Critical Reflection

Main Body

Critical analysis of selected theories

There are number of theories related to reading that help in developing the reading ability among learners that support them in enhancing their knowledge. Some of the commonly known reading theories are explained below:

Schema theory:

As per the view point of Kyrsha Seymour (2019), Schema theory is an explanation of ways in which reader uses prior knowledge to learn new things from presented text. This theory work over fundamental principle that written text doesn't carry meaning by itself rather it provide direction to reader so that they can retrieve meaning from their previously gained knowledge. According to Jeff Pankin (2013), Schema theory is defined as a branch of cognitive science which describes how a brain structure and use knowledge to learn new things. It is basically an organised unit of knowledge for an event or particular subject. Schema get developed and changes with the new experience or information which further supports in enhancement of knowledge. It guides how a person interpret new information which is also have an great influence over their understanding and performance.

Hence Schema theory is a kind of cognitive processing which is used to interpret the data stored in mind in order to collect information from memory that help in organising goals and guides the flow of processing system.

Psycholinguistic model:-

As per the view point of Kieras and Just (2018), Psycholinguistic approach is generally used by speech and language therapists for determining the nature of children's speech, literacy or language so that proper interventions can be targeted. This model consider the organisation of words as well as sound within the child's linguistic system. The speech and language therapist working over this framework try to tap over some specific areas of child's linguistic system for determining the areas where a child is experiencing difficulty. After determining the problem area intervention is decided and then children's existing strength has been used as a foundation for therapy.

On the other side as per the view point of Coltheart (2017), the psycholinguistic framework describe about the function performed while teaching in order to improve the knowledge as well as skills of students. It includes investigating about the difficulties that student is facing while performing activities so that proper analysis can be performed over setting up some dimensions for teaching practice for identifying the measures to overcome such issues. These processes of psycholinguistic model help in improving the knowledge as well as skill of children. Hence this approach is generally used for the assessment and remediation of difficulties that children are facing related to speech disorder. This approach provide a base from which the intervention process can be extract to solve the speech related problems that children are facing.

Application of theory tothe content of Australian Curriculum English

English Curriculum is form up around three interrelated language strands in which teaching as well as learning program get balanced. These are literature, literacy and language which focuses over enhancing the knowledge, skills and understanding of students in learning, speaking, creating, listening and writing. Learning is usually build in earlier years of school i.e. foundation year. In this students are usually engaged within variety of text for enjoyment which includes read, written, view spoken and multimodal texts with an aim to create knowledge among them at initial stage. The reason behind this is that beginning year are the base for student when their reading skills and knowledge get developed. Following are the application of reading theory :

Schema theory is usually applied by several institutions in order to improve the skills and knowledge of students. In English Curriculum there are number of activities performed with students and they are provided with oral texts, different type of stories, picture books, rhyming verse, poetry, multimodal text, oral text and dramatic performance. In addition to this they are encourage to participate in shared reading, storytelling and viewing by using several sources like literature books or any kind of recognised entertaining book. This help in determining several difficult that a particular child is facing while speaking or reading so that it can be rectified quickly. Because as according to schema theory word doesn't carry meaning its all about mental practice that a student perform to extract the meaning of text which he/she experienced for the first time from their previous knowledge.

On the other side Psycholinguistic theory can also be used to improve the speech disorder facing by a student throughout the English curriculum. Under this students can be improved by covering up the Australian literature that includes oral narrative traditions of Torres Strait and Aboriginal islander people. This literature includes predictable and decodable texts which are range from caption book to book within one or more sentences each page. These texts usually involve everyday events along with their imaginary or realistic characters along with language features, simple or compound sentences, vocabulary and high-frequency words.

Students are being involve in these activities in order to perform speech processing which then used to create hypothesis about the breakdown level related with speech difficulties so that it can be further proceed for systematic testing. Through model application the area of child breakdown in speech has been determined and then rectifications are determined to improve it.

Critical evaluation of approaches and strategies used to teach reading in early years

The Australian English curriculum consists of several aspects that are used to increase the knowledge as well as skill of children related to spoken or reading. While going through English Curriculum there are number of issues which students are usually face that are required to be rectified and that can only be improved using by using their existing knowledge as well as try to improving it so that they can learn new things much easily. For this there are number of strategies and approaches used to improve their reading and learning skills. These strategies are explained below :

As per the view point of Janelle Cox (2019), reading is a basic skills that a person uses everyday in their lives while performing several actions. But in order to improve this skills among children following strategies can be used:

Activating prior knowledge:-If one want to indulge student with what they are learning, the information must be connected with their previous knowledge. This will develop a chance of better understanding and they will also be able to remember it for longer duration. So the students must be first presented with the text to which they are families and feel easier while pronouncing or reading and then are introduced with new words so minimum problem faced by them.

Using a word wall:-This would be more effective strategy then a classroom display, in which the class room of students is cover up with several posters that includes words along with pictures. This can be used to enhance the knowledge of students and their language skills that further help children to learn site words and patterns.

On the other side as per the view point of C.R. Adler (2019), text comprehension strategies are the one that support people in improving their reading skills and be able to make sense of text. There are number of strategies suggested by author that also have resource based evidence that are explained below:

Meta-cognitive:- This strategy help a student in thinking about and having control over the text or content they are reading. For this students must be clarified about the purpose for which they are reading and while going through content they must be monitored for improving their understanding. Their reading speed must be fit so that difficulties they are facing must be adjusted or rectified.

Graphic and semantic organizer:-This strategy represent that a relation must be set up between the text and diagram, so that student will be able to extract the meaning much effectively while reading it. Graphic organizer may help reader in focusing over the concept and way in which they can relate it.

Critical reflection on the appropriateness of reading theories for teaching early reading development

Early reading development plays an essential role within a person's life as it help in creating a foundation of further learning and knowledge development. Therefore under English Curriculum focus is basically lighted upon the enhancing the skills of students regrading the text comprehension and their spoken by rectifying the areas that require improvement. This knowledge and skills can be developed using reading theories like Schema theory and Psycholinguistic theory. These both focuses over rectifying the issue that are facing by students while reading or learning the new texts. Following are the appropriateness of reading theories:

As per the view point of Xie X. (2017),Schema is appropriate as it pay attention over the current knowledge of child to enhance it further. In addition to this it also focuses over simplifying the world by comparing the new things with existing experience.

On the other side according to Keuleers, E. and Balota, D.A. (2015)Psycholinguistic theory is more appropriate as it consider both input as well as output to make students more successful in learning texts or language. In addition to this it also focuses toward creating a more effective environment to help them in learning new things much effectively.

But according to Perfetti C.A. (2017), Schema is more beneficial for student's learning in early years as it focuses over developing skills by considering current knowledge which allow children to think quickly and capture the clues that surrounding is providing to capture that knowledge. This also help in interpreting incoming information while sometime a student get fails to fit new content with existing schemas.

On the other hand, as per the view point of Chen, X., Dronjic, V. and Helms-Park, R. (2015), Psycholinguistic theory is more appropriate and help theory that focuses toward developing the reading and knowledge skills among students by performing several class room activities. By performing these activities teachers will be able to gather information regarding the issues that children are facing while reading new content or texts. This information further help them in planning interventions to overcome such issues. These issues are usually rectified by adapting several writing activities within class and design aid to rewrite the text to improve their understanding or knowledge.

Conclusion

From the above given information it can be conclude that Australian Curriculum English is consists of several aspects related to reading, listening, viewing and speaking of text that help in enhancing the knowledge of students. There are number of theories used by teachers in order to rectify the issues that are usually faced by students related to reading and speaking. It includes Psycholinguistic theory which focuses over input i.e. listening and output i.e. speaking to improve the knowledge of student by monitoring them, to correct their mistake. Another theory is Schema which focuses over enhancing the knowledge of students by focusing over their existing experience.

References

Books & Journals

• Chen, X., Dronjic, V. and Helms-Park, R., 2015.Reading in a second language: Cognitive and psycholinguistic issues. Routledge.
• Coltheart, M., 2017. Writing systems and reading disorders. In Orthographies and reading(pp. 67-80). Routledge.
• Keuleers, E. and Balota, D. A., 2015. Megastudies, crowdsourcing, and large datasets in psycholinguistics: An overview of recent developments.
• Kieras, D. E. and Just, M. A., 2018. New methods in reading comprehension research. Routledge.
• Perfetti, C. A., 2017. Cognitive and linguistic components of reading ability. In Acquisition of Reading Skills (1986) (pp. 11-40). Routledge.
• Xie, X., 2017. The influence of schema theory on foreign language reading comprehension. The English Teacher, p.9.

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