ReadingReading Anna Kristjana Egilsdóttir April

History of reading Normal reading was considered reading out loud, silent reading out of the ordinary Ambrose’s silent reading is the first definite instance recorded in Western literature Claudius Ptomely remarked that sometimes people read silently when they are concentrating hard, because voicing the word is a distraction to thought Alberto Manguel

How Children learn to read A process that takes place from birth An ability that enables other forms of learning to take place It is a skill that can be extended almost infinitely Cedric Cullingford

How to help them start By reading to/with them Talking to them Rhymes and word games Introducing new vocabulary Pictures

The process Children learn to read from the moment they make sense of language Reading brings together the abilities of visual and auditory discrimination that children explore from birth The sense of meaning that language engenders

Teaching methods In the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s two methods were used to teach reading –Phonics –Whole words Both teach children the relationship between sounds and letters

The difference between these methods are: –The phonic method centers on teaching through sets of phonic rules »“silent e” marks the long vowel in bite as distinct from the short vowel in bit –The whole word method centers on carefully prepared texts which would enable children to discover the relationship –Sentences like: “The fat cat sat on the mat” or “Nan can fan Dan.”

In the past fifteen years the two methods that have been used are: –Whole language Offers a comprehensive philosophy for teaching –Phonics Phonic rules –Whole language is also concerned with helping children to understand the relationship between sounds and letters, the difference lies in how this goal is to be achieved

Phonics An ideal alphabet would assign one letter to each sound 26 letters, but 44 sounds in the English language, dialect variations can extend this number William T. Stokes A letter can have a large number of different sounds

Examples The letter ‘a’ as in ‘all’ is a contrast to ‘a’ as in –‘any’ –‘want’ –‘at’ –‘calm’

The same sound can also be written in many different spellings, like the sound ‘i’ in child can be disguised in words like: –‘aisle’ –‘height’ –‘lie’ –‘sign’ –‘island’ Cedric Cullingford

Conclusion Learning to read can be difficult and confusing at times Different methods help children to learn to read Children are constantly learning to read; for example while listening to stories and seeing books