Socio-cultural Model of Reading
Peter Freebody and Allen Luke (1990) conceived the concept of socio-cultural model of reading, also known as the contemporary model of reading. The concept emphasizes that texts not only provide information for practice, but also used as “thinking devices” to promote engagement and interpretation. Many schools across Australia are following this model. According to the Socio-cultural model, reading is a task that employs a wide range of cognitive skills, which promotes the understanding of roles and relationships and cultural backgrounds. Society influences what students read, why and how they should read. Other researches also demonstrate how best to improve upon the reading skills of students. Since the two reading needs of the students lean towards contextual understanding and socio-cultural contexts, Dooley (2004, p.56; in Freebody & Luke, 2002) suggests that students need to develop and engage in the following reading practices:
1. Making meaning with texts (“What might this mean?”)
Making meaning is an active and reflective process. What students understand is shaped by readers’ prior knowledge, experiences, attitudes and socio-cultural context that they bring to texts (Dooley, 2004, p.38).
2. Working with purpose of text (“What might I do with this text here and now?”)
All texts serve various purposes (Harris, 2006, p.33). A competent reader can recognise social purpose that texts serve and exploit these purposes to their own needs (Harris, 2006, p.33) and then becomes a text user where they can use text to their advantage.
3. Cracking codes of texts (“How do I decipher this text?”)
In today’s digital world, being a reader involves not only dealing with conventions of written language in print, but with multiple codes of multimedia texts. Being a successful reader requires one need to decipher these codes in order to access what the text actually conveys (Dooley, 2004, p.39).
4. Critically analyzing texts (“What does this text do to me?”)
Critically literate students and teachers engage in critical interrogation of texts and investigate how text can manipulate the reader (Harris, 2006, p. 33-62). Students represent particular points of views to influence people’s ideas that their discourses can be critiqued and redesigned in novel and hybrid ways (Freebody Luke, 1999).
Peter Freebody and Allen Luke (1990) conceived the concept of socio-cultural model of reading, also known as the contemporary model of reading. The concept emphasizes that texts not only provide information for practice, but also used as “thinking devices” to promote engagement and interpretation. Many schools across Australia are following this model. According to the Socio-cultural model, reading is a task that employs a wide range of cognitive skills, which promotes the understanding of roles and relationships and cultural backgrounds. Society influences what students read, why and how they should read. Other researches also demonstrate how best to improve upon the reading skills of students. Since the two reading needs of the students lean towards contextual understanding and socio-cultural contexts, Dooley (2004, p.56; in Freebody & Luke, 2002) suggests that students need to develop and engage in the following reading practices:
1. Making meaning with texts (“What might this mean?”)
Making meaning is an active and reflective process. What students understand is shaped by readers’ prior knowledge, experiences, attitudes and socio-cultural context that they bring to texts (Dooley, 2004, p.38).
2. Working with purpose of text (“What might I do with this text here and now?”)
All texts serve various purposes (Harris, 2006, p.33). A competent reader can recognise social purpose that texts serve and exploit these purposes to their own needs (Harris, 2006, p.33) and then becomes a text user where they can use text to their advantage.
3. Cracking codes of texts (“How do I decipher this text?”)
In today’s digital world, being a reader involves not only dealing with conventions of written language in print, but with multiple codes of multimedia texts. Being a successful reader requires one need to decipher these codes in order to access what the text actually conveys (Dooley, 2004, p.39).
4. Critically analyzing texts (“What does this text do to me?”)
Critically literate students and teachers engage in critical interrogation of texts and investigate how text can manipulate the reader (Harris, 2006, p. 33-62). Students represent particular points of views to influence people’s ideas that their discourses can be critiqued and redesigned in novel and hybrid ways (Freebody Luke, 1999).