Читать книгу The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics - Carol A. Chapelle - Страница 138

To build coherent text representations, readers must integrate local text meanings across sentences and paragraphs. A text's surface structure offers a variety of reliable clues signaling coherence relations among text elements. As a case in point, significant information is often placed in prominent text locations that highlight its relative weight (e.g., at the beginning of a text) and connection with other text segments (e.g., at the end of a paragraph) (Goldman & Rakestraw, 2000). Linguistic devices, such as connectives and co‐references, are also used to achieve text coherence. Studies have demonstrated that knowledge of coherence devices differs considerably among native English‐speaking children (e.g., Garner et al., 1986); that explicit training on coherence awareness tends to improve text comprehension and memory (e.g., Pearson & Fielding, 1991); that explicit demonstrations of text organization generally improve text comprehension (e.g., Buss, Ratliff, & Irion, 1985; Baumann & Bergeron, 1993); and that efforts to increase the structural salience of a text facilitate comprehension (e.g., Anderson & Davison, 1988; Beck & Dole, 1992). It is important to note, however, that knowledge of discourse structure and coherence devices promotes global text comprehension, but, at the same time, the acquisition of this knowledge occurs only through substantial reading experience.

To sum up, the process of building text meanings entails a large number of diverse skills, each necessitating a distinct facet of linguistic knowledge. Without sufficient knowledge of the language, it is simply impossible to build accurate and coherent text representations. However, the reverse is also true—that is, linguistic knowledge is augmented and refined through the autonomous use of this knowledge for constructing and analyzing content meanings during reading. Reading ability and linguistic knowledge are thus developmentally reciprocal, mutually enhancing their acquisition and refinement.