Reading is one of the main ways of acquiring information, so mastering the skill of meaningful reading is the most important condition for students to learn in school in all subjects. As a special kind of activity, reading provides great opportunities for mental, aesthetic and speech development of the child. This implies the need for purposeful systematic work on the development and improvement of reading skills of younger students. The skill can be assessed by dra reading level test.
The goal of learning to read: to form a junior high school student as a conscious reader who shows interest in reading; who owns the ways of working with the read text or children’s book, who has a certain readability, moral, aesthetic and civic development.
Conscious reading activity, in turn, is not possible without mastering the technical side of reading: mastering its forms, types and methods; correct reproduction and reconstruction of the read text.
Without the skill of fluent, correct reading it is impossible to develop other types of activity including https://argoprep.com/blog/digraphs/. Premature use of other activities when the reading skill has not been developed and early switching of the reading skill to a learning tool inhibits the normal development of reading as a reading activity.
The reading process consists of two interrelated aspects: semantic and technical, encompassing visual and auditory-motor mechanisms. In developed forms, the process of reading proceeds so that its technical side works in a kind of automatic mode, as a skill. Control over which is carried out at a subconscious level. The same meaningful side is manifested as a more complex skill associated with the processing and assimilation of the content of the read text. Development of such characteristics of reading skills as conscientiousness and expressiveness are closely related to the development of fluency and accuracy, i.e., the technical side of reading.
In elementary school, students master exploratory reading (even-attentive). Exploratory reading requires students to have a certain technical skill and comprehension of information, the degree of completeness of which should reach 100%. Exploratory reading aloud to the listener is a clear articulate reading in whole words, without unnecessary pauses, error-free, at a normal pace, and sufficiently expressive.
There are different view
s on the development of the technical side of reading. According to V. N. Zaitsev it is necessary to achieve “optimal reading”. This includes kinetic learners. Optimal reading – is reading at a rate of spoken speech, ie at a pace of 120-150 words per minute. Exactly to this speed the human articulating apparatus has adapted for many centuries, and exactly at this speed the best understanding of the meaning of the text is achieved. Normative reading is known to have a minimum of 80-90 words per minute for students entering Grade 5. This does not coincide with the optimal speed of speaking, hence the norm is greatly underestimated.
In favor of fast reading V.N. Zaitsev gives the following arguments:
-Reading speed is the most important factor affecting academic performance, especially in high school, where the homework for the day is about 8 pages of the textbook (9th grade) or 6,500 words, those who cannot read well are doomed to failure;
-Reading speed also affects development: improving working memory, attention span, and mental performance;
-The educational aspect of optimal reading is that if elementary school graduates do not read well, then in high school their academic performance falls and the psychology of the trashman begins to prevail – “no matter how much you study, you still will not get a higher grade.”
Therefore, the goal should be for most students to have a reading rate of at least 120 words per minute at the end of elementary school.
On the other hand, a number of recommendations to increase the speed of reading have recently appeared. Physiologists and psychologists have proved that an increase in the speed of reading aloud over 75-90 words leads to a violation of the psychophysiological mechanisms of text perception by ear, to the uncoupling of visual and motor processes, lag of speech and thought from perception. Information is not fully absorbed. The main thing in reading is the understanding of information, the convergence of understanding with perception. The high speed of reading slows down these processes.
Psychologists say that, studying reading aloud and silently should be thorough and unhurried, so the pursuit of speed is unjustified. There is a defined threshold for learning reading – the minimum speed – 50 – 60 words per minute. At this speed comprehension is sufficiently complete, but it does not mean that it should remain the same for other forms and purposes of reading. In elementary school it ranges from 70 to 90 words when reading aloud, and up to 200 words per minute when reading silently. Reading a text at a speed that is not typical for this child, increased because of the desire to read like another student, leads to distortions of words, repetitions and other errors, and, consequently, misunderstanding of the content of the text.
Improvement of reading technique is not an end in itself, but because other characteristics of reading skill (comprehension, expressiveness), as well as the quality of knowledge in the subjects in general, it is necessary to achieve proper reading at a normal pace.
Especially since nowadays almost 30% of junior high school students are characterized by a slow pace of reading. This shortcoming worries teachers and parents because it makes it very difficult for children to understand texts (tasks, works of fiction, etc.) and, therefore, reduces the effectiveness of learning activities in general.
Slow reading is manifested by low speed of pronunciation of words and is accompanied by frequent more or less long pauses, letter-by-letter or syllable reading, incorrect naming of letters and reading
The slow pace of reading can be due to different kinds of psychological reasons, of which there are many. There are three main groups of these reasons:
-lack in the development of students’ cognitive processes (synthesis of sound-letter elements, lack of visual analysis, small amount of perception);
-Lack of development of the psychomotor sphere of students (difficulties in articulation);
-natural slowness, reflecting the low mobility of nervous processes;
-Hereditary features of the functional organization of the brain (high development of the right hemisphere, as a result of which in the process of reading the student vividly represents what he reads, while the reading process slows down).[3]
As for the methods of teaching reading, all methodologists share the position that it is necessary to combine the teaching of reading in the process of repeated purposeful rereading with special tasks that actively influence the formation of reading and the development of ways of mastering this complex learning activity.
The process of developing reading skills can only be managed if the following conditions are met:
in the formation of this skill it is necessary to rely on the development of such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, thinking;
reading is greatly strengthened and improved if other types of speech activities (listening, speaking, writing) are developed in parallel with it;
developing meaningful reading skills should not only be considered as a special lesson, a reading lesson, but also as a task of other lessons;
classes on reading should be built so that the content, forms and methods of work in the lesson formed a student’s positive motivation of interest in reading and the book in general.
In order to prevent errors related to the distortion and substitution of words the teacher together with students is advisable:
- a) to find out before reading the lexical meaning of words, without understanding the meaning of which the perception of the text will be difficult;
- b) preliminary word-by-word reading of words with a complex syllabic or morphemic composition;
- c) Creating an environment in the class for attentive reading of the text, clear formulation of tasks and questions;
- d) reading the text to oneself beforehand;
- e) The teacher’s systematic control of the students’ reading;
- f) methodically correcting an error depending on its nature.
Errors are corrected as follows:
mistakes in word endings the teacher corrects himself, without interrupting the student’s reading;
mistakes that distort the meaning of a sentence are corrected by re-reading or by asking a question about what was read;
mistakes that did not distort the meaning, the teacher marks after reading;
other students are involved in the correction of errors related to violations of orthoepic norms.
The teacher notices and records all errors of the student, but interrupts the reader only in case of distortion that interferes with the understanding of the text.
Thus, solving the complex tasks of education and development of the mind, will, feelings of a child is possible only if the technique of reading is mastered. The development of reading skill is necessary because this skill is the foundation for all subsequent education.