Republic of the Philippines

Province of Pampanga
Mabalacat City

MABALACAT CITY COLLEGE

INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
Second Semester A.Y. 2018 – 2019

Psychologist Views on Reading

Presented to:

Ms. RUBY B. SICAT

Instructor I

By:
Sherry Rose V. Guinto
BEED-3Preschool

March 08, 2019

I. KENNETH GOODMAN

Views on Reading
 - In the early 1960s, Kenneth S. Goodman began studying the reading of authentic texts by
urban and rural young people. His earliest miscue research, published in 1965, is probably
the most widely replicated study in reading research history.

- "Reading: a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game" (1967),his article that began a revolution

moving away from a view of reading as rapid accurate sequential word recognition to an
understanding of reading as a process of constructing meaning - making sense - of print. That
research is part of the basis for the whole language movement and disagreements over his
conclusions about the nature of reading fuel the current "reading wars." (Stenhouse
Publishers, 2003)

- Goodman defined reading as:

o A receptive psycholinguistic process wherein the actor uses strategies to create meaning
from text (Goodman, 1988).
o Reading is an active process

- Capitalized on children’s prior strengths, past experiences, and knowledge.

- Reading as an active process

- Children attempts to reconstruct his own knowledge

- Basically, the study of reading looks at translating a linguistic surface representation (text)
into thought. Goodman based much of his theory on analysing miscues (mistakes) in texts
being read-aloud. He believed that efficient readers minimize dependence on visual detail,
but focused his theories on the interactions of reader and text. Basic physical sensory
information (the physiological process) is cycled into deeper levels of cognitive processes.

Cycles - readers move from text to understanding through cycles of deeper processing, moving
from optical, to perceptual, to syntactic, to meaning

Cognitive Processes of the brain used in reading are:

 recognition / initiation - the brain must recognise text and initiate reading
 prediction - anticipates and predicts as it seeks order and significance of input
 confirmation - verification of predictions or disconfirmation
 correction - reprocessing when it finds inconsistencies or disconfirmations
 termination - formal ending of reading act

N.B.: Goodman treats these processes as sequential, whereas later models may not
This limited view, however, was still an improvement upon Noam Chomsky’s generative
grammar, which lacked explanation of top-down processing. Goodman also promoted the use of
“natural texts”, believing that language must be studied in context. This follows from his postulated
three sources of linguistic information: symbols (characters), language structure (syntax), and
semantic (meaning).

II. NOAM CHOMSKY

- Born Avram Noam Chomsky, is widely considered to be “the father of modern linguistics”.
Views on Reading
 - His theory of generative grammar has informed generations of linguistic and cognitive
researchers which is an attempt to describe the syntactical processes common to all human
language mathematically. Chomsky draws a key distinction between the deep
structure and surface structure of languages.
o Deep structure, which contains the meaning of a sentence, is not culturally determined
but rather "hardwired" in the human brain. The meaning is then converted by a
transformation into surface structure
o Surface structure which includes the sounds and words in a sentence. The Language
Acquisition Device (LAD) is the hypothetical brain mechanism that according to
Chomsky explained the acquisition of syntactic structure of language.

- Chomsky hypothesized that the language acquisition device was the system that determined
the features of the child's native language. This falls under the realm of the nativist theory of
language which states that humans are born with the innate ability for acquiring language.

Reading to a child
 Aids literacy skills
 Increases Interest in books and in learning to read
 Enhances background information and sense of story structures
 Familiarization with language of books

Theory of Knowledge: Generative Grammar and Cognitive Theory

The theory of Generative Grammar, is a way of describing the way people learn to communicate.
The core of this theory is the idea that all human language originates from a common source, an
innate set of grammatical rules and approaches that is hardwired into the human mind. This is a
very naturalistic approach, but one that has found ever increasing acceptance amongst experts in
the field (Chomsky, 1986).

His fundamental approach to knowledge is very similar to that used in Information Processing
Theory. According to Chomsky, in order for knowledge to be retained, there must be previous
knowledge already present for the new information to be associated with. He typically refers to
this process as "building" on prior knowledge, but it has obvious parallels with the "networking"
described by IPT. Particularly in the process of taking in information initially, generative grammar
has direct parallels with the ideas put forward for information processing theory (Miller, 1956).

III. DONALD HOLDAWAY

Views on Reading
 - Born on 1930 and died in 2004. He is “the father of the big book” and the founder of
“Shared Reading” and the developer of the “Natural Learning Model”.

- Holdaway's rationale for a new approach to teaching reading exemplifies the same
conceptual revolution that Piaget had undergone in Europe. He too believes that as
children’s learn to read they go through the four processes of the learning model he refers to
as the “Natural Learning Model”. The four processes include the following;

1. Demonstration- Child watching or listening to a more knowledgable other while s/he

reads a book or a story to him or her.

2. Participation-Child is watching and listening to a more knowledgable other while

interacting with his or her reader making sure not to skip or omit their favorite parts of
the story being read to them.

3. Role Play/Practice-At this phase the child is practicing what s/he had experienced from
the more knowledgable other on their own imitating them.

4. Performance- After practicing the skill for quite some time the child then shows off their
skill to an audience.

- Children learn to read naturally in the home environment and interaction with parents

- Children emulate the reading model set up by thee parents.

Belief about literacy instruction (Shared Reading):

Holdaway's believes that literacy instruction should be done by shared reading. He believes
that children should learn how to read by following the following Acquisition Learning
Sequence.

Holdaway generates a remarkable congruency and balance between theory and practice, with
insight, wit and admirable respect for the language learning potential of young children.
Anyone who has been following language learning theory and research for the past decade will
not be surprised by his theoretical stance on literacy as a developmental, natural process rather
than as a skills- item-oriented product, nor by his strong emphasis on a language environment
which is invitational and emulative rather than prescriptive and instructional.

Seminal Publications: Here is a list of some of the books written by Donald Holdaway that
have helped changed the way reading has been taught.

1. Independence in Reading
2. The Foundations of Literacy
3. Stability and change in Literacy learning
4. Models of Natural Learning in Literacy Development

IV. LEV VGOTSKY

Views on Reading
 - Born in the U.S.S.R. in 1896, is responsible for the social development theory of learning.
He proposed that social interaction profoundly influences cognitive development. Central to
Vygotsky's theory is his belief that biological and cultural development do not occur in
isolation.
- Vygotskian theory offers a very important framework for studying and applying adult-
young child interactions in shared literacy activities.

- In 1929, Vygotsky proposed a model of development that matched the basic principles of
early childhood education and suggested an appropriate way for teachers to guide and
support children's learning and development. He distinguished two kinds of development,
natural and cultural.
o Natural development "is closely bound up with the processes of general organic
growth and the maturation of the child."
o Cultural development allows mastery not only of "the items of cultural experience,
but the habits and forms of cultural behavior, the cultural methods of reasoning"
Cultural development, under which literacy learning and development are explained,
arises from the use of symbols to solve problems, that is, through the use of speech
and actions involving more abstract representations. Vygotsky considered this concept
analogous to the invention and use of tools. When the child uses symbols, the
structures that govern the child's reasoning process become more complex, though still
evolving in harmony with natural development.

- One of the central tenets of Vygotsky's theory is that children practice skills unconsciously and
spontaneously before they have conscious control over a concept.

- Children's all higher mental functions are internalized social relationship

- Children increases their independent engagement in reading activities through interaction

with literate adults.

Language and Development

Vygotsky believed that language develops from social interactions, for communication purposes. He
viewed language as man’s greatest tool, a means for communicating with the outside world (McLeod,
2007).

Vygotsky’s theory states that language plays three different roles in development
1. Language gives learners access to knowledge others already possess
2. Language is a cognitive tool that allows a child to think about the world and solve problems
3. Language is a means for regulating and reflecting on their own thinking

V. WILLIAM TEALE

Views on Reading
 - Coined the term emergent literacy in 1986 together with Elizabeth Sulzby. Their term
designated new conceptions about the relationship between a growing child and literacy
information from the environment and home literacy practices. The process of becoming
literate starts before school intervention.

- Important changes took place around 1975 to 1985 in the way researchers approached
young children's attempts at reading and writing, which were influenced by previous
language acquisition studies of children actively engaged in learning oral language.

- The concept of emergent literacy was intended to indicate a clear opposition with the then
prevailing notion of "reading readiness." This new concept arises from changes in the
research paradigm, mainly in developmental psycholinguistics, and not in the practical
educational field.

- Reading is acquired through socially interactive and emulative behavior

- Social function and conventions of reading are acquired through interactive literacy events.

The Original Meaning of the Concept

Several pioneering researchers (among them Clay in New Zealand, Yetta Goodman and Sulzby in
the United States, and Emilia Ferreiro in Latin American countries) share several main ideas that can
be summarized as follows:
1. Before schooling, a considerable amount of literacy learning takes place, provided that
children are growing in literate environments (homes where reading and writing are part of
daily activies; urban environments where writing is everywhere–in the street, in the markets,
on all kinds of food containers or toys–as well as on specific objects like journals, books, and
calendars).
2. Through their encounters with print and their participation in several kinds of literacy events,
children try to make sense of environmental print. Indeed, they elaborate concepts about the
nature and function of these written marks.
3. Children try to interpret environmental print. They also try to produce written marks. Their
attempts constitute the early steps of reading and writing. Thus, reading and writing activities
go hand in hand, contributing to literacy development as comprehension and production both
contribute to oral language acquisition. The use of the term literacy in the phrase emergent
literacy indicates that the acquisition of reading and writing take place simultaneously.
4. The pioneer authors of the emergent literacy approach avoid the use of terms like pretend
reading or pre-reading, pretend writing or pre-writing. Such terms, in fact, establish a frontier
in the developmental process instead of a developmental continuum.
5. From a careful observation of spontaneous writing and reading activities as well as from
data obtained through some elicitation techniques, it becomes possible to infer how children
conceive the writing system and the social meaning of the activities related to it.
6. Emergent literacy is a child-centered concept that not only takes into account relevant
experiences (like sharing reading books in family settings), but also takes into consideration
that children are always trying to make sense of the information received in a
developmental pathway that is characterized both by some milestones common to all and by
individual stories.

Views on Reading