Guiding Students Through the Transition from Decoding to Reading

Craig Wright

Decoding means lifting the words off the page and turning them into sounds. To promote reading comprehension， students need to progress from just decoding words to making sense of what they are reading， and eventually go on to higher-level reading skills.

What do students need to read？ The foundation of reading is phonics， which is a stepping stone to reading. Hence all phonics instruction and practice must lead to reading.

·The Simple View of Reading： D+LC=RC

The Simple View of Reading was formed by Gough and Tunmer in 1986. It is well known that reading is a complex mental process， but this point of view aims to simplify how we examine the process. Gough and Tunmer （1986） came up with a simple equation， which is D+LC=RC（D stands for Decoding， LC stands for Language Comprehension and RC stands for Reading Comprehension）. According to this equation， students decoding ability and their comprehension of the topic as well as the language， will determine how good their reading comprehension will be.

On the one hand， decoding is a skill that requires an identifiable set of skills and knowledge called phonics. Phonics is the system of letters and sounds of the English language： we can see letters and we can hear sounds. It is much easier to teach and learn things we can see and hear. In a way， it is just like skating. When athletes start off， they skate in a slow and wobbly way， but the more they practice， the faster they go. Athletes need to practice skating for hours and hours a day before they can skate smoothly and quickly. The same goes for reading， phonics and decoding. They are things we can see and identify and can be explicitly taught.

On the other hand， language comprehension is not a skill， but a complex of higher-level， mental processes including thinking， reasoning， imagining， and interpreting （Kamhi， 2007）. This means that， unlike phonics and decoding， language comprehension cannot be taught in a fixed time period. These skills develop over a longer period of time. Language comprehension depends on some background knowledge of the topic and an understanding of what the words in a particular text mean. For example， if a student has never been to the ocean and he is reading a passage about the seashore， it is quite difficult for him to comprehend the passage because he cannot relate to what he is reading. His phonics and decoding skills may be well developed so he can read every word on the page， but once he decodes the words， he still cannot quite make sense of what the text is about， because he has limited knowledge about that topic. What does this mean for teachers？ It means that we should explicitly teach the skills of decoding， and at the same time expose our students to a wide variety of topics and broaden their knowledge and experience of the world around us.

·How to Teach Language Comprehension？

Many teachers know the value and usefulness of phonics to decoding words. However， they have questions when it comes to comprehending the meaning of words. The answers lie with the teachers themselves. The teachers are there to help their students create meaning of what they are decoding. Teachers play a pivotal role in a reading class to help the children understand what they have just read.

The primary method teachers should use to fulfill this role， is modeling. Modeling is an efficient and effective way of showing students how to make sense of what they are reading. When modeling， the teacher stops after reading a short piece of text and then verbalizes his thought processes in front of the class so that students can hear and see how the teacher thinks and makes sense of the text. This technique is called “thinking aloud”. Traditionally， our students idea of reading is to decode from the first word through to the last word of the text. However， when you ask them questions like： What have you read？ What does it mean？ What do you think？ They are unable to answer because they have just decoded the text without really understanding it. In their minds， reading is just a task to be completed， not a source of information and enjoyment. Reading without thinking is like eating without digesting， so teachers should strive to change their students views on reading and get them to think about what they read， then increase their engagement and enjoyment of the texts they read. Here， I would like to suggest using the Uncle Craigs 7R reading method to model and get students to think about what they read.

Coming back to the simple view of reading， the graph below is based on this view. The vertical axis represents the level of decoding skills from the bottom， which is a poor decoding ability， right up to the top， where students are very good at decoding. The horizontal axis represents language comprehension. They have zero decoding and comprehension. So the teachers job is to teach students how to read and how to understand what they read， thus moving them to the top right area. This is a process that will take several years of work to achieve.

·The Reading Rope

A wonderful depiction of the different components of the reading process was done by Scarborough， an early-language-acquisition expert， in 2001. She depicted the simple view of reading in more details by describing the different parts， that constitute reading， as strands of a rope. The more intertwined the strands become， the higher the reading proficiency and comprehension achieved.

According to the Reading Rope， Word Recognition contains three strands.

1. Phonemic Awareness： the familiarity with the sounds of a language.

2. Decoding （and Spelling）： phonics skills.

3. Sight Recognition： words can be decoded quickly and easily and can be recognized on sight.

The strands that make up Language Comprehension are more complex.

1. Background Knowledge： general knowledge or experience a student has with the topic of the text. Note that students may have sufficient background knowledge， but they have to transfer their knowledge from Chinese to English.

2. Vocabulary Knowledge： the more vocabulary students know， the easier it will be for them to understand what they are reading.

3. Language Knowledge： studentsknowledge， or lack of knowledge， of the conventions of the English language like grammar， syntax， punctuation， etc. will affect their understanding of what they read.

4. Verbal Reasoning： being able to think， form opinions， create their own ideas， and then share their ideas will greatly help students internalize and understand what they read.

5. Literacy Knowledge： knowledge about genre.

Following the Word Recognition strands down the rope， it shows that the more the students apply these skills， the more automatic these skills become. Language Comprehension will become increasingly strategic with practice， which means that the more experience of applying their knowledge， the more focused and effective thinkers they will become. As teachers， we should help students think clearer and more strategically about what they read and the best way to do it is through guidance and modeling.

As the two components combine， the Reading Rope is formed， which will lead to fluent coordination of word reading and comprehension processes.

·Uncle Craigs 7R Reading Method

This is a process that I follow in every reading class.

1. Ready： the pre-reading stage.

2. Read： the students read the text silently.

3. Reread： the students read the text out loud.

4. Rephrase： the teacher rephrases the text in a way that is easier for students to understand.

5. Reflect： the teacher uses the “thinkaloud” technique to model his critical thinking on the meaning of the text.

6. Relate： the students are asked to compare their own experiences with the content of the text.

7. React： the teacher asks students to do something to create reading motivation for them.

In conclusion， reading is so much more than just a task. It should be an engaging， pleasurable process that students should be motivated to participate in. Remember， there is no such thing as a child who hates reading； there are only children who have not been shown its magic.

References

Gough， P. & Tunmer， W. 1986. Decoding， Reading， and Reading Disability [J]. Remedial and Special Education， 7 （1）： 6-10.

Kamhi， A. 2007. Knowledge Deficits： the True Crisis in Education [J/OL]. The ASHA Leader， 12 （7）： 28-29 （2007-05-01） [2019-04-25]. https：// leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/ leader.FMP.12072007.28.

Scarborough， H. S. 2001. Connecting Early Language and Literacy to Later Reading （Dis）Abilities： Evidence， Theory， and Practice [C]// Neuman， S. and Dickinson， D. （Eds.）， Handbook of Early Literacy Research. New York， NY： Guilford Press， 97-110.