Several reading models have emerged over the past few decades, yet three main models are most commonly known, and are :
The top-down model
stresses the importance of the reader's involvement in controlling the comprehension process.
The bottom up model
Is concerned with the recognition of the smallest linguistic unitis in order to make sense and decode higher units.
The interactive model
puts under scrutiny the reader's interaction with the text. Some reading theorists highlighted the importance of both the text and the reader in the reading process, they state that there is an amalgamation of the two [models] (Rumelhart, 1977; Stanovich, 1980 ; in Abraham, 2000 :6). The interactive reading model stressed both what is on the written page and what a reader brings to it using both top down and bottom-up skills. (ibid.)