Reading always begins with the recognition of letters, which is called the stage of scanning. The scanned information will be transferred by the speech sounds then the learners who study Chinese can recognize the words with the help of the mental dictionary. That is to say, the information is transferred from speech sounds into meanings. Then the readers move to the next word use the same way until all words are recognized. With the combined action of sentence structure and semantic rules, foreigners who study Chinese can acquire the meanings of sentences. Of course, this process of “bottom to top” is not done step by step and most beginners who learning reading use this way.

In the model of “from above to below”, we emphasize the importance of readers in reading process. When studying Chinese in China, you may be told that this model believes reading is a selection procedure. The readers usually deal with the texts with assumption and then prove it by using the materials. When you study Chinese, it is important for you to know effective reading doesn’t need accurate recognition of every word but a skill to choose the least words clues to do effective assumption. Readers can use this model after they master certain reading skills.