According to Freeman and Freeman, there are two different views on how reading should be taught to our students. The first view word recognition, is "consistent with the belief that written language must be learned" (Freeman and Freeman, 2006, p. 24). People who believe in this view think that the most important part of learning to read is identifying words on the page. The second view, sociopsycholinguistic view claims that "the ability to use written language is to some degree innate and can be acquired" (Freeman and Freeman, 2006, p. 24). This approach focuses on the process of constructing meaning while reading.
Word Recognition View:
The word recognition view looks at reading as something that needs to be taught and that identifying words is the main goal. This view is "consistent with the belief that written language must be learned."
Goal:
- Help students learn how to identify words
- Word identification: recognizing words on paper by identifying them with oral language they already know (recoding)
- Understand the meaning of text
Method:
- Phonics activities to help sound out words
- Sight word memorization
The main method for helping students with this view is learning the phonics rules to help recognize and sound out words on paper. For longer words, teachers may tell students to look for words they already know within the bigger word to help sound out the word. Sight words would have to be learned through memorization (flash cards).
Classroom Activities:
- Go over vocabulary before reading a text. This will help students understand words that they probably won't be able to figure out by phonetically sounding out the word.
- Have students read aloud. This will help the teacher and students hear when a student pronounces a word wrong. The student can then be corrected to hear what the word should sound like.
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Sociopsycholinguistics View:
This view looks at reading as a process of constructing meaning and that readers acquire literacy.
Goal:
- Construct meaning, not focus on identifying individual words
- Students use background knowledge and cues from three linguistic systems: graphophonics, syntax and semantics.
- Looking through texts to make connections and predictions
- Allowing students to use their background knowledge and make connections to the story to help make construct meaning
Method:
- Using the graphophonic system as well as background knowledge to make meaning of the story.
- Learn to look at the big picture of the story and sound information to create meaning.
Classroom Activities:
- Students should read a lot to 'acquire' vocabulary.
- Students should read silently most of the time to work on reading strategies independently.
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Even though these views are very different, they both have the same ultimate goal for our students: comprehension.
Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job at explaining the differences between the 'word recognition view' and the 'sociopsycholinguistic view'. In my experience, both views need to be balanced in a classroom setting. Just like students have different learning styles (i.e. auditory learners, kinesthetic learners...etc), their brains also learn in different ways. Some students need that direct instruction in order to make sense of what they are being asked to learn. At the same, however, students need the opportunity to acquire language (and learning) by experiencing it on their own through meaningful activities that are set up by the teacher.