The following is compiled from Reading Without Nonsense, author Frank Smith.
Smith). This is a theoretical book primarily for reading teachers. It’s a bit difficult to read, but the author is thoughtful enough to provide a summary of each chapter, which together gives you a general overview of his main points. They are as follows:
Chapter 1 The Most Natural Activities in the World
The Most
Natural Act in the
World
While reading texts vary widely, and the purposes for reading are also diverse, a common characteristic is the ability to ask questions based on the text. Answering these questions constitutes understanding. There’s nothing unnatural about this, and it’s natural that reading needs to be taught. The ability to ask relevant questions about a text and to understand how to find answers in printed texts depends on our familiarity with the type of reading material and the specific purpose for which we are reading. Both of these skills need to be acquired through actual reading experience.
Chapter 2: Becoming a Reader by Learning
Learning to
Be a
Reader
To learn to read, children must be exposed to methods available to them, enabling them to achieve their goals and expand their interests through reading. If written language is made meaningful to them, they will learn it in the same way they learn spoken language. Before children can learn to read on their own, they need someone to read to them on an as-needed basis. Storybooks are important and helpful, especially because children learn so much from their authors. But other things are equally important and helpful, such as signs, labels, and the various printed materials in our environment.
Chapter 3 Limitations of Phonics Teaching Methods
The
Limitations of Phonics
The Phonics approach (roughly called “phonics-based literacy”) is a cumbersome and unreliable system that rarely provides accurate pronunciation for unfamiliar words. There are many better ways to help us recognize unfamiliar words, such as asking someone, using context for clues, and comparing them to known words with the same structure. All children use context for clues extensively in their oral language development. This approach can also be applied to written language learning, but only when the reading material is meaningful to the child. Relying solely on Phonics and spelling-sound pairing exercises can prevent children from reading fluently and hinder their progress in learning to read.
Chapter 4 Reading — From Behind the Eyes
Reading—From
Behind the Eyes
We don’t see everything in front of our eyes; in a split second, we don’t even see anything. It takes time for the brain to determine what the eyes are looking at. Reading relies more on non-visual information behind the eyes than on visual information in front of us. Over-reliance on visual information can overwhelm the brain’s ability to make decisions, leading to “tunnel vision.”
Vision—perhaps borrowing the ophthalmological term “tunnel vision” to describe the symptom of a narrowed field of vision during reading—meaning that the reader sees letters rather than sentences or phrases at a time. Tunnel vision seems most likely to occur when the subject matter is nearly meaningless to the reader or when the reader is overly anxious due to the fear of making mistakes. Focusing on the text or significantly increasing gaze intensity does not make reading more effective or make learning to read easier.
Chapter 5 The Bottleneck of Memory
Bottlenecks
of
Memory
Short-term memory is a temporary repository for what we happen to be attending to at a given time. Long-term memory holds our relatively enduring knowledge of the world. Both types of memory have significant limitations that can hinder reading or the process of learning to read. Short-term memory can only hold a small amount of information at a time, making reading difficult if readers rely solely on visual information. Incorporating newly acquired information into long-term memory is a slow process and can interfere with comprehension. However, both of these limitations can be easily overcome if the reading material is meaningful (interesting to the reader) and the reader is not anxious about making mistakes or worried about not remembering details. The need for meaningful (interesting) reading material is especially important for beginning readers.
Chapter 6 Language and Meaning
Language and
Meaning
Non-visual information is particularly important in reading because meaning is not directly apparent in the surface structure of language, the sounds of speech, or the visual symbols of writing. Readers must bring meaning—deeper structure—to the reading material, drawing on their prior knowledge of the subject matter and their prior knowledge of the language of the text. Similarly, if the reading material is meaningless (or uninteresting) to the reader, this use of non-visual information will be impossible.
Chapter 7: Constructing a Theory of the World
Constructing
a Theory of the World
The foundation of understanding is our theory of the world. Each of us has a theory of the world, and we carry it with us everywhere we go. This theory is constantly tested and revised as we interact with the world. This theory provides the source of predictions, allowing us to derive meaning from the events and language we encounter. If a situation cannot be connected to our theory of the world, we cannot make sense of the world and cannot derive meaning from our reading, because the situation is meaningless (or absurd).
Chapter 8 Letters, Words, and Meaning
Letters,
Words, and
Meaning
Recognizing letters, recognizing words (roughly similar to learning Chinese characters), and understanding meaning are all distinct processes of questioning a text, each producing independent and distinct results. Understanding meaning doesn’t require recognizing words, and certainly doesn’t require recognizing letters.
Chapter 9 Joining the Readers’ Club
Joining the
Club of
Readers
To learn to read, children must be exposed to the tools available to them, enabling them to achieve their goals and expand their interests through reading. If written language becomes meaningful to them, they will learn it in the same way they learn spoken language. Before children can learn to read on their own, they need someone to read to them on an as-needed basis. Children must be fully accepted into a reading club, where they receive a variety of reading modeling and collaborative opportunities to help them eventually become readers. By joining a writing club, young readers can also learn to become writers.
(It should be noted that the “reading club” or “writing club” here does not refer to a specific club, but rather an abstract organization. For example, before a child starts school, parents can turn the family and related circles into their child’s reading club; after school, teachers can turn the school into their child’s reading club.)
Chapter 10 The Importance of Teachers
The
Importance of Teachers
Teachers must ensure that all children are included in reading clubs, where they can see that the use of written language is varied, rewarding, and meaningful, and where they can be helped to develop their own written language skills. Accuracy and various “techniques” should not be a burden, especially not at the expense of the enjoyment of beginners. Accuracy and technique are the result of extensive reading experience, not prerequisites for reading. Teachers must protect themselves and their children from the harmful influence of reading tutorials and reading tests that would convince learners that reading is meaningless, painful, and useless. We, however, believe that reading is useful, satisfying, meaningful, and often joyful.
Chapter 11 Labels and Nonsense
Labels and
Fables
Dyslexia is not a pathological condition, and the so-called “readiness” to begin reading is a fictitious barrier. Many of the difficulties some children encounter in learning to read can often be attributed to problems with reading guidance rather than problems with the learner.
Compiled and edited by Argentine Primera División
February 11, 2010, Guangzhou
