Reading does not evolve naturally as speech does. It has to be learnt and taught. In order to understand how we read, we must
also know why we read.
Reading is not just a mechanical
or cognitive process, it is also socio-cultural as Clemente and Dominguez argue
in their book on the teaching of reading (1999). Even today, there are many oral cultures that
survive very well without the need for a writing system. In three quarters of the world’s populations
however, reading is not just widespread, it is essential (Roberts, 1994). Yet, at least 25% of students have difficulty
accessing the written code (Nicolson, 2008).
The consequence is general underachievement across all subject
areas. It is no wonder then that reading
has received so much attention in the pedagogical field, especially in the last
few decades.
What are the Cognitive Processes Implicated in Reading?
Different theories have evolved out of the hundreds of
empirical studies conducted on reading to explain what happens when we
read. These have given rise to a variety
of approaches to the teaching of reading.
The model that is currently most widely accepted by reading experts however
is the Psycholinguistic Approach. This
approach stems from the idea that there are two main routes to meaning: one is
the Phonological Route and the other is the Direct Route.
In order to extract meaning from
a text, we follow a very complex cognitive process which can be divided into
two main blocks. The first involves
recognition or identification of the written word and the second is concerned
with reading comprehension. In order to
put into operation our higher-order comprehension skills where we read to
learn, we must have automatised the lower-order decoding skills which give us
our first level of access to the written word thus allowing us to break the
code. The process, from word recognition to text comprehension, starts with the
identification of written words. Once we have been able to recognize or
identify a word, we assign a meaning to each word read in a sentence. We then construct an idea of what is being
communicated. Each sentence must be
understood within the context of a text.
This requires comprehension of what has been read and a construction of
the structure of the text based on an understanding of the relationships
between its parts. Finally, we assimilate
the text into our existing or prior knowledge of the subject so constructing
new knowledge and understanding (Clemente
Linuesa, M. and Dominguez Gutierrez, A.B. 1999).
Effective and mature readers use
both routes to access, process and extract meaning from written text to
integrate into and transform their own schema.
Our concern here however is with
gaining access to the written code at a very basic level. Following is a
description of the two routes upon which we depend to make sense of written
text.
The Phonological Route
Dependence upon the Phonological Route or Indirect Route in reading
requires an understanding of the relationship between the sounds of the
language that we speak and the written codes that represent them. Words are recognised via their sounds through
a conversion or translation process from one code – written or oral - to the
other. It involves a number of mental operations starting with a visual
analysis of language in its written form.
According to Clemente and Dominguez, when we see a
word on a page, we translate each of its graphemes or groups of graphemes in
the case of some languages like English, into phonemes through a process of
grapheme-phoneme conversion. Once the
pronunciation of the word has been recovered from the part of our brains where
the pronunciation of words is stored the information is carried to our auditory
lexicon. Here the auditory
representation is matched to the corresponding sounds. Recovery of the auditory representation activates
the semantic system where our personal lexicon is stored. Here a meaning is assigned to the word. For all
of this to happen efficiently, we need to have adequate verbal skills in the
language in which we are reading (1999).
Via this route, we are able to decode words that
follow orthographic conventions which we have previously learnt. We can also decode words that are unfamiliar
to us even though we do not know what they mean. Decoding skills are often tested through the
use of nonsense words following regular orthographic rules (1999).
Thus, an understanding of the mental processes
involved in reading has a direct impact on early reading methodologies not just
for L1 but for language L2 as well. ESL students can learn to read many new words
through decoding that can be incorporated into their growing English lexicon
once automaticity has been achieved through frequent exposure. Later on, once they start reading with a
certain measure of fluency, new vocabulary can be learnt through printed text.
The Direct Route
The Direct or Visual Route depends upon our automatisation
of words allowing for rapid recognition upon visual contact with its written
form.
Through frequent exposure, words
are automatised leading to more dependence on the Direct Route. Via this route, we are able to read words
that are familiar to us but not unfamiliar ones. We can however process irregular words that
have become familiar to us.
The process followed to extract
meaning from a text through dependence on this route involves visual analysis
of the individual graphemes of a word after which the information is
transmitted to our visual memory where orthographical representations of words
are stored. Once identified, the
semantic system is activated and meaning is given to the word (Clemente and
Dominguez, 1999).
It certainly is faster reading
via the Direct Route, as the name suggests, but requires familiarity with the
words being read.
NEXT: How understanding the cognitive processes involved in reading helps us in the classroom
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Clemente
Linuesa, M. and Dominguez Gutierrez, A.B. (1999). La Enseñanza de La Lectura: Enfoque Psicolingüístico y Sociocultural.
Madrid. Píramide
Nicholson, T. (2008).
Phonics Handbook. Chichester. John
Wiley and Sons Ltd.
