CHAPTER 2 Literature Review
This chapter provides an overview of literature in the areas relevant to the present
study and consists of six sections. The first section introduces the process of reading
comprehension and summarizes its application to early EFL reading. The second
section provides a brief description of the building blocks of an effective early reading
instruction. The third section reviews literatures related to the learning strategy of
scaffolding. Its application on to reading instruction is also discussed. The fourth
section provides a brief interpretation of collaborative learning and its application on
reading instruction. The fifth section introduces a brief categorization of computer
technology application on reading instruction. The last section reviews the late
application of mobile technology in learning and reading instruction.
2.1 Reading comprehension process
Based on the theory of information processing systems, the language processing
can be viewed as a parallel interactive process (Carroll, 1999). While reading a context,
children use lower level linguistic knowledge, such as the phonological level, to
identify the phonemes and syllables that the lecture is using. Concurrently, they also
use higher level lexical knowledge, such as the lexical level from their semantic
memory to retrieve the lexical entries of the words based on the identified phonemes
and syllables. Ehri (1995, p.11) called it an interactive model of the reading process. In
order to reconstruct language during reading, the reader must attend to syntactic,
semantic and pragmatic strategies. Decoding must be automatic and the corresponding
words must be easily connected with the words during decoding. Compared with
Ehri’s interactive reading process model, to an EFL early reader the background
knowledge acquired by their first language (Lin, 2002) and the oral language skills
(Rivers, 1981) are also essential high level linguistic skills while reading a written
context. Based on Ehri’s reading process model, this mental process of EFL early
reading was modified in a mutually interactive cognitive processing model as in Figure
1.
Working memory:
Figure out the meaning of written context
Comprehension skills of oral language Metacognitive
knowledge
Lexical knowledge:
Sight words Vocabulary Letter name
Background Knowledge
Syntactic knowledge:
Sentence Phrase
Rules of grammar
Written text
Phonological knowledge:
Phonemic awareness Phoneme-grapheme linking Syllable-segmentation Phonemic-segmentation Phonics skills
Lower level linguistic knowledge High level linguistic knowledge
Comprehend the written
Figure 1. Mutual interactive cognitive processing model of EFL early reading.
In this model both top-down and bottom-up processes operate in parallel. That is
readers use low level knowledge, such as phonemic awareness and phonics skills, to
identify the phonemes and syllables that the context is using. Simultaneously, they also
use a higher level knowledge, the lexical knowledge, to retrieve the lexical entries of
the words from semantic memory via those identified phonemes and syllables. Then
they match the identified words with the sight words, vocabulary and spoken language
as well as involving the syntactic knowledge and background knowledge to figure out
the meaning of the text. A reader’s lower level linguistic skills, such as phonological
knowledge and Lexical knowledge, must be automatic or the working memory of the
reader will not have enough capacity to process the higher level lexical information. As
a result, children will fail in comprehending a written context. Research evidence also
suggested that such low level linguistic skills are appropriate predictors of children’s
later reading achievement (Anthony, Lonigan, Driscoll, Phillips, & Burgess, 2003;
Guron & Lundberg, 2003; Hulme, 2002; Larrivee & Catts, 1999; Mody, 2003;
Nag-Arulmani, Reddy, & Buckley, 2003; Passenger, Stuart, & Terrell, 2000; Vadasy,
Jenkins, & Pool, 2000). That is, each child should develop those skills in early school
years otherwise there will be a bigger probability that he or she will fail in later reading
achievement.
This brings EFL reading to a natural balance between meaning and skill-based
learning (Bensoussan, 1998). It also underlines the importance of the automation of the
interacting cognitive and linguistic processes during reading. Numerous researches are
consistent with the above argument (Frost, 2000; Pressley, 1998; Strickland, 1998),
they all emphasize the importance of introducing reading for meaning, and not simply
decoding, right after the pupils have some low level linguistic knowledge of the
spoken language (Brewster & Ellis, 2002).
2.2 Early reading instruction program
According to the research report conducted by the NRP (2000), an effective
elementary reading program must contain the following five components: (1)
phonemic awareness instruction to help children learn to notice, think about, and work
with the individual sounds in spoken words; (2) phonics instruction to teach children
the relationships between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the
individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language; (3) fluency instruction to children
so that they learn to read a text accurately and quickly; (4) vocabulary instruction to
increase the number of words for which children know the meanings; and (5) text
comprehension instruction help children become purposeful and active readers.
The five components need to be integrated as children learn to read. Therefore, an
effective elementary EFL reading program should be balanced and capable of
providing elementary EFL learners with effective training activities of low level
linguistics knowledge (phoneme awareness, phonics, and vocabulary) as well as the
opportunities to apply this low level linguistics knowledge to fluently read a text and
comprehend its meaning.
Unfortunately only phonics and oral communication skills are taught in most
elementary EFL settings of Taiwan (Lan, Chang, & Sung ,2004), the EFL teachers’
lack of experience in designing and teaching a reading program is correspondent with
the requirement argued by the NRP. Thus it is urgent that a balanced elementary EFL
reading program is constructed which is fit for the reality of elementary EFL settings in
Taiwan. This thesis will develop a balanced elementary EFL reading program
according to requirements for an effective elementary reading program. This will
provide further understanding about the above issue.
2.3 Scaffolding
Scaffolding is providing enough support to enable learners to succeed in more
complex tasks, and hence to extend the range of experiences from which they can learn
(Davis & Linn, 2000). It often involves providing support (models, cues, prompts,
hints, partial solutions) to students to bridge the gap between what students can do on
their own and what they can do with guidance from others (advanced peers, teacher, or
other adults). The goal of providing scaffolds is for students to become independent,
self-regulated thinkers who are more self-sufficient and less teacher or peer dependent.
Thus the support is temporary, and can be gradually decreased as students’ competence
increases (Diaz-Rico & Weed, 2002; Rosenshine & Meister, 1992). In addition, the
teacher’s role shifts from being a model or an instructor to being a manager who gives
cues as well as corrective and real-time feedback.
There are two types of scaffolding involved in reading instructions for at-risk
children when the focus is on who offers the scaffolding support. One type of
scaffolding gave positive comments about efficiency of peer-assisted learning
strategies (Fuchs, Fuchs, Mathes, & Simmons, 1997; George & Patrick, 2002; Mathes,
Torgesen, & Allor, 2001). As Hartup (1992) said that children teaching each other are
generally effective in cognitive activities. Similarly, Greenwood and his colleagues
(Greenwood, 1996) have reported that the Class Wide Peer Tutoring model they have
used, increased the improvements in learning outcomes in reading.
Another type of scaffolding involves adult-child interactive dialogue (Bellon &
Ogleetree, & Harn, 2000; Juel, 1996). Adult involvement in any activity with children
can promote the efficiency of the learning process (Vygotsky, 1978). Other researches
pointed out that adult speech played an important role in young child’s language
acquisition (Bloom & Lahey, 1978; Brown, 1958; Mervis & Mervis, 1982; Ninio &
Bruner, 1978). The study results suggested that adult naming practices guide children
through lexical development. Like Campbell (2001) concluded in a longitudinal study
of one child’s interactive story reading from birth to 5-years-of-age, without direct
teaching she acquired a visual memory of words and knowledge of phonics and she
also showed an increasing sensitivity to rhythm, which she used in her writing, and an
empathy with the story. Just as argued by Cazden (1983) that three forms of adult
“input” that occurred as parents communicated with young children: scaffolds, models,
and direct instruction play an important role in child’s language development.
Although peer-assisted learning benefits children’s cognitive learning activities
and increases the improvements in learning outcomes in reading, the reality of
elementary EFL setting in Asia might inhibit the effect of scaffolding on teaching
reading. The EFL settings in Asia are quite different from that in the Western countries.
As an example, in Taiwan, there are about 30 students with diverse reading abilities in
an EFL class at elementary level. Some of them are able to read individually, yet some
of them are unable to recognize the common sight words or to decode and encode a
new word. There is only one EFL teacher to take charge all of the teaching and
classroom management tasks. The teaching time is only 2 forty-minute lessons a week.
Furthermore, the resources that are available to the EFL teachers and learners are quite
different between city and town locations.
In an elementary EFL class in Taiwan, does peer-assisted learning happen in a
small reading group? If it does, are there any difficulties reducing the effect of
peer-assisted learning in a small reading group? In addition, how to embed the adult’s
(the EFL teacher’s) scaffolding in reading activities run in a small reading group? All
these questions will be investigated in this study.
2.4 Collaborative Learning
Collaborative learning is a learning approach in which peer interaction plays a
significant role (Ravenscroft, Buckless, & Hassall, 1999) and students work together to
accomplish shared goals (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). While using collaborative
learning approaches, teachers need to make sure that all students are actively involved
in the process working towards a common goal (Artz & Newman, 1990). Rather than a
seating arrangement, in collaborative learning, students are positively interdependent
with each other in a teaching-learning situation to reach their learning goals. Five
essential components teachers should structure into lessons to guarantee students to
collaborate well: positive interdependence, promotive interaction, individual
accountability, interpersonal and small-group skills, and group processing (Johnson &
Johnson, 1994). The idea is that lessons are created in such a way that students must
collaborate in order to achieve their learning objectives.
Collaborative learning can be implemented in three basic forms: tutoring (peer or
cross-age), in which one student teaches another; pairs, in which students work and
learn with each other; and small groups of students are teaching and learning together.
Spencer Kagan (1990) has identified several collaborative learning structures, which
are approaches of organizing the interaction of students by prescribing students’
behaviors step by step to accomplish their learning goal. Several well-known
collaborative learning structures are as follows: reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT)
(Fantuzzo, King, & Heller, 1992), Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD)
(Slavin, 1986), The Math Solution (Burns, 1987), Finding Out/Descubrimiento
(DeAvila & Duncan, 1980), Team Assisted Individualization (TAI) (Slavin, Levey, &
Madden, 1986), Teaching and Pair Methods, Group Investigation (Sharan & Sharan,
1976), Circles of Learning (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1986), and JIGSAW
(Slavin, 1986).
In a review of the literature on collaborative learning and students’ reading skills,
Ushioda (1996) suggests that collaborative learning can promote students’ learning
motivation and satisfaction. Researchers (Nichols & Miller, 1994) have also found that
collaborative learning helps push students involved in group goal pursuit. Slavin (1988)
found that collaborative learning methods are considerably more effective than
traditional methods in increasing basic achievement outcomes, including performance
on standardized tests of reading and language arts, mathematics, social studies, and
science. Students’ EFL reading achievement and academic self-esteem are improving
as well as their feeling of school alienation is decreasing in collaborative learning
situation (Ghaith, 2003).
Even though collaborative learning has been known as an effective teaching
method in EFL reading, it is necessary to have a further investigation specifically into
what interactive behaviors that Asian students have in collaborative learning
processing, into which collaborative learning activity structure will bring positive
results, and into what kind of role an EFL teacher in Asia should play in collaborative
reading activities. Also it is important to identify what difficulties the elementary EFL
learners experience that inhibit them from doing collaborative reading with their peers.
In this study, the analysis of qualitative data will provide further information about
these demands for applying collaborative learning strategy in the elementary EFL
settings in Asia.
2.5 Computer technology for early reading instruction
Computers are the latest technology to influence the learning activities in
classrooms. The research report conducted by Atkinson and Hansen (1966-1967) is the
first documented use of computers for reading instruction. Reitsma (1988) found that
independent reading practice with computer speech feedback was a useful tool for
helping improve early reading skills. The benefits of using computer instruction to
teach early reading skills are that students can receive targeted practice on areas of
weakness and can engage in rote skill learning, and the increased opportunity to
receive immediate corrective feedback. The application of computer in reading
instruction can be divided into two categories: The early reading skill training
including phonological knowledge and lexical knowledge; and text comprehension.
The research in the first category emphasizes the automation of the low level
linguistic knowledge, such as phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. On
phonemic awareness, computer technology is able to support phonemic awareness
instruction (Barker & Torgesen, 1995; Mioduser, Tur-Kaspa, & Leitner, 2000; Mitchell
& Fox, 2001; Reitsma & Wesseling, 1998; Van Daal & Reitsma, 2000) because of its
capability to enable immediate association between phonemes and graphemes (Foster,
Erickson, Foster, Brinkman, & Torgesen, 1994).
On phonics instruction, computer software specifically designed to drill students
to master the relationship, such as drilling children on consonant and vowel
letter-sound relationships (Burns, Roe & Ross, 1996; Grabe and Grabe, 1996), or
helping children’s understanding of word segmentation (Wise, 1992; Wise, Olson, &
Treiman, 1990), which, led by computer technology, is able to benefit children
developing fluency and accuracy in word identification.
On children’s vocabulary learning, the use of electronic talking books and
electronic texts with scaffolds has positive impact on supporting children’s vocabulary
development (Anderson-Inman & Horney, 1998; McKenna & Watkins, 1996; Reinking
& Rickman, 1990).
The researches in the second category emphasize mastering of the high level
knowledge, especially the use of metacognitive knowledge to comprehend a written
text. Computer technology is capable of supporting comprehension instruction by
using concept mapping to enhance text comprehension and summarization (Chang,
Sung, & Chen, 2002), of enhancing students’ strategy use and reading comprehension
(Sung, Huang, & Chang, under review). By using interactive texts (Higgins & Boone,
1991), e-books (Matthew, 1997; Medwell, 1996; Lewin, 1997) and multimedia
presentation of information, computer technology is also capable of facilitating
children’s reading comprehension ability (Sharp, Bransford, Goldman, Risko, Kinzer,
& Vye, 1995).
Though computer technology can support teaching and learning of the low or
high level linguistic knowledge needed in reading, one of the main problems caused by
the dichotomy of the computer software is a lack of a bridge between low level
linguistic knowledge and text comprehension. All the low level knowledge is a critical
part of text comprehension: students who are unable to recognize or decode written
words are unable to read fluently, or do not know the meanings of words and will be
limited in their abilities to comprehend text. Thus, it is worth investigating how to
provide children with a bridge between low level linguistic knowledge and text
comprehension by carefully designed scenarios. This thesis may add to the research on
this question.
2.6 Mobile leaning
Mobile Learning is the use of mobile or wireless devices for learning on the move.
Phones, computers and media devices now fit in our pockets and can connect us with a
variety of information resources and enable communication nearly anywhere and
anytime, which has led to mobile learning receiving increasing attention from
educators and researchers.
Many of the applications of mobile technology in education are using handheld
computers. According to Soloway, Norris, Blumenfeld, Fishman, Krajcik, and Marx
(2001), handheld computers will become an increasingly popular choice of technology
for K-12 classrooms because they will enable a transition from occasional,
supplemental use to frequent, integral use. For example, Tatar, Roschelle, Vahey, and
Penuel (2003) conducted a series of applications of using wireless handheld devices to
enhance K-12 classroom instruction; Zurita and Nussbaum (2004) used wirelessly
interconnected handheld computers in math and language activities for 6- and 7-year
old children; and Pinkwart, Hoppe, Milrad, and Perez (2003) used wireless Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs) to support students’ collaborative knowledge building.
Some mobile learning applications are implemented by using tablet PCs. With the
feature of supporting specific editing function, tablet PCs allow students to note and
mark the learning materials, and to create works in an easy way. For example, the
WiTEC system (Liu, Ko, Chan, Wang, and Wei, 2004) is designed to support teachers
and students to promote communication, in which students read contents on their tablet
PCs, discuss with peers, and also create their work on their devices.
Some researchers, because of their popularity are interested in the potential
application of mobile phones in education. For example, Thornton and Houser (2004)
chose web-enable phones as a medium of delivery to help Japanese university students
learn English idioms.
To date the research into mobile learning gives a potential future that mobile
learning is capable of providing students with a rich, collaborative and conversational
experience in classrooms or out of school, still it is a challenge for educators and
researchers to understand and explore how best mobile technology might be used to
support learning and how students behave in mobile device-supported collaborative
learning activities. It is also important to ask how the existing theories and strategies of
learning to read might be drawn out to deal with the difficulties what inhibit
elementary EFL learners learn to read in a collaborative group. This study will provide
further understanding about this issue.
