READING AND LANGUAGE

Reading and Language

Reading and Language

Introduction

Reading is described as a "psycholinguistic process by which the reader reconstructs as best as he can a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display" (Goodman, 1971). It is essentially consisting of a successful interaction among three factors: higher-level conceptual abilities, background knowledge, and process strategies. The result of the interaction is comprehension. Conceptual abilities are important in reading acquisition. Process strategies are considered subcomponents of reading ability although they are also mental processes. For example, knowledge of the phonology of a language implies the ability to identify phonemes and use this knowledge for practical purposes such as listening (Mackay, Barkman and Jordan.1979).

Case Anslysis

In the case of reading, Keyon is required to perform at least two interdependent tasks; the reader must determine what words constitute the text while simultaneously constructing meaning. Unfortunately, the combined attention demands of decoding and comprehension are greater than the reader's attention resources. Therefore, beginning readers focus their attention on the decoding task and then move to comprehension to understand what they have decoded. Although the beginning reader is able to comprehend by switching attention back and forth in this way, the process is slow and difficult.

With practice, Keyon is able to recognize words automatically. Then, because so little attention is required for decoding, they have enough left over for comprehension. Then, they are able to focus attention simultaneously on decoding and comprehension and the transition from learning to read to reading to learn proceeds smoothly (Howell & Lorson-Howell, 1990).

Inefficient readers continue to expend a disproportionately large percentage of their attention on decoding, which significantly reduces their overall reading rate. In addition, cognitive resources that could have been used for comprehension must be reallocated to word recognition. As a result comprehension suffers. Improving their level of word recognition will enable struggling readers to focus on the real goal of reading (Pinnell et al., 1995).

Very slow reading can result in a cycle of interacting negative consequences. Unrewarding reading experiences lead to less involvement in reading related activities. Keyon avoid reading when they do not feel successful, which eliminates the one thing that will improve their practice. For the teacher of the struggling reader, the dilemma is how to provide more practice in a task that the Keyon avoid and probably dislikes (Allington, 1977). This essay examines the ways in which reading skills can be taught in a communicative classroom. Some examples will be quoted to illustrate the certain procedures and implementation processes.

One of the ways of reading is 'Precision reading'. It is a short, daily reading activity designed to improve sight word recognition and the reading fluency and comprehension of Keyon with low reading achievement. It is a combination of the methods of repeated readings. Precision reading applies the measurement and evaluation procedures of precision teaching to the repeated readings procedure. Keyon read the same passage aloud to their instructor for one minute every day for seven to ten school days, engage in corrective ...