alphabetic code, contextual cues, and metacognitive strategies to support the search for meaning. Clay’s definition also highlights the vital role of practice in becoming a fluent and confident reader. In many ways, Clay’s definition brings together several of the skills and competencies discussed in previous chapters. The ability to read is such an essential skill in the world today that reading difficulties have attracted an enormous amount of research and pedagogical interest. Difficulty in reading is a common criterion used in many local and national surveys to determine prevalence rates for learning difficulty in the community (for example, Louden et al., 2000; van Kraayenoord et al., 2000). Failure to learn to read during the first year in school quickly catches the attention of parents and teachers, and it is probably true to say that difficulties in reading are often the first indication that a student has a learning problem (Clay, 1997). Unfortunately, such problems are not always easily remedied and may stay with the student throughout the school years and beyond (Jordan, Hanich & Uberti, 2003). Before summarising some of the current perspectives on possible causes of reading failure, and exploring strategies for intervention, it is necessary to consider normal acquisition of reading skill.
Learning to read Reading is essentially a language-based skill; anything that impairs or restricts normal language development will impact adversely on the acquisition of reading and writing skills. For children with normal language competence, learning to read may present no problems and some preschool children, given a favourable environment and opportunities, even manage to take the first steps toward reading without direct instruction. Because key elements of emergent reading are present in the preschool years, some educators regard learning to read as a natural process not requiring explicit teaching – like learning to talk. They advocate an informal but supportive exposure to literature in order that children can acquire reading ability by observing the way that others go about the task and by being themselves motivated to try. This is clearly a faulty model because learning to read is not a natural process, and most students need explicit instruction in order to acquire and master the various types of knowledge, skills and strategies involved in reading (Lyon, 1998; Spear-Swerling & Sternberg, 2001). Experts differ in opinion concerning the exact way in which proficient readers process print to obtain meaning (Wolf & Kennedy, 2003). Some regard it as predominantly a ‘top down’ process, with the reader’s effort to make sense of the message driving his or her recognition or prediction of words in print – the so-called ‘psycholinguistic guessing game’ referred to by Goodman (1967). Instructional methods based on this principle are usually termed ‘meaning emphasis approach’, typified by the method called ‘Whole Language’. Meaning emphasis approaches tend to stress strategies such as intelligent use of context and syntax rather than phonic decoding to identify unfamiliar words. 86
Learning and Learning Difficulties: A handbook for teachers