7.8
Conclusions
  1. We have seen that comprehension in reading occurs through the learner making predictions about meaning, finding confirmation of these predictions or altering/modifying them. The predictions are based on the schemata, the background knowledge, the reader brings to the text and on what she/he has already read of the text. It can be concluded that providing more knowledge about the subject matter of the text will improve the reader's ability to predict more accurately. A balanced, interactive view of the reading process would require that we add to this not only knowledge of the formal features of the L2 but also the ability to decode automatically the physical representation of the language on the page. This model of L2 reading implies that as a person reads and seeks to interpret a piece of text, what the piece means depends both on an analysis of the printed words and on hypotheses in the reader's mind. When a reader is more proficient or more familiar with the language or content of a text, reliance on text cues diminishes and the construction of meaning becomes more 'hypothesis-driven'. However, when, as a result of difficult language or content, this higher-level processing breaks down, attention reverts to smaller units of language. Thus, it is not a question of either bottom-up or top-down processing, but rather of an alternating process. The latter may dominate as the L2 reader becomes more proficient, but at no time is the relationship anything other than symbiotic.

  2. A difficult task faces language teachers seeking to integrate these theoretical insights into their language programmes. The one thing that can be asserted with confidence is that far more extensive reading needs to take place outside our language classes, with learners reading what is relevant to their interests and needs. In class the teacher needs to exploit intensive work on L2 texts in order to develop appropriate reading strategies in the learner; he/she has to balance development of the ability to sample, predict, guess and take chances with acquisition of the basic language skills needed to carry out these higher-level activities; all with the aim of gradually weaning the learner off word-by-word processing. This is what Carrell (1988:120) means when she talks of teachers emphasizing both the 'psycho' and the 'linguistic', a neat way of summing up teachers' dilemma vis-a-vis reading.

  3. Two of the least appreciated facts about L2 reading are: firstly, some learners are more motivated to read in L2 than in L1, since they see the former as a challenge which, if they are up to it, marks them out as different; secondly, for many learners, especially the increasing numbers enrolling on institution-wide programmes that may not offer a period of residence abroad, it is a more achievable goal to read fluently in L2 than to become a near-native speaker of the language. In promoting and justifying foreign languages for all in our colleges and universities in terms of lifelong language learning, we would do well to remember these two observations.

  4. To become a proficient performer in a second language, a learner needs varied, repeated and extensive exposure to the language. It has been calculated that one year in the secondary foreign language classroom is the equivalent of three weeks' contact in a true language-acquisition set-up (Wilkins, 1974: 31); one 'year' (often, in effect, no more than 22-24 weeks) spent learning a language at university is therefore probably the equivalent of a week and a half in the target country. Classroom-based language learning is thus an input-poor environment and teachers need to do all they can to maximize exposure to L2. While teacher talk and audio and video input all have a role to play here, extensive reading is equally crucial. At lower levels of language learning there needs to be a good mix of intensive and extensive reading; then, as learners progress, sustained extensive reading should take over, not only for reasons of 'comprehensible input' (Krashen, 1981), but also because it improves overall language ability, it develops writing ability and it increases vocabulary.

  5. The ultimate aim of all formal L2 reading instruction, of course, must be to shift the focus away from the (linguistic) act of reading onto the meaning of what is being read. This can take a long time to achieve, but teachers should take comfort from the fact that no reading is wasted time: the more learners read, the more they will learn to read.
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