This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It is missing citations or footnotes. Please help improve it by adding inline citations. Tagged since July 2007. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.Tagged since May 2007.

Part of a series on
Reading
GENERAL INFORMATION
Literacy • Illiteracy Family literacy • Functional illiteracy Braille Reading is an activity: Reading is an activity performed by a human. ... Image File history File links P_literature. ... Children reading. ... World illiteracy rates by country Literacy is the ability to read and write. ... Family literacy is a method of education. ... Functional illiteracy refers to the inability of an individual to use reading, writing, and computational skills efficiently in everyday life situations. ... Listen to this article ( info/dl) This audio file was created from a revision dated 2006-09-06, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ...
TYPES
Close reading • Proofreading Skimming • Slow reading Speed reading • Subvocalized In literary criticism, close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. ... Proofreading means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. ... Skimming is a high speed reading process and involves visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning. ... Slow reading refers to practices that deliberately reduce the rate of reading to increase comprehension or pleasure. ... Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. ... Subvocalization, or silent speech, is defined as the internal speech made when reading a word, thus allowing the reader to imagine the sound of the word as it is read (Carver 1990). ...
LEARNING TO READ
Reading readiness Reading acquisition • Comprehension Dyslexia • Reading disability National Reading Panel • Spelling Permission to use this picture was given by J. Boyland Permission to use this picture was given by Trent Dougherty Reading readiness has been defined as the point in which a person is ready to read and the time over which a person transitions from a non-reader to a... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Developmental Stages of Reading. ... Reading comprehension can be defined as the level of understanding of a passage or text. ... This article is about developmental dyslexia. ... A reading disability is a condition in which a sufferer displays difficulty reading resulting primarily from neurological factors. ... From the National Reading Panel About section of their homepage: In 1997, Congress asked the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health, in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel to assess the effectiveness of... Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. ...
READING INSTRUCTION
Reading education • Phonics Alphabetic principle Basal reader • Decodable text Research-based reading instruction Whole language • Methodology debate Reading education is the process by which an individual learns to read, that is, to construct meaning from printed language. ... For the study of sounds and speech sounds, see Acoustics and Phonetics. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Basal readers are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. ... Decodable text is a term used to describe a particular method of reading instruction. ... Whole language describes a literacy instructional philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and moderates skill instruction. ...
LISTS
Assessments • Publications Topics • Treatments Note: This page is intended as a list to provide a system of categorization and links to articles on the topics which are the subject of the lists, as part of the Dyslexia series. ...
view • talk • edit

Reading is the cognitive process of deriving meaning from written or printed text. The term cognition is used in several different loosely related ways. ... Write redirects here. ... This article is about the process of reproducing text. ...

It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Effective readers use decoding skills (to translate printed text into the sounds of language), use morpheme, semantics, syntax and context cues to identify the meaning of unknown words, activate prior knowledge (schemata theory), use comprehension, and demonstrate fluency during reading. For the academic journal, see Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics. ... The ASCII codes for the word Wikipedia represented in binary, the numeral system most commonly used for encoding computer information. ... In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Semantics (Ancient σημαντικός semantikos significant, from semainein to signify, mean, from sema sign, token), is the study of meaning in communication. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... Schemata Theory is a theory of learning. ... Reading comprehension can be defined as the level of understanding of a passage or text. ... Fluency is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise. ...

Other types of reading may not be text-based, such as music notation or pictograms. By analogy, in computer science, reading is acquiring of data from some sort of computer storage. Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... For other uses, see Data (disambiguation). ...

Although reading print text is now an important way for the general population to access information, this has not always been the case. With some exceptions, only a small percentage of the population in many countries were considered literate before the Industrial Revolution. Children reading. ... Children reading. ... A Watt steam engine, the steam engine that propelled the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the world. ...

Reading skills

Skill development

Main article: Reading education

Other methods of teaching and learning to read have developed, and become somewhat controversial ^[1]: Reading education is the process by which an individual learns to read, that is, to construct meaning from printed language. ...

• Phonics involves teaching reading by associating characters or groups of characters with sounds. Sometimes argued to be in competition with whole language methods.
• Whole language methods involve acquiring words or phrases without attention to the characters or groups of characters that compose them. Sometimes argued to be in competition with phonics methods, and that the whole language approach tends to impair learning how to spell.

Learning to read in a second language, especially in adulthood, may be a different process than learning to read a native language in childhood. For the study of sounds and speech sounds, see Acoustics and Phonetics. ... Whole language describes a literacy instructional philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and moderates skill instruction. ... For the study of sounds and speech sounds, see Acoustics and Phonetics. ...

There are cases of very young children learning to read without having been taught. ^[2] Such was the case with Truman Capote who reportedly taught himself to read and write at the age of 5. There are accounts of people who taught themselves to read by comparing street signs or Biblical passages to speech, as well as many mentions of Lincoln teaching himself. The novelist Nicholas Delbanco taught himself to read at age six by studying a book about boats during a transatlantic crossing. Truman Capote (pronounced ; 30 September 1924 – 25 August 1984) was an American writer whose stories, novels, plays, and non-fiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffanys (1958) and In Cold Blood (1965), which he labeled a non-fiction novel. ...

Methods

In order to understand the reading process it is necessary to understand the basics of visual perception, especially the fact how little can actually be seen during one eye-stop^[3].

There are several types and methods of reading, with differing rates that can be attained for each, for different kinds of material and purposes: In psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret information from visible light reaching the eyes. ... Look up Fixation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• Subvocalized reading combines sight reading with internal sounding of the words as if spoken. Advocates of speed reading claim it can be a bad habit that slows reading and comprehension. These claims are currently backed only by controversial, sometimes non-existent scientific research.
• Speed reading is a collection of methods for increasing reading speed without an unacceptable reduction in comprehension or retention. It is closely connected to speed learning.
• Proofreading is a kind of reading for the purpose of detecting typographical errors. One can learn to do it rapidly, and professional proofreaders typically acquire the ability to do so at high rates, faster for some kinds of material than for others, while they may largely suspend comprehension while doing so, except when needed to select among several possible words that a suspected typographic error allows.
• Structure-Proposition-Evaluation (SPE) method, popularized by Mortimer Adler in How to Read a Book, mainly for non-fiction treatise, in which one reads a writing in three passes: (1) for the structure of the work, which might be represented by an outline; (2) for the logical propositions made, organized into chains of inference; and (3) for evaluation of the merits of the arguments and conclusions. This method involves suspended judgment of the work or its arguments until they are fully understood.
• Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review (SQ3R) method, often taught in public schools, which involves reading toward being able to teach what is read, and would be appropriate for instructors preparing to teach material without having to refer to notes during the lecture.
• Multiple Intelligences-based methods, which draw upon the reader's diverse ways of thinking and knowing to enrich his or her appreciation of the text. Reading is fundamentally a linguistic activity: one can basically comprehend a text without resorting to other intelligences, such as the visual (e.g., mentally "seeing" characters or events described), auditory (e.g., reading aloud or mentally "hearing" sounds described), or even the logical intelligence (e.g., considering "what if" scenarios or predicting how the text will unfold based on context clues). However, most readers already use several intelligences while reading, and making a habit of doing so in a more disciplined manner -- i.e., constantly, or after every paragraph -- can result in more vivid, memorable experience.

Subvocalization, or silent speech, is defined as the internal speech made when reading a word, thus allowing the reader to imagine the sound of the word as it is read (Carver 1990). ... Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Proofreading means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. ... Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and grapho = write) is the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. ... Mortimer Adler around 1963 Mortimer Jerome Adler (December 28, 1902 – June 28, 2001) was an American aristotelian philosopher and author. ... How to Read a Book was originally authored by Mortimer Adler. ... The acronym SQ3R stands for the five sequential techniques you should use to read a book. ... The theory of multiple intelligences is a theory proposed by developmental psychologist Howard Gardner in 1983. ...

Reading assessment

Reading can be tested in several different ways because it draws on multiple types of knowledge. Tests also vary depending on whether they are used to test children or adults. Standardized tests are normed to a large population of readers, allowing the tester to determine what is typical for an individual of a given age. For example, the average reading ability of children aged 10 years, 0 months will be 10;0. However, a more advanced eight year old might also be able to read at the 10;0 level. Originally a standardized test was simply a standard test – of academic achievement or of knowledge in a specific academic or vocational domain. ...

Reading achievement is influenced by multiple factors, and is not limited to a child's general intelligence.

Reading rate

Further information: Speed reading, English language learning and teaching, and Proofreading

Average reading rate in words per minute (wpm) depending on age and measured with different tests in English, French and German. The data from Taylor (English) and Landerl (German) are based on texts with increasing difficulty. The other data were obtained when all age groups were reading the same text.

Rates of reading include reading for memorization (under 100 words per minute (wpm)), reading for learning (100–200 wpm), reading for comprehension (200–400 wpm), and skimming (400–700 wpm). Reading for comprehension is the essence of most people’s daily reading. Skimming is sometimes useful for processing larger quantities of text superficially at a much lower level of comprehension (below 50%). Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. ... ESL redirects here. ... Proofreading means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. ... Words per minute, commonly abbreviated wpm, is a measure of input or output speed. ... Skimming is a high speed reading process and involves visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning. ...

Advice for the appropriate choice of reading rate includes reading flexibly, slowing down when the concepts are closer together or when the material is unfamiliar, and speeding up when the material is familiar and the material is not concept rich. Speed reading courses and books often encourage the reader to continually speed up; comprehension tests lead the reader to believe their comprehension is constantly improving. However, competence in reading involves the understanding that skimming is dangerous as a default habit. Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. ... Habits are automatic routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, without thinking. ...

The table to the left shows how reading rate varies with age ^[4] , probably regardless of time period (1965 to 2005) and language (English, French German). The values of Taylor are probably higher because he discarded students who failed the comprehension test.

The test of the french psychologist Pierre Lefavrais ("L'alouette", published in 1967) asked for reading out aloud with a penalty for errors and could therefore not be much faster than 150 wpm.

Types of reading tests

• Sight word reading: reading words of increasing difficulty until they become unable to read or understand the words presented to them. Difficulty is manipulated by using words that have more letters or syllables, are less common and have more complicated spelling-sound relationships.
• Nonword reading: reading lists of pronounceable nonsense words out loud. The difficulty is increased by using longer words, and also by using words with more complex spelling or sound sequences.
• Reading comprehension: a passage is presented to the reader, which they must read either silently or out loud. Then a series of questions are presented that test the reader's comprehension of this passage.
• Reading fluency: the rate with which individuals can name words.
• Reading accuracy: the ability to correctly name a word on a page.

Some tests incorporate several of the above components at once. For instance, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores readers both on the speed with which they can read a passage, and also their ability to accurately answer questions about this passage. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was created in 1993 to test the reading and comprehension skills of students in the United States in high school and college, as well as adults. ...

Effects

Intelligence

Studies have shown that American children who learn to read by the third grade are less likely to end up in prison, drop out of school, or take drugs. Adults who read literature on a regular basis are nearly three times as likely to attend a performing arts event, almost four times as likely to visit an art museum, more than two-and-a-half times as likely to do volunteer or charity work, and over one-and-a-half times as likely to participate in sporting activities^[5] Literacy rates in the United States are also more highly correlated to weekly earnings than IQ. A graph showing this relationship is shown here. Reading books is generally regarded as being a relaxing past-time, while at the same time requiring the brain to process text so it can be stimulated. Because of this it is sometimes considered to cause at least a temporary increase in one's mental faculties.

Lighting

Reading requires more lighting than many other activities. Therefore, the possibility of comfortable reading in cafés, restaurants, buses, at bus stops or in parks greatly varies depending on available lighting and time of day. Starting in the 1950s, many offices and classrooms were over-illuminated. Since about 1990, there has been a movement to create reading environments with appropriate lighting levels (approximately 600 to 800 lux). Not to be confused with lightning. ... Cafe redirects here. ... For other uses, see Restaurant (disambiguation). ... Autobus redirects here. ... A bus stop or omnibus stop is a designated place where a public transport bus stops for the purpose of allowing passengers to board or leave the bus. ... This article needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ... This cosmetics store has lighting levels over twice recommended levels and sufficient to trigger headaches and other health effects Over-illumination is the presence of lighting intensity (illuminance) beyond that required for a specified activity. ... The lux (symbol: lx) is the SI derived unit of illuminance or illumination. ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Briggs A., Burke P. (2002) MAS 214, Macquarie University, A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the. Internet, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• National Right To Read Foundation
• National Endowment for the Arts (June 2004). "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" (pdf)
• Littlefield, Jamie (2006). "Promote Reading: Share Books" Retrieved June 20, 2006.
• Shaywitz, S. E. et al.: Evidence that dyslexia may represent the lower tail of a normal distribution of reading ability. The New England Journal of Medicine 326 (1992)145-150.
• Bainbridge, J. and Malicky, G. 2000. Constructing Meaning: Balancing Elementary Language Arts. Toronto: Harcourt.
• Ontario Ministry of Education, 2003. Guide to Effective Instruction in Reading. Toronto: Queen's Printer for Ontario.
• Gipe, J. 2002. Multiple Paths to Literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Alliteracy
• Dyslexia
• Eye movement in language reading
• Eye movement in music reading
• Fixation
• Great Books
• Haskins Laboratories
• International Reading Association
• Literacy
• Phonics
• Photoreading
• Radio Reading Service such as 2RPH reads newspapers and magazines for the benefit of people who are unable to read for themselves.
• Readability test
• Reading skills acquisition
• Skimming
• Slow reading
• Speed reading
• Subvocalization
• Time Reading Program, a book club sponsored by Time from 1961 - 1966
• Vision span
• Word Guessing

This article is about developmental dyslexia. ... The study of eye movement in language reading stretches back almost a thousand years. ... A string trio comprising a pianist, violinist and cellist. ... Look up Fixation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Great Books refers to a curriculum and a book list. ... Haskins Laboratories [1] is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. ... The International Reading Association is a professional organization that was created in 1956 to improve reading instruction, facilitate dialogue about research on reading, and encourage the habit of reading. ... Children reading. ... For the study of sounds and speech sounds, see Acoustics and Phonetics. ... PhotoReading is a commercial learning product of Learning Stategies Corporation. ... A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a service of many public radio stations, where a narrator reads newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-impaired. ... Radio station 2RPH (aka Radio for the Print Handicapped) is a Radio Reading Service that reads newspapers and magazine for the benefit of those who have difficulties reading for themselves. ... Readability tests are formulaic protocols for evaluating the readability of text, which may be used instead of conducting an actual statistical survey of human readers, or perhaps may be used in conducting such a survey, known as a readability survey. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Developmental Stages of Reading. ... Skimming is a high speed reading process and involves visually searching the sentences of a page for clues to meaning. ... Slow reading refers to practices that deliberately reduce the rate of reading to increase comprehension or pleasure. ... Speed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. ... Subvocalization, or silent speech, is defined as the internal speech made when reading a word, thus allowing the reader to imagine the sound of the word as it is read (Carver 1990). ... The Time Reading Program, often abbreviated to TRP, was a book club by Time Magazine from 1961 through 1966. ... TIME redirects here. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

External links

Look up Reading in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Reading

• The ReadSmart System - www.ReadSmarterFaster.com
• Haskins Laboratories: the science of the spoken and written word
• Lehrl, S., & Fischer, B. (1990) Measuring of reading rate
• Paper on word recognition at Microsoft typography site
• Sight Words Exercises
• Magazine Publishers Family Literacy Project
• A better way to learn sight words
• Free reading grade level tests and the MWIA, a test to determine dyslexia
• Children of the Code: The History and Science of Learning to Read and Comprehend
• Childrensbookradio: Popular Podcast and Directory of Children's Literature
• International Reading Association
• Reading Rockets: Reading Comprehension and Language Arts Teaching Strategies