What is Reading

What is Reading?

 

Most of us think of reading as a simple, passive process that involves reading words in a linear fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time. But reading is actually a very complex process that requires a great deal of active participation on the part of the reader.

 

To get a better sense of the complexity of reading, read what some experts in the field have said about the reading process:

 

What do we read? The message is not something given in advance–or given at all– but something created by interaction between writers and readers as participants in a particular communicative situation. - Roy Harris in Rethinking Writing (2000)

 

Reading is asking questions of printed text. And reading with comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered. - Frank Smith in Reading Without Nonsense (1997)

 

Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction between thought and language. Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time. The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening. - Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the Reading Specialist (1967)

 

Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into, constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk, interaction, values, and beliefs. - James Gee in Social Linguistics and Literacies (1996)

 

As you can see, reading involves many complex skills that have to come together in order for the reader to be successful. For example, proficient readers recognize the purpose for reading, approach the reading with that purpose in mind, use strategies that have proven successful to them in the past when reading similar texts for similar purposes, monitor their comprehension of the text in light of the purpose for reading, and if needed adjust their strategy use. Proficient readers know when unknown words will interfere with achieving their purpose for reading, and when they won’t. When unknown words arise and their meaning is needed for comprehension, proficient readers have a number of word attack strategies available to them that will allow them to decipher the meaning of the words to the extent that they are needed to achieve the purpose for reading. Reading is also a complex process in that proficient readers give to the text as much as they take. They make meaning from the text by using their own prior knowledge and experiences. Proficient readers are constantly making predictions while reading. They are continuously anticipating what will come next. Their prior knowledge and experiences with texts as well as with the world around them allow them to do this. It is this continuous interaction with the text that allows readers to make sense of what they are reading.

 

In this course you will learn about the complexities of the reading process. Understanding the reading process is essential if you are to be an effective content area reading teacher. You will also learn ways to effectively support your students’ efforts to read and comprehend your reading assignments, as well as to become proficient independent readers outside of the classroom.

http://www.indiana.edu/~l517/what_is_reading.html