City University of Pasay

Pasadeña Street , F.B. Harrison , Pasay City

1st Semestral SY 2021-2022

MODULE 2: INTRODUCTION TO READING TEXTS

What is introduction of reading texts?

Good beginning reading instruction teaches children how to identify words,

comprehend text, achieve fluency and develop the motivation to read. Whole
language approaches focus on comprehension and meaning, while phonics
approaches focus on word identification and decoding- or sounding out –words.

What is the meaning of reading text?

Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a

text/message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the
words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the
text/message .

What is the introduction of importance of reading?

Reading is important because it develops your mind and gives you

excessive knowledge and lessons of life. It helps you understand the world
around you better. It keeps your mind active and enhances your creative
ability. Communication Skills:

What is importance of reading?

It helps kids calm down and relax, opening doors of new knowledge to
enlighten their minds. Kids who read grow up to have better cognitive skills.
Reading is good for everyone, not only children or young adults.

*Why we should read books every day?

Reading improves vocabulary

Better comprehension
Develops critical thinking skills
Improves memory
Improves results at school
Improves analytical skills
Builds confidence
Helps you socialize
Broadens horizons
Improves writing skills
Improves focus and concentration
Makes you more empathetic
It develops emotions
Readers are leaders
Learn at your own pace
What are the purposes of Reading?

 Pleasure and enjoyment

 Practical application
 To obtain an overview
 To locale specific information
 To identify the central idea information
 To develop a detailed and critical understanding

The 4 Main Types of Reading Techniques:

 Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading where you‘re trying to glance

over the material to grasp the main idea. The way you do this is to read the first
and last paragraph and check for any dark headings.
 Scanning involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and
is used to get just a simple piece of information. You‘ll be searching for
specific words or phrases that will give you more information and answer
questions you may have.
 Intensive Reading has indeed beneficial to language learners as it helps
them understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context.
 Extensive Reading involves reading for pleasure. It also requires a fluid
decoding and assimilation of the next and content in front of you.

Why should we evaluate academic reading strategies?

Reading is fundamental to writing and research at University, but often

gets overlooked – lecturers assume that students know how to read, and
students assume there’s only one way to read – but neither of these
things is necessarily true! There are ways to read that can improve
information processing, can help with building an argument, and
importantly for many students, can save lots of time!! .

The passage above makes an important point: most of us assume we know how to
read for school. However, methods that may have been fine in the past
(skimming, quick reviews, relying upon class lectures or notes) won‘t hold up
well as we move further into higher education.

This module defines a specific category of reading–academic reading–and

discusses a range of skill sets and strategies that are specific to this type of
reading. It‘s helpful to remember that academic reading is an act of
performance. Rather than sitting back and passively receiving information we
read in college, we will be asked to directly act upon that information in some
way. We will be quizzed or tested. We will be asked to debate, analyse, or
critique what we read. We will need to read closely, remember the text
accurately, and compare it to other texts for style and content.

The following video addresses how academic reading is a key component of

inter-related skills that demonstrate mastery of critical thinking.
(https://youtu.be/9PsLktb7HTA)

As this video points out, as a reader in college you will be asked to embrace a
―healthy skepticism‖ for every idea you come in contact with. This will take
energy and work–it‘s much easier to accept what others tell us on face value
than to critically assess each idea that comes our way. However, education in
the fullest sense means developing the tools for this critical response, building
it into an automatic reflex that makes us thoughtful, engaged citizens of the
world around us.

Learning Outcomes

• Evaluate various types of reading material

• Evaluate general reading strategies

• Evaluate reading strategies for specialized texts

• Evaluate vocabulary usage

• Evaluate thesis ideas of texts

• Evaluate supporting claims of texts

• Evaluate use of logic and structure in texts

• Evaluate summary skills for reading comprehension
 Activity #1 Introduction to Reading Texts

Name : __________________________ Date:__________

Course & Section: _________________ Score: _______

Introduction to Reading Texts (20 pts.)

I. Fill in the blank.

1. ________________ is important because it develops your mind and gives

you excessive knowledge and lessons of life.

2. __________________is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message.

3. _________________approaches focus on comprehension and meaning,

4. while ______________approaches focus on word identification and decoding-

or sounding out –words.

5. _________________ involves reading for pleasure. It also requires a fluid

decoding and assimilation of the next and content in front of you.

6. It‘s helpful to remember that academic reading is an act of ____________.

7. Reading improves your vocabulary and develops your _____________________.

II. Enumerate the following questions.

A. (4) Main Types of Reading Techniques

B. (6) Purposes of Reading

C. (3) Importance of Reading

II. What is Dictionary and it’s Kinds?

General-purpose dictionaries
Although one may speak of a ―general-purpose‖ dictionary, it must be realized
that every dictionary is compiled with a particular set of users in mind. In turn,
the public has come to expect certain conventional features and a publisher
departs from the conventions at his peril. One of the chief demands is that a
dictionary should be ―authoritative,‖ but the word authoritative is ambiguous. It
can refer to the quality of scholarship and the employment of the soundest
information available, or it can describe a prescriptive demand for compliance to
particular standards. Many people ask for arbitrary decision in usage choices, but
most linguists feel that, when a dictionary goes beyond its function of recording
accurate information on the state of the language, it becomes a bad dictionary.

Most people know dictionaries in the abridged sizes, commonly called ―desk‖ or
―college-size‖ dictionaries. Such abridgments date to the 18th century. Their form
had become stultified until, in the 1930s, Edward L. Thorndike produced a series
for schools (Beginning, Junior, and Senior). His dictionaries were not ―museums‖
but tools that encouraged schoolchildren to learn about language. He drew upon
his word counts and his ―semantic counts‖ to determine inclusions. The new mode
was carried on to the college level by Clarence L. Barnhart in The American
College Dictionary (ACD), in 1947. (Barnhart also carried on Thorndike‘s work in
the Thorndike-Barnhart dictionaries after Thorndike‘s death.) After mid-century,
other college-size works were revised to meet that competition: Webster’s New
World Dictionary of the American Language (1951), the Merriam Webster Seventh
New Collegiate (1963), and the Standard College Dictionary (1963).) An especially
valuable addition was The Random House Dictionary (1966), edited by Jess Stein
in a middle size called ―the unabridged‖ and by Laurence Urdang in a smaller size
(1968). The Merriam Webster Collegiate series was subsequently extended to 8th
(1973), 9th (1983), 10th (1993), and 11th (2003) editions. (The G. & C. Merriam
Co. [now Merriam-Webster, Incorporated] was acquired by Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., in 1964.)
The entry for the word harlequin from the ninth edition of Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary, diagrammed to identify its constituent parts.© Merriam-
Webster Inc.

The Merriam-Webster New International of 1909 had a serene, uncluttered air.

The second edition, completely reedited, appeared in 1934, and it, in turn, was
superseded in 1961 by the Third New International, edited by Philip Babcock
Gove. At its first publication it stood alone among American dictionaries in
giving a full report on the lexicon of present-day English. (Because it, together
with its
supplements, is now available online, it is regularly updated.) The prepublication
publicity emphasized quotations from writers dismissed as ephemeral, such as
Polly Adler, Ethel Merman, and Mickey Spillane, as well as the dictionary‘s
statement about ain’t as ―used orally in most parts of the U.S. by

many cultivated speakers.‖ Such publicity aroused a storm of denunciation in

newspapers and magazines by writers who, others asserted, revealed a shocking
ignorance of the nature of language. The comments were collected in a
―casebook‖ titled Dictionaries and That Dictionary, edited by James H. Sledd and
Wilma R. Ebbitt (1962).

In 1969 came The American Heritage Dictionary, edited by William Morris, who
was known for his valuable small dictionary Words (1947). The American
Heritage was designed to take advantage of the reaction against the Merriam-
Webster Third. A ―usage panel‖ of 104 members, chosen mostly from the
conservative ―literary establishment,‖ provided material for a set of ―usage
notes.‖ Their pronouncements, found by scholars to be inconsistent, were
intended to provide ―the essential dimension of guidance,‖ as the editor put it, ―in
these permissive times.‖ The etymological material was superior to that in
comparable dictionaries.

In England, Henry Cecil Wyld produced his Universal Dictionary of the English
Language (1932), admirable in every way except for its social class elitism. The
smaller-sized dictionaries of the Oxford University Press deserved their wide
circulation.

Scholarly dictionaries
Beyond the dictionaries intended for practical use by the general public are the
scholarly dictionaries, with the scientific goal of completeness and rigour in their
chosen area. Probably the most scholarly dictionary in the world is the Thesaurus
Linguae Latinae, edited in Germany and Austria. Its main collections were made
from 1883 to 1900, when publication began, but by the turn of the 21st century
its publication had reached only the letter P. A number of countries have had
―national dictionaries‖ under way—projects that often take many decades. Two
have already been mentioned—the Grimm dictionary for German (a revised and
expanded edition begun in 1965) and the Littré for French (reedited 1956–58). In
addition, there are the Woordenboek der Nederlandschetaal (1882–1998) for
Dutch; the Ordboköfversvenskaspråket (begun 1898) for Swedish;
the Slovarsovremennogorusskogoliteraturnogoyazyka (1950–65; ―Dictionary of
Modern Literary Russian‖); the NorskOrdbok (begun 1966), for Norwegian; and
the Ordbog for detdanske Sprog (1995) for Danish. Of outstanding scholarship
are AnEncyclopaedic Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles (begun 1976)
prepared at Pune (Poona), India, and The Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew
Language (begun 1959), in progress in Jerusalem. The most ambitious project of
all is the Trésor de la langue française. In the 1960s more than 250 million word
examples were collected, and publication began in 1971, but after two volumes
the scope of the work was scaled back from 60 (planned) volumes to 16. It was
completed in 1994.

The Oxford English Dictionary remains the supreme completed achievement in all
lexicography. After completion of the first edition in 1928, the remaining
quotations, both used and unused, were divided up for use in a set of ―period
dictionaries.‖ The prime mover of this plan, Sir William Craigie, undertook A
Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue himself, covering the period from the 14th
to the 17th century in Scottish speech. Enough material was amassed under his
direction so that editing could begin in 1925 (publication, however, did not begin
until 1931), and before his death in 1957 he arranged that it should be carried on
at the University of Edinburgh. It was completed in 2003. The work on the older
period spurred the establishment of a project on the modern Scots language,
which got under way in 1925, called The Scottish National Dictionary (published
1931–76), giving historical quotations after the year 1700.
In the mainstream of English, a period dictionary for Old English (before 1100)
was planned for many decades by a dictionary committee of the Modern
Language Association of America (Old English section), and finally in the late
1960s it got under way at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the
University of Toronto. The Dictionary of Old English is based on a combining of
computerized concordances of bodies of Old English literature. A Middle English
Dictionary, covering the period 1100 to 1475, was completed in 2001, with an
overwhelming fullness of detail. For the period 1475 to 1700, an Early Modern
English Dictionary did not fare as well. It got under way in 1928 at the University
of Michigan, and more than three million quotation slips were amassed, but the
work could not be continued in the decade of the Great Depression, and only in
the mid-1960s was it revived. The OED supplement of 1933 was itself
supplemented in 4 volumes (1972–86). A second edition of the OED was
published in 20 volumes in 1989, an expanded integration of the original 12-
volume set and the 4-volume set into one sequence. In 1992 the second edition
was released on CD-ROM. Three supplementary volumes were published in print
in 1993 and 1997, and an online version was launched in 2000.

Craigie, in 1925, proposed a dictionary of American English. Support was found

for the project, and he transferred from Oxford University to the University of
Chicago in order to become its editor. The aim of the work, he wrote, was that of
―exhibiting clearly those features by which the English of the American colonies
and the United States is distinguished from that of England and the rest of the
English-speaking world.‖ Thus, not only specific Americanisms were dealt with but
words that were important in the natural history and cultural history of the New
World. After a 10-year period of collecting, publication began in 1936 under the
title A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles, and the 20 parts
(four volumes) were completed in 1944. This was followed in 1951 by a work
that limited itself to Americanisms only—A Dictionary of Americanisms, edited by
Mitford M. Mathews.

The English language, as it has spread widely over the world, has come to consist
of a group of coordinate branches, each expressing the needs of its speakers in
communication; further scholarly dictionaries are needed to record the particular
characteristics of and influences on each branch. Both Canada and Jamaica were
treated in 1967—A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, Walter
Spencer Avis, editor in chief, and Dictionary of Jamaican English, edited by
Frederic G. Cassidy and R.B. LePage. In 1978 a historical dictionary of South
African English (fourth edition 1991), edited by Jean Branford, was issued. The
first edition of Australia‘s national dictionary, The Macquarie Dictionary, was
published in 1981; its third edition, issued in 1997, included for the first time
illustrative sentences from Australian literature. The Dictionary of New Zealand
English was published in 1997. Such dictionaries are valuable in displaying the
intimate interrelations of the language to the culture of which it is a part.

Specialized dictionaries
Specialized dictionaries are overwhelming in their variety and their diversity. Each
area of lexical study, such as etymology, pronunciation, and usage, can have a
dictionary of its own. The earliest important dictionary of etymology for English
was Stephen Skinner‘s Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae of 1671, in Latin, with a
strong bias for finding a Classical origin for every English word. In the 18th
century, a number of dictionaries were published that traced most English words
to Celtic sources, because the authors did not realize that the words had been
borrowed into Celtic rather than the other way around. With the rise of a soundly
based philology by the middle of the 19th century, a scientific etymological
dictionary could be compiled, and this was provided in 1879 by Walter William
Skeat. It was long kept in print in reeditions but was superseded in 1966 by The
Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, by Charles Talbut Onions, who had
worked many decades on it until his death. Valuable in its particular restricted
area is J.F. Bense‘s Dictionary of the Low-Dutch Element in the English Vocabulary
(1926–39).
Two works are especially useful in showing the relation between languages
descended from the ancestral Indo-European language—Carl Darling Buck‘s
Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages
(1949) and Julius
Pokorny‘s IndogermanischesetymologischesWörterbuch (1959). The Indo-
European roots are well displayed in the summary by Calvert Watkins,
published as an appendix to The American Heritage Dictionary. Interrelations
are also dealt with by Eric Partridge in his Origins (1958).

During the 20th century the pronouncing dictionary, a type handed down from the
18th century, was best known by two examples, one in England and one in
America. That of Daniel Jones, An English Pronouncing Dictionary, claimed to
represent that ―most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of
Southern English persons whose men-folk have been educated at the great public
boarding schools.‖ Although he called this the Received Pronunciation (RP), he
had no intention of imposing it on the English-speaking world. It originally
appeared in 1917 and was repeatedly revised during the author‘s long life. Also
strictly descriptive was a similar American work by John S. Kenyon and Thomas
A. Knott, A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English, published in 1944 and
never revised but still valuable for its record of the practices of its time.

The ―conceptual dictionary,‖ in which words are arranged in groups by their

meaning, had its first important exponent in Bishop John Wilkins, whose Essay
Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language was published in 1668. A
plan of this sort was carried out by Peter Mark Roget with his Thesaurus,
published in 1852 and many times reprinted and reedited. Although
philosophically oriented, Roget‘s work has served the practical purpose of another
genre, the dictionary of synonyms.
The dictionaries of usage record information about the choices that a speaker
must make among rival forms. In origin, they developed from the lists of errors
that were popular in the 18th century. Many of them are still strongly puristic in
tendency, supporting the urge for ―standardizing‖ the language. The work with
the most loyal following is H.W. Fowler‘s Dictionary of Modern English Usage
(1926), ably reedited in 1965 by Sir Ernest Gowers. It represents the good taste
of a sensitive, urbane litterateur. It has many devotees in the United States and
also a number of competitors, such as A Dictionary of Contemporary American
Usage (1957), by Bergen Evans and Cornelia Evans, and A Dictionary of Modern
American Usage (1998; later editions published as Garner’s Modern American
Usage), by Bryan A. Garner. Usually the dictionaries of usage have reflected the
idiosyncrasies of the compilers, but from the 1920s to the 1960s a body of
studies by scholars emphasized an objective survey of what is in actual use.
These were drawn upon by Margaret M. Bryant for her book Current American
Usage (1962). A small corner of the field of usage is dealt with by Eric Partridge in
A Dictionary of Clichés (1940).

The regional variation of language has yielded dialect dictionaries in all the major
languages of the world. In England, after John Ray‘s issuance of his first glossary
of dialect words in 1674, much collecting was done, especially in the 19th century
under the auspices of the English Dialect Society. This collecting culminated in the
splendid English Dialect Dictionary of Joseph Wright in six volumes (1898–1905).
American regional speech was collected from 1774 onward; John Pickering first
put a glossary of Americanisms into a separate book in 1816. The American
Dialect Society, founded in 1889, made extensive collections, with plans for a
dictionary, but this came to fruition only in 1965, when Frederic G. Cassidy
embarked on A Dictionary of American Regional English (known as DARE), of
which six volumes were published (1985–2013).

The many ―functional varieties‖ of English also have their dictionaries. Slang and
cant in particular have been collected in England since 1565, but the first
important work was published in 1785, by Capt. Francis Grose, A Classical
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, reflecting well the low life of the 18th century. In
1859 John Camden Hotten published the 19th-century material, but a full,
historical, scholarly survey was presented by John Stephen Farmer and W.E.
Henley in their Slang and Its
Analogues, in seven volumes, 1890–1904, with a revised first volume in 1909. For
the 20th century the dictionaries of Eric Partridge are valuable. Slang in the
United States is so rich and varied that collectors have as yet only scratched the
surface, but the work by Harold Wentworth and Stuart B. Flexner, Dictionary of
American Slang (1960), can be consulted. The argot of the underworld has been
treated in many studies by David W. Maurer.

Of all specialized dictionaries, the bilingual group are the most serviceable and
frequently used. With the rise of the vernacular languages during the
Renaissance, translating to and from Latin had great importance. The Welshman
in England was provided with a bilingual dictionary as early as 1547, by

William Salesbury. Scholars in their analyses of language, as well as practical

people for everyday needs, are anxious to have bilingual dictionaries. Even
the most exotic and remote languages have been tackled, often by religious
missionaries with the motive of translating the Bible.
Dictionaries dealing with special areas of vocabulary are so overwhelming in
number that they can merely be alluded to here. In English, the earliest was a
glossary of law terms published in 1527 by John Rastell. His purpose, he said,
was ―to expound certain obscure and dark terms concerning the laws of this
realm.‖ The dictionaries of technical terms in many fields often have the purpose
of standardizing the terminology; this normative aim is especially important in
newly developing countries where the language has not yet become
accommodated to modern technological needs. In some fields, such as
philosophy, religion, or linguistics, the terminology is closely tied to a particular
school of thought or the individual system of one writer, and, consequently, a
lexicographer is obliged to say ―according to Kant,‖ ―in the usage of Christian
Science,‖ ―as used by Bloomfield,‖ and so on.

How to use a dictionary effectively

Reasons for using a dictionary

A dictionary is a very important tool for anyone who is learning a new language. With
a good dictionary you can do the following:

• look up the meaning of an English word you see or hear

• find the English translation of a word in your language
• check the spelling of a word
• check the plural of a noun or past tense of a verb
• find out other grammatical information about a word
• find the synonym or antonym of a word
• look up the collocations of a word
• check the part of speech of a word
• find out how to say a word
• find out about the register of a word
• find examples of the use of a word in natural language

To be a good dictionary user, however, it is not enough to know what to use the
dictionary for. You must also decide which is the best dictionary for any of the
purposes listed above. As well as this, you need to be able to find what you are
looking for quickly; you need to be sure that you have found what you were looking
for; and, most importantly, you need to know when to use your dictionary.

Knowing which dictionary to use

Electronic dictionaries are the best choice for ESL students. Most of them contain
native-language equivalents and explanations, as well as definitions and example
sentences in English. They can speak the
English word to you, and they are easy to carry around. However, they are
expensive and easy to lose, so put your name on yours!

A cheaper possibility, if you are going to work at the computer, is to use an online
dictionary. A very good one for ESL students is the Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English. Alternatively, if you open Google and type, for example,
define: superstitious, you will get a long list of different definitions of superstitious.

A good monolingual dictionary is recommended for students who already have a

high standard of English and want to learn about word use.
Finding words quickly

This is a skill that you need to practice. Ask someone to write down 5 words and see
how long it takes you to find them. Of course, you will need to know the English
alphabet perfectly, so practice this too. Use the guide words at the top of each
dictionary page; and keep practicing until you can find any word within 10
seconds. You should also practice finding words in your own language in your bilingual
dictionary. If you use an electronic dictionary, take some time at home to learn how it
works and, again, practice finding words quickly.

Finding the right meaning of an English word

Very often when you look up a new English word, you find that it has more than
one meaning. If you are not sure which one is correct, here‘s what you can do:

• First, check through all the meanings and find the one that makes most sense in
the context where you found the word. (Very often, many of the different
meanings are similar and this should be enough to give you a good idea what
the word means.)
• Second, if you really want to make sure, think what the word is in your own
language and look it up in a bilingual dictionary. If one of the English
translations is the original word you looked up, then you can be satisfied that
you have found the right meaning.

Finding the right spelling

Another problem you may have is when you want to check your spelling but you can‘t
find the word you‘re looking for. What can you do?

• If you are sure of the first few letters, just look down the page until you find
the right spelling. (Again, it is helpful to check the meaning is the one you
expect.)
• If you are not sure of the first few letters, try some other possibilities. You know
for example that some words that start with an -n sound have k as their first
letter; e.g. knife, knight. So if you can't
find the word under N, try looking in the K pages.
• If you still can‘t find the word, think what it is in your language and look it
up in your bilingual dictionary.

[Advice on using the computer spellcheck]

Finding the right English translation of a word in your language

When you look up a word in your own language in a bilingual dictionary, you will
probably find that there is more than one English translation. If you are not sure
which to use, you could try a back translation. This means that you look up the
English translations one by one in a monolingual dictionary. If a word has a definition
that matches the word in your language, you are safe to use it.

Knowing when to use the dictionary

If you look up every new word you see or hear, you will spend your whole day with
the dictionary in your hand. That‘s no good! You have to be clever and choose the
right words to check and the right time to do it. Try to follow the advice below and
you will become a much more efficient language learner:

• When you find a new word while reading, finish the sentence (better: the
paragraph). If you haven‘t guessed the meaning and it still seems important,
then you can look it up. To avoid interrupting your reading for too long, you
should find its meaning in your own language using a bilingual dictionary.

• When you hear a new word in class (or the teacher has written it on the board),
wait and continue listening. What the teacher says next may help you to
understand the word. If you look in your dictionary, you will not hear what
comes next, and this will make understanding the lesson more and more
difficult.
If you think the word is very important, you could copy it from the board or
write how you think it is spelled. Then later you could ask the teacher or
another student what it
means.
ACTIVITY # 2
DICTIONARY:DEFINITION,KINDS/TYPES AND USE

NAME: ____________________________ DATE: ___________

COURSE & SECTION : ___________________ SCORE : __________

DICTIONARY:DEFINITION, KINDS/TYPES AND USES (25 pts)

EXERCISES: A. Choose and tick the best answer.

1. His dictionaries were not ―museums‖ but tools that encouraged schoolchildren to
learn about language.

o Philip Babcock

o Gove Edward L. Thorndike

o William Salesbury

2. One of the chief demands is that a dictionary should be ―___,‖ and the word is
ambiguous.

o Authoritative

o prescriptive

o descriptive

3. A kind of dictionary which remains the supreme completed achievement in

all lexicography

o The American Heritage Dictionary

o The Oxford English Dictionary
o The Macquarie Dictionary

4. A kind of dictionary which is overwhelming in their variety and their diversity. Each
area of lexical study, such as etymology, pronunciation, and usage, can have a
dictionary of its own.

o Specialized dictionaries
o Scholarly dictionaries
o Conceptual dictionaries

5. A very important tool for anyone who is learning a new language.

o Vocabulary
o Dictionary
o Book

B. Answer the following questions briefly.

1. What is the commonly called of abridged size dictionaries? (2 pts)

2. Describe (1) kind of dictionary.(3pts.)

3. What are the reasons for using the dictionary? (4pts)

4. How to use dictionary effectively?(5pts)

C . Label the parts of a dictionary entry correctly. (6 pts)

moun-tain , noun 1. A large area of land that rises to

great height. 2. A large pile of amount

moun-tain (moun’tәn):noun , plural mountains

Prepared by:

Mrs. Gina G. Mendoza

CUP – Part timer- lecturer
III. WHAT IS PHONOLOGICAL TRANSCRIPTION?

Phonetic transcription (also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation) is

the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones) by means of symbols. The
most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the
International Phonetic Alphabet.

TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM

Our pronunciation model is the British accent called Received Pronunciation

(RP).The transcription is illustrated on the inside of the cover of this book. We
follow the IPA(International Phonetics Association) system as represented by the
Longman Pronouncing Dictionary (LPD) , 1990 , and adopted in the latest editions of
the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English(LDOCE), the Oxford Advanced
Learner‘s DICTIONARY OF Current English (OALD), Stora engelsk- American
pronunciations (other than the pronunciation of /r/ and /әƱ/, we also give the
American transcription according to LPD: the Bristish pronunciation to the left and
the American to the right of double bars (II). The American model is General
American (GA).

Most consonant phonemes are represented by ordinary letters and are therefore not
included on the cover: /p b t d k g m n l r f v s h j/. Length is marked by /:/. Stress
is nowadays marked before the syllable that carries the stress , either as primary
stress/‘/ at the top of the line or as secondary stress/,/ at the bottom :
pro,nunci‘ation /prә,ռʌռs¡‘ eiƒռ/. The marker is placed at the boundary between
syllables (―stavelsegrȁns‖), which is generally before one consonant, if there is
only one between two vowels, between two consonants, and after the first
consonant if there are three: e.g .,a‘bandon / ә‘bӕndәn/, com‘modity / kә‘mɒdәtill-
mɒ:d/ , im‘ply /im‘plaì/. A consonant + /r,l,j,w/ is regarded as one unit and thus
belongs to the to the latter syllable: re‘treat /rı‘tri:t/ , re‘ply /rı‘plaì/ , re‘fuse
/rı‘ƒju:z/, be‘tween /bı‘twi:n/. In prefixed and compound words the syllable
boundary is usually found after the prefix and between the elements of the
compound: un‘able /ʌn‘eıbl/, com‘ponent / kәm‘pәυnәnt/ ,‘loud‘speaker
/‘laυd‘spi:kә//

Ordinary writing and transcription

There are some important differences between writing and transcription. The
following devices do not occur in transcription:

• Capital letters: Bill- /bıl/

• Double consonant(except when there is a syllable boundary) : Bill / bıl/, Betty
/‘beti/ , etc. But note : solely /‘sәυl(l)i/ , misspell / ‗mıs‘spәl/.
• The letters x and c : tax /tӕks/ , circle /‘s3;kl/ , etc.
• Punctuation marks such as full stops, commas, exclamation and question
marks. Instead a vertical bar (I) is used to mark tone – unit boundaries.

Note also :
• Combinations of letters may correspond to one single sound: song /sɒɳllsɒ:ɳ/
, ship /ʃıp/ , lack /lӕk/, spread / spred/ , etc
• One letter may correspond to several sounds: box / bɒksllba:ks/ ,
exact /ıg‘zӕkt/, etc. • A letter may be mute: doubt , almond, etc.
 • The same letter or letters may be pronounced differently words: go- do- done:
get – gem /dვem/: chap /tʃӕp/ - chaos / ‗keıɒsìl-ɑ:s/ - champagne
/ʃӕm‘peìn/, etc.
• The same sound may correspond to different letters: see /si:/ - beat /bi:t/ - me
/mi:/ - piece /pi:s/ ; job /dვɒbilldვɑ:b/ - gem /dვem/ - judge / dვʌdვ/ - spinach
/spìnìdვll-ıtʃ/, etc.

What is Phonology?

Phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds
in a language. It is, in affect, based on a theory of what every speaker of a language
unconsciously knows about the sound patterns of that language. Because of this
theoretical status, phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the
sound in language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds .

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

➢ Addition – adding a sound which wasn‘t there before

e.g. . , gamle gamble
➢ Deletion - contraction in fast speech
e.g., I‘ll, friendship
➢ Substitution (or changing)
- Assimilation
➢ Rearrangement
- e.g., comfortable comftorble
PHO f r ont vowel s andbac

PHONOLOGICAL RULES

• Rules about how sounds may or may not go together in a language

- English : words may not start with two stop consonants
- German: Devoicing rule – voiced consonants at the ends of words are
devoiced. e.g., /g/--/k/ - Turkish : Vowel harmony – in two syllable—words
the 2nd vowel dependent on the first ( front vowels and back vowels go
together)

The relation between them and how they affect each other. How sounds are
combined ? How speech are organized into systems in different languages
?Phonology deals with the sound systems languages. Phonetics deals with the
physical properties of the elements of the sound system, e.g. how the sound is
physically produced. What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?

What knowledge do we possess about the phonological rules in our language?

Which sound sequences might be a word in our language thrim/blamp vs.
gdit/rpukn .How to pronounce words we never heard before . Change foreign
words to pattern like the words in our language .We know how to apply rules to
words we never heard before.

These differences are usually expressed using phonological rules. word transcription n
context 1 stop [stɔp] After [s] 2 time [tʰajm] Syllable initial 3 butter bʌɾər Between
vowelsν All these are allophones of the phoneme /t/. ν Example: the [t] in time is
aspirated, but that in stop is not. aspiration= pause + air release prior to next sound
ν There are more [t]‘s than you know νAllophones of /t/

Phonological knowledge of the pattern of sounds in English will allow you to find some
combination of sounds as acceptable and some as not. e. g. lig, vig but not fslg or
nglsb. Permitted arrangements of sounds. Constraints on the sequence or position of
phonemes .
 PRACTICE: Put your fingers in front of your throat:

• Say the letters “V’ & “F”

• What is the difference?
• Now , try these letters combinations:
B/P D/T G/K Z/S
NAME: ____________________________ DATE: ___________

COURSE & SECTION : ___________________ SCORE : __________

ACTIVITY # 3 PHONOLOGICAL TRANSCIPTION

EXERCISE: Do the following: (25 PTS.)

I. Write each of the following words in phonetic transcription .

Example: quiz - /kwiz/ (10PTS.)

1. heat - _______ 6. shrink - _________

2. stroke -_______ 7. toque - _________
3. phase - _______ 8. attentive- ________
4. chump - _______ 9. flop - ________
5. loonie - _______ 10. wrath - ________

II. The following is a phonetic transcription of an excerpt of the poem

"The Walrus and the Carpenter", from Lewis Carroll's book Through the
Looking Glass. Each line of the poem contains one word that is
transcribed incorrectly, at the phonemic or "broad" level of transcription.

Task #1: Identify the word that has been transcribed

incorrectly, and then write the correct form of the transcription.
(5 PTS)

Task #2: Write each line in normal English orthography.

Example : [ænd wɑj dә si ɪs bojlɪŋ hɑt] Ans: Correction: [ɪs] → [ɪz]
Orthography: and why the sea is boiling hot (10 PTS.)

1: [dә tajm hæz cʌm] Correction: _____________________________

Orthography : _____________________________

2: [dә wɑlrәs sed] ] Correction: _____________________________

Orthography : _____________________________

3: [tu tɑlk әv mɛni θɪŋz] ] Correction:

_____________________________
Orthography : ___________________________

4: [әv ʃuz ɑnd ʃɪps] ] Correction: _____________________________

Orthography : _____________________________

5: [ænd silɪŋ wæx] ] Correction: _____________________________

Orthography : _____________________________

Prepared by:

Mrs. Gina G. Mendoza

CUP – Part timer- lecturer
IV. CULTURAL BACK BACKGROUNDS IN TEXTS

Language and culture are associated with each other and culture occupies an obvious
status in English reading. However, the traditional teaching method lays emphasis on
vocabulary, sentence and grammar. And it ignores the great influence of cultural
background knowledge. Though investigation the author finds that a lot of students
do not have strong awareness to apply culture background knowledge in English
reading. Some students who have realize the importance of culture background
knowledge have no idea about how to apply it in English reading.

INTRODUCTION

With the development of global economy and society, the trend of economic and
cultural integration appeared. And the international cooperation and communication
is increasing. English is occupying a more and more important status [1]. So, more
and more people begin to learn English. English even becomes the most important
foreign language to Chinese students. And reading is of great importance, which is the
basic way of obtaining a foreign language and the most important skill among the four
basic language skills [2]. To master a foreign language well, we have to get enough
input by reading.
However, many students‘ reading ability is still poor even if they do much reading
every day. That is exactly because they ignore the importance of cultural background
knowledge [3]. Many students just master a large quantity of knowledge about
vocabulary, phonetics and grammar. They pay no attention to culture, which is
closely associated with language. It is obviously not the right way of reading.
American linguist Edward Sapir says: ―Language cannot exist without culture. Culture
can be explained as what the society thinks and does, and language is the expression
of the ideas of the society‖ [4]. From what he says we can see that culture reflects
language and occupies a vital position in mastering a foreign language. The purpose
of this paper is to help students and teachers realize the important role that cultural
background knowledge plays in reading comprehension and to improve students‘
reading ability efficiently [5]. readers are not able to understand the deep meaning of
a passage without adequate background knowledge and it is the lack of background
knowledge that causes students‘ poor reading comprehension. This paper will present
the influence of cultural background knowledge and illustrate the necessity of
mastering enough culture knowledge in English reading.

CULTURAL BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN ENGLISH READING

2.1 The introduction of reading

2.1.1 The Concept of Reading

Reading is the main way for people to get language input and one of the four basic
English skills. For many years, notions of reading have changed a lot. In the first
definition, reading was defined as a decoding process and learning to read means
learning to identify words. Reading used to be regarded as a one -way flow of
information to the brain [6]. It is now thought to be a two-way communication
between readers‘ brain and the passage. The second definition defines reading as
combing meaning with a text and a creative activity between the reader and the text.

Although there have been various definitions of reading, it is hard to define it just in a
single sentence. According to Smith: ―instead of mechanically pronouncing sound
from the passage, reading is a constructive process of making sense of the text‖.
Many researchers agree that the central purpose of reading is to produce meaning
[7]. At present, a more inclusive definition of reading is supported by many
researchers. We tend to support Dechant‘s definition which defines reading as
―building a representation of text by relating what is on the page to one‘s own fund of
experience. Reading involves text, reader, and the interaction between text and
reader [8]. Anthony holds that reading is a process producing meaning by making use
of the readers‘ previous knowledge, the information expressed by the passage, and
the context. We can notice that the style of the text, figure of speech, grammar and
vocabulary all have great impact on reading comprehension. However, reading may
differ when readers come from different culture, family
and education. American psychologist Goodman points out that reading is: ―a
psycholinguistic guessing game in which the reader reconstructs meaning encoded by
a writer as a graphic display‖. In a word, reading is a complex process of interaction
among the reader, writer and the text, which involves the readers pre-exist
background knowledge, the present context, and the specific text being read.

2.1.2 Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability of reading passage, processing it and making

sense of its meaning. It is not easy to teach, learn or practice reading comprehension
though its definition may seem simple. Before the 1970s, reading comprehension
means decoding language before the 1970s [9]. Reading comprehension is defined as
the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction
between the words and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. An individual‘s
ability to understand a text is influenced by a lot of factors, such as their
characteristics and skills, one of which is the ability to make inferences. When there
are difficult words in a passage, students always use too much of their processing
capacity to understand individual words, which has great impact on their ability of
making sense of what they are reading. Comprehension is a ―creative, multifaceted
process‖ dependent upon four language skills: phonology, syntax, semantics, and
pragmatics. As the cognitive process develops, great importance has been attached to
the function of nonlinguistic knowledge in reading comprehension. Fergus I.M.

Craik and Robert S. Lockhart first put forward a theory: Reading comprehension
involves various processes, including shadow processing and deep processing.
Shadow processing involves structural and phonemic recognition, the processing of
sentence and word structure and their associated sounds [10]. Deep processing
involves semantic processing, which happens when we encode the meaning of a word
and relate it to similar words. There are some specific factors that determine how
successfully an individual will comprehend a text. According to schema theory,
reading comprehension is the result of the interaction between the background
knowledge of the reader and the reading materials. Schema theory plays a vital role
in reading comprehension. Such as, assisting students in absorbing information,
attracting student‘s attention for important information, helping readers search
memories methodically. So, teachers should realize the importance of developing
students‘ schema in teaching reading. Students should attach great importance to
schemata while they are reading.

2.2 The Introduction to Culture

2.2.1 The Definition of Culture

There are distinct kinds of definitions of culture. Background knowledge encompasses

cultural knowledge, social knowledge, common senses, linguistic knowledge, etc.
From common knowledge to very specialized knowledge, it includes the knowledge
of the world. In terms of language teaching perspective, it refers to individuals
previous world knowledge and special knowledge on a certain subject.
As for culture, there are all kinds of definitions from different experts. Sir Edward B.
Tylor first gave a profound scientific concept of culture in 1871. He believed that
culture, or civilization, taken in its broad, ethnographic sense, is that complex whole
which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities
and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Culture is the characteristics and
knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language,
religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts. Culture refers to the pattern of human
activity and the symbols which give significance to this activity. Culture is
represented through the art, literature, costumes, customs, and traditions of a
community. Different cultures exist in different parts of the word.

2.2.2 The Importance of Culture

From the above discussions, we realize that culture plays a very important role in
reading comprehension. And culture itself is of great importance. Culture is a bond
that ties the people of a region or community together. It is the one common bond
that brings the people of a community together. The customs and
traditions that the people of a community follow, the festivals they celebrate, the
kind of clothing they wear, the food they eat, and most importantly, the cultural
values they adhere to, bind them together. The cultural values help develop a sense
of belonging, and a feeling of unity in the minds of the people of that particular
culture. Culture is seen as a system of social control, wherein people share their
standards and behavior. The cultural values from the founding principles of one‘s
life. They influence one‘s principles and philosophy of living. They impact our way of
living and thus affect our social life. In a word, the importance of culture lies in the
fact that it is a link between people and their value systems.

2.2.3 The Application of Culture in English Reading

It is no doubt that cultural background knowledge occupies a significant position in

English reading. We often find that readers cannot understand the passage they are
reading even though they are aware of the meaning of the words and grammar
structures in it. The reason of this phenomenon is that the readers don‘t master
enough cultural background knowledge. They don‘t realize that there are cultural
differences in the language they are learning. Without adequate cultural background
knowledge relating to a text, it is impossible to understand the language in reading.

Phillips once pointed out: ―a successful reading of any passage depends upon a
combination of linguistic knowledge, cognitive skill and general experience and
knowledge of the world, whether acquired by experience or by learning, influence
greatly the reading comprehension process, for the more the reader brings to the
text, the more is taken away‖. We cannot get the deep meaning behind lines without
the help of cultural background knowledge, because a word may have different
meanings in different circumstances of culture. Thus, if Chinese students do not know
anything about western culture, including customs, histories, life style and values, he
or she may not able to comprehend the exact meaning of the passage
ACTIVITTY # 4 CULTURAL BACK BACKGROUNDS IN TEXTS

NAME: __________________________________ DATE: ____________

COURSE & SECTION : ____________________ SCORE : ____________

CULTURAL BACK BACKGROUNDS IN TEXTS

I . On the basis of schema theory. Please read the following items carefully
and make you own choice. Write the correct answer on the line .

1. Do you think you have a large quantity of reading?

A . Yes B . No C. Maybe
2. Do you think new words and complex sentences are the biggest
difficulties in reading?
A . Yes B . No C. Maybe
3. Do you know schema theory?
A . Yes B . No C. Maybe
4. Do you think cultural background knowledge is of use for
reading?
A . Yes B. No C. Maybe
5. Have you stored a lot of cultural background
knowledge?
A . Yes B. No C. Maybe
6 . Will you apply cultural background knowledge in reading?
A. Yes B. No C. Maybe

II. Answer the following questions briefly. ( 2 pts each)

1. According to Edward Sapir says: “Language cannot exist without

culture‖. In your own words/ideas , what does it mean to you?

2. What is the important role of culture in reading text or reading

comprehension?

Prepared by:

Mrs. Gina G. Men

 V. Vocabulary: Introduction

Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or comprehend in listening.

Reading vocabulary refers to words we comprehend or use in print. In the Simple
View of Reading, which describes reading as having two basic components — word
recognition and comprehension — vocabulary falls under language comprehension.

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. Beginning readers must use
the words they hear orally to make sense of the words they see in print.

Consider, for example, what happens when a beginning reader comes to the word dig
in a book. As she begins to figure out the sounds represented by the letters d, i, and
g, the reader recognizes that the sounds make up a very familiar word that she has
heard and said many times. It is harder for a beginning reader to figure out words
that are not already part of her speaking (oral) vocabulary.

Furthermore, as children advance to reading longer, more complex types of words,

many English words have more than one plausible phonetic pronunciation. For
example, canopy could be cuh-NOP-ee instead of CAN up-ee; timid could be
pronounced with a long i in the first syllable (like time – id) instead of with a short i. If
children already have these words in their oral vocabularies, it will be easier for them
to read the words correctly.

Vocabulary is also very important to reading comprehension. Readers cannot

understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As
children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new
words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

There are four types of vocabulary:

• Listening vocabulary: the words we need to know to understand what we hear

• Speaking vocabulary: the words we use when we speak

• Reading vocabulary: the words we need to know to understand what we read

• Writing vocabulary: the words we use in writing

In assessment of vocabulary in beginning or struggling readers, use of an oral

measure (listening and/or speaking vocabulary) is very important. A written
measure of vocabulary will confound vocabulary knowledge with reading skills.

For instance, if a poor decoder obtains a low score on a vocabulary measure that
requires reading, it will be difficult to know whether the low score actually reflects
vocabulary limitations or merely the fact that the child could not decode the words on
the test.
ACTIVITY #5 VOCABULARY

NAME: __________________________________ DATE: ____________

COURSE & SECTION : _____________________ SCORE : ___________

VOCABULARY: Shade the circle of the correct answer.

1. Which of the following is an example of vocabulary instruction?

o teaching students about the spelling pattern "ai"

o explaining the words: sphere, cylinder, and cube
o demonstrating how to sound out "interaction"
o none of the above

2. _________ is a way of teaching vocabulary in a direct manner.

o Testing students on words they already know

o Providing students with strategies for learning words
o Asking students to identify which words rhyme
o Giving students a passage to read orally

3. Most word meanings are learned:

o through hearing words in context

o through vocabulary instruction
o both A and B
o none of the above

4. Which student is engaged in vocabulary instruction?

o Adam, who learns that inject, reject, and object

share the word root, ject
o Brianna, who helps her friend to spell the words
take and mistake
o Omar, who is playing a game of Hangman
o all of the above

5. Vocabulary may be learned indirectly through:

o learning word parts

o listening to an adult read aloud
o vocabulary tests
o learning to use context clues

6. Which child is engaged in direct vocabulary instruction?

o Charlie, who is listening to his teacher read aloud the

story, Charlotte's Web
o Shelly, who is reading on her own
o Molly, whose teacher is discussing how the prefix
 un- changes a word
o Tom, who is having a conversation with his dad

7. Which of the following is an example of vocabulary instruction?

o teaching word roots

o teaching multiple meanings
o teaching prefixes
o all of the above

8. Beginning readers have a difficult time comprehending words that are NOT

part of their:

o oral vocabulary
o listening vocabulary
o writing vocabulary
o reading vocabulary

9. A way of learning vocabulary indirectly is through:

o taking vocabulary tests

o teaching prefixes and suffixes
o playing word games
o hearing words used in context

10. Which of these is a component of effective vocabulary instruction?

o Pre-teach content and academic vocabulary found in a text book

before reading the text
o creating opportunities for students to hear, say, write, and read
new vocabulary
o anchor new vocabulary to existing background knowledge
o all of the above

Prepared by:

Mrs. Gina G. Mendoza

CUP – Part timer- lecturer