What is Reading

Reading is a multifaceted process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation.

Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that we:

Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition.
Construct an understanding of them – a process called comprehension.
Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency.

Sometimes you can make meaning from print without being able to identify all the words. Remember the last time you got a note in messy handwriting? You may have understood it, even though you couldn’t decipher all the scribbles.

Sometimes you can identify words without being able to construct much meaning from them. Read the opening lines of Lewis Carroll’s poem, “Jabberwocky,” and you’ll see what I mean.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the more raths outgrabe.

Finally, sometimes you can identify words and comprehend them, but if the processes don’t come together smoothly, reading will still be a laboured process. For example, try reading the following sentence:

It          isn’t          as         if          the          words
     are        difficult                   to          identify          or
understand,                   but          the          spaces
                   make                   you          pause                   between
    words,                    which                   means        your
                   reading                   is                    less                    fluent.

Reading in its fullest sense involves weaving together word recognition and comprehension in a fluent manner. These three processes are complex, and each is important. How complex? Here goes?

To develop word recognition, children need to learn:

How to break apart and manipulate the sounds in words – this is phonemic awareness
example: feet has three sounds: /f/, /e/, and /t/
Certain letters are used to represent certain sounds – this is the alphabetic principle
example: s and h make the /sh/ sound
How to apply their knowledge of letter-sound relationships to sound out words that are new to them – this is decoding
example: ssssspppoooon – spoon!
How to analyse words and spelling patterns in order to become more efficient at reading words – this is word study
example: Bookworm has two words I know: book and worm.
To expand the number of words they can identify automatically, called their sight vocabulary
example: Oh, I know that word – the!

To develop word comprehension, children need to learn:

Background knowledge about many topics
example: This book is about zoos – that’s where lots of animals live.
Extensive oral and print vocabularies
example: Look at my trucks – I have a tractor, and a fire engine, and a bulldozer.
Understandings about how the English language works
example: We say she went home, not she goes home.
Understandings about how print works
example: reading goes from left to right
Knowledge of various kinds of texts
example: I bet they live happily ever after.
Various purposes for reading
example: I want to know what ladybugs eat.
Strategies for constructing meaning from text, and for problem-solving when meaning breaks down
example: This isn’t making sense. Let me go back and reread it.

To develop fluency, children need to:

Develop a high level of accuracy in word recognition.
Maintain a rate of reading brisk enough to facilitate comprehension.
Use phrasing and expression so that oral reading sounds like speech.
Transform deliberate strategies for word recognition and comprehension into automatic skills.

But if reading isn’t pleasurable or fulfilling, children won’t choose to read, and they won’t get the practise they need to become fluent readers.

Therefore, reading also means developing and maintaining the motivation to read. Reading is an active process of constructing meaning? The key word here is active.

So…what is reading?

Reading is the motivated and fluent coordination of word recognition and comprehension.

Quite an achievement for a six-year-old!

Reading can be regarded as the process of looking at a series of written symbols in order to get meaning from them:

It is a complex interaction between the text and the reader;
The interaction is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude and language;
Reading is therefore a means of communication and requires continuous practise and development.

Comprehension could be regarded as the main goal of learning to read.

The ability to read forms an integral part of a person’s life. It is an important skill needed for a happy, productive and successful life.

An excellent reader is a confident person with a high self-esteem!

Reading involves a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). Reading is therefore the way a person obtains information from letters and words.

At Wise Eye, we are delighted to see how our reading programme contributes to a happy productive child. In this process a strong self-image is formed, that again leads to a child full of confidence: able to reach his full potential.

This newly accomplished skill opens a whole new world of knowledge. And we are all familiar with the saying that “knowledge is power!”

What is Reading

To develop word recognition, children need to learn:

To develop word comprehension, children need to learn:

To develop fluency, children need to:

So…what is reading?

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