Teaching Reading

Reading is a complex process of language acquisition. It is closely connected with the comprehension of what is read, consequently it is a complicated intellectual activity.

It requires the ability on the part of the reader to carry out a number of mental operations: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison and others.

There are many definitions of reading which emphasize some aspect or combination of aspects of the reading process. Let us consider some of them.

1. “Reading is a sampling, selecting, predicting, comparing and confirming activity in which the reader selects a sample of useful graphic cues based on what he sees and what he expects to see.”(cf. 88, p.35).

2. “Reading involves the identification and recognition of printed or written symbols, which serve as stimuli, and further the construction of new meanings through the reader’s manipulation of relevant concepts already in his possession. The resulting meanings are organized into thought processes according to the purposes that are operating in the reader.”(cf. 88, p.35).

3. “Reading is a process in which information from the text and the knowledge possessed by the reader act together to produce meaning.”(cf. 88, p.35).

4. “Reading is a process of looking at written language symbols, converting them into overt or covert speech symbols, and then manipulating them so that both the direct (overt) and implied (covert) ideas intended by the author may be understood.”

Reading as a process is connected with the work of visual, kinaesthetic, aural analysers and thinking. The visual analyser is at work when the reader sees a text. While seeing the text he “sounds” it silently, therefore the kinaesthetic analyser is involved. In learning to read one of the aims is to minimise the activities of kinaesthetic and aural analysers, so that the reader can associate what he sees with the thought expressed in reading material, since inner speech hinders the process of reading and makes it very slow. Thus, the speed of reading depends on the reader’s ability to establish a largely direct link between what he sees and what it means.

Джерела:
Близнюк М.І. Курс лекцій з методики викладання англійської мови. – Чернівці: ЧДУ, 1999 – с.