The Idea and Practice of Reading

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. The Idea, Practice and Power of Reading

   • R. Joseph Ponniah, Sathyaraj Venkatesan

   Pages 1-10

3. Twenty-First-Century Second Language Literacy Development in Universities

   • Hazel L. W. Chiu

   Pages 11-24

4. Extensive Reading and Vocabulary Acquisition

   • Nina Daskalovska

   Pages 25-40

5. Acquisition of Writing by Reading and Its Impact on Cognition

   • J. Mary Jennifer, R. Joseph Ponniah

   Pages 41-56

6. Blending Cognitive and Socio-constructive Pedagogies: Building Autonomous Readers in the ESL Classroom

   • Kshema Jose

   Pages 57-84

7. Using L1 Reading Strategies to Develop L2 Reading

   • Mahananda Pathak

   Pages 85-112

8. First-Language Reading Promotes Second-Language Reading and Acquisition: Towards a Biolinguistic Approach

   • R. Joseph Ponniah

   Pages 113-124

9. Genetics of Reading Ability and Its Role in Solving Reading Difficulties

   • Radhakrishnan Sriganesh, D. R. Rahul, R. Joseph Ponniah

   Pages 125-139

10. Reading Comprehension in ESL Contexts: An Applied Cognitive Semantics Perspective

    • N. P. Sudharshana

    Pages 141-161

11. Perspectives from the Art and Science of Reading

    • C. E. Veni Madhavan, C. N. Ajit

    Pages 163-175

12. Cognitive Load Theory, Redundancy Effect and Language Learning

    • Carlos Machado, Pedro Luis Luchini

    Pages 177-190

This book addresses basic issues in language education and explores how reading, with a focus on meaning, contributes to the development of all aspects of language including vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and syntax. It departs from traditional methods and practices in language learning to investigate the potency of reading in improving language acquisition. The traditional practice in language classes to teach language skills explicitly through acquiring forms and structures of language is often less than successful, and teachers are gradually incorporating reading materials and practices into the curriculum. This book provides important inputs to language teachers and educators on the need to include reading as an idea and as a practice into the curriculum. Among other things, it explores the benefits of incidental learning of language properties such as vocabulary, syntax and grammar and gives adequate exposure to different types of reading strategies to promote reading among learners. It also exploits the possible transfer of L1 reading strategies and capabilities to L2 reading for language acquisition. In so doing, this book hopes to promote autonomous learning among L2 learners and guide readers in alternative strategies to solve comprehension problems. 

• language cognition
• reading programs and pedagogy
• vocabulary knowledge
• hypertext multimedia glosses
• pleasure reading
• reading as therapeutic practice
• Cognitive Load Theory
• single mode of instruction
• reading and cognitive development
• second language acquisition
• transferability of reading skills across languages
• reading and ESL classrooms
• reading and the role of technology
• vocabulary learning
• learning and instruction

• Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India

  R. Joseph Ponniah, Sathyaraj Venkatesan

R. Joseph Ponniah is an Associate Professor of English in the Department of Humanities at National Institute of Technology, Trichirappalli, India. He received his PhD in English from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai. He is currently working on English Language Teaching, and Second Language Acquisition. His papers have been widely published in peer-reviewed international journals, such as The International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, The Atlantic Literary Review and The Modern Journal of Applied linguistics. He is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Iranian Journal of Language Studies.  


Sathyaraj Venkatesan is an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. He received his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He was a Fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University, New York and is currently an International Field Bibliographer with the Publications of Modern Language Association of America (PMLA). He is the author of Edgar Allan Poe: Tales and Other Writings (2016, Orient BlackSwan), AIDS in Cultural Bodies: Scripting the Absent Subject (1980-2010) (2016, Cambridge Scholars Publishing) (with Gokulnath Ammanathil) and Mapping the Margins: A Study of Ethnic Feminist Consciousness in Toni Morrison’s Novels (2011). His articles have appeared in journals such as The Explicator (Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group), International Fiction Review, MELUS (Oxford Journals), Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, AMULA, American Notes and Queries and also in a number of other renowned publications. 

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