I used to be very interested in how kids learned to read and followed the research and the controversies associated with the teaching of reading. As an area of cognitive psychology and now brain science, reading is very interesting. It is a complex skill I think we still struggle to explain. It comes so easily to some kids and is a life-long struggle for others. Because so many other skills or at least the learning of these skills depend on reading, it is an area that has long been heavily emphasized. I think it still remains a puzzle and I am convinced that the notion that the brain was not designed for reading and must be rewired makes some sense (see books by MaryAnn Wolf).
I have decided over the years that I am less interested in the early stages of reading and more in learning from reading and studying written content. To me, reading becomes an area similar to other examples of expertise (research on chess masters, solving physics problems, medical diagnosis) involving how experts do. These skill areas involve a transition of sorts in cognitive behaviors. Experts don’t “figure stuff out” at a higher level. They pattern recognize based on experience. I think good readers get to this stage relatively quickly and instructional issues such as how much time should be devoted to phonics skills as part of reading instruction no longer apply. Consider that as an adult reader you may or not sound out words and even if you try a more important issue is understanding the meaning of unfamiliar words which you likely attempt based on context. Once understood, words are simply recognized and access to meaning is based in past experience.
This is the thing about expertise – what gets you there isn’t necessarily what you use when you arrive. I think basic skills are necessary to help you accumulate experience and the accumulation of experience requires success to assure motivation. Hence, learning phonics so you can read on your own makes sense. I also wonder with technology if the automatic pronunciation and access to meaning technology could offer might one day substitute for the skills that now are necessary to enable development.
Anyway, I am not claiming what I have just described meets the current thinking on what reading is, but it is my semi-educated perspective.
I started thinking about the continuing battle over how best to teach reading after reading a recent article that reviews the decades-long controversy over reading instruction and just what it is that needs to be learned. I admit this article explains things in a little different way than I do and my personal interpretation may be dated. Anyway – for those who focus on reading instruction or have an interest in the early stages of learning to read, take a look at At a loss for words.