Reading skill

(EnLa. ___)
 Unit One
1.1 Definition of Reading

• Reading is the process of taking in the sense or

meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or
touch.
• What is reading? Reading is about understanding
written texts.
• It is a complex activity that involves both perception
and thought.
• Reading consists of two related processes: word
recognition and comprehension.
• Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how
written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language.
• Comprehension is the process of making
sense of words, sentences and connected text.
Readers typically make use of:
• background knowledge,
• vocabulary,
• grammatical knowledge,
• experience with text and other strategies to
help them understand written text.
• Alderson defines reading as “…an enjoyable,
intense, private activity, from which much
pleasure can be derived, and in which one can
become, totally absorbed” (2000, p. 28).
Reading means different things to different
people; for some it is recognizing written
words, while for others it is an opportunity to
teach pronunciation and practice speaking.
• However reading always has a purpose. It is something
that we do every day; it is an integral part of our daily
lives, taken very much for granted and generally
assumed to be something that everyone can do.
• The reason for reading depends very much on the
purpose for reading. Reading can have three main
purposes,
• for survival,
• for learning or
• for pleasure.
• Reading for survival is considered to be in response
to our environment, to find out information and can
include street signs, advertising, and timetables. It
depends very much on the day-to-day needs of the
reader and often involves an immediate response to
a situation. In contrast, reading for learning is
considered the type of reading done in the
classroom and is goal orientated.
• While reading for pleasure is something that does
not have to be done (Berardo, 2006).
• For Nuttall (1996) the central ideas behind reading
are:
• the idea of meaning;
• the transfer of meaning from one mind to another;
• the transfer of a message from writer to reader;
• how we get meaning by reading;
• how the reader, the writer and the text all
contribute to the process.(Alderson, 2000, cited in
Berardo, 2006).
• As such reading is a thinking process rather than an exercise in eye
movements. Effective reading requires a logical sequence of thinking
or thought patterns, and these thought patterns require practice to set
them into the mind. They may be broken down into the following
seven basic processes:
1. Recognition: the reader's knowledge of the alphabetic symbols.
2. Assimilation: the physical process of perception and scanning.
3. Intra-integration: basic understanding derived from the reading
material itself, with minimum dependence on past experience, other
than knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.
4. Extra-integration: analysis, criticism, appreciation, selection &
rejection. These are all activities which require the reader to bring his
past experience to bear on the task.
5. Retention: this is the capacity to store the information in
memory.
6. Recall: the ability to recover the information from memory
storage.
7. Communication: this represents the application of the
information and may be further broken down into at least 4
categories, which are:
* Written communication;
* Spoken communication;
* Communication through drawing and the manipulation of objects;
and
* Thinking; this is another word for communication with the self.
 Components of Reading Strategies

• We have many components of reading

strategies listed below. Each component is an
essential ingredient of a multi-dimensional
definition of reading and provides guidance
for understanding how the reading process
should be taught.
• Motivation
• Motivation refers to a people’s eagerness and
willingness to read. The National Literacy and
Numeracy Strategy, Literacy and Numeracy for
Learning and Life (2011), states that positive attitude
and motivation are vital for progression in literacy
and numeracy. It also states that “… all learners
should benefit from the opportunity to experience the
joy and excitement of getting ‘lost’ in a book (in both
paper based and digital formats)” (p. 43).
• Teachers can promote excitement and
motivation to read by providing students with
• interesting and rich texts
• choice of text
• authentic purposes for reading
• Opportunities to explore interact and
experiment with text.
• Reading Fluency
• Fluency is the ability to read aloud with expression to
demonstrate an understanding of the author’s message.”
(Department of Education and Training in Western
Australia, 2004, p. 30)
• According to McKenna & Stahl (2009) the three key
components of reading fluency. These are:
• accurate word recognition
• automaticity
• Appropriate rhythm and intonation of speech
• Accurate word recognition: In order to improve reading
fluency pupils should be reading at their instructional reading
level i.e. 90% - 95% accuracy.
• Automaticity: This is the ability to read words without
conscious decoding. Here your reading allows you to read
words fluently so that you can concentrate on comprehending
the text. Mental energy is required for decoding meaning
therefore very little mental energy may be left for
comprehension.
• Rhythm and intonation: this is also referred to as prosody
and concerns the ability to read with some sort of
inflection.
• Comprehension
• The ultimate objective of reading is
comprehension or the reconstruction of
meaning.
• Vocabulary
• According to Hu and Nation (2000, as cited in Abiyot,
2014), the usefulness of extensive reading is contingent on
the density of unknown words. This shows that vocabulary
one component of reading strategy and can facilitate the
development of reading.
• Vocabulary development is the enrichment and extension
of pupils’ word knowledge and understanding.
• Vocabulary consists of the words we understand when we
hear or read them (receptive vocabulary) and words we
speak or write (expressive vocabulary).
• four types of vocabulary
• Listening vocabulary – the words we need to
know to understand what we hear
• Speaking Vocabulary – the words we use when
we speak
• Reading Vocabulary – the words we need to
understand what we read
• Writing Vocabulary – the words we use in
writing
• Phonological Awareness
• Phonological Awareness can be defined as “an
ability to recognize, combine and manipulate the
different sound units of spoken words”
• Phonological awareness is a central part of learning
to read (Adams, 1990 and National Institute of
Child Health Human Development (NICHHD),
2000). Although different to phonics, it is an
important precursor to learning phonics effectively
(Savage, 2008).
• Assessment in Reading
• Assessment is the process of generating, gathering,
recording, interpreting, using and reporting
evidence of learning in individuals, groups or
systems, which relies upon a number of
instruments, one of which may be a test.
Educational assessment provides information
about progress in learning (Assessment in the
Primary School Curriculum, Guidelines for
Schools, NCCA, 2007, p.4).
• Integrated reading and writing
• Reinforce the connection between reading and writing.
Research findings Reading and writing are closely
related.
• Developing reading skills through writing is an effective
strategy. For young children, learning to write and spell
helps to develop their awareness of print conventions.
• It also makes them aware of the symbolic nature of
print. Writing also helps to establish the connection
between oral and written language.
• Texts
• Choose texts of the right difficulty and interest level
• Texts of the right reading level are neither too easy nor too
hard for a particular reader.
• Choosing texts of the right difficulty and interest levels will
encourage children to read and to enjoy what they are
reading.
• Vocabulary, word length, grammatical complexity and
sentence length are traditionally used to indicate the
difficulty level of a text.
• The subject matter of a book is also an important factor.
• Assessment
• Use assessment to provide feedback and measure
progress. There are two forms of reading assessment.
• The first is to find out how well children are reading
in order to help them improve (diagnosis).
Diagnostic assessment is about giving feedback and
assistance to learners.
• The second is to measure how much progress has
been made. Both forms of assessment are needed for
effective reading instruction.
• Cultural factors
• Cultural knowledge affects reading comprehension. Reading
comprehension is about relating prior knowledge to new
• knowledge contained in written texts.
• Prior knowledge, in turn, depends on lived experience. Topics that are
familiar and openly discussed in one culture may be unacceptable in
another.
• Children growing up in rural communities will have different
experiences from those from urbanized, developed countries. Because
having more prior knowledge generally facilitates comprehension,
having more cultural knowledge has the same effect.
• Having rich but different types of cultural knowledge will also affect
our understanding and appreciation of written text. For example, jokes
and humour depend on shared cultural knowledge between the writer
and reader.