The dialectic of textual enlightenment:

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• The dialectic of textual enlightenment
• Improving reading ability in advanced English
  learners
• Peter McDowell
• School of Education
• Charles Darwin University
• peter.mcdowell_at_cdu.edu.au

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Current reading research is ...

• Tending to focus on beginning (functional)
  reading over capabilities to properly process
  whole texts
• Generally giving more attention, earlier on, to
  bottom-up skills over top-down skills
• Similar situation for both L1 and L2 research
  (L1emphasis on children, L2 on adults)
• Advanced reading slipping through the cracks

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State of the art ...
little published evidence exists about the
learners who do reach fluency in the reading and
processing of sophisticated text we know even
less about how to bring readers to sophisticated,
advanced uses of literacy in a second
language Elizabeth Bernhardt
Bernhardt, E. B. (2011). Understanding advanced
second-language reading. New York, NY Routledge.
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Problems with the research

• Reading ability is underdeveloped as a concept
• Reading competency is often conceived as a
  synonym (or symptom) of reading ability
• Top-down approaches are undermined by
  restricted notions of text, textual structure,
  and intertextuality
• Widespread essentialism and psychologism

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Our research questions

• How can we improve reading ability in advanced
  EAL learners?
• How can we develop the concept of reading ability
  to better account for advanced reading?
• To what extent do answers to these questions
  depend on learners studying their own literacies?

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Teaching context

• Pre-service teachers (graduate entrants)
• Large blended-mode unit (single cohort)
• Curriculum, multiliteracies, digital literacies
• Graduate destinations are varied
• Many will become mother-tongue (L1) teachers
• Significant proportion of EAL learners

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More on the EAL learners

• At entry IELTS overall score of 6.5 (in theory)
• Score of at least 6.0 in reading (academic
  module)
• Competent user, generally effective command
• At exit IELTS overall score of 7.5 needed for
  teacher registration, 7.0 in reading
• Good user, operational command

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Bridging the gap ...

• Making the shift from fairly complex language
  to complex language and detailed reasoning
• From familiar situations to situations in
  general
• From general misunderstandings to
  misunderstandings in some situations
• Moving beyond IELTS to the workplace (schools)

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Teaching strategies (0)

• Students enter with a default approach to
  reading
• Generally, students read and process texts, one
  at a time, sequentially, usually linearly, often
  slowly
• How do we know this?
• Through students responses to teaching
  activities designed to stretch and strain this
  default approach (they discuss their
  experiences online)

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Teaching strategies (1)

• Vary the structure of the texts so that the
  default approach no longer works
• By setting single texts with multiple voices
• By setting longer texts with contrasting
  perspectives
• The default approach breaks down when students
  are required to defend a position (why?)

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Teaching strategies (2)

• Multiple voices invite students to read the text
  in several places at once
• Same with contrasting perspectives
• But the default reading strategy hinders this
• Leads to simplification, caricature, reduction
• Students need help to assimilate the complexity
  of the situation

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Teaching strategies (3)

• Set collaborative tasks beyond the capability of
  a single reader (whether related to approach or
  not)
• Introduce texts that analyse the multiple voices
  and the contrasting perspectives
• Urge students to debate the issues
• Contestation lies at the heart of the relevant
  literature (requires constant cross-referencing)

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Teaching strategies (4)

• Once students realise the advantage in reading
  across and between texts, the next step is ...
• Introduce alternative paradigms (at least one)
• This sets up additional world-views that repeat,
  in their own way, the multiple voices,
  contestation, etc., that shaped students entry
  into the field
• Alternative paradigms expand the notion of text

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Teaching strategies (5)

• Once several paradigms are in play ...
• Introduce an unanticipated perspective (e.g.
  historically based) that questions the conceptual
  framework underpinning the alternative paradigms
• In the area of literacy, this could be a critical
  discussion of the rise of the self
• The individual reader as a historical episode

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Dialectic of textual enlightenment
Single texts (default)
Multiple voices
Contrasting perspectives
Collaborative views
Contestation
Alternative paradigms
Radical critique
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Methodological problems

• Working like this, reflectively, drawing on
  natural language, on concepts in common
  circulation, isnt really adequate
• The logic of the situation isnt emerging
  properly
• We need a robust model to help make more sense of
  the broader reading process

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Theoretical computer science

• Compilers are special computer programmes
  designed to read and process complex texts (i.e.
  other computer programmes)
• Optimising compilers process texts in
  sophisticated ways to achieve engineering goals
  (e.g. achieve greater efficiencies when the
  output is run on particular computer hardware)
• Disclaimer borrowing suggestive terminology

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A basic processing model
Thread
Thread
Thread
Thread
Stream
Thread
Stream
Stream
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Peephole reading (the default)
Thread
Stream
Single stream, single thread
(Compare peephole optimisation)
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Coalescent reading
Thread
Thread
Thread
Stream
Single stream, multiple threads
(Compare coalescing)
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Pipeline reading
Thread
Thread
Thread
Stream
Stream
Multiple streams, single threads
(Compare pipelines)
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Fission reading
Thread
Thread
Thread
Stream
Stream
Multiple streams, multiple threads
(Compare fission loops)
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Dialectic of textual enlightenment
Single texts (default)
1stream 1 thread
Peephole reading
Multiple voices
Contrasting perspectives
Coalescent reading
1 stream N threads
Collaborative views
Contestation
Pipeline reading
N streams 1 thread
Alternative paradigms
Fission reading
N streams N threads
Radical critique
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Models of reading

• Most are geared around peephole reading
• Whole language emphasises coalescent reading
• Sociocultural models recognise (implicitly) the
  importance of pipeline reading (manifold
  contexts)
• The dialectic of textual enlightenment can cope
  with all of these plus fission reading
• Other formulations are possible

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Our research questions

• How can we improve reading ability in advanced
  EAL learners?
• How can we develop the concept of reading ability
  to better account for advanced reading?
• To what extent do answers to these questions
  depend on learners studying their own literacies?

One way to do this is through a dialectical
approach to reading, with each stage in the
dialectic developing more sophisticated notions
of reading and text
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Our research questions

• How can we improve reading ability in advanced
  EAL learners?
• How can we develop the concept of reading ability
  to better account for advanced reading?
• To what extent do answers to these questions
  depend on learners studying their own literacies?

A productive way to do this is by drawing on
advances in optimising compilers (computer
science) ways of processing text
algorithmically to gain computational efficiencies
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Our research questions

• How can we improve reading ability in advanced
  EAL learners?
• How can we develop the concept of reading ability
  to better account for advanced reading?
• To what extent do answers to these questions
  depend on learners studying their own literacies?

Learners own literacies form a pretext and a
resource for understanding the dialectic and more
sophisticated notions of text, textual structure,
and intertextuality
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Conclusion

• As a concept reading ability needs development
• Bottom-up approaches tend to concentrate on the
  immediate text to hand (peephole reading)
• Top-down approaches tend to concentrate on
  background texts (coalescent reading)
• Advanced EAL reading embraces other notions of
  intertextuality (pipeline reading, fission
  reading)

Please see the full paper for further details.
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Coda
In many classes, relatively little actual reading
occurs, with most time devoted to tasks and
activities that assume the reading of the
text.William Grabe
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language
Moving from theory to practice. New York, NY
Cambridge University Press.
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Questions and comments?Thank you

• peter.mcdowell_at_cdu.edu.au

McDowell, P. (2012, August). The dialectic of
textual enlightenment Improving reading ability
in advanced English learners. Paper presented at
3rd International Conference on TESOL, Da Nang
City, Vietnam.