The ability to see and understand written or printed language is called reading. People who cannot read are said to be illiterate, or unlettered (see literacy and illiteracy). The ability to read is one of the foundation skills in all industrialized societies that use the written language to transmit culture and the benefits of civilization from one generation to another.
Like many human abilities, reading is a learned skill. It must be taught. Young children begin learning to read a few years after learning to speak. In doing so, the connection between the words they have learned to say and the ones they see on a printed page becomes clear. The words that appear on a page are printed symbols. The mind interprets those symbols as words it already knows in a rapid recognition process based on the individual’s past experiences. (See also learning; education.)
Perception or decoding of words is basic to all reading. Perception is an activity of the senses, and in the case of reading the sense involved for most people is sight. For the blind the sense is touch, because a blind person uses the fingers to read a code called Braille.
Words and their meanings are recognized together. Beyond the decoding of words is comprehension, which is more than just understanding the words, sentences, and paragraphs. It is a matter of seeing relationships and of connecting what is stated on a page with what is already known about a subject. Comprehension, assimilation, and interpretation of literature are steps toward building new concepts or ideas as well as increasing vocabulary. A reader corrects and refines concepts through each new reading experience. Part of a reader’s reaction involves making judgments about the worth of what is read. Some responses are emotional, while others may be intellectual—assessing the truth of what is read. Imagination is often stimulated as the reader’s mind creates pictures of what is being read.
Several factors determine a reader’s level of comprehension and assimilation: intellectual ability, the range of personal experiences, and the speed at which one reads. Intellectual ability and the breadth of experience are personal matters, and they often have something to do with the age of the individual. The more one has learned and experienced, the more one tends to gain from reading.
Speed of reading is more subject to control. With training, readers can usually learn to read faster. Skimming, or scanning, is a method of quickly looking through text to get information without going through the content line by line. Slower, analytical reading is necessary when content is more technical in nature and details must be absorbed. Following printed directions is required in many activities—using a recipe to bake a cake; studying a highway map or street guide; assembling bicycles, model airplanes, or furniture; or connecting technology such as video-game systems. Some reading calls for critical evaluation of what is read, such as comparing conflicting views or differing opinions encountered in newspapers and magazines. (See also propaganda.)
Difficulty with reading is not uncommon. In the United States alone, millions of people have problems ranging from being unable to read to being slow readers to having a reading disability. One of the most common disorders related to reading is called dyslexia, a type of learning disability.
Dyslexia is a perceptual disorder often occurring in persons of normal, or even above average, intelligence. The reader is unable to perceive correctly what is on a page. Letters and numbers often appear reversed: “b” seems to be “d,” “quite” is “quiet,” and “from” is “form.” The reader tends to leave out letters or words or insert words or letters that are not there. Vowel and consonant sounds may be confused. Many dyslexics are left-handed or are able to write with either hand. They often confuse left and right.
For children with dyslexia the problem can be compounded by poor self-image. Dyslexic children often struggle to keep up with their classmates and feel less capable than they really are. They can become discouraged and experience stress and failure. Early recognition is important in helping children with dyslexia be successful in school.
There are a variety of tests to screen children and adults for dyslexia and other learning disabilities. For school-age children the principal or administrator can explain how the school can help. The National Center for Learning Disabilities, the International Dyslexia Association, and many other groups can provide information on dyslexia and current testing procedures.
Some other reading disorders are related to eyesight. Farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, the tendency for the eyes to cross, or unequal images in each eye are among vision problems that make it difficult to read. Most vision problems can be diagnosed and corrected by an ophthalmologist or other trained eye specialist. Hearing difficulties also can lessen the ability to read because words cannot be sounded out correctly.
A child’s readiness to begin reading depends on brain development, as does the ability to speak. A certain level of mental and emotional maturity, along with a favorable attitude toward learning, must be attained. Teaching children to read was once done in first grade, based on pre-reading skills taught in kindergarten. Now pre-reading skills are often introduced in preschool, and learning to read begins in kindergarten.
Children first encounter language at home. The flow of words from parents toward infants gets children accustomed to hearing speech and using it themselves. Once verbal conversation begins in the child, normally sometime after age 1, the sounds and rhythms of the native language begin to be absorbed. Parents also introduce children to reading when they read aloud to them. There are books for all levels of child development—from books containing only pictures to those with pictures and words. Being read to can serve as an inspiration to a child to learn to read. Another encouragement to reading is the availability in the home of books, magazines, and newspapers, because children will readily follow the example of their parents.
Television can be a tool in learning to read if children are guided to high-quality educational programs covering appropriate skills. Television also can be a hindrance to learning, because the medium deals primarily in visual images with sounds. Words on a page engage the mind and stimulate the imagination. With television the images are presented directly, and the viewer’s imagination is not challenged.
Schools have used a variety of techniques with differing success when teaching reading. The phonics method was used preeminently until early in the 20th century. The word phonics is from the Greek for “sound” and entails learning the alphabet and the sounds of letters, then passes to sounding out syllables and finally words. Phonics is based on learning the alphabetic “code” to become a fluent reader, and once the code is learned, becoming almost automatic, a child moves from simple to more advanced content. Students sound out syllables to figure out a word—they do not memorize whole words in lists. Sometimes phonics is labeled a code approach because students learn to recognize speech sounds and the letter combinations that represent them and then use this knowledge to “decode” new words.
The basal reading method came into use in the 1930s and incorporated teaching beginning reading through a series of books called basal readers that were graded in difficulty and used a controlled vocabulary. The series generally began with a reading-readiness book. Through pictures, picture sequences, and a few words, the child built a sight vocabulary as well as the ability to interpret pictures and the story sequence. Basal texts are still used in some areas and are sometimes combined with phonics.
Another method for teaching reading is the whole-language, or meaning-oriented, approach, which incorporates a holistic philosophy of language learning and teaching. U.S. educator Horace Mann discussed this method in the 1830s when he was serving as the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. His idea was based on seeing a word as a “whole”—a single entity to be seen, said, and memorized. The whole-language approach also has been called the look-and-say or sight method (also known as the Dick and Jane method) and gained in popularity in the mid-1900s. It depends on a child’s ability to remember new words and add them to the stock of words already known. It does not use a controlled vocabulary nor does it incorporate sounding out letter combinations in syllables.
In the 1960s the phonics method saw a strong revival after the publication in 1955 of Rudolf Flesch’s Why Johnny Can’t Read, which challenged the methods being used in U.S. schools to teach reading. Flesch began his research into why children were having reading problems after teaching his own grandson to read. He published a sequel in 1981 called Why Johnny Still Can’t Read: A New Look at the Scandal of Our Schools, in which he criticized the whole-language (or look-and-say) method as a culprit in the illiteracy problem. Flesch argued that when children did learn the process of connecting the sounds of letters with syllables and words they did not have the tools to decipher new words. He saw this deficiency as the underlying cause of poor reading ability.
Many research studies in various countries have looked at the controversy of which method for teaching reading is best—phonics, whole-language, or another technique. Results of the recent research indicate a necessity for a balanced approach where the needs of all learners can be met. Literacy research suggests focusing on five areas of reading instruction: phonics, phonemic awareness (sounds in words), vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Reading teachers should determine how a child will best learn and use a combination of methods to teach necessary skills while giving children enriching reading experiences.
Programmed reading instruction is almost a self-teaching approach to learning and sometimes is used in schools for reading practice, because each child works at a separate computer. Several companies have developed software programs designed to both teach and offer practice with the alphabet, vocabulary, reading, and spelling—at a pace set by the student and/or teacher. The advantage of programmed teaching is twofold. In addition to learning these skills, a child is often given the opportunity to create a text and also to become familiar with using a computer for learning.
There are many organizations and programs that support learning to read. Reading is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), was founded in 1966 and is the largest and oldest nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. It provides free books and literacy resources to children and families who need them most to prepare children for reading. The National Right to Read Foundation was established in 1993 with the goal of eliminating illiteracy in the United States by assisting children in learning to read and write. The Global Alliance for the Education of Young Children is a group of associations from around the world whose purpose is to improve education, including reading, where most needed by sharing information and services.
Researchers estimate that about 774 million adults worldwide do not have minimal literacy skills. Developing countries account for about 764.5 million illiterate adults, with the greatest areas of illiteracy in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Female illiteracy—64 percent of the 774 million—is highest in Africa. This high percentage among women is seen as part of the wider issue of gender inequality. Globally, 15 countries account for three fourths of the illiterate adults, with 35 percent of the world total living in India. Although in many areas around the globe adult literacy is improving, enormous worldwide population growth means the absolute number of illiterate adults continues to increase.
In the United States, 42 million adults cannot read at all, and 50 million read below a sixth-grade level. Twenty percent of graduating high school seniors fall into the category of functionally illiterate. While different countries have various tools to assess illiteracy, the United States is measuring the knowledge and skills to search, comprehend, and use information in three types of literacy: 1) prose literacy, which includes content such as news stories and instruction manuals; 2) document literacy, which covers job applications, food and prescription labels, maps, and payroll forms; and 3) quantitative literacy, or the skills to identify and carry out computations with numbers in a print format, such as filling out an order form, figuring a tip, and determining interest on a loan. Recent studies indicate that the number of functionally illiterate adults increases by more than two million each year.
Many organizations are dedicated to teaching adults to read, but illiteracy has persisted. The problem of extensive adult illiteracy first came to the attention of the U.S. government during World War I, when as many as 30 percent of the men inducted into the armed forces were found to be either illiterate or barely able to read. In 1929, more than 10 years after the war, President Herbert Hoover created the U.S. Advisory Committee on National Illiteracy. With the onset of the Great Depression the committee ceased to function, and little attention was paid to the problem until well after World War II.
Since the 1960s, adult illiteracy has become a focus of government and literacy organizations. Illiteracy is a problem that hurts more than just the illiterate; the consequences for society and the economy are enormous. The burden of welfare and unemployment benefits is huge, and the costs of lost productivity are even greater. The increasing complexity of the economy and the need for specialized training in so many areas threaten to lock illiterate adults permanently out of the job market.
To fight adult illiteracy President Lyndon Johnson started the Adult Basic Education program in 1964. The government’s National Institute for Literacy, which was created in 1991, supports a number of programs to prevent and combat illiteracy as well as to help adults with learning disabilities. When children learn to read it is a new adventure for them. Adults, on the other hand, have established patterns of behavior and expectations about what they want from life. Many adults want to know how to read want ads, fill out job applications, and attain specific job certifications. Often adults find it difficult to admit they have trouble reading, but there are many programs available if they seek help.
In addition to government assistance, there are hundreds of privately funded programs for teaching adults. One of the largest organizations is ProLiteracy Worldwide, which was formed in 2002 when two long-standing literacy organizations (Laubach Literacy International and Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc.) joined together. The National Coalition for Literacy, founded in 1981, promotes awareness and serves as an authoritative resource on issues involving adult education.
In 1989, as wife of President George Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush selected literacy as her special cause. She saw creating a more literate America as a critical issue and was devoted to the effort. Her work led to the development of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which continues to support her belief that everyone should know how to read. All these literacy organizations help connect adults with opportunities for improving reading. While the United States is fortunate to have a strong education system and organizations and programs to help adults learn to read, it must continue to work with the international community to improve adult literacy worldwide.
When a child begins school, learning to read is a primary goal. Once a person has learned to read, the objective changes and reading becomes a means to attaining other goals. Reading can be entertaining as well as increase a person’s knowledge. A visit to the school or public library can result in books and resources on everything from mystery stories to fantasies to learning how to create your own Web page. Newspapers and magazines, whether in print or online, help people keep up with current events and what is happening in their local area. Many jobs require an employee to do research, read or create reports, and know what is happening in their field of work.
Learning to read prepares people for the society in which they live and function. More than that, it introduces them to the civilization of which they are a part. In a sense, reading has the same goal as the highest achievements of human thought—to seek answers to the most fundamental questions about the nature of the world, about human society, and about life’s purposes. Reading with such questions in mind exercises and stretches the mind and helps it to grow in ways that narrowly focused reading cannot do. (See also philosophy; religion.)
Many students are introduced to a broad range of books and magazines when they are in school. They often conclude, mistakenly, that to be well-read means to read as many books as possible. In fact, to be well-read means to read well and selectively among the works that are most challenging. Many detective stories, once read, can be put aside forever—all the clues have been sorted out, the criminal has been apprehended, and all the questions have been answered. Challenging books, by contrast, do not pretend to answer all questions. They also pose problems and call upon the readers to thoughtfully consider their responses.
In many countries readers study the classic writings of Homer, William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Wordsworth, and countless other poets, dramatists, novelists, and nonfiction writers. The Bible and the Koran are two of the most widely read books in the world. Great works of literature have lasting relevance and stimulate thinking. Reading of any kind that challenges the mind helps people grow and enriches their experiences. Whether reading for pleasure, for work, or to learn something new, lifelong reading leads to lifelong learning.
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