THE STAGES OF READING ACQUISITION AND THE IMPLICATION ON THE TEACHING READING FOR YOUNG LEARNER
Sandi Ferdiansyah
Islamic University of Malang
Abstract
The four language skills have been obviously interrelated. Each of them, however, in the nature of acquisition, refers to different notion of language skills. The concept is well known distinguished as the productive and receptive skills. The productive skill to some extent refers to the ability of a language learner to produce speech and writing while receptive skill to some extent refers to the ability to understand speech and writing of other people. The prompt of building the foundation of those four skills is a necessity as to develop language competence. To begin such endeavor, practitioners, especially teachers, should understand the stages of the learners’ language acquisition which relate to the language teaching context. The appropriate approach in language teaching will help the learners to acquire the language better so that it will influence much on the ability of the learners to apply it as well. In accordance, understanding such stages of language acquisition, in reading skill particularly, will also very much impact on the teacher’s decision in selecting the suitable approach in teaching and learning practice.
Key words: Reading skill, stage of reading acquisition, the approach of teaching reading
Introduction
Reading is a part of language elements that is significant to support the process of learner’s language acquisition. Engaging students with the language literacy will help them to build supportive literate environment so that it can improve their language competence better. Moreover, introducing a reading habit as a way to encourage the learners to love reading is helpful as it shapes the learner skill in reading. Through such a skill, the learners will be able to build automaticity in reading (Duffy, 2009:13). In addition, the ability of the students to read will sharpen their skill in understanding meaning of a particular text. To support this, ministry of religion (2005:188) and Nation (2009:9) states that the focus of language learning must be based on meaning which becomes an essential part of the reading skill to be able to recognize written forms and relate them with the meaning. As meaning takes huge attention in language, therefore, the teaching of reading should be focused on fluency as well as the accuracy.
In relation to the focus of teaching reading, fluency has logically become the most required skill to be developed. Reading fluency to some extent refers to the ability of the readers to provide the fluent reading process that build reading comprehension. This skill enhances the readers to recognize the complexity of reading (Grabe, 2009:7). Furthermore, it is assumed that the ability to comprehend a particular text, a reader should have background knowledge on the context, language feature, and vocabulary used. Those three notions are closely related so that it is necessary to determine the ways how to connect them in teaching reading. Meanwhile, the reading accuracy to some extent refers to the ability to read correctly. The teaching is based on the spelling or phonics e.g. reading aloud.
According to Wyse & Jones (2001:75) the method in reading accuracy was based on the idea of encouraging children to sound out letters. It is important to develop phonological awareness. In relation to the types and strategies of skill employed in reading, Duffy (2009:13) categories them into three, they are: 1) Vocabulary and comprehension strategies; 2) Skills and strategies for identifying (or decoding) words; and 3) Skills and strategies for how to read fluently.
Reading skill
The importance on becoming a skillful reader has concerned the teachers, for developing reading skill is one of the important ways for the students to improve their language competence. It is reasonable, for it enables the language learners to access the meaning of texts and further convey it in various meaningful communications. It is supported by Troike (2006:155) who states that reading is a very important device in which the learners can engage for the improvement of L2 academic competence as well as for interpersonal functions to get along in any literate society. Furthermore, Richard & Schmidt (2002:444) states that reading skill to some extent refers to the ability to 1) discern main ideas, 2) understand sequence, 3) notice specific details, 4) make inferences, 5) make comparisons, and 6) make predictions. Thus, the orientation of the teaching reading should emphasize on giving more attention to students to understand and enjoy reading and also helping them to master those skills.
Furthermore, Elley (1992); Kirsch et al (2002); NAAL (2005) and NAEP (2007) as quoted by Grabe (2009:4) state that skillful readers are those who can read at a much higher level of comprehension, learning new conceptual information of texts, synthesizing new information of multiple texts, critiquing information of texts, and using their comprehension skills to reinterpret texts. This promotes an idea that to become a skilled reader, a reader should start over all by being able of comprehending a text. Then after being successful comprehending text, a reader begins to learn the concept, to synthesize more than one text, and to reinterpret them. Here, the teacher plays a significant role to explain each skill employed in reading before becoming the skilled one by encouraging and guiding the learner to learn better in reading. The last but not least important thing is that the nature of reading activity. A reader attempts to identify the precise topic and each change of topic which then activates the ideas a reader has stored in mind that helps him to make a sense what he has just read (Davies & Pearse, 2000:90).
In short, it is obvious that being a skillful reader is a necessity as it brings the language learner to get further improvement in acquiring language. It is also important to keep reading as meaning focused oriented because reading skill as one of language elements influences much on developing the learners’ language competence. This is in line with the ministry of religion (2005:185) that by reading, it will automatically activate the other language skill such as speaking generated from the result of reflection toward the text.
Stages of reading acquisition
The ability to read of the second language (L2) learner varies from one to another. One can read a particular text faster and comprehend it more easily than another. It is strongly believed that the distinction of such ability is influenced by the development of learner’s cognitive aspect which processes the background knowledge of the learner as a potential tool for the reading improvement. For the young learner who has not developed such bottom-up process perfectly will find difficulties in reading for any purposes. Therefore, understanding such cognitive development process for teachers is important to determine what is appropriate approach used in teaching reading for a particular level. Building such awareness will also help teachers to understand the difficulties the learner may find in teaching and learning practice that is beneficial to evaluate what step should be taken to carry out the situation.
We can generally assume that sufficient prior linguistic knowledge – except perhaps vocabulary – is automatically (and unconsciously) available to L1 and to highly skilled L2 speakers for interpretation of meaning, but the language knowledge of L2 learners is often insufficient for comprehending written or spoken input. At early stages of learning, bottom-up processing is limited to visual or auditory recognition of the limited set of words and word combinations that have been acquired thus far, and of simple grammatical sequences. When L2 input significantly exceeds these limits, understanding is likely to be fragmentary, Troike (2006:154).
In hence, the question in what primary age should reading is taught to young learner has promoted a debatable issue. However, this study is interesting to take Wyse & Jones ideas who classify the young learner stage in reading development at the age 4 to 10 years old. The following is research
Table 1 Table of research done by Payton and Minns (Wyse & Jones, 2001)
| Researcher | Objective | Subject | Age | Finding |
| Payton (1984) | The development of her daughter awareness of print and literacy | Cecilia | 3 – 4 | There is strong evidence to suggest that in the early stages, print in the environment is an important factor in supporting the child’s discovery of this concept. Initially children find it difficult to understand print words and logos without their familiar context, i.e. decontextualized |
| Minns (1997) | Emergent literacy learning | Gurdeep | 4 – 5 | At 4 years 4 months Gurdeep had developed a strong interest in particular favorite stories, for example Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Although the ability to identify favorite books is something that happens at all ages, in the early stages it requires the child to be familiar with the purpose of books, to know and remember a selection, and to identify at some level why they prefer some books to others. |
| 10 | By the age of 10 Gurdeep had developed his interest in narrative. He liked some story books, particularly funny ones, but his main interest was in texts with a strong visual content such as comics, graphic novels and books that were influenced by computer technology. He was not particularly interested in information books, but did enjoy looking at dictionaries. One of the things he liked to do was learn new words in Punjabi and then translate them into English. | |||
| Paul | 5 – 6 | At age 5 years and 1 month Paul recognized his first words and was consolidating his understanding of the concept of ‘word’. At 5 years and 3 months there was evidence that Paul was using both semantic and graphophonic cues to work out texts. Paul was beginning to read silently at 5 years and 11 months and this coincided with a change in his attitude to reading. Reading was becoming much less hard work and he was enjoying it much more. | ||
| | | Paul | 6 | When Paul was 6 years and six months he was gaining confidence and attempting harder texts and a greater range of texts. His purposes for reading were changing and he was moving away from learning to read to reading to learn: his purposes included easy texts, hard texts, speed reading, sounds of poetry and rereading his favorites. By 6 years and 11 months most of Paul’s’ reading was silent. The school had moved him up the reading scheme but he wasn’t particularly motivated by the literacy experiences at school. He no longer asked his parents to read aloud and he had advanced to short novels. He could read many difficult words in context but sometimes found it hard to define them out of context. |
| Paul | 7 | At 7 years and 8 months he was able to segment words into prefixes, roots and suffixes and to think about the meanings of the different segments. | ||
| Paul | 8 | At 8 years and 3 months Paul invented names for new chemicals as a result of playing with a chemistry set. His interest in definitions resulted in much exploration of dictionaries. | ||
| Paul | 9 – 10 | By 9 years he had developed awareness of puns and multiple meanings. Paul was now interested in acquiring information on a wide range of subjects. He enjoyed using encyclopaedias and he developed skimming and scanning skills. At 9 years and 8 months he read his first adult novel: Star Wars (part 4). This sparked his imagination resulting in the design of Star Wars quizzes and the taped recordings of excerpts from the book. |
Having looked at three children in detail it is possible to compare their development with other sources such as the Centre for Language in Primary Education (CLPE) reading scales (CLPE, 1991) and Wyse and Jones’ experience teaching young readers. This enables us to be aware of some of the main signs of development which we have organized into four stages.
1 Beginning reading
a. Understands the differences between text and pictures
b. Can read words/logos which are part of environmental print
c. Understands that text carries meaning and conveys messages
d. Understands that text is an aid to memory
e. Understands that the meaning of text does not change
f. Enjoys playing at reading including re-enacting known stories
g. Uses ‘book language’ during retelling of stories
h. Understands that there are many languages
i. Can tell people about favorite texts.
2 Learning to decode
a. Knowledge of favorite texts supports decoding of reading scheme texts
b. Needs help with concepts of words and spaces
c. Uses finger pointing to show level of 1–1 correspondence
d. Begins to be able to read words out of context
e. Temporarily a strong emphasis on graphophonics
f. Independent reading starts for first time
g. Teaching English, language and literacy 40
h. Beginning to realise the limits of the One Letter Makes One Sound Method (OLMOSM).
3 Silent reading
a. Silent reading starts for first time
b. Wider reading of unknown texts
c. Greater fluency and appropriate expression when reading aloud
d. No need for finger pointing
e. Choosing to read a greater range of texts
f. Temporarily a return to a larger number of substitutions
g. Pronunciation and word-stress problems are main area of difficulty.
4 Wide range reading
a. Silent reading is preferred
b. Enjoys short novels
c. Likes to re-read favorite books sometimes
d. Finds difficulties with unfamiliar proper nouns
e. Enjoys a wider range of reading including information texts
f. Shows interest in word definitions out of context (like dictionaries)
g. Shows ability to segment words
h. Enjoys word play
i. Uses reading to learn
j. Occasionally may enjoy adult level texts
k. Interested in foreign languages and translations.
Taken from Wyse & Jones (2001:40-41)
Thus, the nature of reading acquisition through stages proposed above impacts much on developing the teaching of reading strategy. As the improvement of cognitive aspect is different throughout the ages, the teacher is expected to give more attention in helping students to read.
The approach of teaching reading
Reading skill is classified as receptive skill. It does not mean that the language learner acquire such skill passively and without any efforts but must participate actively (Troike, 2006:153). Furthermore, Urquhart & Weir, (1998:22) as quoted by Grabe (2009:14) defines reading as the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print therefore, the role of teacher in teaching reading plays significantly in helping students to improve their reading skill. Yet a young reader has developed autonomy, explanation probably becomes an effective way to teach reading. According to Duffy (2009:45) suggests the following strategies of explanation:
1. The explanation must be based (as often as possible) in real reading tasks or activities.
2. Inside real reading tasks we provide information students can use to fill experiential gaps or to correct misconceptions or confusions about how to use skills and strategies to think one’s way through text.
3. We scaffold student use of the information in subsequent responses to help them construct their own understandings based on the information we provided because students must ultimately “own” their skills and strategies if they are to be good readers.
4. We have students put the newly learned skill or strategy to work when doing the above real reading
Moreover, as a part of language element, reading skill will also possible to be taught integratively with the other skills. If this happens, Brown (2007) proposes 8 (eight) principles for teaching reading skill, they are:
1. In an integrated course, don’t overlook a specific focus on reading skill
2. Use technique that are interestingly motivating
3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts
4. Encourage the development of reading strategies
5. Include bottom-up and top-down techniques
6. Follow the SQ3R sequence
7. Plan on pre-reading, during reading, and after reading phases
8. Build an assessment aspect in your techniques
Discussion
The stage of reading acquisition clearly impacts on the approach of teaching reading for young learners. Nation (2009:9) states that the teaching of spelling should be introduced first, for reading to get meaning is not the main focus of learning. It involves the orthography and sound of the word. The students are expected to be able to recognize written forms and to connect them with their spoken forms and their meanings. It also involves recognizing known words and also deciphering unfamiliar words. Building the foundation of spelling introduction is the primary step before introducing the students to the text.
Meanwhile, Brown (1985:1-3) as quoted by Wyse & Jones (2001:54) the teaching of English, language and literacy involves extensive use of texts. It means the complexity and length of the text should be based on the students’ level. The young learners logically should be given text which is familiar in term of the story and vocabulary used. Furthermore, the focus is no longer focusing on how long the text is. The appropriate length of the text should be considered by the teacher so that the learner can obtain the message or meaning of the text.
Moreover, Grabe (1991) in Troike (2006:155) reviews research on fluent academic reading in terms of six component abilities and types of knowledge that are involved in the activity.
1. Automatic recognition ability. Automatic (as opposed to conscious) word perception and identification is necessary for fluency. There is also some evidence that lower-level automaticity is important (e.g. at feature and letter levels), as well as automatic recognition of syntactic structures.
2. Vocabulary and structural knowledge. Fluent reading requires a large recognition vocabulary (some estimates range up to 100,000 words) and a sound knowledge of grammatical structure.
3. Formal discourse structure knowledge. Good readers know how a text is organized, including (culture-specific) logical patterns of organization for such contrasts as cause–effect and problem–solution relations.
4. Content/world background knowledge. Good readers have both more prior cultural knowledge about a topic and more text-related information than those who are less proficient.
5. Synthesis and evaluation processes/strategies. Fluent readers evaluate information in texts and compare it with other sources of knowledge; they go beyond merely trying to comprehend what they read.
6. Metacognitive knowledge and comprehension monitoring. Fluent readers have [unconscious] knowledge about knowledge of language and about using appropriate strategies for understanding texts and processing information. Monitoring involves both recognizing problems that occur in the process of interpreting information in a text, and awareness of non-comprehension.
Based on the above concepts, it can be concluded that the ability of the teachers to understand the reading skill acquisition stage will assist them to analysis the needs of teaching strategy used based on the learners’ appropriate level.
References
Duffy, G. G. 2009. Explaining Reading: A Resource for Teaching Concepts, Skills, and Strategies (second edition). New York: The Guilford Press
Departemen Agama RI. 2005. Standar Kompetensi. Jakarta: Direktorat Jendral Kelembagaan Agama Islam.
Grabe, W. 2009. Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press
Nation, I. S. P. 2009. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Richards, J. C. and Schmidt, R. 2002. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics. London: Pearson Education Limited
Troike, M. S. 2006. Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wyse, D. and Jones, R. 2001. Teaching English, Language and Literacy. London: RoutledgeFalmer
