Learning to read: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:12, 9 January 2021

Revision as of 07:51, 10 January 2021

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By their first birthday most children have learned all the sounds in their spoken language. However, it takes longer for them to learn the phonological form of words and to begin developing a spoken vocabulary.

Children acquire a spoken language in a few years. Five-to-six-year-old English learners have vocabularies of 2,500 to 5,000 words, and add 5,000 words per year for the first several years of schooling. This exponential learning rate cannot be accounted for by the instruction they receive. Instead, children learn that the meaning of a new word can be inferred because it occurs in the same context as familiar words (e.g., ''lion'' is often seen with ''cowardly'' and ''king'').<ref>{{cite web|url=https://researched.org.uk/2019/06/24/d_-y_u-kn_w-wh_t-i-me_n-reading-for-inference/|title=Inference, says Clare Sealy, isn’tisn't a skill that can be taught. But it can be improved – through knowledge., ResearchED, 2019-06-24}}</ref> As British linguist [[John Rupert Firth]] says, "You shall know a word by the company it keeps".

The environment in which children live may also impact their ability to acquire reading skills. Children who are regularly exposed to chronic environmental noise pollution, such as highway traffic noise, have been known to show decreased ability to discriminate between [[phonemes]] (oral language sounds) as well as lower reading scores on standardized tests.<ref name="CohenGlass1973">{{cite journal|last1=Cohen|first1=Sheldon|last2=Glass|first2=David C.|last3=Singer|first3=Jerome E.|title=Apartment noise, auditory discrimination, and reading ability in children|journal=Journal of Experimental Social Psychology|volume=9 |issue=5|year=1973 |pages=407–422 |issn=0022-1031 |doi=10.1016/S0022-1031(73)80005-8}}</ref>

===Reading to children: necessary but not sufficient===

Children learn to speak naturally—by listening to other people speak. However, reading is not a natural process, and many children need to learn to read through a process that involves "systematic guidance and feedback".<ref name="NIFDI">{{cite web |last1=Hempenstall |first1=Kerry |title=Whole Language! What was that all about? |url=https://www.nifdi.org/news/hempenstall-blog/441-part-1-whole-language-what-was-that-all-about |website=National Institute for Direct Instruction |publisher=National Institute for Direct Instruction |access-date=29 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Gough">{{cite journal |last1=Gough |first1=P.B. |last2=Hillinger |first2=M.L. |title=Learning to read: An unnatural act. |journal=Bulletin of the Orton Society |date=1980 |volume=30 |pages=179–196|doi=10.1007/BF02653717 |s2cid=143275563 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar98/vol55/num06/Why-Reading-Is-Not-a-Natural-Process.aspx|title=Why Reading Is Not a Natural Process, volume 55, number 6, ASCD, Alexandria, VA|year=1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lyon|first1=G. Reid|title=Why Reading Is Not a Natural Process|journal=Educational Leadership|date=1998|ISSNissn=0013-1784}}</ref>

So, "reading to children is not the same as teaching children to read". Nonetheless, reading to children is important because it socializes them to the activity of reading; it engages them; it expands their knowledge of spoke language; and it enriches their linguist ability by hearing new and novel words and grammatical structures. Reading and speech are codependent: a richer vocabulary facilitates skilled reading, and reading promotes vocabulary development.<ref> {{cite book |title=Language at the speed of light|date=2017|pages=113–117|author=Mark Seidenberg|isbn=9780465080656}}</ref> There is also some evidence that "shared reading" with children does help to improve reading if the children's attention is directed to the words on the page as they are being read to.<ref name="MyersBotting2008">{{cite journal |last1=Myers|first1=L. |last2=Botting|first2=N. |title=Literacy in the mainstream inner-city school: Its relationship to spoken language|journal=Child Language Teaching and Therapy|volume=24 |issue=1|year=2008 |pages=95–114|issn=0265-6590 |doi=10.1177/0265659007084570|s2cid=145153275 |url=http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/13719/3/Lucy%20RC%20paper%20revised%20CRO.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Increasing Young Children's Contact With Print During Shared Reading: Longitudinal Effects on Literacy Achievement, 2012-04-17, 1467–8624.2012.01754.x|year=2012|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01754.x|pmid=22506889|last1=Piasta|first1=S. B.|last2=Justice|first2=L. M.|last3=McGinty|first3=A. S.|last4=Kaderavek|first4=J. N.|journal=Child Development|volume=83|issue=3|pages=810–20}}</ref>

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In cognitive science there is likely no area that has been more successful than the study of reading. Yet, in many countries reading levels are considered low. In the USA, the 2019 ''Nations Report Card'' reported that 34% of grade-four public school students performed at or above the [[NAEP]] ''proficient level'' (solid academic performance) and 65% performed at or above the ''basic level'' (partial mastery of the proficient level skills).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2019/pdf/2020014NP4.pdf|title=NAEP 2019 grade 4 reading report}}</ref> As reported in the [[PIRLS]] study, the USA ranked 15th out of 50 countries, for reading comprehension levels of fourth-graders.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-results/wp-content/uploads/structure/PIRLS/3.-achievement-in-purposes-and-comprehension-processes/3_1_achievement-in-reading-purposes.pdf|title=PIRLS 2016 Exhibit 3.1: Achievement in Reading Purposes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://qz.com/1147045/singapores-fourth-graders-read-at-the-most-advanced-level-in-a-global-test-of-literacy/|title=Where the world's fourth-graders read at the most advanced level, Barclays, 2017-12-05}}</ref> In addition, according to the 2011–2018 [[PIAAC]] study, out of 39 countries the USA ranked 19th for literacy levels of adults 16 to 65; and 16.9% of adults in the USA read at or below level one (out of five levels).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/publications/Skills_Matter_Additonal_Results_from_the_Survey_of_Adult_Skills_ENG.pdf|title=OECD (2019), Skills Matter: Additional Results from the Survey of Adult Skills, OECD Skills Studies, doi.org/10.1787/1f029d8f-en, page 44}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/Skills%20volume%201%20(eng)--full%20v12--eBook%20(04%2011%202013).pdf|title=OECD Skills Outlook 2013, page 257}}</ref>

Many researchers are concerned that low reading levels are due to the manner in which reading is taught. They point to three areas: a) contemporary reading science has had very little impact on educational practice mainly because of a "two-cultures problem separating science and education", b) current teaching practices rest on outdated assumptions that make learning to read harder than it needs to be, and c) connecting [[Evidence-based education|evidence-based practice]] to educational practice would be beneficial but is extremely difficult to achieve because many teachers are not properly trained in the science of reading.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Science of Reading and Its Educational Implications, pages 331–360|author=Mark S. Seidenberg|journal=PMC|date=2013-08-26|volume=9|issue=4|pages=331–360|doi=10.1080/15475441.2013.812017|pmid=24839408|pmc=4020782}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4020782/journal|title=The Science of Reading and Its Educational Implications|date=2013-08-26|pmc=4020782|last1=Seidenberg|first1=M. S.|journal=Language Learning and Development : The Official Journal of the Society for Language Development|volume=9|issue=4|pages=331–360|doi=10.1080/15475441.2013.812017|pmid=24839408}}</ref>

===The simple view of reading===

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In addition, phonics produces higher achievement for all beginning readers, and the greatest improvement is experienced by students who are at risk of failing to learn to read. While some children are able to infer these rules on their own, some need explicit instruction on phonics rules. Some phonics instruction has marked benefits such as expansion of a student's vocabulary. Overall, children who are directly taught phonics are better at reading, spelling and comprehension.<ref name="Seidenberg, Mark 2017">{{cite book |author=Seidenberg, Mark |title=Language at the speed of sight|publisher=Basic Books|___location=New York, NY|year=2017|isbn=978-1-5416-1715-5}}</ref>

A disadvantage to teaching phonics is that in some languages, such as English, complex letter-sound correspondences can cause confusion for beginning readers. For this reason, it is recommended that teachers of English-reading begin by introducing the "most frequent sounds" and the "common spellings", and save the less frequent sounds and complex spellings for later. (e.g. the sounds /s/ and /t/ before /v/ and /w/; and the spellings c''a''ke before ''eigh''t and ''c''at before du''ck'').<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/pdf/pspi22.pdf|title=HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE INFORMS THE TEACHING OF READING, American Psychological Society, VOL. 2, NO. 2, NOVEMBER 2001}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rayner|first=Keith|author2=Barbara Foorman |author3=Charles Perfetti |author4=David Pesetsky |author5=Mark Seidenberg |title=How Should Reading be Taught?|journal=Scientific American|date=March 2002|volume=286|issue=3|pages=84–91 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0302-84|pmid=11857904|bibcode=2002SciAm.286c..84R|url=http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/pspi/reading.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/nys-next-generation-ela-standards.pdf|title=NY English Language Arts Learning Standards, page 22, 2017}}</ref>

Phonics is gaining [[Phonics#Practices by country or region|world-wide acceptance]].