The paper titled "Reading Comprehension Models of Saudi Non-native Speakers of English" by Abdulkhaleq A. Al-Qahtani primarily investigates the reading strategies employed by Saudi Arabian readers of English as a second language (ESL). The focus of the study is on understanding which reading model—top-down or bottom-up—is predominantly used by Saudi ESL learners, challenging existing assumptions that these strategies are primarily influenced by early literacy practices within their cultural context.
The purpose of the study is to explore whether Saudi Arabian ESL learners predominantly employ a top-down or bottom-up reading strategy and to what extent cultural literacy practices influence their choice. The research aims to provide counterevidence to the claim that early literacy practices in one's native culture significantly dictate the reading strategies used when learning a second language.
Methodologically, the study is exploratory and involves three Saudi participants who are proficient English users and graduates of U.S. universities. The research includes pre-activity interviews, a reading task involving an authentic text from an American university newspaper, and a retrospection interview conducted immediately after the reading task. The participants were asked to describe their mental processes during reading and their approach to unknown words.
Key findings reveal that, contrary to the researcher’s initial assumption and the conclusions of Perry (1996), all three participants predominantly used a top-down reading approach, relying on their background knowledge and expectations to understand the text rather than focusing on individual words or structures first, as would be expected in a bottom-up model. The study found that the degree of bottom-up strategy usage was related to the participants' self-assessed reading proficiency, with more proficient readers employing a mix of both top-down and bottom-up strategies.
The study concludes that early literacy practices in Saudi Arabia, which might suggest a bottom-up approach, do not necessarily dictate the reading strategies employed by Saudi ESL learners. Instead, the participants displayed a greater tendency towards a top-down approach, indicating that the influence of cultural literacy practices on reading model choice may not be as straightforward as previously suggested. The study calls for further research to confirm these findings and to explore the complex interplay between cultural context and reading strategy choice in ESL learning.