Topic/Subject area: The Process of Reading
Author: Jennifer L. Wilson, University of South Carolina
The Process of reading
In 1968, Kenneth Goodman created and has continually refined his model of the reading process. This process is predicated on the idea that when readers are engaged in a text, they sample from the text and make predictions. This was a move away from a word by word decoding that many felt at the time defined reading.
Goodman argues that readers draw from their prior knowledge, and patterns within the text to create these predictions. Readers then confirm their predictions with the text and integrate the meaning they have created with that of the authors' to make sense of the text (Goodman, 1984, 1994; Rosenblatt, 1976). Anytime within this process, if readers lose meaning, they must return to the text and begin the process again (sample, predict, confirm, and integrate). Strong readers monitor this process and therefore recognize how and when to repeat the process (Goodman & Marek, 1996).
The reading process is founded on the three cueing systems of language: Semantic, syntactic, and graphophonic (Goodman; 1996).
Semantic Cueing
Semantic cueing is the foundation of the reading process as reading is a meaning making endeavor. As secondary teachers frequently observe, a student may often sound fluent; however when asked to provide a summary or a critique of what was read the student struggles. Therefore the semantic cueing system must be in place for students to construct meaning. As students construct this meaning, they draw on the context of the situation, their own background experience, and their culture. If any of these three components are missing, the student may struggle to make sense of the text.
Syntax Cueing
The syntax of a language is the second cueing system. Syntax, or the grammatical structure and patterns, help readers to predict text features and structures more effectively. When students take the surface level structures of English and read them in a deep syntax of Norwegian, they are relying on the syntactic cueing system of reading.
Graphophonics Cueing
Last, and often the most prominent cueing system taught in early literacy, is graphophonics. This is the actually representation of language on the page, the letter-sound relationship. For many languages (in particular English), this relationship is often misrepresented as a set rules that apply to all words when in reality there are few rules. For example students who rely heavily on this cueing system will struggle with sentences like "The bandage was wound around the wound." or "They were too close to the door to close it."
These three cueing systems work together equally to help readers make sense of the text (Watson, 1988). As teachers work with struggling adolescent readers, it is to these cueing systems they turn to determine which areas the student is struggle. To do this they may use a variety of assessment tools including Reading Miscue Inventory (as well as Retrospective Miscue Analysis and Over-the-Shoulder Miscue Analysis), Burke Reading Inventory, reading conferences, journals, and other reading response engagements.
All of these are founded in the belief that reading is a meaning making process. Teachers, then, may wish to support students in understanding that process and value space for independent and frequent participation in that process (Tovani, 2000).
References
Goodman, K. S. (1968). "Study of Children's Behavior While Reading Orally." Contract No. OE-10-136.
------. (1984). "Unity in Reading." In Becoming Readers in a Complex Society, ed. A.C. Purves and O. Niles, 79-114. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
------. (1994). "Reading, Writing, and Written Texts: A Transactional Socio-Psycholinguistic View." In Theoretical Models and Process of Reading, ed. R.B. Ruddell, M. R. Ruddell, and H. Singer, 1093-1130. 4th ed. Newark, DE: national Council of Teachers of English.
------. (1996). Ken Goodman: On Reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Goodman, Y.M., and A. M. Marek. (1996). Retrospective Miscue Analysis: Revaluing Readers and Reading. Katonah, NY: Richard C. Owen.
Rosenblatt, L. (1976). Literature as Exploration. New York: Noble and Noble.
Tovani, C. (2000). I Read it, But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Watson, D. (1988). "Knowing Where We're Coming From." In Whole Language Strategies for Secondary Students, ed. C. Gilles, M. Bixby, P. Crowley, S. Crenshaw, M. Henrichs, F. Reynolds, and D. Pyle, 3-10. New York: Richard C. Owen.