From Chapter 19,
Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking
by Nanci Bell
The book can be purchased at
http://www.lblp.com .
Ms. Bell writes:
I cannot leave this encounter with you without discussing my
circles and my favorite topic of the reading process. Reading is the one area in school that cuts across all other areas. Reading is critical to science, social studies, health, English, etc. Therefore, the reading process gets an entire chapter of specific discussion and analysis. First, it is important to recognize
the only reason to read is to get meaning from print. From that premise we can proceed. What are the elements of the
process underlying what we term reading?
For many years the various camps in the discipline of reading have disputed the critical aspects of reading. These disputes could even be likened to religious wars. Some professionals advocate primarily teaching
phonics. Some advocate primarily teaching a
look-say approach for the sight recognition of words. Some don't teach phonics and place very little emphasis on teaching the recognition of words. Instead, they advocate teaching the use of
context clues with a "guessing" strategy. These camps debate whether phonics should be taught or not taught. Or they debate which is more important -- phonics or context cues. Or they debate which is more important -- phonics or sight words.
The reading camps have been correct concerning the
critical reading elements of the reading process. Phonics, sight words, and contextual constraints are necessary ingredients in the
process of reading. However, not just one element is critical -- all are critical for independent reading skills.
Reading is a complex integration of process, with comprehension the concluding process.
The reading process requires the integration of four primary functions: 1) phonetic processing, 2) sight word recognition, 3) contextual constraints/oral vocabulary, and 4) imagery for comprehension. The first three parts are labeled auditory, visual and language -- shown in three circles. The fourth and the most critical part is comprehension. The following diagram presents my paradigm of the reading process."
A description of the paradigm is the best I can do. You'll have to visualize three medium sized circles. They overlap each other -- about 20% of each circle overlays into the others. They are labeled "auditory," "visual," and "language." A larger circle overlays and encompasses the interlocking 3 circles. The large circle is labeled "comprehension."
Quote resumed:
In the diagram above:
1.
The auditory circle represents phonetic processing. This is not "spit and grunt" phonics, but confident and accurate word attack skills. The ability to
sound out a word, accurately and fluently, is critical because we cannot memorize all the words in the English language. Good readers -- decoders -- have good word attack skills.
2.
The visual circle represents sight word recognition. This is the ability to recognize a base of words instantly, without the need for phonetic processing. It is critical to have a well-established sight word base or we would have to phonetically process each word as we read. Hence, slow, laborious contextual reading.
3.
The language circle represents vocabulary and use of context. This is the ability to understand the meaning of isolated words orally and use context cues based on the semantics (meaning) and syntax (grammar) of the written material. We can anticipate words based on context. Good readers have this ability.
This circle does not represent comprehension.
The Auditory Circle
Auditory processing is a critical function in the process we have termed reading. It is the ability to sound out words based on their individual sounds. We term this ability
word attack. It is only logical that phonetic processing is a necessary ingredient in the reading process. It is not possible to memorize all the words in the English language nor is it possible to accurately guess at all of them based on contextual cues. It is important to decode accurately since decoding errors can change imagery and thus change comprehension.
In the extreme, years ago, the linguists preached that all one needed to be a good reader was the ability to phonetically process words. Rudolph Flesch wrote in his book,
Why Johnny Can't Read, that American's reading problems would be solved if only schools taught more phonics. The teaching of reading became enamored with phonics instruction and minimized the importance of getting meaning from print. Some linguistic reading series were produced that taught students to phonetically process words without concern for comprehension of the content. Comprehension was
assumed.
Phonetic processing is not the only element in the reading process, but
it is critical to reading. Unfortunately, at least a third of our population cannot respond to phonics instruction. These individuals can usually learn sound/letter associations in isolation, such a P = /p/, T = /t/, K = /k/. But, they have an auditory conceptual dysfunction and cannot perceive those same sounds when they come in a syllable -- a word. Usually, bright, these individuals
cannot perceive the NUMBER of sounds in a syllable, the IDENTITY of the sounds in a syllable, or the ORDER of sounds in a syllable. Therefore, thorough they have been taught phonics, they might look at the word "stream" and say "steam." They might look at "immigration" and say "imagination." They cannot auditorily judge their error. They also might spell gril for "girl," eqetment for "equipment," or make speech errors such as "baf" for "bath," "subduce" for seduce." All these errors -- in reading, spelling and speech -- are examples of what is termed
auditory conceptualization dysfunction. Simply stated,
individuals with an auditory conceptual dysfunction cannot perceive sounds within words.
The issue of auditory conceptualization deserves much space here due to the critical relationship between decoding skills and auditory conceptual processing. Both educators and laymen have found it difficult to understand an auditory conceptualization dysfunction. Parents and teachers have asked, "Does it mean that the students don't hear well?" The answer is
no , usually the students hear the whole word very well. Auditory acuity is usually not impaired. The impairment instead is in not being able to perceive each of the sounds that are in a syllable/word. Individuals cannot auditorily segment the word into "parts." They perceive the "whole" of the word but not the separate "parts." This is the exact reverse of individuals with a language comprehension dysfunction, who perceive a few "parts" but not the "whole." Interesting.
As one would expect, individuals with this specific auditory conceptual dysfunction have difficult decoding words. They usually tract the initial or final sounds in a word but the interiors of words scramble or wash for them -- auditorily not visually. For example, when Johnny looks at "stream" and says "steam," he
sees each letter correctly but he does not perceive that he has omitted the /r/ sound. His teacher or parent may even point to the letter
r and ask what letter he sees and what sound it makes. He verifies accurate visual processing by noting that he sees the letter
r and he also knows the sound of it -- then reads the word again as "steam." Although surprising to many people, Johnny did see the letter r and he knew the sound...and he thought he included it when he said "steam." His auditory system didn't monitor, especially in the interior part of the word, whether what he said matched what he saw.
Another diagram: Imagine the same 3 interlocking medium-circles above, but this time the auditory circle is much smaller than the visual and language circles.
Resume quote:
Individuals of all ages and background may have an auditory conceptual dysfunction which impairs their ability to decode words. The treatment to develop auditory conceptualization focuses on another modality to support and ultimately develop auditory segmentation. This modality is the source of sounds --
the mouth. Individuals can be taught to perceive sounds by
experiencing the motor movement of those sounds. This procedure begins with isolated sounds -- consonants and vowels -- and moves to the syllable and multisyllable level. Moving through a series of specific steps, all students of all ages can develop their auditory conceptualization, thereby developing their word attack and decoding skills. In using the Lindamood
Auditory discrimination in depth (ADD) Program, I have had significant success with every student and have seen dyslexic adults gain two to four years in decoding skills in one to six months of auditory conceptual tutoring.
In summary, the auditory circle is critical to the reading process but not possible without well-developed auditory conceptual processing.
The Visual Circle
The visual circle represents the ability to recognize a large base of words instantly. This is the sight recognition of words, without phonetic processing. Years ago this type of reading instruction was termed the
Look-Say method. Words were simply flashed to students, over and over, until they were recognized and remembered. When the Look-Say method was implemented fully, no phonetics were taught. Many individuals today still lament that they were not taught phonics just because they happened to be caught in that particular period of our educational history.
The visual circle is not addressing visual tracking or visual perception. Students with poor visual perception can still be excellent decoders and comprehenders. Although weak visual tracking may interrupt fluency, neither of these is a
primary contributor to the reading process.
When an individual has weak auditory processing and thus weak decoding skills, he has to attempt to compensate by memorizing massive amounts of words. For example, at a Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes Center we worked with a neurosurgeon who had a sever dysfunction in auditory conceptualization. His spelling was very weak and he recounted having to memorize hoards of medical terminology for both reading and spelling. He worked hours and hours memorizing words based on their orthography, not their sounds. He did manage to compensate -- memorize lots of words -- better than most people, but he never managed to compensate completely. He resisted reading orally because people laughed at his mispronunciations. He had written numerous medical papers that he never presented orally because of his insecurity with oral reading.
Sight word recognition is an important element in the reading process. Without the ability to quickly and accurately recognize words by sight, the individual would have to phonetically process each word and/or guess from context. Both of which may impair reading rate and comprehension.
The Language Circle
The language circle represents both oral vocabulary and the use of contextual cues. The reading process requires a good oral vocabulary to understand the meaning of each word that is decoded and also requires the ability to anticipate content from context cues.
The use of contextual cues is currently a popular reading strategy. Psycholinguists feel the use of context to be the most crucial strategy to independence and comprehension in reading. They believe that reading words is not a critical element in the reading process and that the major emphasis in reading instruction should be on developing the language background and ability to hypothesize (guess) at a word based on the context of the material. In pure form they do not believe in teaching phonics or sight words. The expect students to anticipate context based on the students' language experience and background. In other words, Johnny is to guess at words based on the semantics (meaning) or syntax (grammar) of the sentence.
Many individuals ...can anticipate context in sentences. Catherine could self-correct based on the syntax and semantics of sentences not the overall content of the paragraphs. She still couldn't comprehend.
Good readers can anticipate context, but what of poor readers? Can poor readers us context cues? It is true that for many poor readers, their primary reading strategy is to guess at or skip words -- use context cues. However, it is also true that many poor readers are also not able to hypothesize accurately from context
because they cannot decode enough words to wager a good guess. For example, if they can only read a few words in a sentence they won't be able to guess at the other words and get meaning. Or, they may have numerous decoding errors that cause them to hypothesize inaccurately the next word or words. Often their word-guess fits both the semantics and syntax of the sentence, but is not the correct word and thus interferes with imagery and comprehension.
It is important to remember that although good readers do anticipate context, good readers also have well developed word attack and word recognition skills. Poor readers do not and the use of context cues is often the only strategy available to them. Unfortunately their reading level depends on knowing enough words to guess at the other words. Very bright individuals may read years below their potential because a memorized sight vocabulary and the use of context cues are the only reading strategies available to them. I have met, diagnosed, and remediated many high school, college, and adult dyslexics who read at the third- and fourth-grade level because they have weak auditory processing and have compensated to the maximum level with visual memory and content.
The language circle is a critical element in the reading process but it does not guarantee comprehension. Reading is an integration of processes and all circles must be developed to be a good reader.
Comprehension
In the first years of my clinical experience, I believed that when I had developed all three areas of auditory, visual, and language in the reading process, the student would be an independent reader. I was accurate in that the student would be an independent decoder, but not necessarily an independent reader.
The most critical element in the reading process is the ability to connect to and comprehend language.
The comprehension surrounds the other three circles to illustrate the significance of meaning. It cannot be considered just a part of the language circle. It is separate and significant. As the previous chapters in this book have discussed, there are many individuals who can read the words well -- have the three circles well developed -- but cannot comprehend or get meaning from what they have read. The outer circle, of fully connecting to print through images, is not available to them. When they read, the information goes in one ear and out the other, with just a few parts recalled. They don't process a gestalt, and consequently have no base of interpretive comprehension and critical thinking. It is my hypothesis that visualizing is the basis for language comprehension. Since this entire book has been devoted to discussing the comprehension circle, nothing further will be said here.
Classification of Reading Disorders
Once we understand the process involved in reading, we can classify reading disorders and remediate accordingly.
The only reason to read is to get meaning from print and mouthing sounds is useless, of course. Any interference with comprehension is a reading disorder. There are three
primary types of reading disorders;
* Decoding disorder
* Language comprehension disorder
* Combination of a decoding and a comprehension disorder.
Decoding Disorder
A "decoding disorder" means that the individual has a weakness in word recognition and word attack, and/or oral vocabulary preventing understanding of each decoded word. One or all the three circles may not be well developed, but usually the primary weakness is in the auditory circle.
Individuals with a decoding disorder are usually classified as dyslexic -- reading below their oral language potential. They cannot decode words accurately. They may look at "was" and say "saw," "brook" and say "book," "destroy" and say "destory," "malignant" and say "malijent," "marriage" and say margin," etc. A decoding disorder interferes with comprehension of content because individuals cannot accurately read enough words to process the content.
I have observed an interesting phenomenon, alluded to previously. Individuals with a decoding disorder frequently don't have a language comprehension disorder. They
are able to connect language and have
good comprehension if they can read enough of the significant words in the text. I have noted both children and adults struggling with decoding the words, but able to comprehend well at the completion of a paragraph. They don't have the comprehension problem of not connecting to language. If they have comprehension difficulty, it is only the result of poor decoding, not
poor imaging/language connection.
An individual with a decoding disorder also may have good listening comprehension and good vocabulary, but poor decoding skills, and poor auditory conceptualization for sounds within words. As stated earlier, although other areas may be weak, the
primary weakness is usually in auditory segmentation. These individuals cannot judge sounds within words and therefore cannot judge if what they say matches what they see. This affects comprehension.
Decoding and Comprehension Disorder
Another common type of reading disorder is a combination of both a
decoding disorder and a
language comprehension disorder. Readers who have weaknesses in both areas can neither decode well nor comprehend well. Their disability may be more severe in one area than the other. For example, they may have a severe dysfunction in auditory conceptualization and thus a severe dysfunction in decoding, but only a moderate dysfunction in comprehension, or vice versa.
The focus of treatment should be on the primary weakness and both areas should be developed.
Comprehension Disorder
Disability and weakness in language comprehension is the focus of this book. A "comprehension disorder" is when the individual reads the words well but with no connection. These individuals often use semantic and syntactic cues
for each sentence. They may self-correct from context, read sentences with some expression, and ultimately make a few decoding errors, but when they complete the paragraph, they remember only a few details and
have no gestalt. The words went in accurately but didn't connect from sentence to sentence. These individuals may have good word recognition, good word attack, good auditory conceptualization for sounds in syllables, and good oral vocabulary, but weak oral language comprehension, weak reading comprehension, and weak oral/written expression.
We do not usually term these individuals "dyslexic" since they can decode the words well. Nor has there been room for them in special reading classes, since the classes are filled with decoding disorders. Yet, a
language comprehension disorder can be more debilitating than a decoding disorder because the comprehension problem is usually in both written and oral language. This means that these individuals have difficulty understanding and interpreting not only what they read, but also what they hear. The oral language disability, even if moderate, affects their entire lives, not just while they are reading. They may be impaired in their ability to understand and interpret movies, lectures, conversations, and any area of life that requires language comprehension and expression.
In my opinion, we are just becoming aware of the seriousness and extent of this comprehension/critical thinking problem. I am clearly not alone in this assessment. Current research and testing suggests a serious downward trend in higher-order comprehension and critical thinking skills. Recent scores from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) show specific deficiencies in what they term higher-order reasoning skills, including those necessary for advanced reading comprehension, math and science. Despite efforts to strengthen elementary and high school curriculums students of all ability levels are showing virtually no gains in higher-order thinking skills, NAEP (1987). "The effects of these universally noted trends have begun to show up even in highly selective colleges, as professors find they must water down both reading and writing assignments as well as expectations for analytic reasoning" Healy (1990).
"Young students may be sounding out the words better, but they are actually understanding less," (1988). Children cannot comprehend, remember, and apply what is read. The 1986 NAEP report found, as have other recent assessments, that students' related problems in reading and expressing ideas in writing stem mainly from difficulty with verbal reasoning, (Healy (1990).
rincipals for Instruction and Progress Monitoring from Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts
