Reading theories and their application

Flanagan (1995 as cited in Bester, pages 103 – 108) summarises the essence of the
behaviourists’ beliefs, psycholinguistic approach and teachers who subscribe/follow these two
approaches. Discuss in your groups how could you compare or contrast these theories and
teachers’ practice characteristics
 BEHAVIOURIST THEORY
• How most of us learnt to read
• Learning single letters in a mechanical fashion like a for apple and c_a_t spells
cat. Reading is a tool to decode letters, words and sentences.
• A collection of isolated skills which, when put together, one can read.
• Normally when a child is learning to read and struggles to decode a word, you then
stop and help or correct them.
• As you can imagine, the meaning gets lost along the way and there is little
comprehension of what they are reading. With this approach you may be able to
read (decode) certain words like ‘perished’ without even knowing what they mean.
• It is therefore possible to read without any comprehension
 BEHAVIOURIST THEORY

• Is the theoretical perspective of learning that focusses on observable changes in

behaviour
• The learner responds to environmental stimuli without his/her mental state being a factor
in the learners behaviour
• It changed the depiction of reading from or of perceptual processing to one of reading as
a behaviour composed of isolated skills, each of which could be reinforced to increase
student achievement
• Two assumptions are present in all theoretical versions of behaviourism
• The first is the belief that behaviour is the result of a persons response to stimuli
• The second is that external stimuli can be manipulated to strengthen or reduce an
individuals behaviour
Behaviourist Approach
• Children learn through imitation and modelling.
• Focus on stimuli and from the environment that
lead to the desired behaviour or response.
• Reading is a process that moves from the parts to
the whole.
• Reading is a combination of detached skills.
• Reading is text driven.
• Reading out loud is essential for beginner reading.
• The reader must master the mechanical and technical
aspects of written language before attention can be paid
to comprehension and understanding.
Application
• Teachers implement reading readiness programme before
the learner is allowed to read.
• Teachers use series of readers to teach learners how to
read, repetition of the same word in a text is a common
way of addressing word recognition.
• Teachers emphasize the sound of words and the
development of a sight vocabulary.
• Learners have to read the lesson aloud to the
teacher and to members of their group.
• The learners’ reading ability is assessed on the
basis of their ability to read single words correctly
as well as their ability to sound letter combinations
correctly.
 PSYCHOLINGUISTIC THEORY

• Known as the language experience approach and

• It is about the importance of reading for comprehension.
• Meaning comes first; you learn to read as a whole.
• First, create an idea of the whole book – the cover, the right way up, the letters, the words, sentences, moving
across the text from top to bottom, left to right. Look and see where to find the author and the publisher etc.
• Ask questions about the book. Predict.
• What do you think this story is about? They can look at the cover and the pictures for clues. Discuss. Look
at two consecutive pictures and ask them what they think is going to happen next.
• Coming to the text with as much information as possible reduces the uncertainty. It creates an enthusiasm
and understanding. It becomes applicable to real life situations and is meaningful.
• Correct pronunciation and accurate word identification become less important. You do not stop when they
make a mistake and focus on one word as you then lose the meaning of the whole. Meaning comes first and
is absolutely essential.
• Let them finish and 90% of the time, they will go back and correct themselves when they understand the word
in context.
Psycholinguistic Approach
• Children assign meaning to matters in the world
around them.
• They follow a problem-solving approach to
understand written language.
• Learners use familiar patterns and rhythms of a
language as clues to guess the meaning of an
unknown.
• Reading is a process that goes form the whole to
the parts
• Reading is global.
• Reading is comprehension driven.
• Meaning is most important and forms the
foundation of reading.
• People continue to learn to read throughout
their lives.
• Silent reading is essential for reflection and
comprehension.
Application
• Learning is holistic process in which readers’ aims and
expectations determine what they read and how they read
it.
• Attaching meaning to and understanding the text are the
foundation of reading.
• Learners play with books and discover that the written text
has meaning.
• A variety of reading matter is used.
• Learners read to each other as well as to the teacher or
anyone willing to listen.
• The grading of books into levels is influenced not
only by the degree of difficulty of the vocabulary,
but also by conceptual understanding required to
comprehend the content.
• The learners are shown how to infer meaning
through the interpretation of clues, such as
illustrations and context.
References
Bester, M.; Meyer, E.; Evans, R. & Phatudi, N. (2015).
Literacy in the Foundation Phase. (2nd Ed.). Van Schaik
Publishers.