Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Teaching Reading Research Paper

Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Teaching Reading - Research Paper Example The learner has to be taught visual identification, so that meaningful recognition can occur. Prodded to the habit of reading, the learner gains ease in perceiving meaning, relationships and messages of the printed word.   In the Traditional Theory, the reader is a passive receiver of information, and so the bottoms-up view approach to teaching reading is adopted and this consists in giving prime importance to building pre-cognitive skills which lead to the end processes of construction of meaning or comprehension (Dole et al. (1991).  The second Cognitive Theory is the psycho-logistic model which recognizes the fact that the   heart of the reading process is the reader, not the text. Under this theory, the learner of reading is introduced to the sampling of   the text, making   guesses or a series of hypothesis about the meaning of the text, and proceeding   with the process of fusion, interpretation and comprehension.   The cognitive experts highlight the importance o f observation, data judgment, recall, imagination, problem recognition, and analysis in teaching reading.   They also train learners to identify levels of comprehension namely: literal, interpretative, applied and evaluative (Nunan, 1991). .   Thirdly, the Metacognitive Theory centers on training the reader to have control in executing his ability to interpret and comprehend the text.   In this theory,   meta-reading is   characterized by self-awareness, careful reading and greater retention.... Yes, there had been schooling in reading especially so among ancient civilizations, but these were most rudimentary and confined to the more precocious in knowledge and love of the written word. Only since the 1980s can there be claimed theoretical perspectives in teaching and their benefits still have to be widely and deeply felt by modern learners. Theoretical perspective There are three main theories in the turns and trends in scientific approaches to teaching reading. The first Traditional Theory has been practiced for ages. This theory is founded on the neuro-physiological process which gives importance to the textual material . The learner has to be taught visual identification, so that meaningful recognition can occur. Prodded to the habit of reading, the learner gains ease in perceiving meaning, relationships and messages of the printed word. In the Traditional Theory, the reader is a passive receiver of information, and so the bottoms-up view approach to teaching reading is adopted and this consists in giving prime importance to building pre-cognitive skills which lead to the end processes of construction of meaning or comprehension (Dole et al. (1991). The second Cognitive Theory is the psycho-logistic model which recognizes the fact that the heart of the reading process is the reader, not the text. Under this theory, the learner of reading is introduced to the sampling of the text, making guesses or a series of hypothesis about the meaning of the text, and proceeding with the process of fusion, interpretation and comprehension. The cognitive experts highlight the importance of observation, data judgment, recall, imagination, problem

The Emergent Threat of Bio-Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Emergent Threat of Bio-Terrorism - Essay Example This paper weighs the pros and cons on whether al Qaeda or any other international terrorist group indeed has the motivation and capability to develop and use bio-weapons to carry out their missions of terror against the civilized world. If biological weapons represent the new threat to world peace and security that it is feared to be, we need to examine the desire and capability of authorities to deal with this yet to be experienced challenge to existing health and defense systems. Together with chemical and nuclear weapons, modern biological weapons are commonly classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and have been used as such on many occasions in the past. Biochemical weapons may appeal to terrorists for three major reasons: 1) they are easier and cheaper to acquire than nuclear devices and cause more casualties; 2) their effects on target population are hard to detect and counter; and 3) the threat of their use causes fear, which element the terrorists love most (Danitz, 1998, p. 3). The use of bio-weapons actually goes back to the siege warfare in Medieval Ages, among which was the recorded attempt to spread disease through dead horses at northern France in 1340. In 1346, cadavers of plague victims were dumped on the defenders at Caffa in Crimea, while human and animal manure was used at Karlstein in Bohemia in 1422. The most successful was said to be the bio-attack at Caffa, where a large number of the defenders came down with the Bubonic plague (Wheelis, 2002, p. 12). On the American frontier, some of the disease outbreaks between the 18th and early 20th centuries might have been deliberately instigated (Fenn, 2000). The best documented of those early bio-attacks took place at Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania at the height of the Pontiac rebellion in 1763, when British troops gifted the Fort Pitt defenders with blankets and handkerchiefs from smallpox patients. The latter-day known incident of that nature happened between 1957 and 1965 when land speculators and corrupt agents of the Brazilian Indian Protective Service introduced smallpox, measles, flu and tuberculosis into the American Indians on the Amazonian basin. For smallpox, fomites were used and for the other diseases the culprits had the sick whites mixed with tribe members (Wheelis, 2002, p. 13). War records starting from the American Revolutionary War to the Cold War era also reveal the extensive use of bio-weapons. There was the story of how British troops attacked the Continental Army in Boston and Quebec on several occasions with smallpox by driving infected civilians into the enemy fold. In World War I, the Germans waged a covert bio-attack by having secret agents inject anthrax and glanders cultures into farm animals penned for shipment to Allied countries. Japan resorted to the same tactic during World War II mostly against the Chinese. In the 1942 Chekiang campaign, for example, retreating Japanese agents poisoned wells, sprayed the ground behind them with microbial cultures and left infected foodstuff for the