the world,

(b) the operation of the retrieval system, and

(c) the nature of the stimulus to which the set of alternatives constitutes a response

These three factors can be exemplified by Sentence (5) above Clearly, as we have seen, the reader’s model of the world influences the meanings he postulates Compare that of the London commuter and that of the Japanese If the Japanese interpretation is that intended

by the writer, postulation of the appropriate alternative by the Londoner will depend on his ability to retrieve what he knows about

Tokyo railway stations from his memory store This factor explains

why fluent reading may be hampered by unfamiliarity of content Here

the reader will have to search for relevant information in his memory

store or accommodate his model of the world to that of the writer in

order to postulate an appropriate alternative of meaning

In the operation of the third factor, such a stimulus may com-

prise comment regarding the material by the teacher (for example, ‘Remember what I told you about “pushers” on Tokyo railway plat-

forms?’), an accompanying picture (for example, of a Japanese railway

platform), or the preceding linguistic context

The establishment of such a set of alternatives takes place both prior to the decoding of any particular sentence and during it in conse-

quence of the interaction between the evolving meaning and the model

of the world That is, the set of alternatives is not random but is postulated on the basis of expectations aroused by the decoding of the pre-

ceding context These alternatives are progressively modified as each

sentence is decoded This process of postulation-modification of alter-

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In summary, we have suggested that the reader, or listener, continually assigns tentative interpretations to a text or message and checks these interpretations As the material is grammatically or semantically constrained he is able to formulate correct hypotheses about what will come next

When the prediction is confirmed, the material covered by

that prediction can be more easily processed and

understood.64

Carroll, addressing himself to the problems of language comprehension, comes to a similar conclusion:

comprehension of a message is adequate or satisfactory to the extent that the language receiver apprehends, at least

provisionally, whatever linguistic information is present in the message and is able to relate that information to whatever context is available at a given time This implies that

comprehension may be regarded as a process that contains

at least two stages: (a) apprehension of linguistic infor-

mation, and (b) relating that information to wider

context.65

If it should happen that the process of decoding eliminates all the alternatives of meaning at the ‘deep structure’ level (which has happened, for example, when the reader says, ‘I don’t get this’), then a ‘search’ within his model of the world may be necessary to establish

the further alternatives These alternatives are necessary if the match

between the deep structure and the model of the world is to obtain

To this juncture, our description of the reading process has

emphasized the postulation of alternatives of meaning from the level of the model of the world (in Figure 3) to the deep structure level

Consideration of what happens when a reader confronts ‘difficult’ material shows that this is not the only direction from which deep

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‘deep structure’ level By careful reading and painstaking decoding of the material, the items may perhaps be identified and their relationships ‘sensed’, that is, deep structures for the sentence may be postulated However, for complete comprehension, some restructuring or accom-

modation of the model of the world must occur so that some point-to-

point correspondence will exist between the model of the world and

one or other of the incoming deep structures,6¢

On the other hand, however, failure of the reader to effect the correct match at the ‘deep structure’ level may be due to errors within the earlier stages of the decoding process For example, an error at

the perceptual level or at the graphological level may lead to ‘I can’ being read for ‘I can’t’ Or a transformational rule may be misapplied

as when

(6) He was hit

is taken to mean the third person singular present perfect, ‘He has hit’,

Granted that relationships may be ascribed on the basis of lexical

cues and semantic information available from individual lexical items

without a full decoding process occurring,67 the correct match may

fail to be established because an incorrect syntactic structure has been

ascribed For example, consider Sentence (7): (7) The boy hit the old man

On the basis of the preceding context or on the basis of his model of

the world, the reader using minimal information based semantically on

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the surface structure equivalent of which would be:

(8) The boy was hit by the old man

or (9) The old man hit the boy

Clearly, the probability of this type of error is greater ina cross-cultural reading situation, that is, where the reader’s model of the world pre- disposes him to an erroneous use of lexical cues and semantic information For example, the misinterpretation of Sentence (7) is much more likely amongst readers from a patriarchal society

Such problems may be rectified by a simple re-reading of the

appropriate section though, in the last example, a further decoding making greater use of the syntactic component may be required

Considerations of this type have clear implications for learning to

read in a second language Unless the beginning reader is sufficiently familiar with the lexical items in the text and the model of the world that it subsumes, he will be reduced to a painstaking and excessive use of the full range of decoding processes This imposes a severe load on short-term memory with the result that, even if the reader can cope with individual sentences, he will be unable to relate them to the rest of the text Further, if the syntax of the text exceeds the limits of the reader’s linguistic competence, then he may ascribe his own set of relationships to what he reads This clearly throws some doubt on the desirability of using reading to enlarge a learner’s linguistic competence, unless care is taken to ensure that the appropriate meaning is already

established in the mind of the child and that the lexical items and sub-

sumed model of the world are known to him Clearly, reading for knowledge, that is, in order to restructure the model of the world, requires that the reader have full command of the syntax and lexical items in the text

The postulation of alternatives of meaning facilitates the decoding

of the visual configuration on the basis of ‘minimal information’ Earlier we saw that the individual in interaction with his environment

brings to the situation some internalized representation of external reality, which operates in such a fashion as to impose structure upon objects and events.68 In the same way, the postulated set of alternatives

of meaning acting through higher levels of the model (Figure 3) pre-

cipitates an analogous set of syntactic, semantic, and lexical expecta-

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analytic systems This explains why the fluent reader will frequently not ‘see’ misprints and other minor errors in a text and could also explain why, in our earlier example (page 27), can’t was read as can if

the latter ‘fits well’ with a postulated alternative.69 In the case of the

fluent reader at least, the use of features in the decoding process is

parsimonious 7°

Understanding of this process also gives insights into how the beginning reader may be assisted Where the material is meaningful to

the child and within the limits of his linguistic competence, the precip-

itation of the expectations will be facilitated, the decoding process supported, and ultimate operation on the basis of minimal information encouraged

The features resulting from the syntactic, semantic, and lexical expectations will be processed by the graphological component to bias the visual search in terms of certain visual patterns, In the case of the fluent reader, the visual expectations will be in terms of ‘meaningful

chunks’ rather than individual letters or words, these chunks being

determined by the semantic and syntactic rule systems

A match effected at this level satisfies the conditions (the postu-

lated alternatives) determined by the syntactic and semantic components and lexicon In consequence, the inappropriate alternatives of

meaning are eliminated and the ‘meaning’ at the deep structure level

established The interaction of the deep structure and the model of the

world acting in terms of the established meaning generates a new set of alternatives of meaning with consequences for subsequent decoding The notion of the postulation of sets of alternatives raises the question of how inappropriate alternatives are eliminated Each alter-

native at each level is specifiable in terms of distinctive features Clearly it cannot be the case that each alternative, least of all each feature, is examined in turn for its appropriateness Rather, the present authors

prefer to think of the process as the application of a grid over which all

alternatives are continually passed, eliminating those which are in-

appropriate, that is, whose distinctive features fail to match those required by the current state of the grid As the decoding proceeds, so the parameters of the grid are filled out making it more discriminating and ultimately eliminating all but the appropriate alternative

To understand the reading process more fully, some consideration

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the model The two extreme cases of the unskilled reader and the fluent experienced reader will serve as paradigms of what occurs

Up to this point, we have been concerned essentially to describe the experienced reader who brings meaning to the situation and expects to abstract meaning from the visual configuration Such a reader will

tend to follow Path (b) in the model, that is, the output of the syntactic

and semantic components precipitates an analagous set of alternatives

expressible in terms of visual features A match is then effected

between these alternatives and the visual configuration The ability to follow Path (b) presupposes that the reader has established a relationship between the visual configuration and the items of his lexicon analogous to that which he has established between the sounds he hears and those items In recognizing this, it must also be recalled that those lexical items to be sought will be determined by the syntactic and semantic rule systems, and that decoding is not carried out on a word-

by-sequential-word basis

Unskilled readers may lack any of the skills implicit in the model

For our immediate purposes, it is useful to consider two types: (i) those who fail to bring meaning to the situation either because they do not project the necessary alternatives of meaning or, even more funda-

mentally, because they lack the notion that meaning is derivable from

the marks on the paper, and (ii) those who have not yet established the direct relationship between the marks on the paper and the items in the

lexicon Both these types will follow Path (a) through the model Unskilled readers of the first type do not project alternatives’ of

meaning and are unable to utilize the syntactic and semantic com-

ponents to facilitate identification of the visual configuration Either

word by word or letter by letter, they will have to recode the text into sound which, if meaning is to be abstracted, will then have to be decoded via the phonological, syntactic, and semantic components

This imposes a serious burden on the short-term memory and the attentional capacity of the child, since he has to identify each sound

and hold it in memory while applying the phonological, syntactic, and

semantic rule systems simultaneously and in interaction to chunk

sounds into words and words into meaningful, grammatical utterances

Note that the application of these rule systems is more difficult in

reading than in aural comprehension since the suprasegmental and, to a

lesser extent, the paralinguistic features facilitate their application in

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the spoken language but enter to only a limited degree in the written

language through the use of punctuation In the instance of the child

lacking the notion that meaning is in fact derivable from script, the rule systems at the syntactic and semantic levels will fail to be engaged at all His achievement may well not exceed ‘word calling’

Unskilled readers of the second type do postulate alternatives of meaning but tend to follow Path (a) so that the output of the syntactic

and semantic components precipitates an analogous set of alternatives as output from the phonological component, in some cases, ultimately

finding expression as alternatives of visual features at the graphological level Such readers make errors by ‘seeing’ what they expect to say Other readers recode the visual configuration in the same way as those who fail to bring meaning to the reading process but seek to determine a match at the level of the phonological component Readers of this type who make errors may do so by ‘hearing’ what they expect to hear (assuming the recoding process has been accurate), that is, to put it loosely, they may ‘speak’ the text correctly but fail to abstract the

correct meaning

Graphological Level

We have stressed that the reading process starts essentially at the

lowest levels of the model with the postulation of alternatives of

meaning and continues with interaction between all levels To complete our discussion of the model, it is necessary to consider what happens at

the uppermost, the perceptual levels, that is, at the graphological level

Central to the perceptual process is identification, which takes place through feature analysis A distinctive feature is one which, when discriminated, allows the perceiver to reduce the number of alternative

pattems with which the signal (that is, the auditory or visual config uration) might be matched Identification occurs when sufficient dis-

tinctive features are discriminated to reduce the alternatives to one

It should be noted that feature analytic systems are utilized at

all levels Thus concepts are discriminated by their semantic feature

+ human’ + human

matrices, for example, ‘man’ might be [ + adult | and ‘boy’ [ ~ adult i

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their being discriminated by the feature [+ adult], and being distinguished from all other concepts in the child’s repertoire in a similar fashion by these and other features Similarly, these two items may be distinguished at the phonological level on the basis of distinctive acoustic features and at the graphological level on the basis of distinctive visual features Syntax, together with the distinctive syntactic

+ noun ]

features of the items, also serves discrimination Thus, men [ + plural

vocal ] or mend [ tural ] and, in

the context “The ðr /FATE /, syntactic constraints immediately rule out the alternative mend because of its feature

[ + verb]

If decoding is to proceed efficiently on the basis of minimal

information, the child must have facility in the identification and use of features at each level, visual, phonological, syntactic, and semantic since

it is on the basis of these features that identification occurs Further, our discussion earlier has underlined the importance of what one has

learned to perceive for future perception It is clear too that for the fluent reader — as for the fluent listener — the rapid rate at which

can be discriminated from man [

decoding takes place precludes his identification of all and every feature

For example, in decoding (10) (10) Aman fell

recognition of A removes the necessity to discriminate man from men because the latter is automatically ruled out by the feature on A of / - Plural/ Ciearly, the syntax of a sentence plays a major part in reducing the need for identification of all distinctive features, and strengthens the claim that decoding cannot take place on a mere grapheme-by-grapheme, word-by-word basis, since to do so would involve the recognition of many distinctive features of graphemes and of words, which would then have to be held in short-term memory while the rest of the sentence was similarly decoded, the syntax rec- ognized, and meaning abstracted Clearly this would impose an im-

possible load on short-term memory These considerations highlight the

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Attention in the Reading Process

He doesn’t know whether or how to concentrate on letters,

words, the meaning, the sounds of the letters, or what.7!

A major sub-skill in the reading process is the distribution of

attention Since it is already clear that reading involves a variety of sub-tasks, and since, as we have already seen, the individual is not merely a passive receiver of stimuli but actively selects those to which he will attend, the child’s reading ability is dependent on his ability to

distribute attention effectively

The attentional capacity of the child is necessarily limited Broad- bent has asserted’? that the human nervous system has a finite infor-

mational capacity.73 Moray?4 and Mackworth?5 both indicate that

the capacity of the organism is divided amongst the various components of any given task Elsewhere, Mackworth states:

Attention may be divided, not merely between two dif-

ferent sources of stimuli, but also between the different

aspects of a particular task.76

And later, summarizing extensive research,

the observer has a limited capacity which has to be

shared among the various operations that he is attempting

to carry out simultaneously.77

Such observations are relevant to the reading process, particularly for the beginning reader, where recoding processes, decoding, and memory constitute some of those components demanding the division of attention

In approaching the visual configuration, the reader probably distributes attention at.two levels at least The first selective process

involves the selection of the marks on the paper per se, while the

second level of selection results in the ‘units’ of the material chosen for further analysis Schlesinger’s findings support this argument:

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