[Reading-hall-of-fame] Toward An Understanding of Reading

[Thomas Sticht]

Some Misunderstandings About Reading	      	January 6, 2005

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

The U. S. Education Department’s present focus on No Child Left Behind
aims to encourage the use of "scientific, evidence-based"  methods of
teaching the "essential components" of reading. For instance, the USED web
page for Reading First states "Reading First will provide funds to train
teachers in the essential components of reading (phonemic awareness,
phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension)
 ,"
http://www.ed.gov/programs/readingfirst/applicant.html

However, this seems to me to contain certain misunderstandings about
reading which I have summarized below, along with some other
misunderstandings that I have seen in the literature on reading.

Misunderstanding #1: Fluency is one of "the essential components of
reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension.

Correction:  "fluency" is not a "component" of anything. Rather it is the
quality of a performance. In reading it refers to reading that is executed
without a lot of mistakes, not in a slow, halting, recursive manner but
rather in a regular left to right, progressive moving, fairly rapid
(around 200-250 words per minute) manner when reading materials of some
familiarity.

Misunderstanding #2: Vocabulary is one of "the essential components of
reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension.

Correction: Vocabulary is a component of language, not listening or
reading, though it can be acquired using either of these information
pick-up processes.

Misunderstanding #3: Comprehension is one of "the essential components of
reading" that include alphabetics (phonemics,phonics), fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension.

Correction: Comprehension precedes reading and directs the reading
process, not the other way around. Listening to speech is one way to
comprehend language, reading graphic symbols is another. Children
typically learn to comprehend by listening to speech before they learn to
comprehend by reading. Comprehension is what the reader tries to achieve,
but comprehension is not a component of reading, it is both a precursor to
and a result of reading.

Misunderstanding #4: Listening and reading are the same language processes.

Correction: Listening and reading are both information pick-up processes
which may be used to construct language, but they are not language and
they are not the same. You can do one in the dark, the other in a noisy
room, but neither in a dark, noisy room. Languaging can be accomplished
using tactual information pick-up processes, too.

Misunderstanding #5: "First you learn to read, then you read to learn."

Correction: Despite the wide-spread use of this old bromide, you always
read to learn. Even when learning to read, one looks at the graphic
displays and tries to learn (i.e., "read") them as symbols. First you read
to learn to read graphic information as symbols then you read to learn
some other new information forming new ideas expressed in graphic symbols.

Misunderstanding #6: We can teach reading skills to children and adults.

Correction: We cannot teach "skills." We can teach knowledge but skill
must be developed through practice. We can coach for skill, and we can
model skillful performance, but we cannot teach skill. When we teach
phonics we are teaching a body of knowledge about sight-sound
correspondences, not decoding skill. The latter can only be developed
through practice.

Establishing a "scientifc, evidence-based" approach to reading instruction
requires that we first have a good understanding of the phenomenon we call
"reading." As far as I can see, this is still a work in progress for the
field of reading.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at azznet.net