Motivation And Reading Process Analysis

Literacy is defined as an individual´s ability to speak, write, listen and read proficiently in a language to function in society, achieve set goals and develop further by using one 's ability and potential to improve oneself socially, financially and educationally. As mentioned, reading is one of four important aspects of literacy. In this paper, I seek to give insight into what reading is, the processes behind it, the importance of motivation and reading methods. Finally, I briefly discuss how language teachers should organize reading tasks at lower secondary level and what they need to keep in mind. What is reading? According to Alderson (2000), reading is "an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from which much pleasure can be derived,

Bottom-up, or the lower level processing, is a process where readers read letter from letter and focus mainly on the words form, vocabulary knowledge, syntax and grammatical functions. Readers who only apply lower level processing are considered less skilled readers. In understanding the reading process, it is essential to discuss a vital facet of lower-level processing, word recognition. The process involves recognizing an efficient amount of word forms, phonologically and orthographically, analyzing grammatical information through syntactic parsing and connecting them with their semantic meanings (Grabe, 2009). In L1 reading, word recognition is considered a crucial component in learners´ reading comprehension abilities (Perfetti, 1985; Stanovich, 2000). Research has shown that well-skilled readers do not lack automaticity in word recognition (Perfetti; 1985; Segalowitz and Segalowitz, & Wood, 1998). Without a large recognition vocabulary, a reader is less likely to generate comprehension from a combination of graphic

To acquire reading proficiency learners needs to acquire automaticity in word recognition, apply both higher level and lower level processing sufficiently and have the motivation to take on reading tasks to promote language comprehension and efficiency. To achieve this, the teacher needs to adopt CLT methodology and TBI methods to promote the target language´s use in the classroom in order to promote learners´ language proficiency. This can be done with various task-based activities with real-world, authentic reading material and extensive reading. However, the teacher must have a clear understanding of learning as a process and that any activity needs to be correctly introduced, explained, organized, recapped and evaluated so that the learners always understand the purpose of the task and/or lesson. In doing so, a teacher can prevent learners from becoming resentful or discouraged towards the target language. The correct structure of a reading course can encourage positive attitudes and motivation which in turn improves reading comprehension and language