Reading
Reading is the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to derive meaning. It is a form of language processing.
Success in this process is measured as reading comprehension. Reading is a means for language acquisition, communication, and sharing information and ideas. The symbols are typically visual but may be tactile. Like all languages, it is a complex interaction between text and reader, shaped by prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and the language community—which is culturally and socially situated. Readers use a variety of reading strategies to decode and comprehend. Readers may use context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema.
Other types of reading are not speech based writing systems, such as music notation or pictograms. The common link is the interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning from the visual notations or tactile signals.
Overview
Currently most reading is either of the printed word from ink or toner on paper, such as in a book, magazine, newspaper, leaflet, or notebook, or of electronic displays, such as computer displays, television, mobile phones or e-readers. Handwritten text may also be produced using a graphite pencil or a pen.Short texts may be written or painted on an object.
Often the text relates to the object, such as an address on an envelope, product info on packaging, or text on a traffic or street sign. A slogan may be painted on a wall. A text may also be produced by arranging stones of a different color in a wall or road. Short texts like these are sometimes referred to as environmental print.
Sometimes text or images are in relief, with or without using a color contrast. Words or images can be carved in stone, wood, or metal; instructions can be printed in relief on the plastic housing of a home appliance, or myriad other examples.
A requirement for reading is a good contrast between letters and background and a suitable font size. In the case of a computer screen, it is important to see an entire line of text without scrolling.
The field of visual word recognition studies how people read individual words. A key technique in studying how individuals read text is eye tracking. This has revealed that reading is performed as a series of eye fixations with saccades between them. Humans also do not appear to fixate on every word in a text, but instead pause on some words mentally while their eyes are moving. This is possible because human languages show certain linguistic regularities.
The process of recording information to read later is writing. In the case of computer and microfiche storage there is the separate step of displaying the written text. For humans, reading is usually faster and easier than writing.
Reading is typically an individual activity, though on occasion a person reads out loud for other listeners. Reading aloud for one's own use, for better comprehension, is a form of intrapersonal communication: in the early 1970s has been proposed the dual-route hypothesis to reading aloud, accordingly to which there were two separate mental mechanisms, or cognitive routes, that are involved in this case, with output of both mechanisms contributing to the pronunciation of a written stimulus.
Reading to young children is recommended by educators and researchers. It helps to stimulate imagination, increase knowledge of the world, and encourage a love of reading; and it builds skills in language, expression, vocabulary, comprehension of text, and spoken language sounds. It also is a good introduction to guided reading which can be done at home as well as at school.
Before the reintroduction of separated text in the late Middle Ages, the ability to read silently was considered rather remarkable.
Purposes
Reading may be used for at school or work, incidentally during everyday life activities, or for pleasure.In the context of school or work, reading is a means of learning necessary information.
As a leisure activity, children and adults read because it is pleasant and interesting. In the US, about half of all adults read one or more books for pleasure each year. About 5% read more than 50 books per year. Americans read more if they have more education, if they read fluently and easily, if they are female, if they live in cities, and if they have higher socioeconomic status. Children become better readers when they know more about the world in general, and when they perceive reading as fun, rather than another chore to be performed.
Reading skills
is the ability to use the symbols of a writing system. It is the ability to interpret what the information symbols represent, and re-create those same symbols so that others can derive the same meaning. Illiteracy is the inability to derive meaning from the symbols used in a writing system.Dyslexia refers to a cognitive difficulty with reading and writing. It is defined as brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs a person's ability to read. The term dyslexia can refer to two disorders: developmental dyslexia which is a learning disability. Alexia refers to reading difficulties that occur following brain damage, stroke, or progressive illness.
Major predictors of an individual's ability to read both alphabetic and nonalphabetic scripts are phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and verbal IQ. Being taught to read at an early age does not ultimately result in better reading skills, and if it replaces more developmentally appropriate activities, then it may cause other harms.
Reading rate
Many studies show that increasing reading speed improves comprehension. Reading speed requires a long time to reach adult levels. The table to the right shows how reading-rate varies with age, regardless of the period and the language. The Taylor values probably are higher, for disregarding students who failed the comprehension test. The reading test by the French psychologist Pierre Lefavrais tested reading aloud, with a penalty for errors, and could, therefore, not be a rate greater than 150 wpm. According to Carver, children's reading speed increases throughout the school years. On average, from grade 2 to college, reading rate increases 14 standard-length words per minute each year. Note that the data from Taylor and Landerl are based on texts of increasing difficulty; other data were obtained when all age groups were reading the same text.Rates of reading include reading for memorization ; reading for learning ; reading for comprehension ; and skimming. Reading for comprehension is the essence of the daily reading of most people. Skimming is for superficially processing large quantities of text at a low level of comprehension.
Advice for choosing the appropriate reading-rate includes reading flexibly, slowing when concepts are closely presented and when the material is new, and increasing when the material is familiar and of thin concept. Speed reading courses and books often encourage the reader to continually accelerate; comprehension tests lead the reader to believe his or her comprehension is continually improving; yet, competence-in-reading requires knowing that skimming is dangerous, as a default habit.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and decoding all the words on every page—faster than 900 wpm is not feasible given the limits set by the anatomy of the eye.
Reading speed has been used as a measure in research to determine the effect of interventions on human vision. A Cochrane Systematic Review used reading speed in words per minute as the primary outcome in comparing different reading aids for adults with low vision.
Skill development
Both lexical and sub-lexical cognitive processes contribute to how we learn to read.Sub-lexical reading, involves teaching reading by associating characters or groups of characters with sounds or by using phonics or synthetic phonics learning and teaching methodology, which some argue is in competition with whole language methods.
Lexical reading involves acquiring words or phrases without attention to the characters or groups of characters that compose them or by using whole language learning and teaching methodology. Some argue that this competes with phonics and synthetic phonics methods, and that the whole language approach tends to impair learning to spell.
Other methods of teaching and learning to read have developed, and become somewhat controversial.
Learning to read in a second language, especially in adulthood, may be a different process than learning to read a native language in childhood.
There are cases of very young children learning to read without having been taught. Such was the case with Truman Capote who reportedly taught himself to read and write at the age of five. There are also accounts of people who taught themselves to read by comparing street signs or Biblical passages to speech. The novelist Nicholas Delbanco taught himself to read at age six during a transatlantic crossing by studying a book about boats.
Brain activity in young and older children can be used to predict future reading skill. Cross model mapping between the orthographic and phonologic areas in the brain are critical in reading. Thus, the amount of activation in the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus while performing reading tasks can be used to predict later reading ability and advancement. Young children with higher phonological word characteristic processing have significantly better reading skills later on than older children who focus on whole-word orthographic representation.
Methods of reading
There are several types and methods of reading, with differing rates that can be attained for each, for different kinds of material and purposes:- Subvocalized reading combines sight reading with internal sounding of the words as if spoken. Advocates of speed reading claim it can be a bad habit that slows reading and comprehension, but other studies indicate the reverse, particularly with difficult texts.
- Speed reading is a collection of methods for increasing reading speed without an unacceptable reduction in comprehension or retention. Methods include skimming or the chunking of words in a body of text to increase the rate of reading. It is closely connected to speed learning.
- Incremental reading is a software-assisted reading method designed for long-term memorization. "Incremental reading" means "reading in portions": in each session, parts of several electronic articles are read inside a prioritized reading list. In the course of reading, important pieces of information are extracted and converted into flashcards, which are then reviewed by a spaced repetition algorithm.
- Proofreading is a kind of reading for the purpose of detecting typographical errors. One can learn to do it rapidly, and professional proofreaders typically acquire the ability to do so at high rates, faster for some kinds of material than for others, while they may largely suspend comprehension while doing so, except when needed to select among several possible words that a suspected typographic error allows. A good proofreader needs to have a strong vocabulary and should be meticulous in their approach.
- Rereading is reading a book more than once. "One cannot read a book: one can only reread it," Vladimir Nabokov once said.
- Structure-proposition-evaluation method, popularized by Mortimer Adler in How to Read a Book, mainly for non-fiction treatise, in which one reads a writing in three passes: for the structure of the work, which might be represented by an outline; for the logical propositions made, organized into chains of inference; and for evaluation of the merits of the arguments and conclusions. This method involves suspended judgment of the work or its arguments until they are fully understood.
- Survey-question-read-recite-review method, often taught in public schools, which involves reading toward being able to teach what is read, and is appropriate for instructors preparing to teach material without referring to notes.
- Multiple intelligences-based methods, which draw on the reader's diverse ways of thinking and knowing to enrich appreciation of the text. Reading is fundamentally a linguistic activity: one can basically comprehend a text without resorting to other intelligences, such as the visual, auditory, or even the logical intelligence. However, most readers already use several kinds of intelligence while reading. Doing so in a more disciplined manner—i.e., constantly, or after every paragraph—can result in a more vivid, memorable experience.
- Rapid serial visual presentation reading involves presenting the words in a sentence one word at a time at the same location on the display screen, at a specified eccentricity. RSVP eliminates inter-word saccades, limits intra-word saccades, and prevents reader control of fixation times. RSVP controls for differences in reader eye movement, and consequently is often used to measure reading speed in experiments.
Assessment
Different types of reading tests exist:- Sight word reading: reading words of increasing difficulty until they become unable to read or understand the words presented to them. Difficulty is manipulated by using words that have more letters or syllables, are less common and have more complicated spelling–sound relationships.
- Nonword reading: reading lists of pronounceable nonsense words out loud. The difficulty is increased by using longer words, and also by using words with more complex spelling or sound sequences.
- Reading comprehension: a passage is presented to the reader, which they must read either silently or out loud. Then a series of questions are presented that test the reader's comprehension of this passage.
- Reading fluency: the rate with which individuals can name words.
- Reading accuracy: the ability to correctly name a word on a page.
Cognitive benefits
Reading books and writing are among brain-stimulating activities shown to slow down cognitive decline in old age, with people who participated in more mentally stimulating activities over their lifetimes having a slower rate of decline in memory and other mental capacities. Reading for pleasure has been linked to increased cognitive progress in vocabulary and mathematics during adolescence.Reading also reduces stress, improves memory, focus, writing skills, and enhances imagination. Sustained high volume lifetime reading has been associated with high levels of academic attainment. Moreover, the cognitive benefits of reading continue into mid-life and old age.
Effects
Lighting
Reading from paper and from some screens requires more lighting than many other activities. Therefore, the possibility of doing this comfortably in cafés, restaurants, buses, at bus stops or in parks greatly varies depending on available lighting and time of day.Reading from screens that produce their own light does not depend on external light, except that external light may lessen visual fatigue. For controlling what is on the screen, a touch screen or keyboard illumination further reduces dependency on external light.
History
The history of reading dates back to the invention of writing during the 4th millennium BC. Although reading print text is now an important way for the general population to access information, this has not always been the case. With some exceptions, only a small percentage of the population in many countries was considered literate before the Industrial Revolution. Some of the pre-modern societies with generally high literacy rates included classical Athens and the Islamic Caliphate.Scholars assume that reading aloud was the more common practice in antiquity, and that reading silently was unusual. In his Confessions, Saint Augustine remarks on Saint Ambrose's unusual habit of reading silently in the 4th century AD.
During the Age of Enlightenment, elite individuals promoted passive reading, rather than creative interpretation. Reading has no concrete laws, but lets readers escape to produce their own products introspectively, promoting deep exploration of texts during interpretation. Some thinkers of that era believed that construction, or the creation of writing and producing a product, was a sign of initiative and active participation in society—and viewed consumption as simply taking in what constructors made. Also during this era, writing was considered superior to reading in society. They considered readers of that time passive citizens, because they did not produce a product. Michel de Certeau argued that the elites of the Age of Enlightenment were responsible for this general belief. Michel de Certeau believed that reading required venturing into an author's land, but taking away what the reader wanted specifically. This view held that writing was a superior art to reading within the hierarchical constraints of the era.
In 18th-century Europe, the then new practice of reading alone in bed was, for a time, considered dangerous and immoral. As reading became less a communal, oral practice, and more a private, silent one—and as sleeping increasingly moved from communal sleeping areas to individual bedrooms, some raised concern that reading in bed presented various dangers, such as fires caused by bedside candles. Some modern critics, however, speculate that these concerns were based on the fear that readers—especially women—could escape familial and communal obligations and transgress moral boundaries through the private fantasy worlds in books.