PSYCHOLOGY OF READING

Psychology of Reading

Psychology of Reading

Introduction

An uncomplicated way to understand the nature of the reading deficit is to organize the potential sources of reading difficulties into a coherent model and then proceed with the diagnosis by following the model. On the basis of the theories of reading and research of experts as well as our own, (Bussis, Chittenden, Amarel, Klausner, 2005) have developed a model of reading acquisition called the Component Model.

The Psychological Module: Its Constituents

Psychological aspects related to learning are also important for the acquisition of reading skills. If a child is not interested in learning to read, no amount of instruction can make him or her good reader.

Motivation and Interest

Motivation is defined as the process of initiating, sustaining, and directing one's own activity. Motivation leads children to read (Chall, 2006). Reading becomes an alluring activity when children find it interesting. Psychologists classify motivation broadly as extrinsic and intrinsic. External factors that motivate children to read are simple rewards such as gold stars, candy, and verbal praise by the teacher. Intrinsic motivation is a desire to read that comes from within the child.

Locus of Control

Julian Rotter, who introduced the concept of locus of control into the psychological literature, classified it into two discrete categories, external and internal. When a person feels that life's events are the result of chance, luck, fate, or control by others, he or she feels the location of control is external; when a person feels that the outcomes of events are the consequences of his or her own actions, the locus is said to be internal (Carver, 2008). This variable is said to have significant influence on children's learning.

Learned Helplessness

After repeated failure, a child will not try to learn; he or she will just give up. In other words, the child has learned to be helpless. Behaviorally, this can lead to a lack of interest and effort on the part of the child. In the long term, the child expects to fail and fulfills this prophecy by failing (Byrne, 2008).

Learning Styles

Learning styles are described as reasonably stable patterns of behavior that indicate learning preferences. According to Marie Carbo (1983), who is the leading proponent of learning styles, the concept of learning styles has four dimensions:

Cognitive: Includes factors such as modality preferences (auditory vs. visual)

Affective: Includes personality characteristics such as anxiety level, expectancy, and level of motivation

Physiological: Includes gender differences, daily rhythms (morning vs. afternoon person), and “left-brain” or “right-brain” proclivity

Psychological: Includes factors such as selfconcept, locus of control, and sociability (loner vs. group person)

The instructional implication is that matching the method of instruction with the learning style of the child should reduce learning difficulties (Adams, 2006).

There are several problems associated with the concept of learning styles. For one thing, we have no reliable instruments to assess the learning styles of children. For instance, it is not an easy matter to decide who is left-brained and who is right-brained. Nor is it easy to determine if a child is an auditory learner or a ...