Models of the Reading Process By Murray Peglar B.A., B.

Ed
To be able to teach reading, it is important to understand what happens when we read. Reading basically
involves transforming a text, which is a graphic representation, into thought, or meaning. It used to be thought
that this was simply a matter of combining letters into words, words into sentences and sentences into
meanings. However, over the last thirty years, psychologists and linguists, using a variety of experimental
techniques, have discovered that things are much more complex. Several models of the reading process have
been put forward to account for the experimental findings. A key element in explaining reading is the amount to
which what the brain already knows affects perception of what is being read (top-down processing). This idea
was initially thought to be in contrast to earlier ideas that reading was a linear progression from page to
understanding (bottom-up processing), but newer research seems to indicate that both elements play important
parts in reading
Kenneth Goodman
In the early 1960s Kenneth S. Goodman began studying the reading of authentic texts by urban and rural
young people. His earliest miscue research, published in 1965, is probably the most widely replicated study in
reading research history. But it was his article, "Reading: a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game" (1967), that began
a revolution moving away from a view of reading as rapid accurate sequential word recognition to an
understanding of reading as a process of constructing meaning - making sense - of print. That research is part of
the basis for the whole language movement and disagreements over his conclusions about the nature of reading
fuel the current "reading wars." (Stenhouse Publishers, 2003)
Goodman defined reading as: a receptive psycholinguistic process wherein the actor uses strategies to
create meaning from text (Goodman, 1988). Basically, the study of reading looks at translating a linguistic
surface representation (text) into thought. Goodman based much of his theory on analysing miscues (mistakes)
in texts being read-aloud. He believed that efficient readers minimize dependence on visual detail, but focused
his theories on the interactions of reader and text. Basic physical sensory information (the physiological
process) is cycled into deeper levels of cognitive processes.
Cycles readers move from text to understanding through cycles of deeper processing, moving from optical, to
perceptual, to syntactic, to meaning
Cognitive Processes of the brain used in reading are:
recognition / initiation the brain must recognise text and initiate reading
prediction anticipates and predicts as it seeks order and significance of input
confirmation verification of predictions or disconfirmation
correction reprocessing when it finds inconsistencies or disconfirmations
termination formal ending of reading act
N.B.: Goodman treats these processes as sequential, whereas later models may not
This limited view, however, was still an improvement upon Noam Chomskys generative grammar, which
lacked explanation of top-down processing. Goodman also promoted the use of natural texts, believing that
language must be studied in context. This follows from his postulated three sources of linguistic information:
symbols (characters), language structure (syntax), and semantic (meaning).
Naom Chomsky
Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human language. He
claims that certain linguistic structures which children use so accurately must be already imprinted on the
childs mind. Chomsky believes that every child has a language acquisition device or LAD which encodes the
major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the childs brain. Children have then only to
learn new vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures from the LAD to form sentences. Chomsky points out
that a child could not possibly learn a language through imitation alone because the language spoken around
them is highly irregular adults speech is often broken up and even sometimes ungrammatical.Chomskys
theory applies to all languages as they all contain nouns, verbs, consonants and vowels and children appear to
be hard-wired to acquire the grammar. Every language is extremely complex, often with subtle distinctions
which even native speakers are unaware of. However, all children, regardless of their intellectual ability,
become fluent in their native language within five or six years.
Evidence to support Chomskys theory
Children learning to speak never make grammatical errors such as getting their subjects, verbs and objects in the
wrong order.

If an adult deliberately said a grammatically incorrect sentence, the child would notice.
Children often say things that are ungrammatical such as mama ball, which they cannot have learnt passively.
Mistakes such as I drawed instead of I drew show they are not learning through imitation alone.
Chomsky used the sentence colourless green ideas sleep furiously, which is grammatical although it doesnt
make sense, to prove his theory: he said it shows that sentences can be grammatical without having any
meaning, that we can tell the difference between a grammatical and an ungrammatical sentence without ever
having heard the sentence before, and that we can produce and understand brand new sentences that no one has
ever said before.

Evidence against Chomskys theory

Critics of Chomskys theory say that although it is clear that children dont learn language through imitation
alone, this does not prove that they must have an LAD language learning could merely be through general
learning and understanding abilities and interactions with other people.
Dialogue
Parent and Child (3 years old)
Parent: What did you do today?
Child: Me drawed a cat. (applies ed suffix rule but gets wrong)
Parent: You drew a cat?
Child: Yeah. (understands correction)
Parent: Who did you play with at breaktime?
Child: Me played with Sarah and Helen. (wrong pronoun not learnt passively)
Parent: That sound fun. Now what do you want for tea?
Child: Dunno. What you having?
Parent: Daddy and I are having fish.
Child: You having fishes? (incorrect use of plural noun but shows child applying rules)
Parent: Yes. Ill do you some fish fingers and if youre a good girl and eat them all you can have a
sweetie. (applying plural noun rule)
Child: Me want two sweeties.
Parent: Alright then. Now go and watch Postman Pat while I start the tea.
Child: When Daddy coming home? (gets SVO order correct all the time)
Parent: Hell be here soon.

HOLDAWAY
Children learn how to read naturally in the home environment and interaction with parents. Children emulate
the reading model set up by the parents.
Donald Holdaway was born on 1930 and died in 2004. He is the father of the big book and the founder of
Shared Reading and the developer of the Natural Learning Model. He worked in New Zealand and Australia
with students who lacked reading abilities developed the best way to teach Malread students. His work really
helped a lot of malread children in the world but theres not a lot about him on the internet that is accessable.
Please help out on the biography of this important person.
Major theory:
His theory is the Natural Learning Model. He believes that all children can learn how to read by experiencing
the text over and over. By following the four steps process in his Learning Model children can then become
better readers. In his theory, he believes that his model is not only siblical but also recursive. Meaning, the child
and educator can go back and forth between the first three processes in the Natural Learning Model before
actually performing the skill learned from the experience.
Major Strategy:
Holdaway rejects old pedagogical assumptions and reinforcement theory and traces a new line of investigation
that began over 25 years ago in New Zealand focusing on children's "natural, developmental learning" (from
within). Holdaway's rationale for a new approach to teaching reading exemplifies the same conceptual
revolution that Piaget had undergone in Europe. He too believes that as childrens learn to read they go through
the four processes of the learning model he refers to as the Natural Learning Model. The four processes
include the following;

1.
Demonstration- Child watching or listening to a more knowledgable other while s/he reads a book or a
story to him or her.
2.
Participation-Child is watching and listening to a more knowledgable other while interacting with his or
her reader making sure not to skip or omit their favorite parts of the story being read to them.
3.
Role Play/Practice-At this phase the child is practicing what s/he had experienced from the more
knowledgable other on their own imitating them.
4.
Performance- After practicing the skill for quite some time the child then shows off their skill to an
audience.
Contributions
Don Holdaway introduced shared reading in 1979, praising its instructional density, the influence of corporate
learning, and its engagement of students. He explains that shared reading connects students through shared
feelings and shared experiences. Thus shared reading is more than a lesson; it becomes a shared event. In 1972
he elaborates on the learning opportunities innate in shared learning involving common language that is
meaningful to the students. In the 1970s he was charged with figuring out how to best educate a population of
Malread children who were entering schools in New Zealand and Australia for the first time. Their culture was
quite different from that at school and many of the children were having difficulties learning how to read in
traditional ways. He understood that malread children came to school having already mastered a highly complex
language system and they had learn their language the same way other children do in other cultures in all the
other way around the world in a social setting. So Holdaway studies the social context that supported learning
and found these four types of common experiences. 1. Demonstration, 2. Participation, 3. Role Play/ Practice,
and 4. Performance.
Marie Clay's literacy processing theory
In a complex model of interacting competencies in reading and writing the reader can potentially draw from all
his or her current understanding, and all his or her language competencies, and visual information, and
phonological information, and knowledge of printing conventions, in ways which extend both the searching and
linking processes as well as the item knowledge repertoires. Learners pull together necessary information from
print in simple ways at first . . . but as opportunities to read and write accumulate over time the learner becomes
able to quickly and momentarily construct a somewhat complex operating system which might solve the
problem. There is no simplified way to engage in the complex activities . . . Clay, 2001, p. 224
Essential components
While remaining true to the principles of this complex theory of literacy learning, Reading Recovery lessons
incorporate the National Reading Panels essential components of reading instruction as well as other elements
of reading instruction (writing, oral language, motivation, and independence).

VYGOTSKY
Childrens all higher mental functions are internalized social relationship. Children increase their independent
engagement in reading activities through interaction with literate adults.
Reading in the Zone of Proximal Development: Mediating Literacy Development in Beginner Readers through
Guided Reading
For Vygotsky, development and learning was not an "eitheror" situation, you know or you don't know. Rather,
he viewed learning or the development of a concept on a continuum, as a series of growth points or degrees of
maturing. When a child is learning within a zone of proximal development, he/she is learning a concept that is
close to emergence. That is, once the child receives appropriate instruction, the child will be able to use the
concept independently or without adult assistance. They have defined good teaching in relation to development
which "consists of assisting performance through the zone of proximal development. Teaching can be said to
occur when assistance is offered at points in the ZPD at which performance requires assistance" (Tharp and
Gallimore, 1988, p.45). performance requires assistance" (Tharp and Gallimore, 1988, p.45).
The teacher then needs to be aware of the level of support and assistance that can foster learning. The model of
the ZPD developed by Gallimore and Tharp provide a guideline to those who are shaping instruction at the
child's development. According to their model, there are four stages within the zone of proximal development,
each stage requiring varied levels of support. At the first stage, the teacher assists the child in performing the
task. At the beginning stages of the ZPD, and for young children, the teacher may model the task, provide

explicit directions with much direct response and feedback to the child's performance. The teacher is always
responsive to the specific learning needs of the child. During the book introduction, the teacher mediates the
text for the child. Much of the assistance she gives to the child in the context of the book introduction is similar
to that which occurs in the first and second stages of the zone of proximal development. For example, the
teacher may be working on a specific literacy strategy such as using the title and the illustration on the cover to
make a prediction about the story. The teacher may point to the title of the book to see if anyone can read it. If
not, she will point to each word as she reads the title. She will then ask the children to look at the cover to see if
they can tell what the story is about (modeling the strategy). Then a discussion about the title and the picture
will ensue. What the teacher is doing is assisting the children in developing a prediction strategy that they will
eventually be expected to independently.
William H. Teale
Reading is acquired through socially interactive and emulative behavior. Social functions and conventions of
reading are acquired through interactive literacy events.
Emergent Literacy
Emergent literacy refers to "the reading and writing behaviors that precede and develop into conventional
literacy," according to Elizabeth Sulzby. Sulzby and William Teale wrote in1996, "Emergent literacy is
concerned with the earliest phases of literacy development, the period between birth and the time when children
read and write conventionally. The term emergent literacy signals a belief that, in a literate society, young
children -- even 1- and 2-year-olds--are in the process of becoming literate."
EMERGENT LITERACYWilliam Teale and Elizabeth Sulzby coined the term emergent literacy in 1986 from
Mary Clay's dissertation title, "Emergent Reading Behavior" (1966). Their term designated new conceptions
about the relationship between a growing child and literacy information from the environment and home
literacy practices. The process of becoming literate starts before school intervention.
The Original Meaning of the Concept
Several pioneering researchers (among them Clay in New Zealand, Yetta Goodman and Sulzby in the United
States, and Emilia Ferreiro in Latin American countries) share several main ideas that can be summarized as
follows:
Before schooling, a considerable amount of literacy learning takes place, provided that children are growing in
literate environments (homes where reading and writing are part of daily activies; urban environments where
writing is everywherein the street, in the markets, on all kinds of food containers or toysas well as on specific
objects like journals, books, and calendars).
Through their encounters with print and their participation in several kinds of literacy events, children try to
make sense of environmental print. Indeed, they elaborate concepts about the nature and function of these
written marks.
Children try to interpret environmental print. They also try to produce written marks. Their attempts constitute
the early steps of reading and writing. Thus, reading and writing activities go hand in hand, contributing to
literacy development as comprehension and production both contribute to oral language acquisition. The use of
the term literacy in the phrase emergent literacy indicates that the acquisition of reading and writing take place
simultaneously.
The pioneer authors of the emergent literacy approach avoid the use of terms like pretend reading or prereading, pretend writing or pre-writing. Such terms, in fact, establish a frontier in the developmental process
instead of a developmental continuum.
From a careful observation of spontaneous writing and reading activities as well as from data obtained through
some elicitation techniques, it becomes possible to infer how children conceive the writing system and the
social meaning of the activities related to it.
Emergent literacy is a child-centered concept that not only takes into account relevant experiences (like sharing
reading books in family settings), but also takes into consideration that children are always trying to make sense
of the information received in a developmental pathway that is characterized both by some milestones common
to all and by individual stories.