Student Handout

THE READING PROCESS

Reading is one strand of literacy. The reading process is complex and multi-
dimensional. Effective teachers have an understanding of this complexity and are able
to use a range of teaching approaches that produce confident and independent readers.
Recent work by international researchers identified a number of components that need
to be considered in the teaching of reading towards recognizing this complexity.

I. WHAT IS READING? (Input 1)

Traditional definitions of reading state that to read means learning to pronounce

words and to recognize words and deduce their meaning. However, as time goes on,
many pose more appropriate definitions of reading since a good number still adhere to
the old notion that reading is just a very simple process.

The following presents what renowned figures have to say about the complexity
of the reading process. Examine them carefully and figure out what they have in
common.

1. “Reading make the full man, conference a ready man, an writing an exact
man.” – Francis Bacon

2. “Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative
pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his brain too little falls
into lazy habits of thinking.” – Albert Einstein

3. “What do we read?” This message is not something given in advance or

given at all but something created by interaction between writers and
readers as participants in a particular communicative situation.” – Roy
Harris in Rethinking Writing (2000)

4. “Reading is asking questions of printed text. And reading with

comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered.” –
Frank Smith in Reading Without Nonsense (1997)

5. “Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. It involves an interaction

between thought and language. Efficient reading does not result from
precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in
selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses
which are right the first time. The ability to anticipate that which that has
been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what
has not yet been heard is vital in listening. Kenneth Goodman in JOURNAL
SPECIALIST (1967)

6. The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles it

distract, it excite it gives you knowledge of the world and experiences of a
wide kind. It is a moral illumination. Elizabeth Hardwick.

7. Literacy practices are almost always fully integrated with, interwoven into,
constituted as part of, the very texture of wider practices that involve talk,
interactions, values, and beliefs. James Gee in Social Linguistics and
Literacies (1999)

Student Handout, The Reading Process 1

 8. “Reading is a dynamic process in which the reader interacts with the text to
construct meaning. Inherent in constructing meaning is the reader’s ability
to activate prior knowledge, use reading strategies and adapt to the
reading situation.” Ma. Cecilia Crudo (1999)

9. “Reading is an interaction between the reader and the written language,

through which the reader attempts to reconstruct message from the writer.
Reading is also sampling, selecting, predicting, comparing and confirming
activity in which the reader selects a sample of useful cues based on what
he sees and what he expects to see.” W. S. Gray

II. MORE VIEWS ON READING (Input 2)

Previous researches have shown that reading is more than recognizing printed
letters or words and that it is also a very complex process that requires careful attention.
Through the years, more relevant views on reading emerge giving us a better picture of
what it really is and how it happens. The following condenses the views forwarded by
experts recognized for their effort of unlocking the mysteries behind the reading
process. These will guide you through as you further hone your ability to read and to
fully understand the reading process.
1. National Reading Panel (2002)
Reading is a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires
all of the following:
(1) the skills and knowledge to the understand how phonemes, or speech
sounds, are connected to print,
(2) the ability to decode unfamiliar words,
(3) the ability to read fluently,
(4) sufficient background information or schema and vocabulary to foster
reading comprehension,
(5) the development of appropriate active strategies to derive meaning from
print, and
(6) the development and maintenance of a motivation to read.
2. Robert Ruddell, Matha Rapp Ruddell, and Harry Singer
Reading is
(1) going beyond merely decoding the symbols on the page,
(2) thought of as making meaning,
(3) an understanding of what the writer is saying,
(4) an interaction between the reader and the writer in a specific context,
(5) involved with predicting and verifying predictions,
(6) influenced by one’s purpose for reading,
(7) influenced by other factors that involve knowledge, distractions, and
what one does when he/she is reading,
(8) indicative that the amount of information that is known about something
one is reading prior to reading is directly proportionate to how easy or hard
it is to read.
3. Nell Duke and David Pearson
Good readers
(1) are active readers,
(2) have clear goals in mind for their reading,
(3) constantly evaluate whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting
their goals,
(4) preview a text,
(5) make predictions,
(6) construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read,
(7) determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in the text,
and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed,

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 (8) capitalize and fuse their prior knowledge with material in the text,
(9) think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs, and intentions,
historical milieu,
(10) monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments in their
reading as necessary,
(11) evaluate the texts quality and value and react to the text in a range of
ways, both intellectually and emotionally.
(12) read different kinds of texts differently,
(13) when reading narrative, attend closely to the setting and characters,
(14) when “reading” but also during short breaks taken during reading,
even after the “reading itself has ceased.
(16) look at comprehension as a consuming, continuous, and complex
activity, but one that is both satisfying and productive.
4. Christine Cziko, Cynthia Greenleaf, Lori Hurwitz, Ruth Schoenbach
Reading is
(1) not merely a basic skill,
(2) a very complex process,
(3) a problem solving and sense making,
(4) is not the same as decoding, and situationally bounded.
They also believe that proficient readers share some key characteristics.
They are
(1) mentally engaged,
(2) driven to read and to learn,
(3) socially active around reading tasks and
(4) strategic in monitoring the interactive processes that assist
comprehension.

III. SKILLS REQUIRED FOR PROFICIENT READING (Input 3)

The National Reading Panel (2002) suggests that the study to read requires proficiency
in a number of language domains. These language domains include:
Phonemic  The ability to distinguish and manipulate the individual sounds
Awareness of language
Phonics  The understating of how letters are linked to sounds
(phonemes), patters of letter-sound correspondences and
spelling in English, and how to apply this knowledge when
readers read
Fluency  The ability to read orally with speed, accuracy, and vocal
expression; Fluency is important because it provides a bridge
between word recognition and comprehension. Fluent readers
do not have to concentrate on decoding so they can focus their
efforts on making meaning of the text.
Vocabulary  The knowledge of words etymology, structure, part of speech
and what they mean; is a large category that includes listening
vocabulary, speaking vocabulary, reading vocabulary, and
writing vocabulary; can be learned indirectly (e.g., through
being read to, through conversations with adult) or directly (e.g.,
through specific word instruction or through strategies such as
breaking longer words down into familiar parts).
Reading  The complex cognitive process in which a reader intentinally
Comprehensio and interactively engages with the text; the process of making
n sense of what is being read

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