Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for
the intention of constructing or deriving meaning (reading
comprehension). It is the mastery of basic cognitive processes to
the point where they are automatic so that attention is freed for
the analysis of meaning.
Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication,
and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a
complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped
by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and
language community which is culturally and socially situated. T2he
reading process requires continuous practices, development, and
refinement.
Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with
decoding (to translate symbo1s into sounds or visual
representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use
morpheme, semantics, syntax and context clues to identify the
meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have
read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata
theory).
Other types of reading are not speech based writing systems,
such as music notation or pictograms. The common 1ink is the
interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning from the visual
notations.
Literacy is the ability to use the symbols of a writing system.
To be able to interpret the information symbols represent, and to
be able to recreate those same sym6ols so that others can derive
the same meaning. Illiteracy is not having the ability to derive
meaning from the symbols used in a writing system.
Dyslexia refers to a cognitive difficulty with reading and
writing. The term dyslexia can refer to two disorders:
d9evelopmental dyslexia which is a learning disability; alexia or
acquired dyslexia refers to reading difficulties that occur
following brain damage.
Major predictors of an individual's ability to read both
alphabetic and nonalphabetic scripts are phonological awareness,
rapid automatized naming and verbal IQ.
Both the Lexical and the 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 P4honics
learning and teaching methodology. Sometimes argued to be 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 W4hole language learning and teaching methodology.
Sometimes argued to be in competition with phonics methods, and
that the whole language approach tends to impair learning how 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 chi1dhood.
There are cases of very young children learning to read without
having been taught. 5uch was the case with 7ruman 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 to speech. The novelist N4icholas Delbanco
taught himself to read at age six during a transatlantic crossing
by studying a book about boats.
Typoglycemia is a neologism given to a purported recent
discovery about the cognitive processes behind reading written
text. T2he word does not refer to any actual medical condition
related to hypoglycemia. The word appears to be a portmanteau of
"typo,” as in typographical error, and "glycemia." It8 is an
urban legend/Internet meme that appears to have an element of truth
to it.
The legend, propagated by email and message boards, purportedly
demonstrates that readers can understand the meaning of words in a
sentence even when the interior letters of each word are scrambled.
A4s long as all the necessary letters are present, and the first
and last letters remain the same, readers appear to have little
troub1e reading the text.
One email message reads as follows:
I cdn'uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I
was rdanieg: the phaonmneel pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a
rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht
oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht
the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but
the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh? Yaeh and you awlyas thguoht slpeling was
ipmorantt.
